Detention is a horror adventure video game created and developed by Taiwanese game developer Red Candle Games for Steam. It is a 2D atmospheric horror side-scroller set in 1960s Taiwan under martial law. The game also incorporates religious elements based on Taiwanese culture and mythology. The game was released on 13 January 2017. A demo version was released on Steam Greenlight on 13 June 2016. The concept of the game originates with the Red Candle Games co-founder Shun Ting-yao. In February 2017, a novel based on the game was published by novelist Ling Jing. A live action film adaptation was released on 20 September 2019, and distributed by Warner Bros. Taiwan. Detention's background music was composed by Taiwanese composer Weifan Chang. The soundtrack was released with the game on Steam as a DLC.
Synopsis
Set in 1960s Taiwan of the White Terror period, students Wei and Ray find themselves trapped and vulnerable in Greenwood High School which is located in a remote mountainous area. The place they once knew has changed in unsettling ways, haunted by evil creatures known as the "lingered". While hiding from the rampaging monsters, the protagonists unveil mysteries which slowly reveal the dark past of the cursed school.
Plot
During the White Terror Period in Taiwan, Wei Chung-ting falls asleep in class as Instructor Bai arrives to interrogate teacher Miss Yin Tsui-han about a certain book list. He later awakens to find the campus deserted due to an incoming typhoon. While leaving, he encounters a senior, Fang Ray-shin, sleeping in the auditorium. With the river bridge exit inaccessible, they decide to wait out the storm in Wei's classroom. Wei decides to look for a phone, and the game shifts to Ray waking up in the auditorium again, this time in a nightmarish version of the school with Wei's corpse hanging upside down from the stage ceiling. After performing a ritual where she must cut Wei's throat and collect his blood, Ray wanders the rest of the school, avoiding different kinds of ghosts, solving puzzles, finding clues, and Ray's story is slowly pieced together: Ray was a bright student at Greenwood High School but developed depression due to problems at home. The school notices her falling grades and sends her to speak with the school counselor, Chang Ming-hui. She and Chang develop a romantic relationship, though she is unaware that Chang helps Miss Yin smuggle banned books for a secret book club where Wei is also a member. After they finish counseling sessions, Chang ends their relationship, leaving Ray heartbroken. She overhears Chang and Miss Yin arguing how his relationship with Ray can endanger their book club, and she misinterprets this as Miss Yin trying to take Chang from her. It is revealed that Ray heard this in the auditorium on the night of the storm. While waiting in Wei's classroom, she convinced Wei to give her a copy of the reading list. Inspired by the way her mother got rid of her father by reporting him to authorities, Ray hands the list to Instructor Bai, a military officer, hoping it would get Miss Yin fired. However, this led to the arrest of the students who were members of the club. Miss Yin fled the country before they could capture her, but Chang was executed. Ray was awarded for her actions but was ostracized by her classmates who labeled her a snitch. Distraught by the bullying, the guilt of sending her classmates to prison, and Chang's death, Ray committed suicide by jumping off a school building. The player is actually playing as Ray's soul going through a cycle of purgatory as she refuses to accept her guilt. Towards the end, Ray's shadow appears and asks her a series of questions. If Ray refuses to acknowledge her actions and guilt, the shadow states that she and Ray are not the same, and Ray walks down a path beside a river of blood, with Wei, Chang, and Miss Yin telling her the cycle will not end. She enters the auditorium where people applaud her as her shadow awards her with a noose. Ray hangs herself, and the auditorium fades into its abandoned state in the present, and Ray's soul will repeat the cycle. If she shows guilt and remorse, she finds a paper airplane containing a message of love and farewell from Chang and heads to his office. She witnesses Chang's arrest, and he tells Ray that people should be born to live freely without fear of oppression. The game shifts to the present. Wei, an old man was pardoned following the end of the White Terror. His journal reveals he had spent several years in prison doing hard labor. Miss Yin spent the rest of her life abroad, speaking out against the country's oppression but died of lung cancer before she could return home. He heads to his old classroom and sits at his desk as Ray's ghost sits across him as they did on the night of the storm.
Reception
The game has received favourable reviews from critics. Rely on Horror gave the game a 9 out of 10, saying that "every facet of Detention moves in one harmonious lockstep towards an unavoidable tragedy, drowning out the world around you." Upon the game's release in January 2017, the user review on Steam has been overwhelmingly positive. Detention topped the games ranking on Steam in Taiwan and reached 3rd in Steam ranking globally within 3 days of its release. Detention as well as Red Candle's other game Devotion will be preserved at the Harvard-Yenching Library, the largest collection of East Asian works maintained at an American university.
Adaptations
Red Candle sold production rights for a film to 1 Production Film Co. on 21 June 2017. The film stars Gingle Wang as Fang Ray Shin and it was released in Taiwan on 20 September 2019.
