Personal Space

About

Personal Space is a single player arcade role playing game. It was developed by Friendly Fire and was released on June 24, 2022. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

Personal Space is the only roguelike action RPG all about avoiding others. Your only offense is a solid defense! Equip yourself with a variety of stat upgrades, familiars, and abilities to keep enemies at bay. Dodge your way through dozens of randomly selected room layouts, survive until time runs out in each room to advance through a story mode where you'll (reluctantly) meet some odd and interes…

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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97%

Audience ScoreBased on 35 reviews

music8 positive mentions

The game features charming characters and a unique narrative that explores social anxiety and personal space, providing a relatable experience for many players.
Despite its simplicity, the gameplay is engaging and offers a fun challenge, especially for fans of bullet hell and roguelike genres.
The art style and soundtrack are well-received, adding to the overall charm and enjoyment of the game.

The game suffers from repetitive gameplay and lacks meaningful content, making it feel more like a tech demo than a fully realized game.
There are no checkpoints, which can be frustrating for players, especially given the game's challenging nature.
The graphics and overall presentation are considered subpar, detracting from the experience and making it hard to recommend despite being free.

story
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The game's story mode features a charming art style and engaging character interactions, with players encountering various characters and dialogue options after completing episodes. However, the narrative can feel repetitive due to the limited variety in story beats across playthroughs, and the absence of checkpoints in story mode may frustrate less experienced players. Overall, while the story offers a friendly and insightful experience, its lack of depth and variety may leave some players wanting more.
- “Upgrade items are everyday things, enemies are clearly not trying to hurt you, and the flickering hand-drawn style makes you think of the short animations people usually use to tell a quick personal story.”
- “The game has a cute and well-done art style, along with some nice background music, and there are 2 game modes - story mode and arcade mode, where the story mode has you meeting certain characters after each episode is completed, with some dialogue options to choose from.”
- “But as is the case with any good story, when reading their dialogues I felt like I was having a friendly, insightful conversation with their creator.”
- “The biggest disappointment for me, then, was that each subsequent playthrough presented me with the same story beats as my first.”
- “On the default difficulty (the easiest of them all), I got to the final chapter of story mode on my third attempt.”
- “It'd have been much better if the story mode had checkpoints so players could continue from a certain point, then arcade mode could then be played as a more challenging endless mode.”
music
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
89%
11%
The music in the game has received high praise from users, with many describing the soundtrack as "amazing" and "epic." It complements the game's charming art style and enhances the overall experience, with players expressing a desire for the soundtrack to be available for purchase. Overall, the background music is noted as a significant positive aspect of the game.
- “Not only that, but the soundtrack is amazing as well.”
- “I must say though, the soundtrack is pretty epic.”
- “Cute love the art and music!”
gameplay
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the fun mechanics and emotional depth, while others criticize the lack of meaningful level design and narrative progression. The game features polished bullet hell and roguelite elements, reminiscent of titles like "The Binding of Isaac," but some players suggest that additional meta-progression could enhance the experience for those struggling with its challenges. Overall, the gameplay is engaging but may feel lacking in depth for some.
- “The gameplay is super fun, and the mechanics are quite good.”
- “Not even counting the polished gameplay, the added 'personal' connection with the developer and the sprinkles of insight on the human condition give an unexpected trip into your feelings.”
- “The developer chose not to do the job of a real game developer and create meaningful bespoke levels, narrative-based gameplay progression, and so on.”
- “But enough about the bullet hell and roguelite mechanics.”
- “Some meta-progression might be welcome for people who struggle a bit with the bullet dodging gameplay.”
graphics
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
80%
20%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews; while some users criticize them as among the worst on Steam, others appreciate the cute art style and commend the visuals as impressive for a free game. Overall, the character design and art style are highlighted positively, contributing to the game's charm.
- “The game has a cute and well-done art style, along with some nice background music as well.”
- “Pretty good graphics for an absolutely free game with a good soundtrack.”
- “The characters and the art style are great too.”
- “The graphics here are particularly awful, so bad that it actually stands out as one of the worst looking games on Steam.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the emotional depth of the game, highlighting its heartwarming narratives and the complexity of its eccentric characters. The portrayal of vulnerability and fear of emotional connection resonates strongly, adding layers to the storytelling experience.
- “Do you enjoy heartwarming stories with eccentric characters?”
- “And another character hides away all day, too afraid to let anyone get too close, lest he hurt them emotionally or be hurt himself.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the humor in the game's conversations, noting that they provide a humorous contrast to the premise of wanting to avoid social interaction, creating a lighthearted break between gameplay.
- “These conversations also offer a little place to rest between gameplay, which I find pretty funny in retrospect since the premise is that we want to avoid interacting with people.”