A Bundle of Experience from “A Space for The Unbound”
Between daily chores and my free time, accumulating several hours after preparing breakfast and several hours before bed, finally, I’ve finished my journey on a delightful experience from Mojiken Studio. A playable trinket of experiences. A glittering diamond of narrative. A Space for The Unbound.
I’ve eyed this game for so long. I always lurked in the corner, just to see what was happening, one peek at a time. I’ve been so scared to even prod a little bit, because, silly me, I didn’t want to know anything about this game so I can chew this extra special delicious piece of creation freshly. And oh boy, I’m so glad I did.
My first encounter with this game was many years ago. Mojiken attended a game developer event and they made a special “curtain-enclosed-booth”, and inside there was a “game” projected onto a screen. To play it? You only have to wait. And wait. And that’s it. Go ahead, try it.
What’s the point of the game, really? I don’t know, but what I know they successfully captured the vibe of how the game should be.
Later, they greenlit their “experiment” and began to craft the world of “that” game. Then a trailer was released. I remembered replaying this video a gazillion times from seven years ago. It’s so so good!
Why did I replay it so much? Of course for the music! It hooked me hard. A tinge of Indonesian pentatonic with the melodramatic vibe, oh yes, I know it’s going to be a really good one. And years later, it transformed into this…
HOW COULD YOU NOT BE EXCITED?
An Adventure Puzzle Narrative Game
A Space for The Unbound is a narrative game about coming of age. Set in an Indonesian environment, you play as Atma, a boy who traverses among the spaces to unveil what’s happening in this world by fighting his way and utilizing supernatural magics to weave the story of Raya, a girl from his school with a mysterious background.
As an adventure game, you’ll encounter many puzzles ahead. They are not hard but can be quite challenging. Well.. maybe anyone that only wanted to enjoy the story could be roadblocked by these puzzles. There was some part where I was touched by feelings and wanted to let them “flow”, but a puzzle obstructed me. But overall they were enjoyable because of how tightly coupled they were with how the story goes! I also love how they were quite short and cleverly designed to convey the narrative.
The environment in this game is also enjoyable and, as a person who lived in a small town for my childhood, it reminisced me a lot! This game presents a small Indonesian town just before the current modern lifestyle. There’s even a small internet cafe, with its tiny little charming things! This place is very iconic and is now so rare to be seen. They even put their rendition of old “Internet Explorer”. What a blast to the past!
Oh oh, and also if you are a cat lover like me, you’ll also love this game so much! Especially since this story revolves around cats a lot.
Difficult Theme Packaged Beautifully
I don’t want to spoil it too much, but, A Space for The Unbound successfully presents how a teenager trying to get through their life with the chaos around. Delivering abstract ideas in abstract ways but with enjoyable ways like adventure game is so on point.
There’s even some part of the story that just made me gasp and ponder for so long. This. This specific scene. It was so scary.
The way story goes from a silly-happy little game to something complex and “too close to home” is so brilliant. You can feel how the curve going upwards until it burst you into tears.
Grateful
I felt so grateful to be able to play this creation. You know, like after you had a delicious meal and wanted to have our gratitude to the chefs? That’s it, that’s what I feel. For me, it’s not only a game but a package of experiences in a beautiful medium. This game speaks loudly about how to be healed from the past without forgetting them is a choice. This game made me understand how depressing it was to have problems in the past and how they manifested into real life. This game made me realize that stuck in a dream is a real deal and how waking up is so difficult but needs to be done even if it’s hurt. It taught me so much. It taught me so so much.
Thank you for making this game. Thank you for letting me enjoy this unbounded dishes. Thank you, chef. Thank you, dev.
