OFF

Do you know what the most sold digital game was during the Nintendo Switch 2 launch? If you guessed Mario Kart World or Welcome Tour, you would certainly be close, but in truth it was none other than indie darling Deltarune. As a sequel of sorts to Undertale, it joins a hearty lineage of games that push the bounds of what a game should do to produce a more eclectic, often trippy version of the world.

Ever since the release of LSD Dream Emulator for the PS1 in 1998, the idea of surreal and often abstract designs became a foundation for a certain kind of game designer, but where Undertale became a household name for many, it owes its inspiration to a strange, charming Belgian game by the name of OFF.

Originally released in 2008, you take on the role of The Batter – or to be more precise, you take on the role of the player taking on the role of The Batter, as the game very consciously makes your presence in the world known. The premise is fairly simple in its presentation, tasking The Batter with a self-described “sacred mission” which will bring you through the various zones of the world to “purify” them. 

Although originally released in 2008, it would take 3 years for the game to receive a fully sanctioned English translation, but this new version of OFF expands much further on this by remastering the original game, cleaning up the translation and adding new content to the game – despite its simplistic graphics, the remaster does wonders to improve on the original by cleaning up linework and making text much more legible in both the world and in combat – something you will be grateful for as you progress through number-based puzzles in each zone.

The cleaner look of general gameplay also adds to the aesthetic of the game, with certain objects, character portraits and enemies given even more of a contrast to the bright, simple colours of the world – a prime example of this being The Judge, a character you will encounter all too frequently throughout the game. At first their sprite betrays the image of a cheery Cheshire Cat-like figure, but on closer inspection the gnarled teeth and malformed body hint at the disparity between different elements of the game – what other title would let you ride a poorly sketched tram from one pixel-perfect station to another?

As you explore further, it begins to unravel the wider narrative through a combination of world-building hints and dialogue interspersed throughout, all delivered expertly through the game and directed at the player knowingly, trusting you to understand what it tells you. This isn’t just done in the presentation of its story either, with a heavy focus on combination and number puzzles which require you to study your environment and the interactable objects and characters within.

At times the constant use of number puzzles and block-pushing puzzles can feel tedious, but they are delivered in ways that often feel fresh and avoid repeating the same objective twice, even if there aren’t many ways to hide a sequence of numbers throughout a world for players to find. It’s also worth noting that the remaster makes these puzzles much easier to complete by virtue of its legibility – the upgrades to text throughout the UI (both in combat and conversation) not only makes the game significantly easier to read but also improves text on walls or written into the scenery.

As well as a visual upgrade, the game includes a host of new content for you to seek out (no spoilers here; you’ll have to find out yourself!). But most prominent is an improved and expanded soundtrack – these new tracks come courtesy of a number of talented musicians, but most notable among them is Undertale and Deltarune developer Toby Fox, completing the circle of inspiration to bring his own unique musical offerings to the table.

OFF definitely won’t be for everyone, but the resurgence of surrealism and the acute weirdness that developers are starting to play around with invoke a decade of beloved cult classics, ranging from Yume Nikki in 2004 to the entire Lisa trilogy from 2012 onwards – humanity is constantly seeking weird and wonderful expressions of the self, presenting a disjointed and esoteric world that tries to reflect our own through a funhouse mirror.

The game lies heavily on its themes too, with combat in particular being straightforward – strengths and weaknesses, special attacks and stats to manage – but with the way they are presented brought to the fore. Instead of air and earth, you fight with metal and meat. There seems to be a constant theme of pollution throughout, as well as the sprinklings of religious undertones that utterly ooze subtext, meaning players will have just as much fun trying to deconstruct the story as they will playing it.

Despite everything, it’s also important to step back and look at OFF for what it is – leaning into the strong themes and impressive roster of characters, sometimes the game fails to deliver on the central premise of good, well-balanced gameplay. As mentioned, the puzzles can grow tedious despite the way they are framed, but also from the sheer amount of back and forth some of them can include, forcing the player to wander aimlessly almost for the express reason of forcing encounters.

The combat itself can feel wasteful at points, with some enemies proving to be pushovers and others suddenly becoming bulwarks that block progress – there aren’t any particularly difficult fights to halt your way, but at times it can feel more like a war of attrition than a clever management of time and resources. Utilising a similar combat style to the ATB gauge best known from the Final Fantasy series (and best executed as part of In Stars and Time, if you want my opinion), the game puts weight in how you use your time but often gives very little quarter for reacting to enemies – there’s merit to choosing which enemies to target first when tackling a group, but outside of matching up your abilities to an enemy’s weakness, the combat doesn’t offer too much depth compared to others of its kind.

This isn’t to say the combat is terrible – in fact, the game might have a fairly run-of-the-mill combat system by modern standards, but it still adds to the overall charm and gives players more chance to focus on what the game is telling and showing you. The visual design and storytelling are such a central part of the game that it feels wrong to give combat such prominence in this review when the experience matters over anything else.