So I looked up those kanji for the hot and cold prompts from the JP version and this is what i found out. The Cold response (寒) can be used to insinuate that you find something uninteresting, or dull. As for the Hot response (燃) it can mean that you are fired up, enthusiastic etc. I'd probably have chosen apathy for cold and passion for hot, but I can see why they went with shorter words as it gets really cluttered.
I've beaten Kowloon last spring, and from that point I can't get it out of my head. The vibes are immaculate, the gameplay is addictive, and the characters are living breathing humans, man. I love everyone and everything in this game. Great video, thank you for spreading the word about this wonderful game
I'm so glad you mentioned it, because as I was watching through your video I was like "Holy shit this feels a lot like Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters," and wow, to find out that it's a spin-off of a much larger franchise is really cool! I haven't finished TTGH but it's also very weird. It was a similar dialogue system, which was the first thing that clued me in on the similarities, but the actual ghost hunting gameplay is totally and completely different, unlike anything I've ever played. Definitely recommend trying it out! I'll take a look at this one on the Switch, too! I would have never known this without your video, so thanks!
How fascinating! I purchased Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters for the Vita years ago, and throughout the video kept thinking some of the mechanics reminded me of that game, can’t believe they are connected! I’m also blown away that they are spinoffs of Tokyo Majin Gakuen. The anime for that series was the first anime I ever watched. Really cool video!
This is incredible quality for 36 views bruh. Your speaking voice, editing, and ability to explain how this weird shit works are beyond professional. I hope I get to see you in the big leagues soon
I hope you generate enough revenue to lead a comforting and fulfilling life. But because the 'big leagues' usually corrupt creativity and the human spirit I'll simply say this: - I hope your time on this platform equates to a healthy and meaningful Springboard into a future you can be proud of.
This game is fucking amazing and VN/dungeon crawler fans should be required to play it. It's insanely addictive, the characters are a lot of fun, the dialogue system is unique and encourages experimentation, and the soundtrack is phenomenal. One of the best games I've played in recent memory. As someone else said in the comments, since playing it, I think two years ago now, it has not left my mind. Incredible game.
I fw this game down to like really specific things that would prolly be off putting to a good portion of people Like I really love how the pics for the VN sections are just real life pictures inside a school I genuinely love that
Before Persona there was a bunch of games of the same structure. You know what they say, p*rn moves innovation, tons of doujins has these gameplay innovations years before. Persona just cleaned the dirty up. There are still tons of great eroge games with great gameplay stuff but with terrible narratives hahahah.
The lack of a walkthrough is the reason I got stuck in my first playthrough about a year ago - might give it another shot since the game is just so damn fascinating and the artstyle so beautiful
That would make sense; another thing I didn't consider is that the English version probably needed a limit on the letters, so they couldn't use a more specific word like "affable" or "unconcerned"
It's more of an indication of tone, not feeling. It's not to say someone does not care, but that their response is not expressive or emotive. I would consider the English equivalent to be deadpan.
Ahhhh! I was so surprised when the vid ended I was ready for a whole deep dive and retrospective of such a bizarre discovery!!! You presented it so wonderfully, keeping the mystique, that even while listening to it in the background I was fully invested! Please, if you have the time I would love to hear more about this series or other unique games you've encountered. You have a great voice and speak clearly but not monotone or over acted. I hope you do well in whatever your endeavors may be and make more content in the future!
I’m so glad that there’s as few resources for this game as there were when I first bought it. Been waiting for a time to play it and there’s something VERY special about a game that hasn’t been documented very well that I’ve only been privileged to experience with FromSoft games when they first come out, before all the TH-cam videos and forum discussions demystifying them. This sounds like one to untangle and I love it. Infinitely grateful that we got a port to Switch. Also, this video was fab. You’ve got my sub!
What a great video! I saw Kowloon and contemplated actually buying it for a second, but it really is unlike anything I would have expected. It reminds me a bit of the older Persona / SMT games.
While i have only watched a few minutes i did want to leave this comment thanking you for bringing this gem of a game on my radar which i have purchased and been enthralled by
I saw footage of this game a while ago and forgot the name, despite wanting to play it at the time. Had no real way to look it up after the fact, though. Thank you so much!
Cool to find some one else with an interest in weird or niche games, I would love to see more videos about truly forgotten oddball titles like this! If you're looking for recommendations some games that haven't left my head are Asura's Wrath, 999, and Armored Core 1 + its expansions (I would say Deadly Premonition but it seems you've played that 😉) or if you want some really hidden stuff maybe try The Silver Case, Kaze no NOTAM, or Theresia
Props to being probably the first person on TH-cam I’ve ever seen talk about this game. I played this cause of Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters. Apparently the version that got ported to switch wasn’t even the definitive version. That came out on like the PS2 but they couldn’t port it to modern consoles because they lost like most of the data for it so they just ported the original version. If I’m correct I believe the definitive edition included even more characters and a longer storyline. Playing this and actually trying to understand anything was a nightmare because the tutorials are awful and there are hardly any guides online for this game. Also the “choice compass” (or whatever it’s called) often makes no sense and can potentially screw you out of recruiting party members or even getting a good ending if you don’t abuse save slots like a madman as there is an unseen affinity system for characters and certain reactions from the “choice compass” can either make them like you more or less. Some of the puzzles or secrets make no sense and there’s a lot of grinding. All that said it is a truly unique game and the sheer amount of possible outcomes for dialogue is nuts. I’m pretty sure there are different dialogue trees for every “choice compass” decision you make. That and the game is genuinely very funny at times. People talk about niche, this is almost as niche as it gets without learning Japanese and playing untranslated games imo. I had to restart the game like a quarter of the way through because I realized that I was supposed to be able to recruit party members. I mean this game really doesn’t explain anything. Yet somehow I managed to get a good ending. I will probably never play this game again just because of the massive time sink it became but it was wild ride of a game. The craziest part is that this game was just a spin-off of a series of games where you explore high school mystery’s and dungeon crawl with visual novel type segments. This isn’t even the considered part of the main series.
