The scammer master did say to leave her in the bathroom until she's cleansed. She was probably locked in there for days and hence passed away in the bathroom. Her health was completely fine and the only thing she had were panic attacks, hence why the doctor recommended psychiatric evaluation. But with 'asian stereotypes', its shameful to be 'crazy' (im glad the world is more open minded now). I'm sure the wife left to go return to filming, and had the intention of returning, but all this shit went down first. In the end, I'm not sure what happened with the father though. Did he also kill himself or is he stuck in his house in front of the tv alone. I'm sure a lot of people can relate to being pressured by their parents in fulfilling their dreams. It's very heart wrenching.
He was probably mentally broken sitting in front of the television. He was emotionally desperate, hoping for anything. That's when the scammers/cultist took advantage of that desperation. During those series of calls he made; when he finally didn't get an answer from his mentor's phone. He probably went to find his place of worship to find his mentor, only to find that it was almost empty. He also found his "prescription" and tapes that heavily hinted that this cult of taking advantage of people. And after that, he headed to his home's bathroom... and what awaited him, probably broke him. We see him sitting in front of the TV, but probably in his mind he was either reliving the game's events trying to put his family back together again or chasing after his daughter during this game's ending musical sequence.
@@multilad816 I think the reason why she told the father not the disturb/ interrupt the daughter was because nothing happened and he would keep calling the scammer. So asking him not to disturb her daughter for a few days is to make him not call her on the phone often. But i'm pretty sure she didnt mean lock the daughter up in the bathroom for days straight without food and water.
Only a year or two late, but personally I think the wife drowns him before she kills herself too or is silenced by the cult. There's only speculation for Feng Yu, the main character, but the pre-release ARG following the wife's nephew investigating her disappearance two decades ago unfortunately confirms she didn't truly leave her family behind to save herself and met an unhappy end eventually too. I think the most prominent evidence is probably the scene where the player is lured to the family portrait with Guanyin ominously behind it as they are drowned by Li Fang, who repeats the line the intro ends with: "Where's Mei Shin?" Following this sequence the player leaves a bathtub, sees Mei Shin - who is already very dead - running off and they are introduced to the hubworld between the timelines, which I interpret as Feng Yu in purgatory coming to terms and piecing together the events of the tragedy. The dark room the game ends on, showing Feng Yu and a static TV is also the setting of the apartment the menu will remain on after beating the game, with bangs on the door that can be heard... presumably Li Fang coming home as she promised to find out what has happened and enact justice on him, though in doing so possibly snuffing out all chance to bring the real culprit to justice.
Things about the *Cigu Guanying* goddess: its not buddism for the most part, its more based upon Daoism. *Cigu is a young girl who has been brutally murdered in the restroom* , people decides to make her a goddess to alleviate her suffering and vengeance. So the whole time the main character has been worshiping a ghost for the most part. In Daoism victims of unjust rape, murder, war would be worshiped to alleviate their pain and suffering in hopes that their spirit wont linger and hurt people in the present world. The ultimate irony is that he killed his daughter in the restroom as well. Same as how the goddess he worshiped died. *The Snake:* The snake is the Taiwanese krait, it is the 4th most poisonous snake in Asia. Snake wine is known for medicinal uses, however one with the Taiwanese krait is 100% lethal. So a little girl soaked in the poisonous venom is probably what killed her along with alcohol poisoning. Another thing about the Taiwanese krait is that it is famously...docile. Like, you make any noise they hide their head under their body and just play dead. For the most part, human is scarier.
@@SilverYPheonix Well, unintentionally, you can't expect a frail young girl to survive locked in a bathroom of poisonous snake alcohol, do you? Especially human skin breath, so she actually died from alcohol poisoning from being stuck in wine for so long.
We knew this wasn't going to end well for the family, but I honestly wasn't expecting it to go that poorly. I had figured the father would kill himself or the wife had drowned him. Instead, we have this horrible tale of a father who put blind faith in a lie over his daughter's safety. It's a tragedy if only because Manly is quite right, this sort of thing happens. Yet another fantastic game though, it nails what it's going for and the OST really helps. It's obviously sad because of what happened, but I love the singing over the credits.
28:55 Ah, Asia where getting psychiatric help is still viewed as shameful, with the high possibility of being labelled "lunatic" by your peers, loved ones, and potential employers even if the thing you are getting help is insomnia or anxiety
I thinks it's still shameful to have psychiatric help(particularly depression and anxiety) almost all over the world. I don't know the levels of this taboo in Asia, but I imagine it's pretty bad.
@@multilad816 True enough. Even if France and Belgium for instance, when somone talks about a psychologue (not even a psychatrist) they get on high defense as if it was the most taboo thing ever. A lot of people, no matter the place, still don't understand that behing "mentaly ill" doesn't specially mean "lunatic" or "autism" or anything else that are actually quite dangerous or extremly difficult in everyday life. (I'm not saying being lunatic or austitic is not normal, more like these things are even more viewed as "bad thing" that simple anxiety and stuff). Ps: I'm not saying either that anxiety or depressed is easy to deal with. I'm talking with the "a random person's point of view" on it (ergo: "pf, you just have a bit of depression, it's nothing important.")
Where I write essay in youtube comments because this hits home a lot things for me personally. I'm Taiwanese. I grew up with a lot of the same believes and traditional values that are placed on the children because, tradition, duty, etc etc. I can never play this kind of game because I fear it will trigger some sort of panic attack for me as well. I have been in Meishin's shoes for sure. Screaming parents. Expectations to do well to not let your parents down. The adults are always right, you are just a dumb kid who doesn't know anything. Support your parents when they are old and feeble. All that "fun" stuff. I was never a prodigy of any sorts. Just a common Asian kid who gotta perform well in school and follow the mold of "do this and you'll be on the path to success." I am an introvert who for the longest time thought that there were all kinds of things wrong with me and that my parents were right for trying to "fix" me. I got better and saw therapist for my problems for a while. But my mom always made this insinuation that the therapist was not a proper doctor and that I was wasting money on therapy. Rant over. I was working on a point about easy answers for the husband, but after a few sentence I realized I need to talk about the title instead. And it's difficult to do this because Devotion's original Chinese term, 還願, isn't exactly translated "correctly." The meaning is a different. The English title "Devotion" does work for the theme of the story, but 還願 will give you an alternate reading. Devotion as an English term doesn't give you a whole lot of religious connotations. You can be devoted to your job, your family, your desire, all sorts of things that's not specific to religion. But 還願 to anyone who has some experience with the Chinese language may think, "ah, there's a bit of supernatural or spiritual element in regards to wishes." I may butcher the meaning for this part, so bear with me. 還願 in the usual context would mean you prayed to a deity for something, if that desire is fulfilled you need to repay the deity back for the blessing. The method of paying back varies. It depends on what you had promised when you made that wish, "if I scored top 10 on the exam I won't masturbate for a half a year." Generally, you do good deeds. It doesn't have to be food or monetary offering to the deity who helped you. Unless that was what you said. This can get a bit needlessly complicated, so let's just say do good deeds as paying back for the divine favors. Ah, but some of the viewers may be thinking: but the idiot husband was praying to a very sketchy looking statue. Eh. No. It's slightly complicated. As a Chinese culture, we have. A LOT. of deity and regular dead people to pray to. We like praying. (Even though it's more of obligation and following the traditional values and etc. There are a lot of reasons to pray) We pray to our ancestors to protest us. We pray to certain famous dead war general for prosperous business. And sometimes we pray to shady looking statues because we really wanted to win the lottery. For westerners who aren't very religious or exposed to this kind of cultural belief, well, human belief can be a very powerful thing. If you believe in something hard enough certain things will come true because literal deus ex machina will save the day. So I can see why the dev team chose the English term "Devotion" as the translated title. It is not wrong to have a belief. In fact having a belief functions as a sort of anchor for people. Before I devolve into a tangent on secure base in psychology, let's move on. It's not unusual to pray for something given the game's setting. Because sometimes that's the (seemingly) only thing anyone can do. Pay attention to the tapes in the "mentor's" apartment. One has a worried mother praying for her son's academic success. One about a woman wanting a married man to divorce his wife. One has a son threatening to sue the scam artist over failing to save the ailing father. People pray for all sorts of things. People pray on behalf of other people, people whose actions they may not have full control over. People grasp for straws and they'll pray for divine miracles to save the day. Sometimes these miracles to come through. We still don't know how Meishin made a full recovery when it seemed medical science was failing. Maybe she actually was saved by a deity's blessing or a deal with the devil. This point was left vague. It's this vagueness that drew the husband in. Because the precious daughter was saved, therefore this time she can be saved again as long as he devotes himself hard enough to this task. Earlier I talked about shady statues, nothing is more difficult to get rid of than the shady types. Sometimes less than savory youkai or malevolent forces can possess a statue. Even a completely legitimate looking Buddha statue may be possessed by something terrible, especially if you found the statue abandoned on the side of the road. There are actually a lot of deity related things that most people wouldn't know. And since this is a youtube comment I'm not writing 5000 words on this since I am not an expert of any kind, I just google a bit more than others. To keep things simpler, imagine two factions: official vs shady. Official temples have LEGITIMATE deities, have proper history, they have proper temples, they have proper people who actually offer proper advice, they have proper procedures and have a certain guaranteed rate of success (probably.) These temples house the correct deities that correspond to that temple. Nothing bad will happen to you if you pray to this temple. These are the right sorts who won't ask you to make blood sacrifice or bathe your children in snake wine. They want you to be a good person and do the right things if your wish was fulfilled. Now the second type, welllll... You don't know what you are praying to. You could be praying to Satan's little helper for all your know. You may be paying back your wish with your life. Everything about the "mentor's" place looks sketchy. It looks privately owned. It doesn't look affiliated with any major temple. There's nothing more concrete other than "just believe harder and our goddess will save you." The mentor may actually have some power to be able to take the husband through the underworld or an illusion of it, but obviously she's not someone trustworthy. So... tl;dr you just wrote bajillion words that basically, he prayed to maybe Satan. No, I also underlined that praying is a common thing for Asian culture. It's not a weird, spooky thing that some not familiar with the culture may have a knee jerk reaction of "oh it's just a kooky cultural thing that should possibly be abolished because I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT." There are a lot of cultural baggage I can't possibly cram into something the size of TH-cam comment. I'm actually pretty glad that dev team went with "Devotion" as the English title. Because that's ultimately what this is about. Devotion to the family, ego, social norms, etc and how a combination of all this caused a tragedy to happen.
Thank you for the detailed explanation of the title. This will let western players understand what went through the father's mind. For those who grew up with the same beliefs, this really hits hard on how true it was to our culture.
If you look at the title screen, the 'i' in 'devotion' is in the form of an incense burning. This indicates the connection of 'devotion' to spiritual or religious theme. I think they do this to show the connotation of the title to spiritual theme as there's no direct translation from original Chinese to English.
