One thing I’ve always loved about video games and art in general is the ability to subvert expectations. From a young age, we are awash in all types of media, but a majority of them paint clear pictures and paths from start to finish. You begin to understand that our parents and guardians introduced us to tropes that follow us throughout our lives. So you anticipate that the final treasure chest will have the biggest treasure. The hero will make himself known and we will rally behind him. And good and evil are black and white notions with no room for blurring lines. Yet time, and experience, will teach you none of those are absolute. And a good piece of art will ask – no, demand – that you consider all the things you haven’t before. That is the beauty of Mortis Ghost’s masterpiece, OFF.

That’s…that’s actually why I’m here.

A 3rd person JRPG with an unusual perspective from the beginning, the player must name themselves before being tasked with controlling a vessel known as The Batter. The Batter has a clear mission: he is there to purify the world and eliminate evil. The Batter is resolute and unblinking in what he must do and how he will obtain it. Entering four different zones (including the starter Zone 0), he will ferret out spirits and smite them, eventually finding the boss of the zone and dispatching them as well. There is no deeper purpose for The Batter, but there is also no question or second guessing. A paladin of zealous, almost manic piety, the entire rest of the world falls away in pursuit of accomplishing his goal, and accomplish it he must.

One of the reasons that I’ve been doggedly waiting for the release of OFF since it was announced over a year ago is that I haven’t always had my finger on the pulse of the indie scene. While I was fortunate enough to engage with titles like Earthbound and Yume Nikki in some capacity, I didn’t know about the influence that other titles had on modern developers. For example, Undertale might be one of the strongest modern RPGs to impact players globally, but I hadn’t known about Moon until Onion Games re-released it. So to find out that OFF was this quiet force that so many fans were raving about and got this fan translation years ago…I was deeply intrigued. Plus, anytime a freely released game raises such a fervor that it inspires a publisher to bring it to a wider audience is awesome.

This isn’t a boss. I also am not anywhere near water when this battle begins. Do with that information what you will.

As stated before, you aren’t going to find groundbreaking mechanics or ideas within OFF in a mechanical sense. Originally crafted in RPG Maker 2003, players must move forward, solve puzzles, fight enemies and then move onto the next area. Players of the original will see right away that some things have changed, such as the combat styling. Combat can either function as it was originally coded in which enemies can constantly attack as soon as their meter is full, or everything will freeze when it’s your turn, giving you a chance to make a decision. Attack and Defend are standard affairs, while alternate skills (what we might call magic) are called Competences and the items you use are Objects. Defeating enemies gives you EXP and money, leveling up is good and buying goods is also helpful. You get the bones of things fairly quickly.

But then you realize that a lot of ideas of OFF, even within combat, are implied but not explained. For example, you can understand status ailments like Poison, Sleep and Mute because you’ve seen them time and again. Madness is confusion, and Furious is berserk. But what about Palsy, which is like a semi-paralyzed state? Or when an enemy becomes Sturdy, the Batter becomes Clever, or someone is found Guilty or Innocent? All these things have to be learned through first hand witnessing, and you still may not fully understand them by the end of a fight. Instead, from the time you first lay eyes on a Spectre till you end the final battle, you find yourself in a haze of confusion and uncertain connections as you piece things together, not even sure if the puzzle you’re making is the real picture.

I assure you, I am! Constantly!

The puzzles (speaking of which) are something where the obvious is not always the correct choice. There are many numeric puzzles where you must understand and remember the locations of things, but the spatial placement doesn’t always match what you think it should be. For example, a grid you viewed on a wall may be seen upside down, even if you weren’t aware of it. The numbers that appear in a book are crucial,but only if you read the books in the correct order. And God forbid you forget to take a screenshot of a particular card to remember which way certain leaves face in order to unlock a pivotal puzzle towards the end game. OFF has a lot of room for players to try and fail, but the puzzles are some of the most unforgiving and eclectic aspects of the experience. This can be confusing and, well, frustrating.