The re:charge version, done in 2006, added some extra videos (outside of the game itself), more items, more quest givers (including a character that Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters references), a randomized extra dungeon, the ability to recruit four more characters (the spirits, the butterfly, the old treasure hunter and the butler) and an epilogue after the game with a scene with the character you have most affinity with and a general ending to the game + the ability to go to the dungeon before the night and New Game +. Nothing really substantial to the original game was added outside of the epilogue, which is rather short (Imai made an extension of it in the drama CD/booklet included in the special edition of Origin of Adventure, but I haven't read it yet), so you didn't miss out on that much, it was made for the fans.
@@zaspitarororogrunga7852 Gotcha, much appreciated. I remember reading about the stuff that was added to the definitive version but I couldn’t remember what was all added.
14:08 I have no problem with understanding (or at least I think I do) "cold" option. Cold demeanour would be deadpan, emotionless response, think about all the ice-related proverbs, "in cold blood", "cold-hearted", all the "Ice Queen" insults etc. With "Hot" I admit it is a little confusing, because the word alone can mean something sexually, or just serve as direct opposite of "cold", so very emotional, HOTheaded response, but I have a feeling "hot" here means for "spicy", which would cover both flirting and bold, arrogant responses.
I could write a novella about my thoughts on this game, heard about it on a /v/ obscure game thread and was enamored through just the presentation of the main menu alone. It's a game best experienced as blind as possible, and I'm glad the video appreciates that fact. I want to explain the emotion wheel a bit more, once you get past the awkward translation and, to an extent, presentation to an English audience, it's a pretty fun and intuitive system. The outer emotions are more extreme versions of the inner emotions. Say, Amity is a "friendly" response, "Hot" is a "fervid" response. That alone helps make the system a lot more understandable, but some of the more nuanced feelings expressed by the Kanji are definitely lost. I was able to get through the game blind without double checking the kanji on the Japanese version, but here's some rough translations and explanations from how I interpreted they were used in the game with some help from Jisho's kanji translations. No specific examples so you'll still be blind, but you'll at least have an idea of where to put your feet. A little jingle after your choice means you chose a good response. And don't worry too much, most of the time there are multiple "correct" options. Most of the time. 喜/Joy: A bit vague, but generally a "happy" response. It's a bit similar to Amity, but that's more a "friendly" response over a "happy" one. "I'd like to do X" or "I liked X". 愛/Love: Usually an "I love you" or otherwise flirty response, but contextually it might be an "Out of love" or "for others" response too. It's "lovey", but not exclusively flirtatious in other words. 友/Amity: Friendly. Overall it's usually a basic "agreeable", "let's do X" or "let's be friends" option. 熱/Hot: A fervid, passionate response. Loud and proud. Sometimes detrimentally so. 憂/Grief: A better translation would be "Melancholy" instead of grief, but the former wouldn't fit on the UI. A despondent response. Contextually it may sometimes be a serious disagreement, or a disagreement with a twinge of sadness. Think "Why would you do that?" 悲/Somber: Sad, regretful, or mourning. If Grief is being a bit sad, Somber is outright being sorrowful. 寒/Cold: A bit weird. I don't remember using it much outside of a more gentle "No, let's not" in my playthrough, whenever I felt that Anger or Grief wasn't the right call for a situation, or sometimes a "Come on, man". Jisho also describes the kanji as "uninterested", so it matches up about with the results I got using it. 怒/Anger: Outside of the obvious, the kanji also refers to the tone you'd use to scold someone. Think a "No you dumbass, don't do that" or "There's a reason I'm doing this" option on top of just general anger. Likely not perfect translations, but hopefully it helps anyone who's interested in the game.
You mixed up Grief and Somber. Nice work, though! Although I don't know if it needed explaining, the words (outside of "hot") explain themselves, imo, and the translation, at least of the emotion wheel, was done as well as possible. All the words were chosen pretty thoughtfully and I almost never thought "ah this implementation didn't make sense" imo. Like, the video and your comment do bring up the necessary point about translation missing some subtleties, but I believe you're mystifying it a little (specially the video maker)... outside of the initial impression I never considered that the wheel would need more than intuition on the usage of words to function.
I impulse purchased this game like a few years ago and I haven't played it. I saw the thumbnail and was like "Whoa, wait, that game wasn't just a fever and or stress dream?" Thanks man! I might have to try it out after this!
Ngl this looks sick, and the fact that there's at least 7 games (one of which I had in my wishlist already) is pretty exciting. I have to check if there are any translations for the main series.
You know, Kowloon is a big district of Hong Kong, and the Walled City was just a small part of that. No reason that I can see to assume it refers to the latter.
Appreciate the shoutout to Betrayal at Krondor. I don’t know if it’s possible to recreate the feeling of playing this game on your family’s 486, no gamefaqs or Nintendo Power to help you out, and forget about having another classmate who’s even heard of it.
Kowloon is a full on area in hong kong still standing today instead of just the kowloon walled city that is taken down in the 90s. I was born in Kowloon city and Kowloon is a much larger area like Brooklyn, NY
It's an amazing game, and it actually has some resources via two japanese wikis. One is really google translate friendly, but unfinished, and the other one gives you a bunch of nonsense that you must parse for yourself if you translate it, but it's actually finished. One of my favorite games for sure
This is a game I had never heard of or would have given it a second thought...that is until I saw this video. Fantastic essay on this game. This is one of those game I would love to have a physical copy of.
