A Space for the Unbound is an incredible blend of Omori and Inception that creates a deep and thought-provoking experience. The game goes deeply into how loss, grief, despair, and self-acceptance affect people, and explores these issues in fascinating and varied ways. I was initially intrigued by the trailers and the idea of a love story entwined with an imminent apocalypse, but I wasn't expecting the complexity and shocks that would be waiting.

I won't go into detail because doing so would ruin the amazing conclusion. Suffice it to say, the culmination of the narrative hits the player with an emotional force like a train. By the end of the story, I found myself wholeheartedly invested in the journey of Atma and Raya, their struggles resonating deeply within me and ultimately leading to genuine tears and unabated sobbing.

Few games have been able to stir up such strong feelings in me. In reality, I can name only a few of works that have had such a big impact on me. A Space for the Unbound expertly combines ambient elements and narrative expertise, a combination that is evocative of games like Omori. Similar to Omori, this game masterfully creates an atmosphere throughout each of its dynamic environments, leaving a lasting impression on the player's mind. The background music readily infiltrates your mind; its melodies turn into earworms that won't go away.

ASFTU's production quality and length for its $20 price point also surprised me. This game radiates an artistic quality that goes beyond the bounds of simple enjoyment and manifests as a genuine work of art. The painstakingly created pixel art displays astounding detail, outstripping the graphic prowess of other pixel art games.

When you take into account that the development team only consisted of 12–14 people, it is even more incredible. The game's creative and committed creators deserve high appreciation for their incredible effort, which manifested a world of complex beauty and maintained consistently excellent writing throughout. The soundtrack is an additional noteworthy portion of the game that also bears some similarities to Omori. It's a cute, deep, and emotional soundtrack that compliments every scene it's apart of. There are even times in the game where completely vocalized songs embellish the experience, providing an auditory treat best appreciated with headphones. 

ASFTU is infused with heart, soul, and a profound connection to human emotions. It should be warned that there are traumatic moments to be experienced, making it inappropriate for individuals who are easily upset. The voyage through these experiences is rewarded, though, with an extraordinarily wonderful conclusion that will live on in my memory forever. ASFTU is a unique find that is overlooked and merits more exposure. I strongly beg anyone reading this review to play the game because it is one of the most moving stories I have ever read in a game.

First of all a very special thanks to a buddy of mine Moo for gifting me this game! As a fan of old school point and click adventure games, I figured I might vibe with this one, and I certainly did. It's a fun game, with a lot to like, although I do have some complaints that truly hold it back from being great to me.

The first half of this game, I was really really into it. The vibes were fantastic, the story was interesting and carried my attention, and there was a lot of cool stuff going on. I found closer to the end my attention slipping away a bit, the game turned into more of a Quick time event, story driven then just the pure point and click adventure goodness I so love. I really wish there was a way to speed up your walking speed in the game, as so many times it would me stumbling around trying to find the right place to go (a map also would have been quite useful)

The story by the end is touching, and is resolved well. Raya and Atma are very interesting and well made lead characters, but everyone else is mostly forgettable for me.

Overall, a solid experience and one I had a good time with despite my complaints. Worth playing for sure, especially if you're a fan of adventure games and want a little bit more of those in your life.

If only this had less...gameplay, or at least better gameplay. It doesn't even try to hide the fact that most of it is running back and forth doing random stuff for people.
Because yeah, the story and how it's told is fantastic. Games that can manage to move me in ways that this has are very few. Absolutely beautiful message/themes that hit hard now, and would have been possibly life-changing if I was 15 years younger.
I've rated it pretty low (struggling between a 3 or 3.5) because I can't quite forgive the slog that is the actual gameplay, but if I was rating the story itself it'd be much higher.
And I feel like I should also point out the pixel artwork because it's just phenomenal.

"Life is special because of these ordinary things we see everyday"

Just like the fairy tale, this game has a north and a south star of its own,
The south being the game's gorgeous art direction, its beautiful story about acceptance, the soundtrack and more. The north on the other hand being the game's underwhelming and tedious gameplay.
One clearly shines brighter than the other, but when they come together, you get something truly beautiful.

A Space for the Unbound is a beautiful story about accepting yourself for who you are, and learning to move on. The game also tackles serious themes like the survivor's guilt, parental abuse and more, which might make you think you think like it's going for way too much, considering its runtime. But you'll come out surprised with the amount of care, innocence(especially innocence) and warmth it handles all these explicit themes with. The same can be said about the game's art style. The amount of detail in every single part of the beautiful Indonesia-based town is just mindblowing. All the characters in it have their own unique personalities, and even the less-important ones, and even the unimportant NPCs are just so lively, making the town it takes place in invite you to explore it. And last but not the least, the soundtrack and the occasionally-fun mini-games are always there to make you feel good.

