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* FlashStep: The Lingered may occasionally cross short distances at a whim.
* FlowerMotifs: Daffodils. They represent prosperity and good luck, but also [[{{Pride}} vanity]] and oftentimes, death. [[spoiler:Ray's betrayal was motivated by her own selfishness and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero indirectly caused the deaths of her counselor and a majority of her schoolmates]], causing her to commit suicide out of remorse.]]
* FluorescentFootprints: Pouring a glass of pink fluorescent liquid reveals footprints that will help Ray navigate through the room filled with MagicalMysteryDoors once you turn off the lights.
* FlowerMotifs: Daffodils. They represent prosperity and good luck, but also [[{{Pride}} vanity]] and oftentimes, death. [[spoiler:Ray's betrayal was motivated by her own selfishness and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero indirectly caused the deaths of her counselor and a majority of her schoolmates]], causing her to commit suicide out of remorse.]]
* FluorescentFootprints: Pouring a glass of pink fluorescent liquid reveals footprints that will help Ray navigate through the room filled with MagicalMysteryDoors once you turn off the lights.
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* FlashStep: The Lingered may occasionally cross short distances at a whim.
* FlowerMotifs: Daffodils. They represent prosperity and good luck, but also [[{{Pride}} vanity]] and oftentimes, death. [[spoiler:Ray's betrayal was motivated by her own selfishness and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero indirectly caused the deaths of her counselor and a majority of her schoolmates]], causing her to commit suicide out of remorse.]]
* FluorescentFootprints: Pouring a glass of pink fluorescent liquid reveals footprints that will help Ray navigate through the room filled with MagicalMysteryDoors once you turn off the lights.
* FlowerMotifs: Daffodils. They represent prosperity and good luck, but also [[{{Pride}} vanity]] and oftentimes, death. [[spoiler:Ray's betrayal was motivated by her own selfishness and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero indirectly caused the deaths of her counselor and a majority of her schoolmates]], causing her to commit suicide out of remorse.]]
* FluorescentFootprints: Pouring a glass of pink fluorescent liquid reveals footprints that will help Ray navigate through the room filled with MagicalMysteryDoors once you turn off the lights.
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* GroundhogDayLoop: [[spoiler:Ray's purgatory involves her endlessly repeating the last days of the Forbidden Book Club in a supernatural version of her school, unless she can come to terms with her guilt.]]
* GuideDangIt: [[spoiler:Getting the GoldenEnding requires you to answer four cryptic multiple choice questions correctly at the end of the game. There really isn't any indication what the expected answers are or that this dialogue is more than just FlavorText. You'll almost certainly see the DownerEnding first. Thankfully, replaying the last chapter is quick and easy.]]
* GuideDangIt: [[spoiler:Getting the GoldenEnding requires you to answer four cryptic multiple choice questions correctly at the end of the game. There really isn't any indication what the expected answers are or that this dialogue is more than just FlavorText. You'll almost certainly see the DownerEnding first. Thankfully, replaying the last chapter is quick and easy.]]
to:
* GroundhogDayLoop: [[spoiler:Ray's purgatory involves [[spoiler:The Bad Ending reveals that Ray is trapped in one after her endlessly repeating suicide. The loop starts with her reliving the last days day of the Forbidden Book Club forbidden book club, being woken up by Wei in the auditorium and being stuck in school with him because the bridge is broken. Then she goes to sleep and wakes up in the auditorium of a supernatural demonic version of her school, unless she can come to terms the school with Wei dead and puzzles her guilt.way through it until she comes across a flashback of herself gaining the book list and then confronts Ms. Yin. After this, she is taken through a recreation of her past and the events leading up to the point where Instructor Bai confronts Ms. Yin to force her to confront her sin. A shadowy version of herself will then pose questions as a TestOfCharacter. Ray's answers will determine the ending: the correct ones (the ones where Shadow Ray responds with a monologue) will have Ray own up to her guilt and escape to the real world, while any incorrect ones (where Shadow Ray remains silent afterwards) mean that she refuses to face herself and the loop continues on to Ray's award ceremony for snitching on the book club, where she commits suicide and the loop resets to her asleep in the auditorium again.]]
* GuideDangIt: [[spoiler:Getting the GoldenEnding requires you to answer four crypticmultiple choice multiple-choice questions correctly at the end of the game. There really isn't any indication what the expected answers are or that this dialogue is more than just FlavorText. You'll almost certainly see the DownerEnding first. Thankfully, replaying the last chapter is quick and easy.]]
* GuideDangIt: [[spoiler:Getting the GoldenEnding requires you to answer four cryptic
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* OutOfContextEavesdropping: Ray overhearing a snippet of conversation without knowing the full context caused the plot to happen. [[spoiler:Mr. Cheng and Ms. Yin had a conversation in which Ms. Yin scolded him for being involved with Ray while also being involved with her. Ray took this to mean that the two teachers were ''romantically'' involved. Ms. Yin ''actually'' meant that both she and Mr. Cheng were involved in a forbidden book club, and thus carrying on a romantic relationship with ''anyone'' would be dangerous as they would be dragged down with him if the White Terror government ever found the club out. Ray, who both thought that Ms. Yin needed to be [[RemovingTheRival removed]] and didn't know that Mr. Cheng was ''also'' a member of the book club, decided to rat out the book club so Ms. Yin would be arrested. This resulted in Mr. Cheng being executed along with an unknown number of the book club's members. Had Ray bothered to confront either teacher and clarify the situation, she probably could have carried on with their liaison if she could convince him that she knew and accepted the risk.]]
to:
* OutOfContextEavesdropping: Ray overhearing a snippet of conversation without knowing the full context caused the plot to happen. [[spoiler:Mr. Cheng Chang and Ms. Yin had a conversation in which Ms. Yin scolded him for being involved with Ray while also being involved with her. Ray took this to mean that the two teachers were ''romantically'' involved. Ms. Yin ''actually'' meant that both she and Mr. Cheng Chang were involved in a forbidden book club, and thus carrying on a romantic relationship with ''anyone'' would be dangerous as they would be dragged down with him if the White Terror government ever found the club out. Ray, who both thought that Ms. Yin needed to be [[RemovingTheRival removed]] and didn't know that Mr. Cheng Chang was ''also'' a member of the book club, decided to rat out the book club so Ms. Yin would be arrested. This resulted in Mr. Cheng Chang being executed along with an unknown number of the book club's members. Had Ray bothered to confront either teacher and clarify the situation, she probably could have carried on with their liaison if she could convince him that she knew and accepted the risk.]]
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* OldSchoolBuilding: The game takes place in a haunted school.
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* OldSchoolBuilding: The game takes place in a haunted school.[[spoiler: Well, a demonic copy of one.]]
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* OutOfContextEavesdropping: Ray overhearing a snippet of conversation without knowing the full context caused the plot to happen. [[spoiler:Mr. Cheng and Ms. Yin had a conversation in which Ms. Yin scolded him for being involved with Ray while also being involved with her. Ray took this to mean that the two teachers were ''romantically'' involved. Ms. Yin ''actually'' meant that both she and Mr. Cheng were involved in a forbidden book club, and thus carrying on a romantic relationship with ''anyone'' would be dangerous as they would be dragged down with him if the White Terror government ever found the club out. Ray, who both thought that Ms. Yin needed to be [[RemovingTheRival removed]] and didn't know that Mr. Cheng was ''also'' a member of the book club, decided to rat out the book club so Ms. Yin would be arrested. This resulted in Mr. Cheng being executed along with an unknown number of the book club's members. Had Ray bothered to confront either teacher and clarify the situation, she probably could have carried on with their liaison if she could convince him that she knew and accepted the risk.]]
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/det_1.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:If a paper plane could whisk my dreams away from here...]]
->''Where did Ms. Yin go..?''
''Detention'' is a Taiwanese independent horror game developed by Red Candle Games, and released on January 12, 2017. A 2D [[PointAndClickGame point-and-click]] side-scroller, ''Detention'' is set in 1960s Taiwan [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror_(Taiwan) during its period of martial law]], and begins with bored second-year high school student Wei Chung Ting falling asleep during a history lecture. While Wei sleeps, class is interrupted by the school's JROTC officer, who pulls aside the teacher, Ms. Yin, to ask about a list in his possession.
Some time later, Wei awakens to find the classroom deserted, with a hasty message saying "typhoon warning" scribbled on the blackboard. Surely enough, a nasty storm is brewing outside the windows, and the school has been evacuated. Rushing to get home and beat the downpour, he encounters senior student Fang Ray Shin in the auditorium on his way out, and they agree to leave school together. But after a horrible incident, the school begins warping itself in strange ways, and hostile spirits called the Lingered appear.
The studio's second game, titled ''VideoGame/{{Devotion}}'', was released on February 19, 2019, and is a vast narrative, stylistic, and mechanical departure from its predecessor. A film of the game was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yR9RCWBhqY&feature=youtu.be released]] on September 20, 2019.
A series based on the game was released on Creator/{{Netflix}} in 2020.
Not to be confused with the [[WesternAnimation/{{Detention}} cartoon]] or [[Film/{{Detention}} movie]] that share the name.
----
!!This game has examples of the following tropes:
* AchievementMockery: Attempting to dial 911 on the phone nets you an achievement titled "What made you think this would work?"
* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: The fact that the Lingered can bend their backs in a perfect 90 degree angle makes it clear that they definitely aren't humans.
* AbusiveParents: Ray's home life isn't the greatest. Her family initially started loving until her parents started to fight, her father becoming physically violent towards her mother and a heavy drinker while her mother became [[ParentalNeglect distant and neglectful to Ray]]. It was bad enough that it affected Ray's life at school and her mental health, and she needed to see the school counselor. [[spoiler: One night when her father came home drunk, Ray noticed the faint smell of powdered make-up around him.]]
* ActionSurvivor: Ray, a normal high school student that has to face supernatural threats that lurk around the campus.
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Ray's betrayal of the forbidden book club. She meant for it to separate Ms. Yin and Mr. Chang so she could date Mr. Chang again... but unbeknownst to her, Mr. Chang was ''supplying'' the forbidden book club, and so was executed, and Ray took her own life out of guilt.]]
* ArcWords: "Snitcher". [[spoiler:It's later revealed that this is what Ray's classmates would call her [[WhatTheHellHero after betraying the secret book club for selfish reasons]].]]
* AssimilationAcademy: The school has turned into this, drilling the students with anti-communist propaganda. The forbidden book club was Ms. Yin's attempt to counteract that, and Mr. Chang helped her by providing her with material.
