UPDATE: The "Baseball" song used in this video is finally out on Spotify! Written and recorded by my brother (so it's on his spotify account, not mine): open.spotify.com/track/0hj3YHuD1XMAnf2FTk5K7D?si=cba82c78cbad4e4b Hey everyone, long time no see! Promise it won't be as long a wait until the next one. If you're looking for more cool stuff, go check out NezumiVA's channel, and/or the album I released this past Halloween! www.youtube.com/@NezumiVA open.spotify.com/album/44MSGGy3hAyvf97UyXY9wE?si=9y7aLLTiR4mpMVIpQbWk8Q I have also seen that people really liked the opening song. I'll see if we can get it up to stream somewhere as well!
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this already, but correction about the “trial and error” door maze puzzle on the way to Dedan-the solution is that the music gets louder the closer you get to the correct door!
i love this line so much. i was so pissed when i played the translation and they changed it from "they're filled with fear" to like..... "however, his show fear." like???? WHY??? that wasn't necessary at ALL to change
@@Jamjamsartbruh why lol that line is far better. Being told his son has his eyes only to respond that they show fear comes off as far more uncaring and ruthless. The other line comes off as him just stating that he sees he is scared while this one shows that the difference between them is that he’s scared of him
I know that he said that he isn’t a big rpg guy but the moment he said the closest thing he could relate the timer to was a fnaf game, when it’s just the final fantasy ATB system, had part of my soul leave my body.
I literally had to double check as I was exclusively listening to this video as audio on my walk and I totally missed that part AAAW C'MON MAN SAGAN NOOOOOOO _Noooooooo........._ Maybe, maybe he knows what its actually called and is just low balling his expectations for his general audience
I was kind of okay with that one since he mentions that it's specifically in relation to his audience, but then he called the SNES controller a PS1 controller... pain.
I always thought it was a parallel for chemotherapy, and it's scorched earth approach to purifying and cleansing the body, killing everything in an attempt to root out the cancer (Spectres, burnt elsen could also be seen as corrupted cells from the cancer growth), and the zones and stuff were just constructs of a creatively driven child personifying his own treatment which even though it means well, ends up killing him
Just putting it out there: in the comic Hugo's father gives him, the boxer is swarmed by an army of clones. The imagery of endless replication feels a LOT like a metaphor for cancer. Maybe the Batter feels annoyed by the comic partially because it puts the baseball player in the role of the tumor, while he is so unwaveringly dedicated to the role of chemotherapy. This might also be why the Secretaries look so much, to me at least, like misshapen boxers; they're the thing that comes into the zone after the disease has been purged from it and kills all that is still healthy in there. So they're the comic book boxer's noble intentions twisted and distorted, the medicine's horrible side effects becoming clear. The Batter sees them as demonic, so blinded by his conviction that he fails to understand they're the very same thing as him. Boxer opposes batter, but which one is the disease and which one is the treatment? ...I have never played this game. Hell, I only found out the full plot from this video. If anything of this is horribly wrong, feel free to correct me.
Yes, I wanted to make same comment, cause I also saw this parallel between themes of the game and cancer treatment (though I have small bias because it is something that is close from me, something from my real life). It might be just a one theme that mixed with others, but I do believe it has lots of ground and merits.
that one's always been a super popular theory and its the one I'd take as most logical understanding if it's not meant to be taken as literal, which is what I've always done. It's still depressing that way.
How different indie game characters deal with threats Undertale: talk to them Omori: the power of friendship OFF: you have lost your kneecap privileges
37:00 Mortis Ghost did a livestream of OFF a few years back, and one delightful thing he shared was that the Judge's dialogue here is straight up just a reference to the song We Will Become Silhouettes by The Postal Service. "I'm screaming at the top of my lungs / pretending the echoes belong to someone / someone I used to know." I think the older fan translation matched the lyrics even closer.
When I played OFF as a teen, I'd always assumed the "Burnt" had something to do with consuming sugar, like a side effect or something. After all, the sugar comes from *burning* corpses, and the majority of "Burnt" you fight are in the sugar factory. I have no idea how well this interpretation actually holds up, though.
if you look up videos on how sugar reacts with sulphuric acid it looks exactly like how the elsen turn into burnts. the previously white sugar turned into something like a black tree trunk-like thing-- it's a super neat detail that mortis ghost paid attention to
I think you're dead on about the Queen and the Batter being manifestations of Hugo's parents. The fact that, despite The Batter seemingly being created at the start of the game, the Queen talks as if she always knew him. Even the "he has your eyes".
100% how I see it. There is just too much that shows for it to be otherwise. They're manifestations recently made, but the history and emotions are strong.
a note on the sketchy style of the sprites: this happened because all the sprites were originally drawn on paper! they were then downscaled and outlined with hard pixels to keep in line with the whole pixel art style. scans of the original sketches are widely available online and its great to see them in their full glory. mortis ghosts hatching style really stands out in hd. additionally all the art of zacharie with wings and a sword also comes from concept art mortis ghost made
the in-game sprites seemed so blurry to me that i had the wrong impression of several characters for ages. like thinking zach was a frog-faced man and not wearing a mask.
the anthony fantano parody segment is so insanely well done its crazy. you somehow got all the mannerisms and line deliveries from melon perfectly. major kudos.
Oh my god. I have prosopagnosia (face blindness) and didn't even realise it was just him again. I only thought "huh, Fantano has a lot more hair in this clip, must be an old video." and shrugged it off. Damnit
Pablo's sad meows...awh And while Batter isn't Hugo's father, I think he's definitley connected. He may just be a figure that reminds Hugo of his father with the baseball theme, or represents his (and possibly his mom's as well) resentment towards a father who is out of the picture now- may that be from personal choice or his death that Hugo didn't understand.
I've never played this game before and so didn't know the plot before watching this vid. seeing the part with pablo grieving legit made me start crying
As someone who played OFF before the....homestuckening, I will say that there was a fan base, but it was definitely more broad and encompassed Yume Nikki, Space Funeral, Ib and the like. It was just generally accepted if you liked one, you'd like the others and it was fairly common to see the main characters from each game in art together. After the homestuckening, it seemed like that sort of close knit, quiet fandom got shot out the airlock. There was more fan content, but it was all OFF all the time, and it made me want to interact with it less due to my own personal fallout with Homestuck at the time. I am glad so many people appreciated OFF, but I feel bad for all the other indie horror titles left behind. Also re: Zachary with wings - I thought there were concept art of Zachary with wings back when Mortis was kicking around the idea of him as a protag? Or maybe that's a mush of fandom goo, but I do remember there were sketches in an official capacity. And with that kinda encouragement, I'm not surprised it was a huge hit. I remember the Zach fixation being A Thing.
Tbh, I never even knew there was a Homestuckening before watching the vid, that was the biggest surprise to me lmao. I believe though I got into OFF because of Ib, as it was one of the first indie RPG games I ever played.
This is more of a headcanon than a theory, I think, but I like to think that Zachary was Sugars puppeteer, he fell in love with the world so much that he somehow found a way into it.
it would explain the misery he'd feel after her death. if he entered the world for her, only to lose her, thats a justification for contempt if ever ive seen one
Makes me wonder why he's so apathetic at Batter destroying the world. Then again, as long as you don't do the secret battle, Sugar would still be in Zone 0, and presumably alive, since that place doesn't seem to need to be 'purified', so he'd at least have one companion, and maybe could rebuild some things with her? But that depends on if *all* the zones died when The Batter flips the off switch at the end. Zone 0's kinda been left alone since the beginning, so IDK. The special ending also exists, though, so I guess everything depends on what timeline they're in.
"Maybe it's better this way". I like the theory and the line hits a bit differently to me now. Zacharie fell in love with a Sugar that had his projection wrapped around it. Her words her own but carrying out his acts and will. But, when he entered, it was different. She wasn't acting the way he expected (the same way he'd controlled her to) and didn't have the same power a character gets when made PC over an NPC. He had hope to rekindle something. To bring back the spark he felt. But in a world, with you and the Batter in it, doomed to end. Would you rather hang on to hope things may change until the end, or just let it go.
The RPGmaker industry is PACKED with gems: -Hello Charlotte -ENDROLL -OMORI -Wadanohara And The Great Blue Sea -Yume Nikki -.flow -Midnight Train -OFF -OneShot -LiSA -Ao Oni -Ara Fell -Pocket Mirror -Mad Father -Angels of Death And so, SO many more. Thank you for peeking into RPGmaker. It's legit a goldmine of good content 0v0
1:12:46 actually, zacharie was planned to be a boss for the game and mortis ghost's concept art for his boss fight is where the fan concept of him wielding wings and a sword comes from! i think its 99% likely that zacharie was intended to be the toad king's slayer
I think I actually appreciate the fact that off gives you no choice in your actions (when compared to undertale). On one hand we see ourselves as the only truly autonomous agents within a game. We are the puppeteer. We are in control of the batter, who is simply a vessel for us to exert ourselves onto the world. But when we are chastised by the judge at the end of game, we use our lack of control as a way to absolve ourselves of responsibility for our actions; placing the blame on what was supposed to be our puppet. While undertale examines the choices we make to experience all the content of the game; off examines the way we set aside our morality in the absence of choice.
That reminds me of Spec ops: the line. Completely linear game, you do horrible things, and the loading screens continually tell you that if you were a good person, you'd turn the game off.
