Part 26: The Queen

Welcome back.



Music - Brain Plague (Slow Rewind)

It's been so, so long since we last saw Zacharie. Let's talk to him immediately.



: I believe what's floating behind you is the final save block. Perhaps it would be wise to record your progress one last time...

: Before you enter that door... And face the Queen...

: Eh eh eh.

: Alas, the time has come for you to spend the golden fruits of your carnage.



Zacharie is correct, this is the point of no return. He sells all of the endgame equipment, and it is obscenely expensive. We aren't going to buy anything this time, we're going in exactly how we are, with the things we already have. We're going to face the Queen as ourselves.



"He who prevails over himself is twice victorious."



Well then.



Let's go.







The long hallway is still here, and unchanged.



Music - The Woman of Your Dreams

But now we come to the foot of an endless flight of stairs. The top is the home of the Queen.







: The wait for your arrival has been a long one...

: But your way was in vain. You will do naught but raise trouble here. Return home.



: That's what I did. This here is the cradle of my father.

: Your guardians have fallen. You're now a Queen of a kingdom that no longer exists.



: Why have you destroyed the nation that I have rebuilt?



: You've never been in this place to do even the slightest thing. Your role was to take care of him. You have failed your task.

: Now, because of you, I must complete my sacred mission.



: I have done all this for him. I truly wish for my children to be happy.

: We were so busy preparing the birthday party that we forgot who it was for.



: You have ruined the carnival, Batter. I will not let you lay a hand on the son we have brought into the world.

: Today, you will fall.





Boss Music - The Meaning of his Tears

This is it. This is the true source of evil in this world, the Queen.



The name of the Queen puzzled me for a long time, so I'm going to include this quote from RoeCocoa without further comment:

"'Vader' is German for 'father,' and 'eloha' is Hebrew for lowercase-g 'god.' It can refer to one god out of many, or a false god; capital-G 'God' is often designated with the plural 'Elohim.'"



Interestingly enough, the Queen has a full compliment of Add-ons as well. They run support roles for her the same as ours do for us. I can't help but consider the shapes of the Add-ons here. The Queen's are elaborate and beautiful like herself, while the Batter's are purity in its most simple form, just like he is.



Immediately the Queen gets an attack off on us. But, the way she attacks is very special. The entire screen turns black.



She cuts us with words, letting out her horrible hissed whisper each time. Each of her attacks does around 150 damage and inflicts a status effect that seems to fit with what she says. Asking us if we've filled our lives with beauty can cause blindness.





Do you recall how much I've stressed the importance of poison in this game? This is why. All of the final bosses in this game are extremely succeptible to poison, and the damage scales to how much health they have.



My primary strategy here is to inflict poison on everyone in her party and let them bleed dry.





Refusing us dessert is infuriating, and can cause the furious status.





Excellent, her Add-ons are slowly becoming poisoned. It won't be long until they start dropping.





Her nagging complaints can cause sleep.







These words are powerful. They cause 120 damage to everyone in our party.





There, the first Add-on in her party, the one in the middle, is gone. I'm targeting the one on the left now.





And down he goes. You can see the Add-on in the right taking 61 poison damage every few seconds in the shots above.



This attack has no status effect, it just does a great deal more damage than the previous attacks. All I can think is that the truth truly does hurt.





Her final Add-on fades away.



It's time to focus on the Queen, who I've already poisoned.



She's begun taking nearly 300 damage per turn from the poison. It is absolutely devestating to her health.





These words are literally poisonous to us.



But it's too late, for her.



No words can save her now.











Music - The Woman of Your Dreams

: I even made a big cake for the party tonight...

: Do you want some coffee... my love...?

: Queen of the flies, it's time to join your disciples. It all went wrong. Time to forget about it and dream sweet dreams.







I don't feel right about that, about any of this. She seemed to love the Batter to her very last breath.





Music - The Race of a Thousand Ants

We appear in a blood-stained version of the save room. Zacharie and the save block are gone. Far in the distance we can hear the sound of the music box playing faintly.

Our only option is to go forward.







The music is growing louder with every step we take.













Boss Music - The Race of a Thousand Ants (Safe)

Oh, no. No no.



Please no, I'm begging you.



Every bar is filling up. The Batter demands action. But I can't do it.



Hugo does not attack us. He's a baby. He sits and weeps. His only action is to defend.



I can't. I just can't do it.



Batter, if this is the path you choose, walk it yourself.













Why did we have to kill a child?









Music - No Music

With that, the blood drains from the walls. We've purified The Room. Hugo is gone.







All that's left is this long, strange stretch of hallway.







: I must say that I had placed the blindest of confidences, the solidest of hopes and the most sincere belief in you. We can well say that I have erred to the bones. But the real betrayer is rather the one who lies beyond the eye of the cat.

: What have you done, Panzer?

: Is the opaque mist of the sceneristic frame really your excuse for killing wife and child? You have not purified this place. You have destroyed, eradicated it. You have immersed it into a pristine nothingness.

: It's better like that.

: I should not have lent you my hand. I should have detected the black flame that consumed your soul from the beginning.

: Panzer, join me. Expiate the sins with me that we are guilty of by preventing this monster from completing his work.

: Don't do that. I need you in order to purify this world.

: The time has now come to render your final and futile judgement.



Now we have a choice. We can side with the Batter and enable him to complete his mission of purification.



Or we can side with the Judge and repent for our sins in helping destroy this world.

I considered opening this up to a vote initially, but I already know the outcome. I know that every one of you reading right now wishes for me to side with the Judge. How could anyone possibly side with the Batter after murdering Hugo? After beating down the Queen as she threw herself at us in order to protect her child?



As the puppeteer, I can. I can and I must, for the simple reason that I must show it to you.









Final Boss Music - Avatar Beat

And there it is, the final boss for the first ending of OFF. It is Pablo, our best friend and guide through the world.



The Judge is also extremely weak to poison, so it's the first thing we do.





He's taking 200 damage per turn from the poison, you can see it here just before Omega manages to strike him.



Regarding the Judge's attacks: I'm sorry to tell you, I hate to say it but



He's only a cat. 90 damage or so is about all he can manage to hit us with. He doesn't stand a chance.





Not a chance.



Music - No Music









He's gone now. Everyone is gone. Except for us, and the Batter.



And this switch.











Credits Music - Judy Garland - Over The Rainbow

The credits roll.

Let me make it clear now, if I hadn't before, this game has three endings. We will be seeing the credits three separate times, so for this viewing let me say, these credits have nothing special. They are black and white, with black screens between each card. I'll be showing them in full later when something interesting happens.





At the end, we're put back on the main menu. In the next two updates I'll be covering the other two endings of the game, as well as showing the full credits sequence.


I know this update is quite long, but before I end it, I'd like to address two important things we've just seen in this ending.

The first item is that I'd like you to consider the layout of the final rooms:




Second, we have just seen the mistranslated line. Which line was it?

Well, it was this one:



It is actually “I will not let you lay a hand on the son that has brought us into the world”.

Here is the original tumblr post by the translator of the game. So long as you stay only on this one page, you should be safe from spoilers for the remaining two endings.

I'm going to refrain from comment for now as I'd like to see what all of you in the thread make of this without swaying your analysis.


Next time: We'll be completing the secret ending of the game. I hope you'll join me then.