History YMMV / Devotion

* OvershadowedByControversy: Though reception was generally positive at launch, the game was taken off Steam because of, and now generally remembered for, [[EasterEgg easter eggs]] hidden in the game that insult current Chinese president Xi Jinping.
* {{Squick}}: The final part of the game. [[spoiler:In order to “cure” Mei Shin, Feng Yu offered parts of himself. This includes gauging out his eye with a spoon, ripping out his tongue with a fork, and stabbing his hand with a pair of scissors.]]
* {{Tearjerker}}:

*** As Consort Qi of the Han Dynasty, she was an accomplished songwriter (echoing Li Fang's past career and Mei Shin('s parents)' ambitions), who would play an annual game of weiqi with her husband. The winner gets to make a wish that would come true all year, and the loser would suffer from illness all year (but can be alleviated by cutting off a lock of hair and praying to the North Star - that is, curing/preventing prolonged illness with a ritual, which was what Feng Yu tried to do to Mei Shin). Qi won every time and wished for peace in the kingdom. The Chinese title of the game translates to "fulfilling a wish". Qi was murdered by Empress Lü via mutilation (similar to what Feng Yu went through in his VisionQuest): her eyes were gouged out, her limbs cut off, her eardrums punctured, and she was locked in either a toilet or pigsty (same connotations of filth) to die. This is all because she was jealous of Qi and her son Liu Ruyi, as Emperor Gaozu felt Ruyi made for a better heir to the throne than then-Crown Prince Xiaohui (Empress Lü's son). Xiaohui was fond of his half-brother and tried to protect him from attempts on his life even after he was made King of Zhao. The deaths of Consort Qi and King of Zhao caused Emperor Xiaohui to snap and descend into decadence, deluding himself in a reality that does not exist, like Feng Yu. Qi was an innocent woman who died by the machinations of a manipulative woman in power, just like Mei Shin who died because of Hueh.

*** First off, Guan Yin is a goddess of mercy, and would never demand blood sacrifices. As a matter of fact, worshippers of Guan Yin are required to consume only a vegetarian diet on certain days of the Chinese calendar month, while the more devout worshippers convert to vegan completely.
*** The statuette of Guan Yin depicted in the game is the 1000 hands and 1000 eyes Bodhisattva form, which is not the form that regular Guan Yin devotees worship.
*** The final nail in the coffin is that Cigu is most likely based on the goddess Zigu. Sources differ, but she is referred to as the Lady of the Latrines because she was trapped and murdered in the toilet and now governs the bathroom, appointed by the Jade Emperor out of mercy. Worshippers of Zigu summoned her in the latrine using a doll and informing her that it's safe for her to emerge, and Mei Shin is symbolized by a teleporting ceramic doll.

* UnacceptableTargets: This game is infamous for the placeholder image which compares Chinese president Xi Jinping to Franchise/WinnieThePooh. The placeholder image also contains the Chinese words "'''呢嘛叭唭'''" which is similiar to the Hokkien "你嘛八七" (''Nǐ ma bāqī),'' (translated in Chinese as "你妈白癡") which means, "your mother is an idiot", as an Chinese insult. Taken together, it should be "Xi Jinping Winnie-the-Pooh your mother is an idiot", or "Xi-the-Pooh your mother is an idiot". No wonder the game was quickly taken off of Steam and nationalistic Chinese gamers have review-bombed the game, despite the placeholder image later being patched out with a talisman that reads "Happy New Year" ('''Chinese:''' 恭賀新禧 ''Gōnghè xīnxǐ)...''

* FridgeHorror: What if Mei Shin’s death was not caused by alcohol poisoning, but by a snake bite? [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2441736/Chinese-woman-bitten-pit-viper-snake-marinating-wine-3-MONTHS.html This article tells of a Chinese women who was prescribed snake wine]] for treatment of her illness, and it turns out that if improperly produced, '''the snake could potentially still be alive'''. For all we know it wasn’t the alcohol that killed her, it was the snake.
** All other options of what could have killed her are just as horrific. She could have gotten alcohol poisoning, been bitten by a venomous snake, drowned, starved to death, maybe even something like hypothermia...

-->'''Li Fang''': Du Feng Yu. I long for the days when life was simple and the three of us were happy.

** Some Taiwanese and Sinosphere players posit that Feng Yu is [[spoiler:actually dead, DrivenToSuicide]] by the enormity of what he had done. The game is his journey [[spoilerthrough Purgatory as he endlessly repeats his sins, the fate of people who kill themselves in Taiwanese folklore. They also point out that the same folklore holds that ghosts cannot perceive themselves in reflections or pictures, similar to how Feng Yu is not seen in the game, and covered or closed eyes being a recurring motif that also serves to symbolize denial.]]

