OFF - Tackling Morality in Video Games

[@coolminebro7717]

Another great video! Fun little thing I noticed you missed was after you beat the bird and The Judge disappears for a while, you can go back to the place where you defeated the bird and find the Judge calling out to his dead brother! Can't wait for your next video!

[@ben_again]

Oh my god that's really sad- Thanks for letting me know about it, that adds even more depth to The Judge

[@TODDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY]

that’s pretty sad

[@kyrohowe3156]

New to the channel and glad to stop by to watch 😅

[@vitor-fc6nt]

Also good to notice as well that during his calling out, he was meowing because he was trying to imitate valerie (aka his brother) has a cope mechanism to deal with the lost of his brother, truly very sad

[@ImTrappedInTheInternetHelp]

It should be noted that, according to the game's creators, The Batter doesn't look any different in The Judge's ending, you're just seeing him through a different set of eyes

[@mrreyes5004]

Indeed. This is supported in-game by the hidden boss Sucre/Sugar. Because before and after her boss fight, she says that the Batter is a "frightening ducky". At first it doesn't make sense, because the Batter looks human to us (the player). But then we see through the eyes of the Judge, who also has a negative view toward the Batter, and the Judge's perception of the Batter indeed looks like a bird-like monster (the Batter's monster form has gigantic jaws and wing-like long arms -> scary duck). The Batter himself hasn't changed at all. What DID change is how people view him - either a human character doing a giant-scale mercy kill to allow a terrible world die peacefully, or a genocidal maniac who devours and crushes absolutely anything who dares step in his path.

[@anon10133]

@@mrreyes5004 you meant omnicide* genocide is the wrong term Genocide is killing or a goal of destroying a group of people especially marginalized groups. Batter ended all life which is omnicide not genocide side note: what mortis said about bad batter can be interpreted multiple ways imo; some people think batter's monster form is just a metaphor / hallucination or take it literal and batter actually looks like that. Its canon that batter is not human and Its implied batter does not have a canon physical form so you can interpreted him anyway you want. What mortis said word to word "the only things which changes is the vision the player have of him" can be interpreted many ways

[@mrreyes5004]

@@anon10133 Uh, not really. Mortis Ghost saying "the only things which change is the vision the player have of him" proves that the Batter DOES NOT physically change. Meaning that the Better DOES have a canon physical form, but that different characters have a different idea of what he looks like. The Batter isn't like Marvel's Galactus who looks different to everyone who sees him, it is that the Judge and Sucre see him as a monster because they think he is one.

[@anon10133]

@@mrreyes5004 Agree to disagree, but thats just an interpretation though, "Batter looks different to everyone who sees him." is also a common interpretation in OFF, people have plenty of interpretations of what mortis ghost said.

[@littleyoyo8480]

@@mrreyes5004 actually yeah that makes alot of sense

[@VoidWalkerOblivion]

"Still fairly confused on the child, Hugo and his relationship with the batter and the queen." If you want to get really philosophical, a child *is* what creates parents. There were people before, but its the existence of a child that creates 'mother' and 'father'.

[@doe9000]

LMFAO

[@mattgroening8872]

I think the best I can do to try to explain this game is maybe that The kid has an abusive father who killed his mother, and then he creates a dream world to try and forget it happened? Idk man

[@mrreyes5004]

@@mattgroening8872 I actually think that Hugo is an orphan. The Room's flashbacks (the one where the Guardians are now "Tall Mister", "The Bird" and "Big Mister") reveals a post-apocalyptic world where only a few humans survived. Dedan, Japhet and Enoch are among the few organisms who managed to make it through, and they meet Hugo who lost his parents in the destruction. It's why Hugo says he wants his parents back; they probably died during the crisis. It's implied that Hugo is some kind of powerful psychic (like Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear, or Franklin Richards from Marvel). Hugo is too young to properly understand or control his powers, but he can subconsciously use them. This is how Hugo created the Queen and the Batter, who are inhuman constructs (like a Tulpa). The Queen was meant to be Hugo's "mother" figure, which is why her area is labeled "Mama". The Batter, of course, is meant to be Hugo's "father" figure due to the baseball-theme comic in Hugo's room (just like how a dad would give gifts to his son based on what the dad might want his son to be interested in). Hugo then used his abilities to give power to his three new friends, and made them into the Guardians of the rebuilt world. But neither the Queen or the Batter were suitable replacements for Hugo's parents. The dialogue before AND during the Queen's boss fight reveals that the Queen and the Batter accuse each other of neglecting Hugo. The Queen chose to rule a decadent kingdom, while the Batter became fixated on eliminating the spectres, instead of interacting with Hugo. If you pay attention, you'll notice that Hugo is ALWAYS alone in his room; the Queen is never there to care for him, and the Batter only enters his room to purify him. It didn't help that the Guardians became crushed by the cruel realities of ruling a kingdom, and they all became too focused on their tyranny to bother with Hugo too. The Batter eventually turned against the Queen and her kingdom, and the rest is seen in the game itself.

[@mattgroening8872]

@@mrreyes5004 ok makes sense

[@QuickSilverKitsune]

Posted a comment that explains more in depth, but Hugo is a terminally ill child, the Queen is his Mother, and the Batter is his father(who has been very absent in Hugo's life). The entire story is about the Batter trying to get approval to pull the plug on Hugo's life support(hence why The Judge is the first character you meet, starts off the story, and why Zones are locked off: witnesses are called in a specific order) and him having to go to court against his wife and multiple employees at the hospital Hugo was staying at(Dedan and Enoch, Japhet being a bird outside Hugo's room he saw get eaten) TL:DR is the Batter is a dick parent willing to lie in court to get his own son killed, and minus the good version of the guardians, their characterizations are lies the Batter concocted to win the case

[@PixelizedDelta]

I know I'm late to this but there's something that I feel is really interesting to note, In the original french version of the game, The Batter's name is ''Le Batteur'' which in english can infact be translated into ''The Batter'' but it can also be translated into ''The Beater'', so I feel like The Batter's name in the french version is a play on words since he's ''The Batter'' in the sense that he uses a Baseball bat to hit things but he's also ''The Beater'' in the sense that he beats seemingly normal people for ''Purification''

[@superlagbro192]

Would that make something like "The Striker" a more faithful name?

[@PixelizedDelta]

​@@superlagbro192 There's not really any way to actually translate ''Le Batteur'' in english and make it as effective as it is in french, but in my opinion yes, The Striker would be a lot more faithful since it can be interpreted as both striking with a baseball bat but also striking as in just generally hitting people, so yeah I'd say that ''The Striker'' is probably the best english name you could get with the language's restrictions

[@beththedarkmage3359]

In British English, "batter" can mean to severely injure someone, so I think it still works.

[@WhereIsMySock03]

@@beththedarkmage3359 even in us english too, because like, assault and battery is still a thing. Batter still works pretty well!

[@fieldrequired283]

The Batterer.

[@heartlessnobody1143]

The five main ingredients of a world: *Flesh, metal, smoke, sugar and plastic* If im not supposed to think these are a play on the side effects of industry, and the damage it does to the people who live in it, i dont know what to think

[@mrreyes5004]

I imagine that connects to the Zone Guardians: Dedan, Japhet and Enoch. In the game's current time, all three of them are abusive tyrants who lord over their workers with indifference at best and hatred at worst. Dedan is an angry bully who terrorizes his people and is never satisfied with their work, Japhet straight up tries to kill his subjects for being ungrateful to his efforts, and Enoch burns the corpses of his own workers to make an addicting drug. But *The Room* reveals that they all used to be genuinely good people. Dedan wanted to make a world of hard workers who contributed to a harmonious society. Japhet wanted to be a good king who protected his subjects. Enoch wanted to fill the land with delicious food so that nobody could go hungry. But the stresses and hardships of actually running a society caused each of them to fall to depravity, and twisted their dreams into the dark versions of them that the Batter sees in the game. Obviously, the damage that the Guardians' industries do to their populations is inexcusable. But it's also true that idealistic people with dreams in real life are often crushed down and become the cynical CEOs and businessmen who go on to crush other people in return, like a cycle of abuse and cynicism. The Guardians probably represent how idealistic businessmen want to make the world a better place, but the cruelties of the world end up turning those industry officials into the exact type of corrupt CEOs that they previously hated.

