A Space for the Unbound: A thrilling slice of life tale

Usually when we talk about clichés, sometimes we associate them with works that appeal to a formula that is already well known to everyone and that, in the end, delivers a lukewarm experience. With “A Space for the Unbound”, Indonesian studio Mojiken proves otherwise by using a pre-established foundation of successful works and delivering a captivating and moving story.

Welcome back to the 90’s

The game follows a “slice of life” style that helps show the world in which it takes place. In it, you step into the shoes of the young Atma who is helping his friend Nirmala in the development of “The Tale of the Star Princess”, where she finds herself in a creative block to advance. At first there aren’t many details about the two characters, but it’s all told during the game’s story.

A story that is very well told here and goes well with the plot that evolves and captures, entertains and moves the player, accompanied by very well produced scenarios in pixel art that surprises with the richness of detail and even has animated cutscenes. It’s a feast for the eyes.

And, for being a “slice of life”, the characters that make up the world are also very unique and very fun, but they have their share of personal problems, where the game addresses a lot about introspection. And here is another positive point of the game, because you have a journey through what are appearances and what are emotions and all with the help of excellent scenarios.

The soundtrack also gets into the dance and does a good job with the songs and showing Indonesian culture through the styles presented in the game. Of course, it’s something very superficial but it’s still curious to get know the musical style of another country in a game.

Cracks in the sky

The gameplay is not complex, but it brings some different ideas to amuse the player: where normally, in other games that are focused on the narrative, they bring you a “Visual Novel” style, here you control the characters walking around the city. And as I said before, the visuals help a lot in this journey of getting to know the various places in the city.

To help even more with this idea, we also have several moments when it is necessary to press sequences of buttons and also press commands at the right time for some tasks, which is a lot of fun in many moments.

But, what happens is that, with the comings and goings of the story and the lack of a fast travel feature to certain points in the city, these several moments in which the use of these button sequence mini-games end up getting a little tiring.

What could only be shown the first time to give context to the player and then only show up as an animation performing what is necessary, turns out to having to repeatedly make sequences for a simple objective and this ends up becoming more prominent in the later part of the game.

It’s not exactly something that spoils the game experience, but it can bore the player ans also the streamer’s audience.

“A Space for the Unbound”: A tale for everyone

With “A Space for the Unbound” being, technically, a simple game, it does not present any difficulties to be played even in the most humble settings, which is good for those who want to broadcast the game in a live stream.

And broadcasting the game can be a good experience for the audience, as having a captivating story and several moments to meet the other characters that inhabit the game’s scenarios can yield good comments and good laughs.

It is also important to point out that the game is beautiful and has an excellent work of localization for a lot of different languages, all very well adapted with jokes, terms, etc.

Katsutoshi