* BigBad: The Lingered, spirits that haunt the school, are the main enemies of the game, [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss for the first half]]]]. [[spoiler:Afterwards, Instructor Bai Guo Fong, the radically anti-communist government supporter, is revealed as the one who had the secret book club arrested after Ray herself busted them, causing her to kill herself out of guilt. Ray's spirit becoming trapped in Purgatory can ultimately be traced back to him.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:In the Good Ending, Ray's finally able to accept and remember her sin, no longer repeating the endless nightmare, while in the present, the martial law has been abolished and an older Wei is released, returning to the now abandoned school where he seemingly reunites with Ray's spirit. However, Ray's forever cursed to wander, barred from Heaven and Hell, and Wei still lost half of his life because of Ray's actions and most of his loved ones and teachers are long dead.]]
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: The school gradually turns into this, with all manner of strange things happening to the surroundings, and your movement around the levels make little sense. [[spoiler:Justified since it's not the real school, but a ghostly representation of Ray's guilt and trauma. The actual school, which has rather normal architecture, has been abandoned for years by the time of the epilogue.]]
* BookBurning: [[spoiler:At one point, Ray sees Wei and another classmate burning the outlawed books in an attempt to hide the evidence from Inspector Bai. It's not enough, because Ray still had the list of books, and used that to rat out the book club.]]
* BookEnds: The game begins with Wei in his classroom, then finding Ray in the middle of the auditorium. [[spoiler:In the Bad Ending, Ray returns to the center of the auditorium to hang herself (before [[GroundhogDayLoop the cycle starts over]]). In the Good Ending, Wei returns to his classroom 30 years later and reunites with Ray.]]
* BreakHerHeartToSaveHer: [[spoiler:Aside from improvement in her mental health, it is implied that Mr. Chang ended his relationship with Ray because Ms. Yin advised him that he would risk putting her in danger due to him being part of the book club. [[{{Deconstruction}} This ends badly for Ray, Mr. Chang, and Ms. Yin.]]]]
* BreakTheCutie: The White Terror was ''not'' a pleasant time to be living around 1960s Taiwan. As shown by our two central characters:
** Wei was a normal student in Greenwood High [[spoiler:who was arrested and taken away from his mother by officers due to being a member of the secret book club that Ray told Instructor Bai about. While he was only given 15 years of imprisonment, his life was still stolen from him. His mother died while he was in prison, his school's counselor was executed along with possibly some of his classmates and schoolmates, Ms. Yin fled and died abroad, and he heard of Ray's suicide. By the time he was released, he lost all his loved ones, the school he went to is abandoned, and much of his life is destroyed, wasted because he was outed as a reader of forbidden books by a close friend]].
** Ray watched as her once loving family became broken up, affecting her daily life at school, and [[spoiler:witnessed her mother turn her father to the police for bribery once she learned of his affair]]. She received emotional support from Mr. Chang, who helped her with her family problems, [[spoiler:who she has heavily implied to have fallen in love with]], and when the counseling sessions came to an end, [[spoiler:her relationship with him ended as well, nearly making her fall once again into depression]]. She soon becomes [[spoiler:jealous of Ms. Yin and. seeing her as a rival for Mr. Chang, revealed the book club's existence to Instructor Bai to get rid of her]]. However, in doing so, [[spoiler:[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she accidentally ruined the lives of her teachers and classmates, including her friend Wei, and sentenced Mr. Chang to death]]. [[KillTheCutie She then took her own life]] [[DrivenToSuicide out of guilt]]]].
* BrokenAce: Prior to her broken family life, Ray was a promising student who performed academically well and participated in many school activities, earning the respect of her peers. However, her life at home soon affected her school life, [[AllTheOtherReindeer making her an outcast]] and falling into depression.
* BrokenBird: Ray. [[spoiler:It ends badly for her.]]
* ChekhovsGun:
** In the prologue, Instructor Bai inquires Ms. Yin about a list he has. [[spoiler:The list is revealed to be an order of outlawed books for Ms. Yin's secret book club that Wei had given to Ray when she asked for materials for reading, which she later gave to Inspector Bai when selling out Ms. Yin out of jealousy. It's even shaped as a gun when the player receives it with the description explaining that it could get "rid" of whoever she dislikes. Ray shows the paper to Mrs. Yin while her reflection points a gun at Mr. Chang.]]
* ChokeHolds: The Lantern Specters [[spoiler:and the hanging ragdolls by the furnace]] use this method to kill.
* CoolTeacher: Ms. Yin is well-liked by her students, who worry about her whenever she has to take leave and dislike the substitutes. She encourages her students to be able to express themselves and learn freely in knowledge and self-actualization — so much so that she [[spoiler:even created a secret book club that allows students to read forbidden books that will help them think independently, even warning her students the risks should they join]]. Ms. Yin had also praised Ray's paper and given her words of encouragement, [[spoiler:which makes Ray's betrayal all the more sad]].
** Mr. Chang shares Ms. Yin's belief that people should have the freedom of choice and self-actualization, even [[spoiler:helping out in her secret book club by smuggling prohibited books]].
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: [[spoiler:Had Ray not tried to use the government to break up Mr. Chang and Ms. Yin, or had at least ''talked to Mr. Chang'' about their alleged relationship, Ms. Yin wouldn't have been exiled, Mr. Chang wouldn't have died, the book club members wouldn't have had their lives ruined, and Ray herself wouldn't have committed suicide and wouldn't be in Purgatory.]]
* CrapsackWorld: 1960s Taiwan is ''not'' a fun place to live. Oppressive authoritarian government under an [[UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek iron-fisted dictator]], censorship, brutal anti-communist laws[[note]]consider [[WitchHunt Senator McCarthy's policies in America]] [[RedScare at around the same time]], then exaggerate them to the point of flagrant disregard for human rights, and you have the gist of what was going on[[/note]], the second-longest period of martial law in history, it just doesn't stop. The strange DarkWorld [[spoiler:a.k.a. Ray's Purgatory]] that the school turns into is even worse, what with being an EldritchLocation and the home of the Lingered and Lantern Spectres.
* CreepyDoll: There's an entire room full of them in the second half of the game, and you have to find two of them for a puzzle.
* DarkAndTroubledPast:
** It is implied that Mr. Chang's past was "complicated" as it is mentioned that all his siblings are dead. Which was why [[BirdsOfAFeather he was able to understand Ray's problems at home and gave her the emotional support she needed]]. [[spoiler:It is implied it evolved into [[TeacherStudentRomance more than just counseling]].]]
** Ray also has one. Her family was initially loving, but when her parents started to fight, the situation slowly slipped into the gutter and they eventually became neglectful and abusive to Ray. Despite being a model student, she eventually became so troubled that she needed to see the counselor. She improved with Mr. Chang as her LivingEmotionalCrutch… but when he broke off their relationship (because he was afraid to connect her to the forbidden book club that he was involved in), she didn't take it well. [[spoiler:She thought that it was because he was in a relationship with Ms. Yin (founder of the forbidden book club) and [[TheStoolPigeon ratted the club out to the authorities]] [[RemovingTheRival to get Ms. Yin out of the way]]. She got Ms. Yin out of the way, [[GoneHorriblyRight all right]]… when she was forced to flee the country to avoid imprisonment or execution along with the rest of the book club. However, Mr. Chang, who didn't have Ms. Yin's connections, could not flee and ended up being executed. Ray took her own life out of guilt, and became trapped in a purgatory resembling her school until she could atone for her sin. Cue the events of the game, where she can either refuse to accept her sin and repeat the whole experience, or come to terms with it and escape.]]
** By the time of the epilogue, Wei has one. [[spoiler:He was a normal student who secretly participated in a club for forbidden books. He gave the list of what books they had to his friend Ray for safekeeping — unaware that Ray was jealous of the book club's leader Ms. Yin and would use the list to set the government on her. [[GoneHorriblyWrong Along with getting rid of Ms. Yin]], Ray revealing the book club led to Wei being arrested and spending fifteen years (until martial law was lifted) in prison. He got out, but much of his life and youth was destroyed, and as far as we know, he's the SoleSurvivor of the club.]]
* ADarkerMe: A shadowy version of Ray appears near the end of the game, and asks Ray questions. Ray's answers to these questions determine what ending she gets. [[spoiler:She's implied to represent Ray's guilt and sin. Answering her correctly each time results in Ray accepting her guilt and being able to move on.]]
-->'''Shadow Ray:''' I, am you. Yet you, are not me.\\
'''Shadow Ray:''' ''(after a correct answer)'' You... are me.
* DarkWorld: Well, ''darker'', given that the main school is already pretty freaky. You visit one late in the game, and you're required to switch between it and the regular world to bypass certain obstacles. It's even more surreal than the main game world.
* DeadAllAlong: The majority of the characters, [[spoiler:including Ray herself]], have been dead for years. [[spoiler:Only Wei is still alive.]]
* DeadToBeginWith: [[spoiler:Ray committed suicide prior to the game's beginning, and the events of the game are Ray stuck in purgatory, trying to remember and atone for her sin.]]
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:When her counseling sessions came to an end, and by extension, her relationship with Mr. Chang, Ray fell into depression once again, describing herself as a "walking corpse". She permanently crosses this and committed suicide after her betrayal not only led to the arrest of her friends, but also Mr. Chang's death.]]
* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler:Wei]] isn't the main character, [[spoiler:Ray]] is. [[spoiler:You only control Wei for the very early parts of the game, and one of the endings.]]
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The visual aesthetics and characters are stylized to resemble black and white photography, especially since the game takes place in 1960's Taiwan. [[spoiler:Or rather, [[MonochromePast repeated past memories of Ray's sin as she forever wanders Purgatory]]. And when an older Wei returns to his old school after being released, Wei and the school are no longer monochrome, signifying the present.]]
** One notable flashback is not only in color, but in vivid, dreamlike neons — [[spoiler:it was the recollection of a movie date Ray has with Chang, probably to demonstrate how she felt like being around him brought her world back to life]].
* DeliciousDistraction: Laying down food offerings can be used to bait the Lingered. While they are busy eating their meals, it makes it easier for Ray to sneak past them.
* DirtyCommunists: Due to [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors the conflict with mainland China]], and being set during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, the KMT government [[note]]the centre-right and authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party, who ruled China and fought against Imperial Japan until they were defeated by the Chinese Communists in the civil war and fled to Taiwan[[/note]] has this stance. At the school, the most fervent anti-communist is Instructor Bai, who is a civil war veteran. Needless to say, there is an ongoing WitchHunt, and the main characters are on the ass end of it.
* DisappearedDad: Ray's alcoholic father was eventually arrested for bribery and corruption. [[spoiler:It is implied that [[WomanScorned Ray's mother turned him in as retaliation]] for his cheating and [[DomesticAbuse abuse]].]]
* DisneyAcidSequence: The section where you use your movie tickets. It is perhaps the most colorful place in the entire game with signs of many Taiwanese foods and pop culture references during that time in the background.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:In the Bad Ending, Ray still refuses to remember and come to terms with her sin and tries to [[DrivenToSuicide hang herself]], but the scene flashes to the present before she can do so, repeating the endless nightmare once more.]]
* TheDreaded: Instructor Bai. The student body fears him and some don't dare to speak his full name.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Ray, after she [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realizes exactly what she's done]] by selling out the book club.]]
