Inktober 13: Du Mei Shin (Devotion)

Thanks to all who joined my stream of the game ! Devotion had become my second favorite horror game so quickly across both playthroughs. I used a very thin, weak, broken line to illustrate Mei Shin’s fragility, and formed the origami tulip from washi tape. The yellow tulip is a symbol of hopeless love, which was a theme throughout. There’s also some white out in places for very minimal shading. The large amount of white represents the ending, which still dissolves me into inconsolable tears.

There is so much I can say about this game, and all of it is very emotional. The themes of anxiety, family roles, arguing parents, mental health are all raw and powerful things wrapped up in a very scary game. The endgame portions depicting Diyu were such a slow, powerfully building feeling of dread struck me the most. The entire game in the 3rd act becomes this approaching dread you can’t stop, and it just really feeds into the final revelations so perfectly.

Ive mentioned before that my favorite horror stories are the immensely tragic ones. The ones with such sad destinies. And the most heart wrenching part of Devotion was that nearly everyone is to blame, yet its nearly nobody’s fault. The ending song and Lady of the Pier are also gorgeous.

If you havent played it, please head on over to Red Candle Games’ website and pick it up. If I only ever recommend one game to anyone, Devotion is in my top 3.

A really great interview with the developers can be found here:
https://www.eurogamer.net/amp/2019-09-16-the-making-of-devotion-chinas-least-favourite-horror-game