THEJUDGE'S PROFILE

author=sweetoleander
Possible bug? Before you defeat Dedan, or enter his office, really, there's a notice saying that there's a hidden item... I tried everywhere to find it and it did not appear.

author=argh
Hm, alright. Also, there's another (minor) bug: In Damien, interacting with the left arrow on the train doesn't do anything.

Here are my stream-of-consciousness thoughts while playing so far. Apologies if they sound cranky or jumbled, they are stream-of-consciousness after all.

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Not liking the music. Doesn't sound anything like OFF's. Why did you feel the need to change them in the first place, when the game seems to cover mostly the same areas?

"If it is of a reasonable request"? What?

"omnipotential"? Is the Judge just making up big words to sound smart or something?

Why doesn't the Batter help the Judge against the spectres? You draw attention to it but he doesn't explain. Seems out of character for him to not get in on the murderings. Maybe this is a plot point later on, I dunno.

Aw, equipment is actual armor? That's kind of disappointing, I was looking forward to see how you visualize the auras and colors.

I see you have not solved the problem of greyed-out text being unreadable in the menu. Intentional?

Elsens are too lively. Too many exclamation points and complete sentences.

Actual battle animations, hooray!

The smoke coming out of the rocks is a nice touch.

oh god random encounters why

Judge says there's no meat on his bones, so Alain says he'll eat him "instead"? What? I feel like that should be "anyway" or some insistence that he's lying. It doesn't make linguistic sense as-is.

Boss battle already? Hm. I kind of liked how sparse they were in OFF, to be honest. At least you actually let us see their weaknesses. (Stats would be nice too, though.)

So the Judge is casually mowing down burnts as well? I guess he's no better than the Batter then.

Crazy butcher burnt was kind of... underwhelming, honestly? He just sounds like an ordinary psychopath. That's not really the impression I got from the burnts; they seem more sympathetic in OFF or at least more... bizarre. Some of them don't even seem to realize they're hurting you, and most know there's something wrong with them and beg for help. I personally find that creepier because it's just so alien and dissonant, plus I feel more conflicted about killing them. This is, ironically, easier to deal with. It's just, okay, crazy evil murderer, I know how this goes. He's a stereotype of evil/craziness, and the familiarity of that caricature blunts some of the impact, I think. (A big part of psychological horror is the unexpected/unknowable, after all.) Also, he still has an identifiable face, which clashes with the established style of that being the first thing to go. Maybe I'm supposed to notice something fishy here and this is a plot point, I don't know.

Batter battle is interesting, if incredibly easy. I wonder if choosing whether or not to spar with him will have effects later on. Interactive story?

"Zacharie, you are not making within any reasonable region of sense." Neither is the Judge I'm afraid. "Not saying anything within a reasonable region of sense" maybe? It's still really awkward-sounding though, I'd reword it.

I thought Zacharie's cat mask was Valerie's face? How does he have it prior to Zone 2?

No post office puzzle, you just straight-up give the password? I am disappointed.

The burnt elsen in the post office says the exact same things as the one that attacks the Batter? That's bizarre. Guess this is some kind of alternate reality where the Judge does stuff before the Batter.

...Apparently not because the Batter's with Dedan even though the password guy was still alive! How is that supposed to work? Am I supposed to be utterly baffled right now???

The new flesh maze puzzle was nice, if a bit simple.

Hm, so you're foreshadowing The Room properly. Okay.

So beating Dedan to a bloody pulp fixed him? Hooray, violence solves everything, as always. That seems, uh, kinda contrary to the themes of OFF.

I'm afraid the game isn't really grabbing me. So far it's just rehashing the beats of OFF, right down to flashes of Not-Hugo. The gameplay isn't even significantly better; I'm still auto-ing through random encounters and boss battles are still just damage races. You've only changed it from a super-easy jRPG into a standard jRPG, at best. Maybe this is just early-game lack of options talking, I dunno.

The Zone 2 pan is kind of weird. There's a period where the pan stops but nothing happens, so there's this awkward delay before the "Zone 2" animation finally starts, and by the time it does, the pan has stopped so it loses some of the effect. Intentional?

There's no "read" prompt for the title-less cat book, so the yes/no choice is odd. Maybe change it to "read/don't read"?

Why are there monsters in the library if Batter already cleared it out? What is the Judge fighting, come to think of it? I guess you're running on the logic that not all the things the Batter fights are spectres?

There are few things more frustrating than random encounters during a puzzle.

I still don't have any clue how to do that card puzzle.

author=argh

takes it's own turn

That should be "its".

It is a little rambly but it is better. Right now it just sounds pretty identical to the plot of OFF, though ("It leaves you questioning just what goal your working for, just what are you doing with the judge, and why are you given control of this mysterious grinning cat.").

author=prince_matsuba
Review time!

Like many, I fell in love with Mortis Ghost's OFF after my first playthrough of it, and not being a fan of game spin-offs I was at first reluctant when I happened across HOME in the original game's Tumblr tags. Greedily pining for more exposure to OFF's endearing cast, I found myself dabbling at this yet-to-be-completed "byproduct" of it with a pinch of salt. As TheJudge (the game-maker, not to be mistaken with the feline character of OFF going by the label of 'Judge') reiterates, I would also like to remind anyone who decides to give this game a shot that playing the original OFF game is integral to getting the most out of your experience with this spin-off.

The many commodities of this game begins with the player controlling the dear beloved, well-spoken feline JUDGE, when in the mass majority of OFF spin-offs it seems that Zacharie the items merchant is the go-to guy for anyone's ideal follow-up fan game. As you progress through the game, you find yourself once again condescending upon the Elsens, the timid denizens of the cacotopia that is Mortis Ghost's OFF world, while embarking on an undertaking to foil a deadly plot which avid OFF-lovers are aware is an imminent menace to the fate of this world.

By the blessing of TheJudge, we are treated to several other pleasant alterations, including puzzles that are far less challenging and much less time-consuming, plus increased severity in the difficulty of the turn-based battles. This provides a better balance for your enjoyment of the plot itself -- for if you're not the brightest bulb like myself, a few of the puzzles of OFF probably left you floundering for an hour or two at a time, unable to progress until enlightenment was shed by means of pushing to your cerebral limits, or simply a walkthrough. And did you think the original 3 zones were nasty? Wait until you explore TheJudge's fourth: it's perfectly wretched (and, incidentally, one of the reasons why this spinoff is not recommended for those unable to tolerate triggering themes such as suicide and drug intake.)

Asides from the somewhat clumsily-imitated dialogue for some of the original characters, the only real downside to this spin-off is that it's currently still in the works. But, if you're as patient for your rewards as I am for mine, I suggest camping out and waiting for TheJudge to complete the game: I have an inkling that it will be quite worth the wait.