* EldritchLocation: Wei and Ray are trapped in something that resembles their school where the Lingers wander around, complete with nightmarish imagery and a giant shadow. [[spoiler:It is actually Ray's purgatory, and represents her guilt over selling out the book club. As long as she refuses to accept responsibility for her sin, she will wander it in a GroundhogDayLoop forever.]]
* EnterSolutionHere:
** A three-digit combination lock uses Bagua trigrams as its symbols. Even if you already know the answer or how to decipher the trigrams, you still need to the guide to unlock it.
** There is a piano puzzle that needs you to play the exact melody of [[spoiler:"The Torment of a Flower" (雨夜花)]], as heard on an eight-track tape. ''For anyone who is tone deaf, beware.''
* EscapeSequence: After you reach the counselor’s office, [[spoiler:a giant being with a sack on its back will chase you across a seemingly endless hallway until you find a white door to escape]].
* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler:Wei and Ray were close friends at school. Wei trusted her enough to give her Ms. Yin's list for the book club, only for Ray to betray him and turn the list over to Instructor Bai, which resulted in Wei being imprisoned for fifteen years. Ray regretted it immensely, as she never intended for Wei to get caught in the crossfire.]]
* EvilIsNotAToy: Totalitarianism is ''not'' a toy, [[spoiler:Ray]]. There's a WitchHunt going on, so the government won't just come in, [[spoiler:arrest Ms. Yin]], and leave. They'll [[spoiler:arrest everyone you care about and sentence the man you loved to death]] while they're at it.
* EvilPhone: The phone in the principal's office. [[spoiler:It's implied to either represent Instructor Bai or a metaphor to Ray's snitching, or even both. It also features a quick JumpScare in its first use.]]
* EyeOpen: [[spoiler:After you have collected Wei's blood from his cut throat, his eyes will suddenly open for a brief moment. Just when you go in to check on him, they're closed again.]]
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:In the Good Ending, when the military police arrive to arrest Mr. Chang due to his affiliation with the book club, he knows [[KnowWhenToFoldEm he won't able to escape easily this time]] and accepts his inevitable death, joining with his dead brothers and sisters.]]
* FootprintsOfMuck: This is a puzzle in where you [[spoiler:have to pour a pink glow-in-the-dark liquid into a puddle to follow ghostly footprints through a maze of doors]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** If you pay close attention, the Lingered are [[spoiler:actually a hint to Ray being dead from the very beginning. This is because the Lingered are pretty much hungry ghosts; ghosts that have no one to remember them or pray for them, and thus are doomed to be always hungry. Ray was buried in an unmarked grave, forgotten. That is why the Lingered looked like her, and why they are distracted by food. The Lingered are Ray]].
** Wei sees a flyer [[WitchHunt that encourages students to rat out potential communist supporters to Inspector Bai]] and proclaims that informants would be greatly rewarded. [[spoiler:Ray took him up on that offer and sold out the secret book club to Instructor Bai [[RemovingTheRival due to her jealousy towards Ms. Yin]]. In the Bad Ending, she is seen walking up the school hall's stage to receive her reward — [[DrivenToSuicide a noose]].]]
** In one of the early puzzles, Ray has to slice open Wei's throat to get his blood. [[spoiler:Ray's actions in real life resulted in Wei being imprisoned for 15 years, essentially destroying his youth.]]
** The word "Snitcher" is seen multiple times scrawled on the background, [[spoiler:calling out Ray for betraying the forbidden book club to the government]].
** One door early on is painted with Taoist symbols, and Ray can't open it without paint remover to rub out the symbols. [[spoiler:The symbols ward against ghosts, and Ray cannot enter because she's DeadToBeginWith.]]
** When Ray looks at herself in the bathroom mirror, her reflection will ask her if she's "forgotten… or just too afraid to remember?" [[spoiler:Ray has been repressing her memories of what actually happened to the school because she's afraid to deal with her guilt over causing the Forbidden Book Club to be arrested.]]
** During the Red House segment, Ray comes across an unmarked grave in the auditorium and it seems to be [[spoiler:Wei's]]. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed that after Ray committed suicide, she was buried in an unmarked grave, and in Taoism belief, committing a misdeed or not being given a proper burial results in the person's spirit being trapped in Purgatory and forced to eternally experience their sins.]]
** At one point, you'll see a figure on the roof of the school, who jumps off the railing before you can get a good look at her. [[spoiler: It's Ray herself.]]
** At one point in the game, Ray has to collect two puppets for a puppet play — the Inspector Puppet and the Hooded Puppet. When she puts them onstage, the Inspector Puppet will execute the Hooded Puppet, also killing another puppet dangling upside down between them. [[spoiler:This is basically what Ray's actions in snitching about the book club led to — the central government executed the leaders of the book club and destroyed the lives of its members in the crossfire. Notably, the dangling puppet is quite reminiscent of how Wei's body hangs upside-down in the auditorium.]]
** When Ray sees a memory of her [[spoiler:having a meeting with Wei regarding the book club]], she asks [[spoiler:Wei about the relationship between Ms. Yin and Mr. Chang]]. [[spoiler:This hints that Wei encountering Ray in the game wasn't their first meeting, as well as her relationship with Mr. Chang and her jealousy towards Ms. Yin, which resulted in her betrayal.]]
** When Ray receives the book list and meets Ms. Yin in the mirror room, [[spoiler:the book list is shaped like a gun in your inventory and in Ray's reflection, and Ms. Yin's reflection is that of a man with his face covered by a hood. At the end of the confrontation, Real!Ray will curl up in a ball, while Reflection!Ray will shoot the hooded man]]. [[spoiler:The mirror is reflecting how Ray used the book list as a weapon, and it wasn't Ms. Yin that said weapon ultimately killed — it was Mr. Chang. Additionally, the mirror presents a direct reference to [[WitchHunt the White Terror itself]], with victims hooded and executed in prison.]]
* FlashStep: The Lingered may occasionally cross short distances at a whim.
* FlowerMotifs: Daffodils. They represent prosperity and good luck, but also [[{{Pride}} vanity]] and oftentimes, death. [[spoiler:Ray's betrayal was motivated by her own selfishness and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero indirectly caused the deaths of her counselor and a majority of her schoolmates]], causing her to commit suicide out of remorse.]]
* FluorescentFootprints: Pouring a glass of pink fluorescent liquid reveals footprints that will help Ray navigate through the room filled with MagicalMysteryDoors once you turn off the lights.
* {{GASP}}: Ray always makes a big gasp when a large enemy is approaching, like the Lantern Specters [[spoiler:or the shadow figure]].
* GenreShift: After [[spoiler:the confrontation with Ms. Yin]], the spooky Taiwanese mythology references and monsters largely vanish, being replaced with a surreal sequence of flashbacks exploring Ray's past, [[spoiler:and how she came to be in the monster-filled school to begin with — it's her purgatory, after she killed herself out of guilt for selling out Ms. Yin and the book club]]. The Bad Ending returns to the supernatural aspects, while the Good Ending focuses more on the character-driven aspects.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: [[spoiler:Ray just wanted to get Ms. Yin out of the way so she could keep up her romantic relationship with Mr. Chang, but her actions in telling Inspector Bai about Ms. Yin's book club ended up ruining the lives of pretty much everyone Ray knew — Wei was imprisoned for fifteen years, only being granted his freedom with the lifting of martial law in 1987, Ms. Yin was forced to flee the country (she eventually died in exile), and while the rest of the book club isn't revealed, they likely had a similar fate to Wei. The only confirmed [[KilledOffForReal hard casualty]] of this action? Mr. Chang, the person Ray did it for in the first place.]]
* GravityScrew: Ray's parents can be seen sleeping on the wall in their bed when we enter their room.
* GreaterScopeVillain: [[UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek The president/general of Taiwan]] at the time. He doesn't actually show up in person, but a statue of him is a recurring background element and Ray will comment about [[BigBrotherIsWatching feeling watched]] when inspecting it.
* GroundhogDayLoop: [[spoiler:Ray's purgatory involves her endlessly repeating the last days of the Forbidden Book Club in a supernatural version of her school, unless she can come to terms with her guilt.]]
* GuideDangIt: [[spoiler:Getting the GoldenEnding requires you to answer four cryptic multiple choice questions correctly at the end of the game. There really isn't any indication what the expected answers are or that this dialogue is more than just FlavorText. You'll almost certainly see the DownerEnding first. Thankfully, replaying the last chapter is quick and easy.]]
* HauntedTechnology: The game makes liberal use of the kind of 60's tech you might find in a high school at the time, such as a rotary phone, an 8-track player, a movie projector, etc.
* HellIsThatNoise: The cackling and screeching made by the Lingered.
* HintSystem: Whenever Ray dies, she ends up in an area with an old woman walking around. If Ray stays close to the woman, she will receive a vague hint on how to deal with what had killed her.
* HumanSacrifice: One of the clues mentions it, but the requirements for the victim differs from each language. You need to sacrifice the innocent in the English version; however in Chinese you need to sacrifice a young boy to reveal a prophecy. [[spoiler:Regardless of language, both them hint that you have to slit Wei's throat to finish the puzzle.]]
* IfICantHaveYou: [[spoiler:The reason Ray betrayed Ms. Yin and Mr. Chang to the government is because Chang ended their romance. Unfortunately, this also means that she unintentionally ruined the lives of everyone else in the book club, including her friend Wei. Ray also didn't intend for Mr. Chang to be killed, but, well, see EvilIsNotAToy above.]]
* ImpairmentShot: Ray can't hold her breath forever, and holding it for too long causes the scene to appear fuzzy.
* InSeriesNickname: Fang Ray Shin prefers to be called Ray in the English version. In the Chinese version, she simply states [[FirstNameBasis that it would be more natural to call each other by their first name]] instead of their full name.
* InvisibleWall: Walking off the stage is impossible and you're stopped at the edges of the spotlight, after accepting [[spoiler:the noose]] in the Bad Ending.
* InvisibleWriting: There's a message scratched into one of the school benches, but it's illegible. To reveal it, you need [[spoiler:Wei's blood]].
* ItsAllAboutMe: Ray is a perfectly OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent… who [[spoiler:snitches on her classmates and teachers, getting many of them killed and ruining the remaining survivor's lives, all out of petty jealousy]]. Whether she [[NeverMyFault keeps]] this attitude [[HeelRealization or not]] is up to the player.
* JumpScare: More subtle compared to other horror games, but they're still there:
** [[spoiler:There's a brief shot of a NightmareFace when Rei hangs up the principal's phone.]]
** [[spoiler:Ray's reflection in the mirror smiling and twitching her head around, causing the mirror to break.]]
** [[spoiler:Successfully completing the piano puzzle results in a whole audience of applauding ghosts showing up from nowhere.]]
** [[spoiler:Playing with a broken light switch in one of the Red House's corridors will trigger a Lantern Specter to spawn right next to Ray so it can turn it on.]]