[@lvndr9838]

​@MrReyes 500 consider this game was made by a Frenchman and the anticapitalist message makes a lot more sense.

[@namesurname624]

What industry? Genuine question, I'm not getting it

[@vinetak2645]

@@namesurname624 I think it means industries in general.

[@cubonefan3]

@@namesurname624 fossil fuel industry , factory farming , mining & ore extraction and commercial logging to name a few.

[@Autistic_Menace00]

One of the key things you missed is the child (Hugo’s) backstory. If you play through the comic minigame it explains why the batter exists as well as his relationship to Hugo and the Queen. In summary, some sort of apocalypse happened. During this apocalypse Hugo had a terminal disease. It is theorized that this is why he has no hair, as he potentially suffered from an illness that causes hair loss. While this was happening, his father was not present in his home and had left to go somewhere, but left him with a comic. The comic is about a man wearing boxing gloves named Boxxer and his quest to save his girlfriend from the evil Ballman, who has kidnapped her. Ballman is a baseball player who’s primary weapon is a baseball bat. In the end, Boxxer is unable to save his girlfriend and is overwhelmed by a sea of clones of Ballman. The Batter puts the book down, remarking “this is really stupid.” Poetic, as usual. After the apocalypse happened, Hugo was the only thing left, and so he created a world of his own. This leads many players to believe that Hugo based The Batter off of Ballman in frustration at his father abandoning him. He took the villain from his father’s beloved comics and (possibly subconsciously) created a being based off of his internalized antagonism with him and then unleashed this being on the world. However, it seems that The Batter has actually become a stand-in for Hugo’s father, much like the queen is for his mother. It’s left up to interpretation whether some part of Hugo wanted to The Batter to destroy everything or if this was entirely accidental. There are a lot of theories that Hugo has cancer and The Batter is an allegory for him dying due to complications with chemotherapy, with the process initially being undergone in order to ‘purify’ his body but eventually overpowering and killing it as a result, or turning it OFF.

[@MDG-mykys]

Apocalypse that causes deadly illness? Did it predict covid?

[@helenaschreibman9035]

huh that is good to know

[@sugma-weener]

Genius, truly, thanks for this!

[@c.lagerkvist6140]

Hold on dream

[@gordonmorgan3131]

Theres also the matter of the batter being a literal reanimated corpse, so its also possible that the batters MADE from Hugo's father's dead body, but bot his soul and mind

[@tuikyo]

OFF sadly suffers a lot from the engine it was made in. It was made in a early version of Rpg Maker 2003 in which changing the basic combatsystem was nearly impossible. Many older Rpg Maker games suffer from this issue, like Space Funeral or Mother Cognitive Dissonance.

[@Ketsui.]

Makes me wonder how cool it'd be if it got remade nowadays

[@homies1270]

Oh well what could they have done back then it was the best they got.

[@zeo4481]

Yo! The goat of Indie Name Drop at the end!!!!!

[@zeo4481]

@Dark Pogama ❤️❤️❤️

[@MidnaNightengale]

The rough combat actually accentuated the feeling that something was wrong for me. In both OFF, and Space Funeral. The only downside for me, is that the encounters in OFF, are as frequent, as a Shin Megami Tensei game, that doesn't use overworld enemy symbols.

[@MBCollector672]

When I played this game, I legitimately believed I was doing a good thing. I had growing doubt, especially with the things Zacharie was saying about being a murderer, but the word purification stopped me from thinking anyone was dead. I thought it was just video game logic whisking them away if it was someone you interacted with in the overworld who was "purified." It really took all the way until Hugo for me to realize that the Batter was not a good person. Sitting there, unable to skip killing a child... That's when I finally realized it. The Judge talking about the "obscuring mist of the narrative" really hit me because until then, I was in complete denial that I or the Batter were doing anything wrong. Is the game up to modern standards in gameplay? Probably not, the combat was pretty bland because of RPG Maker. Is this game still an experience I would highly recommend going through? Very much yes.

[@crazyminegamer2339]

I’ll be honest, the whole “purification” thing definitely set off some red flags in my mind. Admittedly, I’ve never played the game myself and only saw a little gameplay possibly around the time it started getting popular(?), and if not then, a few years ago at least, so this video is my first real interaction with the game. However, purification replacing fighting or something else of that nature to me screamed purity extremist doing horrible things for some supposedly justifiable reason. I pretty quickly picked up on the idea what we and the Batter were doing probably wasn’t as good as we may have perceived.

[@plugshirt1762]

@@crazyminegamer2339it becomes especially apparent after you purify a zone and go back there and realize purification is being taken to the literal extreme and you’re creating a sterile empty wasteland

[@bookworm4133]

​@@crazyminegamer2339i only beat zone 1, and "purification" was definitely a red flag. But the spectres are hostile and seem to be making life hard for the Elsens, so i started to think it was necessary. But when Dedan yells at an Elsen and The Batter calls him a spectre because he's hostile, I immediately caught on. Its purity extremism mixed with hypocrisy. I know this game isn't Undertale, but i began to wonder if "fleeing" would affect the story in any way (I'm sure it doesn't). The cat outright tells you not to at the beginning of the story, which really gives me Flowey vibes.

[@deefraux4012]

Just watched the 3 hours no commentary gameplay of Off, and I can confidently say that this game is soooo Nier (Replicant?) coded... Yes, that vicious cycle that ends up creating dilemma and hypocrisy. In Nier, the main character kills the Shades, which apparently is a human soul that's supposedly taking control of Nier's body, so that the "people" feel safe... In Off, the main character kills the Guardian so that the suffering of the people is no more, but apparently killing them makes the world lifeless... I won't be surprised if Nier:Replicant follows Off's formula of creating a messy protagonist here hahah. Good writing to both, though ❤

[@TheUnheardSoul23]

​@@deefraux4012 i wouldn't say it follows it's formula but they are definitely similar. The Batter (and the potentially the player) thinks he's right and thinks the destruction of the world is necessary. Nier is a story where both sides think they're correct. Nier would go to extreme lengths as to doom the world (shades being the og humans and all), even if he doesn't realise it, but it's for the purpose of saving his sister. So similar, but remarkably different. Interesting you brought it up. I've never seen anyone bring up Nier before when talking about OFF so that's a pleasant surprise!

[@fakeorchestra4260]

There are some allusions to Hugo being sick which led many people to believe that OFF is a game about a father symbolically getting through all the hoops to get his kid off of life support with different portions of his brain shutting down... though I do not think it is that simple. I remember somewhere being said that euthanasia was a theme in the game, but I think that it is exactly just that, a theme. The world of OFF is quite literal, even if surreal, but the general idea remains the same: Is a world so corrupt and distraught worth keeping? Is keeping a child alive despite them suffering in sickness a moral thing to do? Batter to me is someone who believes that the world has become corrupt and would be better off of not existing, in a way... he might be right. But the "might be" is what OFF is about, and to a certain degree it equates the idea of euthanasia and what Batter is doing as murder.

[@ShokyoLeaf]

neet very cool, there is a big part where moral kicks in, if theres a chance, a decent chance that kid would survive from being sick, then its something worth fighting for, but if your fighting a battle you cant win, either you die trying or give up, i see the mother as die trying, while the batter is just giving up, Hugo is too sick to continue, the mother cant the play running, so the father steps up and finally forces them to give up

[@goodboi1725]

@Leaf? I can only imagine the father breaking down after doing what he felt like he had to do, and just wishing why his son had to be one of the unlucky few to be inflicted with sickness. Though, giving such concrete details would ruin the surrealism of a game like OFF

[@MDG-mykys]

​@@goodboi1725unless it's the last thing you see, the big twist

[@goodboi1725]

@@MDG-mykys sorrows of a sinner

[@harrisonfackrell]

"It's better like that." In order to interpret OFF, I think it's really important to go through the optional Panic in Ballville comic, in which a character named Ballman is a villain that The Batter is clearly modeled after. The presence of the comic in The Room, coupled with Hugo's remark that "father" gave it to him, leads me to believe that The Batter is a manifestation both of the negative emotions that Hugo associated with his real father and his desire to die under the circumstance of his disease. OFF, by my read, is a story of neglect, with the Guardians being imagined stand-ins for the adults in Hugo's real-world life. The Queen--Hugo's mother--was "so busy preparing the birthday party that she forgot who it was for," per her dialogue before her boss fight. As for the Zone Guardians, per their depiction in their respective zones, The Tall Mister became cruel and physically violent; The Bird was neurotically codependent; and The Big Mister gave Hugo Sugar instead of any real support. All of these people made a promise to Hugo that went unfulfilled, with the promises being the central narrative focus of The Room's chapter, "I Had Three Friends." Contrastingly, Hugo's father--or, at least, the mental construct of Hugo's father--did keep his promise. Whether or not that was a good thing is the central question of the game: Was it better to flip the switch to OFF, instead of allowing the status quo to persist? For my part, I think the answer is no--but I can't really say for sure without knowing just how bad it was, and OFF chooses to present both life and death as deeply traumatic to Hugo. The world of OFF is one of suffering and pain from every angle and support structure. I think there are a lot of ways in which you could interpret this, but to me, the most applicable is as a cautionary tale and an admonition to look out for the Hugo in your life--to be better than the Guardians were.