I found your channel thanks to this video, and I clicked on this video because I picked up Kowloon High School Chronicle about a year ago on the switch, and still haven't played it. It was fascinating that such a game not only got a release in english finally, but they released it physical on the switch in europe, so I had to get it. A really enjoyable video on this baffling game, you definitely made me all the more eager to finally play it (with a guide, hopefully). I really like your style!
For some reason that part about tennis balls reminded me of "why is it that these squiggle lines hurt more than my rifle shells". I've played the ghost hunting game. It's pretty much a supernatural tactics game with a prep phase (like buying some convenience store salt and blocking doorways with it). And for some reason they would play an end credits sequence at the end of every chapter like it's Alan Wake. Well I'm interested.
I got this on a sale and never tried it out, you've definitely convinced me now though. I played Tokyo Twilight years ago and didn't understand any of it so maybe I'll try that too
I'm no good at dungeon crawlers, but I had to at least pick this up for a rainy day, since thematically, this is so up my alley, like something I would want or make but doesn't exist. Except it DOES.
this kinda content is my absolute favorite, so glad this got recommended. thanks for sharing this awesome game with us all, this vid was a great watch👍❤️
11k in 6 days, good job! You should probably make a guide or walkthrough for this game soon, seems like a good number of people are interested in playing it.
Weird Games are literally my favorite genre. Games like LsD Dream Emulator, Yume Nikki, Killer7 and Cruelty Squad have been some of my favorite games of all time and first-person dungeon crawlers have always been one of my favorite genres as well. Mostly early Shin Megami Tensei games, the ones in first person. This seems like a game that would be right up my alley so thanks a lot for showing this ;) Also I can't accentuate how well done the video is. Great work on everything related to the documentation and your journey with this game just seems insane. I see a very good future for the channel and hope to see more from ya! As someone managing a channel for about a year I love finding channels like this!
Hi! I'm a bit confused by your video. A few things, with spoilers for those reading without playing the game: "Kowloon" is sort of a passing reference to the Kowloon Walled City if you interpret it that way (in that the game is about a secluded community) but, in a twist of a homonym (things of the japanese language, as you allude in your video), is specified to be about a homophonic reading of 九 as 久 (from 9 to eternal), and 龍 as its normal reading as dragon thus bam "eternal dragon" - "Kowloon" (for good measure, it's also a nine headed dragon, as the logo of the game shows), which is considered a god in this game. This god is said to shift culturally through time from Egypt to Japan through India and China, but in essence it's the same as "Arahabaki", which is, according to a character, a portmanteau of the arabic words for "god" and "eternal", meaning they have the same identity. This identity is not of a god however but of a civilization of advanced/alien creatures that existed in Japan and helped establish what could be called the foundations of the Japanese nation by backstabbing the Jomon and their leader Nagasunehiko. These advanced creatures in their pursuit of knowledge through genetic alterations to ancient peoples were disseminating their knowledge in the form of huge structures with implied treasure inside them across the world, 9 in total apparently. That's the whole meaning of Kowloon in this game. This is said explicitly in the 10th episode and the ending section, I believe. All the status effects are explained in the tutorial menu about basic explainers on the game systems, both to enemies and to the self. I am surprised this is one of the cryptic parts of the game to you, since it's clearly laid out in plain text and pictures in a "Help" section within one of the main menus of the game. Every puzzle is also clearly delineated, hell, explained, in the stone slabs in every single screen they are on (its readability being dependant on a school stat, also, but that is also laid out clearly in the stats section, History if I remember correctly). This is not to say there isn't strange stuff in this game you've got to figure out for yourself completely, like the way one is to find riddles in specific non descript patches on the walls throughout the dungeon that lead to getting extra ringtones for when you get emails throughout the game (only signalled through a "ding" sound when you're facing the specific wall), if you submit the correct object to the riddle, that is; or the way the home economics stat works in relation to "improving cooking" (sounds logical enough but you never think about it until you can't cook sushi in any way); or how different stats (and thus how different stat configurations with the companions) lead to finding different stuff in the school (have you found cheese? hahahahaha). A testament of this game's depth of curiosities is that I still don't know how to have the extended ending with Minakami, who is easily the most popular character, and I've played the shit out of this game. The emotion input system is not that weird imo? Maybe it's because english is not my only known language (or my first as you may have sussed out) but a "cold response" is clearly understandable intuitively. Hell, "coldly" is only reported in both the Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries for its paralinguistic meaning ("in a way that shows lack of affection, kindness, sympathy, or feeling:", according to Cambridge). Grief is a higher emotion than somberness, clearly, right? The game delineates this as having the emotions in groups of two and making the most intense ones harder to reach (by pressing on the button more). "Hot" as a passionate, enthusiastic or excited response is the only thing that took some work for me to understand (it helps that in the text log it's presented as "Zeal", which is a much more appropiate word). As someone who has pretty much catalogued every response to every input in a chapter, they tend to be very coherent to the context you're in and the character you're talking to (for example, Minakami dislikes high emotion but Yachiho favours that kind of response, to mention two early characters). It's not consistent but hey, that's one of the core tenets of the game: Social life is ambiguous and fiddly, there is no single right answer to a situation most of the time and different people respond to things differently in different times. You can and will look like a moron if you don't read the room. Intuition is key. Last thing for me would be that the game is not thaaat rare, you know. Not to an eldritch extent, I mean. It underperformed in Japan, but it has a pretty steady cult following. There are japanese artists drawing pictures of Minakami every other day on Pixiv and Twitter consistently since those platforms exist until... yesterday I think, and there is a huge gap between the last release of the game in 2006 and the release of the remaster in 2019, all filled with fanart (also fan videos in NicoNicoDouga). It is an Atlus distributed game, and the remaster was bankrolled by Arc System Works, which are not exactly indie publishers; Shuuhou Imai is a pretty established figure as a game director and writer (check out Gal Metal if you get the chance hahahaha). I'm glad to see non-japanese people talk about this game, even if I have my qualms with your video (finish the game!), the game is a tough nut and requires a lot of dedication to get into its wavelength (I strongly disagree about it requiring a guide as many people say, though... Just approach things differently until something's right imo. Game rewards experimentation and involvement, and streamlining it through a guide will flatten its qualities) and I'm always interested to see new perspectives on it, since it means more people are getting to enjoy it, specially since it is its 20th anniversary this year 🥳. I really love this game but I always lack precise words to explain why it is so good, and you've said something interesting when you mentioned Kowloon being something that "changes you", somehow. Thus, nice effort! Hope you have a nice day!
