The alluring weirdness of Tales From Off-Peak City

I don't know how it originally started, but I think I was around 11 years old and an older cousin of mine was staying over. Among the plethora of junky fast food ordered in for the evening was a tuna pizza. It was magical and it's something I make every now and again at home, smothered with veggies and turned into a beautiful, towering mess. There's something equally fulfilling when tasked with making similarly loaded pizzas in Off-Peak City, whether you use mushrooms or glowing worms.

That's not how it all begins though. You start off on a small boat with two mysterious figures, who give you the task of stealing a prized saxophone. It just happens to be stored in a pizzeria, on the corner of July Avenue and Yam Street. Don't be alarmed, the names of these roads are the most normal thing about this game.

As you begin assuming a fake identity by creating pizzas and delivering them to the locals, you end up learning about the weird connections between the different characters in this world. Warning: like the real world, everyone is weird in their own unique way. But this game takes things even further. The proportions are slightly off, the faces sometimes look scarily realistic even though they're intentionally impassive, and the cool, original dialogue presentation occurs with the sounds of different musical instruments.

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