** Some Taiwanese and Sinosphere players posit that Feng Yu is actually dead, DrivenToSuicide by the enormity of what he had done. The game is his journey through Purgatory as he endlessly repeats his sins, the fate of people who kill themselves in Taiwanese folklore. They also point out that the same folklore holds that ghosts cannot perceive themselves in reflections or pictures, similar to how Feng Yu is not seen in the game, and covered or closed eyes being a recurring motif that also serves to symbolize denial.

** Some Taiwanese and Sinosphere players posit that Feng Yu is actually dead, DrivenToSuicide by the enormity of what he had done. The game is his journey through Purgatory as he endlessly repeats his sins, the fate of people who kill themselves in Taiwanese folklore. They also point out that the same folklore holds that ghosts cannot perceive themselves in mirrors or reflections, similar to how Feng Yu is not seen in the game, and covered or closed eyes being a BodyMotif that also serves to symbolize denial.

** In his worship of Cigu Guanyin, Feng Yu removes the ''bagua'' mirror in front of his home. In Feng Shui, the mirror is intended to protect a home and its residents from negative outside energy ("sha chi", killing breath, or poison arrows). People unprotected from this energy might succumb to financial, marital, health issues or worse. It's symbolic of Feng Yu allowing the poisonous external influence of Hueh to ruin his house and turning it into a haunted space endlessly looping as he relives his sin, similar to the way Red Candle explores the concept of Taiwanese/Chinese Purgatory in their previous work ''VideoGame/{{Detention}}''.

* GeniusBonus: People who had studied Buddhist saints and/or Guan Yin worshippers would realize that some things presented about Cigu Guanyin by the cult don't add up, further suggesting something is wrong with the mentor and/or the temple as a whole:
** For example, Guan Yin is a goddess of mercy, and would never demand blood sacrifices. [[note]]As a matter of fact, worshippers of Guan Yin are required to consume only a vegetarian diet on certain days of the Chinese calendar month, while the more devout worshippers convert to vegan completely[[/note]].
** The statuette of Guan Yin depicted in the game is the 1000 hands and 1000 eyes Bodhisattva form, which is not the form that regular Guan Yin devotees worship.
** The final nail in the coffin is that Cigu is most likely based on the goddess Zigu. Sources differ, but she is referred to as the Lady of the Latrines because she was trapped and murdered in the toilet and now governs the bathroom, appointed by the Jade Emperor out of mercy. Worshippers of Zigu summoned her in the latrine using a doll and informing her that it's safe for her to emerge, and Mei Shin is symbolized by a teleporting ceramic doll.

** Cigu and Guanyin have nothing to do with each other. The latter is the popularly-worshipped Goddess of Mercy, the former is a toilet goddess with a minor cult that has faded out of public consciousness. To put it bluntly, the cult is a [[{{Pun}} bullshit]] ScamReligion that worships a made-up deity (or fictitious aspect of her), cherry-picked from religious beliefs extant and long past, hinging on Guanyin's reputation as a goddess who blesses and saves the unfortunate and imperiled.

** In his worship of Cigu Guanyin, Feng Yu removes the ''bagua'' mirror in front of his home. In Feng Shui, the mirror is intended to protect a home and its residents from negative outside energy ("sha chi", killing breath, or poison arrows). People unprotected from this energy might succumb to financial, marital, health issues or worse. It's symbolic of Feng Yu allowing the poisonous external influence of Hueh to ruin his house and turning it into a haunted space endlessly looping as he relives his sin, similar to the way Red Candle explores the concept of Taiwanese/Chinese Purgatory in their previous work ''VideoGame/{{Detention}''.

* FridgeBrilliance: Feng Yu is a once successful screenwriter whose career prospects have dried up after a string of [[BoxOfficeBomb box office bombs]]. Throughout the game, you collect segments of some of his rejected manuscripts, and reading them makes it painfully apparent ''why'' Feng Yu can't get his work optioned -- they're all inane, pretty re-imaginings of his real-life problems with no narrative tension, and just like they'll tell you on the first day of any creative writing class, a story with no conflict isn't a story at all. [[note]]Of course, SliceOfLife fans would argue otherwise. Feng Yu may even have been able to find his niche with the genre if it hadn't already been declining in Taiwan during the 80's.[[/note]]

** The Mei Shin copies in the VisionQuest sequence gets a fully new horrible meaning once the ending is known. They just stare at Feng Yu, begging to be let out and for him to open the door, most likely being what Feng Yu heard during the seven days.

** The nail in the coffin is that Cigu is most likely based on the goddess Zigu. Sources differ, but she is referred to as the Lady of the Latrines because she was trapped and murdered in the toilet and now governs the bathroom, appointed by the Jade Emperor out of mercy. Worshippers of Zigu summoned her in the latrine using a doll and informing her that it's safe for her to emerge, and Mei Shin is symbolized by a teleporting ceramic doll.

