OFF is a Terrible Game (With an Interesting World)

I appreciate all the measured and considered responses to this. If you liked the video please do so, if you didn't like it I appreciate you sticking around for as long as you have. OFF's community seems super nice, so I'd love for you to stick around and see other games that I cover. You might discover a title you never knew about before.

I totally agree with that overworld sprite one but the title is kinda exaggrated

For me the game feels much more enjoyable to watch than actually play, cause i enjoy peoples reactions and interactions while skipping the mundane stuff.

Alright you explain your reasons alright. But damn that title is so clickbait, like my god no offense but that just shamefull :/

I cant believe it you’re not agreeing with all my opinions I should probably dislike this haha

I, obviously, am very VERY bias. This has been my pfp for about 8+ years. OFF means a lot to me, and when I played it. It was a surreal escape for me back in middle school where a lor of changes were happening. And OFF just kinds clicked. I never registered its story as a thing that was finished, the game play is simple (but pretty new to me as a youngin) and the world building mystified me.

But again, 2 major point, story and gameplay aren't good. OFF is presentation only.

Honestly, only thing I disagree with is the title. Off is definitely not a terrible game. Yes, gameplay is where this game falls short, it really sucks. But I think story is quite decent, at least for me. But I definitely like how it was presented. I really liked how not everything is given out to players on a silver plate, and player could piece things together by himself and come up with some theories, it really reminds me of Fnaf. Everyone was seeking for all these little bits of lore in tries to form a theory. But other than that, great video and valid criticism.

good game but batter simps are scary

I respect your view of the game but I think you were a little too confused. The game is meant to be very vague and it was made in a time where the fun of games was the puzzle. Now the fun of games is the story and linear progression. OFF needs a lot of brainpower to keep track of the story or to understand it in a meaningful way and that's just not something one can expect of a person who's playing the game for the first time. I personally first watched markiplier play it years ago and then played it myself and then understood it. I also am obsessed with RPG maker games as I've played hundreds of them so I'm kind of biased as well.

TLDR: Game was meant for people looking for a complex story with little guidance in figuring it out. The combat was just its excuse to show off cool art.

The title is too clickbait :(

Eh I get it, not everyone is going like OFF.
It isn't perfect, not all indie games is going to be perfect.

Heck, even Omori or OneShot isn't perfect but still good for what they are.

I'm cool with that, so long as they don't act like an asshole about the game, like ranting or hating it for no reason to get under people's skin.

And when I saw the title, I was afraid that you were gonna be one of those shitty people.. but I understand your points.

BTW, did you know that Papyrus's original design was based on Dedan?

personally i think to enjoy a game like OFF for all it’s worth, you have to be a fan of games like yume nikki, where the unforgiving puzzles and gameplay are part of the fun for you. I think the auto function proves that the battles are not meant to be the main focus, but the world and plot. You don’t Have to fight really to finish the game. it’s also pretty clear on the story, it’s just easier to see when watching a play through. it’s more an interactive art piece than a video game. as a big fan of surrealism and strange horror games, these sorts of games really appeal to me. I don’t really enjoy intense action in games unless it’s an actual fighting game you play with someone else. I’m sure other people feel the exact opposite way, and feel like the battles are the best part. different strokes for different folks and all that.

I personally love this game. I understand it’s not for everyone though. The game’s flaws actually didn’t bother me that much. I like RPGs, but I was never a fan of overly complex design and strategy, so I can appreciate if it’s kept quite simple. In fact, I usually even switch the mode of battle so I don’t have to think fast when my action bar fills up. I agree with the part about the overworld sprites, some of them look really ugly, especially the Judge. Poor Pablo looks like he has a tic-tac with a “:D” face for a head… However I do actually like how the rest of the overworld looks, the blocky simplicity and striking colors are something I just feel as a part of the game’s atmosphere. The puzzles never felt too complex or frustrating for me either.

I can definitely see where you’re coming from with your points about the game, even if I personally disagree with most of them, so I can certainly respect your opinion.

Did you just talk bad about my fucking hype fixation? Blows up pancakes with mind

I think your critique is good but the title is awful lol.

But that’s YouTube for you

off is a game and i ate chicken today and i said please get off me please to my friend and my friend is a bad man he killed my dog and stepped on a bee and he loves playing omori and omori means death and death is a bad thing and he looks the heavy class from team fortress 2 with a plumber hat from game mario and it has "mari" in it and shes dead and thats why this game is bad and dead

Pepper steak is still a bop

As a huge OFF fan, I have to disagree with some of your points here. While I do agree that the battle system is too easy and that the overall gameplay isn't the main focus, in my opinion, that's not what Mortis Ghost (creator of OFF) wanted to accomplish here. Take Yume Nikki for example. Both OFF and Yume Nikki are games in which gameplay isn't the center focus. They both focus on narrative symbolism that makes the player decide what to do and how to view the story. They do NOT have clear stories that are laid out for you. Yes, there is implied parts of their stories, but the main focus is how each player EXPERIENCES the game. OFF and Yume Nikki are exactly that. They're exploration games with dark symbolic themes that one can experience and enjoy. Another thing about your review that felt OFF was the fact that it seemed like you rushed through the game. OFF is not a game to speed run or rush through. It's clearly an experience based on the narration and symbolic themes that are present throughout the characters and story. You miss the entire point of OFF by rushing through it's elements and not seeing the fine detail for the bigger picture. Games like OFF are intended for you to think deeply on and not rely on common sense. Yume Nikki does the EXACT SAME THING. Hell, even OMORI does this and it's fairly obvious it took inspiration from OFF like how Toby Fox did when creating concept art for UnderTale. I feel that you may have not liked OFF because 1. It has no obvious story 2. You prefer gameplay over story. As you can see in UnderTale, it takes a lot of those symbolic narrative points and combines it with the quirky and emotional themes of Earthbound.

In summary, OFF isn't a game where you focus on combat and gameplay elements. You need to focus deeper on what the creator lays out for you and how you want to interpret that story. There's so many different details left out for players that help you figure out the main meaning of the game, like how Yume Nikki does with each dream world. One last similarly between those two: they both have explorative worlds you go through that help you see what the game could truly be about. I can tell you now, if you dislike OFF, you won't like Yume Nikki or other games that rely on heavy symbolism in order to understand the story. It doesn't get rid of OFF's flaws for sure. They could have done better with those aspects, such as making each spell or item more useful with strategy. They also could have done better with battle scaling in terms of making some enemies more powerful or weaker than they were. Overall, some of your points were understandable, but I do believe that you missed the point of OFF entirely, as its a game based on player analysis and not what the game gives you. It's show, not tell.

Are you sure this was made in 2008 and not 2021?

I think where people go wrong with things like these are seeing them purely as games, when they're more akin to art pieces. Cruelty Squad, OFF, (more recently) IPad Baby all are obviously shitty games, but they never tell you "Hey we're trying to be fun and engaging!" it's moreso a "Hey here's this idea I thought of in a fever dream, make what you will of it." They're all beautiful as a sort of true abstract form of modern art to think about and come up with theories for (e.g. I found a really good point of somebody comparing the process of the batter's "purification" to chemotherapy, wiping out the negative but having no safety regards for the positive), but by god they are absolute dumpster fires as games.