We Are OFK Review (PS5)

Here for the tea

As promised, with We Are OFK’s episodes all out I’m back to bring in my full thoughts. Originally, I was actually planning on playing as the episodes came out, but that didn’t work out and just played them all when I had a couple hours free. So how is this game, now that all episodes are out?

We Are OFK is an episodic game that follows four people that ends up coming together to eventually form a band named We Are OFK. Also, this might become an actual virtual band so this also doubles as a biopic for their first EP. Featuring five episodes and five songs, each chapter essentially focuses on one character, with another taking up a secondary character spot. Though, it’s pretty clear now that Itsumi is supposed to be the main character here. The first two episodes focused mainly on Itsumi and Luca, and I can gladly say that we do get more insight on Jey and more importantly the enigma that is Carter.

While this game does tell the story of how the band was formed, this mainly acts as a way for the character’s stories to be told and for you to get to know them as you take a peek into the windows of their lives. The first episode brings everyone together (even though it’s only Itsumi and Jey that needed to meet for the first time) planting the seeds of starting a band together as well as introducing us to all the characters. And from then on, each episode brings in more, as they struggle with their love lives, struggle with personal issues, and struggle with expectations and/or pressure from others in their life. Though, it’s a shame that the band aspect is put on the backburner. When it does come up, like Luca’s struggle of writing songs and finishing them, it was interesting.

The first episode was indeed rough, but We Are OFK did get better as the episodes went on. In my opinion, Episode 3 and 4 were the best episodes as it really did well with showing the inner struggles of Jey and Carter. As well as the fallouts that happen being very real. Episode 5 though feels like it both drags the pace down and needed another episode to better round out the story. Which I don’t think it helps that there’s a text adventure that pops up throughout the last episode and that Episode 4 acts like a filler episode in addition to finally putting Carter to the forefront.

I do also think the timeskips between chapters hurt the game in a small capacity. There’s at least a week between each chapter and you have to try and play catch-up in the form of pinpointing where everyone is at (like emotionally and generally) and then who these new side characters are to them. Which, I think, is mainly due to this written in a way that you’re looking into a friend group that is already established and have their own inside jokes.

If you’re looking for some gameplay in We Are OFK, there’s not that much. The most you’ll see are dialogue choices while characters are talking or texting someone. The dialogue choices mainly act as choosing what you think they should say or steer the conversation towards. Aside from two or three instances, these won’t be referenced again, but there is a hidden system in place that determines which character sends you a voicemail at the end of the game (which will be annoying for those looking to 100% this game).

There’s also some gameplay when the song featured in the chapter comes along at the end of the chapter, with each having their own minigame of sorts with it. Like Follow/Unfollow has a variety of actions that we control Itsumi during while Infuriata has you control a line going through dishes on a table and a cursor that breaks pieces off of structures around a broken fury-like Jey.

As for the songs, this mainly depends on if you like the genre. I actually do, and was part of the reason why I wanted to pick this up. If you actually listen to the lyrics, or look them up, they might not make sense other than “hey it sounds cool together” or cringey, but the songs were pleasant to listen to. For me, it fell into the category of songs that I listen to when I just want to zone out or to just have it on background noise while writing.

Also, I’m like 99% sure my favorite song is Footsteps.

Can I also say that Jey has such a nice singing voice? I’m not sure if this was just a daydream, since it doesn’t seem Jey sings in front of others and often does just sit in the karaoke room just to sit in there, but like her voice! This is just my opinion, but she sounds so much better than Luca’s unfiltered voice (and maybe even after?) and she has a unique inflection while she sings that just made me want to hear her sing more.

After playing all of the songs in We Are OFK, I honestly still stand behind my wish when only the first two episodes were out. I still wished these just had more in them, either in the interactivity department or just more to tie in with what happened in the chapter that it’s featured in. I do think Follow/Unfollow and Footsteps was best in terms of tying into the chapter and being interactive.

Verdict

Overall, I did enjoy the majority of We Are OFK. There were definitely parts that I cringed at, the characters really were frustrating at times, and I do wish that we didn’t get around a week timeskip between chapters, but I did still like the story we got and the characters. I do actually wish we saw more on how the band was formed together though. Like how did they came up with their name (and what OFK is supposed to mean), how their first commissioned song went, and just overall people’s reception to their EP before ending on the hopeful note we get.

All in all, We Are OFK is a love it or hate it type of game. If you enjoy (or at least don’t mind) We Are OFK’s music and writing, and enjoy games where you’ll mainly be watching things play out with the occasional dialogue choice, this is worth picking up.