if i had been in some kind of solo recital in middle school where my belt broke and my pants fell down and i tripped down a stairwell directly into a cart full of horse manure, it would still be less embarrassing than the run i lost to gaibon on account of not knowing what he even does when left alive for more than ten seconds

OFF was first up just because i've heard so much about it being an influence on undertale. space funeral and the rest of the stuff on deck all comes from that old arcade review piece by the catamites - back when i first read it, i went on a trawl for everything that was name-dropped and it's all been sitting around since.

helen's mysterious castle is definitely on my radar though, along with the lieat games. i feel like completing rpg maker stuff is pretty realistic, i should be enjoying my collection more but these days it just stresses me out how everything is 10x as expensive and all hardware is slowly dying aaa

i'm still mulling over how i feel about OFF. though, even if i hated the game, i think it lends some interesting context to undertale, and generally slots into my read that toby was impressively meticulous in surgically removing the exact best parts from his inspirations while leaving the ineffectual and vestigial behind.

there's a lot in the in-between that i'd like to take some time with or revisit before i say anything, but i do feel like the ending warrants some comments right off the bat hah hah see it's a pun. anyway that's PM material on account of the colossal spoilers