Devotion (video game)

''Devotion'' () is a first-person psychological horror video game developed by Red Candle Games. It is set in Taiwan in the 1980s, with a majority of the game happening in an apartment complex in Taipei. The game also incorporates elements based on Taiwanese culture and folk religion. The game was released on February 19, 2019, but was removed from Steam shortly afterwards on February 26, after a controversial Easter egg referencing Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, was found in the game.

''Devotion''s background music was composed by Taiwanese composer Vincent Yang. The soundtrack was released with the game on Steam as a DLC.

Synopsis

Players, for the most part, control the troubled screenwriter Du Feng-yu () through a Taipei apartment with rooms that represent various years in the lives of the Du family during the 1980s. The family consists of Feng-yu, his wife Gong Li-fang (), a retired singer, and their daughter Du Mei-shin (), an aspiring child singer. Feng-yu's screenwriting career has stagnated while Mei-shin begins to show signs of a mysterious illness. As the family's financial situation deteriorates, Li-fang has frequent arguments with Feng-yu about whether she should come out of her retirement to help support the family.

In the midst of the domestic disputes, Mei-shin enters a popular singing contest, seeking to please her parents by becoming a popular singer. However, her performance of her mother's signature song "Lady of the Pier" () comes one point shy of advancing to the next round. Mei-shin's condition worsens after the setback, to the point she's unable to sing. Despite a doctor's suggestion that the family seek psychiatric care for Mei-shin's illness, Feng-yu instead begins to follow the teachings of cult leader Mentor Heuh () regarding the folk deity Cigu Guanyin (), which is based on the household deity Zigu, who could supposedly help cure his daughter and her singing career. When Feng-yu becomes increasingly obsessed with Mentor Heuh, Li-fang attempts to convince her husband to snap out of his obsession, but Feng-yu accuses her of being "possessed by evil spirits". Realizing her husband will not listen to her, Li-fang eventually leaves the family.

Seeing the downward spiral of her family, Mei-shin asks her father to help her fold origami tulips, believing that she will be healed when enough have been folded to fill her room. Instead, as instructed by Mentor Heuh after a séance, Feng-yu performs a dark ritual by submerging his daughter in a bathtub filled with rice wine, then locking her up in the bathroom for seven days, presumably causing her death. A post-credits scene shows Feng-yu sitting alone in his apartment watching noise on a TV.

Gameplay

The game is an adventure game, where the player explores the apartment complex where Feng-yu and his family live. In certain sections, the player can also play as Mei-shin. ''Devotion'' is composed of different levels which each represent a different year, which can be freely switched between through the lobby. The player can interact with different objects and examine them, and read letters and diaries scattered around the home. Players can add certain items to their inventory, which can be used to solve puzzles which often require items from different time periods.

Development

''Devotion'' draws inspiration from atmospheric first-person games like '' P.T.'', ''What Remains of Edith Finch'' and ''Layers of Fear''. Red Candle cites the reason for creating a horror game was a narrative decision to introduce players to Taiwanese culture. The developers of the game expressed a desire to make an atmospheric game that feels familiar with Taiwanese players, explaining that the culture of Taiwan rarely gets showcased in video games. In its planning stages, ''Devotion'' was not visualized to be a first-person 3D game, but subsequent discussions steered the game into that direction to realize producer Doy Chiang's vision. The development team, which consists of 12 people, had to learn the Unity 3D game engine as a result.

Unlike their first game, Red Candle says that ''Devotion'' was not intended to be political, but was instead about "religious fanaticism". The studio also mentions that translation was difficult, as they had to communicate Taiwan-specific concepts to an international audience in different languages. Devotion launched for Microsoft Windows through Steam on February 19, 2019.

Music

The original soundtrack of ''Devotion'' seeks to capture the ambiance of the 1980s in Taiwan by incorporating traditional Asian instruments and folk music elements. The album includes a title track written and performed by the Taiwanese indie band and 2017 Golden Melody Awards winner, No Party for Cao Dong, and the original song "Lady of the Pier" (), which appeared during the game and in the ending.

