One of the most influential indie games of the last 20 years, re-released: Off review

Cassie Mammone

14.8.2025

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Pictures: Cassie Mammone

Off is an indie game that entices with successful RPG mechanics and puzzle gameplay. The highlight, however, is clearly its whimsical, atmospheric world.

Off was first released in 2008 as a spontaneous project by Belgian developer Martin Georis aka Mortis Ghost. Three years later, the game was translated into English and became an overnight internet hit. On Tumblr.com, for example, Off was the sixth most shared video game in 2013 – all the spots above that were AAA productions.

In addition, developer Toby Fox has cited Off as one of the inspirations for his indie masterpiece Undertale. It’s also one of the reasons why he composed some new soundtracks for the remaster.

Now this piece of video game history is being re-released as a remaster for modern platforms. I never experienced the role-playing game. High time to close this knowledge gap.

A bizarre but interesting world

Off breaks the fourth wall in the first few minutes of gameplay. As the player, I’m addressed directly and take control of an inanimate character called The Batter. A cat called The Judge gives me the sacred mission of cleansing the game world of evil creatures.

To do this, I pass through three different zones and defeat everything in my path: ghosts, burnt people and abstract creatures. The zones are ruled by guardians, who face me as boss enemies after my purge.

I gradually uncover more information about the game world, but it remains abstract until the end. Even as the credits roll across my screen, many questions remain unanswered. Off is rarely clear in its storytelling. Nevertheless, part of the game’s charm is that it doesn’t reveal much about itself.

The world and the characters remain interesting, even with little explanation of what’s happening. This is partly due to the crisp and funny dialogue that brightens up the otherwise gloomy game world. Off masters the difficult balancing act between humour and horror. Besides, I usually understand what’s happening directly on-screen, but anything more big-picture requires fan theories. It comes in handy that Off has been around for almost 20 years, I can read up on many theories.

The gameplay is much more conservative than the story

Fortunately, you don’t need to get everything to make progress in the game. The gameplay is very conservative. Off plays like a classic, turn-based role-playing game – including random battles. I could do without them, especially if they involve common enemies. Fortunately, the randomness didn’t bother me too much, the combat system is rock solid.

A timer runs in real time between me and enemy characters, determining the order of battle. It’s displayed by a bar that gradually fills up. If it fills up fully next to a character, it’s their turn. This is similar to the ATB bar from the Final Fantasy series. On your turn, you can attack, shield my character to limit incoming damage, activate items or use so-called Competences. The easiest way to view these is as spells. For example, you can do more damage with normal attacks using Competences, or weaken your enemies with effects that, for example, slow down the recharging of their ATB bars and make them attack less frequently. You can also power up your own characters, for example by healing them or increasing their attack value.

Fortunately, Off isn’t a grindfest. This means you can make good progress without having to spend hours collecting experience points in battles. The game generally benefits a lot from its manageable playing time. If it lasted longer than the five to seven hours of gameplay, that enigmatic nature of the world and the random battles would eventually become annoying.

In order to fulfil the Batter’s mission, you have to both defeat enemies and solve puzzles time and again. At regular intervals, you have to get items for characters, operate switch puzzles or find out number codes by cleverly combining facts. To do this, I keep scribbling away in my notebook in real life.

The puzzles aren’t child’s play, but they aren’t so complex that they require a degree. After all, most of the thinking is still reserved for the action.

The remaster adapts the combat system to the original and improves the balancing. However, the more interesting new features are probably the hidden bosses that the developer of the original game has added. Compared to other enemies, they don’t offer a completely new experience – but I still enjoyed taking part in the fights.

Audiovisual variety

The design of Off offers a somewhat different experience compared to many video games. The main reason for this is the graphics, alternating between a pixel look and cartoony sketches. The soundtrack’s unique too, ranging from atmospheric sounds inspired by games such as Silent Hill 2, to cosy jazz, which plays during the fights.

Soundtracks such as Silencio manage to convey a dull and unpleasant feeling without jump cuts, both in the original and the remaster.

By the way: for legal reasons, you won’t hear the original soundtrack in the remaster. Instead, talented artists such as the aforementioned Toby Fox have recomposed the songs.

Off will be released on 15 August 2025 for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. The PC version was provided to me by Fangamer for testing purposes.

Cassie Mammone

Freelance Editor

cassie.mammone.freelance@gmail.com

I wrote my first text about video games when I was eight years old. I haven't been able to stop since. The rest of my time is spent on my love for 2D husbandos, monsters, my cats and sport.

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