But despite all of my praises, the game certainly isn't perfect. The "gameplay" is just a vehicle for its amazing story, and can be really frustrating at times. The slow walking-speed of the main character adds even more to that problem, and these problems might be a dealbreaker for a lot of people. This is an exploration game, but there's no sense of mystery at any point. Answers to all your riddles will be there somewhere nearby, which makes this feel very scripted. The same goes for the action sequences in it which are very underwhelming. The only gameplay mechanic I was fond of were when you're supposed to dodge the falling furniture, which wasn't even that complex of a mechanic.

If I had to nitpick, there are problems I can come up with for the story as well, but just like I said this before, the overall package is so heartwarming that the negatives just don't matter to me. This is easily one of the best video-game stories I've ever experienced, and the way the story is told is just wonderful, and will leave you with both tears and a big smile on your face by the end.

So yeah that's it. I'm gonna end this by saying that I was going to give it ★★★★, but there are a lot of cats in here, so.......

Bom, joguei recentemente o jogo A Space for the Unbound, que só chamou minha atenção por conta do GOTY, apesar de visualmente já ter me chamado muito a atenção antes do seu anúncio lá.

E o que dizer sobre A Space For The Unbound... certamente entrou para minha lista dos jogos que mexeram demais comigo. A história lida de um jeito maneiro com a ansiedade e depressão, de forma sensível e profunda, tudo contado de uma maneira criativa e envolvente. Na hora de jogar, é divertido pra caramba, com uns puzzles que casam direitinho com a parada das viagens dimensionais. As representações mentais das pessoas são muito bem feitas também. Curto demais todos os detalhes, desde o visual e o som até a vibe dos personagens principais. O final, caramba, sem chão até agora; certamente foi uma experiência incrível em 2D, juntamente com outros indies com uma vibe parecida como To The Moon, Brothers, etc., indies esses que me deixaram bem abalado devido à sua história.

No geral, as mecânicas do game são simples - você anda para a esquerda ou para a direita e interage com pontos de destaque usando um seletor com opções disponíveis, como examinar, conversar, interagir e usar com um objeto do inventário. Seu movimento é um pouco lento e você não pode pular, apesar disso não ser exatamente um jogo de plataforma. Você carrega um livro que contém seus objetivos atuais, um mapa, seu inventário e os itens colecionáveis.

A Space for the Unbound é um jogo único. Seu estilo alegre de arte em pixel, mini-jogos acolhedores e muitos gatos para acariciar dão a impressão de que é um jogo para jogar de boas e relaxar, mas essa descrição não é precisa. Ele é profundamente simbólico e aborda uma jornada de autoconhecimento e superação de doenças mentais. Uma experiência maravilhosa com uma abundância de conteúdo para explorar, que pode não justificar um preço integral de 75 reais nos consoles, porém ao menos a sensação que você tem jogando é que ao menos compensou o preço alto com a experiência incrível que esse game vai te dar.

Pontos positivos:

- Enredo
- Gráficos
- Trilha sonora
- Localização para o PT-BR

Pontos negativos:

- Um pouco arrastado

Versão utilizada para análise: Xbox Series S.

Que jogo lindo! É um jogo pixelado 2D visualmente mt bem feito sobre um casal na época do ensino médio se autodescobrindo e trazendo assuntos sobre depressão, ansiedade, insegurança e solidão.

A jogabilidade se baseia em exploração e quiz focado bastante na narrativa e história (bem simples msm) e a melhor parte é poder acariciar os gatos pela cidade e dar nome :) , porém o jogo tem um ritmo lento (dizendo ser um slice of life) então recomendo jogar um capitulo por dia (foi o q eu fiz), assim podendo apreciar bem mais o jogo. Quanto a história não dá pra falar mt para não tomar spoiler, mas achei muito bonito e bem contado são assuntos que não são novidade na mídia porém o jogo soube muito bem desenvolvê-lo. E que trilha sonora absurda de boa tanto quanto a direção sonora de barulho de cenário quanto as ost que casam mt bem com a narrativa.

Agora os pontos negativos, o game por exigir mt backtracking para achar itens e etc ele possui mt animação de loading e isso chega a incomodar, e além disso não é um jogo feito para rushar tem um começo lento então tu pode achar tedioso. Uma observação, é possivel platinar em uma run porém se você não for atento e deixar passar alguma conquista terá q rejogá-lo se não tiver um save fácil e pelo ritmo lento isso de platinar fica um pouco complicado.