So after playing this game back in 2011, this was my takeaway from it that I don't think I've ever really seen anyone else feel. I always felt like Hugo was a terminally ill child, and the characters of the Batter, the Player and the Judge respectively were the ID, the EGO and the SUPEREGO of Hugo's father, trying to make the impossibly tough choice of taking his child off life support and destroying the world Hugo built up in his mind, which had been slowly being burnt out and eradicated due to his illness. One thing I noticed is that when you put the game on auto, and left the Batter to his own devices, he would never heal even though he had healing options available. He was just hyper focused on his mission at the cost of anything else. The Judge was more emotional and structured in his dialogue, and also showed grief at the death of a family member. To me the final battle was the inner struggle of the player trying to choose between a mercy killing, spawned by a cold and calculated take on what could be done further, or to side with the conventionally morally right choice and let Hugo exist, even if the world was now barren and desolate and painful. A few other takeaways that I haven't quite placed: I always saw Dedan's coat and no-nonsense attitude as traits of a doctor, Enoch as a Candy Striper, and Hugo literally talks about seeing a bird in his window as his friend. The fight with the queen represented the quarreling between Hugo's parents in this tough situation and illustrated their divorce (especially using the initial translation). I dunno, I just wanted to place out some of the theories that had been kicking around in my head for the past decade about this game. Great video
Two years late, but I just played OFF for the first time and it's cool to see similarities in your and my interpretation that I also haven't really seen yet in any big theory analysis videos, like of mom and dad divorcing as well who Dedan Japhet and Enoch were "in reality". I also took Japhet to be a window bird friend (maybe one that eventually got eaten by a cat), and while I initially took Enoch to be like, idk, a baker of Hugo's birthday cake or something, I much prefer your candy striper take! As for Dedan, I noted how father like he acted toward "Hugo" in that Room section, like offering to take him Pedalo riding etc, and I also noted how highly he in particular spoke of the Queen, so I took that to suggest that, with my theory that Mom and Dad separated, that Dedan was Mom's new lover trying to form a father-son connection with Hugo (plus, Alpha associated with Dedan has the class "Father") maybe in hopes to gain custody of Hugo? And with the guardian versions of these characters being kinda corrupted, the father-figure might warp to be a tyrant, the generous, warm candy striper warps to someone promoting and benefiting from others' gluttony/addiction and Japhet... well I don't have as clear an analogue admittedly. I haven't yet seen anyone else interpret a divorce/separation between the parents like this, and I haven't seen anyone try to read much further into the Guardians as far as representing real people Hugo considered friends in real life, so it's nice to see another similarly set of interpretations!
@@ladymoragsbootlaces8059 There are so many references to illness in this game that I'm surprised that it hasn't been mentioned more... so many of the attacks are illness-based, for example. (It's been ages since I played it, so if I recall certain things incorrectly, go easy on me.) I always did see Hugo as the terminally sickly child whose mother was the Queen and whose father was the Batter, who had invariably gone their own ways because they could not determine what fate Hugo should face. The Queen is optimistic, living in a delusion where she is focusing on doing whatever she can to pretend that he is better, as far as planning a party for Hugo to live in her fantasy where one day, everything will go back to normal, and the Batter is there to put an end to everything and liberate Hugo from his illness instead of keeping him alive. Zacharie is often said to be wearing a KN95 mask (which could play into the hospital theme). As for the other characters, I'm not certain, but it seems to me that Hugo is living in his own head and watching the world play out as he creates it with vague connections to reality touching upon it.
7:00 Somebody has probably already said this, but it's called "active." If using the menu causes the battle to pause, that's called "wait." At least, that's how the Final Fantasy series has always referred to the classic styles of turn-based battles. The system is called ATB, active time battle. It refers to the gauge each character has to fill up before they can take a turn.
One thing I feel like a lot of people miss with those number puzzles is that they too are part of the atmosphere. The puzzles in OFF make you write down nonsense phrases, strange words, and most of all numbers. You end up with these weird notes that look like they were written by a crazy person. You're part of the strange, unsettling madness of this world as you navigate it- your own notes prove that. By brute forcing the puzzles you miss out on that. (I noticed you brute forced the flesh maze too. The secret to that puzzle is actually the audio, you're meant to stand at the edge of the doorways and listen for when the music becomes louder.)
I never used the Auto function, but I think given the twist in general that it makes a LOT of sense that the auto is overpowered. The game is more fun if you're not using it for certain, but it definitely seems like an intentional design choice that auto is very competent, especially given you're warned about using it at the very beginning because of how it won't hold back
Anyone at all talking about OFF in the year of our lord 2022 is astonishing. Thank you so much for this. This is one of those games I can't forget about, even after all these years.
Amazing video! I didn't expect to be in here, but it's an honor to be mentioned. (And yes, it's Tan black 😂) OFF is an absolutely fantastic game and to this day I still find it hard to find another game that will provoke the same feelings and immersion.
Don't feel bad, It has more to do with the fact that this dude got here because people watched his fnaf content more than anything... that and the fact that timed battle systems are sort of the "the odd estranged brother" to the turn based system that is so popular, so contemporary examples are far fewer for it.
I'm so glad to see a creator talk about off. It's such a fantastic little masterpiece in so many ways and that soundtrack is so nostalgic. Hearing it patches into some strange feeling in my heart. You've brought back some great nostalgia for me dude
YES I THINK THE OFF FANDOM MIGHT GET REVIVED BY THIS VIDEO!!!!!!! I adore everything about this world, from the magenta plastic labyrinths to the sketchy monstrosities to the... weirdly cozy feeling of that one void house in Zone 3. The Meaning of His Tears and Avatar Beat are absolute perfection, and all the character designs are sick. Man, I LOVE Mortis Ghost's style, especially how he shades the Burnts. Huge kudos to Vinny Vinesauce for playing this game and exposing me at a young age to a world of sugar corpses and mall whales, as well as to everybody involved with this monumental video! (Seriously the entire OFF fandom thanks you profusely this shall be our beacon of life)
@@bandidocavalier Yeaahh sadly it used to be a lot more active in 2019-2020, like not as active as when the game started getting popular, but pretty active. and then 2021 it just. dipped...
As someone who has been working on the OFF Animation for over a year now, it has been amazing to see just how many talented people have joined the team and been so much help to the process and MAINLY Tanblaque who is one of the most hard working people I have ever met and watching them working and seeing them do a majority of everything themselves is so amazing and they are so talented! They have improved so much and glad they can relax a bit with all the amazing help we got! And I really appreciate you giving them and the OFF Animation a spotlight in your video it means so much to see my friends be appreciated!!! And promise we're working on it and making it really amazing! 🥰
I have not played this game, but while you explained the story it sounded a lot to me like a metaphor for a child with cancer’s body and how they’d perceive their illness, and their real life influencing how they perceive it all. Each off switch representing the failure of a organ, etc. If I’m wrong tho that’s totally fine lol, this game looks really cool, and as usual another amazing retrospective! I don’t follow many TH-cam channels, but you can guarantee I’m subscribed to Sagan and Nezumi and will always be there when their videos release!
I think the more clear connection to be made with OFF's metacommentary about "Yo maybe killing things sucks" is actually _Dark Souls_ of all things, despite there being no evidence that FROM or Miyazaki ever took inspiration from it. Particularly in the first game where on the main path you're mislead through a quest to slay the old gods and rekindle the first flame, except nobody tells you that at the end you must commit suicide via self-immolation to do so, and it's left up to interpretation if that's actually the right thing to do as it only prolongs the existence of the world you left in ruins, a world that was already ruined before you even arrived on the scene. In contrast, the Artorias of the Abyss DLC brings up the consequences of the other ending. Should you chose the Darkwraith ending and let the fire fade, you lead the world into an age of darkness. We see what that does to people in the DLC areas. They sprout horrific growths and return to a primal state. The other choice is to become a Darkwraith as seen in the main game, knights of death whose only purpose is to steal the humanity from other humans. So either way, you're led through a post-apocalyptic world, killing bosses on no other pretense than "Well someone told me to," and either way you kill the SAME bosses. Your only choices in the outcome are at the end, to either blindly prolong this world's current awfulness, or purposefully send it down a literal path to darkness, somewhat similar both endings of OFF. I think these games have a very interesting connection in that way, and even though there's no chance Miyazaki even knew OFF existed during the development of Dark Souls, I think he and Mortis came to very similar conclusions when trying to criticize their respective genres. What makes it so easy for you to just blindly follow orders until the end? Because it's fun? Is this really your idea of fun? Arduous journeys through miserable places _killing_ things? Things that are simply going about their business when you arrive? Of course there's fun to be had with these games, they still want you to play and enjoy them. Abusing your audience is rarely ever successful (the only successful case I can think of is Pathologic, but even then it rewards you for being invested,) but it's still fascinating how similar the approach from these two developers was.
Nezumi said they were 26 and have basically a foot in the grave in regards to fandom and I related to that *deeply* you have no idea. I remember commenting on ManlyBadassHero's video and responding to comments talking about their theories on the plot and what it all meant and symbolized. I particularly liked the parallel that was made with the final room (segmented corridor leading to a larger room) and the human nervous system (everything leading to the spine, that leads to the brain) as well as the idea of the Batter being actually some sort of medicine.
I actually really like that. Almost implies that the “meds” that were given to Hugo by his father were the “kills you fast so you don’t have to suffer” kind and not the “make you better” kind
I thought something similar. That the Batter is actually a kind of medicine that kills the specters (Hugo's sickness) but at the cost of altering Hugo's mental state to a point he's not himself anymore. It makes more sense what Logan S said though, that the Batter's purpose is to release him from his suffering. I would have loved to be part of the community at that point in time, it sounds like it was great fun
Some obscure information: The one Hugo calls Papa is "Elsen the scientist". The Batter is possibly based on the antagonist of the anime Paranoia Agent.
Ahhh such a great video!! I remember when OFF was just all over tumblr back in the day, and seeing it everywhere back when I was rly into homestuck when I was like 13ish. So many memories while also learning a lot of the stuff I never knew as I never actually played the game, but heard it offhand from my friend. Anyway great video !
Man, what a throwback. I can't ever forget how fun of a time it was when everyone was getting into OFF, it was such a novel and intriguing world that got introduced to us.
