Kowloon High-School Chronicle is a 2004 Japanese PlayStation 2 game developed by Shout! Design Works and released by Atlus. It combines elements of dungeon-crawler role-playing games with those of visual novels. It was remastered for the Nintendo Switch in 2020, localized into English the following year, and then ported to the PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2022.
The player explores an Egyptian ruin in pursuit of wealth, much like in the movies Indiana Jones and The Mummy. Elements from Japan, such as stories from the Nihon Shoki, are used as a counterpoint to Egyptian features.
The protagonist also goes to a high school in modern-day Japan, where he begins to form friendships with his fellow students. The game has been likened to newer entries in the Persona series because it is a social RPG about high school students battling mythological monsters, but Kowloon came out first.
Tokyo Majin Gakuen Denki was the first in a long line of games directed by Shuuhou Imai, who describes his work as Gakuen juvenile Denki (lit. “young adult school fantasy”).
Despite the fact that Kowloon is set in the same fictional universe as the rest of the series and has a direct connection to it, it is just the second video game in the genre to be localized into English, following Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters. A cult favorite in Japan, Kowloon belongs to a genre of games known as Gakuen adolescent Denki that has received little notice outside of Japan.
Kowloon High-School Chronicle launches November 10 for PC via Steam https://t.co/sFNGQI05Rl pic.twitter.com/a7KaRDw1II
— Final Weapon (@fnlwpn) October 31, 2022
Kowloon High-School Chronicle Gameplay
Parts of the game take the form of a 3D dungeon crawler RPG in which the player explores the ruins under the school in search of wealth, while other parts take the form of a visual novel and allow the player to interact with the game’s characters and advance the plot. Connecting the two are a number of skeuomorphic menus, including maps and computer screens reminiscent of Windows 95, that facilitate navigation throughout the school and the acceptance of quests.
The RPG parts are played from a tile-based first-person perspective, in the vein of classic dungeon crawlers like Wizardry. All actions occur in turns, with each character having a certain number of action points to use before their turn ends.
Just as in an action game, the user can use the mouse to aim and fire at their enemies. The game has a crafting system, which is unusual for its historical period, allowing players to mix two things to create a new one. Some of the puzzles you’ll face in the dungeons will require you to use the crafting system, making it different from more standard dungeon crawlers.
The Emotion Input System employed in the visual novel chapters is a carryover from the Tokyo Majin Gakuen Denki series, but with several key differences. Sometimes a wheel-shaped interface will show when chatting with characters instead of the usual text menu.
This directional pad has a D-pad on it, and the eight various emotions on it (two for each of the cardinal directions) can be selected by pushing or holding the appropriate direction. The nine options are “joy,” “love,” “amity,” “hot,” “cold,” “anger,” “somber,” “grief,” and “ignoring” the other person (by pressing nothing). The player’s relationship with the character may strengthen or weaken based on their choice, and the character may join the player’s party with their own set of statistics and skills during the dungeon sections.
Kowloon High-School Chronicle Plot
The player takes on the role of a young treasure hunter who, upon hearing rumors of a treasure-filled ruin beneath Kamiyoshi Academy in Shinjuku, Tokyo, sets out to uncover the secret. He pretends to be a transfer student so that he can snoop about the campus and find all the hidden riches (and OOPArts) that lie within.
It turns out that the ruins are an inverted Ancient Egyptian pyramid, complete with traps and ancient creatures from Japanese mythology, and the student council at the school is more than meets the eye when it comes to standing in the way.
Like an anime, the plot is broken up into “episodes,” each of which has its own beginning and finish but follows the same formula.
Kowloon High-School Chronicle Development
A new “young adult school fantasy” series was something that director Shuuhou Imai wanted to make after the success of Tokyo Majin Gakuen: Gehch. He was worried that fans might be disappointed if the new game was too similar to his previous ones, so he worked hard to give it its own unique feel and cast of characters.
The game’s treasure-hunting idea was influenced by movies like Indiana Jones and The Mummy, as well as books like Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Treasure Hunter Yagashira Dai (which also follows a high schooler who secretly chases treasure) and manga like Spriggan.
Imai, who enjoys stories about treasure hunters, decided to use that trope because he hadn’t seen it used much in video games before. The survival techniques seen in MacGyver and the manga Master Keaton served as inspiration for the game’s crafting system.
Imai has stated that there are two reasons for the use of first-person 3D. One reason was that he believed 3D was the only way to accurately portray a pyramid in a computer game. In a subsequent interview, he explained that he’d always wanted the user to be able to see themselves reflected in the game’s protagonist, but that the isometric viewpoint of his previous work made it necessary to have a fully realized character with graphics and voice acting. Therefore, the first-person viewpoint was a means to create a genuine silent protagonist.
Final Words
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