A Space For The Unbound, A Beautiful Journey

 *Note: I received a game code for the Nintendo Switch for my honest review of the game. Thank you to Toge Productions and Mojiken Studio for the game code and thank you for creating such a powerful and beautiful game. 

*Trigger warning: A Space for the Unbound shows and discusses mental health: depression, anxiety, and suicide. These are very serious and heavy topics in the game and we will be going over it in this review with some spoilers. 

A Space for the Unbound is a slice of life adventure story set in Indonesia in the nineties that talks about depression and anxiety. The game starts with introducing the main character of Atma who seems to be having a dream about chatting with a young girl named Nirmala about her story she's writing. Immediately I noticed the beautiful pixel art of the game. The colors are vibrant which work really well with the art. I liked the interaction between Atma and Nirmala because you could really see how close they are as friends. 

Atma and Nirmala in their basecamp. 

Atma wakes up in a classroom with his girlfriend Raya who is very sweet. I found myself smiling as Raya talked to Atma about making a bucket list of things they want to do together before graduating. Raya tells Atma they should do all these things right away and suggests skipping the rest of the school day. This starts the game with playing as Atma figuring out how to sneak by the teachers and meet up with Raya. 

Atma and Raya together. 

You can keep track of everything you do in a red book that shows the bucket list and as you complete each thing, it gets checked off. The book also has a map of the town as well as a list of all the collectibles Atma can find.

Keeping track of the bucket list. 

There's another cute feature in the game which is all the cats in town. You can pet the cats and you can choose among a list of three names to give them which is adorable and I made sure I named and petted every single cat. It's a lovely thing that brought so much joy just being able to hang out with all the cats. 

Atma pets a cute kitty. 

Atma and Raya wander around town doing different things and meeting up with all the various supporting characters in the story. They're having fun together and Atma starts to notice some things about Raya and around town that don't seem right. Raya has a supernatural power she can use and she does show Atma with the adorably named Cat Island who is surprised, but takes it in stride. 

Raya and Atma on Cat Island. 

The red book Atma carries with him is special because it is magical and allows Atma to have the ability to space dive which means he can go into someone's mind and see their memories when certain conditions are met. It's a specific memory that shows something the person is struggling with or trying to overcome. It's up to Atma to solve a unique puzzle in these memories that helps the person by changing something in the real world or gives a clue about the person so that Atma can help them. Each inner mind world looks pretty cool and interesting with the art style showing that character's personality. That's another thing I love about the game too. The music throughout the game is beautiful and captures the mood of each chapter and scene perfectly. 

Atma in someone's memory. 

Besides the main story, there are side quests you can do as well such as beating the high score in Future Fighter which is Atma's favorite game or collecting bottlecaps around town. Future Fighter is a lot of fun and brought up nostalgic memories for me of playing games in the arcade with my friends when I was a kid. It's a nice break from the main story and while it took me quite a few tries, I did beat the high score eventually; a fun thing to cross off the bucket list. 

Future Fighter is so much fun. 

Atma is really likeable and I appreciated his kind heart and concern for Raya especially as he navigated through the fact that he wasn't sure which things were dreams or memories as they blurred together. The more Raya uses her power, the more unstable things around town become. Each chapter reveals a bit more in the story as Atma tries to figure out what is going on and finds out the truth about terrible things Raya went through. 

I'm grateful that the developers of the game had a warning about the heavy topics discussing mental health with depression, anxiety, and suicide because the story in A Space for the Unbound while beautiful is also heartbreaking in places. Atma seeing Raya's memories of being bullied and struggling with feeling like she was enough, feeling like everything was just a pointless endeavor, absolutely resonated with me. It moved me to tears because I have been where Raya is; on the edge of the abyss wondering if it's all worth it and fighting to go on. The earnestness with which this game discusses these things made me feel seen in such a thoughtful and gentle way. That means everything to me because so many times we're told not to talk about mental health and here in A Space for the Unbound it's talked about in such a beautiful open and honest way showing that it is okay to talk about it and that it's important because we need that love and support in order to move forward.

By the end of the story I was sobbing because it wrecked me in the best way. The gentleness of Atma really shines through as he tells Raya how much he loves her and supports her. It perfectly showed all it takes is just one person to care and be there when we need it most. One of my favorite lines in the game is something Atma says, "Don't worry, in the storm you'll find your sunrise." because it shows that even in our darkest moments of despair there is always a little bit of hope and light. In a way, A Space for the Unbound is a love story. It's a story about loving ourselves, even the parts of us that we feel are hard to love and that the people who truly care about us love all of us too and will be there with us every step of the way with patience, love, and kindness. It's a beautiful journey and I'm so grateful I got a chance to play it. It's a wonderful indie gem and I loved all of it.