@@LegalPhantom I wouldn't say this is a lack of translation issue, since there are no untranslated parts in the game itself (except the credits, which is annoying) and all the things I mention outside of the status of the game's popularity are just explicitly in the text of the game (doesn't even need careful reading, every episode has one or two "hey, have you heard about the Malleus Malleficarum?" moments in which a certain character sits down with you and does a quick explainer on some interesting thing, like dunno biotides, voodooism or qi) . Unless you mean something else?
found this video because they put one of the games in the series OST on the Atlus Sound Team spotify. I was amazed to learn of this expansive series. I remembered seeing Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters in stores and would have never guessed it was part of something like this.
Japanese exclusive is code for "Your about to see some weird, essoteric shit" I come to realize. Conceptually I like this game. Mechanically I can see some tweaks one could make which would be rather simple I feel. The emotion wheel I like. Reminds of that talk gauge from the Sakura Wars games where you have to time the intencity of your words from a moving gauge but just more thought out. Add more clear text or maybe have a tutorial explanation for it at the beginning that uses colors to represent the words for clearer UI. The combat seems fun actually. At most it probably want the characters to saw something to explain what they are inflicted with or add effects to clearly show the alligment your under as to not mess with the atmosphere of the game. I thought I recognized that goth girl from somewhere. I remember seeing her on the Visual Novel Database years back as freshman in high school. The aesthetics good. Honestly the UI elements are rather charming and reminds me of a tweet I saw recently of a mech game for PS1 that has a girl in her mech and you choose what to do from that as a menu while shes facing you and she reacts based on your choice. The girl shown was a tsundere but you could use others. VN's in general seem to have a lot of random things attached to them that make them really intresting to look into. Like an old school Doom clone, multiple tactics games, a fighting game with a completely second disc thats a school life sim that ends up being mostly an otome game with how many male options you would have to date and medical simulator.
Playing this game is kinda like reading some old Lovecraft monster description, you will attempt to understand it as far as you can, however, to no avail.
That was a fuckin' trip. Though not in the same, 'genre,' give El Shaddai: Rise of the Metatron a look-see. Very weird devil may cry/God of War type Japanese game that's based on the Dead Sea Scrolls concerning Enoch, grandfather of Noah. It's fuckin' bananas man.
woah i didn't know there's a game even about like.. kowloon. i was too hyperfixated on this shit for too long, and it was worth my time. pretty interesting topic to learn about
This is a trip! What you are describing sounds weird enough as it is, but your visuals mostly switch to static and blank screen. Were you meant to put game footage there? ...nah, kidding, this actually looks and sounds like an interesting game to try--albeit a bit of a pain in some of the aspects you described, such as the obtuse status effects. Side note, my take on "hot" and "cold" emotional responses would be something like the following. Hot is explosive, aggressive or assertive, bordering on violent expression; think "hot-headed." Cold is the opposite: calculated, emotionless, clinical, often callous or at least coming off as such. The type of response that makes one go "Dayum dude, dat's *cold* ". Think "cold-blooded."
If you love weird games, have you ever heard of "Millenia: Altered Destinies"? It literally cannot be pigeonboxed into any genre, there have never been a game like that since (or before, for that matter), it is truly one-of-a-kind.
I got Tokyo twilight ghost hunters when I was 19 I wanna say. The game is extremely short, nonsensical (not half as much as Kowloon though), and isn’t particularly enjoyable. Like the game prides itself on its social link type system, but the only interactions you have with your friends outside of the story is in a short two sentence chat you can have between missions.
Algorithm got me eatin fine local cuisine lately
Supporting the small businesses kinda deal
Feel like I’m shoppin at a local farmers market fr
So I looked up those kanji for the hot and cold prompts from the JP version and this is what i found out. The Cold response (寒) can be used to insinuate that you find something uninteresting, or dull.
As for the Hot response (燃) it can mean that you are fired up, enthusiastic etc.
I'd probably have chosen apathy for cold and passion for hot, but I can see why they went with shorter words as it gets really cluttered.
I mean Cold and Hot-Blooded are english sayings so they still fit
Yeah cold and hot is a common term in English so it’s interesting it is used in Japanese too
It is a miracle that I was recommended this video. This is exactly the sort of topic I love, but alas the mysteries of Kowloon shall still allude me.
Make sense it was recommended to you if it's something you're interested in (that's how the youtube algorithm works)
I've beaten Kowloon last spring, and from that point I can't get it out of my head. The vibes are immaculate, the gameplay is addictive, and the characters are living breathing humans, man. I love everyone and everything in this game. Great video, thank you for spreading the word about this wonderful game
on which system?
