OFF Review

What I'd consider the best parts of horror in games aren't jump scares or gruesome monsters chasing you, rather an eerie atmosphere or a lingering feeling of dread – knowing something is a little off. I've long heralded the 2008 cult-classic OFF, an RPG Maker (2003) game from developer Mortis Ghost, for how it wields its lo-fi art style to evoke that powerful sense of dread and reveal things that are truly horrifying. As a small-scale game that only had an English version via fan translation in 2011, this official remaster in 2025 is important for preserving an influential retro-style RPG, especially as it is largely faithful to the original. In some respects, it hasn't aged quite as gracefully as I'd hoped (partially due to the hindsight of having played so many amazing games it inspired in the years since), but OFF's blend of goofiness embedded in a deeply unsettling story has stood the test of time.

OFF is one of those games where its limitations are part of its strengths. Color and the absence of it are used to shift the vibe of the overworld in chilling ways as you progress. The hand-drawn sketch-like character designs give a deranged look to enemies that complements their desolate, off-kilter world. And the low-tech pixel art has a way of being a powerful tool for creating a foreboding atmosphere, letting your imagination tease out an underlying psychological horror. These are some of OFF's defining features, and also remain effective as you unravel its disturbing truths.

You control The Batter, a guy rocking a baseball uniform and armed with a bat who is ready to hit some dingers, and you’re on a mission to "purify" a dystopian world of evil ghosts. Without much explanation, a nightmarish cat called The Judge speaks to you in a philosopher's tone to ponder how your decisions will be accounted for. Aside from one specific moment, there aren't choices to make, but it's interesting context for a story that reveals itself through the actions you have to take. I, as the player, felt increasingly uneasy about where things were going – but to The Batter, it's just another plate appearance. That contrast is still quite effective, and OFF makes this distinction clear in its breaking of the fourth wall from the very start.

It's a fairly short game, taking about seven-to-eight hours to finish and defeat the secret bosses, including a few new ones. The world is made up of five zones, some of which represent industrial production where workers are ground to the bone by authoritarian figures. Liquid plastic makes up its seas, meat and metal are harvested ad nauseum, and the sugar mines bring about the worst parts of its society. A few dialogue sequences use obscure sketches like they're out of an old textbook and items you inspect in the environment feed into its cryptic worldbuilding. More often, however, it's the unconventional way characters talk to you and accept their meager existences, which grows more disturbing as you see the consequences of your mission.

Exploration is met with basic puzzles that often require you to pay closer attention to the clues embedded in the environment, playing into slightly bizarre changes in the world – door codes hidden in seemingly nonsensical texts, numbers scribbled on the wall guiding you in switch-hitting puzzles, or navigating sets of rooms that break conventional logic. I wouldn’t call these things particularly engaging, but it's the surrealist subtext tucked within them that adds to its uncanny nature.

A mix of random battles and NPCs patrolling the overworld make up encounters, and this is one aspect of OFF that hasn't really held up: its primitive turn-based combat system. The Batter and the floating circles called Add-Ons, which are very nondescript party members you gather throughout the story, each have a basic attack and special attacks with turns running on an ATB-style system. While The Batter is the heavy hitter, Add-Ons provide more of a support role. Other than prioritizing certain targets and accounting for a few elemental affinities, there isn't much depth or strategic nuance to combat, which becomes a tired exercise outside of a few challenging secret bosses. OFF isn't really about its combat as it's more of a vehicle for everything else it does, but it’s a shortcoming nonetheless.

OFF doesn't necessarily tell a complex story with tons of layers to peel away, nor is it a straightforward one where everything is spelled out for you. It doesn't try to be too clever, yet leaves room for interpretation where all roads lead to a… well, really sad story. For all its accomplishments as a uniquely disturbing experience, something beyond that still sticks with me – it's a strange kind of emotional resonance because of how blunt and unapologetic it is, increasingly off-putting especially with what it ultimately asks you to do. And with each bizarre twist along the way is a unique artistic vision that makes for a memorable experience.

There are a few things that have changed in this remaster, one of the biggest being the soundtrack, which is somewhat polarizing to those familiar with the original such as myself. In light of not being able to bring the original composer back on board, this version of OFF features new songs that try to capture the unsettling, industrial, and discordant sound it once had. It largely succeeds, even if I do miss the specific low-tech flavor of the original. In a full circle moment for both parties, Toby Fox (of Undertale and Deltarune fame) contributed to a few tracks, lending his sound in small ways, which was nice to hear. This isn't a soundtrack you're going to bob your head to or throw onto a playlist to evoke memories of a whimsical experience, but it's an important part of OFF's identity. It's one that complements the ghastly barks of its characters and faint ambient sounds that feed into its discomforting vibe.

I appreciate OFF as a relic of the old gaming forums where it gained traction and tumblr blogs that harnessed dedicated fandoms, and as a product of a certain era of the internet I look back on quite fondly. Discovering the original felt like unearthing a gem you wouldn't find anywhere else, shaping my taste in horror and helping identify what it is that activates that part of my brain, alongside other RPG Maker hits like Yume Nikki. Evidently, it resonated with others, having paved the way for games like Omori and being a stated inspiration for all-timer Undertale. Replaying OFF was like dusting off the blueprints of some of my favorite games, fascinating to revisit and one you have to put some respect on in spite of the ways it aged.

Coming hot off of Deltarune's latest chapters and having been deeply moved by the series so far here in 2025, I have a certain fondness for its progenitors and I can't help but see how OFF's influence persists to this day. Indie games that delve into morality, break the fourth-wall, and subvert expectations have grown and evolved in the years since, meaning OFF doesn’t come across quite as deep as it once did in retrospect. But it is foundational material for the indie RPG scene, and this is a good excuse to play it all these years later regardless of your history.