Shattered Rites: 破狱
A ritual unearthed, tethered to a world in-between, plunging those around it into despair. With a jade mirror that reveals restless spirits, Professor Nathaniel Cheng travels through distorted reality and romanticized memory to save an innocent soul. What will you lose to save the ones you love?
Does this feel indie?
Vote based on whether this game feels indie to you. You can change your vote at any time. Results earn an IGF score after 10 accepted votes.| ContextThe evidence factors used to assess whether this game belongs on IndieGame.Fan. | Status | Notes Latest Contributor: IGF TeamEdit notes |
|---|---|---|
Media
10 itemsAbout the Game
Some doors were never meant to be opened. Grief makes us reach for them anyway.
Shattered Rites is a narrative psychological horror game about grief, guilt, and how far a person will go for someone they've lost. Set in the rain-soaked Pacific Northwest of the early 2000s, it follows a man who stopped believing in his own stories, until one of them starts to come true.
Nathaniel Cheng is a professor of folklore and mythology, hollowed out by the death of his wife. Searching for a way back to her, he uncovers a forbidden scripture: an occult rite said to call a soul home from the dead. The ritual does not go as written. His young daughter, Melody, vanishes.
Two months later, a letter slides beneath his door, offering a way to begin the ritual again. To bring Melody back, Nathaniel must lead others through trials that force each of them to face the guilt they've buried. And as the disappearances mount, a detective closes in on a truth no one is ready to name.
A Ritual Born from Folklore
Inspired by the Cantonese Taoist ceremony "Breaking the Hell's Gates" (破地狱), the ritual at the heart of the game is a work of fiction: a reimagined occult rite, not a depiction of any living tradition. Its roots run deep into Chinese myth, carried by a family that fled a curse across an ocean.
Grief, Walked Backward
The story is shaped by the stages of grief, but not in the order you'd expect. As those around Nathaniel move toward acceptance, he unravels in reverse, and the two paths quietly mirror one another.
Face What Haunts You
Solve environmental puzzles, explore places that shouldn't exist, and survive encounters with the things that live between realms. A jade mirror lets you glimpse what hides just beneath reality: the objects, and the dead, that others cannot see.
Two Sides of the Same Truth
Step into the shoes of more than one soul caught in the ritual. What looks like salvation from one perspective looks like something far darker from another.
A World Between Memory and Reality
Dreamlike, romanticized memory collides with a harsher present. Distorted environments and dramatic lighting blur the line between what happened and what a grieving mind chooses to remember.
Content note: This game contains mature themes and disturbing imagery, including depictions of grief, self-harm, suicide, and bullying. Player discretion is advised.