@kidrobot. on pc. It's available on Steam
@@kidrobot. on pc. It's available on Steam
I'm so glad you mentioned it, because as I was watching through your video I was like "Holy shit this feels a lot like Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters," and wow, to find out that it's a spin-off of a much larger franchise is really cool! I haven't finished TTGH but it's also very weird. It was a similar dialogue system, which was the first thing that clued me in on the similarities, but the actual ghost hunting gameplay is totally and completely different, unlike anything I've ever played. Definitely recommend trying it out! I'll take a look at this one on the Switch, too! I would have never known this without your video, so thanks!
Video just showed up in recommended. Didn’t know I would get a history lesson and strange introduction to a strange game.
10/10 man
I love these obscure games that feel like cursed objects you aren’t sure actually existed. I have to check this out now
How fascinating! I purchased Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters for the Vita years ago, and throughout the video kept thinking some of the mechanics reminded me of that game, can’t believe they are connected! I’m also blown away that they are spinoffs of Tokyo Majin Gakuen. The anime for that series was the first anime I ever watched. Really cool video!
This is incredible quality for 36 views bruh. Your speaking voice, editing, and ability to explain how this weird shit works are beyond professional. I hope I get to see you in the big leagues soon
I hope you generate enough revenue to lead a comforting and fulfilling life. But because the 'big leagues' usually corrupt creativity and the human spirit I'll simply say this: -
I hope your time on this platform equates to a healthy and meaningful Springboard into a future you can be proud of.
I mean I think the algorithm is starting to pick up on this, never heard of this guy but it showed up and I watched the whole thing. Quality material
I'm blown away by the quality man. Keep working like you are and you'll have the following you want man
@@MisterDramastic not really
bruh bruh bruh
Bro was fishing and caught an eldritch horror
This game is fucking amazing and VN/dungeon crawler fans should be required to play it. It's insanely addictive, the characters are a lot of fun, the dialogue system is unique and encourages experimentation, and the soundtrack is phenomenal. One of the best games I've played in recent memory. As someone else said in the comments, since playing it, I think two years ago now, it has not left my mind. Incredible game.
that's how I feel about White Album 2.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 man, here too? 😂😂😂😂😂
@@kimmik3602 I think about it every day.
I fw this game down to like really specific things that would prolly be off putting to a good portion of people
Like I really love how the pics for the VN sections are just real life pictures inside a school I genuinely love that
this game looks like a game that aliens would send back to us after studying us from afar
The structure of it being half visual novel half first person dungeon crawler with turn based combat reminds me, at least superficially, of Persona 1
Well Persona 1 and 2 (is and EP) are also really weird.
Before Persona there was a bunch of games of the same structure. You know what they say, p*rn moves innovation, tons of doujins has these gameplay innovations years before. Persona just cleaned the dirty up. There are still tons of great eroge games with great gameplay stuff but with terrible narratives hahahah.
was thinking the exact same thing
But you can't crabwalk at hyperspeed, this isn't Persona 1-like at all!
I'd love to know more. can you name some?@@crybirb
This game has been on my Switch wishlist for a while now... i had no idea it was this weird. I'm intrigued. Great video 😃
The lack of a walkthrough is the reason I got stuck in my first playthrough about a year ago - might give it another shot since the game is just so damn fascinating and the artstyle so beautiful
Revenge of the sun fish is stranger.
My guess would be that cold would sort of be the "I don't care" option
That would make sense; another thing I didn't consider is that the English version probably needed a limit on the letters, so they couldn't use a more specific word like "affable" or "unconcerned"
It's more of an indication of tone, not feeling. It's not to say someone does not care, but that their response is not expressive or emotive. I would consider the English equivalent to be deadpan.
Ahhhh! I was so surprised when the vid ended I was ready for a whole deep dive and retrospective of such a bizarre discovery!!! You presented it so wonderfully, keeping the mystique, that even while listening to it in the background I was fully invested! Please, if you have the time I would love to hear more about this series or other unique games you've encountered. You have a great voice and speak clearly but not monotone or over acted. I hope you do well in whatever your endeavors may be and make more content in the future!
Shoutout to Betrayal at Krondor, a game that’s haunted me for 30 years and I’ve never gotten around to finishing. Someday…
the artstyle of the VN section is charming
This is one of the best, most informative review I've seen this year.
Learnt about the game, but also Japanese culture and history.
Subbed!
I'm glad this showed up in my recommendations. I hope you make some more videos like this in the future.
This is so cool, the quality of your channel is great, hope you keep making content and keep on growing!
subscribed cuz u just taught me about an entire franchise of weird games ive never heard of❤❤
I love stumbling on a channel right before it takes off. Great stuff!
I’m so glad that there’s as few resources for this game as there were when I first bought it. Been waiting for a time to play it and there’s something VERY special about a game that hasn’t been documented very well that I’ve only been privileged to experience with FromSoft games when they first come out, before all the TH-cam videos and forum discussions demystifying them.
This sounds like one to untangle and I love it. Infinitely grateful that we got a port to Switch.
Also, this video was fab. You’ve got my sub!
Excellent video! Try to make more videos of the “modern-classic weird” games genre. Your narration and explanation it’s well done. Keep it going!!!
Great video man. Glad to be here from the start
If Jojo's author made video games.
What a great video! I saw Kowloon and contemplated actually buying it for a second, but it really is unlike anything I would have expected. It reminds me a bit of the older Persona / SMT games.
TTGHunters is incredibly fun - fantastic plot.
