Off has been in my peripheral view for a couple of years as one of the big RPG Maker games, which naturally gave me some expectations for the game. Clearly there has to be some reason why it's as beloved as it is, and coming out... I don't really get it.
The combat was the first hurdle to my enjoyment. I have never been a big fan of the active-time battle system from my experience with it in Final Fantasy VI/VII, which extends to this game. Even disregarding that, the combat system feels fairly shallow, with weakness and status systems I barely ever utilized, overly-specialized party members, and boss fights that largely came down to spamming the same exact special attacks then waiting for meters to recharge. During regular encounters, aside from one particular area which did make the combat a little more interesting, it was typically faster/more effective to select the auto-combat option, wait 20-30 seconds, then move on with the game.
The combat isn't the end-all be-all of the game of course. Other RPG Maker games I've played recently, particularly LiEat, didn't have great combat systems, but they still provided a memorable experience through the rest of the game.
Off certainly introduces a fair few interesting things: a surprise minigame, a couple of meta elements, some fun graphics. These separate parts all caught my interest and were well done, but it never felt like they cohered together into something greater than their sum. It kept me from ever getting immersed into the game itself, something more than just recognizing that these disparate parts are interesting and generally well made.
This hit particularly hard in the ending section, where the game is clearly going for something, and I can recognize that, but I went through right to the ending straight faced. Same with the story, I could never quite grasp in its (intentional) vagueness what the game was meant to be about. I have some ideas that I could probably coalesce by re-reading some of the dialogue, but the game never presented anything that makes me care enough to do so. I can just acknowledge that something probably exists there.
All of this to say, the game's not bad at all. It's very well put together, the art and music are good, it has good vibes (well, the vibes are horrific--but that's what its going for)... I'm just left with the feeling of "oh, that's it? alright then".
The combat was the first hurdle to my enjoyment. I have never been a big fan of the active-time battle system from my experience with it in Final Fantasy VI/VII, which extends to this game. Even disregarding that, the combat system feels fairly shallow, with weakness and status systems I barely ever utilized, overly-specialized party members, and boss fights that largely came down to spamming the same exact special attacks then waiting for meters to recharge. During regular encounters, aside from one particular area which did make the combat a little more interesting, it was typically faster/more effective to select the auto-combat option, wait 20-30 seconds, then move on with the game.
The combat isn't the end-all be-all of the game of course. Other RPG Maker games I've played recently, particularly LiEat, didn't have great combat systems, but they still provided a memorable experience through the rest of the game.
Off certainly introduces a fair few interesting things: a surprise minigame, a couple of meta elements, some fun graphics. These separate parts all caught my interest and were well done, but it never felt like they cohered together into something greater than their sum. It kept me from ever getting immersed into the game itself, something more than just recognizing that these disparate parts are interesting and generally well made.
This hit particularly hard in the ending section, where the game is clearly going for something, and I can recognize that, but I went through right to the ending straight faced. Same with the story, I could never quite grasp in its (intentional) vagueness what the game was meant to be about. I have some ideas that I could probably coalesce by re-reading some of the dialogue, but the game never presented anything that makes me care enough to do so. I can just acknowledge that something probably exists there.
All of this to say, the game's not bad at all. It's very well put together, the art and music are good, it has good vibes (well, the vibes are horrific--but that's what its going for)... I'm just left with the feeling of "oh, that's it? alright then".