* KnightTemplar: Instructor Bai is a ''fervent'' anti-communist hardliner, and harshly enforces the government's anti-communist policies, no matter who breaks them. [[spoiler:Even Ms. Yin, Mr. Chang, and Wei as well as anyone else involved in the book club.]]
* LastNameBasis: Wei Chung Ting is often referred by his surname from Ray and throughout the game.
* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: A sample of the song 雨夜花 will keep playing until you reach the piano after you set the broadcasting tape on the final track.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Mr. Chang was this to Ray. [[spoiler:When he ended their relationship, she became determined to keep her anchor to life, even going so far as to rat out Ms. Yin's book club to get rid of her.]] Unbeknownst to her, [[spoiler:he was helping out with the club, and her betrayal resulted in one of the people she cared about getting killed]].
* TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack: When Ray looks into the mirror in the girls' bathroom and hopes her current situation is AllJustADream, her reflection will smile, glitch out, and ask her a question:
-->'''Ray's Reflection:''' Forgotten… or just too afraid to remember?
* MindScrew: The game eventually becomes this after [[spoiler:Wei seemingly dies]]. This also extends to whenever the environment suddenly changes without warning.
* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: At one point, Ray will have a confrontation with Ms. Yin in front of a mirror. In the mirror, Ray will instead point a gun at a hooded man. [[spoiler:What's happening in the main game is what Rei ''thought'' she was doing with her snitching, while the mirror is showing what ''actually'' occurred. Instead of Ms. Yin being forced to stop pursuing Mr. Chang (which she wasn't actually doing in the first place), most of the book club were executed (like Mr. Chang) or imprisoned until martial law ended (like Wei).]]
* MoodWhiplash: [[spoiler:The Good Ending abruptly changes the mood from the rest of the game's overwhelming horror to a sense of melancholy and sadness.]]
* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse, this is the reason for the events of the game happening. [[spoiler:Ray crossed it when she sold out the book club in a [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish attempt]] to MurderTheHypotenuse… except Ms. Yin wasn't even having an affair with Mr. Chang, which rendered the horrific selfishness of Ray's act completely pointless. The situation seen in-game is Ray suffering in Purgatory as punishment for her guilt (and her refusal to admit it).]]
* {{Motif}}:
** Ray and Mr. Chang's relationship is symbolized by paper airplanes. [[spoiler:In the Good Ending, Ray finds a yellowed paper airplane with a farewell message from Mr. Chang.]]
** Ray and Wei's relationship is symbolized by a school desk and chair.
** [[FlowerMotifs Ray is represented by daffodils.]]
** [[AnimalMotifs Mr. Chang is represented by deer]], [[spoiler:like the pendant he gave her]].
* MultipleEndings: There's a good ending and a bad ending. In the bad ending, [[spoiler:it's revealed that Fang's spirit is trapped in a never-ending cycle of guilt, and constantly relives her pain, misery, and eventual suicide]]. In the good ending, [[spoiler:we find out that Wei has been released from prison under the post-martial law amnesty, and returns to the now-abandoned school, where he's seemingly reunited with Ray's spirit]].
* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler:What Ray intended to do by ratting out the book club. While she probably didn't actually intend for Ms. Yin to die, she definitely thought that Ms. Yin was her rival for Mr. Chang ([[PoorCommunicationKills due to overhearing out of context their conversation about the forbidden book club they were both part of and how Mr. Chang would be putting Ray in danger by continuing his relationship with her]]) and [[RemovingTheRival intended to get rid of her]] by setting the authorities on her. Unfortunately, it [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong]], resulting in Ms. Yin fleeing the country and eventually dying in exile, Wei being imprisoned, and many others, including Mr. Chang, being executed.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Ray after her snitching resulted in her friend Wei being arrested, friendly teacher Ms. Yin being exiled, and her crush Mr. Chang executed. It [[DrivenToSuicide drove her to suicide]].]]
* NeverMyFault: [[spoiler:Ray has this attitude while running around the school, especially when Ms. Yin shows up. Whether she gets over it or not is up to the player.]]
-->"Shut up! If you were gone none of this would have happened!"
* NoAntagonist: Instructor Bai, the closest thing the game has to a BigBad, only actually features in one scene in the beginning. The main gameplay is Ray solving puzzles and attempting to get through the school [[spoiler:and come to terms with her guilt]].
* NobodyHereButUsStatues: While Ray isn't pretending to be one, she has to stay perfectly still and hold her breath [[DontLookAtMe without looking at the lantern spectres]] to avoid their attention.
* NothingIsScarier: At one point, you'll be chased by a giant shadow, but you never get a good look at it other than its silhouette.
* OldSchoolBuilding: The game takes place in a haunted school.
* OnlyFriend: [[spoiler:It is implied that Wei was this to Ray, as she felt remorse and guilt for unwittingly getting him arrested along with others.]]
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Most of the ghosts in the game can be sneaked past without their attention by holding your breath.
** The Lingered are female ghosts that make creepy noises and disturbing giggles. They are shown to teleport randomly and attack by scratching you. They can even arch their back in impossible angles when chasing you. Laying out food offerings can distract them for a moment, giving you a chance to safely sneak past them.
** Lantern Specters are giant ghosts that carry a lantern and patrol the area. You have to [[DontLookAtMe turn your back towards them]] and hold your breath at the same time when they will lower their heads to check on you. If you are detected by them, they will grab you up and strangle you to death.
** Then there's the giant, multi-armed shadowy ghost that pursues Ray at one point in the game. In this case, there's nothing else to do but run.
* OurTimeTravelIsDifferent: Ray, near the end, can jump through different timelines depending on the frequency of the radio. The first time is Ray's early, happy life, while the second is her life ''after'' her family situation's gone to pot.
* OverlyLongTongue: Both of the Hei Bau Wu Chang (Black and White Impermanence) show their long tongues in the picture. However, at the door, only the white one has his tongue out. The Lantern Specters have them as well, though the illustration doesn't show them with one.
* PatrollingMook: Remember to hold your breath and don't look at the Lantern Specters when you meet them.
* PerpetualStorm: Wei wakes up to a typhoon warning, and the typhoon continues throughout the game. [[spoiler:It's sunny during the modern-day sequences.]]
* PoorCommunicationKills: Ray overhearing a vague and out-of-context conversation and not confronting anyone about it is what set off the whole plot. [[spoiler:She thought that it was Ms. Yin persuading Mr. Chang to break up with Ray because he was in a relationship with Ms. Yin, so she betrayed Ms. Yin's book club, intending to get back with Mr. Chang when Ms. Yin was out of the way. The conversation was ''actually'' about how Mr. Chang was putting Ray in danger by seeing her, since it associated her with the forbidden book club that Ms. Yin helmed and Mr. Chang supplied, and her betrayal ended up killing Mr. Chang, making Ms. Yin an exile, and getting the rest of the book club arrested.]]
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The game has an interesting selection of real songs as its BackgroundMusic. Rather notably, many of them were banned songs during the White Terror era.
** The first track the 8 track player plays is the rewinded version of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPiPgvZjNtg Taiwanese Flag Song]].
** The second track in the 8 track player is the older version of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGMUgGAt2Nw National Gymnastic Excercise]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qflbyptHSlQ "The Torment of the Flower"(雨夜花)]] is the final song played by the 8 track player [[spoiler:and the solution for the piano puzzle]]. A middle aged man, [[spoiler: who is revealed to be Wei,]] also plays this song on the piano. The song was banned by the government because of its melodramatic tones.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INiQrIUvcTU "Bāng Chhun-hong"(望春風)]] is the first song to be played on the radio.
** The second song played by the radio is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1P_B-rq-eI 四季紅]]. The name of the song would be "Four Seasons Red" if literally translated.
* ThePianoPlayer:
** You play a melody of 雨夜花 to complete the piano puzzle [[spoiler:that unlocks the hand puppet in the cage]].
** An middle-aged man [[spoiler:(Wei)]] plays a part of 雨夜花 before disappearing.
* PiggyBank: Ray has a ceramic piggy bank in her room. When she switches timelines through the radio, it gets broken to pieces. [[spoiler:If she drops a coin in it in the first timeline, a movie ticket appears in the remains of the piggy bank in the second.]]
* {{Poltergeist}}: [[spoiler:Poltergeist activity will appear in the dining room after Ray has finished observing her family portraits.]]
* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Shows and songs broadcasted by the 8-track player or radio are either in Mandarin or Taiwanese, so the foreign may have trouble understanding the reference and meaning behind them due to the lack of translation.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Ms Yin [[spoiler:created the book club so that she could help her students develop their own independent thinking and pursue knowledge freely as they wish, all the while warning them the risks of joining the club should it be exposed]].
** [[spoiler:She even calls out Mr. Chang on [[TeacherStudentRomance his relationship with Ray]], warning him that he would not only endanger those involved in the book club, but also Ray due to his affiliation to the book club and that the relationship would not be socially accepted. Unfortunately, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Ray overheard their conversation]] and [[PoorCommunicationKills interpreted it as meaning that Mr. Chang and Ms. Yin were in a relationship with each other]], leading her to [[RemovingTheRival try to get rid of Ms. Yin]] by [[TheStoolPigeon selling out the book club]]. The results were… catastrophic.]]
* TheReveal: The middle-aged man in the striped shirt that can be seen lurking around the school in the later parts of the game is [[spoiler:the now adult Wei, having been released from prison, and returned to his old school. He's the one who is still alive; Ray is the one who is actually a ghost]].
** It's a bit staggered, but here's the main reveal: [[spoiler:The cast was involved in a group that secretly read literature that was [[BannedInChina outlawed by the government]], and were all exposed when Ray betrayed Ms. Yin out of jealousy. Ms. Yin fled Taiwan and eventually died abroad from lung cancer. Mr. Chang was executed for crimes against the state, and Wei was imprisoned for 15 years. Ray killed herself out of guilt.]]
* RiversOfBlood: While trying to leave the school, Wei and Ray discover that the bridge leading out has been swept away by a torrent of what looks like blood. Wei rationalizes that it's probably chemical runoff from the factories upstream. [[spoiler:It reappears in the Bad Ending when Ray refuses to remember her sin, and this time bodies of her schoolmates are floating in it, symbolizing how her actions killed many people.]]
* RoomFullOfCrazy: At one point, you'll enter a room where someone has scribbled Buddha's name all over the walls, presumably as protection. A more subdued variant is the screening room where the big blackboard is filled with the word "Snitcher".
* SavePoint: There are several altars scattered throughout the game, and praying at them saves the game. Ray feels blessed after she prays.
* SixIsNine: Does anyone wonder why Ray's parents portraits are flipped? [[spoiler:It turns out to be a clue for a clock puzzle.]]
* SlashedThroat: [[spoiler:At one point, you have to slash the dead Wei's throat and collect his blood. The blood is used to reveal a hidden code scratched on a bench.]]