Was thinking that Kowloon sounded like that game but on crack so... makes sense they're linked.
While i have only watched a few minutes i did want to leave this comment thanking you for bringing this gem of a game on my radar which i have purchased and been enthralled by
If you have a PS4, theres another game in the series called Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters and it's dirt cheap, under $10 shipped new
I saw footage of this game a while ago and forgot the name, despite wanting to play it at the time. Had no real way to look it up after the fact, though. Thank you so much!
Hell yeah loved your Triangle strategy review, looking forward to this
My dude definitely has played my high school hero totomo
Cool to find some one else with an interest in weird or niche games, I would love to see more videos about truly forgotten oddball titles like this!
If you're looking for recommendations some games that haven't left my head are Asura's Wrath, 999, and Armored Core 1 + its expansions (I would say Deadly Premonition but it seems you've played that 😉) or if you want some really hidden stuff maybe try The Silver Case, Kaze no NOTAM, or Theresia
Props to being probably the first person on TH-cam I’ve ever seen talk about this game. I played this cause of Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters. Apparently the version that got ported to switch wasn’t even the definitive version. That came out on like the PS2 but they couldn’t port it to modern consoles because they lost like most of the data for it so they just ported the original version. If I’m correct I believe the definitive edition included even more characters and a longer storyline. Playing this and actually trying to understand anything was a nightmare because the tutorials are awful and there are hardly any guides online for this game. Also the “choice compass” (or whatever it’s called) often makes no sense and can potentially screw you out of recruiting party members or even getting a good ending if you don’t abuse save slots like a madman as there is an unseen affinity system for characters and certain reactions from the “choice compass” can either make them like you more or less. Some of the puzzles or secrets make no sense and there’s a lot of grinding. All that said it is a truly unique game and the sheer amount of possible outcomes for dialogue is nuts. I’m pretty sure there are different dialogue trees for every “choice compass” decision you make. That and the game is genuinely very funny at times. People talk about niche, this is almost as niche as it gets without learning Japanese and playing untranslated games imo. I had to restart the game like a quarter of the way through because I realized that I was supposed to be able to recruit party members. I mean this game really doesn’t explain anything. Yet somehow I managed to get a good ending. I will probably never play this game again just because of the massive time sink it became but it was wild ride of a game. The craziest part is that this game was just a spin-off of a series of games where you explore high school mystery’s and dungeon crawl with visual novel type segments. This isn’t even the considered part of the main series.
The re:charge version, done in 2006, added some extra videos (outside of the game itself), more items, more quest givers (including a character that Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters references), a randomized extra dungeon, the ability to recruit four more characters (the spirits, the butterfly, the old treasure hunter and the butler) and an epilogue after the game with a scene with the character you have most affinity with and a general ending to the game + the ability to go to the dungeon before the night and New Game +. Nothing really substantial to the original game was added outside of the epilogue, which is rather short (Imai made an extension of it in the drama CD/booklet included in the special edition of Origin of Adventure, but I haven't read it yet), so you didn't miss out on that much, it was made for the fans.
@@zaspitarororogrunga7852 Gotcha, much appreciated. I remember reading about the stuff that was added to the definitive version but I couldn’t remember what was all added.
I KNEW Tokyo twilight ghost hunters would get involved in this as soon as you mentioned the emotion wheel ong
I will be there, no matter what
I love that Kowloon, of all things and places, seems to have so inspired game developers for a while there.
14:08 I have no problem with understanding (or at least I think I do) "cold" option. Cold demeanour would be deadpan, emotionless response, think about all the ice-related proverbs, "in cold blood", "cold-hearted", all the "Ice Queen" insults etc.
With "Hot" I admit it is a little confusing, because the word alone can mean something sexually, or just serve as direct opposite of "cold", so very emotional, HOTheaded response, but I have a feeling "hot" here means for "spicy", which would cover both flirting and bold, arrogant responses.
I could write a novella about my thoughts on this game, heard about it on a /v/ obscure game thread and was enamored through just the presentation of the main menu alone. It's a game best experienced as blind as possible, and I'm glad the video appreciates that fact. I want to explain the emotion wheel a bit more, once you get past the awkward translation and, to an extent, presentation to an English audience, it's a pretty fun and intuitive system.
The outer emotions are more extreme versions of the inner emotions. Say, Amity is a "friendly" response, "Hot" is a "fervid" response. That alone helps make the system a lot more understandable, but some of the more nuanced feelings expressed by the Kanji are definitely lost. I was able to get through the game blind without double checking the kanji on the Japanese version, but here's some rough translations and explanations from how I interpreted they were used in the game with some help from Jisho's kanji translations. No specific examples so you'll still be blind, but you'll at least have an idea of where to put your feet. A little jingle after your choice means you chose a good response. And don't worry too much, most of the time there are multiple "correct" options. Most of the time.
喜/Joy: A bit vague, but generally a "happy" response. It's a bit similar to Amity, but that's more a "friendly" response over a "happy" one. "I'd like to do X" or "I liked X".
愛/Love: Usually an "I love you" or otherwise flirty response, but contextually it might be an "Out of love" or "for others" response too. It's "lovey", but not exclusively flirtatious in other words.
友/Amity: Friendly. Overall it's usually a basic "agreeable", "let's do X" or "let's be friends" option.
熱/Hot: A fervid, passionate response. Loud and proud. Sometimes detrimentally so.
憂/Grief: A better translation would be "Melancholy" instead of grief, but the former wouldn't fit on the UI. A despondent response. Contextually it may sometimes be a serious disagreement, or a disagreement with a twinge of sadness. Think "Why would you do that?"