You are saying us "westerners" can't understand the reason for resorting to such measures as praying for deities, but we do. The point however, in which makes the story of this game a whole lot more creepy, is that you really didn't have to do that in order to get anything that could've been out of your reach to achieve. You don't need "deus ex machina" methods to have a miracle happen in your life, or maybe you can but it also doesn't have to be related to religious ties but rather the strategy other people have found to make whatever thing happen with low cost. People find shortcuts to success all the time here, there as well, and religion is just a way to hide the actual recipe of how whatever thing was possible. If I may speak personally, your culture does bring the horror aspect for story so quite often because of how odd and insane conviction you guys have to uphold your religious beliefs in a way that makes so easy to destroy even your lives and your families'. It's creepy and scary to think you may actually be killed by your family because they believe sacrificing you in some way (mentally or physically) may bring success of some kind in whatever way that may be, without even knowing what way at that. That is appalling and absurd from a humanistic standpoint.
thank you for the indepth essay! i thought it was very informative and clarified a lot of implications and shades of meaning that might be lost on someone outside the culture. Honestly when you talk about "shady" deities and how desperation can affect people it makes me think of like... how a huge hubbub can take place over those "likeness of jesus" in mundane objects that happen in the americas sometimes. A person shows jesus in a piece of fabric or whatever, theres a media story, people flock to the object to worship it in hopes of curing all sorts of ills. Actually now that I think about it, that kind of thing excisted in europe for a long time, with holy relics - often literal body parts of saints or wood of the cross, that kinda of thing. while some relics were more authentic in larger churches, of course counterfeits abounded in hopes of drawing crowds of pilgrims and the faithful, who would bring donations ("donations"). idk where im going with this, but i think this business of exploiting religion almost like a side business is interesting.
@@You68688 They had a small poster on a wall in the game containing an insult towards xi jinping, China's current president. Doesn't even have to do with the game's story, yet a mob of nationalistic weirdos decided to rag on the game because of it. The creators have actually taken the game off of Steam for the moment because of it.
@@TheShadow7771 wow... that's a damn shame. The game is beautiful and people just have to get mad over a single poster in the game. Like wow how dare the creators have an opinion? Jeez people these days. Thanks for informing us though.
"This could feasibly take up to seven days" the mentor said. "Let her slowly soak". Soak a little girl in liquor for up to seven days. And the dad didn't think "gee, I wonder if she needs to eat or drink anything in that timeframe?" Apparently it's shameful in Asian cultures to be diagnosed with mental illness, but not nearly as shameful as believing in a ritual that literally starves a child to death. 👌👌👌 Jokes aside (but also not really), this game was beautiful. Beautifully crafted, beautifully written, beautifully orchestrated. The little details with the written clippings to piece the story together, the pacing, the flashback scenes, the design aesthetics, the use of color and light, the different stylistic choices (using real people, then having a storybook element). They really went all out, and none of it overstays it's welcome or feels out of place. This game keeps you tense, has a jump scare or two, but never forces you to feel a certain kind of 'scared'. It earns it's discomfort through it's show of sheer depravity, empathy (or lack thereof), religious observation, and the human element. A deep dive on the horrors of a family dynamic. Which could happen, I suppose, to anyone.
It seems like Mei Shin had severe anxiety and would get panic attacks, which while are apart of a mental illness, repeated ones can have intense health effects. The first time it worked with the mentor, she was probably relieved of her anxiety because her father was there and she was told she was gonna be safe. Leading to him believing the spiritual medicine would work every time.
Alex Lukyanenko I believe the mother was in the right here. She tried some form of medication, even if it wasn’t the best, and wanted to get her daughter out of the house. But as a woman she didn’t have the means to do so- nor did her husband allow her to, May I add when she did- to help change their environment or contribute to the finances. While leaving her no doubt hurt her, if she had been able to work from the beginning it probably would have helped in the long run. But yeah, what a lack of understanding for mental illness and help can do. Religion could have even been helping her st first- another coping mechanism to make her life feel in order.
@@AlexCrMaReLiLukyanenko I would say more, physiotherapy vs painkillers. Painkillers make you feel better immediately, but don't resolve the problem. And long-term, they can stop working or even cause other issues. Physiotherapy will (hopefully) help with the actual issue, but in the short-term might make you feel worse because of the strain etc. Some people only need to take the occasional painkiller when the issue flares up, some people find they don't help at all. Some people find that after physiotherapy, they don't need any painkillers. Some find that physiotherapy doesn't actually help at all. Some will need both long-term. It all depends on the person and what they're dealing with. Stigmatising medication is not helpful, any more than stigmatising therapy is.
@@AlexCrMaReLiLukyanenko Not everything is treated successfully with therapy alone. Research shows that the most effective treatments combine both, though of course it depends on the patient and the type/severity of illness. Some things are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, therefore are helped by medication.
i understand "Lady on the Pier"'s intent as a song, but I find it amazing how Red Candle connects to the daughter longing for her father to "return" to normal and love her again, while fighting back her own misery.
This was driving me to tears. I come from a dysfunctional family with money issues and I am mentally ill as a result of family upbringing. I had also intended to become the future of my family. Like the daughter, I got "sick" to the point I was having severe chest pain. I find myself relating to her plenty, and it makes me long for a childhood I never had. It seems her diagnostic was likely GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), Depression is also possible. Had he not listened to the cult and took his daughter for psychiatric care, she would have been alive and well. But sadly, the struggles within the game are plenty of things we see in real life. What disturbs me is that there are actual cases of parents killing their child unintentionally believing they can cure them, linked to all these scams and cults... There were a lot of issues, but that really perturbs me. Probably because of how much I relate to the daughter, and how much I wished I could be cured, looking back on my destroyed family. But I dunno. This was really good anyway. The horror is deeply rooted in psychology.
The real horror is the collapsed family. The devotion split into parts that are, on their own, a necessity (like financial safety and spirituality), without prioritizing the daughter's well-being. In a sense each parent was turning a blind eye to the daughter's pain, each one devoted to their own pursuit of success/safety/acknowledgement etc. Dreaming of the life they want to live instead of focusing in the one they already have and working on making it better. I wonder if the daughter had asthma. It isn't clearly stated as far as I remember. Stress would definitely worsen her condition, but so would humidity. Remember, the last entry the daughter made: it was raining. And she was immersed in a warm bath and not allowed to go out for a while probably. Taking all that into account, I think the daughter died there. And the father went into a state of shock, sitting mindlessly on the couch watching tv as everything rots and withers away around him. The entire journey is a story inside his head. A script, influenced by real-life events and exaggerated versions of might-have-beens. He leaves the apartment in search of his daughter, only to return back to it, alone. In his own mind, he is the hero of her favorite storybook, on a journey of devotion to find her and fix the errors of his past to achieve a better future. But that is all in his head. He is a writer, after all. His shock and denial would make him go into his head, make up a story and live through that, unable to accept he was too late.
The daughter suffered from a mental illness, shown through the part where you have to "calm down" and her referral to the psychiatrist. Anxiety and panic attacks can cause chest pain. That's why making tulips made her feel better, it was all symptoms of her mental illness.
all this time, i assumed that the father had killed himself at some point, but your explanation makes it even...scarier...that he didn't die yet, that he's alive and going through these memories/dreams/desires, looping through and trying to write a better ending that will never happen to cope with the fact that he killed his daughter. that he's creating these delusions to escape but never really doing it successfully. i mean...remember the opening scene? that never happened. that was just ... a wish.
*THIS* is symbolism done right! All of it is directly tied to the overall plot, it shows the plot instead of telling you, it is understanable enough, it is beautiful (or creepy) when it has to be, and it is so well composed that it hits you right in the heart.
_The saddest part is the family did love each other..._ When you said that philosophy about the child supporting the parents in old age was very Asian, I found that section very difficult. I thought about how in the West - at least where & how I was raised - the concept was that you are the raising the child to leave the home. The child would become self-supporting having a separate life & family of its own while still honoring, loving, & valuing their parents. Families should pull together in hardship tho, no matter where, & many children do take on the responsibility of caring for aging or unwell parents. But it should be out of love, not because of obligation. The high expectations of the daughter to sing in public when she obviously suffered from panic attacks was sad. The father’s failure with own career transformed into an obsession with his daughter’s singing. But when children are that young, the desire to perform in front of others has to come from within. There needs to be a balance between expectations/wanting potential fulfilled & demanding too much from children. A very good, more emotionally touching game than many others in the psychological horror genre with definitely a beautiful ost, in particular Lady of the Pier. Thank you for a thoughtful play-through that gave more depth to the spiritual aspects of the game.
in my country the eldest child is still somewhat kinda obligated to carry the family(work hard and pay for the bills, make your siblings finish school, some extreme cases even halt their scholastic affairs just to immediately work and let the younger siblings have a "better" chance at life) if the parents aren't able to... Even after having a family of their own they still need to be always ready to have a "reserve money" to give to your parents edit: and before anybody thinks I'm "hating" on the familial "standards" in my country, I won't say I'm not but personally I've never been one to happily attend my family gathering because of some personal experiences(let's just leave it at that ^_^)
+NaturalFlirtGamer Aye, but even loving your family is itself a sort of obligation. It's complicated, for sure, so everyone just calls it a cultural difference. It's normal and just "how it is." Personally, I subscribe to the "love" motive as well, despite an Oriental background. I think that belief isn't quite a straightforward belief, however, but instead a wish. It may not be a belief that a child ought to help *because* they love, but that when they inevitably do, they *still* love. We support our elders because that's "what we do," but we say it's because we love them because we hope that we'll never resent them even in their advancing age. We don't want to start hating them if they walk slower or get confused, or if they become jaded and get more rude. I do agree with family providing support. It gets hard, though, when your cousin decides he needs to fly over two thousand miles to a university on the other side of the country to study... dance? Ah, but I know I'd wind up helping anyway, even if I _do_ think he's nuts for thinking he has to go across the country because he just has *got* to get away from home.
+Thelothuo Aww lol for that cousin support!! Family is always a mixed bag - love, obligation, exasperation, need, expectation all rolled into an unique emotional dough. What comes out is part the result of genetics, culture, religion maybe, & hopefully love. The experience is a great test of & testament to humanity.
Despite the distressing, uncompromising realities presented, this game was truly moving in its portrayal of the gradual dissolution of a once stable, loving family. Though I lack the ability to personally connect with the specific scenario depicted as well as the cultural, spiritual, and religious aspects which are inextricably interwoven into the narrative, I’m always glad to witness and learn from life experiences which demonstrate dissimilarities with my own. To avoid sounding repetitious, in consideration of my prior comments on the ingenuity and brilliance of the imagery, direction, set-pieces, and methods of story-telling executed throughout the game, I suppose I’ll focus on elements of the narrative itself. Firstly, it was rather difficult for me to hear the denial and stigmatization of anxiety and other psychological issues, specifically from a parent towards their child. This sort of flawed and misguided conceptualization of mental health issues is immensely pernicious, though, unfortunately, rather pervasive, as is the tendency to misconstrue these matters as evidence of either irredeemable insanity, personal failure or laziness, moral depravity, or corruption of the soul. Additionally, I appreciated how this game subverted the anticipated role of a young girl in a horror game and, instead, inspired an overwhelming sympathy for the stressful burden of her fracturing family’s worsening financial situation which exacerbated, and perhaps even initially caused, her anxiety. The prevalence of the tulip image was also particularly powerful, especially in its symbolic significance to the relationship between Mei Shin, almost always depicted in yellow, and her father. It was also rather striking to me how the gentle act of folding these tulips alongside her beloved father provided such a pronounced reprieve from her symptoms, demonstrating how, like a fragile flower, tenderness, affection, care, and proper consideration of her surrounding environment were all necessary for her healthy, normal growth. Being deprived of this sensitive cultivation and placed under extreme pressure, she withered. I’m not certain if the father lived or died in the end, however, it seems as though he is truly gone either way. Utterly devastating and beautifully constructed game overall.
