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A Space For The Unbound’s short demo has carved out a big space in my heartBig Makoto Shinkai energy
Big Makoto Shinkai energy
Ever since I played the moreish reverse tower defence delights ofNecronator: Dead Wrong at EGX 2019, I’ve been keeping a watchful eye on Indonesian developer-publisherToge Productionsto see what else they’ve got in their surprisingly eclectic line-up of games coming out over the next few months. I’m really looking forward to their chill, coffee-making visual novelCoffee Talk, for instance, and after playing their recently-releasedprologue demoforMojiken Studio’s upcoming slice of life adventure game,A Space For The Unbound, I’ll be adding that one to my list as well.
A Space For The Unboundhas big Makoto Shinkai energy, specifically his popular 2016 animated film,Your Name. It doesn’t feature any cross-gender body-swapping antics, but its rural Indonesian setting, school kid protagonists and hints of a huge comet hurtling past Earth put me in very much the same mindset as I was playing the demo. Have a watch of the trailer to see what I mean.
A Space for The Unbound TrailerWatch on YouTube
A Space for The Unbound TrailerWatch on YouTube
A Space for The Unbound Trailer
However, it quickly becomes apparent that something isn’t quite right in this sunny little town, suggesting a hidden darkness lurking beneath A Space For The Unbound’s sunny exterior. As Atma approaches Nirmala’s house to fetch herMagic Wand- a crucial item for finishing the space ship in her story - he overhears a conversation between Nirmala’s mum and her neighbour lamenting how Nirmala has recently been afraid to go to school and that she’s been shutting herself in her room, much to the chagrin of her stressed out (and likely abusive) dad.
The neighbour offers her support, reinforcing that friendly, close-knit community vibe you see elsewhere in the game, but it all comes crashing down again when Atma gets a taste of her dad’s wrath as he goes to retrieve the wand. Indeed, Mojiken Studio themselves say the game is “about overcoming anxiety and depression” in the game’s Steam description, so I wouldn’t be surprised if things took a turn for the worse between Nirmala and her family later in the game.
Each ‘dive’ contains a small, simple puzzle, requiring you to interact with what’s in the scene and use items from your inventory in order to progress the story and return to the real world. The pair of dive sequences in the demo don’t require much brain-power, admittedly, but both of them are thoughtful and well-realised manifestations of their respective character’s inner turmoil, and I look forward to seeing where else the game ends up taking us as it goes on.
Either way, A Space For The Unbound’s Prologue demo has definitely got my interest piqued. I’m a sucker for anything that vaguely puts me in the mind of Shinkai’s films (seriously, that man’s film have some positivelyswoon-worthyskies), but its small town setting and childlike fantasy elements also remind me a lot of Earthbound and 3DS curio Attack Of The Friday Monsters as well, which is always a good thing in my books.
Indeed, I want to find out more about this pair of school kids, who they are, how they became friends, and what happens to Nirmala and her family if, and when, she manages gets home after the storm. I want to see more of Atma’s space dives, too, and most importantly, I must, nay, NEED to pet more of the town’s lovely, purring cats. So why notgive the demo a tryfor yourself and see if you agree?