Reception

A number of critics made favorable comparisons of ''Devotion'' with ''P.T.'' and ''Gone Home'', all first-person exploration games that subvert the safe and secure feeling of home. David Jagneaux of ''IGN'' gave ''Devotion'' a positive review, praising it as "a fantastic psychological horror game that’s short, concise, and well-paced from start to finish." Despite the "wonderful environmental storytelling", Jagneaux felt that the actual gameplay is "relatively unimpressive and boring". Richard Wakeling from ''GameSpot'' singled out Red Candle Game's attention to detail that "establishes and effectively reinforces Devotion's disconcerting sense of familiarity", but pointed out that the chase sequence late in the game is "regrettable" in what is otherwise a game that resists frustrating trial-and-error stealth sections and monotonous combat in many contemporary horror games. Michelle Brohier from '' Stuff Malaysia'' praised the game's references to East Asian culture in lore and horror, but commented that its epilogue didn't deliver much impact after its captivating build up.

In February 2020, ''Devotion'' as well as Red Candle's other game '' Detention'' were selected for preservation at the Harvard–Yenching Library, the largest collection of East Asian works maintained at an American university.

Controversy

On February 21, 2019, two days after the game's release, players discovered a ''fulu'' talisman decorating a wall in the game contained the words "Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh" () in Chinese seal script, referencing an internet meme that compared the Chinese general secretary to the Disney character. Also on the talisman were the transcribed words "ní ma bā qì" (), which sounds similar to "nǐ mā bā qī" () in Mandarin. "" means " your mother (is a)"; and "" () sounds similar to "" (, means "moron") in Taiwanese Hokkien. Taken together, this was interpreted by Chinese gamers as an insult to the Chinese leader. As a result, ''Devotion'' was heavily review bombed by Chinese gamers on Steam, and the game went from having "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews overall to being "Mostly Negative". Red Candle Games responded by patching out the offending art material, replacing it with a talisman that reads "Happy New Year" (), explaining that the original talisman was a placeholder that was supposed to be replaced, and apologizing for the oversight. Nevertheless, other aspects of the game were analyzed as insults to China, leading to the game being removed from Steam in China on February 23. Publishers Indievent and Winking Skywalker cut ties with Red Candle Games, with Red Candle Games being liable for their losses as a result of the controversy. On February 25, Red Candle removed the game from Steam globally to fix technical issues, as well as to confirm that no other hidden messages remain.

Taiwan's Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai spoke out in defense of the game regarding the "Easter egg", saying: "Only in countries with democracy and freedom can creation be free from restrictions." Red Candle's Sina Weibo account remains blocked, and posts containing the hashtag #Devotion, which had hundreds of millions of views before the controversy, were hidden by Chinese censors. The episode has raised concerns about the future of the Steam platform in China, which did not gain official approval to operate there but remains accessible with up to 30 million users from China.

In July 2019, the Chinese government revoked the license of Indievent. The official statement from the government stated that the revoking was due to violating relevant laws. Red Candle Games released an apology later in the month stating that they have no plans to re-release ''Devotion'' in the near term in order "to prevent unnecessary misconception", but would reconsider re-releasing the game in the future if "the public would be willing to view this game rationally".

In June 2020, Red Candle announced that it would begin running pre-orders for a physical edition of the game, available only in Taiwan from June 8 to 15.

On December 16, 2020, Red Candle Games and GOG.com announced that the game would be available on GOG's store on December 18. However, a few hours later, GOG issued a statement on Twitter that "after receiving many messages from gamers," they had decided not to move forward with the release. The statement rapidly garnered thousands of comments and retweets, the majority of which came from fans who were angered to see the store cancelling the release. Jeff Grubb at Venture Beat questioned whether the company indeed received a significant amount of complains from gamers, or whether it was just trying to protect its brand from Chinese authorities, suggesting that the company's tweet shifted the "blame" from itself or Chinese authorities to the "gamers".

By March 2021, Red Candle Games opened their own digital storefront to sell ''Devotion'' as well as their prior game ''Detention'' and future games. The games were offered as DRM-free versions. A macOS version was released alongside this.

See also

* ''Detention'' (film)
* ''Detention'' (video game)
* Ex-voto
* Religious fanaticism
*
* Toilet god

Notes

References

External links

*

Original soundtrack
* The game's page at Steam Store:
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* {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201216100054/https://www.gog.com/game/Devotion , date=2020-12-16 , title=The game's page at GOG.com, snapshot

2019 video games
Delisted digital-only games
Fiction about origami
Filicide in fiction
Psychological horror games
Red Candle Games
Single-player video games
Steam Greenlight games
Video game controversies
Video games about children
Video games about ghosts
Video games developed in Taiwan
Video games set in Taiwan
Video games set in the 1980s
Windows games
Windows-only games