Whether it’s the year 2008, or the year 2025, turn-based RPGs are normally 30+ hour affairs that will leave you exhausted by the time the credits roll. The grind, endless narrative context, and a massive hero complex with world saving consequences is what the genre defines as ‘a feature’. But what if I told you, you only needed 5-7 hours to play one of the greatest and thought-provoking RPGs ever crafted?
What if I told you, you probably never heard of it? What… if the game was less than $20 in this new $80 landscape? These all seem like pipe dreams, but they’re not for the restored version of Mortis Ghost’s OFF. OFF brings one of the most unsettling gaming experiences back to centre stage, complete with a new soundtrack and new boss encounters, but retains the same charm of the often overlooked 2008 original.
Undertale has become a household name since it launched, and developer TobyFox credits OFF for inspiring the ‘Megalovania.’ Undertale became popular due to its insistence on playing with the player as much as the player plays with the game, and I can see the inspiration right off the bat. As the player, you’re playing OFF, but OFF is playing you right back. When you stare into the abyss, indeed.
You start the game by naming yourself (I went with Philip), and notice you aren’t playing as protagonist that goes by Philip, you are the puppeteer Philip, in a party with The Batter (the true protagonist). The Batter has a larger role than if the bases were loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, his mission is to purify the world. How does he do this? With the help of a pixelated version of the Cheshire Cat of course.
‘As the player, you’re playing OFF, but OFF is playing you right back. When you stare into the abyss, indeed.”
The cat (who goes by the ominous name, The Judge) gives you directions, often breaks the fourth wall and tells you (not The Batter) that he knows you. This is a rare moment, where immersion flirts with insanity. You are dragged into OFF as a character, no longer a player safe from harm. I felt seen, and the cold piercing eyes of The Judge can strike harder than many of the specters that populate the atmosphere (and the obvious inspiration for Sans couldn’t be easier to spot than if The Judge were donning a blue hoodie).
The Batter is filled with righteous justice, and he almost always says yes to the patrons of the world. So, The Judge marches you and Co. through the motions of purifying this strange world without friction. OFF was built as a love child with Mortis Ghost and Alias Conrad Coldwood using RPG Maker, and somehow its stronger for it. The inspired TobyFox lends a dynamite soundtrack to the atmosphere, and while the original soundtrack is no longer available to listen to in-game, TobyFox does a phenomenal job delivering the cold dagger of uncertainty into the player’s spine with each task completed (and each track listened).
OFF features true-to-form turn-based RPG fights, and some of the creepiest pixel visuals I’ve seen. Enemy creatures and bosses are often inhuman, but they have human expressions etched into their faces. The Judge plays Virgil on this voyage through a strange world, and it’s really a strange world. You’ll encounter a mine where the miners search for smoke, meat is used as electricity, and seas of plastic populate this world. Nothing here makes sense. With so many off-kilter occurrences, it feels like Earthbound inspired OFF, as much as OFF inspired Undertale.
But the real-world parallel that does make sense is that the ruling class suppresses the citizenry to the point where they’re unsure if they’re allowed to move from the spot they’re standing in. This depressing line drawn to the real world feels deliberate in making the setting stir anxiety within the player, and Mortis Ghost draws this line with expertise.
While combat is straightforward, almost nothing else about OFF is. The Judge often talks in riddles to help you along (and sometimes his help will make it more confusing), and the landscape lacks in detail what clues scattered throughout the landscape have. It’s almost like playing two separate games with how the art design battles itself. NPCs have no expression (unless in battle), but posters will be filled from top to bottom in important details that help solve puzzles.
In an office building (where the NPCs drone on about numbers), The Judge waits on top ready to make you think. He says something about lowercase letters, and on the first floor, NPCs talk a different way from each other. OFF requires the player to take notes (you are part of the party after all) and jot down these numbers as if you’re the party scribe. You can look up a walkthrough and kill this immersion, but finding clues and solving the unorthodox puzzles gives direct shots of serotonin, especially when you notice the little details that solve puzzles for you. This makes immersion complete, you genuinely have a party role in OFF.
After finding many clues throughout the office building, the way they’re worded gives away a passcode for the next area. Surveying the landscape is incredibly important. Each time you notice a clue and solve the puzzles scattered throughout the Zones in OFF, you get the true “Aha!” moment, and it feels damn good. Like you’re helping your party members out.
“New boss encounters and new nuances have been added to OFF to add context to the confusing world state and gives the player a grander look at what exactly happened.”
After marching through some of the chaos-filled Zones, you’ll recruit party members and they’re referred to as “Add-Ons” (another fourth wall break). These party members are literal circles called Alpha, Omega and Epsilon. These guys act as your full-fledged party, and this simplistic design choice works in the grand scheme of things. Combat also grows alongside the narrative. Straightforward battles (which were business as usual in the original) have been overhauled and UI sharpening has made OFF less… OFF than its predecessor. Combat turns into genuine RPG strategy in the later game, forcing the player to take the gloves off to purify enemies.
New boss encounters and new nuances have been added to OFF to add context to the confusing world state and gives the player a grander look at what exactly happened. While I have theories, that’s the point. Undertale fans will know exactly what I’m talking about, as Mortis Ghost masterfully walks a line where it gives the player enough information to draw a conclusion, but not enough to make that conclusion a fact. This alone makes OFF an excellent narrative well worth the price of admission.
Through all the specter bashing with The Batter and Add-Ons, meeting with a merchant that also claims “I’m not going to waste your time with conversation” that also knows you’re playing a game, and a generally unsettling atmosphere mixed with a soundtrack that electrifies the entire experience, what’s not to like?
OFF is a massive mind game. It will gaslight you, force you down the same hallway three times, and then make you backtrack to accomplish something you could’ve done (with knowledge) thirty minutes earlier. OFF is that relationship you just can’t quit, and my god, is it a thrilling experience that forces you down the hallway a fourth time to see it through. Unlike a toxic ex, I love OFF, and I hope the universe is expanded further in future games just like this remaster did to the 2008 version. Even for returning players, the extra filling and improved UI is well worth jumping back in.