I had kind of a more "literal" interpretation of Off. The Batter goes along all the way saying how you're purifying things, but you're actually just destroying everything and making everything worse, you're not actually purifying anything. So the idea I took from it was: Nothing is ever actually Pure (like, being good enough, fitting into an ideal of perfection). So if a person starts to reject and destroy (attack) everything they don't like (their own life, other people or things, social groups, fixing situations with violence) they're not just not accomplishing anything good, but actively making the world worse for everyone, and being left with nothing. So like, the Batter is trying to force his ideal of the world on everyone else, caring about nothing else and prefering a false nothingness over imperfection. But the imperfect world was better than the pure world. The idea of perfection (purity) was destructive. All the imagery, along with the elements (smoke, plastic, metal, meat, sugar) and how they come to be makes me think of a social commentary on extremist ideas (political, religious etc) and the modern world, how it's riddled with badly justificated discrimination, war, dehumanization and pointless hate and violence because some people care more for their own ideals of how the world should be and don't care for the damage they do. Yeah not a perfect interpretation. Another one could be how as long as you live you can improve things or have something but death is a permanent empty end and thus dumb.
OFF was a huge influence on my story telling style, art, and word building, and I'm happy to see it being brought up again. I have to say I protest the implication that most of its fans were there because they were waiting for homestuck to update, I wasn't and countless others appreciate it for its incredibly unique style and story
Well, that isn't quite what I was trying to say, lol. Just that the dry period sent a lot of HS's fans elsewhere, where they would discover other things to appreciate just as much if not more - with OFF being a common one at the time.
Thank you for this!! In particular, thank you for doing an expansive community section by getting contributions from a peer - some people would leave it at "I wasn't there, so I dunno about that", and I appreciate the extra work of reaching out and getting more perspective. This video rules. Also, thank you for the game recommendations!
The world in OFF makes so much more sense as the player traverses it. Mortis said himself that the underlying plot is a post-apocalyptic one. So what can you rebuild when only the rubble of the old world is left? The new world is comprised of sturdy material like Metal and Plastic because these materials were strong enough to not get destroyed in the big cataclysm. However, my biggest praise for OFF is not the story but the art and music. The music is surreal and perfectly fits the world is played in but the art, especially the overworld, with the empty and sterile sky is the very first thing that i see in my mind when i think of the game (like when you walk on the railroad tracks of purified Zone 1, or the long climb up the Tower of Bismark in Zone 2). This feeling of self inflicted loneliness while going through the Zones after the Batt- no, WE purified them, is what makes OFF so bitter-sweetly eery to look at. We destroyed something that was perhaps the last save harbour on the planet and now only a blank canvas is left.
I actually quite like the fighting portion of the game. It's satisfying. The process of "purification" and slowly ridding the zone of spectres, even if no matter how many you kill there will always be one more. I like fighting the spooky ghosts.
I haven't even heard of this game until now and I absolutely love it. The music is super good and I really love the artstyle, this is definitely up there with Undertale and Yume Nikki
@@nicholasaugello2534 Lol reading this made me realize he changed the title. It was "The game that inspired undertale's genocide route" or something close
As for someone who's special interest is OFF and OFF fangames (Especially CSRverse), this makes me extremely happy that off is getting even the speck of spotlight. The game has such lovable soundtrack, art, and game-play that effected me on how i see what counts as "horror / surreal." As much as i love making cute art as a artist, i also adore making horror art that is especially inspired by how OFF takes the melancholy feeling on some of the songs and art (even with un-familiarity) and warps it at the end of the game when everything is too late. im so hopeful that this fandom might get revived again! This video truely explained of what OFF is truely is. My favorite character is Enoch, The guardian and boss of zone 3, since he's a character that was rushed and didnt had enough spotlight like Dedan and Japhet. His character is fantasizing to see the comparison from when you first met him in zone 3 and when later you take the place as hugo, helping him out of the hole. i could gush about the guardians all day but i'll wrap that up by saying make sure that you look *closely* of the way they form their words and they way they act. Even with the game's flaws, it's something that i and many others cherish this game and get inspired by it's wonderfully written story. im a big nerd of RPG games and Puzzles, along with it's strangely beautiful art. OFF is one of those gems that has it's own charm with that nostalgic yet surrealistic feel. thanks for making this game and shinning a light to the game itself.
zacharie TRANSED MY GENDER at the age of 11 and nothing has been the same since in all seriousness though, thank you to both you and marcie for covering this game! i have a very close history with it, its been a comfort game for a decade now. hell, i cosplayed valerie mask zacharie on the last day of ninth grade with a mask made from poster board and tights covering the eye holes. ive always seen the game as more unpopular (especially nowadays, it was popular on tumblr in the early 2010s. iykyk), so the fact that two of my favourite youtubers covered my favourite game at this time of year really felt like an early xmas present :-)
@@kris117 HRJEBTN i love using tht phrase im glad its spreading !! if youre looking for more i also like “transgenderinator” and “fired a gender beam” :-) they can also be combined into smthn like “man zacharie used his transgenderinator and fired a beam at me and now i use they/he pronouns” .. i just like funny terms like that when talking about my gender discovery journey in relation to characters making me realise “i wanna look like him” like zacharie, mettaton ex, etc.
Undertale, hit me harder with Asriel’s, whole tragedy of a life it sucked, but I’ll admit judge, walking off on his own in the cannon ending is really heartaching.
Being now in my 30s I remember being 19 years old, playing this game in the middle of summer, running on windows 7 and scrolling on tumblr looking at OFF fan art. Time really flew by lol.
29:13 I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet but this puzzle isn't trial and error, it's a Lost Woods type puzzle. The music will sound louder near the correct doorway.
Plus it’s just pure bliss for any Radiohead, fan the artstyle is heavily similar to Thom yorkes, hand drawing on ep’s, and concept art for ok computer, and kid a, along with the music having similar vibes especially avatar beat which sounds like Idiotque off Kid A.
Wow, this is the best video about OFF that I have ever watched. First of all, I highly appreciate you giving the creators the support and love they deserve while also being honest about the gameplay flaws. I get OFF isn't for everyone, but from a narrative and aesthetic standpoint, you have to admit that it inspires a lot of people. Second, I really liked your interpretations of OFF's story. To be honest, I think every interpretation is right. OFF is one of those games were there's no correct or wrong answer; it's all based on the view of the player who controls the batter. As you pointed out, the game is a satire for how we play video games and makes fun or light of the consequences as you play in a world outside of your own. Because of that, there's really no right or wrong answer to the game's story. If it's a game that's a satire on video games, it makes sense for the story to be ambiguous and for you, the player, to interpret. After all, you are the puppeteer, you get to control the protagonist and how you view the game's world. Even so, there are some obvious themes such as cancer, climate change, religion, etc. I do agree in that those themes are meant to tie onto the satire of the game, but at the same time, I feel as if its a way to lead you into some conclusion as the player. A video game has to have some theme to make beating the game satisfying, right? If so, why not add some controversial themes to make the game's world more interesting, instead of just a satire. It's funny because that just adds onto the satire of playing a video game for a story and narrative. I won't let my thoughts go too crazy in this comment, after all, OFF is in my top 5 favorite games of all time with the MOTHER series and Persona 5 Royal beating it. I'm just so happy that OFF is getting more recognition lately and people like you are giving it the justice it deserves. I loved learning about the inspirations of OFF and how the silent hill inspirations made so much sense. I'm surprised OFF wasn't inspired by MOTHER either, since the batter reminded me of Ness right away, but as an older version of him. I also have parallels with OFF and The Binding Of Isaac, since both focus on a child as the main focus along with heavy religious themes. Games like Omori are obviously inspired by OFF as well, mainly with the de saturated colors for the sprites and the dark themes. Lastly, I want to point out how much I love Zacharie, because let's be honest, he was the Sans archetype before Sans existed. Zacharie is also in my top 5 favorite characters of all time and I could go on all day about why I love his character outside of his personality quirks and fourth wall breaks. I do agree that UnderTale did the theme of OFF a lot better with the genocide route, but even so, OFF has its own charm to it that UnderTale can't replicate. I wish the gameplay of OFF was better too, but we can't have everything from a late 2000's RPG maker game. Thank you for reading my thoughts and I'm very happy that OFF is taking on a new role within the world of fandoms. I'm happy to see it more well known, even if its little by little. This video was outstanding and summarized a lot of what people thought about the game. I enjoyed learning new things about the game I didn't know about either. To anyone else who reads this, I hope you find my comment interesting!
Man. I don't really remember much of my brief playthrough of OFF as a kid, except how heartbroken it made me. Watching this video reminded me of precisely why I felt that way.
I'm so happy this came across my recommended, OFF is one of my favorite games and I still listen to the soundtrack to this day, Avatar Beat is one of my faves ☺️ edit: the way the Elsens describe the elements like "if we didn't have smoke, we'd have no air to breathe" reminded me of a essay I wrote in the 4th grade talking about the body structure in that same way, if we didn't have bones our body would have no structure and we would be limp, if we didn't have muscles we'd be a pile of skin and bone, etc. Just recognize that now and thought it was kinda cool
Spoiler warning. Man, I remember the first time I went back to a zone I purified, and my first thoughts were "oh my god there are distant screams for help and super strong flesh babies". Still some of the most creepy stuff I've ever witnessed.
