Developer: Mojiken Studio
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Sometimes the hardest battles we fight are against ourselves. Having just been through a few traumatizing years, it seems like more of us are facing that reality than ever. Now is a great time for a game like A Space for the Unbound to be released.
A Space for the Unbound is a story-driven RPG with a focus on depression and anxiety. You play as a high school boy who, alongside his girlfriend, is in that awkward period of his life where he has to somehow decide what he wants to do with it. In a small town with a decent-sized cast of characters all going through their own struggle for happiness, reality begins to bend in weird ways. Prophecies of doom begin to materialize.
The game never really gives you the satisfaction of fully understanding what’s going on until the very end (not unlike how it feels sometimes when we face problems in real life). All we know for sure is our friends are hurting, the world’s falling apart, and we ostensibly have the tools needed to fix it.
Gameplay consists of exploring the town, solving puzzles, and occasionally some minigames. Usually, you’ll be presented with a task (i.e. baking a cake), and you have to go out and complete it. This usually leads to a chain of problems and puzzles to solve along the way as unexpected obstacles appear.
Where things get interesting is when space dives come into play. Space diving is a mechanic that allows you to enter a person’s mind and help them overcome a personal challenge from within. Resolving a problem in a space dive often requires items that you have to go out and find in the real world, and the yield from it is often things you need to solve problems elsewhere. Sometimes, the game even has you do multiple space dives in an Inception-like fashion.
The game is fun enough, but the true star of the show is the writing. The story in A Space for the Unbound is among the most touching stories in a video game that I’ve played.
A Space for the Unbound gives a creative interpretation of the human psyche. There’s a side of us that’s innocent, joyful, and passionate that we once had when we were kids. As we grow older and life begins to hurt us, a side of us that’s cautious, pragmatic, and untrusting is born. Living a safe and happy life means having these two sides of us live together in harmony. It means bringing back some of that happy kid in us even after we’ve killed it.
A Space for the Unbound is approachable for anyone, even those who have little experience playing video games. Combat requires you to do button-pressing sequences within a time limit and to time button presses correctly, but (aside from the optional arcade side quest) the player is always given ample room for error. I’d almost go as far as calling A Space for the Unbound a visual novel similar to Ace Attorney.
The challenge that the game’s puzzles present hits a good sweet spot, where it’s not too demanding, but demanding enough that solving them feels satisfying. The game also has a knack for making the stakes high at every turn, and the whole experience is enhanced by its excellent soundtrack.
At its end, A Space for the Unbound had me on the verge of tears. It was a wonderful, emotional experience that I’d recommend to just about anyone.