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A Space For The Unbound review: a supernatural teen romance with a wonderful sense of time and placeSchool’s out
School’s out
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Toge Productions
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Toge Productions
Indonesian studio Mojiken have been making games for years. Most of them are less than an hour long. They’re short, punchy adventures and cover everything from digital fortune tellers, violin-playing owl-men, and poetic folktales about potato-shaped forest creatures.
A Space For The Unboundis Mojiken’s first ‘big’ release in that sense, clocking in at around nine-ish hours. What begins as a YA coming-of-age tale about a small-town romance quickly gains remarkable momentum, and suddenly you’re dealing with supernatural teens trying to desperately stop a world-ending calamity. Part sci-fi drama, part high school romance, A Space For The Unbound manages to have incredible weight and grandeur while also being poignant, sweet, and honest at the same time. It’s a triumph.
A Space for the Unbound - Release Date AnnouncementWatch on YouTube
A Space for the Unbound - Release Date Announcement
A Space For The Unbound takes place in a small town in rural Indonesia during the 90s and follows a boy named Atma who, like all teens, is trying to figure out what to do with his life after he leaves school. Atma is a bit of a loveable airhead, not really bothered with what class is next, let alone what to do about his future. His high school sweetheart, Raya, has other plans for him, though, as the two decide to make a bucket list of what they want to do during their summer break instead of fretting about their futures: going to the movies, finding the town’s fluffiest cat, and eating a whole black forest cake sit among other plans on their list. It sounds like a prime summer holiday to me.
Just look at how gorgeous these clouds are.
Aces, so we have two supernatural teens with cool powers - love that - but what’s the catch? Turns out that every time Raya uses her powers, it begins to affect the rest of the town. Residents are starting to act strangely and parts of the town haphazardly glitch in and out of reality. There’s also a giant crack in the sky that threatens to shatter the entire world. Playing as Atma, you need to find a way to stop the entire world from collapsing, as well as help Raya who seems to be at the centre of this epic fracture.
It might seem like the usual supernatural, teenage love story, but A Space For The Unbound is so much more than that. Mojiken’s staple use of magical realism in their games is out in full force here. Scenes of astral magic in a small Indonesian town have a degree of spectacle, and together with talking cats, magical books, and the nature of memories and reality - it really elevates the story in interesting ways. The devs have said the films of Japanese director Makoto Shinkai have been amajor inspirationhere, but it’s more subtle than just its aesthetics - it has the sincerity of his films too. Its coming of age story teeters on the edge of being soppy occasionally, but it never crosses that line, and instead comes across as more affectionate and sentimental than corny. It also deals with some tough subjects such as grief, depression, bullying and domestic abuse sensitively without becoming mawkish. Together with a great set-up, good pacing and a satisfying payoff, this is a tale that, in two words, absolutely slaps. Also, you may wanna have a tissue or two ready for the ending, just saying.
What really helps drive the story, though, is A Space For The Unbound’s brilliant sense of place. This is an adventure game at heart, and as such you’ll be running all across town chatting to folks, solving puzzles and obtaining items for them to advance the story. It’s all quite simple stuff, but the level of detail on show here is exquisite, with Mojiken somehow making me feel nostalgic for a place I’ve never actually been to. On Atma’s travels, you’ll visit corner shops, internet cafes, 90s arcades, busy school yards, and pop-up noodle shops complete with wooden benches and tarp walls, and they’re all brimming with life and personality. There are also cats absolutely everywhere, and you can name and pet each and every one of them, which is incredible.
Fetch quests can, of course, be a bit of a chore in games like this, but A Space For The Unbound deftly manages to avoid slipping into any untoward pacing slumps. Mini-games such as sneaking past teachers as you try to slip outta school, eavesdropping on conversations in a red-light-green-light-style series of button holds, and even choreographed fight sequences all help break up the pace during your adventure, and there’s even a courtroom scene that does an excellent Ace Attorney impression at one point.
The best thing about A Space For the Unbound, though, is that it takes a supernatural teen drama gives it real heart. Mojiken were already masters of telling bittersweet stories in miniature, but I’m pleased to report that sense of longing, sincerity and earnestness hasn’t been lost in their transition to making a larger game with a larger scope. A Space For The Unbound may be more ambitious than their previous work, but it still feels distinctly Mojiken, and that’s something to be celebrated. What a wonderful start to 2023.
