He’s indecisive and unsure, frustratingly flaky and detached, and is far far too obsessed with the idea of a Christmas song that almost certainly is a way to deflect on having to reflect too deeply on the real, heartfelt work he’s doing. He also struggles with his own creative output, in some ways far too proud of everything he does, and in some ways ashamed and afraid of it all. He’s a narrative writer for the same definitely-not-real games company (though, as you’ll see, that doesn’t exactly go quite as planned), a singer, songwriter, and the kind of guy who’ll spend hours swiping through dating apps to find The One and obsessing over every match as if this is it. Itsumi is not like me, but she is a lot like a lot of people I care very deeply about, and it’s hard not to feel attached and engaged with what she’s going through. She’s going to make bad choices, do dumb things, react in terrible ways, just like a lot of people would. In any other game, you might be able to prevent that, or mitigate the fallout a little bit. That’s a tough position to be in, and you get the sense pretty early on that things are going to fall apart. She leans on her friends (who we’ll talk about later), but she’s also carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. She’s a classical pianist, with a pretty big concert opportunity coming up, but she’s also in the throes of what seems to be a pretty messy break up. Itsumi is a mess of chaotic queer energy, bouncy and all over the place in the best and the worst ways. We open on one of our protagonists, Itsumi, a social media coordinator for a big games company that I’m sure isn’t supposed to mirror any real-life company. I thought that would help me feel a little detached from the experience. It’s an alienating place at the best of times, filled with culture and people I will never understand. Our story plays out in the heart of downtown LA. But I don’t want to do that, because We Are OFK is just… We Are OFK. If I wanted to break out the marketing dictionary, I’d say it’s a cross-format multimedia experience, an interactive webshow tied to the release of a music EP, that serves as a launching platform for the semi-fictional band OFK. It’s a passive experience at its core, what you’re watching will play out pretty much the same no matter how you interact with it, and the choices you make aren’t particularly consequential.
It is big on narrative, however, taking the form of a 5-episode miniseries, each episode lasting about an hour, give or take.
It’s a little bit of a music game – but it’s certainly not a rhythm game – and it’s a little bit of a choice-based narrative game - but it’s certainly not big on choices. It’s hard to explain, exactly, what We Are OFK is. What I got was a game that hit harder than anything I could’ve imagined. After Xenoblade Chronicles 3 hit a little too close to home, I was looking forward to We Are OFK as a lighter, more casual experience to take the edge off and relax a little bit.