The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation Game Review/Analise

If I remember on the movie, there was only 2 survivors but they thought they got out of the ghost realm. spoiler

The shadow of the girl in the last scene.. looks like she's pregnant too.

GG. What a great game and great storyline 👏

40:55 You see a white haired decomposing corpse of a girl sitting on a chair with a baby statue on its belly and a mattress nearby. Then, we see a photo of a group of men with their faces scribbled out. I read somewhere that the original ghost girl was waiting for her lover to run away with him after finding out she is pregnant. She waited for him on the bridge, but he wasn't able to arrive on time for whatever reason, maybe his parents found out about the pregnancy and stopped him, or he was just a little late. Then, the girl was raped by the group of boys and became a vengeful spirit after committing suicide on the bridge. What makes it sad is in one of the scenes we see her boyfriend with her in the chemistry lab as a flashback and he tells her "I'll protect you always."…as he was worried about her safety and wanted to pick her up but he had experiments to do too and couldn't. He promised to protect her always…But he was unable to do so.

🤔 hmm not like I jus got a text telling me not to go to the roof top not like I jus seen a body fall from the sky …hey let's jus go up to the roof top an see what going on must be a party I'm missing 🤷🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

hey hollow you should play a horror game called death trips

her shadow she looked pregnant at the end

For anyone confused by the story, here's what happened (tl;dr they all died except DeCyuan): 

The ghost was a student who fell in love with her schoolmate back in the 70s. She got pregnant at 18 and resolved to elope with her boyfriend knowing their families wouldn't accept them. Waiting on the bridge at night, she was raped by the 5 men in the photos, then dumped into the water where she became an angry spirit. Despite denying it, the school became aware of the ghost’s existence and sealed her away via Taoist rituals, which included hiding her body, locking her old room, putting a talisman on the bridge, and keeping the Qixing sword on-site.

The curse she inflicted is that, every leap year, she appears to those who perform the Bridge Curse ritual and spirits them away. While she demands a sacrifice of 5 people (corresponding to her rapists), she doesn't actually kill ALL of them herself. Instead, she haunts 6 people, until one of them snaps and agrees to kill the others in exchange for living. This cursed survivor is then tasked with making sure 5 more people show up to perform the ritual the next leap year, before killing them as well.

In 2012, Chao HsinChiao and her best friend Shih YuChing were part of an orientation camp committee where they resurfaced the Bridge Curse Ritual as a test of courage (this is what ‘kimodameshi' means). However, at some point, the bridge talisman was accidentally removed by a student (probably HsinChiao), triggering the ghost’s hauntings again. Eventually, HsinChiao is attacked but snaps and agrees to kill the other five, including YuChing. Though, seeing how YuChing appears to ONLY her (none of the others ever encounter her) throughout the game to point her in the right direction, it doesn't seem that YuChing ever held it against her.

At some point after surviving that night, she got out of her relationship with Ji DeCyuan. Their relationship soured because she developed suicidal depression, presumably as a result of possession, killing her friend, AND knowing she'd have to do it all again soon. Ignorant of this, DeCyuan simply thought she had changed for the worse, and so tried to break it off with her. But already feeling alone due to the loss of YuChing, HsinChiao refused to accept their relationship was over. Instead, when he next pursued Meng BoRu, she perceived that as him cheating on her.

In 2016, she had graduated but still returned as part of the new committee comprising the characters we follow in the game, due to the deal she struck to deliver 5 more victims. She knew that she was essentially sentencing all of them to death, with some being collateral damage (TienMing, LinEn, WenYao) and others deliberate targets (DeCyuan and BoRu, which she even expresses that she's “waited a long time” to kill them at the very start of the game). This, on top of her possession by the ghost, is why she rejected the offer to join TienMing in prayer at the start, and why she both apologised to and thanked WenYao’s body.

Throughout the night in 2016, each of the students die either due to the ghost or possessed students. But when it came to DeCyuan, instead of killing him with the brick, HsinChiao begged him to kill her instead. While he first refused, he ultimately did smash her head in during the struggle. This then marked him as the cursed survivor, taking over HsinChiao's role (hence why he says “do you want me to end up like HsinChiao?” to BoRu), and fighting the ghost's possession.

