The best RPGs impart lasting emotions on the player over the duration of the playthrough. In between its turn-based battles, light character building, and dark symbolism, OFF imprints guilt, horror, and confusion on the player in ways few games successfully pull off. OFF is an RPG that everyone should experience blindly, especially those who appreciate a haunting journey with blips of the bizarre. This remaster is not just a should-play of 2025, but a must-play of the decade. If you want OFF’s rainbow, you must have the rain.
The Tumblr era of social media was an interesting microcosm of culture that was innately appealing to teenagers and young adults. Tumblr organically created communities, bringing together misunderstood kiddos like myself around their favorite games, trendy fashion references, and off-kilter shows. OFF was one of several games that rose to prominence thanks to Tumblr users. I somehow missed that microcommunity, as my “tribe” (so-to-speak) was comprised of vaporwave, loosely connected UNDERTALE references, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and apparently HomeStuck (yet to this day I do not know any of the characters or plot; the art looked cool and my friends were talented artists).
I digress. OFF is a relic of the late aughts and early tens in which free-to-play fanmade RPGs were just plain weird but ever so engaging. Thanks to RPG Maker, solo developers were able to create simple RPGs with bizarre thematics like OFF and LISA (the latter of which now holds a very special place in my heart and remains installed on my Nintendo Switch 2). If you enjoy mindf*** RPGs, then keep on reading. OFF has been remastered and will be released on August 15 thanks to Mortis Ghost (the original developer) and publisher Fangamer!
This remaster of OFF retains most of the game’s original integrity, but ensuring that it’s slightly more accessible for players of 2025. Bosses and enemies have been rebalanced along with some of the character stats. There’s also a handful of new areas to explore and several new and secret bosses to defeat. OFF’s new soundtrack has been arranged by Morusque and UNDERTALE’s Toby Fox, the latter of which has described replacing OFF’s original soundtrack as “breaking into somebody’s house and pasting your face into their family photo album.” Candidly, I enjoyed the hell out of OFF’s remastered soundtrack, especially its new battle theme which sounds like it was inspired by ProleteR and his hip-hop-meets-jazz signature sounds.
OFF is a simple RPG, placing the player into the shoes of a character called “The Batter” whose sacred mission is to “purify” the world of spectres that have occupied the world. The world itself is kept much of a secret, slowly revealing its innards to the player as they explore the four crudely designed Zones. Remember – this game was originally made in 2008, so you shouldn’t expect a world full of secrets…or perhaps you should.
It plays like an old-school JRPG, almost exactly like Final Fantasy VI in terms of its battles and random encounters. The “turn-based” nature of OFF mirrors FFVI with bars assigned to each enemy and character in the player’s party. When the bar fills up, the character can act with an attack, competence (magic), defense, or item. It’s the no-frills old-school RPG gameplay loop that’s easy to pick up and involves heavy repetition via grinding, especially in the second half of the game. The only thing missing is an autobattle button/feature – in the end-game I was drastically overpowered all the while forced into fighting unfleeable random encounters that my team could easily slay by simply attacking while taking negligible damage. Would have been nice to have the autobattle to get through those battles with greater efficiency.
Beyond the battles, OFF features handfuls of puzzles that often require the player to pay particular attention to carefully placed numbers, symbols, and letters. During my playthrough, I kept taking out a pen and paper to jot down notable glyphs to assist in solving some of these puzzles. Prepare to do so, too, unless you want to pull up a gameplay guide from years ago that will take you through most of the game with some funny commentary. Thankfully, the new content added in this remaster can be found by those wanting to explore and backtrack, but it’s not required to fully experience OFF’s impact.
I’m hesitant to share more about OFF’s gameplay loop as to preserving its best moments. Like Decarnation and Undertale, much of the game leans into thought-provoking thematics that eat away at the player’s happiness, turning a small stone in the pit of their stomach into a boulder of despair. Even if you prefer more uplifting games, the horrors that exist in OFF’s story are worth experiencing, if only once.
It was at the sixth hour when it occurred to me that my in-game actions had a permanent, unforgiving, and discoloring effect on the world in which the Batter existed. I plodded forward, retracing my steps only to reflect on my journey and questioning if anything I had done was worth the pain. Husks of NPCs stood in my way, forcing me to slay them as I was unable to flee from battle. I became stronger, yes, but small Easter Eggs in each zone filled me with dread and made me feel like I was a terrible human being.
It’s not often where an RPG pulls the rug out from under the player, creepily grinning as the player’s head hits the pavement and their life flashes before their eyes. UNDERTALE mocks the player who chooses to be genocidal, while Doki Doki Literature Club pushes the player into a bloody pit of shock value and fourth-wall breaking metacommunication. Far too often the player is a silent puppeteer pulling the strings of an arbitrarily chosen main character whose story is told through the lens of a hero’s journey. OFF forbids the notion of player agency, instead opting to force the player into a corner until they feel some semblance of remorse at its climax all the way until its ending.
OFF is unforgiving in its construction of the narrative arc; it flips the conventional Feytag’s pyramid into a pit of quicksand that leaves the player drained. By the end, it matters not which ending is chosen but instead if the journey’s end justified the means.
After nearly 10 hours, I completed OFF in its entirety according to my Steam Achievements. I watched each ending and discovered and defeated all the secret, and optional, bosses. By the time the credits played the final time and Lee Morse’s “If You Want the Rainbow” yodeled through my head, my eyes became misty as I reconciled with the notion of happiness coming double, after a little pain. Except here, it wasn’t a little pain – it was a spectral stampede of pain.
It makes perfect sense why OFF garnered cult following back in 2008, and it makes even more sense as to why it was selected to be remastered nearly two decades later. I can’t help but kick myself for not playing it sooner, but at the same time I’m relieved that it’s re-entering the zeitgeist of present day. Nearly halfway through 2025, RPG fans have been served with the likes of Expedition 33, the Oblivion remaster, two more DELTARUNE chapters, and so many more. OFF should sit near the top of the list of must-play games this year, even if you played it way back when.
Now, there are probably a group of diehard OFF superfans who are struggling to swallow the pill of paying for a remaster of a game that was originally freeware and supported by the community beyond the solo developer’s intentions. There may be some folks who feel that the lack of Alias Conrad Coldwood’s original music (the “Pepper Steak” battle song being top-of-mind) is a disservice to the remaster’s integrity. Cave Story+ was treated similarly by players who had fallen in love with the game’s original soundtrack and being able to play it for free. The original OFF can still be played for free on your PC without needing to pay a dime; that’s not going away anytime soon, if ever.
Why play the OFF remaster, then? Even though it is not the definitive edition, both soundtracks in-hand, this version is a stunning remaster in terms of rebalancing and reinvention. The new soundtrack from Toby Fox, Camellia, and Morusque perfectly encapsulates the wide range of emotions that OFF instills, spanning from the mental mundanity of the post office to the cacophonic chaos of battling spectres. The game feels easier in many places. The new content and boss battles add maybe half an hour of playtime for those who already know where to look and experience greater depth in Mortis Ghost’s world.
The best RPGs impart lasting emotions on the player over the duration of the playthrough. In between its turn-based battles, light character building, and dark symbolism, OFF imprints guilt, horror, and confusion on the player in ways few games successfully pull off. OFF is an RPG that everyone should experience blindly, especially those who appreciate a haunting journey with blips of the bizarre. This remaster is not just a should-play of 2025, but a must-play of the decade. If you want OFF’s rainbow, you must have the rain.