The story was just as hard hitting as detention but I spent the whole of devotion on the edge of my seat, the plot, the visuals, the execution all utterly fantastic. The company who makes these is incredible and I loved this game, I’ll have to buy it as soon as it comes back on steam
It finally came back! You can find it on their website red candle ^^ And mhmmm I agree with yah, the ending song just broke me as well... The daughter still forgives him after all that...
I just finished bawling my eyes from the ending of Blind Prince and Liar Princess. I'm excited to see how this amazing series comes to an end too! Edit : I think this game honestly hits close to home for a lot of people. I'm always heavily burdened between what I want to do and what my parents want me to do. Not to mention that any mental illnesses are written off as taboo and you simply "don't have enough faith in _____", life at home may get suffocating at times. On a less sour note, I definitely enjoyed a few little things in the early part of the games. The tear off calendar, the arowana, the miniature grandfather clock hanging on the wall - it was certainly very nostalgic! Edit Edit : I'm absolutely hooked with the ending song, "Lady of the Pier". It's absolutely lovely.
The "birthday grab" is when the people place things on the floor and the first thing the toddler crawls and grabs onto, is what they will be in the future. I like that they added this touch!
+HamburgersAndBeer I'd just keep it as a story to tell them. I don't trust a baby's brain to select objects on anything other than appearance. Without time to associate meanings to things, especially when baby-toy versions look nothing like the real thing the adults use, I expect them to grab the most colorful thing they see. Again, it still makes for a good story. "Oh, we had a birthday grab for you, but the first thing you grabbed was your cousin's beanie!"
@@Thelothuo Sometimes it can just be what the kid is exposed to most of the time. If the dad or mom is a sports person and plays sports a lot, chances are they are going to go for a ball or something like that
@Betrayer Yes, exposure has a huge effect, but that's much later in childhood. At one year old, I don't expect them to see much other than shiny and colorful.
I specifically watched your playthrough of this game because you are able to explain the real life cultural aspects that factor into this story. I enjoy more grounded stories like this because, like you said, this can actually happen. The horror of watching a life fall apart is more terrifying than monsters coming at you any day of the week.
With all the visuals and the story altogether this game really hit TOO close to home for me, it's insane. And I want to share my story here because if I actually spoke to people about it my family would consider it SHAMEFUL waah. Me sharing it is unfair to them and me not sharing my story would be unfair to me.This is how I'll cope, I guess. I don't particularly need anyone to read this but writing is very therapeutic and maybe some of you might feel similarly as I do. Growing up as the only daughter in a dysfunctional half-Chinese half-Indonesian family, certain moments in this game made me break down just a bit each time. Sure I was never a child prodigy and my parents were never celebrities or anything and I'm certainly not dead, ha. My story didn't exactly follow this plotline, though I'd say most of the 'dysfunction' from my family came from my dad's faults as well. He wasn't a writer like the father in Devotion, but he was definitely a big book buff. I was never attached to him though, unlike Mei Shin. My dad's always felt like a stranger in my own home, though weirdly enough he also tried to bond with me by giving me some really nice books that I honestly do appreciate. Most of my friends do somewhat know that I had an unfortunate family background, but they definitely don't know to what extent. I don't think I should really talk to them about it either since that would be too much of my baggage for any of them should handle. I recall a part in the game where a note mentioned how the father in Devotion yelled at Mei Shin for using his writing paper as origami and I had a major flashback whiplash. I was scared for Mei Shin to experience what I had. She was lucky enough then that nothing happened (yet). When I was small, I'd accidentally ripped a page from a book my dad had and he got so mad at me that he launched at me and almost hit me. Why almost? Because my mom got in the way and got hit instead of me. It was awful. Like Mei Shin's father, my dad was rather spiritual as well albeit in a different manner. He's Catholic, and he was such a fanatic that he attended a theology school of some sort. He named me after Mother Teresa and I have to say that I suppose my name is one of the few things gifted by my dad that I do appreciate, though I would very much prefer to drop his last name than keep it. Fortunately my dad did not try to kill me. BUT, as he was purchasing some sort of heavy wooden stick, he actually told me when I was literally 4 years old that he would kill my mom, grandma, uncle, aunt, etc. I, being very scared of my family's well being, told my grandma of this conversation. This information was brought to court as my mom fought for custody over me and divorce from my dad. So of course, I've lived with my mom ever since. I mean, seriously, who...would talk to a 4 year old like that? NOT someone of sound mind. I've lived apart from my dad since I was 4 and though we've still met from time to time when I was still in school, but ever since I finished high school it's been years since I've last heard of him. Then all of a sudden we found pictures on Facebook that made it likely that he'd remarried without even telling me. I guess I shouldn't really care about it since he's practically a stranger, but sometimes...when you think about how someone who's supposed to CARE for you, someone who brought you into this would, just doesn't see you as a part of their life? It feels confusing and the implications brings forth overwhelming emotions. I don't think my dad ever wanted me. I think he justified the idea of having me with the thought that he could indoctrinate me to have the same twisted world view as he does. I can somewhat suspect that he likely does feel alone and misunderstood by the structure of society and didn't want the life he ended up with, I think he did hope that I could possibly grow into someone who might be able to understand him. But as a parent and as an adult, you should be the one to care for your child and not bring them into your problems. You shouldn't have a child in efforts of fulfilling your own goals as children are individual characters and not extensions of yourself. Instead of forcing your children to grow a certain way, let them grow to be a person who's healthy, happy, and kind.
Im not Asian, but my family is super religious. And i relate to this game because i suffered from insomnia and depression and instead of seeing a doctor, my mother and father would say it was due to my '"lack of prayer". They made me see priests and praying groups, never a doctor. The problem eventually escalated after a while and a was thankfully taken to a therapist. Religion can have some pretty terrible effects to ppls lives. Religious ppl are so "devoted" they feel like if they do anything unreligious theyll go to hell, which is sad. Instead of fixing their problems, they pray
As a half Korean woman, I can certainly relate to how East Asian families try to push their kids beyond. My mom, being Korean, has done a bit of that on me and my brother. Luckily she wasn't that bad. I get what has happened to this family. I just wonder if the daughter really died in the end or if she managed to escape whatever torture her dad put her through. That scene in the end certainly was creepy that it showed the father just sitting there in that dirty rundown apartment with the TV showing nothing but static, so my guess is, maybe he did kill her and he went insane. Still this was an interesting game to go through. Look forward to another game from Manly. C:
Or he locked her in the bathroom after he laid her in the wine and she starved to death; or drowned when laying in the wine when she suffered from a paralyzing anxiety attack... as anxiety attacks can do (he did grab her during one of her anxiety attacks while she lay in bed). The instructions given by mentor mention to not interrupt her. Waiting outside for days, he was probably deeply worried so he kept calling mentor. Only when she didn't answer one of his calls, he went to find mentor in her chapel upstairs in the apartment building. The room he found was completely empty. Finding a few recordings and his "prescription," doubt caused him to go open the bathroom. And he became mentally broken. That entire musical sequence might be his own delusion of what happen or maybe even the entire game is him reliving the events leading up to opening the bathroom door over and over... trying to put his family back together again.
Unfortunately I think with all the drowning symbolism that occurred in the game it is heavily implied that he did drown her. I kind of thought the very end scene was him dying himself and reuniting with her after realizing what he had done.
I think it's a very relatable story. Not just the pressures of parents and their expectations. But the horrors of faith healing. Which is something done in many cultures. Some people make millions off of faith healing. Which is probably the scariest part of this story. As Manly says, it could be anyone. You could hear about something like this on the news. You could know someone in a similar situation. Be it faith healing or some kind of dietary cleanse. Devotion makes us do frightening things to ourselves and others.
The sad part is that their daughter had light panic attacks which can be gotten rid of in a couple of months without any medication or expensive therapy.
My school's orchestra often rehearses and performs the credits song "The Lady of The Pier". Glad to see there's a playthrough of this by Manly. This game was a masterclass on visual storytelling. This and Detention which were made by the same team were interesting for sure.
This was so much better than layers of fear. There were horror elements in the story but it wasn't necessarily the main take away. It's rather a depressing horror of the breakdown of a family done eloquently.
this story reminded me of my family i cried so much, when the mother left, the panic attacks, the parents fighting, asking where my father is.....just everything
In the end, the father's (religious) devotion was the final crack that broke this once truly loving family. It's a really somber game and I agree that the "horror" is the relatability or the real groundedness of the story, the fact that it's very, you know, real. It's sad it is something so real. I did love this game's storytelling and visuals, Mei Shin's room overgrown with yellow tulips being a favourite along with the storybook (I love that they made it interactive). the OST was great, I adored the ending songs (both credits and the I-guess-you'd-say end sequence songs)
Didn't see anyone mention it in this comment section so just wanted to throw it out here (under a 2yo video lmao)... the last sentence of the song _Lady on the Pier_ , 你还愿意吗 (are you still willing) contains the original Chinese title of the game, 还愿, which is the "still willing" part in this context (while this word itself is usually used to mean "providing offering to a deity for fulfilling one's wish".... sth like that). It... got me.
i legitimately broke down crying at the sacrifice part. this game evoked so many emotions within me, and it was an amazing and beautifully told story. just as good as its predecessor, detention, kudos to the team
If you can't get this game on Steam right now, go for Detention if you will. What happens in real life right now, is just like what the story tells in this game Detention. So called "White Terror".
@@L16htW4rr10r "The White Terror (of Taiwan) was the suppression of political dissidents following the February 28 Incident." Possibly called that due to the "Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) government" flag being white (well blue with a white sun) but that's just my guess.
@@L16htW4rr10r No he's saying what is happening to the game is like when Kuomintang was exiled cos Mainland China took offense to their existence or slight towards them(Devotion's alleged slander towards Xi Jin Ping and China)
The OST really is well done. And the whole game in general is very sad and disturbing. Just well done, in general. Enjoyed it. Thanks for playing it through, Manly. Glad I saw this. Keep up the fun. God bless yours and you! :)
The story hits TOO close to home for me and for most Asians. It's a very Asian kind of thing to do. We have so many beliefs. That belief is so strong that it can create miracles or it can totally destroy you. It's not something a person not from our culture can fully/truly grasp at. You might devote yourself to that belief and do good deeds to repay for the miracles that happened to you or die trying while praying for something that will never happen in a million years. It is THAT powerful, our beliefs. The pressure for children to perform well, the competitiveness and neglect of the children's mental health. In Meishin's case, it's a very real issue for Asian kids. This game's scenario happened to a lot of Asian families, minus the cult/horror theme. Mental illness is still a taboo in Asia, but I'm glad we're getting more open-minded now. Last time, if you're mentally ill, people will think you did something evil in your past life and was cursed or possessed by evil spirits, tormenting and torturing your soul till' you turn crazy and die. People would rather tie you up and drag you to a shaman to get rid of the evil spirit rather than sending you to a hospital. This type of scam do exist in our society, some people did choose this type of treatment rather than going to a real doctor due to their beliefs that deities have the power to save their souls, and the scammers take advantage of this to suck you dry. It can become an obsession and tear families apart. This is a sad and depressing game with a tint of horror. My heart was breaking bit by bit as the game progressed and I completely broke down at the end when Meishin said, "Daddy, let's go home". Both songs are beautiful and haunting at the same time. This game gets 11/10 from me.
