The video game charts tend to be dominated by titles from US, European and Japanese studios, and as such the games we play are awash with those cultural influences. So it’s a welcome treat to play something from an Indonesian developer, infused with less familiar references. For example, I now know that keroncong is a genre of music based around a ukulele-like instrument.
A Space for the Unbound tells the tale of Atma and Raya, two high-school students growing up in late-90s Indonesia. In many ways it’s similar to Attack of the Friday Monsters!, a much-loved, nostalgia-heavy 2013 Nintendo DS title about children exploring their Japanese home town in the 1970s. Like that game, A Space for the Unbound’s beautiful anime art style captures the spirit of idyllic childhood memories, where it’s always summer and the sky is forever cerulean blue. It also shares a penchant for the fantastical, blurring the line between the imaginary and real.
