A Space for the Unbound is an adorable, story-driven adventure game set in late 90’s Indonesia. It explores mature themes such as depression, anxiety and suicide through the relationship between two high school sweethearts, a boy called Atma and a girl called Raya. However, these are not just ordinary students. We are blessed with supernatural abilities that help us explore environments, solve puzzles, and get to know each other better.
Throughout this 14-hour experience, you play as Atma, spending most of your time exploring beautiful rural Indonesian pixel art backgrounds and using your dream hopping abilities (think). Inception) Solve fun and simple puzzles. These ultimately reveal inspiring personal stories of both locals and your fellow high school students.
Atma’s dream-hopping ability is a core mechanic used when solving puzzles, ranging from simple item fetching quests to complex math equations you must solve to open safes and doors. While it was difficult at times, the puzzles strike the right balance of difficulty and return you to the engaging story without scratching your head. There are also some side activities that flesh out the experience. Collectibles are scattered everywhere, and you can find some fun mini-games along the way. Most notably Future Fighter, an arcade game inspired by Street Fighter.
A deep and meaningful story coupled with lovely pixel art and excellent music composed by Masdito Bachtiar makes for a mysterious title that we couldn’t put down until it had a satisfying ending. I highly recommend A Space for the Unbound to anyone who enjoys good story-driven adventure games.