[@bugjams]

I kinda dig that the attacks don't have very much animation, it leaves it up to interpretation what some of them actually _do._ With names like "Abstract Tragedy" and "Requisite Bracket," it's almost more interesting to leave it up to the imagination. Also, the Judge's competence skills are just... amazing. "Atypical Sclerosis" Such an attack name simply could never have an animation that lives up to it.

[@unabatedbasher]

19:36 "Is the obscuring mist or the narrative really your excuse for killing woman and child?" I like this line a lot. This world certainly seems like a corrupt and unpleasant place, but we only get the story from the Batter's perspective, so we don't know for sure what's going on or how deserving of "purification" this world really is. But does it matter? Is there *any* reasoning that can justify killing a child?

[@nos17]

Yes. Make it pure. =)

[@deltaxeno7807]

@@nos17 The fact you did the Chara face... Makes me wonder if Undertale's Genocide route answers OFF.

[@nos17]

@@deltaxeno7807 chara would get along great with the batter's puppeteer

[@deltaxeno7807]

@@nos17 Maybe eventually, they'll be together forever, right?

[@goodboi1725]

Heavily debilitating chronic illness that leaves the child in constant pain. In that case, is it really moral to let him keep suffering?

[@desmond9740]

Glad you covered this, never knew about this game. Despite its OFF-putting nature, it has an interesting story.

[@irisaferg2524]

AYYYYYYE!! :D

[@eldritch-rage]

Get out

[@zakkymiftahurrahman1665]

​@@eldritch-rage You need to get OFF the serious tone

[@My_initials_are_O.G.cuz_I_am]

Did you really have to Batter us over the head with that pun?

[@zakkymiftahurrahman1665]

@@My_initials_are_O.G.cuz_I_am Do you want to pitch in a different pun?

[@tlspark8250]

Off is a fantastic game that I've seen played time and time again. I even played it myself even though I knew what was going to happen (It crashed my computer though so I never finished my own playthrough). My favorite theory is strikingly sad, which, of course, is the point. The theory states that the world inside of the game is a metaphor for a story that occurs in the "Real World" and you can see it clearly if you compare the elements of the story to... a hospital. Let me explain: (EDIT: Good lord I went overboard on this. Sorry about the wall of text I REALLY like this game) (EDIT 2: I don't care how long this is. I had fun writing it) Hugo is a sickly child born to a doting mother and a father. Due to his illness, the child spends most of his life inside of a hospital room. A plain, white room with nothing in it save for a few, ever present constants... the Metal of the bed and the equipment keeping him alive, the Plastic of the floors, the sound of Smoke, or gas/oxygen, being pumped into his lungs, and the meat of whatever he's eating at the time (Or else the blood from the blood bags being pumped into him). Occasionally, as he is a child, he is given some Sugar as a treat, but not too much as children have a habit of getting addicted to sweet things. These constants, these elements if you will, are the only things that make up his world. In a way, they are the only thing he knows... save for the kindly doctor (Tall man) that helps him, the bird who sometimes visits from a window, and an accountant (Big man) who handles the paperwork with his mother (Or both the tall man and big man are just doctors). Now, the mother is more than happy to keep her child in this hospital for as long as it takes, but the father on the other hand... the father disagrees. He doesn't see this hospital as a place that will cure his son. He sees it as a prison from which his son cannot escape. We don't know how long Hugo has been in the hospital, but he's been there for a long time. Long enough for the husband to want to take matters into his own hands. Something interesting that you missed: That comic book sequence you skipped. If you had gone through it then you would have found that the comic book, starring a character known as "The Boxer" was fighting against his arch nemesis and villain of the story... A character known as "The Batter". With this said, a new story comes into focus, implied by the events of the game. The father (Who may be implied to be you, the player), takes on the role of "The Batter" who has been established to be a villainous character. He goes through the world of the game one zone at a time "Purifying" the specters there (Hospitals are likely filled with the ghosts of the dead after all) with the singular goal of getting to "The room" from which his son is. Literally speaking, we have no idea what the father is actually doing in the real world, but metaphorically speaking at least we can see that he is singular in his purpose: REmoving as many of his son's delusions of the world as possible. Whereas his son sees the Tall man, the Bird, and the Big man as friends, The father, the Batter, sees Dedan, Japhet and Enoch as monsters that are only prolonging the life of a dying child. Eventually he comes to the one truly behind it all... Hugo's mother. From the boss fight you can tell that she is not entirely there. The lights are on, but no one is there. Her Add-ons look like wings, implying that she, or Hugo really, sees her as some form of angle, but the batter merely sees a woman who has lost her mind. Once he is done... he goes to the titular switch... the switch that will, ultimately, turn off Hugo's life support. Thus ending his life, and the delusional world all at once. Who the Judge truly is is a mystery. Perhaps he is merely a hospital cat, the kind that visits patients when they are about to die. He finds the batter, the judge, and confronts him. The ideal scenario is that the presense of the cat destroy's the Batter's own delusions of ending it all being the "Right thing", but literally speaking they are just a cat. The batter, the father, ultimately ignores him... And turns off the "World" that has barely been keeping his son alive all this time. I love this theory. It's similar to the more obvious theory of this being an actual otherworld, but it adds so much with so little. Unfortunately, it's not perfect. Zacharie, for example, cannot be explained. OR rather I don't want to as this is a ridiculously long comment already. TLDR: The Elements imply that the game takes place in the delusional mind of a sickly, hospitalized child who now sees his own father as a villain as he's trying to turn off his life support in a moment of desperation and madness. I could have just said this from the start... but that's no fun now is it.

[@xdsofie1239]

Ohh i love your theory. Its just great to me boy :)

[@cubonefan3]

But he killed Hugo before he hit the switch so that doesn’t make sense.

[@callumprice1710]

​@@cubonefan3 ehhh he could be metaphorically killing hugo because he believes Hugo is already dead.

[@litterbox019]

i love these comments

[@KingRidley]

It's a nice theory, but totally ignoring the character of The Judge and his involvement in the story kind of ruins it for me. The Judge is a pretty big part of the story. He's got the plot involving his brother, his own subsequent loss, getting to see The Batter from HIS perspective, and the ending if The Judge wins. The hospital theory doesn't really acknowledge any of those things and that's a lot of the story.

[@menethemene1555]

Hugo is son of queen and the batter however it’s more of a title since Hugo created them however the queen created the sun for her son and guardians created the world (aka zone) however the batter isn’t exactly evil he only did what he did before the universe itself was slowly dying because of his son Hugo sickness so he decides to put his son of his misery and end the universe’s suffering as well

[@ben_again]

Gotta love some moral ambiguity

[@menethemene1555]

@@ben_again yeah

[@messatine]

The batter is not Hugo's dad

[@Neon-Starr]

​@@messatine yes he is.

[@doe9000]

​@@Neon-StarrI'm pretty sure the batter isn't Hugo's father. The batter was created when the game started, Ghost said this himself, so how could the batter father hugo?