* SpookyPainting: A potrait of Ray [[spoiler:will weep pink glow-in-the-dark tears]] when you turn off the light. Considering that her image and that of her parents are eyeless except for a occasional flash where they stare at you, the pictures are spooky no matter the light setting.
* SuddenlyVoiced: [[spoiler:In the Good Ending, the last written quote of the game is spoken by Ray in Mandarin.]]
-->'''[[spoiler:Ray]]:''' [[spoiler:Daffodils dyed by a river of crimson blood. Decaying, rustlike into the void.]]
* SurrealHorror: ''Oh'' yes. [[spoiler:Justified since it's taking place in Purgatory, not the real world.]]
* TeacherStudentRomance: [[spoiler:It's heavily implied that Ray was romantically involved with Mr. Chang, the school counselor, while he was helping her deal with her bad home life. Even after her counselling sessions ended and by extension, their relationship, Mr. Chang seems to genuinely care for Ray in the Good Ending (though it is ultimately left ambiguous whether or not he actually did return her romantic feelings towards him). His final words sound as if he confesses that he broke up with her because he feared for her life, not because he didn't love her.]]
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: [[spoiler:Ray is left staring in her hands in horror when she sees her fellow students being arrested, to say nothing of the realization that her tattling killed Mr. Chang.]]
* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:Ray is DeadToBeginWith, and condemned to Purgatory because of her sin of [[TheStoolPigeon selling out the book club]] for her own selfish reasons.]]
* UnexpectedlyAbandoned: When Wei wakes up, the entire school is empty.
* UnreliableNarrator: [[spoiler:Due to the story being told from Ray's perspective, it opens quite a lot of questions regarding the nature of her [[TeacherStudentRomance relationship with Mr. Chang]]. While Mr. Chang clearly did care for her, it is somewhat ambiguous whether or not he actually did reciprocate her romantic feelings towards him.]]
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: The broadcast room has a very creepy tree with human faces somehow growing in one of its corners, but Ray either ignores or doesn't notice the faces when investigating the tree itself.
* WeaksauceWeakness: The main way of avoiding the ghosts and spirits that lurk around is ''holding your breath'', though this is harder than it sounds because you can only hold it for a finite amount of time and the ghosts move slowly.
* WhamLine: [[IronicEcho A certain line from the telephone is repeated near the end of the game.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Instructor Bai:''' Miss Fang, your country appreciates your assistance.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:Ray selfishly betrayed the secret book club to the government so she could be with Mr. Chang, causing the deaths of her teacher, counselor, and so many of her classmates. Those who remained angrily called her a "snitch" for it, and her Purgatory never ceases to remind her of her sins with "Snitch" carved all over the walls.]]
* WitchHunt: The White Terror era of Taiwan — the backdrop of the game — amounted to this, much like the RedScare going on in America at the same time… except much, much worse.
* WomanScorned:
** [[spoiler:Ray's mother hired a [[PrivateDetective PI]] to investigate her husband under suspicion that he was having an affair. When she found evidence, she had her husband arrested on the charges of bribery and corruption.]]
** [[spoiler:Her daughter would soon follow her example, only for her to regret it once her betrayal had much more dire consequences for her teacher and friends other than arrest.]]
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Ray is this to Mr. Chang. He was her LivingEmotionalCrutch, so when she thought he was seeing Ms. Yin (he wasn't; they were discussing how Ray could be in danger because of his association with Ms. Yin's forbidden book club), she sold out the book club to the to the government, presumably hoping that Ms. Yin would be arrested. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone She regretted it when the consequences turned out to be much more severe than she anticipated]].]]
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:Ms. Yin managed to flee the country, escaping arrest and possibly execution, but in the process became blacklisted. She couldn't return to her country and spent the rest of her life abroad as a social rights activist until she passed away. After the martial law has been abolished, her remains were allowed to give a proper burial in her home country as per her last wish.]]
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[[caption-width-right:350:If a paper plane could whisk my dreams away from here...]]
->''Where did Ms. Yin go..?''
''Detention'' is a Taiwanese independent horror game developed by Red Candle Games, and released on January 12, 2017. A 2D [[PointAndClickGame point-and-click]] side-scroller, ''Detention'' is set in 1960s Taiwan [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror_(Taiwan) during its period of martial law]], and begins with bored second-year high school student Wei Chung Ting falling asleep during a history lecture. While Wei sleeps, class is interrupted by the school's JROTC officer, who pulls aside the teacher, Ms. Yin, to ask about a list in his possession.
Some time later, Wei awakens to find the classroom deserted, with a hasty message saying "typhoon warning" scribbled on the blackboard. Surely enough, a nasty storm is brewing outside the windows, and the school has been evacuated. Rushing to get home and beat the downpour, he encounters senior student Fang Ray Shin in the auditorium on his way out, and they agree to leave school together. But after a horrible incident, the school begins warping itself in strange ways, and hostile spirits called the Lingered appear.
The studio's second game, titled ''VideoGame/{{Devotion}}'', was released on February 19, 2019, and is a vast narrative, stylistic, and mechanical departure from its predecessor. A film of the game was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yR9RCWBhqY&feature=youtu.be released]] on September 20, 2019.
A series based on the game was released on Creator/{{Netflix}} in 2020.
Not to be confused with the [[WesternAnimation/{{Detention}} cartoon]] or [[Film/{{Detention}} movie]] that share the name.
----
!!This game has examples of the following tropes:
* AchievementMockery: Attempting to dial 911 on the phone nets you an achievement titled "What made you think this would work?"
* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: The fact that the Lingered can bend their backs in a perfect 90 degree angle makes it clear that they definitely aren't humans.
* AbusiveParents: Ray's home life isn't the greatest. Her family initially started loving until her parents started to fight, her father becoming physically violent towards her mother and a heavy drinker while her mother became [[ParentalNeglect distant and neglectful to Ray]]. It was bad enough that it affected Ray's life at school and her mental health, and she needed to see the school counselor. [[spoiler: One night when her father came home drunk, Ray noticed the faint smell of powdered make-up around him.]]
* ActionSurvivor: Ray, a normal high school student that has to face supernatural threats that lurk around the campus.
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Ray's betrayal of the forbidden book club. She meant for it to separate Ms. Yin and Mr. Chang so she could date Mr. Chang again... but unbeknownst to her, Mr. Chang was ''supplying'' the forbidden book club, and so was executed, and Ray took her own life out of guilt.]]
* ArcWords: "Snitcher". [[spoiler:It's later revealed that this is what Ray's classmates would call her [[WhatTheHellHero after betraying the secret book club for selfish reasons]].]]
* AssimilationAcademy: The school has turned into this, drilling the students with anti-communist propaganda. The forbidden book club was Ms. Yin's attempt to counteract that, and Mr. Chang helped her by providing her with material.
* BigBad: The Lingered, spirits that haunt the school, are the main enemies of the game, [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss for the first half]]]]. [[spoiler:Afterwards, Instructor Bai Guo Fong, the radically anti-communist government supporter, is revealed as the one who had the secret book club arrested after Ray herself busted them, causing her to kill herself out of guilt. Ray's spirit becoming trapped in Purgatory can ultimately be traced back to him.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:In the Good Ending, Ray's finally able to accept and remember her sin, no longer repeating the endless nightmare, while in the present, the martial law has been abolished and an older Wei is released, returning to the now abandoned school where he seemingly reunites with Ray's spirit. However, Ray's forever cursed to wander, barred from Heaven and Hell, and Wei still lost half of his life because of Ray's actions and most of his loved ones and teachers are long dead.]]
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: The school gradually turns into this, with all manner of strange things happening to the surroundings, and your movement around the levels make little sense. [[spoiler:Justified since it's not the real school, but a ghostly representation of Ray's guilt and trauma. The actual school, which has rather normal architecture, has been abandoned for years by the time of the epilogue.]]
* BookBurning: [[spoiler:At one point, Ray sees Wei and another classmate burning the outlawed books in an attempt to hide the evidence from Inspector Bai. It's not enough, because Ray still had the list of books, and used that to rat out the book club.]]
* BookEnds: The game begins with Wei in his classroom, then finding Ray in the middle of the auditorium. [[spoiler:In the Bad Ending, Ray returns to the center of the auditorium to hang herself (before [[GroundhogDayLoop the cycle starts over]]). In the Good Ending, Wei returns to his classroom 30 years later and reunites with Ray.]]
* BreakHerHeartToSaveHer: [[spoiler:Aside from improvement in her mental health, it is implied that Mr. Chang ended his relationship with Ray because Ms. Yin advised him that he would risk putting her in danger due to him being part of the book club. [[{{Deconstruction}} This ends badly for Ray, Mr. Chang, and Ms. Yin.]]]]
* BreakTheCutie: The White Terror was ''not'' a pleasant time to be living around 1960s Taiwan. As shown by our two central characters:
** Wei was a normal student in Greenwood High [[spoiler:who was arrested and taken away from his mother by officers due to being a member of the secret book club that Ray told Instructor Bai about. While he was only given 15 years of imprisonment, his life was still stolen from him. His mother died while he was in prison, his school's counselor was executed along with possibly some of his classmates and schoolmates, Ms. Yin fled and died abroad, and he heard of Ray's suicide. By the time he was released, he lost all his loved ones, the school he went to is abandoned, and much of his life is destroyed, wasted because he was outed as a reader of forbidden books by a close friend]].
** Ray watched as her once loving family became broken up, affecting her daily life at school, and [[spoiler:witnessed her mother turn her father to the police for bribery once she learned of his affair]]. She received emotional support from Mr. Chang, who helped her with her family problems, [[spoiler:who she has heavily implied to have fallen in love with]], and when the counseling sessions came to an end, [[spoiler:her relationship with him ended as well, nearly making her fall once again into depression]]. She soon becomes [[spoiler:jealous of Ms. Yin and. seeing her as a rival for Mr. Chang, revealed the book club's existence to Instructor Bai to get rid of her]]. However, in doing so, [[spoiler:[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she accidentally ruined the lives of her teachers and classmates, including her friend Wei, and sentenced Mr. Chang to death]]. [[KillTheCutie She then took her own life]] [[DrivenToSuicide out of guilt]]]].
* BrokenAce: Prior to her broken family life, Ray was a promising student who performed academically well and participated in many school activities, earning the respect of her peers. However, her life at home soon affected her school life, [[AllTheOtherReindeer making her an outcast]] and falling into depression.
* BrokenBird: Ray. [[spoiler:It ends badly for her.]]
* ChekhovsGun:
** In the prologue, Instructor Bai inquires Ms. Yin about a list he has. [[spoiler:The list is revealed to be an order of outlawed books for Ms. Yin's secret book club that Wei had given to Ray when she asked for materials for reading, which she later gave to Inspector Bai when selling out Ms. Yin out of jealousy. It's even shaped as a gun when the player receives it with the description explaining that it could get "rid" of whoever she dislikes. Ray shows the paper to Mrs. Yin while her reflection points a gun at Mr. Chang.]]