悲/Somber: Sad, regretful, or mourning. If Grief is being a bit sad, Somber is outright being sorrowful.
寒/Cold: A bit weird. I don't remember using it much outside of a more gentle "No, let's not" in my playthrough, whenever I felt that Anger or Grief wasn't the right call for a situation, or sometimes a "Come on, man". Jisho also describes the kanji as "uninterested", so it matches up about with the results I got using it.
怒/Anger: Outside of the obvious, the kanji also refers to the tone you'd use to scold someone. Think a "No you dumbass, don't do that" or "There's a reason I'm doing this" option on top of just general anger.
Likely not perfect translations, but hopefully it helps anyone who's interested in the game.
You mixed up Grief and Somber. Nice work, though! Although I don't know if it needed explaining, the words (outside of "hot") explain themselves, imo, and the translation, at least of the emotion wheel, was done as well as possible. All the words were chosen pretty thoughtfully and I almost never thought "ah this implementation didn't make sense" imo. Like, the video and your comment do bring up the necessary point about translation missing some subtleties, but I believe you're mystifying it a little (specially the video maker)... outside of the initial impression I never considered that the wheel would need more than intuition on the usage of words to function.
Glad YT Recommended me.
I wanted to learn about this game more than just cursory information.
Amazing video!
I love learning about weird games. Hope to see more videos like this from you in the future. Glad YT recommended you.
commenting to boost engagement, this deserves to be seen.
This feels like a game you’d play in a dream and never be able to convey the feeling of to anyone once you’d awakened
In the PS1/PS2 era we were awash in the weird game genre. Who else remembers Mr. Mosquito?
One of the few Eidos 'Fresh' Games when it came here with the yellow box dressing
This already make the second time today that TH-cam recommended me a video based on an RPG I have never even heard of and honestly I need more of it
I’ve subscribed now for more weird games. I might not like to play them myself, but I sure do love to hear other people talk about them.
Scrounging around for random video essays on obscure games to sustain me through this shift. This is a gemmy one
I impulse purchased this game like a few years ago and I haven't played it. I saw the thumbnail and was like "Whoa, wait, that game wasn't just a fever and or stress dream?" Thanks man! I might have to try it out after this!
Damn for a small channel the quality of the video is really good especially the audio haha
I'm surprised you only have 900 subs. Your channel is pretty quality! I'm glad that this game is getting coverage.
Great video essay on a game that I've never heard of. But now I want to experience it.
algorithm doing god's work today
TH-cam have been doing well with these recommendations lately , great video, man. I really hope to see more like these from you.
Ngl this looks sick, and the fact that there's at least 7 games (one of which I had in my wishlist already) is pretty exciting. I have to check if there are any translations for the main series.
You know, Kowloon is a big district of Hong Kong, and the Walled City was just a small part of that. No reason that I can see to assume it refers to the latter.
Appreciate the shoutout to Betrayal at Krondor. I don’t know if it’s possible to recreate the feeling of playing this game on your family’s 486, no gamefaqs or Nintendo Power to help you out, and forget about having another classmate who’s even heard of it.
I don’t know how the algorithm brought me here but damn glad it has. I’m all in for stuff like this.
This looks and sounds like the SMT spin-off game that never was.
Kowloon is a full on area in hong kong still standing today instead of just the kowloon walled city that is taken down in the 90s. I was born in Kowloon city and Kowloon is a much larger area like Brooklyn, NY
Congrats, your video on super weirdly niche content has sort of blown up a bit. Nice video well put together.
It's an amazing game, and it actually has some resources via two japanese wikis. One is really google translate friendly, but unfinished, and the other one gives you a bunch of nonsense that you must parse for yourself if you translate it, but it's actually finished.
One of my favorite games for sure
I was always more of an Antara fan, but a Krondor reference is an instant sub from me!
This is a game I had never heard of or would have given it a second thought...that is until I saw this video. Fantastic essay on this game. This is one of those game I would love to have a physical copy of.
sheep..
...jk
I found your channel thanks to this video, and I clicked on this video because I picked up Kowloon High School Chronicle about a year ago on the switch, and still haven't played it. It was fascinating that such a game not only got a release in english finally, but they released it physical on the switch in europe, so I had to get it. A really enjoyable video on this baffling game, you definitely made me all the more eager to finally play it (with a guide, hopefully). I really like your style!
For some reason that part about tennis balls reminded me of "why is it that these squiggle lines hurt more than my rifle shells".
I've played the ghost hunting game. It's pretty much a supernatural tactics game with a prep phase (like buying some convenience store salt and blocking doorways with it). And for some reason they would play an end credits sequence at the end of every chapter like it's Alan Wake.
Well I'm interested.
I got this on a sale and never tried it out, you've definitely convinced me now though. I played Tokyo Twilight years ago and didn't understand any of it so maybe I'll try that too
I'm no good at dungeon crawlers, but I had to at least pick this up for a rainy day, since thematically, this is so up my alley, like something I would want or make but doesn't exist. Except it DOES.
this kinda content is my absolute favorite, so glad this got recommended. thanks for sharing this awesome game with us all, this vid was a great watch👍❤️
This is exceptionally well done, kudos
Gotta thank TH-cam for this perfect recommendation. Amazing work man, definitely subbing for more!
11k in 6 days, good job! You should probably make a guide or walkthrough for this game soon, seems like a good number of people are interested in playing it.
Weird Games are literally my favorite genre. Games like LsD Dream Emulator, Yume Nikki, Killer7 and Cruelty Squad have been some of my favorite games of all time and first-person dungeon crawlers have always been one of my favorite genres as well. Mostly early Shin Megami Tensei games, the ones in first person.
