Taiwan, May 31st 1945 - hundreds of US B-24s leads an air raid on Taihoku...
- Late period of World War II
United States cuts off Japanese supplies
Japanese colony Taiwan became an important airstrike target...
Raid on Taihoku (襲擊台灣) is a 2023 point-and-click survival game released by Taiwanese indie company Loftstar Entertainment.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, a young girl named Kiyoko fled from home after a quarrel with her parents, only to be caught in the Raid of Taihoku
that destroyed most of the city. Barely surviving the bombing, getting herself knocked unconscious by a stray blast before waking up without most of her memory, Kiyoko only remembers a single word... the name, "Makoto".
Stuck in the middle of a bombed-out city filled with the dead, Kiyoko needs to find her way back by exploring Taihoku city's ruins, her only clue being the name "Makoto", and uncovering some shocking secrets of her past - specifically, what led to her present predicament.
In the end, I wanted to go home when I no longer had a home...
- Abandoned Pet in a Box: In Kiyoko's first flashback, she and Makoto found her pet, Kuro (then unnamed) in an opened cardboard box near a rain-drenched alley. They then debate who should keep the puppy, until Makoto decides to let Kiyoko have it.
- All of the Other Reindeer: From Kiyoko's past memories, it turns out as a student of First Girls School, an institution reserved for Japanese aristocrats living in Taiwan, she's an outcast frequently picked on and rejected by her classmates for being a Taiwanese-Japanese half-breed (her full name is revealed at the end as Kiyoko Lin). Her Only Friend is Makoto, being from a poor family whose parents could barely make ends meet after enrolling him, but they part ways when leaving grade school.
- Amnesiac Hero: Kiyoko doesn't remember anything of her past in the first few stages. A Japanese officer calls her, "You're Kiyoko, right?"... and the name stuck for the rest of the game.
- Animal Lover: Kiyoko, who's supposed to be searching for her missing parents in the middle of a bombed-out city, briefly stops her mission to protect a puppy she randomly found, from being stoned by bullies. That puppy later turns out to be Kuro, her actual pet, separated from her during the bombing and after Kiyoko lost her memory.
- Arranged Marriage: This turns out to be the reason behind why Kiyoko fled home prior to the game's events; her parents objected her relationship with Makoto because he's Japanese, and arranged for her to be married to a Taiwanese family against her will. And then Kiyoko finds out Makoto had joined the Japanese Air Force's Kamikaze Corps, causing her to leave in despair, just as Taihoku is hit by a masive bombing.
- Canine Companion: Kiyoko adopts a black dog named "Kuro" ("black" in Japanese) early in the game, who follows her everywhere - even returning to the bombed-out Taihoku in a later stage. Kuro sticks around until near the end, when it gets shot by a Japanese officer.
- Death from Above: The game is set during a bombing. In more than one stage Kiyoko needs to run through the city while avoiding bombs, whose location are marked with a red Crosshair Aware which can One-Hit Kill her.
- Deus ex Machina: How the final stage ends, with a massive rioting crowd - Kiyoko Lin in front - facing off against a large number of armed Japanese military policemen. And then suddenly comes a loudspeaker announcement that the war is over, due to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which leads to the Japanese kneeling over. Cue a sunny, cheerful happy ending with Kiyoko returning to her life while Taihoku gets rebuilt.
- Happy Flashback: Whenever Kiyoko regains her memories pre-bombing, and recalls her past - notably, interactions with her childhood friend Makoto, a boy her age.
- Kid Amid the Chaos: Ru, a young girl separated from her mother Ying, whom Kiyoko rescues during one of the bombing missions and needs to lead her to a shelter.
- Made of Iron: Kiyoko, during stages where she avoid dropping bombs during an air raid, as long as she isn't within the blast radius (helpfully marked by a circle). Never mind in real life, the heat, sharpnel, vibration, debris proximity and loudness of explosions would've killed (or at least seriously injure) a child her age.
- Parasol of Pain: Inverted - Kiyoko collects an umbrella from some building ruins, which she uses to block stones flung at her by some local bullies. She uses her parasol solely for defense instead of a weapon.
- Police Brutality: The Japanese MP overseeing Taihoku spends the cutscenes flogging local civilains caught in the raid instead of actually helping the populace, usually framing them for "treason against the motherland" or accusing them for being collaborators, and seems to delight in their jobs. This predictably leads to an uprising near the end.
- Romantic Rain: In Kiyoko's first flashback from happier times, she remembers when she started having feelings for Makoto, a boy her age, in the middle of heavy rain.
- Scenery Gorn: Taihoku isn't in great shape after the bombing, with most of the buildings reduced to ruins and the stench of death everywhere, visible during gameplay set in the city as well as the opening FMV where the camera sweeps across a body-strewn street.
- Stealth-Based Mission: There's a stage where Kiyoko tracks down the snatch thief who made off with Aunt Chiu's handbag, right into a shantytown after dawn. She needs to follow him, create a distraction, and sneak into the thief's quarters to steal back the handbag without getting caught, else she suffers a Non-Standard Game Over (time to restart the stage).
- Tyop on the Cover: The English translation is decent enough, save for a few tyops now and then. For instance, whenever Kiyoko grabs a hose to extinguish fire blocking her way, the game will instruct her to aim and "Press Z to spary water".
- War Is Hell: Seen from the perspective of a young girl who lose everything during a bombing, no less.
- Witch with a Capital "B": The local bullies tends to make fun of Kiyoko's part-Japanese heritage by calling her the "witch" repeatedly.
- October 25, 1945
The heavens are finally back to its normal state
The trees are finally back during springtime...
I walk through the broken memories
And take back what I had in the past...
