Raid on Taihoku from Softstar Entertainment is an adventure game set during World War 2 Taiwan. Learn more in our Raid on Taihoku review!

 

Raid on Taihoku from Softstar Entertainment is an adventure game set during World War 2 Taiwan. The game takes place in the titular city, which is under Japanese colonial rule. You’ll have to evade the raid of B-24 Liberators from the American Air Force. You’ll be taking on the role of Kiyoko, who gets amnesia due to the raid. She must survive through a city devastated by war while also trying to find a way to recover her memories.

As you wander through safe zones, you’ll be working on collecting the many items hidden in the city. Kiyoko will be joined by Blacky, a Taiwanese dog that acts as her most faithful companion. You’ll need to be careful when exploring danger zones since you’ll need to find a way to escape from life-or-death scenarios. War has been tough on everyone in Taihoku Prefecture.

 

You’ll control your character with the left analog stick as you walk through each area. She can sprint by pressing and holding down the Y button, which will sometimes be needed when moving through some of the danger zones. You can control your companion with the right analog stick. The A and L buttons can be used to perform a protagonist action, while the X and R buttons will be for the companion action.

There are many things for you to collect, which will allow you to learn more about the events of the era. Take, for example, a Deployment Tablet. When someone in a family was selected to join the army, the Street Chief and the Village Chief would issue a deployment tablet to hang on the door. Thanks to this, the family’s honor and status would improve. They would even receive more rations! They were made of wood because aluminum and iron were expropriated during the war.

 

Another item you can find is a Papier-Mâché Dog. Papier- Mâché dolls were traditional Japanese handicrafts that used wood and bamboo slices to create molds, which were then covered in a paper paste. Dogs were used for these figures since they symbolized fertility, so they were often paired with pellet drums as gifts for newborn children. You’ll learn about chikuwa, a traditional Japanese food created with a mixture of fish puree, flour, and seasoning, which were then stuck on bamboo skewers and either grilled over a fire or steamed.

Raid on Taihoku is an adventure game set during World War 2 Taiwan, which places you in the role of Kiyoko, who ends up with amnesia after an air raid. It’s a game that goes into some very bleak moments due to the nature of the events it presents to you, alternating between some exploration segments during which you’ll get to meet the people suffering from the raids and their aftermath and those that discriminate against them, and segments during which you’ll need to keep Kiyoko, Blacky, and others alive. If you want to 100% the game, you’ll need to know there are 9 sites to discover, as well as 101 items to add to your collection. Raid on Taihoku is out on Nintendo Switch with a $10.99 asking price.

Disclaimer
This Raid on Taihoku review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Softstar Entertainment.