If you think about it, we really do live in the Golden Age of Indie RPGs.
Seriously, think of the major indie hits of the last fifteen years: Corpse Party, LISA, Fear and Hunger, Omori… and of course who can forget about Undertale. Most of these games were made using pre-packaged software such as RPG Maker (or the similar Game Maker), largely solo or small-team creations developed by visionary outsiders who wanted to make something that the mainstream developers either could not or would not develop.
But this didn’t spring up without a foundation to build on. There had to be others before them; creators so trail-blazing and gobsmacking in their eccentricity that they were considered completely mad in their lifetimes… Mad, I say!
One of those games was… well, one of those was the Mother trilogy, but we’re not talking about that (at least not until Nintendo finally pulls their heads out of their collective rear-ends and gives us Mother 3). No, we’re talking about a French RPG that was was so odd and existential that it became a cult hit that inspired several other cult hits (including the previously mentioned Undertale).
This is OFF, and it’s… well, it’s peculiar.
What Is It?
If only this scheme actually worked at theme parks…
OFF is the brainchild of the small Belgian developer Unproductive Fun Time… or at least, the original version is. The one that we have now, for wide release, was remastered and further expanded upon by publisher Fangamer (of Omori and Undertale fame). The original version, released all the way back in 2008, was a freeware project made using RPG Maker and spread by word of mouth. That humble little title ignited a spark that still burns brightly to this day (if the previously mentioned games are anything to go on). But there are some major differences between this version and the old one (we’ll get to that later).
As for the game itself… well, it’s kind of hard to describe in words, but I’ll try.
You play — well, ‘control’ would be more accurate — an enigmatic figure who calls themselves ‘The Batter’. The Batter is dressed in an oldtimey baseball uniform and wields a baseball bat as their primary weapon. At the beginning of the game, you are asked to enter your name. After the game stars in earnest, The Batter encounters a seemingly sinister Cheshire Cat figure known only as ‘The Judge’. During the conversation you have with The Judge, The Batter names you (the player) specifically and declares that they are simply channeling your will.
This is to establish two things:
You are not simply playing as a character. You are an outside force controlling that character.
The game acknowledges your existence and will directly speak to you.
Then, you are tasked with the Batter’s goal: purifying the world of ‘specters’. In this case, they mean it quite literally: all of the enemies you will encounter in this game are either ghosts, things that are possessed by ghosts, or the things that are making the ghosts. The world you’ll actually be doing all of this in is equally as strange; it’s an existential nightmare world inhabited almost entirely by look-alike figures called ‘Elsens’, all of whom are identically timid office-types who are constantly indecisive and needing someone else to make decisions for them. They are all involved in various bizarre jobs, such as working the ‘metal farms’ or the ‘smoke mines’, all of which are divided in their various zones and ruled over by their respective ‘Guardian’, who in turn all answer to ‘The Queen’.
That’s the basic gist of the game, but it get so much weirder.
Why Should I Care?
So like… whose ghosts are these again?
Right off the bat, the first thing you’ll notice about this game is its minimalist art direction. Much like many of the modern indie RPGs that came after it, OFF works off the premise that ‘less is more’ and it works. Part of what is so unnerving about this game and its universe is that it operates through the power of suggestion. You’ll get little hints here and there of the world you’re playing in, just bits and pieces about how society works or what people do for a living, and the world it reveals is downright frightening. People need smoke to breath or else they die, people need meat to eat or else they starve (or they’ll eat each other). Then of course there’s the rampant ghost problem. Whose ghosts are these? Why are they so angry? Where are they all coming from? And who is this mysterious person in a locked room that you see every time you beat a Guardian? Heck, the over world itself is presented as a dark, MS-paint image made up of sprouting green flowers on a black background.
The gameplay itself, meanwhile, isn’t terribly unusual. Much like Earthbound (and the other Mother games), it’s standard JRPG turn-based gameplay through a filter of weird: other than the standard attack, you also have ‘competences’ (basically spells or special moves) and ‘objects’ (your grab-bag of items). These also have your standard elemental aspect, only in this case the elements are ‘smoke, metal, plastic, meat and sugar’ (all of which are used in the game’s universe as basic building blocks of the environment). Actions are based around cool-down periods, and unlike many games of its type, in OFF a character can immediately attack once a cool-down has passed (meaning both enemy and player can attack at the exact same time). You do technically have a party, but in this case they’re more like concepts represented by floating rings: Alpha, Omega, and Epsilon.
