We Are OFK Review: Music to Your Ears

In the same way that films like Nope and La La Land are about films, We Are OFK feels like it’s about creating music, or perhaps more broadly but also more accurately: how painful and hard it is to create art with people you love, including yourself. And I played and replayed We Are OFK about a dozen times from its release to this chilly day. It wasn’t intentional for me to have such a long time with the game but it was ultimately for the better, I think. Life kept interrupting not only my review but my memories of We Are OFK. 

Groundhog Daze

The game is memorable but I kept replacing my immediate memories of my playthroughs with other activities, causing me to forget all my time with the band members of OFK. I kept hanging out with a chill band, like some kind of distant, digital roadie, and then forgetting all about them, only to replay the game again a few weeks later. I was happy to meet Itsumi, Jey, Luca, Carter, and the cute and digital Debug each time I returned to the dreamy, hazy kaleidoscope world of We Are OFK.

OFK is a digital band, not unlike Gorillaz or Hatsune Miku, and We Are OFK is the group’s story, with artistic flair and flourish all throughout. What we’re left with is a sort of magical realism-fueled exploration of what it means to be an artist with friends, ambitions, goals, and all the suffering and struggles that come bundled with it all. 

More than OK

Think The Great Gatsby except it’s real, visceral, and authentic, even when the virtual lens in which the story is dispensed. And it’s honestly really beautiful.

We Are OFK is a story and an experience more than anything. The gameplay segments primarily consist of verbal and text conversations with other characters. There are segments that require more button input but this isn’t a game built around Game Over screens. 

Turn on, Tune in, and Drop out

We Are OFK is a game about life and how hard it can be to persevere as not just an artist but as a friend to others – and as an authentic human being. 

And it’s a special story told across five episodes. Each episode has exciting and low parts, including mundane moments, and for me, that’s why it’s so special. I loved seeing Luca sit and stew in his creative constipation over his three thousand words of work that were due for his day job, which is as a writer for a games company. I’ve sat and anguished over plenty of words before, including these. But I was also able to relate to Luca’s happier moments, when the joy of creating content, for work or pleasure, did happen.  We Are OFK showcases people and music and all the messy parts in between. And even though it isn’t a game about chasing high scores, it’s still one of the most special games I’ve ever played. 

Dream of OFK-ation 

There’s certainly a parasocial danger to be considered when discussing a title like We Are OFK, and that could very well be a danger in a future with more titles like We Are OFK, but it’s just not something that ever appears in this title. We Are OFK feels like a project put together by people that not only love creating art but also want to get more to the heart of how beautiful and messy it is during the making-of process, and that’s something cool people like me are always going to love. 

We Are OFK is a beautiful game, with colors and emotions not just in the words and vibes, but also in the title’s visuals. Every color missing from the gray games of 2011 is right here in We Are OFK. Gameplay mechanics are largely diegetic, relying on cell phone texting screens, arcade cabinet screens, etc, outside of verbal conversations. I think We Are OFK strikes the perfect balance in visual style and communicating information to players. 

Communication is Key 

Dialogue trees may be the main way this game is played, but it feels good to control and move across menus. I never felt pulled out of the game’s story or music, which has a new track showcased toward the end of every episode. The game’s episodic release structure didn’t just serve as a storytelling device, with some time passing for characters in between episodes, but it also functioned as they way OFK debuted the new music as it released as well. We Are OFK is an interesting and unique title. It would be easy to label it as a cynical marketing ploy but I’d argue differently; especially since the video game industry already has music integration happening at higher levels (ie: the massive concert events in Fortnite.) 

I hope that games like We Are OFK are here to stay. I want more games from the band and would like to see this become a genre that grows over time. It could be a cool way for indie artists to market themselves too, especially in a world that’s already so digitally integrated anyway. A video game really doesn’t seem like that much of a jump from different platform-specific means of fan interaction, like TikTok and Twitter. 

Breakdown

Game: We Are OFK

Developer: Team OFK

Availability: PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch, PC

Reviewed on PlayStation 5

Pros:

+ Beautiful, colorful visuals turn We Are OFK into a dreamy version haze of LA

+ Sleek and minimalistic menus make accessing and enjoying the game’s story easy and fun 

+ I love OFK’s music! And getting to know them. You probably will too! 

Cons:

- Mundane moments can be magical but there are times where it felt like things could have been trimmed down a little 

Final Thoughts 

We Are OFK isn’t for everyone and I am glad because it was made for me and other people. I love when games take risks and chances, and We Are OFK does so by playing it safe and focusing on what it’s about: people making art while trying not to fall apart. And that’s not only beautiful in theory, but the game is to - across nearly every moment of tension and release across the five episodes of We Are OFK.

Reviewed by Juno Stump