@@Arsonaughtapparently one of the lines are actually cries for help. iirc they go "Hey! Help!" and "Hey! Batter!" the ones that are all blended together and kinda remind me of squishy meat iirc are things along the lines of "what gave you the right / you didn't need to do this"
Man, I remember when I first subscribed two years ago, your videos were well edited and well scripted collages of screenshots and gameplay/video parts, BUT NOW, WITH ALL THE MUSIC AND COSTUMES AND DEDICATED SCENES, AWWW MAN It is amaizing, and I’m so glad to see you grow not just as a content creator, but as an ARTIST. Keep it up! All the love ❤️
30:58 By the way, I believe Mortis Ghost once said that the Secretaries are what the Guardians were keeping out, and without them, they killed all of the Elsen. This also explains how there is a sole survivor of the Sercretaries’ attack in the form of the only resident of Bismark’s shelters that didn’t either leave or burn, because, as they say, the safehouse kept them safe, and now the Secretaries will keep them safe from anyone else trying to come get them so long as they just stay inside. 31:47 Also, the French version says (in French obviously) “The Merchant” instead of “The Masked Man”, which makes it very clear that this masked merchant was 100% Zacharie, especially when you consider that, prior to taking over as The Judge while Pablo looks for Valérie (RiP), Zacharie is always seen wearing a mask of a toad.
me clicking on this video, mildly curious: oh hey, i remember this game, i used to be really deep in the fandom, what, a decade ago? i barely remember any of it me, the instant i hear pepper steak: [suddenly experiences every human emotion in a single moment]
the out-of-bounds elsen mentioned at 52:51 is referring to the one at the top right at 20:54. he has weird dialogue only present in the english translation where he points out the fact that he's inaccessible and then says "help dismal find his fruit cup." don't think anyone really knows what it means oh yeah and this video was really good! thank you for covering one of my favorite games of all time :)
I really wish you had given felixthejudge a mention. I know you gave his fangame HOME a shoutout at the end but I still think it deserved more than a brief mention considering how much the community cherishes it. Unfortunately he passed a few years ago from a car accident and games like oneshot and most off fan games attribute and mourn him. He had a much bigger impact on the rpgmaker scene than you’d realize. Rest in peace, Arin “Felix” Mullins 🎩 🐱
I found out about it from watching Mark's playthrough. IT became an instant favorite, and I miss this game's fandom and the excitement that surrounded it so much. I can play the game whenever I want, which is nice. But it isn't the same having far fewer people behind it. Truly an excellent game, even with its faults. So glad you decided to do a video on it, even though it's over a decade old and past its prime. Hell, I'm excited to see anything about it these days. Great work, I really enjoyed this video :] P.S. When I was doing a bit of comparing between OFF and Undertale to a friend of mine, they argued against me, roughly saying that there were very few comparisons to be made at *most*. I really have no idea why they thought that, but...ok. Couldn't get them to see it, but oh well.
this is so exciting, i adore all of your videos and the work that goes into them. off meant a lot to me in 2013 (the og fandom revival) so this means a lot to me also!
so happy this game is getting more recognition even though it's been so long. been one of my favorites for years and im still actively in the community. just subscribed 👍
This production quality is fucking mint!! Thanks for keeping me company while overcoming my first stomach flu (its terrible but this makes it tolerable)
Putting this here for me and anyone else interested. OFF Inspired (fan) games: - Home (The Judge's perspective) - Suits, A Business RPG (Business perspective, might be an Elsen's perspective) - Hello Charlotte (You puppet Charlotte in an OFF inspired game)
this has got me so nostalgic. off was such a unique experience and a beautiful piece of work. you've manage to put so many great feelings into words, thank you.
I played OFF when I was 15-16. It is, to this day, still an experience I think back on and think deeply about almost nine years later. It was one of the first pieces of media I took in that really morphed the way I looked at life.
Good video. I was in the OFF fandom during its heyday and this video accurately represents the aspects that drew me and others into them. I'm surprised the fangame aspect of the community wasn't described in more than a passing mention of HOME. Thanks to an unofficial version of the game engine (RPGMaker 2003) that was (is?) available to the public, and the fact that OFF as a game is made available uncompiled which eases access, making fangames of it practically boomed for a few years. There's a decently sized list on the fandom page. It's also worth mentioning that there's a few easter eggs to spot if you go into the guts of the game, like an elsen that only exists to warn you that you've encountered a bug and are in a place you shouldn't reach, and a unique burnt that exists behind one of the doors in Zone 3 and is easy to miss if you don't care to open them all.
Love to see OFF content in 2022! I personally got into it from a friend who I can only imagine was there bc it was an RPG Maker title. I also super love the HOME mention, as I was really into a few of the fangames and spinoffs and that's def the best on basis of how robust it is and how it follows up with the tone and themes. A couple others I remember is the Claude Higgins set of games which are admittingly very grimdark and edgy and probably didn't age well in the slightest. There was also C/S/R which used the fandom versions of the Batters and had a more light(?) tone. ONE had a lot of fun designs and story but I don't think it ever got finished. Apparently there's a fair few more but I've been out of the fandom for a while. ^^;
I'm so mad I didn't get the notification for this, I'm gonna be watching this nonstop this morning. The music at the start was already an amazing start!
this is a TREAT to behold in my sub box no way, thanks sagan! OFF is really important to me, seeing someone who i see as a 'cool youtuber' make a very in depth video about this short ass nothing game makes me so happy :))
Something I found interesting in the game is how the guardians describe the batter, thinking to myself that the batter didn’t fit that description. That is until the end of the game.
UPDATE: The "Baseball" song used in this video is finally out on Spotify! Written and recorded by my brother (so it's on his spotify account, not mine): open.spotify.com/track/0hj3YHuD1XMAnf2FTk5K7D?si=cba82c78cbad4e4b
Hey everyone, long time no see! Promise it won't be as long a wait until the next one. If you're looking for more cool stuff, go check out NezumiVA's channel, and/or the album I released this past Halloween!
www.youtube.com/@NezumiVA
open.spotify.com/album/44MSGGy3hAyvf97UyXY9wE?si=9y7aLLTiR4mpMVIpQbWk8Q
I have also seen that people really liked the opening song. I'll see if we can get it up to stream somewhere as well!
whats the name of the song? im trying to find it through the lyics but nothing sounds like it.
the opening song is so good its insane
Yessss Sagan! That open song slaps.
the opening song is amazing!
Just try not to get hacked again, my man. The next thing I see from you better not be a Telsa Official stream about Crypto. :P
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this already, but correction about the “trial and error” door maze puzzle on the way to Dedan-the solution is that the music gets louder the closer you get to the correct door!
just like the lost woods in zelda (and plenty of other games as well)
i was thinking about that, glad i wasnt the only one who noticed
Audio cues tend to be missed when your volume is low
From a deaf person's PoV this is trial and error
666 likes, based
Batter has some banger lines. “Don’t do that” makes me laugh every time.
the judge: MY BROTHER IS FUCKING DEAD
batter: whatever
@@peachfang batter: lol. Lmao even
@@peachfang batter: damn bro that's crazy but who asked
@@valodia1 "acknowledged."
type of guy to respond to everything with "k"
"He has your eyes. They're filled with fear." Are two absurdly powerful sentences packed with so much meaning.
i love this line so much. i was so pissed when i played the translation and they changed it from "they're filled with fear" to like..... "however, his show fear." like???? WHY??? that wasn't necessary at ALL to change
@@Jamjamsart It's more accurate to the original French line, which pretty explicitly framed it as a contrast.
@@CreepGnomeoh
oh thats sadder
@@Jamjamsartbruh why lol that line is far better. Being told his son has his eyes only to respond that they show fear comes off as far more uncaring and ruthless. The other line comes off as him just stating that he sees he is scared while this one shows that the difference between them is that he’s scared of him
@@plugshirt1762or, it could be seen as by ‘he has your eyes’, ‘fear’ being the response could imply the batter is afraid. Very, very afraid.
I know that he said that he isn’t a big rpg guy but the moment he said the closest thing he could relate the timer to was a fnaf game, when it’s just the final fantasy ATB system, had part of my soul leave my body.
that felt like a wild bait and switch
I literally had to double check as I was exclusively listening to this video as audio on my walk and I totally missed that part AAAW C'MON MAN
SAGAN NOOOOOOO
_Noooooooo........._
Maybe, maybe he knows what its actually called and is just low balling his expectations for his general audience
I was kind of okay with that one since he mentions that it's specifically in relation to his audience, but then he called the SNES controller a PS1 controller... pain.
You would think everyone knows what Final Fantasy is at this point
Comments about someones soul leaving are always making me laugh, thanks
I always thought it was a parallel for chemotherapy, and it's scorched earth approach to purifying and cleansing the body, killing everything in an attempt to root out the cancer (Spectres, burnt elsen could also be seen as corrupted cells from the cancer growth), and the zones and stuff were just constructs of a creatively driven child personifying his own treatment which even though it means well, ends up killing him
Just putting it out there: in the comic Hugo's father gives him, the boxer is swarmed by an army of clones. The imagery of endless replication feels a LOT like a metaphor for cancer. Maybe the Batter feels annoyed by the comic partially because it puts the baseball player in the role of the tumor, while he is so unwaveringly dedicated to the role of chemotherapy.
This might also be why the Secretaries look so much, to me at least, like misshapen boxers; they're the thing that comes into the zone after the disease has been purged from it and kills all that is still healthy in there. So they're the comic book boxer's noble intentions twisted and distorted, the medicine's horrible side effects becoming clear. The Batter sees them as demonic, so blinded by his conviction that he fails to understand they're the very same thing as him. Boxer opposes batter, but which one is the disease and which one is the treatment?
...I have never played this game. Hell, I only found out the full plot from this video. If anything of this is horribly wrong, feel free to correct me.
@@sand__witch bro, the game is free, why did you watch this before playing it?
Yes, I wanted to make same comment, cause I also saw this parallel between themes of the game and cancer treatment (though I have small bias because it is something that is close from me, something from my real life). It might be just a one theme that mixed with others, but I do believe it has lots of ground and merits.
@@Mate_Antal_Zoltan you don't have to play a game before watching videos about it
that one's always been a super popular theory and its the one I'd take as most logical understanding if it's not meant to be taken as literal, which is what I've always done. It's still depressing that way.
