The Surreal Family Tree of a French R.P.G.
Off was freeware, meaning it was not available for distribution on popular digital stores like Steam. Neither its designer nor composer were known figures in the video game industry. And it was in French.
But nearly two decades later, after word of mouth among developers and fans, Off's footprints can be found in many R.P.G.s — Omori, Everhood, Lisa the Painful and the 2015 hit Undertale — that feature surreal stories and metacommentary. This week, a remastered version of Off was released for the PC and the Switch.
'It was never supposed to be a big game,' said Off's designer, Mortis Ghost, who primarily works as a comic book artist in Belgium. He added: 'I was like, if I've got 50 players, I'm really happy about it. That was my expectations at the time, so everything since is crazy.'
The interest in Off was propelled by developers familiar with its game engine, RPG Maker, and fans of similarly ethereal R.P.G.s like Yume Nikki and the Mother series.
Over time, a community formed. Fans created English translations, including a popular one shared in 2011 on the forums of a gathering hub for fans of Mother, known as Earthbound outside Japan. (The remastered version is based on that translation.) Without the language barrier, Off's popularity rose.
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