Wow, the story of this game hits home so hard. And I love how much thought they place into every object of the game to make you really delve into the cultural part of past (Maybe even current) taiwanese/Chinese people.
Cause I'm Korean, it's very interesting that see the difference of thinking between Asians and other foreign peoples... That's why I love this game! ^-^
Okay so let me break this down. My theory is that the wife was a famous superstar who married a famous director and had the daughter. It's hard to say when the issues started. Maybe it was the daughter having a series of panic attacks or the father unable to find any work. Either way, when these issues popped up due to everybody's "devotion" no one could admit to themselves anything was wrong. The husband was dutifully devoted to his daughter but just as much to his spirituality. He didn't want to admit his daughters problems were mental, not physical (which still has a stigma in Asian countries) so he obviously tried woo cures (as seen with the vitamins and needles as a representation of hurting his daughter) The scammer took advantage of his desperation of feeling like a failure for not getting any work and not being able to save his daughter. The wife obviously has a lot of resentment. You can tell she cares for her child, but her way also seems to ignore the daughter's problems. I don't think her(the daughter) trying to be a singer did anything for her mental health either. She has a lot of themes tied into feeling resentment about leaving her previous life as a singer to be a housewife. But considering who's she's dealing with can you blame her? The guy absolutely refused to get help for anything. And even if the wife went back to filming she still wanted to provide for her daughter. No wonder she feels trapped. And then the poor daughter is just caught up in all of this. Ending up with nervous ticks and wanting to run away because she thinks her parents don't care for her anymore. It's honestly depressing. Truly devotion was the beginning and ending for series.
I get how Manly could see not all people would understand the story, but I'm born and raised in the west and I can totally see how this could happen. While it's not as common as eastern culture, it has still happened in the west where one can become consumed by a religion or a "cult" so to speak. Now I like his analysis of the game, but from what I could see Mei Shin actually wasn't ill in a sense. She was more stressed out which caused her bad panic attacks which made it hard to breathe. I've had a few and the feeling is horrible as well as terrifying. But of course her cure was just being loved by her family which she sadly didn't get. My only complaint of the game would be while the symbolism pointed to the fact that the girl drowned in the tub. I still wasn't sure if the dad physically drowned her or did she like panic and accidentally drown while the dad stayed outside the bathroom. If I could get a clearer explanation on that then it would be a perfect end to an otherwise awesome game.
She was locked in the bathroom for 7 days if the dad completely followed the mentor’s word. Without food and water, she probably was desperate to get out and followed her dad’s order to stay in the tub of wine for that long. If it wasn’t from drowning, then she could’ve died from acute alcohol poisoning from bathing in it.
@@Eenkin wow that's terrible. See I was thinking the dad actually drowned her on the first day and then locked her in the bathroom expecting her to be healed after a week and then upon entering ye realized the mentor was a sham. Not to mention she left and her phone was disconnected when he called. Either way another sad part to me is that he did all this while the mom was away doing a movie to bring money back in the house and planned to take them all away from there. Yet his ego couldn't take it so he probably convinced the little girl she wasn't coming back. No wonder she listened to him and all his crazy ritual talk. I couldn't image how the mother felt when she got home only to find out he killed their daughter. 😞
what can i say that hasn't been sad? sad, chilling, engaging.... the wonderful pacing and use of symbolism, implication, foreshadowing. magnificently done! One thing i do like is during the redeux of the beginning sequence, where the mother is still home and happily chatting with the father, watching reruns of his daughter.... only to see her spectre in the doorway, reminding him to open his eyes and face reality. brrr. much better than any jumpscare.
this game is amazing. i know this was uploaded a few years ago and all, but wow. the soundtrack, too. beautiful but sad. love how it all ties in together, the lyrics of lady of the pier especially.
So that’s why the wife is asking where Mei Shin is in the intro....she’s slowly rotting away in the bathroom bathed in wine... This game is a straight up tearjerker. I love horror games that made you feel. I feel like this game already falls under the psychological horror genre, and that’s another plus for me. Also fuck scammers, man.
Just finished it, great game, loved the story telling, and..it is pretty sad. I really enjoyed this playthrough, manly's commentary made me appreciate this game even more.
Here in Brisbane, Aussieland, we have a lot of asians in general (particularly Vietnamese), but they tend to stick to themselves and many don't speak English so you don't really get to know much about them or their culture aside from what you can see as an outsider looking in (they don't integrate into the greater community, as a whole; only their kids do). I found this game to be a very interesting insight into another culture. As far as my interpretation goes, this game is about a family desperately trying to do their best for each other, and it just didn't work out on any front. It's sad but I don't think it was necessarily any of their faults (other than the mentor who seemed to really be a scam artist). Yeah, the father didn't deal with anything very well, but I think his devotion to religion was his way of trying to help his child when he thought medicine was failing her. Yes, the mother left, but I think she had every intention to come back and help the family once she could. And of course the kid wanted her family to be together and happy and she pushed herself way too hard to try to achieve something that we as adults know can't be forced in that way anyway. It's all sad but it's all very understandable if you don't jump to condemning judgement. I honestly think they were all trying their best from their own points of view.
What's really awful is that many parents in real life, from many different cultures, will try treatments for kids that end up hurting them. It's not just in Asia either - in the US, for example, we have ABA "therapy", antivax, and countless poisonous supplements salesmen assure you are totally safe for your kids. (Not to mention our literal religious cults.) I think it's easy for westerners to think about this kind of thing as disconnected from our culture, when really we have the same thing, just wearing different faces.
This game reminds me of my past, fear is the worst thing I had since childhood, these ritual reminds me of my house since my grandmother still alive, but I realised im not Taiwanese, when he pull out tongue, etc, it made me gonna vomit, more like this game can provoke your childhood PTSD, So good yet so scary.
Wow after i saw the ending of LiarPrincess&BlindPrince i got the cutesy sad... now after seeing this, gave me the family-drama-ish kind of sad... thanks manly luv ur content :'^)
thank you for another great lp, manly! this game distinctly makes me want to cry from my core since a lot of elements in this story are echoed across other asian cultures too
When I was watching through the previous parts too, I was like ´yeaaah her condition sounds like serious anxiety´ and hERE IT IS MORE OR LESS CONFIRMED OMFG It does seem on point for how asian households dont really typically hold mental health in high regard
Tbh,it was a good game,i kinda can relate to some of the events in the game but....less DEVOTION (i'm lonely) aspect y'know Which making this game almost hit close to home....
ok so i think i just realized something kinda messed up about that ending. we see books flying which kinda symbolize being liberated. all of this tragedy might have broken his creative block and allowed him to write again. either he joins his daughter in the after life or he was able to pursue his past passion again, just as a cost too high
In Chinese "still willing" (lyrics from the ending song) is exactly the same word as "Devotion" but pronounced differently. and yes it's something that really would happen in Taiwan... My dad is exactly like the dad in the game, who loves me so much but all he did just make things worse. My mom and step-mom were worse than my dad tho. Everything was just because they overly believed a religion/person.
*******Spoilers(?)******* I loved the ending. Like it was sad af and jacked up but I loved the music and visuals. I hope that ritual lady gets the worse karma >.> And that mom sucks. Why would you leave your kid alone with a father who isn't making money and has obviously gone over the deep end. Like omg, poor kid. Still a bit salty bout the fish but honey bless your heart x.x Also, when he was in the elevator I couldn't help but be reminded of the shaming TV in the elevator while living in Taiwan lol they'd have pictures of people who didn't separate their trash properly in the apartment garbage area. I wouldn't be surprised if me and my Dad were on it at some point cause holy crap there were so many bins and the translations were kinda odd. One of them had a translation under it saying dragon something but it was full of styrofoam.
Husband's a dead beat who was clearly not able to support the family financially. Financially, they may really be in dire strait so as far as she knows, someone has to go make some money to support the family because the other partner's plain useless. Unfortunately she wasn't able to account for how a combination of the daughter's panic attacks + the husband's obsession with religion will somehow lead to a sweet girl being marinated and dying in snake booze. She probably could have left the daughter with her mother, but going by the husband's behaviors so far, that was not going to happen either. The tone of the mother-in-law's letter was also not so good either. "Blah blah blah it's just typical husband wife spats, just grin and bear that shit basically. Eventually it'll be water under the bridge. Just imagine all the nasty gossip that'll happen if the wife did return home with the daughter sans husband." There were options, but a lot of them were limited and hampered by traditional cultural believes. Poor girl was just caught in the cross fire of a lot of terrible things combined.
The scammer master did say to leave her in the bathroom until she's cleansed. She was probably locked in there for days and hence passed away in the bathroom. Her health was completely fine and the only thing she had were panic attacks, hence why the doctor recommended psychiatric evaluation. But with 'asian stereotypes', its shameful to be 'crazy' (im glad the world is more open minded now). I'm sure the wife left to go return to filming, and had the intention of returning, but all this shit went down first. In the end, I'm not sure what happened with the father though. Did he also kill himself or is he stuck in his house in front of the tv alone.
I'm sure a lot of people can relate to being pressured by their parents in fulfilling their dreams. It's very heart wrenching.
He was probably mentally broken sitting in front of the television. He was emotionally desperate, hoping for anything. That's when the scammers/cultist took advantage of that desperation.
During those series of calls he made; when he finally didn't get an answer from his mentor's phone. He probably went to find his place of worship to find his mentor, only to find that it was almost empty. He also found his "prescription" and tapes that heavily hinted that this cult of taking advantage of people. And after that, he headed to his home's bathroom... and what awaited him, probably broke him.
We see him sitting in front of the TV, but probably in his mind he was either reliving the game's events trying to put his family back together again or chasing after his daughter during this game's ending musical sequence.
Did the scammer plan the daughter's death because it looks and sounds like it.
@@multilad816 I think the reason why she told the father not the disturb/ interrupt the daughter was because nothing happened and he would keep calling the scammer. So asking him not to disturb her daughter for a few days is to make him not call her on the phone often. But i'm pretty sure she didnt mean lock the daughter up in the bathroom for days straight without food and water.
She probably had a panic attack in the tub, passed out and drowned in the wine.
Only a year or two late, but personally I think the wife drowns him before she kills herself too or is silenced by the cult. There's only speculation for Feng Yu, the main character, but the pre-release ARG following the wife's nephew investigating her disappearance two decades ago unfortunately confirms she didn't truly leave her family behind to save herself and met an unhappy end eventually too.
I think the most prominent evidence is probably the scene where the player is lured to the family portrait with Guanyin ominously behind it as they are drowned by Li Fang, who repeats the line the intro ends with: "Where's Mei Shin?"
Following this sequence the player leaves a bathtub, sees Mei Shin - who is already very dead - running off and they are introduced to the hubworld between the timelines, which I interpret as Feng Yu in purgatory coming to terms and piecing together the events of the tragedy.
The dark room the game ends on, showing Feng Yu and a static TV is also the setting of the apartment the menu will remain on after beating the game, with bangs on the door that can be heard... presumably Li Fang coming home as she promised to find out what has happened and enact justice on him, though in doing so possibly snuffing out all chance to bring the real culprit to justice.
Things about the *Cigu Guanying* goddess:
its not buddism for the most part, its more based upon Daoism. *Cigu is a young girl who has been brutally murdered in the restroom* , people decides to make her a goddess to alleviate her suffering and vengeance. So the whole time the main character has been worshiping a ghost for the most part.
