I knew I was forgetting to do something after work. Oops!
Without further ado, here is our final poll. Since there are several choices here, you can vote up to two games. The poll will end on Monday, April 14th and the game(s) with the most votes wins!
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (Switch)
Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl — Gold (Switch)
Kentucky Route Zero (Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X|S, PC, Linux, macOS/iOS, Android)
Return of the Obra Dinn (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, macOS, PC)
Garden Story (Switch, Xbox One, macOS, PC)
A Space For The Unbound (Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X|S, PC, iOS, Android)
This is an award-winning adventure game developed by Mojiken Studio and published by Toge Productions. It was released on January 19, 2023. Director Dimas Novan Delfiano wanted to capture the experience of growing up in Indonesia in the '90s. Winner of the 2020 SEA Game Awards for Best Storytelling and a nominee for the Games Awards 2023 for Games for Impact.
I’ve actually already played through the prologue because it was released as a free demo on Steam many years ago before the game’s release, which is how I discovered the game. I forgot most of what happened, except for how it ended and that I loved what I experienced then, and experiencing it again now, I still love it. The art style and backdrops are beautiful. It is very cozy and just feels like the perfect game to play as the weather is getting hotter. Though I found it amusing there’s just…magic? I thought the characters might’ve been playing or LARPing but then they do the Space Dive and that didn’t feel as made up though I didn’t mind the lack of explanation. I’ve seen it happen in other games too. You just accept it as it is and keep going.
There was a girl, who looked like the one on the cover, that kept popping up in the background…so I thought she was stalking me. And then I came across a lady reading a newspaper, who read aloud an article about a ghost girl. Hmmm…
I can’t forget to mention all the cats. I stopped and petted them all. I love them so much. Bosque was a very good boy and was so patient while I explored and talked and re-spoke to everyone. If I took too long, he would loaf and then do a biiiiiig stretch when it was time to go again. Now that I think about it, Nirmala’s story is probably about her and Bosque. Reading about the South Star Princess and Cat after grieving last night is amusingly coincidental.
I ran into a man selling cimol and I had no idea what that was so I looked it up and I think it’s fried tapioca dough? I didn’t have the best luck with my search results. It’d be cool to try it. I like tapioca pearls for boba but it’s probably not anything like cimol. And then I ran into a man playing keroncong music, which I also didn’t know what it was, so I’ll have to look up some more examples of that style of music.
I was going to end my notes with one of the screenshots I took when I spotted the ghost lady in the background of this scene and I had not noticed she was standing there when I was playing. I wonder if she was in every single backdrop of the prologue and I hadn’t noticed. This is giving Grudge vibes.
I completed the prologue and first chapter, I’m really enjoying this. It’s interesting to me that Kentucky Route Zero was the runner-up for this Game Club: Unbound and Kentucky are both adventure games that use the magical realist style for completely different ends, but with shared motifs on memory and nostalgia.
A Space for the Unbound’s regard for memory feels eidetic: the visuals, the playful characters, everything is presented with lush vividity conveying incredible fondness for every single moment. Kentucky Route Zero, I feel, concerns itself more with the vagueries, memories as an abstract, shapes, colours, the unrepresentable Feeling. These games are wildly different, coming from very different places in society and culture, but both use magical realism to deny you answers and propel the story forward. In games like these, you’re just expected to go with whatever it’s putting down and I love that. I love being taken for a ride.
I know this isn’t the A Space for the Unbound and also Kentucky Route Zero Game Club, but I couldn’t help contrasting aspects of these experience. I really enjoyed Kentucky Route Zero when I played it: Currently I am really enjoying A Space for the Unbound.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts as well, BMO, as a fellow KR0-enjoyer!
I played the prologue, but I made the mistake of trying to play it on the keyboard and it drove me mad to walk with the arrow keys. I feel like I could not get into the game because of this. I am currently trying to find out where I have hidden my controller and restart the game with it. I think it will be a much better experience.
Now that the Switch 2 has mouse support, I wonder if we will see less games with keyboard support in their PC ports but no mouse support in the future. It feels so strange to me that this even exists.
I’ve been playing on a controller and haven’t had any issues, I’m sure that will help! I figured the PC version would have used the standard mouse point-and-click for movement and UI navigation since it’d also be optimal for touch screen play. That is bizarre.
I am ready now to try again.