OFF (2025)
Warning: This review contains spoilers
In the height of my sophomore or junior year of high school, I just could not get enough of Andrew Hussie's webcomic Homestuck. Go through my Tumblr archive[1] during that time, and most of it is Homestuck fanart and shitposts[2]. Part of being in the Homestuck fandom circa 2014-15 involved waiting through long periods without updates to the webcomic. During these periods of hiatus, fans would flock to another piece of media with similar vibes to tide us over until the next update arrives. One game that was popular among a particular long hiatus and that sticks in my memory the most was a game by French developer Mortis Ghost called OFF. OFF in its original form was a freeware game that had a real roundabout way of downloading it. I think I found the original means through a Tumblr post with a link and instructions to install. It was one of the few games of the time that would run on my family's MacBook, and the surreal style, electroswing soundtrack, and the mysteries around puzzles and secret bosses gripped my little teenage mind like a vise. Upon review of my Tumblr blog, I did not really post about this little game too much, but the memories of sitting at the dining room table with Peppersteak blaring and trying to copy that inky style of the bosses in my sketch book feel fundamental to how I enjoy and create art.
Fast-forward to 2025 and Fangamer has released a remaster of this indie game on Steam and Nintendo Switch. It is now $15 and has a brand new soundtrack and the addition of new bosses and areas. I bought this game day of release and let it sit in my Nintendo backlog for a few months, feeling good that I boosted the numbers of the game on release. I had a nagging fear that playing it again wouldn't be the same and, like many of the things I enjoyed as a teenager, it would not be nearly as good as I remembered it being. I am thrilled to say that this is not the case.
OFF is a game where you, the player, control The Batter. The Batter has been sent on a sacred mission to purify the world. You and The Batter go through neon worlds and clear the areas of specters, burnts, and big whales. There's puzzles to get to the Guardian Bosses of the Zones and upon success the world is purified and the next zone is unlocked. If you and The Batter return to these purified zones you can see an empty husk of the vibrant world. OFF is certainly one of the first games I encountered where the playeer controls an unreliable actor. The stark contrast both visually and musically between a purified and an unpurified zone remains unsettling and scary. Going through long stretches of white to suddenly zooming in for battle got me jumping more than a few times. The final zone, The Room, completely changes how you, the player, perceive of The Batter's sacred mission. In the end, the player decides whether or not to continue to aid The Batter in his quest, or if you want to defeat him and live with your own regrets.
The new soundtrack is quite good. The battle theme by Toby Fox is a great homage to the original while still retaining that infectiously catchy Toby Fox flair. The themes of the Zones add to the visual storytelling, and the sounds of the purified zones remain haunting and add to the feeling that something is deeply wrong. The new battle system is also a fun spin on the orignal, even if I personally never got a grasp on what kind of timing I needed to get criticals frequently. I never really struggled with the original game, but the bosses that are supposed to be difficult remain difficult without becoming stale. The addition of the Zodiac secret bosses were a whole lot of fun. I loved the character designs and battle mechanics of these especially. I wish there was a little more of a reward for going after these bosses than (albeit excellent) pillar art and Special equipment, that I didn't realize was equipabble until close to endgame.
With this remaster, you can really tell how influential this game has been on indie RPGs of the last 20 years. The parallels to Toby Fox's Deltarune are really apparent, such as referring to the player as a Soul and the hidden agenda of the main character, but it doesn't feel like Deltarune is ripping off OFF in any way[3]. It takes the classic format of turn-based RPGs and fills it with depth. I love when a game takes a basic format that is often disparaged, like a visual novel or a turn based RPG, and shows that by dismissing this format, you are missing out on a way to tell a deep and impactful story.
I am absolutely thrilled that a brilliant game like OFF has been so carefully and lovingly remastered so many folks can experience this small but mighty title.