A Space for the Unbound (2023)

The narrative in this game is profoundly touching.

When I played Nine Sols, I called it the perfect blend of narrative and gameplay. That memory came back as I asked myself whether this one, where the story really shines, could exist as another form of media rather than a videogame. My answer is no. There is still a blend of narrative and gameplay here, but what drives it is the interaction with the world and its ambience, not the mechanics themselves.

From a mechanics standpoint the gameplay is lackluster, even so that at times it reminded me of old Cartoon Network flash games. And yet, that minimal layer of interactivity was enough to keep me engaged, to make me want to keep exploring, and eventually to grow attached. If it had leaned too far into the “walking sim” style (Dear Esther, Gone Home, etc.), I probably would have dropped it.

I’m glad I didn’t. The ending brought out my more emotional side, making me reflect on experiences of people close to me and those I love.

I highly recommend this one, provided you’re willing to overlook some dull mechanics in exchange for a story that lingers long after the credits roll.

Sometimes you finish a game and you have mixed feelings but this was not the case here. I feel completely satisfied. No, it wasn't a perfect game, but it was one of the most beautiful and meaningful experiences I've had out of any media. It was witty and funny, it was cute and heartwarming, it was hard, it was puzzling, suspenseful, shocking, dark, thought provoking, and had immense emotional depth. It starts a bit slow but it was truly worth getting to the end, and at the end of it, I feel a little more whole and healed. I'm a little sad the game has ended but I'm glad to carry the memories forward with me.

Art/animation and music/sound is fantastic. It really is a satisfying game to play all around. I even enjoyed the little minigames like the arcade fighting game and the soccer ball dribbling that I ended zoning out to.

My opinion of the way the game "ended the ending" (read only if you've finished the game):
I loved how near the end you have to walk left a lot which contrasts with how you normally walk to the right, it's as if you have to go back/rewind to leave the fake world and return to real life.
Then you go walking around town because Raya wants to see everything one last time before she moves away. As Raya meets her old classmates and acquaintances and makes peace with them and her past, you as the player also get a chance to sorta say good bye to the characters and the world, and come to terms with the fact the game has ended. Then the credit scene hits so hard with Raya spending some time by herself reflecting on the bridge. The lyrics kick in at just the right time to the guitar loop that has been playing on the background this whole time, starting the most beautiful vocal piece in the game so far imo. Then when the rain starts pouring over her umbrella, the chord progression changes to match the mood and the chorus plays. The rain stops and the sun stats to set among beautiful hues of yellow and orange in this vibrant pixel world. Perfection.

Forty-five fucking minutes on a single puzzle. I had the "hint" of seeing 3 posters: one showing an elbow connecting with someone's face, one with a kick, and one with a punch. There was a comic (called Karate Boy with the number "1043" highlighted in the game text whenever it was mentioned. What was I supposed to do? After having to go through four or so separate areas and deal with multiple people, I could not figure it out until I looked it up online. This was the dev's solution:

Apparently, I was supposed to count the number of times the character in the four page comic elbowed someone, kicked someone, and punched someone, and use those numbers as the combination to a safe. How the fuck was I supposed to get that? This is my first bad experience with an otherwise wonderful game.

I thought the wand and the book were interesting mechanics but it mainly resulted in you being sent to fetch items by interacting with characters and objects and the majority of puzzles were memory based, which isn't that enjoyable when you have bad memory like myself.

I also found that the overall idea for the story of the game was good but the implementation of the story could be lacklustre in certain parts and made it feel like a slog to get through at times, nice ending though.