In Daoism victims of unjust rape, murder, war would be worshiped to alleviate their pain and suffering in hopes that their spirit wont linger and hurt people in the present world.
The ultimate irony is that he killed his daughter in the restroom as well. Same as how the goddess he worshiped died.
*The Snake:* The snake is the Taiwanese krait, it is the 4th most poisonous snake in Asia. Snake wine is known for medicinal uses, however one with the Taiwanese krait is 100% lethal. So a little girl soaked in the poisonous venom is probably what killed her along with alcohol poisoning.
Another thing about the Taiwanese krait is that it is famously...docile. Like, you make any noise they hide their head under their body and just play dead. For the most part, human is scarier.
Very insightful. Thanks for this.
Wait, he killed his daughter? Wtf
@@SilverYPheonix Well, unintentionally, you can't expect a frail young girl to survive locked in a bathroom of poisonous snake alcohol, do you?
Especially human skin breath, so she actually died from alcohol poisoning from being stuck in wine for so long.
@@cyncynshop That's insane. But again reflects how adults think they know everything, and then fuck up big time with the most unecessary things.
wow, so as soon as "cigu guan yin" was brought up, it was actually foreshadowing... thats why im glad theres people giving information in the comments
We knew this wasn't going to end well for the family, but I honestly wasn't expecting it to go that poorly. I had figured the father would kill himself or the wife had drowned him. Instead, we have this horrible tale of a father who put blind faith in a lie over his daughter's safety. It's a tragedy if only because Manly is quite right, this sort of thing happens. Yet another fantastic game though, it nails what it's going for and the OST really helps. It's obviously sad because of what happened, but I love the singing over the credits.
28:55 Ah, Asia where getting psychiatric help is still viewed as shameful, with the high possibility of being labelled "lunatic" by your peers, loved ones, and potential employers even if the thing you are getting help is insomnia or anxiety
I thinks it's still shameful to have psychiatric help(particularly depression and anxiety) almost all over the world. I don't know the levels of this taboo in Asia, but I imagine it's pretty bad.
@@multilad816 It depends on your circle of peers nowadays honestly, this game is Taiwan in the 80s after all
@@multilad816 True enough. Even if France and Belgium for instance, when somone talks about a psychologue (not even a psychatrist) they get on high defense as if it was the most taboo thing ever. A lot of people, no matter the place, still don't understand that behing "mentaly ill" doesn't specially mean "lunatic" or "autism" or anything else that are actually quite dangerous or extremly difficult in everyday life. (I'm not saying being lunatic or austitic is not normal, more like these things are even more viewed as "bad thing" that simple anxiety and stuff).
Ps: I'm not saying either that anxiety or depressed is easy to deal with. I'm talking with the "a random person's point of view" on it (ergo: "pf, you just have a bit of depression, it's nothing important.")
do you even know how big ASIA is lmaooo
"He realised his daughter is the greatest gift." 😭😭😭😭😭
*Sniffle*... whose cutting onions during this time of day!
You never realize you have a good thing till _it's _*_gone._*
that hit me hard
Where I write essay in youtube comments because this hits home a lot things for me personally.
I'm Taiwanese. I grew up with a lot of the same believes and traditional values that are placed on the children because, tradition, duty, etc etc. I can never play this kind of game because I fear it will trigger some sort of panic attack for me as well. I have been in Meishin's shoes for sure. Screaming parents. Expectations to do well to not let your parents down. The adults are always right, you are just a dumb kid who doesn't know anything. Support your parents when they are old and feeble. All that "fun" stuff. I was never a prodigy of any sorts. Just a common Asian kid who gotta perform well in school and follow the mold of "do this and you'll be on the path to success." I am an introvert who for the longest time thought that there were all kinds of things wrong with me and that my parents were right for trying to "fix" me. I got better and saw therapist for my problems for a while. But my mom always made this insinuation that the therapist was not a proper doctor and that I was wasting money on therapy. Rant over.
I was working on a point about easy answers for the husband, but after a few sentence I realized I need to talk about the title instead. And it's difficult to do this because Devotion's original Chinese term, 還願, isn't exactly translated "correctly." The meaning is a different. The English title "Devotion" does work for the theme of the story, but 還願 will give you an alternate reading. Devotion as an English term doesn't give you a whole lot of religious connotations. You can be devoted to your job, your family, your desire, all sorts of things that's not specific to religion. But 還願 to anyone who has some experience with the Chinese language may think, "ah, there's a bit of supernatural or spiritual element in regards to wishes." I may butcher the meaning for this part, so bear with me. 還願 in the usual context would mean you prayed to a deity for something, if that desire is fulfilled you need to repay the deity back for the blessing. The method of paying back varies. It depends on what you had promised when you made that wish, "if I scored top 10 on the exam I won't masturbate for a half a year." Generally, you do good deeds. It doesn't have to be food or monetary offering to the deity who helped you. Unless that was what you said. This can get a bit needlessly complicated, so let's just say do good deeds as paying back for the divine favors.
Ah, but some of the viewers may be thinking: but the idiot husband was praying to a very sketchy looking statue. Eh. No. It's slightly complicated. As a Chinese culture, we have. A LOT. of deity and regular dead people to pray to. We like praying. (Even though it's more of obligation and following the traditional values and etc. There are a lot of reasons to pray) We pray to our ancestors to protest us. We pray to certain famous dead war general for prosperous business. And sometimes we pray to shady looking statues because we really wanted to win the lottery. For westerners who aren't very religious or exposed to this kind of cultural belief, well, human belief can be a very powerful thing. If you believe in something hard enough certain things will come true because literal deus ex machina will save the day. So I can see why the dev team chose the English term "Devotion" as the translated title. It is not wrong to have a belief. In fact having a belief functions as a sort of anchor for people. Before I devolve into a tangent on secure base in psychology, let's move on. It's not unusual to pray for something given the game's setting. Because sometimes that's the (seemingly) only thing anyone can do.
Pay attention to the tapes in the "mentor's" apartment. One has a worried mother praying for her son's academic success. One about a woman wanting a married man to divorce his wife. One has a son threatening to sue the scam artist over failing to save the ailing father. People pray for all sorts of things. People pray on behalf of other people, people whose actions they may not have full control over. People grasp for straws and they'll pray for divine miracles to save the day. Sometimes these miracles to come through. We still don't know how Meishin made a full recovery when it seemed medical science was failing. Maybe she actually was saved by a deity's blessing or a deal with the devil. This point was left vague. It's this vagueness that drew the husband in. Because the precious daughter was saved, therefore this time she can be saved again as long as he devotes himself hard enough to this task.
Earlier I talked about shady statues, nothing is more difficult to get rid of than the shady types. Sometimes less than savory youkai or malevolent forces can possess a statue. Even a completely legitimate looking Buddha statue may be possessed by something terrible, especially if you found the statue abandoned on the side of the road. There are actually a lot of deity related things that most people wouldn't know. And since this is a youtube comment I'm not writing 5000 words on this since I am not an expert of any kind, I just google a bit more than others. To keep things simpler, imagine two factions: official vs shady. Official temples have LEGITIMATE deities, have proper history, they have proper temples, they have proper people who actually offer proper advice, they have proper procedures and have a certain guaranteed rate of success (probably.) These temples house the correct deities that correspond to that temple. Nothing bad will happen to you if you pray to this temple. These are the right sorts who won't ask you to make blood sacrifice or bathe your children in snake wine. They want you to be a good person and do the right things if your wish was fulfilled. Now the second type, welllll... You don't know what you are praying to. You could be praying to Satan's little helper for all your know. You may be paying back your wish with your life. Everything about the "mentor's" place looks sketchy. It looks privately owned. It doesn't look affiliated with any major temple. There's nothing more concrete other than "just believe harder and our goddess will save you." The mentor may actually have some power to be able to take the husband through the underworld or an illusion of it, but obviously she's not someone trustworthy.
So... tl;dr you just wrote bajillion words that basically, he prayed to maybe Satan. No, I also underlined that praying is a common thing for Asian culture. It's not a weird, spooky thing that some not familiar with the culture may have a knee jerk reaction of "oh it's just a kooky cultural thing that should possibly be abolished because I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT." There are a lot of cultural baggage I can't possibly cram into something the size of TH-cam comment. I'm actually pretty glad that dev team went with "Devotion" as the English title. Because that's ultimately what this is about. Devotion to the family, ego, social norms, etc and how a combination of all this caused a tragedy to happen.
Thank you for your insight.
Thank you for the detailed explanation of the title. This will let western players understand what went through the father's mind. For those who grew up with the same beliefs, this really hits hard on how true it was to our culture.
If you look at the title screen, the 'i' in 'devotion' is in the form of an incense burning. This indicates the connection of 'devotion' to spiritual or religious theme. I think they do this to show the connotation of the title to spiritual theme as there's no direct translation from original Chinese to English.
You are saying us "westerners" can't understand the reason for resorting to such measures as praying for deities, but we do. The point however, in which makes the story of this game a whole lot more creepy, is that you really didn't have to do that in order to get anything that could've been out of your reach to achieve. You don't need "deus ex machina" methods to have a miracle happen in your life, or maybe you can but it also doesn't have to be related to religious ties but rather the strategy other people have found to make whatever thing happen with low cost. People find shortcuts to success all the time here, there as well, and religion is just a way to hide the actual recipe of how whatever thing was possible. If I may speak personally, your culture does bring the horror aspect for story so quite often because of how odd and insane conviction you guys have to uphold your religious beliefs in a way that makes so easy to destroy even your lives and your families'. It's creepy and scary to think you may actually be killed by your family because they believe sacrificing you in some way (mentally or physically) may bring success of some kind in whatever way that may be, without even knowing what way at that. That is appalling and absurd from a humanistic standpoint.
thank you for the indepth essay! i thought it was very informative and clarified a lot of implications and shades of meaning that might be lost on someone outside the culture. Honestly when you talk about "shady" deities and how desperation can affect people it makes me think of like... how a huge hubbub can take place over those "likeness of jesus" in mundane objects that happen in the americas sometimes. A person shows jesus in a piece of fabric or whatever, theres a media story, people flock to the object to worship it in hopes of curing all sorts of ills.
Actually now that I think about it, that kind of thing excisted in europe for a long time, with holy relics - often literal body parts of saints or wood of the cross, that kinda of thing. while some relics were more authentic in larger churches, of course counterfeits abounded in hopes of drawing crowds of pilgrims and the faithful, who would bring donations ("donations").
idk where im going with this, but i think this business of exploiting religion almost like a side business is interesting.
Red Candle puts so much care and skill into telling these stories. It's a travesty that they're being review bombed right now.
Why are they getting bad reviews?
@@You68688 They had a small poster on a wall in the game containing an insult towards xi jinping, China's current president. Doesn't even have to do with the game's story, yet a mob of nationalistic weirdos decided to rag on the game because of it. The creators have actually taken the game off of Steam for the moment because of it.
@@TheShadow7771 wow... that's a damn shame. The game is beautiful and people just have to get mad over a single poster in the game. Like wow how dare the creators have an opinion? Jeez people these days. Thanks for informing us though.