* ChokeHolds: The Lantern Specters [[spoiler:and the hanging ragdolls by the furnace]] use this method to kill.
* CoolTeacher: Ms. Yin is well-liked by her students, who worry about her whenever she has to take leave and dislike the substitutes. She encourages her students to be able to express themselves and learn freely in knowledge and self-actualization — so much so that she [[spoiler:even created a secret book club that allows students to read forbidden books that will help them think independently, even warning her students the risks should they join]]. Ms. Yin had also praised Ray's paper and given her words of encouragement, [[spoiler:which makes Ray's betrayal all the more sad]].
** Mr. Chang shares Ms. Yin's belief that people should have the freedom of choice and self-actualization, even [[spoiler:helping out in her secret book club by smuggling prohibited books]].
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: [[spoiler:Had Ray not tried to use the government to break up Mr. Chang and Ms. Yin, or had at least ''talked to Mr. Chang'' about their alleged relationship, Ms. Yin wouldn't have been exiled, Mr. Chang wouldn't have died, the book club members wouldn't have had their lives ruined, and Ray herself wouldn't have committed suicide and wouldn't be in Purgatory.]]
* CrapsackWorld: 1960s Taiwan is ''not'' a fun place to live. Oppressive authoritarian government under an [[UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek iron-fisted dictator]], censorship, brutal anti-communist laws[[note]]consider [[WitchHunt Senator McCarthy's policies in America]] [[RedScare at around the same time]], then exaggerate them to the point of flagrant disregard for human rights, and you have the gist of what was going on[[/note]], the second-longest period of martial law in history, it just doesn't stop. The strange DarkWorld [[spoiler:a.k.a. Ray's Purgatory]] that the school turns into is even worse, what with being an EldritchLocation and the home of the Lingered and Lantern Spectres.
* CreepyDoll: There's an entire room full of them in the second half of the game, and you have to find two of them for a puzzle.
* DarkAndTroubledPast:
** It is implied that Mr. Chang's past was "complicated" as it is mentioned that all his siblings are dead. Which was why [[BirdsOfAFeather he was able to understand Ray's problems at home and gave her the emotional support she needed]]. [[spoiler:It is implied it evolved into [[TeacherStudentRomance more than just counseling]].]]
** Ray also has one. Her family was initially loving, but when her parents started to fight, the situation slowly slipped into the gutter and they eventually became neglectful and abusive to Ray. Despite being a model student, she eventually became so troubled that she needed to see the counselor. She improved with Mr. Chang as her LivingEmotionalCrutch… but when he broke off their relationship (because he was afraid to connect her to the forbidden book club that he was involved in), she didn't take it well. [[spoiler:She thought that it was because he was in a relationship with Ms. Yin (founder of the forbidden book club) and [[TheStoolPigeon ratted the club out to the authorities]] [[RemovingTheRival to get Ms. Yin out of the way]]. She got Ms. Yin out of the way, [[GoneHorriblyRight all right]]… when she was forced to flee the country to avoid imprisonment or execution along with the rest of the book club. However, Mr. Chang, who didn't have Ms. Yin's connections, could not flee and ended up being executed. Ray took her own life out of guilt, and became trapped in a purgatory resembling her school until she could atone for her sin. Cue the events of the game, where she can either refuse to accept her sin and repeat the whole experience, or come to terms with it and escape.]]
** By the time of the epilogue, Wei has one. [[spoiler:He was a normal student who secretly participated in a club for forbidden books. He gave the list of what books they had to his friend Ray for safekeeping — unaware that Ray was jealous of the book club's leader Ms. Yin and would use the list to set the government on her. [[GoneHorriblyWrong Along with getting rid of Ms. Yin]], Ray revealing the book club led to Wei being arrested and spending fifteen years (until martial law was lifted) in prison. He got out, but much of his life and youth was destroyed, and as far as we know, he's the SoleSurvivor of the club.]]
* ADarkerMe: A shadowy version of Ray appears near the end of the game, and asks Ray questions. Ray's answers to these questions determine what ending she gets. [[spoiler:She's implied to represent Ray's guilt and sin. Answering her correctly each time results in Ray accepting her guilt and being able to move on.]]
-->'''Shadow Ray:''' I, am you. Yet you, are not me.\\
'''Shadow Ray:''' ''(after a correct answer)'' You... are me.
* DarkWorld: Well, ''darker'', given that the main school is already pretty freaky. You visit one late in the game, and you're required to switch between it and the regular world to bypass certain obstacles. It's even more surreal than the main game world.
* DeadAllAlong: The majority of the characters, [[spoiler:including Ray herself]], have been dead for years. [[spoiler:Only Wei is still alive.]]
* DeadToBeginWith: [[spoiler:Ray committed suicide prior to the game's beginning, and the events of the game are Ray stuck in purgatory, trying to remember and atone for her sin.]]
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:When her counseling sessions came to an end, and by extension, her relationship with Mr. Chang, Ray fell into depression once again, describing herself as a "walking corpse". She permanently crosses this and committed suicide after her betrayal not only led to the arrest of her friends, but also Mr. Chang's death.]]
* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler:Wei]] isn't the main character, [[spoiler:Ray]] is. [[spoiler:You only control Wei for the very early parts of the game, and one of the endings.]]
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The visual aesthetics and characters are stylized to resemble black and white photography, especially since the game takes place in 1960's Taiwan. [[spoiler:Or rather, [[MonochromePast repeated past memories of Ray's sin as she forever wanders Purgatory]]. And when an older Wei returns to his old school after being released, Wei and the school are no longer monochrome, signifying the present.]]
** One notable flashback is not only in color, but in vivid, dreamlike neons — [[spoiler:it was the recollection of a movie date Ray has with Chang, probably to demonstrate how she felt like being around him brought her world back to life]].
* DeliciousDistraction: Laying down food offerings can be used to bait the Lingered. While they are busy eating their meals, it makes it easier for Ray to sneak past them.
* DirtyCommunists: Due to [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors the conflict with mainland China]], and being set during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, the KMT government [[note]]the centre-right and authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party, who ruled China and fought against Imperial Japan until they were defeated by the Chinese Communists in the civil war and fled to Taiwan[[/note]] has this stance. At the school, the most fervent anti-communist is Instructor Bai, who is a civil war veteran. Needless to say, there is an ongoing WitchHunt, and the main characters are on the ass end of it.
* DisappearedDad: Ray's alcoholic father was eventually arrested for bribery and corruption. [[spoiler:It is implied that [[WomanScorned Ray's mother turned him in as retaliation]] for his cheating and [[DomesticAbuse abuse]].]]
* DisneyAcidSequence: The section where you use your movie tickets. It is perhaps the most colorful place in the entire game with signs of many Taiwanese foods and pop culture references during that time in the background.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:In the Bad Ending, Ray still refuses to remember and come to terms with her sin and tries to [[DrivenToSuicide hang herself]], but the scene flashes to the present before she can do so, repeating the endless nightmare once more.]]
* TheDreaded: Instructor Bai. The student body fears him and some don't dare to speak his full name.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Ray, after she [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realizes exactly what she's done]] by selling out the book club.]]
* EldritchLocation: Wei and Ray are trapped in something that resembles their school where the Lingers wander around, complete with nightmarish imagery and a giant shadow. [[spoiler:It is actually Ray's purgatory, and represents her guilt over selling out the book club. As long as she refuses to accept responsibility for her sin, she will wander it in a GroundhogDayLoop forever.]]
* EnterSolutionHere:
** A three-digit combination lock uses Bagua trigrams as its symbols. Even if you already know the answer or how to decipher the trigrams, you still need to the guide to unlock it.
** There is a piano puzzle that needs you to play the exact melody of [[spoiler:"The Torment of a Flower" (雨夜花)]], as heard on an eight-track tape. ''For anyone who is tone deaf, beware.''
* EscapeSequence: After you reach the counselor’s office, [[spoiler:a giant being with a sack on its back will chase you across a seemingly endless hallway until you find a white door to escape]].
* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler:Wei and Ray were close friends at school. Wei trusted her enough to give her Ms. Yin's list for the book club, only for Ray to betray him and turn the list over to Instructor Bai, which resulted in Wei being imprisoned for fifteen years. Ray regretted it immensely, as she never intended for Wei to get caught in the crossfire.]]
* EvilIsNotAToy: Totalitarianism is ''not'' a toy, [[spoiler:Ray]]. There's a WitchHunt going on, so the government won't just come in, [[spoiler:arrest Ms. Yin]], and leave. They'll [[spoiler:arrest everyone you care about and sentence the man you loved to death]] while they're at it.
* EvilPhone: The phone in the principal's office. [[spoiler:It's implied to either represent Instructor Bai or a metaphor to Ray's snitching, or even both. It also features a quick JumpScare in its first use.]]
* EyeOpen: [[spoiler:After you have collected Wei's blood from his cut throat, his eyes will suddenly open for a brief moment. Just when you go in to check on him, they're closed again.]]
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:In the Good Ending, when the military police arrive to arrest Mr. Chang due to his affiliation with the book club, he knows [[KnowWhenToFoldEm he won't able to escape easily this time]] and accepts his inevitable death, joining with his dead brothers and sisters.]]
* FootprintsOfMuck: This is a puzzle in where you [[spoiler:have to pour a pink glow-in-the-dark liquid into a puddle to follow ghostly footprints through a maze of doors]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** If you pay close attention, the Lingered are [[spoiler:actually a hint to Ray being dead from the very beginning. This is because the Lingered are pretty much hungry ghosts; ghosts that have no one to remember them or pray for them, and thus are doomed to be always hungry. Ray was buried in an unmarked grave, forgotten. That is why the Lingered looked like her, and why they are distracted by food. The Lingered are Ray]].
** Wei sees a flyer [[WitchHunt that encourages students to rat out potential communist supporters to Inspector Bai]] and proclaims that informants would be greatly rewarded. [[spoiler:Ray took him up on that offer and sold out the secret book club to Instructor Bai [[RemovingTheRival due to her jealousy towards Ms. Yin]]. In the Bad Ending, she is seen walking up the school hall's stage to receive her reward — [[DrivenToSuicide a noose]].]]
** In one of the early puzzles, Ray has to slice open Wei's throat to get his blood. [[spoiler:Ray's actions in real life resulted in Wei being imprisoned for 15 years, essentially destroying his youth.]]
** The word "Snitcher" is seen multiple times scrawled on the background, [[spoiler:calling out Ray for betraying the forbidden book club to the government]].
** One door early on is painted with Taoist symbols, and Ray can't open it without paint remover to rub out the symbols. [[spoiler:The symbols ward against ghosts, and Ray cannot enter because she's DeadToBeginWith.]]
** When Ray looks at herself in the bathroom mirror, her reflection will ask her if she's "forgotten… or just too afraid to remember?" [[spoiler:Ray has been repressing her memories of what actually happened to the school because she's afraid to deal with her guilt over causing the Forbidden Book Club to be arrested.]]
