#also my crush on the Batter has been reawakened

[weirdagnes]

aight so uhh lil spontaneous positive rant about OFF rpg bc it’s 1AM and I’m having feelings

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bro OFF has that magic that makes me fall for it all over again even if I have,, rewatched it gazillion of times. I religiously rewatch it every year (hush it’s my comfort game), yet it never fails to amaze me and punch me in the gut. Reading theories and fan interpretations of the story and the characters is always fun to read, they’re all absolutely valid and mind-blowing every time.

And every time I take a lil check back in the fandom, I find there’s ppl who still make animations abt it, who makes song remixes with other vgm (undertale x off ost is such a king-to-king crossover), and I learn new stuff like Papyrus was inspired by Dedan’s design? Batter is apparently a beast in battles when in Auto and the Player is probs just holding him back bc he lets you control him? the Bad Batter was confirmed ace?? Batterie is possible in “an alternate universe” confirmed like BRO??? (so does that mean Batterie in fanfics is canon and is validated by the creator bc fanfics are technically kinda like AUs if we treat the game as the canon verse and fanfics as alternate universe -)

Anyways, one thing that blew my small little child brain when I was younger and I just first discovered OFF was the idea of an “unreliable narrator.” I felt so betrayed then, and tbh rewatching it yearly, it still blows my freaking mind. Bad Batter reveal was PERFECT, and it wasn’t some random twist in the end, it was a long build up and the game was dropping hints - it gives the Player ample time to think for themselves. When you return to the purified zones, that’s when the Batter’s motives become questionable, but you still put faith in him bc while purification of the zones seems like a shady mission, he isn’t wrong about eradicating spectres (who ARE hostile) and the Guardians aren’t good either so whatever the Batter is doing still seems like the right decision. The game makes you think it’s a black-and-white “hero vs. villains” when really, everyone is in the grey area, and it becomes especially clear that it is when we found out about the whole Hugo situation. It’s like, every character, including the Guardians, had good intentions at some points but they’re also flawed, and I think the flawed characterization is so beautiful because it made the characters complex and it makes you understand why they’re acting this way or how did they become this way. Tbh there’s so so much to say about each character and their symbolisms but i dont have the brain capacity for deep thinking and analysis like other OFF fans (bless yall btw)

And bro,, the art? the music? Straight up FIRE. The spectre designs are so cool I based off my whole personality off of it at some point when I was younger. But no joke, I was super influenced by Mortis’ artstyle. My love for sketchy pencil art style and concept art; my preference of colorless drawings; my fascination for surreal/body horror, foreshortening and perspective all started with my little caveman brain discovering OFF. I straight up saw OFF art and said “wow. I wanna do something like that.” And lord, the music - someone hold me back. It just as influential to my music taste as the art did to my art style. I never really stopped listening to the soundtrack throughout the years, even if I never check back in the fandom, I still listen to it. My appreciation for percussion went really high after hearing the OFF ost. My habit of checking out video game ost after seeing a game also started with OFF ost, bc what if I miss out another bomb soundtrack like OFF, right? Pepper Steak was my first exposure to Electro Swing, and man I’m so glad bc now Electro Swing is one of my fav genres. Brain Plague ost is very brain (heh) stimulating, it’s literally addicting to listen to?? And the music also did very well in complementing the areas of the game, it added a whole new atmosphere and god don’t you just love it when music does that little magic. The game’s aesthetic is solid and coherent in both the art and music, like what a teamwork! I defo want to do something like that if I create my own game (possibly, I hope my future allows it)

Tbh there’s so much more I can say about this game, but I’m not very good at constructing a professional and coherent analysis or whatever. And this is all first draft so

TL;DR : OFF is very iconic and definitely one of the best rpg games ever bestowed upon Earth, and I love it forever no joke Im having feelings for it again