@@TheShadow7771 old comment, but I believe it made it unsellable in China and the image was a placeholder as well
"This could feasibly take up to seven days" the mentor said. "Let her slowly soak". Soak a little girl in liquor for up to seven days. And the dad didn't think "gee, I wonder if she needs to eat or drink anything in that timeframe?"
Apparently it's shameful in Asian cultures to be diagnosed with mental illness, but not nearly as shameful as believing in a ritual that literally starves a child to death. 👌👌👌
Jokes aside (but also not really), this game was beautiful. Beautifully crafted, beautifully written, beautifully orchestrated. The little details with the written clippings to piece the story together, the pacing, the flashback scenes, the design aesthetics, the use of color and light, the different stylistic choices (using real people, then having a storybook element). They really went all out, and none of it overstays it's welcome or feels out of place.
This game keeps you tense, has a jump scare or two, but never forces you to feel a certain kind of 'scared'. It earns it's discomfort through it's show of sheer depravity, empathy (or lack thereof), religious observation, and the human element. A deep dive on the horrors of a family dynamic. Which could happen, I suppose, to anyone.
She Said 7 Days Because That’s Enough Time For Her To Skip Town And Leave Without A Trace.
It seems like Mei Shin had severe anxiety and would get panic attacks, which while are apart of a mental illness, repeated ones can have intense health effects.
The first time it worked with the mentor, she was probably relieved of her anxiety because her father was there and she was told she was gonna be safe. Leading to him believing the spiritual medicine would work every time.
Even making the tulips is something therapeutic and thus could help her anxiety a lot
Alex Lukyanenko I believe the mother was in the right here. She tried some form of medication, even if it wasn’t the best, and wanted to get her daughter out of the house. But as a woman she didn’t have the means to do so- nor did her husband allow her to, May I add when she did- to help change their environment or contribute to the finances. While leaving her no doubt hurt her, if she had been able to work from the beginning it probably would have helped in the long run.
But yeah, what a lack of understanding for mental illness and help can do. Religion could have even been helping her st first- another coping mechanism to make her life feel in order.
@@AlexCrMaReLiLukyanenko I would say more, physiotherapy vs painkillers. Painkillers make you feel better immediately, but don't resolve the problem. And long-term, they can stop working or even cause other issues. Physiotherapy will (hopefully) help with the actual issue, but in the short-term might make you feel worse because of the strain etc.
Some people only need to take the occasional painkiller when the issue flares up, some people find they don't help at all. Some people find that after physiotherapy, they don't need any painkillers. Some find that physiotherapy doesn't actually help at all. Some will need both long-term. It all depends on the person and what they're dealing with. Stigmatising medication is not helpful, any more than stigmatising therapy is.
@@Killersquirrel66 good point
@@AlexCrMaReLiLukyanenko Not everything is treated successfully with therapy alone. Research shows that the most effective treatments combine both, though of course it depends on the patient and the type/severity of illness. Some things are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, therefore are helped by medication.
i understand "Lady on the Pier"'s intent as a song, but I find it amazing how Red Candle connects to the daughter longing for her father to "return" to normal and love her again, while fighting back her own misery.
This was driving me to tears. I come from a dysfunctional family with money issues and I am mentally ill as a result of family upbringing. I had also intended to become the future of my family. Like the daughter, I got "sick" to the point I was having severe chest pain. I find myself relating to her plenty, and it makes me long for a childhood I never had.
It seems her diagnostic was likely GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), Depression is also possible. Had he not listened to the cult and took his daughter for psychiatric care, she would have been alive and well. But sadly, the struggles within the game are plenty of things we see in real life. What disturbs me is that there are actual cases of parents killing their child unintentionally believing they can cure them, linked to all these scams and cults...
There were a lot of issues, but that really perturbs me. Probably because of how much I relate to the daughter, and how much I wished I could be cured, looking back on my destroyed family. But I dunno.
This was really good anyway. The horror is deeply rooted in psychology.
The real horror is the collapsed family. The devotion split into parts that are, on their own, a necessity (like financial safety and spirituality), without prioritizing the daughter's well-being. In a sense each parent was turning a blind eye to the daughter's pain, each one devoted to their own pursuit of success/safety/acknowledgement etc. Dreaming of the life they want to live instead of focusing in the one they already have and working on making it better.
I wonder if the daughter had asthma. It isn't clearly stated as far as I remember. Stress would definitely worsen her condition, but so would humidity. Remember, the last entry the daughter made: it was raining. And she was immersed in a warm bath and not allowed to go out for a while probably.
Taking all that into account, I think the daughter died there. And the father went into a state of shock, sitting mindlessly on the couch watching tv as everything rots and withers away around him. The entire journey is a story inside his head. A script, influenced by real-life events and exaggerated versions of might-have-beens. He leaves the apartment in search of his daughter, only to return back to it, alone. In his own mind, he is the hero of her favorite storybook, on a journey of devotion to find her and fix the errors of his past to achieve a better future. But that is all in his head. He is a writer, after all. His shock and denial would make him go into his head, make up a story and live through that, unable to accept he was too late.
Lemonadder i think that maybe the daughter had panic attacks and anxiety and hearing her parents fight so often made it worse
The daughter suffered from a mental illness, shown through the part where you have to "calm down" and her referral to the psychiatrist. Anxiety and panic attacks can cause chest pain. That's why making tulips made her feel better, it was all symptoms of her mental illness.
all this time, i assumed that the father had killed himself at some point, but your explanation makes it even...scarier...that he didn't die yet, that he's alive and going through these memories/dreams/desires, looping through and trying to write a better ending that will never happen to cope with the fact that he killed his daughter. that he's creating these delusions to escape but never really doing it successfully.
i mean...remember the opening scene?
that never happened. that was just ... a wish.
I have asthma and anxiety. Can confirm, they like to team up, lmao
He kept her locked in the bath for around seven days without checking on her, that's what always gets to me.
"What you see here is your inner self"
*showing an empty dark cave*
*lol same*
*insert "like my soul" joke here*
*THIS* is symbolism done right! All of it is directly tied to the overall plot, it shows the plot instead of telling you, it is understanable enough, it is beautiful (or creepy) when it has to be, and it is so well composed that it hits you right in the heart.
_The saddest part is the family did love each other..._
When you said that philosophy about the child supporting the parents in old age was very Asian, I found that section very difficult. I thought about how in the West - at least where & how I was raised - the concept was that you are the raising the child to leave the home. The child would become self-supporting having a separate life & family of its own while still honoring, loving, & valuing their parents. Families should pull together in hardship tho, no matter where, & many children do take on the responsibility of caring for aging or unwell parents. But it should be out of love, not because of obligation.
The high expectations of the daughter to sing in public when she obviously suffered from panic attacks was sad. The father’s failure with own career transformed into an obsession with his daughter’s singing. But when children are that young, the desire to perform in front of others has to come from within. There needs to be a balance between expectations/wanting potential fulfilled & demanding too much from children.
A very good, more emotionally touching game than many others in the psychological horror genre with definitely a beautiful ost, in particular Lady of the Pier. Thank you for a thoughtful play-through that gave more depth to the spiritual aspects of the game.
in my country the eldest child is still somewhat kinda obligated to carry the family(work hard and pay for the bills, make your siblings finish school, some extreme cases even halt their scholastic affairs just to immediately work and let the younger siblings have a "better" chance at life) if the parents aren't able to... Even after having a family of their own they still need to be always ready to have a "reserve money" to give to your parents
edit: and before anybody thinks I'm "hating" on the familial "standards" in my country, I won't say I'm not but personally I've never been one to happily attend my family gathering because of some personal experiences(let's just leave it at that ^_^)
+NaturalFlirtGamer
Aye, but even loving your family is itself a sort of obligation. It's complicated, for sure, so everyone just calls it a cultural difference. It's normal and just "how it is." Personally, I subscribe to the "love" motive as well, despite an Oriental background. I think that belief isn't quite a straightforward belief, however, but instead a wish.
It may not be a belief that a child ought to help *because* they love, but that when they inevitably do, they *still* love. We support our elders because that's "what we do," but we say it's because we love them because we hope that we'll never resent them even in their advancing age. We don't want to start hating them if they walk slower or get confused, or if they become jaded and get more rude.
I do agree with family providing support. It gets hard, though, when your cousin decides he needs to fly over two thousand miles to a university on the other side of the country to study... dance? Ah, but I know I'd wind up helping anyway, even if I _do_ think he's nuts for thinking he has to go across the country because he just has *got* to get away from home.
+Thelothuo Aww lol for that cousin support!! Family is always a mixed bag - love, obligation, exasperation, need, expectation all rolled into an unique emotional dough. What comes out is part the result of genetics, culture, religion maybe, & hopefully love. The experience is a great test of & testament to humanity.
+NaturalFlirtGamer
And I wouldn't have it any other way!
Despite the distressing, uncompromising realities presented, this game was truly moving in its portrayal of the gradual dissolution of a once stable, loving family. Though I lack the ability to personally connect with the specific scenario depicted as well as the cultural, spiritual, and religious aspects which are inextricably interwoven into the narrative, I’m always glad to witness and learn from life experiences which demonstrate dissimilarities with my own.
To avoid sounding repetitious, in consideration of my prior comments on the ingenuity and brilliance of the imagery, direction, set-pieces, and methods of story-telling executed throughout the game, I suppose I’ll focus on elements of the narrative itself. Firstly, it was rather difficult for me to hear the denial and stigmatization of anxiety and other psychological issues, specifically from a parent towards their child. This sort of flawed and misguided conceptualization of mental health issues is immensely pernicious, though, unfortunately, rather pervasive, as is the tendency to misconstrue these matters as evidence of either irredeemable insanity, personal failure or laziness, moral depravity, or corruption of the soul.
Additionally, I appreciated how this game subverted the anticipated role of a young girl in a horror game and, instead, inspired an overwhelming sympathy for the stressful burden of her fracturing family’s worsening financial situation which exacerbated, and perhaps even initially caused, her anxiety. The prevalence of the tulip image was also particularly powerful, especially in its symbolic significance to the relationship between Mei Shin, almost always depicted in yellow, and her father. It was also rather striking to me how the gentle act of folding these tulips alongside her beloved father provided such a pronounced reprieve from her symptoms, demonstrating how, like a fragile flower, tenderness, affection, care, and proper consideration of her surrounding environment were all necessary for her healthy, normal growth. Being deprived of this sensitive cultivation and placed under extreme pressure, she withered. I’m not certain if the father lived or died in the end, however, it seems as though he is truly gone either way.
Utterly devastating and beautifully constructed game overall.
Two uploads in a day with the endings. Bless your soul.
Ayyyy, so you ALSO watch Manly. Love your voice work!
Dotto uwu
19:52 Its just very last second that you see the wife as a human, not an evil spirit.
suddenly she turns from a clutching spirit into a sad, crawling woman, reaching out to the husband. its a good catch
The story was just as hard hitting as detention but I spent the whole of devotion on the edge of my seat, the plot, the visuals, the execution all utterly fantastic. The company who makes these is incredible and I loved this game, I’ll have to buy it as soon as it comes back on steam
It finally came back! You can find it on their website red candle ^^
And mhmmm I agree with yah, the ending song just broke me as well... The daughter still forgives him after all that...
@@CherryMxTx omg thank you for letting us know!
I just finished bawling my eyes from the ending of Blind Prince and Liar Princess. I'm excited to see how this amazing series comes to an end too!