Em resumo, recomendo jogar com calma e apreciando o game possui mts cenários bonitos e uma trilha sonora boa tbm, apesar de a história não ser tão profunda, mas a maneira que ela é desenvolvida e contada ainda mais com a conclusão me fez dar a nota máxima (fodase eu chorei no final msm ;-;)

It pains me to say this, considering I fully expected to love it based on everything I read, but... A Space for the Unbound is one of the most intensely boring video games I've ever had the misfortune to play. Five hours in and I had no choice but to abandon it, because I just couldn't take the sheer tedium involved in the act of 'playing' it anymore. It is such a slog. There might be a good story in here somewhere, but I'll never know because it's buried under a barrage of mindless fetch quests that are dragged out to breaking point. A character wants a cake? You have to run around town for half an hour doing a bunch of ridiculous errands to get a chef to make it. One of those errands involves catching a rooster in order to bring it to a chicken in order to gain access to an egg. In order to capture the rooster, you are forced to endure a minigame where the main character has to sneak up on it without being caught. It sucks. All the minigames suck. Outside of reading text boxes, the game mostly consists of running back and forth around town and it FUCKING SUCKS!

It's a game so boring that it regularly put me to sleep. That's not me using an expression for the sake of emphasis. The game literally kept putting me to sleep every time I played. No game has ever done that to me before.

Sorry, this is less of a review and more of a rant. But how this crap has a rating of "Overwhelming Positive" on Steam I'll never know. Just another one of life's little mysteries I suppose.

A timepiece to a sense of nostalgia I have no relation or memory of having, but I can still feel through the work itself. A delightful story with twists and revolutions that constantly shifts the player's interpretation of the story as it goes on. It is rather short and simple, but the story is worth it for home much impact it made in such as short time. Puzzles can be a bit questionable, some being fun, others being tedious, as well as having a bit of a "guide dangit" when it comes to specific triggers and collection points. As well, the game could be a bit slow to work through, as you somewhat move pretty slow. All in all, the story and characters are a real hit and make the experience all worth it.

A select group of games can make my eyes get full of tears

This is a job that was clearly made with so much passion, I can't put it in to words. The OST, the art, the story... At first, I thought it would be a school drama, but it went much darker than I expected. Yes, I admit that are a few things to be improved, like sound design (sometimes), maybe a faster pace and the puzzles that are "too easy" (honestly, not the main point of the game, so It's fine).

Well, I liked this one so much that these don't bother me, and cmon, It's an indie game. And all that stuff get supressed by cats, Ronaldo Fenômeno, depression, etc. I'm really interested in learning more about Indonesia after this.

I don't know why, what I felt playing this one, it reminds me of when I played oneshot. The game doesn't break the fourth wall, but that feeling of "omg, I'm so much deep in this story, that I can feel every pixel of it".

Buy it, plz

🇮🇩 🤝🏼🇧🇷

A Space for the Pleasant Surprise.

I'm a little bit apprehensive about pixel games, because there's a lot of titles out there with charming visuals and music to match but no bite to meet their bark. Couple that with a developer I'm not familiar with (though I do know the producer Toge,) and A Space for the Unbound by all means should have been a game that escaped my radar. The reception to this title is what set it apart for me, it seems like everywhere I looked be it Steam, Backloggd, or my insular JRPG Youtube space that this game had been getting rave reviews. A consumer none the wiser I jumped in... and honestly I'm glad I did.

Since it's practically a VN, I can't speak too much about the story but to say that it is touching, however missed the mark in its early-mid game delivery to me. When I got to the end, I felt the emotional spark the game set out to hit, though I personally wasn't as Affected as I was in games like the To the Moon franchise of which Space for the Unbound reminded me quite a bit of. A Space for the Unbound touches on depression, anxiety, and familial abuse and the way it affects those around us, and to that I think the team did a very good job from not shying away from said actions while also not making the story too dark.

Gameplay here was a bigger part of the miss for me, and that feels a bit unfair in a game as story heavy as this is, but I came away with the conclusion as I was playing that each elementary puzzle was taking my enjoyment away more and more as I played. None of them are particularly difficult, just tedious and plentiful. The Spacedive mechanic is alright, however it didn't captivate me as a primary gameplay loop since you're using it over and over to do these light puzzles. Whether its making cakes or hiding from wolves... I could have done without the attempted intricacy.