[@owendubs]

I think that OFF is about Postmodernism. The Batter has to "purify" everything by deconstruction, in the process killing worlds and replacing them with husks because nothing is put back in place after the deconstruction. It's like turning an entire writer's room of movies into CinemaSins and watching them fail to make anything and devolve into deconstructing their deconstruction of deconstruction in an unending cycle of cringy jokes before all is nothingness. Things now have to be resistant to deconstruction in either meaning nothing at all, being goofy, and making a point of wasting the deconstructer's time, or meaning so much that it's impossible to expect a deconstructer to dedicate the time necessary to fully understand the work and judge it on its own merits. Thus the two, well, three endings. The official results in a void, not making a work to be deconstructed, the true results in meaninglessness, and the special results in deconstruction.

[@wonderlilane3724]

Interesting reading on OFF. I agree about like, bad faith deconstruction ending up ruining people's enjoyment of works. Analysis in and of itself isn't bad, because even analysis can show you something new about something you love and so it gives you more things to love about it (for example, analyzing how Shakespeare switches to trochaic from iambic to signify sad or strange moments can help someone appreciate how well-thought out the composition is), but if it's gonna heckle a work for daring to use tropes and conventions as semiotic tools to communicate a story, then the obvious logical conclusion is "the only good story is one that was never written at all."

[@myb701]

ngl I like like this interpretation, but this feels like a MASSIVE strawman, I've never seen these "bad faith deconstructers" or people who stopped loving a series because a some guy said it used a trope once. If anything most people end up loving something because of it's simple tropes, be it Punching Bag antagonsits (Demon Slayer, Puss in Boots, etc.) or Muh Hatd Work heroes (Rock Lee, Deku, Tanjiro, etc.)

[@wonderlilane3724]

@@myb701 I can't speak for the original commenter, but personally I'm speaking from personal experiences I've had growing up. I'm ashamed to admit that all the jokes made at the expense of Baby-era Justin Beiber and What Makes You Beautiful-era One Direction made me a "hater" back in high school, even if I actually did enjoy listening to some of their songs. It's only later, when I grew up a bit and realized that I was being an asshole when I made a joke at One Direction's expense and it turned out the friend I was with was a fan of theirs. That's not to say that you can't criticize how studio execs would use teenage girls' love of boy bands to milk profits out of them and their parents, but there's nothing inherently wrong about enjoying "generic and similar-sounding" bubblegum pop. Taste in music is inherently value-neutral, and enjoying pop music doesn't make you more or less honorable or virtuous than someone who likes classical, folk, or metal. It just means you find enjoyment in things that are different from some people.

[@eldritchcupcakes3195]

@@myb701 dude. I used top be an insufferable asshole of a movie "critic" because of cinamasins.

[@thereseemstobeenanerror1219]

​​@@eldritchcupcakes3195 That just sounds like you were an impressible teenager.

[@tristandpc]

The maze just before Dedan was a sound-based one: when moving close to the correct door, the music would jump in volume. It's similar to the Lost Forest from Zelda, if a bit clunkier.

[@ripleyandweeds1288]

Honestly I think the combat visuals are befitting of the game's style. The game is a very laid back one, teetering on the line between strangely calm apathy and depression; therefore things like the enemies, the batter, and the attacks being in black and white with the colorful backgrounds adds to that. If the attacks were flashier and colorful then they'd be out of place for the tone this game has.

[@JaxontheOkay]

the game's presentation is so bare bones and that's one of the things i really like. the dialogue is direct, the visuals give you just enough to understand, and the battle system is pretty simple.

[@RetroNitro_TV]

13:40 Ah yes,"hostile" That "Critic Burnt" enemy is the only enemy in the game to deal no damage or debuff in any way. *All it does is call for Help,over,and over,and over....*

[@duplexx58]

hugo doesn't attack either right?

[@danmakes2497]

​@@duplexx58 they were referring to how he's the only one turned yet not hostile enemy

[@Shiny_Misty]

The return trips to the zones after you "purify" the area is eerie as hell. On moment that hits hard that you didn't mention was returning to the bird to see The Judge cryng out for his brother, like someone mentioned in the comment. All you hear is sad mewing as you enter that area, and you climb the stairs find that it is The Judge who is crying out. This poor soul.

[@QuickSilverKitsune]

So for those curious about the basic story(since a good amount of it is subtext), Hugo is a terminally ill child that's been in the hospital for a very good portion of his life, his parents being the Queen, whose life basically revolved around caring for Hugo(at least in his eyes) and the Batter, who's either been an absent parent or one more focused on his work then on Hugo(the game leans more towards absent parent with the 'you don't even know his first name' line from the queen) who is either someone famous or a lot of influence (being some athletes have both). Hugo's disease eventually gets to the point that he's on life support, and the Batter decides that it's better for his child to just die then continue living in pain after getting the news. The 3 Zone Guardians before you get to Mother are 2 Employees of the hospital Hugo stayed in who he formed bonds with(and who bonded with him to varying degrees, Dedan being a Nurse, and Enoch either being the hospital director or someone who worked with food there) and a Bird that he'd be able to see outside his hospital window, who he also saw get eaten by a cat(hence all the stuff around Japhet). The start of the game is basically the Batter going to an actual Judge to get a court order to allow him to take his son off life support, the 5 elements are basically the 5 main things a child would be able to identify in a hospital, the story is basically the batter's trumped up telling of events to a judge to get pulling the plug approved(since remember, the mother is the main caretaker), boss battles(minus Japhet) are them testifying in court, the events with the kinder versions of the Guardians are basically the game telling you what they were actually like for real, and flipping the switch after Hugo is the Batter having his son's life support turned off. The two different endings as far as I can tell are basically the two ways things could've ended for the Batter after the Judge initially grants the order for pulling the plug: the Batter ending happens if you remain ignorant of the fact his story was a falsehood(which most outsiders would, hence it being the official end) and the Batter gets off scot free, while the Judge ending would be what happens if you connect those dots, and the Batter is punished for perjury to get the plug pulled and the murder of his child. The ad ons are basically just random schmucks that the Batter recruited to help him get his kid killed(seeing as they're nothing but circles and have generic names), or ones that were in Hugo's mom's life in the case of hers, who are seen as completely unimportant in the Batter's eyes: the Queen and the Guardians get actual unique designs due to them actually being a threat to his plan. So yeah, OFF is a game where canonically, you're the villain

[@rednecromancer2579]

Commenting so this gets seen more. Great interpretation, & I love the depth you went into. I respect anyone who puts comments like this

[@ghoulbuster1]

Cool story bro

[@arciere5511]

This comment helped a ton!

[@roast_beef]

It's a good theory passed around, but don't try to pass it off as the actual cannon story.

[@TheGusst2Gamer]

This is just a theory, not canon. And a lame one in my opinion, why everything have to be a "coma theory", can't fucked up fiction worlds not exist?

[@mandridhugh9555]

13:46 from my experience, that citizen who although appearing hostile just screams, "help" over and over without ever attacking you

[@doe9000]

13:45 you leave some of the nuances out that I feel are important to understand the message of the game completely. This is the one I feel is most important. This 'enemy' isn't really an enemy at all, it's just a 'corrupted' elsen that's calling out for help. No matter what you do, it will not attack back. You can wail on it, and it will not do anything back. What's important is that you cannot spare or run. You have to attack and kill the helpless elsen, all the while it yells for help. It's supposed to make the player question what you're really doing It's upsetting to me that you barely mention the encounter and even call the helpless elsen 'hostile'. It can only scream for help for crying out loud!

[@mrreyes5004]

Agreed. I remember watching Markiplier play that part of the game, too. At first he thought that the Elsen was a stereotypical RPG enemy and he was eager to defeat it. But then Mark slowly realized that the Critic-Burnt was just crying for help and not even fighting back, yet the game forced him (and all other players) to beat the Elsen to death anyway. The Elsens are obviously not like the spectres or the Guardians, yet the Batter decides that they must be purified exactly like them anyway. It makes sense for that one Elsen to be called "Critic-Burnt", because it is the moment when the players truly start to criticize the Batter's intentions. Whether the Batter is an omnicidal psycho who coldly murders everyone in sight, or if the Batter is doing a massive Mercy Kill on a dying world to let it rest, one thing that this moment proved is that he no hero. Even before he reached the Queen and Hugo.

[@danmakes2497]

I love Ben's videos but it definitely felt like he rushed through this to get it over with due to the clunkyness and very subtle themes and messages; especially the part where he said he skipped the comic part to get through the story because he disliked combot ironically missing a huge part of said story in the process. Though to be kinda lenient, these are his earlier vids and he didn't do longer videos until later on.