The rest of the game sees us piecing together everything needed to perform the exorcisim and free the spirits of those killed across 2012 and 2016. Much of this is based on DeCyuan’s investigation; a note that Hollow doesn't find but appears when I played says that, after 2016 but before 2020, he finds himself dragged back into the ghost's world whenever he sleeps, reliving the night's events, thus why there're sedative pills in his dorm. It's during these that he researches ending the ghost’s curse, and arranges things in the world to lead his friends to “find” them, explaining why the Exorcism Wiki appears in two places. It's also worth noting that DeCyuan is the only one who never touches the QiXing blade/components, since an earlier loading screen says the Qixing sword's power was bad for 'mortals' to wield. This might be why he goes through all that trouble for his already dead friends to find it instead.

Beyond that, many other things, like HsinChiao re-watching the makeout scene, and seeing or hearing the “ghosts” of their friends even before any of them die etc. makes it clear time isn’t linear/loops in this ghostly dimension. The time on DeCyuan's (and only his) phone jumps between 2020 and 2016, explaining his cryptic dialogue (saying he wishes he could save WenYao but that would ruin “the plan” to let the night run as it actually happened before exorcising the ghost before the morning, or his oddly resigned reactions during the livestream etc.) and hinting at him reliving the night–in reality, he came back alone in 2020 as the cursed survivor to try and break the curse for his fallen friends from 2016.

At any rate, HsinChiao performs the exorcism for the sake of her friend YuChing. Upon succeeding, she meets DeCyuan back on the bridge and hands him the ghost's engagement ring and unofficial marriage certificate listing the full names of the couple. Being alive, DeCyuan is the only one who is able to return to the world of the living, thus walking into the bright light. He then uses the items to locate and convince the couple’s families to perform a Ghost Marriage (a real ritual that’s exactly what it sounds like) to put their souls to rest for good (it seems the exorcism only stripped her power but her grudge and thus spirit lingered) in 2020.

Doing so finally clears up all of the ghost’s lingering resentment and malice, dissipating it, and releasing the spirits of all those who had died, as symbolised by the students all suddenly gathering happily in the sunlight as soon as the ghost disappears. If you look at WenYao and LinEn's legs/BoRu's arms here, you can even see the black tarry marks symbolising the Ghost's corrupting influence fade away from them. The line YuChing says about "before we depart, we're going to talk and talk" is referring to how their spirits wanted to linger in the world together a bit more to catch up before presumably passing on into the afterlife/reincarnation. DeCyuan is the only one missing from this scene as he alone survived and presumably went on to live his life traumatised lol.

So yes, a bittersweet ending but a very layered and cool story.

667

53:31 " This bitch better not fucking coming from that doorrrrrrrrrr". You're hilarious Hollow =)))

Maybe try this game soon if you like Hollow : Yonesawara Hospital

Coming home after work, make an indomie, brought some pangsit, chips and boba tea, then watch horror gameplay with hollow's posts is just a peace of mind.

Phénomène !

ayoooooooo…. I'm currently living in Taiwan. good to see that youre playing a Taiwanese game, Hollow!

good lord i cried so hard at the end that i couldnt see anything through my tears. what an unexpected amazing story indeed! it had some real spooky, hilarious and emotional scenes. Loved how LinEn stood up to the ghost!🙅‍♀
And chases are always so nerve-racking, but I cackled so hard when the ghost's face peeked through the door!👻
Ty for playing the game!!

This was sad. I shed some tears at the end. 🙁

at 55:43 my heart dropped into my ass lmao

can someone do a quick recap for me cut I have never been so confused yet so intrigued from a game, that and I've watched these 3 parts over the span of like…a week lol

yeah… BonRu's the only one who did not encounter anything…

At the very end, you can see girls shadow shows preganancy, I think.

I think as well, they didn’t survive but it’s a happy ending because their spirits find rest just like the ghost herself who finaly could lay this all to rest. So everyone is happy with a rest ending, finding piece.

55:45 – possibly one of the greatest Hollow reactions I've ever seen. HAHAHAHA

WHY did this games ending make me cry so gosh-darn hard :'(