During the period of Japanese occupation, in order to survive from the air bombardment carried out by the U.S. military, there were bomb shelters built across Taiwan. To name a few that were actually visited by Mizo Games, Taiwan Literature Base in Taipei, Ciaotou Sugar Refinery in Kaohsiung, and the trench in National Keelung Girls' Senior High School. Keelung has the most shelters across the entire Taiwan, with 682 of them in place.
Government of Taiwan during the period of Japanese occupation (the modern day Presidential Palace) was also half-destroyed by the air bombardment. The building was also designed with bomb shelters in place. The civilian staff that worked in the building was killed by the air raid on May 31st, 1945. According to a friend’s grandmother of the studio, the only scene that was left looking from the Shezidao was a sea of flames. The grandmother, who was only a young girl at the time, heard the news that her brother was killed during the air raid. She walked a long way from Shezidao to the building of the Government of Taiwan, looking for the body of her own brother by the side of the air shelter. Ironically, the air shelter that was supposed to protect people has collapsed and eternally separated them from their loved ones. Instead, those who couldn’t make it into the shelter have survived and told the grandmother the unfortunate news.
We try to rebuild the scenes and stories that we actually visited and heard and integrate them into Raid on Taihoku. In the game, Kiyoko, the protagonist, is forced to jump in a bomb shelter in order to avoid the deteriorating bombardments. As people stay in the dark shelter, listening to the sound of bombs coming from the outside, they become more and more restless.
The fate ahead that awaits Kiyoko will only be discovered by the players.