Outside of combat (and the weird, weird universe), you have puzzles. OFF was somewhat unusual for its day due to the enormous number of puzzles that were scattered around. These puzzles comes in various forms: many are based on figuring out number sequences for oversized keypads (themselves represented by huge floating blocks in 3×3 grids). Others include finding pages to books that need to be reinserted into their respective volumes, and yet others involve repeating room mazes where one needs to find the exits (and other scattered enemies) in seemingly endless corridors.
Then there’s the stuff that’s special to this version: being that this is a remastered and upgraded version of the original, this also means that the game gets some new features. This includes some minor graphical upgrades, a new soundtrack and, namely, there’s an entire new part of the game based around revisiting the purified zones after you’ve finished, with new bosses and new collectibles.
What Makes It Worth My Time And Money?
I am become death… the destroyer of worlds.…
Make no mistake about it: OFF was a real game changer back in 2008. But the Indie RPG world has grown and evolved by leaps and bounds since then, and by modern standards this game doesn’t really reach for the heights that many of its spiritual successors strive for. Compared to the likes of Undertale or Fear And Hunger, it’s world-building is fairly simplistic (if unnerving). Its story is also fairly simple with no real branching paths other than the endings, and the combat isn’t terribly complicated when compared to standard JRPG fare. It suggests more than it says definitively, and although it was ground-breaking back then, the games it inspired took that idea and perfected it.
That said, there’s also some sticking points for fans of the original will have with this version — specifically the soundtrack. The original OFF had an iconic soundtrack loaded with old-timey swing samples and eerie industrial sounds that defined the experience. The remastered version’s soundtrack (many of which have composition by Toby Fox), though no slouch by any stretch of the imagination, doesn’t quite have the spooky overtones that the original had (although it does have its unsettling moments).
Look, don’t get me wrong: OFF was a groundbreaking title and in many ways it still holds up incredibly well, and the remaster has added a bunch of new content that newcomers and old fans should enjoy. There may be games that came after it that did it better, but this is one game you should experience at least once.
If you think about it, we really do live in the Golden Age of Indie RPGs. Seriously, think of the major indie hits of the last fifteen years: Corpse Party, LISA, Fear and Hunger, Omori… and of course who can…
If you think about it, we really do live in the Golden Age of Indie RPGs.
Seriously, think of the major indie hits of the last fifteen years: Corpse Party, LISA, Fear and Hunger, Omori… and of course who can forget about Undertale. Most of these games were made using pre-packaged software such as RPG Maker (or the similar Game Maker), largely solo or small-team creations developed by visionary outsiders who wanted to make something that the mainstream developers either could not or would not develop.
But this didn’t spring up without a foundation to build on. There had to be others before them; creators so trail-blazing and gobsmacking in their eccentricity that they were considered completely mad in their lifetimes… Mad, I say!
One of those games was… well, one of those was the Mother trilogy, but we’re not talking about that (at least not until Nintendo finally pulls their heads out of their collective rear-ends and gives us Mother 3). No, we’re talking about a French RPG that was was so odd and existential that it became a cult hit that inspired several other cult hits (including the previously mentioned Undertale).
This is OFF, and it’s… well, it’s peculiar.
What Is It?
If only this scheme actually worked at theme parks…
OFF is the brainchild of the small Belgian developer Unproductive Fun Time… or at least, the original version is. The one that we have now, for wide release, was remastered and further expanded upon by publisher Fangamer (of Omori and Undertale fame). The original version, released all the way back in 2008, was a freeware project made using RPG Maker and spread by word of mouth. That humble little title ignited a spark that still burns brightly to this day (if the previously mentioned games are anything to go on). But there are some major differences between this version and the old one (we’ll get to that later).
As for the game itself… well, it’s kind of hard to describe in words, but I’ll try.
You play — well, ‘control’ would be more accurate — an enigmatic figure who calls themselves ‘The Batter’. The Batter is dressed in an oldtimey baseball uniform and wields a baseball bat as their primary weapon. At the beginning of the game, you are asked to enter your name. After the game stars in earnest, The Batter encounters a seemingly sinister Cheshire Cat figure known only as ‘The Judge’. During the conversation you have with The Judge, The Batter names you (the player) specifically and declares that they are simply channeling your will.
This is to establish two things:
You are not simply playing as a character. You are an outside force controlling that character.