How different indie game characters deal with threats
Undertale: talk to them
Omori: the power of friendship
OFF: you have lost your kneecap privileges
Ultrakill:RICOSHOT FISTFULL OF DOLLARS PARRY DISRESPECT
MGRR: see that giant mech over there? Now suplex it into the air and cut it in half.
@@prometheus9732 MGRR is not an Indie game lmao.
Project moon: workplace violence
Faith: hey see that demon over there? Now *exorcise it*
37:00 Mortis Ghost did a livestream of OFF a few years back, and one delightful thing he shared was that the Judge's dialogue here is straight up just a reference to the song We Will Become Silhouettes by The Postal Service. "I'm screaming at the top of my lungs / pretending the echoes belong to someone / someone I used to know."
I think the older fan translation matched the lyrics even closer.
Man, I feel so sorry for the Judge, losing his brother..
I literally cry about this part every time. Such a gut punch to hear him and then have him say those lines
really? the postal service is one of my favorite bands ever, that’s so awesome
That’s what the refrance
When I played OFF as a teen, I'd always assumed the "Burnt" had something to do with consuming sugar, like a side effect or something. After all, the sugar comes from *burning* corpses, and the majority of "Burnt" you fight are in the sugar factory. I have no idea how well this interpretation actually holds up, though.
you are what you eat kinda deal?
if you look up videos on how sugar reacts with sulphuric acid it looks exactly like how the elsen turn into burnts. the previously white sugar turned into something like a black tree trunk-like thing-- it's a super neat detail that mortis ghost paid attention to
That reminds me of that religious quote.
"From dust you were risen and to dust you shall turn"
or something along those lines
@@Kyumifun Genesis 3:19 'for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.'
We see that happening pretty close to the "I'm The Batter and came through the chimney" scene, IIRC
I think you're dead on about the Queen and the Batter being manifestations of Hugo's parents. The fact that, despite The Batter seemingly being created at the start of the game, the Queen talks as if she always knew him. Even the "he has your eyes".
100% how I see it. There is just too much that shows for it to be otherwise. They're manifestations recently made, but the history and emotions are strong.
a note on the sketchy style of the sprites: this happened because all the sprites were originally drawn on paper! they were then downscaled and outlined with hard pixels to keep in line with the whole pixel art style. scans of the original sketches are widely available online and its great to see them in their full glory. mortis ghosts hatching style really stands out in hd. additionally all the art of zacharie with wings and a sword also comes from concept art mortis ghost made
the in-game sprites seemed so blurry to me that i had the wrong impression of several characters for ages. like thinking zach was a frog-faced man and not wearing a mask.
the anthony fantano parody segment is so insanely well done its crazy. you somehow got all the mannerisms and line deliveries from melon perfectly. major kudos.
I would give this segment a strong 9 to a 10.
tran…
@@TheTimurQ SITION
i loved that part lol
@@bananapuddingyum9690 did you give this album a listen?
Oh my god. I have prosopagnosia (face blindness) and didn't even realise it was just him again. I only thought "huh, Fantano has a lot more hair in this clip, must be an old video." and shrugged it off. Damnit
This game definetly deserves a fandom revival!! Thank you so much for covering this game!
Dude the fandom revives and dies every other week, and it's apparently staying this way
@@MasacoMike the fandom has been purified
ah ah ah! the OFF fandom is like a ghost!
There's actually an OFF animated series on TH-cam, it's really good you should check it out
@@kalebjacobs7505 Name??
Pablo's sad meows...awh
And while Batter isn't Hugo's father, I think he's definitley connected. He may just be a figure that reminds Hugo of his father with the baseball theme, or represents his (and possibly his mom's as well) resentment towards a father who is out of the picture now- may that be from personal choice or his death that Hugo didn't understand.
I've never played this game before and so didn't know the plot before watching this vid. seeing the part with pablo grieving legit made me start crying
As someone who played OFF before the....homestuckening, I will say that there was a fan base, but it was definitely more broad and encompassed Yume Nikki, Space Funeral, Ib and the like. It was just generally accepted if you liked one, you'd like the others and it was fairly common to see the main characters from each game in art together. After the homestuckening, it seemed like that sort of close knit, quiet fandom got shot out the airlock. There was more fan content, but it was all OFF all the time, and it made me want to interact with it less due to my own personal fallout with Homestuck at the time.
I am glad so many people appreciated OFF, but I feel bad for all the other indie horror titles left behind.
Also re: Zachary with wings - I thought there were concept art of Zachary with wings back when Mortis was kicking around the idea of him as a protag? Or maybe that's a mush of fandom goo, but I do remember there were sketches in an official capacity. And with that kinda encouragement, I'm not surprised it was a huge hit. I remember the Zach fixation being A Thing.
Tbh, I never even knew there was a Homestuckening before watching the vid, that was the biggest surprise to me lmao.
I believe though I got into OFF because of Ib, as it was one of the first indie RPG games I ever played.
Oh, about the Zachary wings, I'm pretty sure there was a video of a [fake] boss fight of Zachary with wings but also a sword.
I got into OFF because of TF2
Nice pfp
It WAS a thing, a big thing. You know, like Sans's fixation in Undertale, Foxy's in the FNAF franchise and the other popular Tumblr characters-
This is more of a headcanon than a theory, I think, but I like to think that Zachary was Sugars puppeteer, he fell in love with the world so much that he somehow found a way into it.
it would explain the misery he'd feel after her death. if he entered the world for her, only to lose her, thats a justification for contempt if ever ive seen one
Makes me wonder why he's so apathetic at Batter destroying the world. Then again, as long as you don't do the secret battle, Sugar would still be in Zone 0, and presumably alive, since that place doesn't seem to need to be 'purified', so he'd at least have one companion, and maybe could rebuild some things with her? But that depends on if *all* the zones died when The Batter flips the off switch at the end. Zone 0's kinda been left alone since the beginning, so IDK. The special ending also exists, though, so I guess everything depends on what timeline they're in.
"Maybe it's better this way". I like the theory and the line hits a bit differently to me now.
Zacharie fell in love with a Sugar that had his projection wrapped around it. Her words her own but carrying out his acts and will. But, when he entered, it was different. She wasn't acting the way he expected (the same way he'd controlled her to) and didn't have the same power a character gets when made PC over an NPC.
He had hope to rekindle something. To bring back the spark he felt. But in a world, with you and the Batter in it, doomed to end. Would you rather hang on to hope things may change until the end, or just let it go.
@@peachfang love this
The RPGmaker industry is PACKED with gems:
-Hello Charlotte
-ENDROLL
-OMORI
-Wadanohara And The Great Blue Sea
-Yume Nikki
-.flow
-Midnight Train
-OFF
-OneShot
-LiSA
-Ao Oni
-Ara Fell
-Pocket Mirror
-Mad Father
-Angels of Death
And so, SO many more.
Thank you for peeking into RPGmaker. It's legit a goldmine of good content 0v0
>omori
blud think they on the team
witches house was also neat
@@tenaciousquid literally, if theyre gonna add new rpgs they might as well add Undertale too
Hylics?
As somebody who desperately wants to make a video game, what’s rpg maker like for game making, if anybody knows?
1:12:46 actually, zacharie was planned to be a boss for the game and mortis ghost's concept art for his boss fight is where the fan concept of him wielding wings and a sword comes from! i think its 99% likely that zacharie was intended to be the toad king's slayer
the book talks about a merchant slaying the king in french, so yeah ! zachary is the toad king's slayer
I think I actually appreciate the fact that off gives you no choice in your actions (when compared to undertale). On one hand we see ourselves as the only truly autonomous agents within a game. We are the puppeteer. We are in control of the batter, who is simply a vessel for us to exert ourselves onto the world. But when we are chastised by the judge at the end of game, we use our lack of control as a way to absolve ourselves of responsibility for our actions; placing the blame on what was supposed to be our puppet. While undertale examines the choices we make to experience all the content of the game; off examines the way we set aside our morality in the absence of choice.
That reminds me of Spec ops: the line. Completely linear game, you do horrible things, and the loading screens continually tell you that if you were a good person, you'd turn the game off.
@@TorrentialStardust Going by that logic, If you were a good person, you just wouldn't buy the game. You should boycott the company at that point.
@@BladeTheGabite I mean I guess so
@@BladeTheGabite
Not really. Not every game is meant to be combat focused, and a game can use any method to get its narrative across.
It’s understated just how kind interesting and mind blowing the story is in this game it makes it one of my favorite games.
@@tobeyfox i can't find that no matter where i look, could you point me in the right direction?
especially the alien monkey ending lolololol
Ronnie mcnutt
@@thelegostarwarsf7916 mind blowing
@@tobeyfox what's it about? What makes it great?
So after playing this game back in 2011, this was my takeaway from it that I don't think I've ever really seen anyone else feel. I always felt like Hugo was a terminally ill child, and the characters of the Batter, the Player and the Judge respectively were the ID, the EGO and the SUPEREGO of Hugo's father, trying to make the impossibly tough choice of taking his child off life support and destroying the world Hugo built up in his mind, which had been slowly being burnt out and eradicated due to his illness. One thing I noticed is that when you put the game on auto, and left the Batter to his own devices, he would never heal even though he had healing options available. He was just hyper focused on his mission at the cost of anything else. The Judge was more emotional and structured in his dialogue, and also showed grief at the death of a family member. To me the final battle was the inner struggle of the player trying to choose between a mercy killing, spawned by a cold and calculated take on what could be done further, or to side with the conventionally morally right choice and let Hugo exist, even if the world was now barren and desolate and painful. A few other takeaways that I haven't quite placed: I always saw Dedan's coat and no-nonsense attitude as traits of a doctor, Enoch as a Candy Striper, and Hugo literally talks about seeing a bird in his window as his friend. The fight with the queen represented the quarreling between Hugo's parents in this tough situation and illustrated their divorce (especially using the initial translation). I dunno, I just wanted to place out some of the theories that had been kicking around in my head for the past decade about this game. Great video
Super fascinating take!