[@ancientthalassa9465]

Great review of OFF. There is a correction I will mention. OFF was released in 2008, way before undertale. From what I heard, OFF is inspired by earthbound.

[@arcainchaos]

Actually, he said “[…] upon further research, OFF was definitely an inspiration for [Undertale]”, so don’t worry, he got that bit right!

[@doorman2374]

Earthbound is that old? Geez

[@HankJWimbleton-v1m]

@@doorman2374 Last time I checked, Earthbound was released in 1994.

[@tuikyo]

OFF isn't inspired by Earthbound. In the 10th anniversary stream Mortis said that he played the Mother games years after he made OFF.

[@oqo3310]

@@tuikyo besides, the mother series wasn't released in europe.

[@minticedtea]

Some notes Zacharie while subbing for the Judge, his mask looks a bit more like his brother's Valerie's in the teeth. The Judge as noted is mourning his brother until his reappearance at the end. The hostile on the train tracks actually only cries for help, he deals no damage but you have to put him down.

[@ooftime2557]

A few fun facts/theories: 1. Some kind of apocalypse seems to have happened which left only hugo, dedan, japhet and enoch alive, hugo had these 3 as his friends with them having good goals and ideals (atleast at the time) but hugo wasnt no ordinary child, he has some kind of powers which allowed him to make the queen (presumably to replace his mother), and made the 3 the guardians of worlds that the queen created FOR hugo, but as time went on queen was too busy with being a queen to give any attention for hugo, the 3 guardian's ideals have slowly corrupted from having to deal with being leaders and then somehow batter gets created (if i remember correctly creator said that batter is created when we first see him, he didnt exist before this moment) who is supposed to be a father replacement i guess. 2. Batter doesnt transform into the monster we see if you play as judge, he just looks like that (creator if i remember correctly said that, and the mysterious woman says a frightening ducky won which "true" batter can go by) 3. If you go to the place where you kill japhet after purifying the world you can see judge meowing believing echo of his meow is well... his now dead brother valerie meowing

[@electrobob992]

I always imagined, if any game deserved a remake.. Off definitely gets my vote. Not only with updated graphics, but maybe extra bonus bosses after beating the game. Sure we got Sugar *Confirmed to be human*, but think about this.. Sugar is not just a secret boss but one of the game's 5 elements. So imagine a human character boss for each element. Smoke, Metal, Meat, Plastic. Could even have some of them reference people who played the game... Meat being an obvious one, being a reference to Markiplier's meat quotes from his Amnesia playthroughs.

[@leouniversal9784]

amazing video!!! it's criminally terrible that your channel isn't famous!!! i usually don't give subscriptions to channels but, your channel is so perfect, that you've earned my subscription.

[@ben_again]

Thank you so much!!!

[@miguelottoni4485]

Great video, it's good to see people discovering the world of OFF, but I think you could have put more emphasis on more things that the game OFFers, like the characters and what they are trying to represent and the music, especially the music.

[@alexthepie1]

A couple of things I'm pretty sad you didn't mention the worker(they are called elsens) attacking you in the postal service,it's a important scene since before this,the elsens never attacked you. that scene confused and disturbed me,it shows the zones are more corrupt The MUSIC maze dedan has works like this:the music will get louder when you interact with a specific path so you need to see wich path music gets louder and then go to that path,wich is what the judge brings up(in the overly complex talk) the pedalo in the amusement parrk segment,to get that big reward isn't by pure luck you're supposed to learn how many steps it sends you,wich well it may stupid but it's a optional thing the zone 3 minigame works like this: you can't just walk over to a add-on and boom get it, you need to stay in the middle of the add-on yeah it's not really explained well but you can try again if you lose Yes that segment in the room with the guardians is hugos past memories Yes the add-ons are related to the guardians,they represent the guardians promises towards hugo Hugo created the queen and the batter as a replacement for his parents The batters apperance in the judges ending is a figment of pablos immagination im pretty sad the fact you kinda cut some bits,like zach saying pablo doesn't feel well it showed they know each other,little piece and bits like this that complete the experience Sugar/sucre can be fought as early as getting the grand finale the ufo ending is a reference to silent hills ufo ending The batter can't defend but the add-ons can,this shows the batter is more inclined to spill blood than play defense,maybe because he has healing competences? i'm also sad you didn't say anything about the music,OFF has a a great OST but well i understand not all game reviwers want to do that i kinda wish your video was more so like the crooked man one,the video does a good job at summarizeing the zones to some degree but a lot of the scenes have a lesser impact

[@danmakes2497]

Yeah, it definitely felt like he rushed through this because it was combat heavy; nothing wrong with not liking combot, but it's a shame that it affected the video and him rushing through it

[@duckfilms3662]

That makes 2ppl who dont notice the music the dedan maze getting noticeably LOUDER.

[@Pudding404]

RPG maker games in general attract people with stories where hypothetical situations where morality is flipped on it's head. The batter always struck me as a force of nature, it's their nature to "purify" as vague as that term can be. So many rpg maker games hold a special place in my heart. OFF is a rare case of a well known game that's still very underrated, as people don't bother to really look into it. Lovely work right here.

[@laughableInflection]

Im sure someone has told you, but the maze before the dedan fight is based off of the music's volume, going into the door with the loudest music to reach the end. This was one of my favorite puzzles. Also, if you return to the library roof where you defeated japhet, the judge sits up there calling for his brother.

[@jellybuns1015]

Im so happy to see this game covered by somebody its so underrated, theres little to none content from it, thx dude

[@thegoldenkitsune6863]

I noticed in zone 1 more than just every element being the first of the four. The characters you talk to specifically refer to their own element as the MOST essential, explaining more why they all list their elements as the first every time.

[@sammcburney148]

I watched Markiplier play this years ago. Had no idea it was so underrated.

[@moroi3397]

I am very happy that one more person tackled this game and made a video about it. Though some of my views on the game may not align with yours, I am still very thankful. (i am also very happy you enjoyed it as well)

[@Sub_Bot2028]

Why do I feel like you and Pappo would make a great collab on some gigantic series or story

[@user-wt7dz6wh5p]

Late response and OFF is my favourite interest and i know every detail about this game. One of my favourite small detail, a elsen called the Batter "The masque of the red death." Which is a story about a plague and personalized death killing everyone and the ignorant prince created a party and got themselves killed. Which is a allegory about inevitable death basically calling Batter inevitable death. Knowing how OFF went I think the label fits him

[@nerdiboy5128]

The Batter being a mostly mute protagonist who gives vague, terse responses to anything he's asked (with the exception of his speeches towards the Guardians and Vader Eloha ) is a somewhat clever way of not giving away his true nature, and examining a common trope in RPGs and their associated stories/ narrative. By not elaborating on his background or reasons for doing what he's doing, only giving binary "Yes" or "No" answers, he, without resistance or people actively trying to stop him, manages to escape notice and do his grim work undisturbed, which I think is how a lot of psychopaths manage to fly under the radar if you think about it: he has no intonation, no obvious emotion, and possesses an uncanny charisma that makes people impressed with him/ more amenable to him, even if he does give off slightly uncomfortable vibes. To quote Jim Jones (the Infamous Cult Leader who Caused the Jonestown Mass-Suicide in 1978, which Created the Anti-Cult Slogan of 'Don't Drink the Kool-Aid'): "What you need to believe in is what you can see… If you see me as your friend, I’ll be your friend. If you see me as your father, I’ll be your father, for those of you that don’t have a father… If you see me as your savior, I’ll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I’ll be your God." By not contradicting people, by keeping quiet about his true aims, just agreeing to anything they say about him should it benefit his purposes, or alternatively manipulate those who seem unwilling to put their blind faith in him and his 'crusade of purity,' he makes his job so much easier. In addition, the trope I talked about is basically the premise of most RPGs: You are a lone individual, devoid of any kind of pre-existing background (done by most RPG developers so that Players can see themselves as the character they play, especially if it's one that allows them to customize their appearance or doesn't have dialogue for the Main Player Character, aside from ellipses and vocal grunts, maybe a head portrait next to the dialogue tree you can choose from), summoned forth to fulfill some obscure objective, doing so by achieving smaller goals that basically amount to "Kill Monsters; Get Loot; Explore Area; Grind Levels." It makes the surprise at the end all the more shocking should you try to investigate just what the Batter _means_ when he says that his intention is to "Purify the World." Which, looking back, is kind of how I imagined history's most notorious fascists, demagogues, and serial killers probably phrased their euphemism for Killing People. It presaged (albeit in a somewhat less elegant, fleshed out manner) what UNDERTALE would later do with it's whole "Pacifist/ Genocide Route" options and it's Fourth-Wall Breaking acknowledgement of the Save System ("Determination") and EXP ("Execution Points") and Level (Love... just kidding; "Level of Violence"), by making Players question concepts such as Ethics and Morality, Free Will, Responsibility for One's Actions and Words, and the Question of 'On a Moral Blank Slate, if You Present Someone with the Option to Spare or Kill Someone, to Do So with the Implicit Understanding that they Can 'Reset their Actions' if they Don't like the Choice they Made, and Effectively Do it Over and Over and Over, What Choice Would they Choose?' And if the 'Monsters' you are tasked with killing are actually nice and mean no ill-will... then what does that say about _YOU_ going around and murdering them for seemingly no good reason, no provocation? As Chara tells you bluntly at the end of the Genocide Route: "Greetings. I am Chara. Thank you. *Your* power awakened me from Death. My "human soul." My "Determination." They were not _mine_ , but *_Y O U R S_* !" And again from Chara once you try to restart a game after fully committing to a Genocide Route: "You're trying to go back? It was *you* who pushed this world to it's edge. Do you truly believe that you can act however you please, and _not_ face the consequences of your decisions, your actions?"