The game acknowledges your existence and will directly speak to you.
Then, you are tasked with the Batter’s goal: purifying the world of ‘specters’. In this case, they mean it quite literally: all of the enemies you will encounter in this game are either ghosts, things that are possessed by ghosts, or the things that are making the ghosts. The world you’ll actually be doing all of this in is equally as strange; it’s an existential nightmare world inhabited almost entirely by look-alike figures called ‘Elsens’, all of whom are identically timid office-types who are constantly indecisive and needing someone else to make decisions for them. They are all involved in various bizarre jobs, such as working the ‘metal farms’ or the ‘smoke mines’, all of which are divided in their various zones and ruled over by their respective ‘Guardian’, who in turn all answer to ‘The Queen’.
That’s the basic gist of the game, but it get so much weirder.
Why Should I Care?
So like… whose ghosts are these again?
Right off the bat, the first thing you’ll notice about this game is its minimalist art direction. Much like many of the modern indie RPGs that came after it, OFF works off the premise that ‘less is more’ and it works. Part of what is so unnerving about this game and its universe is that it operates through the power of suggestion. You’ll get little hints here and there of the world you’re playing in, just bits and pieces about how society works or what people do for a living, and the world it reveals is downright frightening. People need smoke to breath or else they die, people need meat to eat or else they starve (or they’ll eat each other). Then of course there’s the rampant ghost problem. Whose ghosts are these? Why are they so angry? Where are they all coming from? And who is this mysterious person in a locked room that you see every time you beat a Guardian? Heck, the over world itself is presented as a dark, MS-paint image made up of sprouting green flowers on a black background.
The gameplay itself, meanwhile, isn’t terribly unusual. Much like Earthbound (and the other Mother games), it’s standard JRPG turn-based gameplay through a filter of weird: other than the standard attack, you also have ‘competences’ (basically spells or special moves) and ‘objects’ (your grab-bag of items). These also have your standard elemental aspect, only in this case the elements are ‘smoke, metal, plastic, meat and sugar’ (all of which are used in the game’s universe as basic building blocks of the environment). Actions are based around cool-down periods, and unlike many games of its type, in OFF a character can immediately attack once a cool-down has passed (meaning both enemy and player can attack at the exact same time). You do technically have a party, but in this case they’re more like concepts represented by floating rings: Alpha, Omega, and Epsilon.
Outside of combat (and the weird, weird universe), you have puzzles. OFF was somewhat unusual for its day due to the enormous number of puzzles that were scattered around. These puzzles comes in various forms: many are based on figuring out number sequences for oversized keypads (themselves represented by huge floating blocks in 3×3 grids). Others include finding pages to books that need to be reinserted into their respective volumes, and yet others involve repeating room mazes where one needs to find the exits (and other scattered enemies) in seemingly endless corridors.
Then there’s the stuff that’s special to this version: being that this is a remastered and upgraded version of the original, this also means that the game gets some new features. This includes some minor graphical upgrades, a new soundtrack and, namely, there’s an entire new part of the game based around revisiting the purified zones after you’ve finished, with new bosses and new collectibles.
What Makes It Worth My Time And Money?
I am become death… the destroyer of worlds.…
Make no mistake about it: OFF was a real game changer back in 2008. But the Indie RPG world has grown and evolved by leaps and bounds since then, and by modern standards this game doesn’t really reach for the heights that many of its spiritual successors strive for. Compared to the likes of Undertale or Fear And Hunger, it’s world-building is fairly simplistic (if unnerving). Its story is also fairly simple with no real branching paths other than the endings, and the combat isn’t terribly complicated when compared to standard JRPG fare. It suggests more than it says definitively, and although it was ground-breaking back then, the games it inspired took that idea and perfected it.
That said, there’s also some sticking points for fans of the original will have with this version — specifically the soundtrack. The original OFF had an iconic soundtrack loaded with old-timey swing samples and eerie industrial sounds that defined the experience. The remastered version’s soundtrack (many of which have composition by Toby Fox), though no slouch by any stretch of the imagination, doesn’t quite have the spooky overtones that the original had (although it does have its unsettling moments).
Look, don’t get me wrong: OFF was a groundbreaking title and in many ways it still holds up incredibly well, and the remaster has added a bunch of new content that newcomers and old fans should enjoy. There may be games that came after it that did it better, but this is one game you should experience at least once.
by Brandon Perkins