Visuals are beautiful and the music is quite nice. Writing is also well done in making these characters feel like actual friends in a real place. Speaking of the setting, it's absolutely awesome that I got to play a title based in 1990's Indonesia, a country and time that are woefully under-represented in media. I spent some time this weekend at a museum learning about the instruments of Southeast Asia and Indonesia specifically... it's pretty neat to play a game set in that location by an Indonesian team as well!

Overall I had a good time... some nitpicks and this game is definitely not perfect, however I'd recommend this to people looking for a neat medium length pixel adventure that deals with heavy topics.

Que gema rara, conheci ele graças ao Game Awards e que bom que descobri.
Linda história, emocionante e bela, mas ao mesmo tempo triste e melancólica, mas não deixa de ser verdadeira, até demais, me peguei chorando ao fim do jogo, e é algo que eu gosto, mostra o quanto algo me impactou, e nesse caso, foi graças a experiências pessoais.
Falando do jogo, tem uma linda pixel art, trilha sonora que condizem ao que está acontecendo e ajuda a contar uma história, minha única ressalva seria seu segundo ato, que é arrastado e confuso, mas ao chegar no terceiro e ultimo ato, o jogo brilha no seu máximo, uma experiência e tanta.
Recomendo a todos a jogarem e darem uma chance a esse jogo que passou despercebido por muitos, mas não ao Game Awards , e mais uma vez agradeço por isso.

The first time A Space for the Unbound caught my eye was during an Indie World presentation, almost exclusively due to its name. Is it a shallow reasoning? Sure, but you have to admit its a killer title. One that suggests an unusual and intriguing experience awaits. Thankfully, the game itself largely delivers on the promise of its title!

The best way I can describe A Space for the Unbound is similar to the way in which I describe OMORI (which if you know me, is a very good thing). The first 80% or so of the game is a rather simple point-and-click-adjacent adventure game in a cozy Indonesian town absolutely brimming with charm. The pixel art and music are gorgeous, there's plenty of great characters to talk with, and it's all wrapped in a beautiful nostalgic feeling for an experience I never had.

However, unlike OMORI, the adventure aspect does wear itself really thin towards the end. The gameplay itself is entirely milquetoast: picking up objects to take them to other places and a threadbare "combat" system that really , REALLY did not need to be repeated the dozens of times it is. It's compounded by a scope creep that makes the game feel like it's flying off the rails. I was deeply confused, was the game really going to be able to stick the landing and fulfill the emotional promise both the game itself and so much talk around the game presented?

It sure did.

Without getting deeply into spoilers, the last section of the game delivers a beautiful, heartfelt, incredibly well written experience that was well worth reaching. I was brought to the edge of tears and so much of its imagery in the final act has stuck with me vividly. It punches so far above its weight class and is just such a sight to behold. A Space for the Unbound is able to deliver on the promise of its title, a strange, truly remarkable title.

the beginning was so cute, i loved the idea of a summer bucket list and completing it, discovering the town etc, so i wish the game had more of those moments. the way the story was told didn't really pull me in, i would prefer if the story was told in a more casual way instead of the magical elements. my favorite part was completing the bucket list, petting every cat, beating the high score in the arcade, juggling the ball, doing the quizzes, i enjoyed those moments a lot but got super sleepy whenever the spacedive button appeared honestly. spacedive was used too often especially towards the end... also should've been a 5-6 hour game, my playthrough was 13 hours and there were many times where i almost fell asleep BECAUSE I HATED THE SPACEDIVE MECHANIC :(

it's nice to get some weebbait out of what is essentially the worlds foremost up-and-coming weebfactory nation (i say this endearingly)

not exactly profound in its message, but the story is delivered well enough that if its the first time youre hearing it and youre like 16 or going through some shit it'd probably be impactful - the plot is well constructed, even if its a bit bloated, and the art and music support it well

gameplay design is extremely zzz and feels like it drags on after having interacted with it for about 0.7 seconds

As much as I feel I should point out a few of my gripes with this game like some of the painfully slow segments or clunky puzzles to lower my score to something like 4/5, I'm not going to because reviewing is arbitrary and I get to make the rules. So yeah, this game isn't perfect but I'm giving it a perfect score. Why? Because I thoroughly enjoyed my time all the way through and it's the first piece of media in years to make me tear up.

The story is hard to explain without giving too much away, but I think it has pretty wide appeal. Otherwise, the game has the feel of an old school point-and-click adventure title. I liked that, and while others may not I don't think it would be that much of an obstacle to enjoying the narrative.