Two years late, but I just played OFF for the first time and it's cool to see similarities in your and my interpretation that I also haven't really seen yet in any big theory analysis videos, like of mom and dad divorcing as well who Dedan Japhet and Enoch were "in reality". I also took Japhet to be a window bird friend (maybe one that eventually got eaten by a cat), and while I initially took Enoch to be like, idk, a baker of Hugo's birthday cake or something, I much prefer your candy striper take! As for Dedan, I noted how father like he acted toward "Hugo" in that Room section, like offering to take him Pedalo riding etc, and I also noted how highly he in particular spoke of the Queen, so I took that to suggest that, with my theory that Mom and Dad separated, that Dedan was Mom's new lover trying to form a father-son connection with Hugo (plus, Alpha associated with Dedan has the class "Father") maybe in hopes to gain custody of Hugo? And with the guardian versions of these characters being kinda corrupted, the father-figure might warp to be a tyrant, the generous, warm candy striper warps to someone promoting and benefiting from others' gluttony/addiction and Japhet... well I don't have as clear an analogue admittedly.
I haven't yet seen anyone else interpret a divorce/separation between the parents like this, and I haven't seen anyone try to read much further into the Guardians as far as representing real people Hugo considered friends in real life, so it's nice to see another similarly set of interpretations!
@@ladymoragsbootlaces8059 There are so many references to illness in this game that I'm surprised that it hasn't been mentioned more... so many of the attacks are illness-based, for example. (It's been ages since I played it, so if I recall certain things incorrectly, go easy on me.) I always did see Hugo as the terminally sickly child whose mother was the Queen and whose father was the Batter, who had invariably gone their own ways because they could not determine what fate Hugo should face. The Queen is optimistic, living in a delusion where she is focusing on doing whatever she can to pretend that he is better, as far as planning a party for Hugo to live in her fantasy where one day, everything will go back to normal, and the Batter is there to put an end to everything and liberate Hugo from his illness instead of keeping him alive. Zacharie is often said to be wearing a KN95 mask (which could play into the hospital theme). As for the other characters, I'm not certain, but it seems to me that Hugo is living in his own head and watching the world play out as he creates it with vague connections to reality touching upon it.
A pleasure to be involved with this video, it came out fantastic! Thanks for having me aboard. 💜
HI NEZUMI
My girlfriend introduced me to you through your jerma dollhouse video. Love your work, happy to see you working with ppl like Sagan!
Marcie istg we have so many overlapping interests
(it’s Frou from the when we cry pod)
I found you through Ace Attorney, reminisced about OFF, and lo and behold managed to find you again. Small world!
OFF is such a gem. One of the few games that truly deserve a revival.
7:00 Somebody has probably already said this, but it's called "active." If using the menu causes the battle to pause, that's called "wait." At least, that's how the Final Fantasy series has always referred to the classic styles of turn-based battles. The system is called ATB, active time battle. It refers to the gauge each character has to fill up before they can take a turn.
Is nobody going to mention how amazingly the intro is edited and put together along that absolute bop
do you know the song?
Im pretty sure that’s pepper steak, part of off’s ost
do you happen to know what the song is in the intro perchance?
@@Garf-the-true-and-evil i think they're talking about the song in the intro, not peper steak
does anyone know the song in the intro?
One thing I feel like a lot of people miss with those number puzzles is that they too are part of the atmosphere. The puzzles in OFF make you write down nonsense phrases, strange words, and most of all numbers. You end up with these weird notes that look like they were written by a crazy person. You're part of the strange, unsettling madness of this world as you navigate it- your own notes prove that. By brute forcing the puzzles you miss out on that. (I noticed you brute forced the flesh maze too. The secret to that puzzle is actually the audio, you're meant to stand at the edge of the doorways and listen for when the music becomes louder.)
I love this take. I have a notebook for gaming notes and the ones for OFF look absolutely nonsensical LMAO
I never used the Auto function, but I think given the twist in general that it makes a LOT of sense that the auto is overpowered. The game is more fun if you're not using it for certain, but it definitely seems like an intentional design choice that auto is very competent, especially given you're warned about using it at the very beginning because of how it won't hold back
Anyone at all talking about OFF in the year of our lord 2022 is astonishing. Thank you so much for this. This is one of those games I can't forget about, even after all these years.
here in 2023
Also here. I have a poster of the "bad batter" hanging in my room.
Same
Amazing video! I didn't expect to be in here, but it's an honor to be mentioned. (And yes, it's Tan black 😂)
OFF is an absolutely fantastic game and to this day I still find it hard to find another game that will provoke the same feelings and immersion.
Using FnaF world as the timer battle system example instead of like, FF or Chrono Trigger made me feel so old.
Here i was going "who the fuck played FNAF World" before remembering how i found this channel
Don't feel bad, It has more to do with the fact that this dude got here because people watched his fnaf content more than anything... that and the fact that timed battle systems are sort of the "the odd estranged brother" to the turn based system that is so popular, so contemporary examples are far fewer for it.
Bruh he said to relate to his audience not that it was the first thing that came to his head
I'm so glad to see a creator talk about off. It's such a fantastic little masterpiece in so many ways and that soundtrack is so nostalgic. Hearing it patches into some strange feeling in my heart. You've brought back some great nostalgia for me dude
The individual who translated OFF to English goes by Quinn K. now, and they released 3 RPGMaker games this year! Highly recommend checking them out!
YES I THINK THE OFF FANDOM MIGHT GET REVIVED BY THIS VIDEO!!!!!!!
I adore everything about this world, from the magenta plastic labyrinths to the sketchy monstrosities to the... weirdly cozy feeling of that one void house in Zone 3.
The Meaning of His Tears and Avatar Beat are absolute perfection, and all the character designs are sick. Man, I LOVE Mortis Ghost's style, especially how he shades the Burnts.
Huge kudos to Vinny Vinesauce for playing this game and exposing me at a young age to a world of sugar corpses and mall whales, as well as to everybody involved with this monumental video!
(Seriously the entire OFF fandom thanks you profusely this shall be our beacon of life)
implying we were ever dead to begin with
@@MysticIceFire girl... im sorry to break it to you but 😬😬😬😬
The OFF fandom had I think 1 major animatic/animation creator keeping it on life support
@@bandidocavalier Yeaahh sadly it used to be a lot more active in 2019-2020, like not as active as when the game started getting popular, but pretty active. and then 2021 it just. dipped...
We’re back at it again fr fr
Hell yes, Off is one of those cornerstone games that inspired a generation like yumi nikki did, glad to see you cover it
As someone who has been working on the OFF Animation for over a year now, it has been amazing to see just how many talented people have joined the team and been so much help to the process and MAINLY Tanblaque who is one of the most hard working people I have ever met and watching them working and seeing them do a majority of everything themselves is so amazing and they are so talented! They have improved so much and glad they can relax a bit with all the amazing help we got! And I really appreciate you giving them and the OFF Animation a spotlight in your video it means so much to see my friends be appreciated!!! And promise we're working on it and making it really amazing! 🥰
I have not played this game, but while you explained the story it sounded a lot to me like a metaphor for a child with cancer’s body and how they’d perceive their illness, and their real life influencing how they perceive it all.
Each off switch representing the failure of a organ, etc.
If I’m wrong tho that’s totally fine lol, this game looks really cool, and as usual another amazing retrospective!
I don’t follow many TH-cam channels, but you can guarantee I’m subscribed to Sagan and Nezumi and will always be there when their videos release!
I think the more clear connection to be made with OFF's metacommentary about "Yo maybe killing things sucks" is actually _Dark Souls_ of all things, despite there being no evidence that FROM or Miyazaki ever took inspiration from it.
Particularly in the first game where on the main path you're mislead through a quest to slay the old gods and rekindle the first flame, except nobody tells you that at the end you must commit suicide via self-immolation to do so, and it's left up to interpretation if that's actually the right thing to do as it only prolongs the existence of the world you left in ruins, a world that was already ruined before you even arrived on the scene.
In contrast, the Artorias of the Abyss DLC brings up the consequences of the other ending. Should you chose the Darkwraith ending and let the fire fade, you lead the world into an age of darkness. We see what that does to people in the DLC areas. They sprout horrific growths and return to a primal state. The other choice is to become a Darkwraith as seen in the main game, knights of death whose only purpose is to steal the humanity from other humans.
So either way, you're led through a post-apocalyptic world, killing bosses on no other pretense than "Well someone told me to," and either way you kill the SAME bosses. Your only choices in the outcome are at the end, to either blindly prolong this world's current awfulness, or purposefully send it down a literal path to darkness, somewhat similar both endings of OFF.
I think these games have a very interesting connection in that way, and even though there's no chance Miyazaki even knew OFF existed during the development of Dark Souls, I think he and Mortis came to very similar conclusions when trying to criticize their respective genres.
What makes it so easy for you to just blindly follow orders until the end? Because it's fun? Is this really your idea of fun? Arduous journeys through miserable places _killing_ things? Things that are simply going about their business when you arrive?
Of course there's fun to be had with these games, they still want you to play and enjoy them. Abusing your audience is rarely ever successful (the only successful case I can think of is Pathologic, but even then it rewards you for being invested,) but it's still fascinating how similar the approach from these two developers was.
Just looking at the game’s aesthetic I can definitely see how it inspired Undertale.
Nezumi said they were 26 and have basically a foot in the grave in regards to fandom and I related to that *deeply* you have no idea.
I remember commenting on ManlyBadassHero's video and responding to comments talking about their theories on the plot and what it all meant and symbolized. I particularly liked the parallel that was made with the final room (segmented corridor leading to a larger room) and the human nervous system (everything leading to the spine, that leads to the brain) as well as the idea of the Batter being actually some sort of medicine.