[@rednecromancer2579]

Commenting so this gets to the top. I love & appreciate that people are putting effort into making thoughtful & nuanced perspectives into games like this, I respect anyone who writes things like this!

[@nerdiboy5128]

@@rednecromancer2579 Thank you! 😁 Sadly, most other folks think my comments are stupid because of how detailed they are, because I share my opinion on things, and because they perceive them as "Long-Winded Mini-Essays" that are taking up the space rightfully deserved by people screaming "FIRST" or making brief Leet Speek comments. If I'm going to say something on a comment section, I'm going to use the opportunity to actually _SAY_ something, or contribute something of more than superficial depth.

[@rednecromancer2579]

@@nerdiboy5128 Absolutely agreed! Also, something about Jim Jones: They didn’t actually use Kool-Aid. They used Flavorade, a less well-known, locally competing brand that, while apparently being more flavorful, fell into bankruptcy due to its use in the incident. Just a bit of knowledge I had that I forgot to share, figured you’d enjoy it (or, regarding the circumstance, at least find interesting).

[@lothechampion1867]

I disagree on the undertale comparison but I'll keep it brief I feel that having an outside character that has little to no buildup to that point cause an event that is otherwise never hinted at to act as a sort of "gotcha" moment feels like it undermines the flowey monologue that JUST happened 2 rooms ago that acts as a way to humanize this very behavior.

[@nerdiboy5128]

@@lothechampion1867 Humanize...? Please elaborate.

[@vorpal22]

One hypothesis is based on all the sickness (palsy and others) in the game and the baby Hugo... if you look at Zacharie the right way, it looks like he's wearing a sickness protection mask, like a KN-95 during COVID, which has been popular in Asia for quite some time.. Also, Dedan has a speech bubble that says 笑 which means "laugh" that must be destroyed to beat him. The fact that the "bad guys" turn out to be the "good guys" adds a lot of complexity to the interpretation.

[@brendanmustain8689]

Rather than being a joke, I feel like the true ending was a glimpse of what the world may have originally felt like, albeit with a different premise and setting. The livelier animations and colors felt like they were an aspect of the zones that decayed over time, where the new space ape setting is one that ‘replaces’ the old world in terms of imaginary space similar to throwing out an old toy. That may make the death of Hugo more about killing a manifestation of childhood memories/innocence/trauma than a literal euthanasia of a terminally ill child.

[@pachicore]

Could hold true but the judge's attacks are named after medical complications. I guess you could say he causes them but how would hugo even know about those things in the first place

[@geekconn558]

I played OFF for the first time back in like, 2014 when I was a freshman in high school. It's been almost ten years, and I still think about this game fondly. It was really the first game that made me think critically, and left me just... Really numb. It was, and still is, such a profound work of art for me, despite hardware limitations.

[@reneablackheart9563]

OFF IN 2023 *goes feral and scratches wildly at the walls foaming at the mouth before swallowing this video whole like a ravenous bay owl*

[@ladylunaginaofgames40]

Man I hope you cover more RPG maker games just like Mad Father/Miaso, The Witch's House, and Ib (the classical 3, although Miaso and Mad Father is made by the same person and share a universe)

[@EMShelley]

It's been a very long time since I watched Markiplier play this, but my take away/theory was that the child was born with debilitating defects, thus reliant on those elements a.k.a. the medical industry just to survive. While the mother(the queen) focused on making her chronically sick child's life as good as it can be, the father(the batter) focused more on the child's future, or more like "lack of" future. In his eyes, his child was going to be hooked up to a machine, breathing through a tube, and kept on drugs to keep him comfortable yet not completely in charge of his facilities for the entirety of his life, probably have no real friends, and not only be barred from the chance at a normal, fulfilling existence, but also be a financial and mental burden to both his wife and himself. Whether it was out of compassion for his son and not wanting to watch him grow up in suffering, or just plain selfishness, the father ultimately decided that he had to become the bad guy (the batter), and, well, turn it all off. It's a really fucked up moral dilemma and I couldn't imagine being a parent that had face that.

[@The_Red_Scare]

I just wanted to say, thank you so much for telling me about OFF! I'm so glad to know of its existence! ^^

[@The_Obsessed]

This is one of the few games that always makes me cry. Story just hits incredibly close to home, and the story of the child just makes me bawl.

[@philippobitz2592]

I was not expecting an OFF video in 2023. It's cool that this game is still being talked about after all these years!

[@miaoumint5288]

Probably one of my favourite games of all time. Glad you played and enjoyed it enough to make a video!

[@bensavage6172]

Interesting side bit, but in the game's code, you can see Hugo has all 9999 attack and can wipe out the party immediately, but he decides to just defend no matter how much time you give him without you attacking first

[@Ketsui.]

Always nice to see someone find out about this hidden gem

[@coraline2770]

The sound in this game blows me away every time I love it

[@nigini6092]

I've been on the look for channels focused on niche content and I'm glad I found this one!

[@rainbownekoanimations]

I noticed that you said the puzzle with all the directional hallways in zone 1 confused you and you just ended up stumbling into the right area, but the way to solve it is to actually to stop at the base of the hallway you want to go down and listen, the correct hallway has MUSIC coming from it, and this is hinted at by the judge as he's technically your hint system for the whole game telling you to stop and listen, even when zacharie takes over judges position he's trying to help you in the way judge would. When in doubt, always listen to the cat.

[@thatonecatwiththetophat]

I just realized the entirety of this game could be considered a metaphor for a child's imagination maturing

[@myxeberry6824]

I discovered this game's existence after hearing one of the OSTs in a Roblox game

[@myxeberry6824]

that being today when I looked at the game's wiki

[@nathanchapin8445]

What was the ost that u heard?

[@myxeberry6824]

@@nathanchapin8445 Burned bodies

[@themetalmario77]

@@myxeberry6824 i could tell before you dropped the ost name

[@BagelBagelBagelBa]

what game?

[@starlosa]

Lovely video on OFF, it’s such a gem that directly inspired Undertale, I’m subbing now, can’t wait to see you blow up :)

[@coraline2770]

Ur style of video is exactly what I was looking for

[@zauss7119]

Love the video but I was sad to see that you didn't point out the soundtrack, especially the battle theme. Pepper Steak is such a chaotic track, perfectly fitting the themes of this feverdream.

[@LudicrousPie]

Thank you so much for covering this game! I enjoy OFF alot and it's nice to still see content about it

[@Finding_Arcadia]

Dude, this is tickling my brain in unexpected ways. Apparently i watched a deep dive video a long time ago about Off that stuck in my memory, but i cannot find it anymore, but everything youre talking about is giving me the weirdest deja vu.

