Mojiken Studio is a developer that indie fans have been keeping an eye on. The Indonesian studio released When The Past Was Around in 2020, a darling of a point-and-click puzzle game that told a captivating, emotional story. Now, Mojiken is back with A Space For The Unbound, hoping to maintain that sense of wonder and attachment.
A Space For The Unbound is set in rural Indonesia during the 1990s. The player takes on the role of Atma, a young high school student who witnesses strange goings on in his town. He tries to find answers by diving into people's minds, Inception-style, and begins to piece together the connections between the changes in the world, his high school sweetheart, and a young child he has had dreams about mentoring.
Mojiken has successfully woven together magic powers and a slice-of-life adventure, with a depiction of magic realism that truly captures what works well about that genre. The magical elements are not used as a crutch, but instead a way to explore character and story, particularly as the player's sense of unease begins to grow. This isn't quite the horror of Doki Doki Literature Club, but it's fair to say that there's a similar uncanny atmosphere as the tension builds.
In part this works because of A Space For The Unbound's setting. The player's locales feel like a well-realised town full of authentic and strange characters, with one memorable section seeing a youth biker gang being beaten up by a local civil servant who loves a Street Fighter-esque fighting game. The title flits between humorous moments and those that are more serious, and the writing and characters are a big part of why Mojiken has found success here.
From a gameplay perspective, A Space For The Unbound feels like a relatively straightforward adventure video game, with the player solving puzzles through logic and key item collection. This is given a boost of ingenuity thanks to Atma's ability to 'Space Dive', hopping in and out of people's minds to resolve problems in their psyche. The mechanic is at its best when weaving between the real and the subconscious mind, such as one puzzle that sees the player needing to collect ingredients for a cake and picking fresh cherries from a tree in someone's memories.
That said, it can sometimes get a little tiresome. Some of the individual sections can drag, such as multiple examples of doing detective work for a fantasy courtroom that descends into a series of meandering errands. When The Past Was Around was criticized by some for being too short, but A Space For The Unbound might have the opposite problem thanks to some padding, particularly during a later section of the game that constantly asks the player to go backwards and forwards in time moving a bulldozer; hardly an adequate use of magic powers.
In spite of this flaw, it's all worth it for the story. A Space For The Unbound tugs on the heartstrings with a tale that delicately explores mental health feelings of isolation, and loneliness as part of its wider mysteries. It never gets overbearing or voyeuristic, treating the subject with the respect it deserves, and the culmination of its finale is truly something to behold.
It certainly helps that A Space For The Unbound is such a pretty pixel art game to look at. Aesthetic is impressive throughout, whether it's showcasing the quaint quality of the town or better yet the strangeness of its subconscious worlds. It's not perfect, particularly when the player has seen the same shocked reaction face on Atma for the hundredth time when some variation would have been nice, but overall it's an evocative effect.
Overall, A Space For The Unbound is a powerful narrative adventure title. Its story is a strong driving force thanks to its characters and overarching mystery, and although its gameplay is relatively straightforward the Space Dive mechanic freshens things up nicely. Its awkward pacing does hinder it somewhat, but those that can forgive some clumsy moments will find a lot to love.
A Space For The Unbound releases 19 January 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Screen Rant was provided with a PC code for the purposes of this review.
Source: Mojiken Studio/YouTube
A Space for the Unbound
- Released
- January 19, 2023
