Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has taken the year by storm for knowing how to channel the spirit of classic JRPGs and give them a contemporary twist and a high-budget project finish. Exactly what a nostalgic generation of the Final Fantasy from the first two PlayStations wants. But many others, who grew up with JRPGs beyond the Final Fantasy of those two generations and who have not stopped playing the genre, feel that something is missing in the game. We miss it truly feeling like a JRPG.
Because JRPGs are more than turn-based battles, anime aesthetics, and stories about saving the world. In fact, they don’t have to be any of these things. Something that was masterfully demonstrated by a Belgian game in 2008 that couldn’t have a more peculiar name: Off.
One of the most interesting JRPGs of the 00s
Developed by Unproductive Fun Time, a team made up of two people, Mortis Ghost and Alias Conrad Coldwood, the game makes us control El Bateador, a man dressed like a baseball player with a single purpose: to purify the world. To do this, he will have to exterminate all the spirits he encounters along the way, but also those who command, produce, and control them. All with the aim of making the world pure again.
The game, since its release, became an obsession for certain online communities, especially those who love JRPGs that were on platforms like Tumblr. Although originally published in French, its translation into English allowed it to reach a wider audience, becoming one of the most popular games of its year.
Off was created in RPG Maker 2003 and was inspired by games like Final Fantasy, Silent Hill 2, or Killer 7, as well as the novel Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie, which already suggests the particular strangeness of the game. But it can also make something evident: it is a game made without many resources and that, in not a few ways, can be difficult to play today. This is something that Fangamer has thought would be perfect for a remaster.
With Mortis Ghost at the helm, although without Alias Conrad Coldwood, this remaster of Off is the same game, but more polished. The combat now feels better and is more technical, the graphics are in high definition, and there is more optional content for those who played the original. The only substantial change is the soundtrack, which replaces the original with a new one composed for the occasion by Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale and Deltarune. Both games are heavily influenced by Off.
An example of what a remaster and a JRPG should be
This remaster respects the essence of the original, being the optimal way to play Off today. Perhaps the only Western JRPG that deserves to be called this way for anyone who is a lover of JRPGs due to the depth and interest of its battles and narrative.
Anyone who enjoys RPGs, experimental games, or works of art that play with the boundaries of what is real and what is fiction should play Off. A game full of subtleties, that constantly puts the player in uncomfortable and interesting situations, and that should not go unnoticed. Not in the year of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Because everything that is said about that one applies to Off as well, and even in a more genuine way. Because Off may be the best JRPG of its generation. And it’s not even Japanese.