** The man in the mirror section might feel odd during a first playthrough, but during a replay, there is a big foreshadowing: At the end of the walk he says "Go on, it's just ahead. Now claim what you deserve - your greatest hope." as he points to [[spoiler: the bathroom door]]. Inside, a dozen Mei Shin's with masks stand who ask him to let her out. The message of the man in the mirror was for Feng Yu to [[spoiler: open the door for his daughter to save her life]]. Instead, Feng Yu starts praying...
* FridgeHorror: What if Mei Shin’s death was not caused by alcohol poisoning, but by a snake bite? [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2441736/Chinese-woman-bitten-pit-viper-snake-marinating-wine-3-MONTHS.html This article tells of a Chinese women who was prescribed snake wine]] for treatment of her illness, and it turns out that if improperly produced, '''the snake could potentially be still alive'''. For all we know it wasn’t the alcohol that killed her, it was the snake...

* GeniusBonus: People who had studied Buddhist saints and/or Guan Yin worshippers would realize that some things presented about Cigu Guanyin by the cult don't add up, further suggesting something is wrong with the mentor and/or the temple as a whole. For example, Guan Yin is a passive saint, and would never demand blood sacrifices [[note]]As a matter of fact, worshippers of Guan Yin are required to consume only a vegetarian diet on certain days of the Chinese calendar month, while the more devout worshippers convert to vegan completely[[/note]]. Also, the statuette of Guan Yin depicted in the game is the 1000 hands and 1000 eyes Bodhisattva form, which is not the form that regular Guan Yin devotees worship.
* HarsherInHindsight: In-Universe example. During the game, its revealed that Feng Yu used to read his daughter, Mei Shin, a story about a girl's journey to cure her sick, bed-ridden father before it's too late. The story ends happily with the daughter getting help from a Goddess, and successfully curing her father with the power of a tulip flower. [[spoiler: In reality, Mei Shin is the one who is sick, and her father is desperately trying to cure her, even joining a religious cult led by a ConArtist whose phony advice leads to Feng Yu killing Mei Shin in an attempt to exorcise her. For an added punch, the story inspires Mei Shin to make tulips with paper, and discovered that it made her feel better and treated her symptoms, [[PoorCommunicationKills but she never tells her father this]]]].
* JerkassWoobie: [[spoiler: Feng Yu becomes an abusive husband and parent and pushes his daughter to her own death...but it's clear that throughout the game, he wants nothing but to love and help his daughter in his own misguided way manipulated by a woman running a ScamReligion and his screenplay career falls in a rut and pushed at the brink of madness as a result]].

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Feng Yu is either a man broken by [[spoiler:a combination of his own mistakes and a horrendous cult, both of which end up murdering his daughter]]... or he is a [[ItsAllAboutMe vain]], [[DomesticAbuse cruel]] egomaniac who [[spoiler:constantly refuses to admit his own laziness and lack of talent and murders his daughter because he puts his fragile ego above his daughter's needs.]] Both viewpoints are also not mutually exclusive. How sympathetic he [[JerkassWoobie is]] - or [[NeverMyFault isn't]] - is up to the player.
* There's a minor version with Mentor Heuh. [[spoiler: It's absolutely certain that she's a manipulative con artist who doesn't care about her cult members' wellbeing as long as they still give her money]], but there's still the matter of her final advice to Feng Yu. Was the ritual [[spoiler: profound-looking nonsense that Heuh cooked up without thinking of the consequences, or was she ''deliberately'' trying to kill Mei Shin to tie up loose ends before she fled town?]]

* GeniusBonus: People who had studied Buddhist saints would realize that some things presented about Cigu Guanyin by the cult don't add up, further suggesting something is wrong with the mentor and/or the temple as a whole. For example, Guan Yin is a passive saint, and would never demand blood sacrifices [[note]]As a matter of fact, worshippers of Guan Yin are required to consume only a vegetarian diet on certain days of the Chinese calendar month, while the more devout worshippers convert to vegan completely[[/note]]. Also, the statuette of Guan Yin depicted in the game is the 1000 hands and 1000 eyes Bodhisattva form, which is not the form that regular Guan Yin devotees worship.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Though reception was generally positive at launch, the game was taken off Steam because of, and now generally remembered for, [[EasterEgg easter eggs]] hidden in the game that insult current Chinese president Xi Jinping. On the whole, the game seems to be a pretty typical Indie-budget first-person horror game, and is most notable for the controversy around it.

** [[spoiler: Mentor Hueh]] crossed it even earlier, by telling Feng Yu to perform the aforementioned horizon-crossing act, and outright discouraging him from stopping it despite the risk, [[spoiler: despite knowing full well it was a load of snake oil and couldn't help Mei Shin]].