Edit : I think this game honestly hits close to home for a lot of people. I'm always heavily burdened between what I want to do and what my parents want me to do. Not to mention that any mental illnesses are written off as taboo and you simply "don't have enough faith in _____", life at home may get suffocating at times.
On a less sour note, I definitely enjoyed a few little things in the early part of the games. The tear off calendar, the arowana, the miniature grandfather clock hanging on the wall - it was certainly very nostalgic!
Edit Edit : I'm absolutely hooked with the ending song, "Lady of the Pier". It's absolutely lovely.
Me:
Liar princess & blind prince ending = cute and sad
Devotion ending = horror-ish but with drama and sad
Thanks manly am sad now
The "birthday grab" is when the people place things on the floor and the first thing the toddler crawls and grabs onto, is what they will be in the future. I like that they added this touch!
+HamburgersAndBeer
I'd just keep it as a story to tell them. I don't trust a baby's brain to select objects on anything other than appearance. Without time to associate meanings to things, especially when baby-toy versions look nothing like the real thing the adults use, I expect them to grab the most colorful thing they see.
Again, it still makes for a good story. "Oh, we had a birthday grab for you, but the first thing you grabbed was your cousin's beanie!"
@@Thelothuo Sometimes it can just be what the kid is exposed to most of the time. If the dad or mom is a sports person and plays sports a lot, chances are they are going to go for a ball or something like that
@Betrayer
Yes, exposure has a huge effect, but that's much later in childhood. At one year old, I don't expect them to see much other than shiny and colorful.
I specifically watched your playthrough of this game because you are able to explain the real life cultural aspects that factor into this story. I enjoy more grounded stories like this because, like you said, this can actually happen. The horror of watching a life fall apart is more terrifying than monsters coming at you any day of the week.
With all the visuals and the story altogether this game really hit TOO close to home for me, it's insane. And I want to share my story here because if I actually spoke to people about it my family would consider it SHAMEFUL waah. Me sharing it is unfair to them and me not sharing my story would be unfair to me.This is how I'll cope, I guess. I don't particularly need anyone to read this but writing is very therapeutic and maybe some of you might feel similarly as I do.
Growing up as the only daughter in a dysfunctional half-Chinese half-Indonesian family, certain moments in this game made me break down just a bit each time. Sure I was never a child prodigy and my parents were never celebrities or anything and I'm certainly not dead, ha. My story didn't exactly follow this plotline, though I'd say most of the 'dysfunction' from my family came from my dad's faults as well. He wasn't a writer like the father in Devotion, but he was definitely a big book buff. I was never attached to him though, unlike Mei Shin. My dad's always felt like a stranger in my own home, though weirdly enough he also tried to bond with me by giving me some really nice books that I honestly do appreciate.
Most of my friends do somewhat know that I had an unfortunate family background, but they definitely don't know to what extent. I don't think I should really talk to them about it either since that would be too much of my baggage for any of them should handle.
I recall a part in the game where a note mentioned how the father in Devotion yelled at Mei Shin for using his writing paper as origami and I had a major flashback whiplash. I was scared for Mei Shin to experience what I had. She was lucky enough then that nothing happened (yet).
When I was small, I'd accidentally ripped a page from a book my dad had and he got so mad at me that he launched at me and almost hit me. Why almost? Because my mom got in the way and got hit instead of me. It was awful.
Like Mei Shin's father, my dad was rather spiritual as well albeit in a different manner. He's Catholic, and he was such a fanatic that he attended a theology school of some sort. He named me after Mother Teresa and I have to say that I suppose my name is one of the few things gifted by my dad that I do appreciate, though I would very much prefer to drop his last name than keep it.
Fortunately my dad did not try to kill me. BUT, as he was purchasing some sort of heavy wooden stick, he actually told me when I was literally 4 years old that he would kill my mom, grandma, uncle, aunt, etc. I, being very scared of my family's well being, told my grandma of this conversation. This information was brought to court as my mom fought for custody over me and divorce from my dad. So of course, I've lived with my mom ever since. I mean, seriously, who...would talk to a 4 year old like that? NOT someone of sound mind.
I've lived apart from my dad since I was 4 and though we've still met from time to time when I was still in school, but ever since I finished high school it's been years since I've last heard of him. Then all of a sudden we found pictures on Facebook that made it likely that he'd remarried without even telling me. I guess I shouldn't really care about it since he's practically a stranger, but sometimes...when you think about how someone who's supposed to CARE for you, someone who brought you into this would, just doesn't see you as a part of their life? It feels confusing and the implications brings forth overwhelming emotions.
I don't think my dad ever wanted me. I think he justified the idea of having me with the thought that he could indoctrinate me to have the same twisted world view as he does. I can somewhat suspect that he likely does feel alone and misunderstood by the structure of society and didn't want the life he ended up with, I think he did hope that I could possibly grow into someone who might be able to understand him. But as a parent and as an adult, you should be the one to care for your child and not bring them into your problems. You shouldn't have a child in efforts of fulfilling your own goals as children are individual characters and not extensions of yourself. Instead of forcing your children to grow a certain way, let them grow to be a person who's healthy, happy, and kind.
i was expecting fears
all i got were tears
Dammit, I came here to be spooked, now I got tears everywhere.
Im not Asian, but my family is super religious. And i relate to this game because i suffered from insomnia and depression and instead of seeing a doctor, my mother and father would say it was due to my '"lack of prayer". They made me see priests and praying groups, never a doctor. The problem eventually escalated after a while and a was thankfully taken to a therapist. Religion can have some pretty terrible effects to ppls lives. Religious ppl are so "devoted" they feel like if they do anything unreligious theyll go to hell, which is sad. Instead of fixing their problems, they pray
Glad you’re okay now. I think religion plays a part but the main issue is the people practising it. Yeesh, some people just take it way too far.
As a half Korean woman, I can certainly relate to how East Asian families try to push their kids beyond. My mom, being Korean, has done a bit of that on me and my brother. Luckily she wasn't that bad.
I get what has happened to this family. I just wonder if the daughter really died in the end or if she managed to escape whatever torture her dad put her through. That scene in the end certainly was creepy that it showed the father just sitting there in that dirty rundown apartment with the TV showing nothing but static, so my guess is, maybe he did kill her and he went insane. Still this was an interesting game to go through. Look forward to another game from Manly. C:
Or he locked her in the bathroom after he laid her in the wine and she starved to death; or drowned when laying in the wine when she suffered from a paralyzing anxiety attack... as anxiety attacks can do (he did grab her during one of her anxiety attacks while she lay in bed). The instructions given by mentor mention to not interrupt her.
Waiting outside for days, he was probably deeply worried so he kept calling mentor. Only when she didn't answer one of his calls, he went to find mentor in her chapel upstairs in the apartment building. The room he found was completely empty. Finding a few recordings and his "prescription," doubt caused him to go open the bathroom. And he became mentally broken. That entire musical sequence might be his own delusion of what happen or maybe even the entire game is him reliving the events leading up to opening the bathroom door over and over... trying to put his family back together again.
Unfortunately I think with all the drowning symbolism that occurred in the game it is heavily implied that he did drown her. I kind of thought the very end scene was him dying himself and reuniting with her after realizing what he had done.
I think it's a very relatable story. Not just the pressures of parents and their expectations. But the horrors of faith healing. Which is something done in many cultures. Some people make millions off of faith healing. Which is probably the scariest part of this story. As Manly says, it could be anyone. You could hear about something like this on the news. You could know someone in a similar situation. Be it faith healing or some kind of dietary cleanse. Devotion makes us do frightening things to ourselves and others.
The sad part is that their daughter had light panic attacks which can be gotten rid of in a couple of months without any medication or expensive therapy.
My school's orchestra often rehearses and performs the credits song "The Lady of The Pier". Glad to see there's a playthrough of this by Manly. This game was a masterclass on visual storytelling. This and Detention which were made by the same team were interesting for sure.
This was so much better than layers of fear. There were horror elements in the story but it wasn't necessarily the main take away. It's rather a depressing horror of the breakdown of a family done eloquently.
Don't allow superstition to overtake you.
this story reminded me of my family i cried so much, when the mother left, the panic attacks, the parents fighting, asking where my father is.....just everything
In the end, the father's (religious) devotion was the final crack that broke this once truly loving family.
It's a really somber game and I agree that the "horror" is the relatability or the real groundedness of the story, the fact that it's very, you know, real. It's sad it is something so real.
I did love this game's storytelling and visuals, Mei Shin's room overgrown with yellow tulips being a favourite along with the storybook (I love that they made it interactive). the OST was great, I adored the ending songs (both credits and the I-guess-you'd-say end sequence songs)
Came for the subtle horror themes, stayed for the cultural relatability and heart-wrenching story that hits much closer to reality than you realize
Didn't see anyone mention it in this comment section so just wanted to throw it out here (under a 2yo video lmao)... the last sentence of the song _Lady on the Pier_ , 你还愿意吗 (are you still willing) contains the original Chinese title of the game, 还愿, which is the "still willing" part in this context (while this word itself is usually used to mean "providing offering to a deity for fulfilling one's wish".... sth like that). It... got me.
i legitimately broke down crying at the sacrifice part. this game evoked so many emotions within me, and it was an amazing and beautifully told story. just as good as its predecessor, detention, kudos to the team
If you can't get this game on Steam right now,
go for Detention if you will.
What happens in real life right now,
is just like what the story tells in this game Detention.
So called "White Terror".
White Terror?
@@L16htW4rr10r "The White Terror (of Taiwan) was the suppression of political dissidents following the February 28 Incident." Possibly called that due to the "Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) government" flag being white (well blue with a white sun) but that's just my guess.
@@sillyfudgemonkeys So what happen in Detention is still happening in Taiwan until now???
@@L16htW4rr10r Nonono. What he means is that what's happening to the game Devotion right now is like the story in Detention.
@@L16htW4rr10r No he's saying what is happening to the game is like when Kuomintang was exiled cos Mainland China took offense to their existence or slight towards them(Devotion's alleged slander towards Xi Jin Ping and China)
The OST really is well done. And the whole game in general is very sad and disturbing. Just well done, in general. Enjoyed it. Thanks for playing it through, Manly. Glad I saw this. Keep up the fun. God bless yours and you! :)
The story hits TOO close to home for me and for most Asians. It's a very Asian kind of thing to do. We have so many beliefs. That belief is so strong that it can create miracles or it can totally destroy you. It's not something a person not from our culture can fully/truly grasp at. You might devote yourself to that belief and do good deeds to repay for the miracles that happened to you or die trying while praying for something that will never happen in a million years. It is THAT powerful, our beliefs.
The pressure for children to perform well, the competitiveness and neglect of the children's mental health. In Meishin's case, it's a very real issue for Asian kids. This game's scenario happened to a lot of Asian families, minus the cult/horror theme. Mental illness is still a taboo in Asia, but I'm glad we're getting more open-minded now. Last time, if you're mentally ill, people will think you did something evil in your past life and was cursed or possessed by evil spirits, tormenting and torturing your soul till' you turn crazy and die. People would rather tie you up and drag you to a shaman to get rid of the evil spirit rather than sending you to a hospital. This type of scam do exist in our society, some people did choose this type of treatment rather than going to a real doctor due to their beliefs that deities have the power to save their souls, and the scammers take advantage of this to suck you dry. It can become an obsession and tear families apart.