[@Blairlex]

Absolutly fantastic video! Subscribed 🤘

[@Acefdiamonds]

I love this game so thank you for making this video it is assumed that Zachire and sugar where lovers also sugar calls the batter a big ducky and what dose the batter look like in the judge ending

[@Dirpman42]

I can't believe you were able to go through that entire review and not mention how FUCKING HARD Pepper Steak goes. Haha.

[@slime_katzu]

I love how you explained the game in clear details as you played in a blind run!

[@TheScaredLittleScholar]

the trigger warning at 1:11 is the definition of “this game may contain scenes”

[@dustpanman2998]

You know stuff's bad stuff is going to happen when the word "purified" is used instead of killed or defeated

[@skyrimlover777]

Always nice to see people cover this game, obviously it had a major impact on me.

[@packman2321]

I do really enjoy off. I worry though that the meta narrative is a bit hampered by the choice to side with the Judge at the end. While it leads to one of the most impactful visuals in the game, showing you the Batter's monstrous form, I feel it also encourages people to see themselves as separate from the Batter. As people who have been 'watching' him kill people. When the entire point of the game is that the Batter is controlled by the player. Functionally you don't passively watch the batter, you make him kill people and at any point you can stop (which is the commentary). I don't know, I think maybe people are too used to divorcing themselves from in game action already for this to work? Or maybe the game reaches for a narrative that's too harsh for that point? The majority of people after all aren't interested in directly causing the sort of violence the Batter does without context, so maybe the narrative is just going too far for the point about the player's culpability to stick?

[@nos17]

Very true, we should not be given a choice (not by default, at least. perhaps it should be a silly side thing to unlock) regarding our alignment at the end.

[@rednecromancer2579]

Reminds me of Chara in Undertale. Everyone pins it on Chara, making them out to be evil, when in reality Chara & Frisk are just children, while Chara was scarred & hateful they weren't evil. The player is the villain, but the fanbase hates seeing themselves that way

[@pink1200]

@@rednecromancer2579 tbh I always kinda saw Chara to be somewhat a representation of the player or part of the player as you are able to name them and they specifically say that their determination and soul are not theirs but yours

[@rednecromancer2579]

@@pink1200 I see Chara as a reflection of the player, like an impressionable child taking on the characteristics of what they see. It makes canonical & thematic sense

[@senescence57]

I wonder if the batter is based off of Shounen Batto/Lil Slugger from Paranoia Agent. -Batters -Brought release through destruction -Sought after by crazed would-be victims -Look somewhat different to different people -Is a final boss

[@HankJWimbleton-v1m]

According to the TV Tropes article, Lil' Slugger from Paranoia Agent actually serves as the main inspiration behind The Batter's characterization in OFF. Indeed, you could even draw comparisons between Hugo and Tsukiko Sagi from that aforementioned anime as well. Hugo is responsible for the creating the Batter to supposedly serve as his "father" before eventually going rogue at one point and started purifying everyone that he comes across, which is reminiscent of how Lil' Slugger is a physical manifestation of Tsukiko's delusion that a random kid killed her dog rather than a tragic accident she was partially responsible for.

[@senescence57]

@@HankJWimbleton-v1m ouuu, you cookin with that one! Had you had this theory for a minute or did you just spitball now? The overall themes align around the escapism it seems.

[@HankJWimbleton-v1m]

@@senescence57 When you mentioned the parallels between The Batter and Lil Slugger, I already had this notion in mind. If you think about it, the Batter and the Queen are both different halves of the same coin, similar to Lil Slugger and Maromi. They are both personificiations of someone's own coping mechanisms. The Batter represents overcoming your impending demise as an escape, as he's extremely dedicated with his mission to "purify" the world, while The Queen represents the comfort zone of your surroundings as an escape, being the caretaker of Hugo and the pillar that maintains the very existence of the world. There's also the fact that both the Batter and Lil' Slugger are more like machines that never stop repeating a neverending program they're designed for (the Batter goes on a holy mission to purify each of the Zones, while Lil' Slugger targets those who are strugging with various psychological problems and looking for a way out). The Bad Batter being a reflection of how the Batter went from a hero to a villain in the Judge's own perspective may also be a reference to how Lil' Slugger gradually becomes stronger the more people are succumbed to the fear of his name. You could even make an argument that the Batter is also quite reminiscent of Makoto Kozuka as well, being a self-appointed holy warrior who views the whole world as an RPG.

[@senescence57]

@@HankJWimbleton-v1m everything you are saying is HITTING!!! I'ma need you to drop a video essay on this lol. One last parallel I really like is this like visceral Thanatosian drive in how the burnt in Off and those on the verge of a mental break in PA seek the release of their respective batters. Also while I'm here geekin, I need your thoughts on the plotline with that crooked cop and his daughter. I felt that one needed to cook a little more. I think the intention was that her amnesia was his punishment, but it exonerated him at the same time. I wish they had twisted the knife in him a bit more and made the fact that he was wrong just a bit clearer like the case of Terra's amnesia in the finale of Teen Titans.

[@maybelijah]

This is my favorite video of yours to watch while awake and my favorite to listen to when i go to bed

[@jacket5596]

there is so much of this game ive either missed or dont remember, i should really replay this game

[@BlueBunny0502]

I was a tad surprised to hear you hadn't heard of OFF, because I had heard a lot of talk about it in my early teens. But then I remembered that in another video you said you're 19 rn, while I turn 23 in like a week. It really puts into perspective how fast interests can shift over the internet in just a few years.

[@fireemblemistrash75]

Off. The game so under the radar and where any posting of it revives the entire community as we unite in unison

[@K0R4UPT_N01Z3]

It's so good to see this unbelievably underrated masterpiece getting talked about.

[@Kirby-vd7hw]

I am OFF-deprived and I require more OFF-related anything EDIT: WHEN IN DEDAN'S MAZE, MUSIC GETS LOUDER WHEN YOU ARE CLOSER TO RIGHT DIRECTION.

[@Evnyofdeath]

There are two commonly accepted interpretations of Off's ending. A literal one and a figurative one. And you can even nest the two together if you want to. The literal interpretation is that Hugo was the son of a man and a woman who loved him, however something caused the world to end. He survived and used supernatural powers to slowly rebuild the world however due to being a child who never fully learned how the world worked he made assumptions about what things were made of and how they were obtained, thus the 5 strange elements that make everything up. At some point after this he recreated his parents. The Queen was his mother and the Batter was his father. There's actually the implication he was *afraid* of his father to some extent because in the minigame you can play in the loops the enemies all wear baseball caps and use baseball bats and well...The Batter. At some point The Batter came to learn of the nature of the world around him and decided it was his duty to erase what he saw as a mockery of the world as it once was and so set off on his quest for purification, seeing everything he did as a mercy, regardless of how cruel or brutal it was to others. The figurative interpretation is that its a metaphor for a family damaged beyond repair. A mother and a father who both love their son but are incapable of raising and taking care of him. Either extended family members, neighbors, or even complete strangers wind up filling the void in Hugo's life his parents were meant to fulfil and the actual events of the game are Hugo's attempts to understand why his distant mother and scary father are taking him away from all the things and people he cares about, imagining that a ghost or demon that he can't see or understand is making his father act so mean and hurtful.

[@littleyoyo8480]

"This game breaks the forth wall fairly frequently, but lots of it is subtle" Zacharie: Am I a joke to you?

