How much control should players have over the game they’re playing? Should the player be responsible for micromanaging the decisions of every citizen in a city? Should they set the course for a single hero’s journey? Are there times when the most engaging gameplay is more passive, allowing the player to exert only minimal influence on the story as it unfolds?
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We Are OFKis a gorgeous music biopic / visual novel with minimal player intervention other than dialog choices. Despite this more passive style of gameplay,We Are OFKtells an enthralling story about youth, art, and the hardships of following one’s dream in a world that often doesn’t care. With so much setting the game apart from other video games, it’s easy to see those elements that make the game great. Here are some of the things we loved aboutWe Are OFK.
7Beautiful Art
We Are OFKis an incredibly good-looking game. This is absolutely necessary since it’s a visual novel / interactive film that borders on not being a game at all. If the visuals didn’t hold up, players wouldn’t be willing to stare at them for hours, as they do withthe best games in the genre.
Thankfully,We Are OFKis undeniably gorgeous.Virtually every artistic choice made by its design team is spot-on, creating a soft, mesmerizing version of LA that it’s impossible not to get sucked into. The absence of conventional gameplay doesn’t matter when things look this good. The excellence of the game’s imagery includes its fantastic character designs as well as its simple but compelling setting, and the overall visual effect is as cohesive as it is powerful.
6Captivating Soundtrack
We Are OFKis about a fictional band, so the music has to be awesome, and it is. Not only are the band’s actual sounds great, butthe music and sound design throughout are stellar.Perhaps the best thing about the soundtrack is its ability to effortlessly capture and create moods. There’s a lot of pressure on the soundtrack in this game, not only because the story revolves around a band (making music an obvious centerpiece) but also because the story is one that lends itself to musical manipulation.
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It’s no secret that a song can affect the way players feel about a scene, and with such a delicate emotional story–the aspirations of young people crashing headlong into capitalist demands–the wrong choice of music could have spoiled many impactful moments, effectively killing the entire project. Thanks to the game’s wonderful score, however, that never happens, and players are instead treated to one of themost soothing soundtracks around.
5Storytelling
We Are OFKis presented episodically, and while it may not bethe longest story of its kind,it still has plenty to offer. While there are many games that have been released or been divided into episodes,We Are OFKtreats the idea in a more concrete and literal fashion. Not only is the player’s input limited, allowing them to experience many events as a viewer rather than an active participant–with all the pleasure and worry that may cause–it directly mirrors the experience of streaming a show.
When the player pauses the game, a timer is even displayed at the bottom of the screen to show how much time is left to the current episode. It would be easy to get too carried away by this premise and make the entire experience gimmicky rather than engaging, butWe Are OFKnever crosses that line.
4Characterizations
Luca is a game developer who dreams of making music but struggles with his anxiety. Carter is a VFX genius who struggles with bottling their feelings. Itsumi is dissatisfied with her current job as a social media manager and dreams of being a concert pianist. Jey is a sometimes intimidating audio producer who’s wary of the friendships between the others.
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The game’s characterizations feel authentic at all times, which couldn’t be more important for this kind of game.The motivations, backstories, and emotions of the characters are convincingly developed and consistently maintained.There are no jarring moments in which a character’s actions seem completely inexplicable and wrong. Decisions are always grounded in what the characters want and what they’re feeling, which makes immersing oneself in the story easy.
3Music Video Minigames
Each chapter ends with a minigame centered around the band’s newest single. These games are all basic, both in their concept and their controls, and there aren’t any major stakes associated with performance in them. While some players may be turned off by this chill presentation, it perfectly suitsWe Are OFK.Great slice-of-life gamesusually have more interactivity than this, but that’s not for the worse.
This isn’t a frantic party game:it’s a relationship simulator and visual novel about the fruition and failure of dreams.White-knuckle platforming and button-mashing don’t have a place here, so the fact that the music video minigames keep things breezy is to the game’s credit. The relaxed pacing and limited control of the game aren’t bugs; they’re features, and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the music video minigames.
2Minimalist Gameplay
The gameplay inWe Are OFKis one of its most divisive features because, from a certain point of view, there almost isn’t any. Mechanically, the player’s only engagement with the story is limited almost exclusively to choosing the occasional dialog option. This includes both spoken and text options, the former using a 10-second timer to force the player to make decisions at the moment rather than dwell on them the way they can with texts.
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The player’s lack of control over events directly mirrors the protagonists' lack of control over their careers and lives.Yes, they make critical choices along the way that dramatically shape events, but they’re as often at the mercy of other people’s decisions and the whims of the world as they are picking the fruits of their own decision-making. Putting the player in a similar position allows them to experience an emotional and artistic journey just as fraught and exciting.
1Debug
Debug is a holographic cat, which instantly makes him one of the coolest characters in the game. An adorable black void with glowing blue eyes and a swishy tale, semi-translucent thanks to his holographic nature,Debug is just the cute and iconic mascot the game needs.
It’s a testament to the game’s writing that it does Debug justice, letting players enjoy the cyber-cat’s presence without distracting from the emotional highs and lows of the main cast and the plot developments that are supposed to be the focus. That said, it’s always nice to haveanother great video game cat.
We Are OFKis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