This is a sad and depressing game with a tint of horror. My heart was breaking bit by bit as the game progressed and I completely broke down at the end when Meishin said, "Daddy, let's go home". Both songs are beautiful and haunting at the same time. This game gets 11/10 from me.
Wow, the story of this game hits home so hard. And I love how much thought they place into every object of the game to make you really delve into the cultural part of past (Maybe even current) taiwanese/Chinese people.
36:18 the one time it's perfect for the "this hole is made for me" joke, rip
What an amazing game. The true horror of the game is blind devotion to religious faith.
Cause I'm Korean, it's very interesting that see the difference of thinking between Asians and other foreign peoples... That's why I love this game! ^-^
That ending song, it always gets me.
Had to wait till today to watch this but it was sooo worth the wait! Absolutely loved this game, thanks for playing it Manly.
The story was so sad. 😭😭😭😭 I love the ost. I hope these devs make more games.
nine sol?
Okay so let me break this down. My theory is that the wife was a famous superstar who married a famous director and had the daughter. It's hard to say when the issues started. Maybe it was the daughter having a series of panic attacks or the father unable to find any work. Either way, when these issues popped up due to everybody's "devotion" no one could admit to themselves anything was wrong.
The husband was dutifully devoted to his daughter but just as much to his spirituality. He didn't want to admit his daughters problems were mental, not physical (which still has a stigma in Asian countries) so he obviously tried woo cures (as seen with the vitamins and needles as a representation of hurting his daughter) The scammer took advantage of his desperation of feeling like a failure for not getting any work and not being able to save his daughter.
The wife obviously has a lot of resentment. You can tell she cares for her child, but her way also seems to ignore the daughter's problems. I don't think her(the daughter) trying to be a singer did anything for her mental health either. She has a lot of themes tied into feeling resentment about leaving her previous life as a singer to be a housewife. But considering who's she's dealing with can you blame her? The guy absolutely refused to get help for anything. And even if the wife went back to filming she still wanted to provide for her daughter. No wonder she feels trapped.
And then the poor daughter is just caught up in all of this. Ending up with nervous ticks and wanting to run away because she thinks her parents don't care for her anymore. It's honestly depressing. Truly devotion was the beginning and ending for series.
Do you ever see a game that punches you with inspiration at 12am? Cause this is it.
Someone stop me
Just finished and I'm crying TTATT
The fact this game is no longer available is heartbreaking
I did not expect that chase sequence, sheeeesh my heart
I get how Manly could see not all people would understand the story, but I'm born and raised in the west and I can totally see how this could happen. While it's not as common as eastern culture, it has still happened in the west where one can become consumed by a religion or a "cult" so to speak. Now I like his analysis of the game, but from what I could see Mei Shin actually wasn't ill in a sense. She was more stressed out which caused her bad panic attacks which made it hard to breathe. I've had a few and the feeling is horrible as well as terrifying. But of course her cure was just being loved by her family which she sadly didn't get. My only complaint of the game would be while the symbolism pointed to the fact that the girl drowned in the tub. I still wasn't sure if the dad physically drowned her or did she like panic and accidentally drown while the dad stayed outside the bathroom. If I could get a clearer explanation on that then it would be a perfect end to an otherwise awesome game.
She was locked in the bathroom for 7 days if the dad completely followed the mentor’s word. Without food and water, she probably was desperate to get out and followed her dad’s order to stay in the tub of wine for that long.
If it wasn’t from drowning, then she could’ve died from acute alcohol poisoning from bathing in it.
@@Eenkin wow that's terrible. See I was thinking the dad actually drowned her on the first day and then locked her in the bathroom expecting her to be healed after a week and then upon entering ye realized the mentor was a sham. Not to mention she left and her phone was disconnected when he called. Either way another sad part to me is that he did all this while the mom was away doing a movie to bring money back in the house and planned to take them all away from there. Yet his ego couldn't take it so he probably convinced the little girl she wasn't coming back. No wonder she listened to him and all his crazy ritual talk. I couldn't image how the mother felt when she got home only to find out he killed their daughter. 😞
This was a heartbreaking game, thank you for playing it.
27:53 that is a panic attack if I have ever seen one
This was so good! I love the songs. I cried during the ending/credits.
what can i say that hasn't been sad? sad, chilling, engaging.... the wonderful pacing and use of symbolism, implication, foreshadowing. magnificently done!
One thing i do like is during the redeux of the beginning sequence, where the mother is still home and happily chatting with the father, watching reruns of his daughter.... only to see her spectre in the doorway, reminding him to open his eyes and face reality. brrr. much better than any jumpscare.
I think they went to the wrong witch. Should have traded her singing voice for her dad to get his talent back.
Yeah, compared to the hack in this story Ursula is a saint! XD
this game is amazing. i know this was uploaded a few years ago and all, but wow. the soundtrack, too. beautiful but sad. love how it all ties in together, the lyrics of lady of the pier especially.
thank you for letting us hear the songs in the end. gets me right in the feels :,)
36:52 this is ink in the ground and pens around (the spikes)
So that’s why the wife is asking where Mei Shin is in the intro....she’s slowly rotting away in the bathroom bathed in wine...
This game is a straight up tearjerker. I love horror games that made you feel. I feel like this game already falls under the psychological horror genre, and that’s another plus for me.
Also fuck scammers, man.
This was brutal. I was getting squeamish
Ive been rewatching this game once or twice a year and i cry every single time by the end
Dang i didnt expect this game to be this devastating.
Thanks for streaming this game.
#SpeakUpForTaiwan
The final ep is finally here! I was waiting for it, excited to watch :)
Just finished it, great game, loved the story telling, and..it is pretty sad. I really enjoyed this playthrough, manly's commentary made me appreciate this game even more.
Here in Brisbane, Aussieland, we have a lot of asians in general (particularly Vietnamese), but they tend to stick to themselves and many don't speak English so you don't really get to know much about them or their culture aside from what you can see as an outsider looking in (they don't integrate into the greater community, as a whole; only their kids do). I found this game to be a very interesting insight into another culture. As far as my interpretation goes, this game is about a family desperately trying to do their best for each other, and it just didn't work out on any front. It's sad but I don't think it was necessarily any of their faults (other than the mentor who seemed to really be a scam artist). Yeah, the father didn't deal with anything very well, but I think his devotion to religion was his way of trying to help his child when he thought medicine was failing her. Yes, the mother left, but I think she had every intention to come back and help the family once she could. And of course the kid wanted her family to be together and happy and she pushed herself way too hard to try to achieve something that we as adults know can't be forced in that way anyway. It's all sad but it's all very understandable if you don't jump to condemning judgement. I honestly think they were all trying their best from their own points of view.
What's really awful is that many parents in real life, from many different cultures, will try treatments for kids that end up hurting them. It's not just in Asia either - in the US, for example, we have ABA "therapy", antivax, and countless poisonous supplements salesmen assure you are totally safe for your kids. (Not to mention our literal religious cults.) I think it's easy for westerners to think about this kind of thing as disconnected from our culture, when really we have the same thing, just wearing different faces.
100%. I think this is important to keep in mind.
This game reminds me of my past, fear is the worst thing I had since childhood, these ritual reminds me of my house since my grandmother still alive, but I realised im not Taiwanese, when he pull out tongue, etc, it made me gonna vomit, more like this game can provoke your childhood PTSD, So good yet so scary.
Wow after i saw the ending of LiarPrincess&BlindPrince i got the cutesy sad... now after seeing this, gave me the family-drama-ish kind of sad... thanks manly luv ur content :'^)
thank you for another great lp, manly! this game distinctly makes me want to cry from my core since a lot of elements in this story are echoed across other asian cultures too
Fell asleep on this one. Woke back up at inopportune times and now I'm confused.
Really enjoyed watching this game. Thanks Manly!
To me, this game is not scary, it's really depressing, heartbreaking but also relatable for Taiwanese , which is why I love it!!!!
Oh wow.. that was a really beautiful and heartbreaking game. The ending kinda choked me up.
(16:45) How would she even drown you? There's no water--
Oh wait... oh my.. and it's all bloody red too
When I was watching through the previous parts too, I was like ´yeaaah her condition sounds like serious anxiety´ and hERE IT IS MORE OR LESS CONFIRMED OMFG
It does seem on point for how asian households dont really typically hold mental health in high regard
Literally what I’ve been waiting for
the voice acting in this game is sublime
i love your voice so much. i could listen to it all day❤️
I'm not crying, you're crying!
41:08 , is the time I regret eating grapes as a night snack
Amazing game. Amazing play through. Thanks for showing me this game
Tbh,it was a good game,i kinda can relate to some of the events in the game but....less DEVOTION (i'm lonely) aspect y'know
Which making this game almost hit close to home....
this game really gotta remind me how long is a tongue huh
57:40
Now that's going to make a good screen wallpaper
58:16 At least she can go to Alishan now TT~TT
ok so i think i just realized something kinda messed up about that ending. we see books flying which kinda symbolize being liberated. all of this tragedy might have broken his creative block and allowed him to write again. either he joins his daughter in the after life or he was able to pursue his past passion again, just as a cost too high
In Chinese "still willing" (lyrics from the ending song) is exactly the same word as "Devotion" but pronounced differently.
and yes it's something that really would happen in Taiwan...
My dad is exactly like the dad in the game, who loves me so much but all he did just make things worse. My mom and step-mom were worse than my dad tho.
Everything was just because they overly believed a religion/person.
I wouldn't call this horror, it's just sad. Pretty damn good as far as walking simulators go.
The last 2 music in the end was really nice
Oh my gosh I'm crying ;-; my hearttt
I think the symptoms Mei Shin has reflects Panic Disorder, which is why the doctors note recommended that she get psychiatric attention
So you were right... in the end, all the little girl needed was love.
誰かを愛する
This man's underrated
Lol I totally felt that when manly began swaying to the music. Sing that, baby girl.😄
The TV program reminds me of Animal Crossing's TV
*******Spoilers(?)*******
I loved the ending. Like it was sad af and jacked up but I loved the music and visuals. I hope that ritual lady gets the worse karma >.> And that mom sucks. Why would you leave your kid alone with a father who isn't making money and has obviously gone over the deep end. Like omg, poor kid. Still a bit salty bout the fish but honey bless your heart x.x
Also, when he was in the elevator I couldn't help but be reminded of the shaming TV in the elevator while living in Taiwan lol they'd have pictures of people who didn't separate their trash properly in the apartment garbage area. I wouldn't be surprised if me and my Dad were on it at some point cause holy crap there were so many bins and the translations were kinda odd. One of them had a translation under it saying dragon something but it was full of styrofoam.
Husband's a dead beat who was clearly not able to support the family financially. Financially, they may really be in dire strait so as far as she knows, someone has to go make some money to support the family because the other partner's plain useless. Unfortunately she wasn't able to account for how a combination of the daughter's panic attacks + the husband's obsession with religion will somehow lead to a sweet girl being marinated and dying in snake booze. She probably could have left the daughter with her mother, but going by the husband's behaviors so far, that was not going to happen either. The tone of the mother-in-law's letter was also not so good either. "Blah blah blah it's just typical husband wife spats, just grin and bear that shit basically. Eventually it'll be water under the bridge. Just imagine all the nasty gossip that'll happen if the wife did return home with the daughter sans husband." There were options, but a lot of them were limited and hampered by traditional cultural believes. Poor girl was just caught in the cross fire of a lot of terrible things combined.