Beautiful words of wisdom from Atma. 

*A Space for the Unbound is available on: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Playstation 5

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

 

Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation, A Fun Summer Adventure

 *Note: I received a free code for the Nintendo Switch for my honest review of the game. Thank you to Neos Corporation for the game code. 

I love Shin-chan and if you've ever read the manga or seen the anime you know it's fun, silly, and also sweet showing the importance of family and friends. I was instantly drawn in by the concept of this game because it looked cute and fun. The official name of the game is Shin-chan: Me and the professor on Summer Vacation - The Endless Seven Day Journey. That's quite a mouthful, but it gives you a hint about what to expect in the game. 

The game starts with five year old Shinnosuke Nohara "Shin-chan" getting ready for a week long trip to visit his mother's childhood friend in a rural town called Assou a play on the real city of Aso. When the family arrives at their destination a mad scientist named Dr. Akuno approaches them and gives Shin a camera that prints illustrations rather than photos. This seems a little odd, but they don't think anything of it until the next day Dr. Akuno shows up with a dinosaur he claims he extracted with time travel in order to wreak havoc. This is the right amount of interesting and silly for a Shin-chan game and the rather calm reaction from the family makes it even funnier. 

Shin-chan is ready for the Summer. 

The first day lets Shin introduce himself to everyone and explore the village a little bit. The game also explains some of the controls and how Shin's camera works. I really liked the camera because you can take a look at the pictures that Shin took in his room and it looks like a very cool picture diary. It's also a neat way to save your game. The illustrations are cute and whimsical, adding a fun way to track things you've done in the game. 

Picture diary of adventures!

Summer Vacation is very much a chill, relaxing experience because getting to play as Shin who is a five year old kid shows that joy of enjoying the Summer and getting to be a kid. The days are about 30 minutes and then you get about 5-10 minutes of night where you can talk to the other characters before Shin has to go to bed. There are quite a few places for Shin to wander and he can do a variety of things such as fishing, catching bugs, or one of my favorites taking pictures with the camera for the local newspaper. The game definitely celebrates that sheer joy that kids have of just getting to be kids during Summer vacation and having fun. At the end of the week, Dr. Akuno shows up and uses his time travel abilities to reset the week, hence the endless Summer aspect of it which keeps things going until the main story is resolved. 

Shin does a little night fishing. 

There are side quests Shin can do as well in the form of doing favors for people in the village like watering crops on a farm, delivering a specific type of herbs to a grocery store owner, or catching a variety of fish for someone. I found it was easier to just pick one or two things to do each day so Shin could wander to his heart's content. I really liked watering crops on the farm because then you could harvest them and those were part of some side quests too. The rewards for the quests gives Shin some cute badges, stickers, and really colorful trading cards. 

Ready to water the crops!

Another thing that amused me was the morning stretches. Every morning, Shin and his family do morning exercise and all the characters in the game join. There's a cheerful fun song and as the story progresses, there are more noticeable characters and dinosaurs added. It's cute and hilarious and put a smile on my face every time. 

Morning exercise time!

My absolute favorite thing in the game however was Dinosaur Showdown. Shin can befriend the kids from the village and play this game with them. It feels very much like a fighting card game and it is such a blast to play. You can get different dino cards when you buy a snack called Chocobi from the grocery store. Then you get to use these cards to play the game with the local kids. It's very easy to follow akin to Rock, Paper, Scissors and you can even compete in a Dinosaur Showdown tournament. The designs for the various dinosaurs are colorful and the battles aren't long so it keeps your attention. I got really hooked on this minigame and strived to collect all the dino cards. 

Dinosaur Showdown is fun! 

There are of course the usual Shin-chan jokes with Shin mishearing things adults say and a few innuendo jokes which if you're familiar with the series itself is a big part of the humor. Some are hit or miss, but I found myself chuckling a lot at most of them. The best part of the game is there's no hurry. You can take your time and enjoy everything. The artwork for the game itself is beautiful. I found myself just stopping to admire the surrounding areas with beautiful, bright flowers or the clear sparkling river. The music and ambient sound for the game is lovely too and together it creates such a relaxing mood and allows you to appreciate everything the game offers. 

Wow, those are some pretty flowers! 

Shin-chan is definitely all about the laid back vibes and it delivers that perfectly. The overall main story itself isn't very long; I finished it in about eight hours. You can play through again with everything you've collected and get things you may have missed. The game was a delight to play and just like the Shin-chan series it shows the importance of family, friends, and enjoying each day as it comes. 

Shin enjoys a rainbow. 

*Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation is available to play on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, and Steam

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer