11/9/2023 0 Comments A space for the unbound gameplay![]() ![]() Whilst the majority of the setting and characters are of normal people in a small town, the detail and colour used in the pixel art style breathes so much life into the story, it’s hard not to find it all so endearing. In story and look, A Space for the Unbound felt reminiscent of a great Ghibli movie. Despite that, during your exploration you can pet all the stray cats and give them names, so depending on who you ask, this could be game of the year. With that said, I did appreciate that there were changes in the gameplay during my time. For me it did wane near the end if it was anything that slowed down the progression of the story as there wasn’t too much variety in what I did in my 12 hours of playtime. I could imagine this might not be engaging enough if you’re not sold on the story or the mis-en-scene from the start. As you progress it does increase in difficulty but it never ends up being too tough. These mechanics outside of the exploration (which is mostly curated) are the bulk of the game. In other instances, you’ll eventually have to fight, which is a case of tapping a button combination within a timeframe for attack and click on a bar when it hovers over the green zone at the right time for defence. I don’t know if it was my own excitement for wanting to progress through the story but it did feel samey and uninteresting whenever I had to Spacedive and in true Inception style you can Spacedive within a spacedive. Spacediving does get slightly expanded upon, however later in the game the puzzles got longer slowing down the game. This is solved through the point-and-click style puzzles I previously mentioned – key items, visual cues to do various things in the correct order will trigger the positive outcome you want. The end result is to change how they feel about certain events in their life, other people or their own beliefs. You do this by opening a Magic Red Book that you obtain by playing through the story when prompted to do so near the NPC. To Spacedive is to enter an NPC’s heart/soul where they’re usually facing inner turmoil. Though the real main mechanic is the Spacedive. You have full real-time control of Atma going through town at your own pace, tapping on interactables for context, finding items that could lead to potential puzzles as well as collectibles that aid your bucket list. Out of BoundsĪ Space for the Unbound plays as a 2D adventure game that has similar puzzle mechanics to a point-and-click. ![]() There is some midgame bloat that feels like it artificially lengthens the mystery adding to the convolution but I can’t argue that the pace is consistently slower giving that overall slice-of-life feel that the developers were going for. While the localisation isn’t 100% perfect (I’m looking at you Justin Timberlock), nothing is lost in translation when telling what feels like a deeply personal story that has a fantastical, celestial fairy tale within it. It’s both just enough to educate, but universal enough to relate for any walks of life and it’s something I truly admired when playing. With no personal experience of Indonesian culture, it’s one I felt welcomed into when playing A Space for the Unbound, and the reverence for the country’s own history brought a warmth and comfort that’s hard to capture in games. It shows so much in the characterisations of the townsfolk, Atma, Raya and the other people you meet along the way how much thought went into the emotions Mojiken wanted to convey. Mojiken describes the game as being about overcoming anxiety and depression and a lot of the emotional touch stones do explore those themes. I won’t go much further with the plot as the mystery persists until the last moments of A Space for the Unbound and it’s really the most special and heartfelt aspect. On top of that, signs of the world ending subtly make their way into the day until you can no longer ignore them and have to get to the bottom of the mystery before it’s too late. Though things aren’t as they seem as supernatural happenings occur to Atma, despite being initially oblivious to it. You talk to the townsfolk, pet all the stray cats you can find whilst trying to complete this bucket list. The list varies from collecting bottle caps, beating your high score on your favourite arcade, and even petting the fluffiest animal. You and your girlfriend Raya make a bucket list to complete before growing up. ![]() ![]() Set in rural Indonesia in the 90’s, you play as Atma – your average teenager awaiting their approaching high school graduation. However, that wasn’t the case at all for the game. ![]()
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