When we were putting together our most anticipated games of 2022 list back in January, there was one game I knew had to be on it: Mojiken Studio’s A Space For The Unbound. It’s a slice of life adventure about two Indonesian high school students set in the late 90s, and the demo (which has recently been expanded to include the first chapter in addition to its short prologue) instantly captivated me when I first played it a couple of years ago. There are some light supernatural elements that will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s watched the films of Japanese anime directors Makoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda (including a giant, ominous Your Name-style comet, no less), but for the most part this is a much more grounded game than Mojiken have made in the past, such as the fantastical point and click puzzlers She And The Light Bearer and When The Past Was Around.
Indeed, the only game in their back catalogue that has a recognisable, real-life setting is their short, free browser game Banyu Lintar Angin. Born out of an internal game jam project in 2017, Banyu Lintar Angin once again draws inspiration from the studio’s home country of Indonesia. It only takes a couple of minutes to play, but speaking with its creator Dimas Novan, it was vital in sowing the seeds for what A Space For The Unbound would eventually become.