** During the Red House segment, Ray comes across an unmarked grave in the auditorium and it seems to be [[spoiler:Wei's]]. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed that after Ray committed suicide, she was buried in an unmarked grave, and in Taoism belief, committing a misdeed or not being given a proper burial results in the person's spirit being trapped in Purgatory and forced to eternally experience their sins.]]
** At one point, you'll see a figure on the roof of the school, who jumps off the railing before you can get a good look at her. [[spoiler: It's Ray herself.]]
** At one point in the game, Ray has to collect two puppets for a puppet play — the Inspector Puppet and the Hooded Puppet. When she puts them onstage, the Inspector Puppet will execute the Hooded Puppet, also killing another puppet dangling upside down between them. [[spoiler:This is basically what Ray's actions in snitching about the book club led to — the central government executed the leaders of the book club and destroyed the lives of its members in the crossfire. Notably, the dangling puppet is quite reminiscent of how Wei's body hangs upside-down in the auditorium.]]
** When Ray sees a memory of her [[spoiler:having a meeting with Wei regarding the book club]], she asks [[spoiler:Wei about the relationship between Ms. Yin and Mr. Chang]]. [[spoiler:This hints that Wei encountering Ray in the game wasn't their first meeting, as well as her relationship with Mr. Chang and her jealousy towards Ms. Yin, which resulted in her betrayal.]]
** When Ray receives the book list and meets Ms. Yin in the mirror room, [[spoiler:the book list is shaped like a gun in your inventory and in Ray's reflection, and Ms. Yin's reflection is that of a man with his face covered by a hood. At the end of the confrontation, Real!Ray will curl up in a ball, while Reflection!Ray will shoot the hooded man]]. [[spoiler:The mirror is reflecting how Ray used the book list as a weapon, and it wasn't Ms. Yin that said weapon ultimately killed — it was Mr. Chang. Additionally, the mirror presents a direct reference to [[WitchHunt the White Terror itself]], with victims hooded and executed in prison.]]
* FlashStep: The Lingered may occasionally cross short distances at a whim.
* FlowerMotifs: Daffodils. They represent prosperity and good luck, but also [[{{Pride}} vanity]] and oftentimes, death. [[spoiler:Ray's betrayal was motivated by her own selfishness and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero indirectly caused the deaths of her counselor and a majority of her schoolmates]], causing her to commit suicide out of remorse.]]
* FluorescentFootprints: Pouring a glass of pink fluorescent liquid reveals footprints that will help Ray navigate through the room filled with MagicalMysteryDoors once you turn off the lights.
* {{GASP}}: Ray always makes a big gasp when a large enemy is approaching, like the Lantern Specters [[spoiler:or the shadow figure]].
* GenreShift: After [[spoiler:the confrontation with Ms. Yin]], the spooky Taiwanese mythology references and monsters largely vanish, being replaced with a surreal sequence of flashbacks exploring Ray's past, [[spoiler:and how she came to be in the monster-filled school to begin with — it's her purgatory, after she killed herself out of guilt for selling out Ms. Yin and the book club]]. The Bad Ending returns to the supernatural aspects, while the Good Ending focuses more on the character-driven aspects.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: [[spoiler:Ray just wanted to get Ms. Yin out of the way so she could keep up her romantic relationship with Mr. Chang, but her actions in telling Inspector Bai about Ms. Yin's book club ended up ruining the lives of pretty much everyone Ray knew — Wei was imprisoned for fifteen years, only being granted his freedom with the lifting of martial law in 1987, Ms. Yin was forced to flee the country (she eventually died in exile), and while the rest of the book club isn't revealed, they likely had a similar fate to Wei. The only confirmed [[KilledOffForReal hard casualty]] of this action? Mr. Chang, the person Ray did it for in the first place.]]
* GravityScrew: Ray's parents can be seen sleeping on the wall in their bed when we enter their room.
* GreaterScopeVillain: [[UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek The president/general of Taiwan]] at the time. He doesn't actually show up in person, but a statue of him is a recurring background element and Ray will comment about [[BigBrotherIsWatching feeling watched]] when inspecting it.
* GroundhogDayLoop: [[spoiler:Ray's purgatory involves her endlessly repeating the last days of the Forbidden Book Club in a supernatural version of her school, unless she can come to terms with her guilt.]]
* GuideDangIt: [[spoiler:Getting the GoldenEnding requires you to answer four cryptic multiple choice questions correctly at the end of the game. There really isn't any indication what the expected answers are or that this dialogue is more than just FlavorText. You'll almost certainly see the DownerEnding first. Thankfully, replaying the last chapter is quick and easy.]]
* HauntedTechnology: The game makes liberal use of the kind of 60's tech you might find in a high school at the time, such as a rotary phone, an 8-track player, a movie projector, etc.
* HellIsThatNoise: The cackling and screeching made by the Lingered.
* HintSystem: Whenever Ray dies, she ends up in an area with an old woman walking around. If Ray stays close to the woman, she will receive a vague hint on how to deal with what had killed her.
* HumanSacrifice: One of the clues mentions it, but the requirements for the victim differs from each language. You need to sacrifice the innocent in the English version; however in Chinese you need to sacrifice a young boy to reveal a prophecy. [[spoiler:Regardless of language, both them hint that you have to slit Wei's throat to finish the puzzle.]]
* IfICantHaveYou: [[spoiler:The reason Ray betrayed Ms. Yin and Mr. Chang to the government is because Chang ended their romance. Unfortunately, this also means that she unintentionally ruined the lives of everyone else in the book club, including her friend Wei. Ray also didn't intend for Mr. Chang to be killed, but, well, see EvilIsNotAToy above.]]
* ImpairmentShot: Ray can't hold her breath forever, and holding it for too long causes the scene to appear fuzzy.
* InSeriesNickname: Fang Ray Shin prefers to be called Ray in the English version. In the Chinese version, she simply states [[FirstNameBasis that it would be more natural to call each other by their first name]] instead of their full name.
* InvisibleWall: Walking off the stage is impossible and you're stopped at the edges of the spotlight, after accepting [[spoiler:the noose]] in the Bad Ending.
* InvisibleWriting: There's a message scratched into one of the school benches, but it's illegible. To reveal it, you need [[spoiler:Wei's blood]].
* ItsAllAboutMe: Ray is a perfectly OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent… who [[spoiler:snitches on her classmates and teachers, getting many of them killed and ruining the remaining survivor's lives, all out of petty jealousy]]. Whether she [[NeverMyFault keeps]] this attitude [[HeelRealization or not]] is up to the player.
* JumpScare: More subtle compared to other horror games, but they're still there:
** [[spoiler:There's a brief shot of a NightmareFace when Rei hangs up the principal's phone.]]
** [[spoiler:Ray's reflection in the mirror smiling and twitching her head around, causing the mirror to break.]]
** [[spoiler:Successfully completing the piano puzzle results in a whole audience of applauding ghosts showing up from nowhere.]]
** [[spoiler:Playing with a broken light switch in one of the Red House's corridors will trigger a Lantern Specter to spawn right next to Ray so it can turn it on.]]
* KnightTemplar: Instructor Bai is a ''fervent'' anti-communist hardliner, and harshly enforces the government's anti-communist policies, no matter who breaks them. [[spoiler:Even Ms. Yin, Mr. Chang, and Wei as well as anyone else involved in the book club.]]
* LastNameBasis: Wei Chung Ting is often referred by his surname from Ray and throughout the game.
* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: A sample of the song 雨夜花 will keep playing until you reach the piano after you set the broadcasting tape on the final track.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Mr. Chang was this to Ray. [[spoiler:When he ended their relationship, she became determined to keep her anchor to life, even going so far as to rat out Ms. Yin's book club to get rid of her.]] Unbeknownst to her, [[spoiler:he was helping out with the club, and her betrayal resulted in one of the people she cared about getting killed]].
* TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack: When Ray looks into the mirror in the girls' bathroom and hopes her current situation is AllJustADream, her reflection will smile, glitch out, and ask her a question:
-->'''Ray's Reflection:''' Forgotten… or just too afraid to remember?
* MindScrew: The game eventually becomes this after [[spoiler:Wei seemingly dies]]. This also extends to whenever the environment suddenly changes without warning.
* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: At one point, Ray will have a confrontation with Ms. Yin in front of a mirror. In the mirror, Ray will instead point a gun at a hooded man. [[spoiler:What's happening in the main game is what Rei ''thought'' she was doing with her snitching, while the mirror is showing what ''actually'' occurred. Instead of Ms. Yin being forced to stop pursuing Mr. Chang (which she wasn't actually doing in the first place), most of the book club were executed (like Mr. Chang) or imprisoned until martial law ended (like Wei).]]
* MoodWhiplash: [[spoiler:The Good Ending abruptly changes the mood from the rest of the game's overwhelming horror to a sense of melancholy and sadness.]]
* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse, this is the reason for the events of the game happening. [[spoiler:Ray crossed it when she sold out the book club in a [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish attempt]] to MurderTheHypotenuse… except Ms. Yin wasn't even having an affair with Mr. Chang, which rendered the horrific selfishness of Ray's act completely pointless. The situation seen in-game is Ray suffering in Purgatory as punishment for her guilt (and her refusal to admit it).]]
* {{Motif}}:
** Ray and Mr. Chang's relationship is symbolized by paper airplanes. [[spoiler:In the Good Ending, Ray finds a yellowed paper airplane with a farewell message from Mr. Chang.]]
** Ray and Wei's relationship is symbolized by a school desk and chair.
** [[FlowerMotifs Ray is represented by daffodils.]]
** [[AnimalMotifs Mr. Chang is represented by deer]], [[spoiler:like the pendant he gave her]].
* MultipleEndings: There's a good ending and a bad ending. In the bad ending, [[spoiler:it's revealed that Fang's spirit is trapped in a never-ending cycle of guilt, and constantly relives her pain, misery, and eventual suicide]]. In the good ending, [[spoiler:we find out that Wei has been released from prison under the post-martial law amnesty, and returns to the now-abandoned school, where he's seemingly reunited with Ray's spirit]].
* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler:What Ray intended to do by ratting out the book club. While she probably didn't actually intend for Ms. Yin to die, she definitely thought that Ms. Yin was her rival for Mr. Chang ([[PoorCommunicationKills due to overhearing out of context their conversation about the forbidden book club they were both part of and how Mr. Chang would be putting Ray in danger by continuing his relationship with her]]) and [[RemovingTheRival intended to get rid of her]] by setting the authorities on her. Unfortunately, it [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong]], resulting in Ms. Yin fleeing the country and eventually dying in exile, Wei being imprisoned, and many others, including Mr. Chang, being executed.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Ray after her snitching resulted in her friend Wei being arrested, friendly teacher Ms. Yin being exiled, and her crush Mr. Chang executed. It [[DrivenToSuicide drove her to suicide]].]]