I actually really like that. Almost implies that the “meds” that were given to Hugo by his father were the “kills you fast so you don’t have to suffer” kind and not the “make you better” kind
I thought something similar. That the Batter is actually a kind of medicine that kills the specters (Hugo's sickness) but at the cost of altering Hugo's mental state to a point he's not himself anymore. It makes more sense what Logan S said though, that the Batter's purpose is to release him from his suffering.
I would have loved to be part of the community at that point in time, it sounds like it was great fun
Omg I had no idea Mainly did a video on OFF, gotta check that out for sure
@@frogueThief Manly has done a video on everything. If it exists, chances are he has recorded a video on it.
@@LunaWitcherArt Accurate
Some obscure information: The one Hugo calls Papa is "Elsen the scientist".
The Batter is possibly based on the antagonist of the anime Paranoia Agent.
Holy shit, another reason I need to check that show out.
People drew Zacharie with wings because of some official Mortis Ghost art. I used to be kinda known on Tumblr for my OFF fanart
The horror isn't Elsen's miserable societies--it's the fact that the alternative is even WORSE
Ahhh such a great video!! I remember when OFF was just all over tumblr back in the day, and seeing it everywhere back when I was rly into homestuck when I was like 13ish. So many memories while also learning a lot of the stuff I never knew as I never actually played the game, but heard it offhand from my friend. Anyway great video !
Man, what a throwback. I can't ever forget how fun of a time it was when everyone was getting into OFF, it was such a novel and intriguing world that got introduced to us.
I had kind of a more "literal" interpretation of Off. The Batter goes along all the way saying how you're purifying things, but you're actually just destroying everything and making everything worse, you're not actually purifying anything.
So the idea I took from it was: Nothing is ever actually Pure (like, being good enough, fitting into an ideal of perfection). So if a person starts to reject and destroy (attack) everything they don't like (their own life, other people or things, social groups, fixing situations with violence) they're not just not accomplishing anything good, but actively making the world worse for everyone, and being left with nothing.
So like, the Batter is trying to force his ideal of the world on everyone else, caring about nothing else and prefering a false nothingness over imperfection. But the imperfect world was better than the pure world. The idea of perfection (purity) was destructive.
All the imagery, along with the elements (smoke, plastic, metal, meat, sugar) and how they come to be makes me think of a social commentary on extremist ideas (political, religious etc) and the modern world, how it's riddled with badly justificated discrimination, war, dehumanization and pointless hate and violence because some people care more for their own ideals of how the world should be and don't care for the damage they do.
Yeah not a perfect interpretation.
Another one could be how as long as you live you can improve things or have something but death is a permanent empty end and thus dumb.
Here for the switch announcement,
OFF was a huge influence on my story telling style, art, and word building, and I'm happy to see it being brought up again. I have to say I protest the implication that most of its fans were there because they were waiting for homestuck to update, I wasn't and countless others appreciate it for its incredibly unique style and story
Well, that isn't quite what I was trying to say, lol. Just that the dry period sent a lot of HS's fans elsewhere, where they would discover other things to appreciate just as much if not more - with OFF being a common one at the time.
Off is definitely one of those games that deserve more attention
You managed to make something so reminiscent of Alias's music and vocal style with that opening song, and it sounds great!
I was just genuinely hoping he would eventually say "And just like that, we beat Off"
Thank you for this!! In particular, thank you for doing an expansive community section by getting contributions from a peer - some people would leave it at "I wasn't there, so I dunno about that", and I appreciate the extra work of reaching out and getting more perspective. This video rules. Also, thank you for the game recommendations!
The world in OFF makes so much more sense as the player traverses it. Mortis said himself that the underlying plot is a post-apocalyptic one. So what can you rebuild when only the rubble of the old world is left? The new world is comprised of sturdy material like Metal and Plastic because these materials were strong enough to not get destroyed in the big cataclysm.
However, my biggest praise for OFF is not the story but the art and music. The music is surreal and perfectly fits the world is played in but the art, especially the overworld, with the empty and sterile sky is the very first thing that i see in my mind when i think of the game (like when you walk on the railroad tracks of purified Zone 1, or the long climb up the Tower of Bismark in Zone 2). This feeling of self inflicted loneliness while going through the Zones after the Batt- no, WE purified them, is what makes OFF so bitter-sweetly eery to look at. We destroyed something that was perhaps the last save harbour on the planet and now only a blank canvas is left.
I actually quite like the fighting portion of the game. It's satisfying. The process of "purification" and slowly ridding the zone of spectres, even if no matter how many you kill there will always be one more. I like fighting the spooky ghosts.
Yeah it’s pretty fun plus the batter gets cool attacks, though it’s kind of twisted when you learn how bad making the zones pure is.
I haven't even heard of this game until now and I absolutely love it. The music is super good and I really love the artstyle, this is definitely up there with Undertale and Yume Nikki
Did you know that Undertale was inspired from OFF? Also obviously the mother series but the genocide route of Undertale is HEAVILY inspired from OFF
@@nicholasaugello2534 Lol reading this made me realize he changed the title. It was "The game that inspired undertale's genocide route" or something close
@@nicholasaugello2534 oh yeah, i remember there being an old sketch of papyrus that was a lot closer to dedan
Are we not gonna talk about how Sagan confused an SNES controller with a PS1 controller at 41:26?
I guess not, you're the only comment I found that mentions it.
As for someone who's special interest is OFF and OFF fangames (Especially CSRverse), this makes me extremely happy that off is getting even the speck of spotlight. The game has such lovable soundtrack, art, and game-play that effected me on how i see what counts as "horror / surreal." As much as i love making cute art as a artist, i also adore making horror art that is especially inspired by how OFF takes the melancholy feeling on some of the songs and art (even with un-familiarity) and warps it at the end of the game when everything is too late. im so hopeful that this fandom might get revived again! This video truely explained of what OFF is truely is. My favorite character is Enoch, The guardian and boss of zone 3, since he's a character that was rushed and didnt had enough spotlight like Dedan and Japhet. His character is fantasizing to see the comparison from when you first met him in zone 3 and when later you take the place as hugo, helping him out of the hole. i could gush about the guardians all day but i'll wrap that up by saying make sure that you look *closely* of the way they form their words and they way they act.
Even with the game's flaws, it's something that i and many others cherish this game and get inspired by it's wonderfully written story. im a big nerd of RPG games and Puzzles, along with it's strangely beautiful art. OFF is one of those gems that has it's own charm with that nostalgic yet surrealistic feel. thanks for making this game and shinning a light to the game itself.
zacharie TRANSED MY GENDER at the age of 11 and nothing has been the same since
in all seriousness though, thank you to both you and marcie for covering this game! i have a very close history with it, its been a comfort game for a decade now. hell, i cosplayed valerie mask zacharie on the last day of ninth grade with a mask made from poster board and tights covering the eye holes. ive always seen the game as more unpopular (especially nowadays, it was popular on tumblr in the early 2010s. iykyk), so the fact that two of my favourite youtubers covered my favourite game at this time of year really felt like an early xmas present :-)
I'm pretty sure zacharie caused so many trans awakenings it's insane
@@Bluebonez several gay ones aswell
@@interdimensionalgoober8769 yea i became a zacharie fan and now im a gay transmasc 😔
i’m totally going to use “transed my gender” now thank you.
@@kris117 HRJEBTN i love using tht phrase im glad its spreading !! if youre looking for more i also like “transgenderinator” and “fired a gender beam” :-) they can also be combined into smthn like “man zacharie used his transgenderinator and fired a beam at me and now i use they/he pronouns” .. i just like funny terms like that when talking about my gender discovery journey in relation to characters making me realise “i wanna look like him” like zacharie, mettaton ex, etc.
Each retrospective gets more and more unique and fun to watch, this channel is honestly so cool
One of my favorite childhood games that also made me feel depressed. Definitely a master piece of it's time
Undertale, hit me harder with Asriel’s, whole tragedy of a life it sucked, but I’ll admit judge, walking off on his own in the cannon ending is really heartaching.
@@joshshrum2764 Yeah though Undertale gave me a lot more hope. Off is like lay on the floor and think about existing for a bit
they way it's kept kind of iffy as to whether or not Batter intends to wipe out worlds up until the "It's better this way" line hits so hard
"The switch is now OFF."
Being now in my 30s I remember being 19 years old, playing this game in the middle of summer, running on windows 7 and scrolling on tumblr looking at OFF fan art. Time really flew by lol.
29:13 I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet but this puzzle isn't trial and error, it's a Lost Woods type puzzle. The music will sound louder near the correct doorway.
Love to see more appreciation of one of my favorite horror games. I hope this video encourages more people to check out the game
God, I haven't thought about OFF in so long. one of the few rpg style games I had the will to finish, the story, art, and music mesh so good.
Plus it’s just pure bliss for any Radiohead, fan the artstyle is heavily similar to Thom yorkes, hand drawing on ep’s, and concept art for ok computer, and kid a, along with the music having similar vibes especially avatar beat which sounds like Idiotque off Kid A.
One of my favorite games of all time, always love when OFF gets videos made out of it
Wow, this is the best video about OFF that I have ever watched. First of all, I highly appreciate you giving the creators the support and love they deserve while also being honest about the gameplay flaws. I get OFF isn't for everyone, but from a narrative and aesthetic standpoint, you have to admit that it inspires a lot of people. Second, I really liked your interpretations of OFF's story. To be honest, I think every interpretation is right. OFF is one of those games were there's no correct or wrong answer; it's all based on the view of the player who controls the batter. As you pointed out, the game is a satire for how we play video games and makes fun or light of the consequences as you play in a world outside of your own. Because of that, there's really no right or wrong answer to the game's story. If it's a game that's a satire on video games, it makes sense for the story to be ambiguous and for you, the player, to interpret. After all, you are the puppeteer, you get to control the protagonist and how you view the game's world. Even so, there are some obvious themes such as cancer, climate change, religion, etc. I do agree in that those themes are meant to tie onto the satire of the game, but at the same time, I feel as if its a way to lead you into some conclusion as the player. A video game has to have some theme to make beating the game satisfying, right? If so, why not add some controversial themes to make the game's world more interesting, instead of just a satire. It's funny because that just adds onto the satire of playing a video game for a story and narrative.