Even beyond the mechanical aspect is the world of OFF itself. The zones each represent some kind of abstract, absurd notion of how a realm can and should function. Instead of relying on fire, water, earth and air, there’s the building blocks of smoke, metal, plastic and meat, with the extra fifth element of sugar. The denizens of each area have their own convictions and ideas, and will share them with you if you engage, though to what degree is circumstantial. These already outlandish takes are only further cemented by some very official and sometimes deeply concerning artwork that takes you out of the RPG element and thrusts you, face first, into an almost religious belief of something you know, fundamentally, is wrong. 

C’mon, man, people worked really hard on this game.

The dialogue and interactions further along the growing evidence that you’ve entered into a game that’s out of the ordinary. The Judge, the first character you meet (and a recurring sight amongst the zones) speaks in purposely verbose and almost esoteric prose, beating you over the head with SAT vocabulary to express simple points. Zacharie, the merchant who appears here and there, seems to know there’s a video game going on and loves breaking the fourth wall to appeal to the player as well as The Batter. All of the humanoid NPCs you encounter (called Elsens) function on different wavelengths of strangeness and disconnect, espousing beliefs and ideas that are often in conflict with each other and reality itself. The longer you play, the more bizarre and outlandish encounters you’ll have, causing you to question your own sanity before that of the developer.

The creeping unease of OFF is what makes it both so memorable and so terrifying to engage with. Everything that happens is presented with a matter-of-factness that hits even stronger than if it had been done with a wink and a nod. When a character reveals they are simply inhabiting the dead body of someone’s brother, it’s not done to shock or disturb, but to simply inform, which is so much scarier. The glimpses between zones suggests that there’s a greater story afoot, and implies the Batter may not be aware (or worse, may not care) about his impact. The storybeats, the throwaway lines, the fact that your assistants are just simple circles with Greek alphabetic names…it pulls at you from the very beginning. The overall effect is so unnerving, but so captivating that you can’t help but barrel on.

The nothing spreads before and behind him. The Batter is content.

As someone who never played the 2008 original, I can’t attest to the score of Alias Conrad Coldwood, but I can speak, exceedingly highly, of the new soundtrack. Helmed by some visionary creators, the new OFF soundscape is as multilayered and complex as the game itself. You constantly are beset by a cascade of aural evocation to match the world around you. From quirky, jaunty tunes that could have been lifted from a Merry Melodies to deliberate chiptune “game” music, you find a full range of compositions sharing what multiple artists felt OFF said to them. Never voiced, the dialogue is underscored by what the game provides in ambience. Perhaps most notably is the “noise” scoring of the Purified Zones, where silence, punctuated with carefully selected breaks, takes an already unsettling area and raises the hairs on your neck. It’s deliciously disturbing, and I was giddy over the anxiety it produced.

Fans of the game will want to pick up OFF for several reasons, most notably to support Mortis Ghost, but also for everything that has been added. While a majority of factors remain the same, the additional bosses and secrets to explore should be examined closely and appreciated. The new content feels right in vein with the previous, giving you a sense of “oh, I must have missed this last time” and not “this has clearly been added.” There are new challenges, and some old challenges have been reworked and re-arranged to convey a different level of difficulty and, inadvertently, a new sense of direction and story. The song remains the same, but these additional verses give an even more confused but contemplative examination of The Batter and his true purpose.

If you enter a Golden Corral and say the same words, the buffet is half priced.

OFF is everything I thought it would be and more. It drags you by the eyeballs into a story of blind faith and utter despair, and does so with the single minded frankness of a serial killer confessing his sins. It convinces you to ignore the warning sides and drive towards the dead end of the road at full speed. You are shown, never told, what is truly at stake, and then allowed to do with that information what you will. OFF turns players into monsters, and then makes you believe monsters are the heroes. You may only be able to play OFF once, but that single time will leave an indelible mark on your gaming perspective. If you’re a fan of games that upset you, then OFF is a home run. Good luck.

OFF is available now on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of OFF was provided by the publisher.