[@YamiTasher]

I discovered OFF via Markiplier when I scrolled way back to his older playlists and got curious. The game is absolutely fascinating, and has many layers. I liked this video, it was interesting to listen to someone's impressions of the game after their playthrough - but there were things you missed/didn't pick up on. I don't want to "um, actually" you but you called the Elsen in the train tunnel "hostile" - which is completely incorrect and is a critical moment in the game that usually has the player beginning to question themselves and the Batter. Being forced to murder someone who doesn't fight back as they call for help over and over is a pretty big tip-off that something...is OFF. Going back to the rooftop where you murdered Japhet, you can find the Judge wandering around aimlessly, pitifully calling out for his dead brother. In regards to the Batter's alternate form when you side with the Judge, Mortis Ghost has confirmed that the Batter has always looked that way, it's just that your perception of him was different to everyone elses. A clue to this can also be found in Sugars room, as when you murder her, she refers to the Batter as a "huge, frightening ducky". This is fascinating for several reasons - it could mean that our perception of the Batter was different because we believed that we were the good guys and therefore we saw in him what we wanted to see. To the people we were murdering, of course they would see us as a monster, and so he was. Siding with the Judge allows the player to finally see the Batter as everyone else can. When the Judge challenges our viewpoint, the mirror is held up and the player is forced to confront the consequenses of all our actions taken so far. Remember, the player is also an entity within the game, only 2 characters can see us - the Judge and Zack, we cannot talk or act on our own - we simply control the Batter. So the game really calls into question who the real murderer is - the Batter, or us. The Batter couldn't have murdered anyone without us controlling him, but the game cannot progress unless we murder things. And all of this is wrapped up in the question: was the Batter right? The Zones were all so very messed up in their own way, with the Guardians of each zone being absolutely batshit in their own way. Dedan was horribly abusive to everyone around him. Japhet was bent on killing as many Elsens as he could because he felt forgotten and rejected and grew to despise his Elsens. Enoch has his Elsen trapped in a cycle of addictive destruction, with a terrible question of how he's able to procude so much sugar if sugar is the product of the burnt corpses of Elsens - where are all these bodies coming from? And on top of all that, the Spectors are in every corner of the Zones, attacking the Batter and Elsens alike. There's no question that there was something terribly wrong with the world - which is why the final decision to side with the Judge or finish what you started with the Batter is so hard. The world was cruel, and painful and full of misery - and if you can't fix a broken world, is it better to simply destroy it and wipe the slate clean? Or leave it be? Edit: Also, bruh, how could you not mention the absolute banger of an OST?

[@miguelottoni4485]

He can say anything about OFF, anything, and he doesn't talk about the songs?? still, it's good to have someone talking about OFF.

[@dubioustheatreyt8096]

Idk if anyone has said this yet, but during the maze before Dedan, you actually need to listen to the music volume. The volume of the music increases in front of the right door.

[@LByJanP]

Very good video, but I can't believe you didn't even mention the music in this game. It's so different to all other game OSTs, it fits the tone of this game perfectly. It ranges from happy to dreamy to melancholic to downright disturbing and frightening. A very unique soundtrack for a very unique game!

[@fyofyoriosity2350]

8:28 Actually, that is one of my personal favourite puzzles; Although I noticed a lot of people struggle with it. Have you ever played a point and click where you have to stand in front of different tunnel entrances, and the correct one makes your torch flicker because of the air draft? Well, if you approach each exit, but do not leave, you get a similar cue; an audio cue! Only on one of the exits each time, the music gets severely louder. I noticed that because I am hypersensitive to sounds (to the point I can't concentrate when I hear someone breathe or an outlet in the same room), and because I like to approach puzzles thinking of the most ways the creator can communicate something to the player, but I find this one particularily interesting because -I- may be really happy with it, but a lot of people hate this puzzle. I think that just goes to show how different people are and enjoy different aspects of gaming, and that makes me hype!

[@Theo-qo7ov]

As long as it doesn't ever fully turn Off, things should be good in the future

[@ethribin4188]

The final fight shows something important. The judge and batter are equals. It is YOU who is the power. The fact the final fight is so easy, no matter which side you choose, shows how much power you the player have. It also means that the batter couldnt have done anything in the game by himself. He could only do them because YOU gave him the power to do so. Meaning, what the batter did was YOUR fault.

[@seraphimyy]

i have been binge watching all ur videos. weird i chose this one to comment but i cannot wait for you to hit 100k and eventually a million. i need more videos from u :D

[@yureiNekoX]

commenting on this, i only just found this video. so im a huge fan of OFF, i was unhealthily obsessed with it when i discovered it ages ago and ive played it probably 20 or 30 times. depending on if you are willing to believe the theory, there is lore in the game about who/what Zach is. there is a series of books in the library before Japhet's fight that describe a story of what is essentially an angel character that defeats an evil king - it was a fairly popular opinion that the character in that story is Zach. theres also hints towards The Batter's true identity in the secret boss. :D edited because i got too excited and forgot what grammar was.

[@JaedenBass]

I love that when a rare OFF related video appears, all us fans collective swarm the video.

[@thaerias]

the fact you havent mentioned the battle soundtrack ONCE is criminal. pepper steak is genuinely one of the coolest melodies ive listened to

[@g.f8342]

Hell yeah,music from 999 . Love how it's used in the second zone of your video

[@g.f8342]

OH MY GOD IT IS IN "THE ROOM" SECTION OF THE VIDEO TOO

[@rae.rarísimo]

8:23 the music gets louder when you get closer to the correct door

[@themetalmario77]

idk why people had so much issues with that puzzle, i beat it in like 1 or 2 minutes

[@fyofyoriosity2350]

11:40 Revisitng the second zone broke my heart. You can find the judge on the rooftop, meowing out to his lungs content hoping that Valerie will come back to life. And the batter has no sense of empathy or sais anything; His goal clearly lies in purification, in destroying what is in his way, uncaring for those that are not. This game is incredible at making you feel uncomfortable with your actions. I think only Undertale made the player question themselves more directly, lightly more efficient because there are different routes for player behavior while OFF is a linear story - But I somewhat prefer the subtlety of being carried by an unreliable narrator and question his perception. I highly recommend you check out the RPG maker scene more! It has a lot of these hidden gems that make you feel different ways. I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend One shot, the classic trio IB/Witches house/Mad father, Yuppie Psycho, Pocket Mirror, and for someone looking for a more emotional journey with less horror, please play the To-the-moon trilogy. It is one of the best representations of neurodivergence I was ever able to play.

[@BlakeLaFae]

i remember watching a lets play of off when i was younger and every so often it drags me back a little.

[@littlered6340]

I will always watch OFF content. This was great! You didn't call out her line about the scary duck, though.

[@JimFaindel]

There's a bunch of games from this era that have stuck in the back of my mind for years. You should check out the much more obscure and artistic Middens and its sequel, Gingiva, whenever you have the time.

[@anonshrimp8299]

There is a theory on Hugo that I like and makes this game a lot easier to understand. Hugo is the chikd of the Batter and Queen. Look at Hugos design. Hes a fraile child whos bald, not buzz cut. Many believe Hugo has cancer. Look at what he says about all the guardians. He talks about how they were gonna do or did all these things. Look at the mom, she is seen showing how she knows all this yet the batter knows nothing except to Purify. What I like to think is Hugo has cancer and the game is a representation of a sad story. The mom and dad argue on how they should treat Hugo. Obvious chemo could work but it could also make him sick or kill him. Tthe Batter is most likely in favor of using Chemo or purifying him, the mom is not. They get into a domestic dispute over this. Meanwhile in amusing maybe other family/friends who are the guardians do what they can to make Hugo happy depsite the parents and Hugos situation. The Queen is shown as a guardian figure, a protector in the game, showing she is trying to Protect Hugo as best as she can. Yet look at the Batter. The batter is shown pretty normal throught out the game and when he purifies Hugo. I like to think we play as a manifestation of Cancer itself, tearing this family apart and runing a families life. Playing a man who tears his family apart. Ruins family ties and in that final scene where we purify Hugo, I like to imagine that we are either the Chemo or Cancer taking Hugo out. Purifying him in the form of his father. At least thats how I like to think this games story would be.

[@ColdSoup88]

I'm surprised you didn't talk about the games amazing soundtrack; it's got to be one of my favorites.

[@bottledwater3936]

you already got my sub the second i heard some sweet hotel dusk ost in the backround

[@MarieAntoon]

Trivia: The Brain from Planet Arous is a 1957 sci-fi movie about flying brains that can possess people and animals and a battle between the good brain and the bad brain.

[@Fandom_Maniac]

I'm glad OFF is getting more recognition, it's a game that I managed to run into on the internet and I'm happy that I did

[@khyrmiee]

after the don't escape series I got interested in your videos, and I must say, so far I really like your summaries especially as this is a game I never knew existed. I was sorta confused in a few moments and this reminded me of a weird game I once watched called the "Knock Knock" at least if I'm not mistaken, recommend you check it out some day! One thing I noticed, the videos so far seemed to just be raw summarises with not much analysis, and it's not bad however I think the extra analysis or your point of view and opinion on the game and it's message (not all have them but some may) could flair things up. anyway good job with the video and have a nice day!