I won't let my thoughts go too crazy in this comment, after all, OFF is in my top 5 favorite games of all time with the MOTHER series and Persona 5 Royal beating it. I'm just so happy that OFF is getting more recognition lately and people like you are giving it the justice it deserves. I loved learning about the inspirations of OFF and how the silent hill inspirations made so much sense. I'm surprised OFF wasn't inspired by MOTHER either, since the batter reminded me of Ness right away, but as an older version of him. I also have parallels with OFF and The Binding Of Isaac, since both focus on a child as the main focus along with heavy religious themes. Games like Omori are obviously inspired by OFF as well, mainly with the de saturated colors for the sprites and the dark themes. Lastly, I want to point out how much I love Zacharie, because let's be honest, he was the Sans archetype before Sans existed.
Zacharie is also in my top 5 favorite characters of all time and I could go on all day about why I love his character outside of his personality quirks and fourth wall breaks. I do agree that UnderTale did the theme of OFF a lot better with the genocide route, but even so, OFF has its own charm to it that UnderTale can't replicate. I wish the gameplay of OFF was better too, but we can't have everything from a late 2000's RPG maker game.
Thank you for reading my thoughts and I'm very happy that OFF is taking on a new role within the world of fandoms. I'm happy to see it more well known, even if its little by little. This video was outstanding and summarized a lot of what people thought about the game. I enjoyed learning new things about the game I didn't know about either. To anyone else who reads this, I hope you find my comment interesting!
33:19 “What I assume is the park” bro, it says it *right there*
the thing that saved OFF combat from ruining the game is Pepper Steak playing as a battle theme
Man. I don't really remember much of my brief playthrough of OFF as a kid, except how heartbroken it made me. Watching this video reminded me of precisely why I felt that way.
The OFF OST is such a great experience. Silencio gives me chills when it pops up
I'm so happy this came across my recommended, OFF is one of my favorite games and I still listen to the soundtrack to this day, Avatar Beat is one of my faves ☺️
edit: the way the Elsens describe the elements like "if we didn't have smoke, we'd have no air to breathe" reminded me of a essay I wrote in the 4th grade talking about the body structure in that same way, if we didn't have bones our body would have no structure and we would be limp, if we didn't have muscles we'd be a pile of skin and bone, etc. Just recognize that now and thought it was kinda cool
Spoiler warning.
Man, I remember the first time I went back to a zone I purified, and my first thoughts were "oh my god there are distant screams for help and super strong flesh babies". Still some of the most creepy stuff I've ever witnessed.
Theyre actually speaking in French so that isn't what they're saying. It seems intentional though with how it sounds.
@@Arsonaughtapparently one of the lines are actually cries for help. iirc they go "Hey! Help!" and "Hey! Batter!"
the ones that are all blended together and kinda remind me of squishy meat iirc are things along the lines of "what gave you the right / you didn't need to do this"
@@Arsonaught They're calling for help in french, the two lines I can make out are "hey!" and "au secours" which means "help me"
Man, I remember when I first subscribed two years ago, your videos were well edited and well scripted collages of screenshots and gameplay/video parts, BUT NOW, WITH ALL THE MUSIC AND COSTUMES AND DEDICATED SCENES, AWWW MAN
It is amaizing, and I’m so glad to see you grow not just as a content creator, but as an ARTIST. Keep it up! All the love ❤️
30:58 By the way, I believe Mortis Ghost once said that the Secretaries are what the Guardians were keeping out, and without them, they killed all of the Elsen. This also explains how there is a sole survivor of the Sercretaries’ attack in the form of the only resident of Bismark’s shelters that didn’t either leave or burn, because, as they say, the safehouse kept them safe, and now the Secretaries will keep them safe from anyone else trying to come get them so long as they just stay inside.
31:47 Also, the French version says (in French obviously) “The Merchant” instead of “The Masked Man”, which makes it very clear that this masked merchant was 100% Zacharie, especially when you consider that, prior to taking over as The Judge while Pablo looks for Valérie (RiP), Zacharie is always seen wearing a mask of a toad.
That intro credit scene was sick dude
edit: also that damn interlude beat is soooo sick. Very PS1 demo cd menu track vibes. Thanks for the media, man
This is the best Sagan Hawkes video… I wasn’t expecting Homestuck, NezumiVA, Danganronpa, and Evangelion to be brought up.
me clicking on this video, mildly curious: oh hey, i remember this game, i used to be really deep in the fandom, what, a decade ago? i barely remember any of it
me, the instant i hear pepper steak: [suddenly experiences every human emotion in a single moment]
the out-of-bounds elsen mentioned at 52:51 is referring to the one at the top right at 20:54. he has weird dialogue only present in the english translation where he points out the fact that he's inaccessible and then says "help dismal find his fruit cup." don't think anyone really knows what it means
oh yeah and this video was really good! thank you for covering one of my favorite games of all time :)
I'm not really sure why but the (misstranslated?) line "Killing Wife and Child" has been permenantly Spot welded into my brain matter
I really wish you had given felixthejudge a mention. I know you gave his fangame HOME a shoutout at the end but I still think it deserved more than a brief mention considering how much the community cherishes it. Unfortunately he passed a few years ago from a car accident and games like oneshot and most off fan games attribute and mourn him. He had a much bigger impact on the rpgmaker scene than you’d realize. Rest in peace, Arin “Felix” Mullins 🎩 🐱
Thank you so much for covering this game! Literally one of my favorite RPGs of all time, and I'd love to see more eyes on it again.
I found out about it from watching Mark's playthrough. IT became an instant favorite, and I miss this game's fandom and the excitement that surrounded it so much. I can play the game whenever I want, which is nice. But it isn't the same having far fewer people behind it. Truly an excellent game, even with its faults. So glad you decided to do a video on it, even though it's over a decade old and past its prime. Hell, I'm excited to see anything about it these days. Great work, I really enjoyed this video :]
P.S. When I was doing a bit of comparing between OFF and Undertale to a friend of mine, they argued against me, roughly saying that there were very few comparisons to be made at *most*. I really have no idea why they thought that, but...ok. Couldn't get them to see it, but oh well.
nice pfp
@@noah0bean oh shit nice pfp
NO WAY i just found your channel yesterday, have been binging, then you drop a retrospective on one of my fave games? absolute legend
A video involving both Sagan Hawkes and NezumiVA!! I’m so excited!!!
this is so exciting, i adore all of your videos and the work that goes into them. off meant a lot to me in 2013 (the og fandom revival) so this means a lot to me also!
so happy this game is getting more recognition even though it's been so long. been one of my favorites for years and im still actively in the community. just subscribed 👍
This production quality is fucking mint!! Thanks for keeping me company while overcoming my first stomach flu (its terrible but this makes it tolerable)
Putting this here for me and anyone else interested. OFF Inspired (fan) games:
- Home (The Judge's perspective)
- Suits, A Business RPG (Business perspective, might be an Elsen's perspective)
- Hello Charlotte (You puppet Charlotte in an OFF inspired game)
this has got me so nostalgic. off was such a unique experience and a beautiful piece of work. you've manage to put so many great feelings into words, thank you.
I played OFF when I was 15-16. It is, to this day, still an experience I think back on and think deeply about almost nine years later. It was one of the first pieces of media I took in that really morphed the way I looked at life.
1:29:34 that DESTROYED ME i had to go back and listen again because i was so caught off guard
Oh man I remember playing this for the first time as a young tween and thinking it was the coolest shit! OFF is a classic and it deserve more love
Good video. I was in the OFF fandom during its heyday and this video accurately represents the aspects that drew me and others into them.
I'm surprised the fangame aspect of the community wasn't described in more than a passing mention of HOME. Thanks to an unofficial version of the game engine (RPGMaker 2003) that was (is?) available to the public, and the fact that OFF as a game is made available uncompiled which eases access, making fangames of it practically boomed for a few years. There's a decently sized list on the fandom page.
It's also worth mentioning that there's a few easter eggs to spot if you go into the guts of the game, like an elsen that only exists to warn you that you've encountered a bug and are in a place you shouldn't reach, and a unique burnt that exists behind one of the doors in Zone 3 and is easy to miss if you don't care to open them all.
Love to see OFF content in 2022! I personally got into it from a friend who I can only imagine was there bc it was an RPG Maker title. I also super love the HOME mention, as I was really into a few of the fangames and spinoffs and that's def the best on basis of how robust it is and how it follows up with the tone and themes. A couple others I remember is the Claude Higgins set of games which are admittingly very grimdark and edgy and probably didn't age well in the slightest. There was also C/S/R which used the fandom versions of the Batters and had a more light(?) tone. ONE had a lot of fun designs and story but I don't think it ever got finished. Apparently there's a fair few more but I've been out of the fandom for a while. ^^;
I'm so mad I didn't get the notification for this, I'm gonna be watching this nonstop this morning. The music at the start was already an amazing start!
WOOHOO!! I LOVE OFF SO MUCH!!
Edit: if you released the song you made for the intro/outro that'd be absolutely amazing!
So glad to see an analysis of one of my favorite games. I'd love to see you cover Fran Bow, Ib, and Darkwood.
this is a TREAT to behold in my sub box no way, thanks sagan! OFF is really important to me, seeing someone who i see as a 'cool youtuber' make a very in depth video about this short ass nothing game makes me so happy :))
Something I found interesting in the game is how the guardians describe the batter, thinking to myself that the batter didn’t fit that description. That is until the end of the game.