Woke up today feeling like a hater, so here are my thoughts on OFF.
I dunno man, I might be missing something but this just seems like a regular RPG Maker game with stylized graphics and cool music. You know, those default RPG Maker 2003 games with the default blue-haired protagonist where all you really do is walk around and fight random encounters.
The combat suuucks. You can definitely create an interesting battle system in RPG Maker 2003 that isn't just "spam your strongest move for 10 minutes". It's not a fault of the engine as so many people seem to claim. Look at Super Mario RPG - The Seven Sages, which was being developed around roughly the same time.
Some of the puzzles are fine (like that one part where you have to look for quiz answers on a calendar), but too many of them boil down to remembering and inputting numbers. Then you have places like that looping warehouse and the library, which seem to be designed only to waste your time.
I've heard people say that the story makes it all worth it, but ... ??? what story? There's some slight hints of symbolism here and there, but the whole thing seems like exquisite nonsense. If there truly is a meaning behind everything, it's too cryptic for me to care about, but also too structured for me to turn my brain off and go on a crazy ride.
More power to you if it resonated with you or something, but when I read things like "the ending made me cry" I simply have zero idea what people are talking about.
I expected the ending to explain everything, but nope, it just abruptly ends with a "lol you were evil all along >:), anyways here's some copyrighted music".
It should have been either clearer or even MORE avantgarde. It's stuck in a weird middle ground where my only reaction was "Oh, okay. I guess it's over". This whole game feels that way. If you want to make avantgarde nonsense, go full in!
I dunno man, I might be missing something but this just seems like a regular RPG Maker game with stylized graphics and cool music. You know, those default RPG Maker 2003 games with the default blue-haired protagonist where all you really do is walk around and fight random encounters.
The combat suuucks. You can definitely create an interesting battle system in RPG Maker 2003 that isn't just "spam your strongest move for 10 minutes". It's not a fault of the engine as so many people seem to claim. Look at Super Mario RPG - The Seven Sages, which was being developed around roughly the same time.
Some of the puzzles are fine (like that one part where you have to look for quiz answers on a calendar), but too many of them boil down to remembering and inputting numbers. Then you have places like that looping warehouse and the library, which seem to be designed only to waste your time.
I've heard people say that the story makes it all worth it, but ... ??? what story? There's some slight hints of symbolism here and there, but the whole thing seems like exquisite nonsense. If there truly is a meaning behind everything, it's too cryptic for me to care about, but also too structured for me to turn my brain off and go on a crazy ride.
More power to you if it resonated with you or something, but when I read things like "the ending made me cry" I simply have zero idea what people are talking about.
I expected the ending to explain everything, but nope, it just abruptly ends with a "lol you were evil all along >:), anyways here's some copyrighted music".
It should have been either clearer or even MORE avantgarde. It's stuck in a weird middle ground where my only reaction was "Oh, okay. I guess it's over". This whole game feels that way. If you want to make avantgarde nonsense, go full in!