* NeverMyFault: [[spoiler:Ray has this attitude while running around the school, especially when Ms. Yin shows up. Whether she gets over it or not is up to the player.]]
-->"Shut up! If you were gone none of this would have happened!"
* NoAntagonist: Instructor Bai, the closest thing the game has to a BigBad, only actually features in one scene in the beginning. The main gameplay is Ray solving puzzles and attempting to get through the school [[spoiler:and come to terms with her guilt]].
* NobodyHereButUsStatues: While Ray isn't pretending to be one, she has to stay perfectly still and hold her breath [[DontLookAtMe without looking at the lantern spectres]] to avoid their attention.
* NothingIsScarier: At one point, you'll be chased by a giant shadow, but you never get a good look at it other than its silhouette.
* OldSchoolBuilding: The game takes place in a haunted school.
* OnlyFriend: [[spoiler:It is implied that Wei was this to Ray, as she felt remorse and guilt for unwittingly getting him arrested along with others.]]
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Most of the ghosts in the game can be sneaked past without their attention by holding your breath.
** The Lingered are female ghosts that make creepy noises and disturbing giggles. They are shown to teleport randomly and attack by scratching you. They can even arch their back in impossible angles when chasing you. Laying out food offerings can distract them for a moment, giving you a chance to safely sneak past them.
** Lantern Specters are giant ghosts that carry a lantern and patrol the area. You have to [[DontLookAtMe turn your back towards them]] and hold your breath at the same time when they will lower their heads to check on you. If you are detected by them, they will grab you up and strangle you to death.
** Then there's the giant, multi-armed shadowy ghost that pursues Ray at one point in the game. In this case, there's nothing else to do but run.
* OurTimeTravelIsDifferent: Ray, near the end, can jump through different timelines depending on the frequency of the radio. The first time is Ray's early, happy life, while the second is her life ''after'' her family situation's gone to pot.
* OverlyLongTongue: Both of the Hei Bau Wu Chang (Black and White Impermanence) show their long tongues in the picture. However, at the door, only the white one has his tongue out. The Lantern Specters have them as well, though the illustration doesn't show them with one.
* PatrollingMook: Remember to hold your breath and don't look at the Lantern Specters when you meet them.
* PerpetualStorm: Wei wakes up to a typhoon warning, and the typhoon continues throughout the game. [[spoiler:It's sunny during the modern-day sequences.]]
* PoorCommunicationKills: Ray overhearing a vague and out-of-context conversation and not confronting anyone about it is what set off the whole plot. [[spoiler:She thought that it was Ms. Yin persuading Mr. Chang to break up with Ray because he was in a relationship with Ms. Yin, so she betrayed Ms. Yin's book club, intending to get back with Mr. Chang when Ms. Yin was out of the way. The conversation was ''actually'' about how Mr. Chang was putting Ray in danger by seeing her, since it associated her with the forbidden book club that Ms. Yin helmed and Mr. Chang supplied, and her betrayal ended up killing Mr. Chang, making Ms. Yin an exile, and getting the rest of the book club arrested.]]
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The game has an interesting selection of real songs as its BackgroundMusic. Rather notably, many of them were banned songs during the White Terror era.
** The first track the 8 track player plays is the rewinded version of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPiPgvZjNtg Taiwanese Flag Song]].
** The second track in the 8 track player is the older version of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGMUgGAt2Nw National Gymnastic Excercise]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qflbyptHSlQ "The Torment of the Flower"(雨夜花)]] is the final song played by the 8 track player [[spoiler:and the solution for the piano puzzle]]. A middle aged man, [[spoiler: who is revealed to be Wei,]] also plays this song on the piano. The song was banned by the government because of its melodramatic tones.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INiQrIUvcTU "Bāng Chhun-hong"(望春風)]] is the first song to be played on the radio.
** The second song played by the radio is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1P_B-rq-eI 四季紅]]. The name of the song would be "Four Seasons Red" if literally translated.
* ThePianoPlayer:
** You play a melody of 雨夜花 to complete the piano puzzle [[spoiler:that unlocks the hand puppet in the cage]].
** An middle-aged man [[spoiler:(Wei)]] plays a part of 雨夜花 before disappearing.
* PiggyBank: Ray has a ceramic piggy bank in her room. When she switches timelines through the radio, it gets broken to pieces. [[spoiler:If she drops a coin in it in the first timeline, a movie ticket appears in the remains of the piggy bank in the second.]]
* {{Poltergeist}}: [[spoiler:Poltergeist activity will appear in the dining room after Ray has finished observing her family portraits.]]
* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Shows and songs broadcasted by the 8-track player or radio are either in Mandarin or Taiwanese, so the foreign may have trouble understanding the reference and meaning behind them due to the lack of translation.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Ms Yin [[spoiler:created the book club so that she could help her students develop their own independent thinking and pursue knowledge freely as they wish, all the while warning them the risks of joining the club should it be exposed]].
** [[spoiler:She even calls out Mr. Chang on [[TeacherStudentRomance his relationship with Ray]], warning him that he would not only endanger those involved in the book club, but also Ray due to his affiliation to the book club and that the relationship would not be socially accepted. Unfortunately, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Ray overheard their conversation]] and [[PoorCommunicationKills interpreted it as meaning that Mr. Chang and Ms. Yin were in a relationship with each other]], leading her to [[RemovingTheRival try to get rid of Ms. Yin]] by [[TheStoolPigeon selling out the book club]]. The results were… catastrophic.]]
* TheReveal: The middle-aged man in the striped shirt that can be seen lurking around the school in the later parts of the game is [[spoiler:the now adult Wei, having been released from prison, and returned to his old school. He's the one who is still alive; Ray is the one who is actually a ghost]].
** It's a bit staggered, but here's the main reveal: [[spoiler:The cast was involved in a group that secretly read literature that was [[BannedInChina outlawed by the government]], and were all exposed when Ray betrayed Ms. Yin out of jealousy. Ms. Yin fled Taiwan and eventually died abroad from lung cancer. Mr. Chang was executed for crimes against the state, and Wei was imprisoned for 15 years. Ray killed herself out of guilt.]]
* RiversOfBlood: While trying to leave the school, Wei and Ray discover that the bridge leading out has been swept away by a torrent of what looks like blood. Wei rationalizes that it's probably chemical runoff from the factories upstream. [[spoiler:It reappears in the Bad Ending when Ray refuses to remember her sin, and this time bodies of her schoolmates are floating in it, symbolizing how her actions killed many people.]]
* RoomFullOfCrazy: At one point, you'll enter a room where someone has scribbled Buddha's name all over the walls, presumably as protection. A more subdued variant is the screening room where the big blackboard is filled with the word "Snitcher".
* SavePoint: There are several altars scattered throughout the game, and praying at them saves the game. Ray feels blessed after she prays.
* SixIsNine: Does anyone wonder why Ray's parents portraits are flipped? [[spoiler:It turns out to be a clue for a clock puzzle.]]
* SlashedThroat: [[spoiler:At one point, you have to slash the dead Wei's throat and collect his blood. The blood is used to reveal a hidden code scratched on a bench.]]
* SpookyPainting: A potrait of Ray [[spoiler:will weep pink glow-in-the-dark tears]] when you turn off the light. Considering that her image and that of her parents are eyeless except for a occasional flash where they stare at you, the pictures are spooky no matter the light setting.
* SuddenlyVoiced: [[spoiler:In the Good Ending, the last written quote of the game is spoken by Ray in Mandarin.]]
-->'''[[spoiler:Ray]]:''' [[spoiler:Daffodils dyed by a river of crimson blood. Decaying, rustlike into the void.]]
* SurrealHorror: ''Oh'' yes. [[spoiler:Justified since it's taking place in Purgatory, not the real world.]]
* TeacherStudentRomance: [[spoiler:It's heavily implied that Ray was romantically involved with Mr. Chang, the school counselor, while he was helping her deal with her bad home life. Even after her counselling sessions ended and by extension, their relationship, Mr. Chang seems to genuinely care for Ray in the Good Ending (though it is ultimately left ambiguous whether or not he actually did return her romantic feelings towards him). His final words sound as if he confesses that he broke up with her because he feared for her life, not because he didn't love her.]]
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: [[spoiler:Ray is left staring in her hands in horror when she sees her fellow students being arrested, to say nothing of the realization that her tattling killed Mr. Chang.]]
* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:Ray is DeadToBeginWith, and condemned to Purgatory because of her sin of [[TheStoolPigeon selling out the book club]] for her own selfish reasons.]]
* UnexpectedlyAbandoned: When Wei wakes up, the entire school is empty.
* UnreliableNarrator: [[spoiler:Due to the story being told from Ray's perspective, it opens quite a lot of questions regarding the nature of her [[TeacherStudentRomance relationship with Mr. Chang]]. While Mr. Chang clearly did care for her, it is somewhat ambiguous whether or not he actually did reciprocate her romantic feelings towards him.]]
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: The broadcast room has a very creepy tree with human faces somehow growing in one of its corners, but Ray either ignores or doesn't notice the faces when investigating the tree itself.
* WeaksauceWeakness: The main way of avoiding the ghosts and spirits that lurk around is ''holding your breath'', though this is harder than it sounds because you can only hold it for a finite amount of time and the ghosts move slowly.
* WhamLine: [[IronicEcho A certain line from the telephone is repeated near the end of the game.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Instructor Bai:''' Miss Fang, your country appreciates your assistance.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:Ray selfishly betrayed the secret book club to the government so she could be with Mr. Chang, causing the deaths of her teacher, counselor, and so many of her classmates. Those who remained angrily called her a "snitch" for it, and her Purgatory never ceases to remind her of her sins with "Snitch" carved all over the walls.]]
* WitchHunt: The White Terror era of Taiwan — the backdrop of the game — amounted to this, much like the RedScare going on in America at the same time… except much, much worse.
* WomanScorned:
** [[spoiler:Ray's mother hired a [[PrivateDetective PI]] to investigate her husband under suspicion that he was having an affair. When she found evidence, she had her husband arrested on the charges of bribery and corruption.]]
** [[spoiler:Her daughter would soon follow her example, only for her to regret it once her betrayal had much more dire consequences for her teacher and friends other than arrest.]]
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Ray is this to Mr. Chang. He was her LivingEmotionalCrutch, so when she thought he was seeing Ms. Yin (he wasn't; they were discussing how Ray could be in danger because of his association with Ms. Yin's forbidden book club), she sold out the book club to the to the government, presumably hoping that Ms. Yin would be arrested. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone She regretted it when the consequences turned out to be much more severe than she anticipated]].]]
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:Ms. Yin managed to flee the country, escaping arrest and possibly execution, but in the process became blacklisted. She couldn't return to her country and spent the rest of her life abroad as a social rights activist until she passed away. After the martial law has been abolished, her remains were allowed to give a proper burial in her home country as per her last wish.]]
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