A Space for the Unbound

High school student Atma, with tousled hair and high hopes for the future, hardly notices the heavenly guest, whose tail peeks out picturesquely from behind the clouds. He prefers to spend his free time with his girlfriend Nirmala, in a cozy retreat on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by rice fields and an abandoned construction site.

On the train, which was written off either as unnecessary or because of rust, children discuss various things and write stories. More precisely, Atma helps Nirmala understand her own experiences and put them on paper in the form of artistic curls. This carefree time continues until the heroes are carried away by the river during a storm.

A few years later — at the beginning of the analog 2000s, when everyday life had not yet bowed to the onslaught of technology — Atma wakes up in the classroom. The classes are long over, the final exams are just around the corner, and the fun days with Nirmala have shrunk into memories that look more like an anxious dream. Although there is not enough time to write stories, Atma did not become less carefree.

He now devotes himself to Raya. No one understands what an excellent student found in a restless boy who either sleeps in class or skips them altogether. But the young couple cares little about others' opinions, so they explore the picturesque alleys of their hometown together, feed stray cats and go to the movies during breaks.

Their everyday life is almost indistinguishable from the everyday life of other students. Most of the time, they try to reconcile obligations to their families with a craving for new things and a fear of adulthood, which is about to open its doors. But right now, Atma and Raya are eating sweets, playing arcade machines and watching the sky crack in awe, and their usual worries are pointless.

When heroes' deeds go downhill, adventure “A Space for the Unbound” He just smirks. It turns out that Atma's life is not so rosy, because the familiar world is ready to collapse right on his head, a supernatural damn appears around him, and Raya looks so pale that, look, she'll lose consciousness.

Both in terms of game mechanics and the structure of the gameplay loop, “A Space for the Unbound” can easily be mistaken for a reflection of “Night in the Woods”. Atma, like the restless Mae Borowski, becomes a hostage to a tiny province with tangible borders. All his aspirations and actions are bound by a closed city.

In fact, Atma has no choice as such. It was as if they had locked him in a man-made box and given him a stingy set of opportunities — to move through space and communicate with others. But, due to the limited choice and the linearity of the narrative, the scene turns from a familiar background into a full-fledged character.

Despite the high stakes the game has set from the start, Atma's adventure is full of nostalgia and youthful freedom. While Mae Borowski used to laze around, raise rats and beat fluorescent lights in the parking lot, trying to figure out where her college abandonment got her into, Atma is still interested in children's trifles.

Between important things that should help Raya and the city, whose firmament is crumbling more and more, he collects a collection of bottle caps, fights bullies and strokes cats, wanting to find the softest one. Such little things, which made up the childhood of entertainment that was born before total digitalization, fill “A Space for the Unbound” with almost tangible comfort.

In turn, the city, which at first feels foreign, becomes more familiar with each new walk. In addition, as befits an interesting person, he changes his appearance throughout the story — in small details and overall composition. Like a living organism, space breathes and moves forward, leaving both warm and painful memories behind.

As the story progresses, nostalgia, vivid pixel art, and subtle overtones increasingly contradict each other. Here and there, the problems that the main and secondary characters are forced to struggle with appear through the intense colors. Some are bullied by their classmates, others give up their dreams, afraid of disappointing their loved ones, and others beat up their household members because they are mired in debt.

In September 1965, a coup d'état took place in Indonesia that brought General Suharto to power. The harbinger of his reign was mass terror, directed against those who sympathize with communism. It is believed that during the active phase of repression, which lasted only six months, at least half a million people were killed.

For the next thirty years, while Haji Suharto was president, the country lived through the “New Order” era. Despite economic growth, Indonesia was ruled by a dictatorship — a lack of political life, an imposed cult of personality, restrictions on freedoms, and widespread corruption. The 1998 economic crisis ended the regime, but with it despair and misery reigned.

Therefore, at the beginning of the events of “A Space for the Unbound”, the Indonesians came cracked. But Atma's adventures do not speak directly about this, because he is, after all, a carefree schoolboy who does not fully understand the predatory diversity of adult life. However, hints of the true state of affairs are scattered throughout the city.

Thanks to the inconspicuous context, over time, the space around the characters turns into a kind of diorama. He has his own memories, both tragic and laughing, but right now it's serving as a stage for someone else's story. And like an aquarium filled with smoke, this intelligent substance leads the player down the nose in the manner of the recent horror movie “Signalis” (read our text).