This seems like a game that would be right up my alley so thanks a lot for showing this ;)
Also I can't accentuate how well done the video is. Great work on everything related to the documentation and your journey with this game just seems insane. I see a very good future for the channel and hope to see more from ya! As someone managing a channel for about a year I love finding channels like this!
You may enjoy Cute Knight
i like that all the videos recommended from this are triangle strategy related
This game is a certified "0 out of 10, best game ever"
Hi! I'm a bit confused by your video. A few things, with spoilers for those reading without playing the game:
"Kowloon" is sort of a passing reference to the Kowloon Walled City if you interpret it that way (in that the game is about a secluded community) but, in a twist of a homonym (things of the japanese language, as you allude in your video), is specified to be about a homophonic reading of 九 as 久 (from 9 to eternal), and 龍 as its normal reading as dragon thus bam "eternal dragon" - "Kowloon" (for good measure, it's also a nine headed dragon, as the logo of the game shows), which is considered a god in this game. This god is said to shift culturally through time from Egypt to Japan through India and China, but in essence it's the same as "Arahabaki", which is, according to a character, a portmanteau of the arabic words for "god" and "eternal", meaning they have the same identity. This identity is not of a god however but of a civilization of advanced/alien creatures that existed in Japan and helped establish what could be called the foundations of the Japanese nation by backstabbing the Jomon and their leader Nagasunehiko. These advanced creatures in their pursuit of knowledge through genetic alterations to ancient peoples were disseminating their knowledge in the form of huge structures with implied treasure inside them across the world, 9 in total apparently. That's the whole meaning of Kowloon in this game. This is said explicitly in the 10th episode and the ending section, I believe.
All the status effects are explained in the tutorial menu about basic explainers on the game systems, both to enemies and to the self. I am surprised this is one of the cryptic parts of the game to you, since it's clearly laid out in plain text and pictures in a "Help" section within one of the main menus of the game. Every puzzle is also clearly delineated, hell, explained, in the stone slabs in every single screen they are on (its readability being dependant on a school stat, also, but that is also laid out clearly in the stats section, History if I remember correctly). This is not to say there isn't strange stuff in this game you've got to figure out for yourself completely, like the way one is to find riddles in specific non descript patches on the walls throughout the dungeon that lead to getting extra ringtones for when you get emails throughout the game (only signalled through a "ding" sound when you're facing the specific wall), if you submit the correct object to the riddle, that is; or the way the home economics stat works in relation to "improving cooking" (sounds logical enough but you never think about it until you can't cook sushi in any way); or how different stats (and thus how different stat configurations with the companions) lead to finding different stuff in the school (have you found cheese? hahahahaha). A testament of this game's depth of curiosities is that I still don't know how to have the extended ending with Minakami, who is easily the most popular character, and I've played the shit out of this game.
The emotion input system is not that weird imo? Maybe it's because english is not my only known language (or my first as you may have sussed out) but a "cold response" is clearly understandable intuitively. Hell, "coldly" is only reported in both the Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries for its paralinguistic meaning ("in a way that shows lack of affection, kindness, sympathy, or feeling:", according to Cambridge). Grief is a higher emotion than somberness, clearly, right? The game delineates this as having the emotions in groups of two and making the most intense ones harder to reach (by pressing on the button more). "Hot" as a passionate, enthusiastic or excited response is the only thing that took some work for me to understand (it helps that in the text log it's presented as "Zeal", which is a much more appropiate word). As someone who has pretty much catalogued every response to every input in a chapter, they tend to be very coherent to the context you're in and the character you're talking to (for example, Minakami dislikes high emotion but Yachiho favours that kind of response, to mention two early characters). It's not consistent but hey, that's one of the core tenets of the game: Social life is ambiguous and fiddly, there is no single right answer to a situation most of the time and different people respond to things differently in different times. You can and will look like a moron if you don't read the room. Intuition is key.
Last thing for me would be that the game is not thaaat rare, you know. Not to an eldritch extent, I mean. It underperformed in Japan, but it has a pretty steady cult following. There are japanese artists drawing pictures of Minakami every other day on Pixiv and Twitter consistently since those platforms exist until... yesterday I think, and there is a huge gap between the last release of the game in 2006 and the release of the remaster in 2019, all filled with fanart (also fan videos in NicoNicoDouga). It is an Atlus distributed game, and the remaster was bankrolled by Arc System Works, which are not exactly indie publishers; Shuuhou Imai is a pretty established figure as a game director and writer (check out Gal Metal if you get the chance hahahaha).
I'm glad to see non-japanese people talk about this game, even if I have my qualms with your video (finish the game!), the game is a tough nut and requires a lot of dedication to get into its wavelength (I strongly disagree about it requiring a guide as many people say, though... Just approach things differently until something's right imo. Game rewards experimentation and involvement, and streamlining it through a guide will flatten its qualities) and I'm always interested to see new perspectives on it, since it means more people are getting to enjoy it, specially since it is its 20th anniversary this year 🥳. I really love this game but I always lack precise words to explain why it is so good, and you've said something interesting when you mentioned Kowloon being something that "changes you", somehow. Thus, nice effort! Hope you have a nice day!
A TH-camr not doing even an inch of research and looking for translation help for a video? Color me surprised
@@LegalPhantom I wouldn't say this is a lack of translation issue, since there are no untranslated parts in the game itself (except the credits, which is annoying) and all the things I mention outside of the status of the game's popularity are just explicitly in the text of the game (doesn't even need careful reading, every episode has one or two "hey, have you heard about the Malleus Malleficarum?" moments in which a certain character sits down with you and does a quick explainer on some interesting thing, like dunno biotides, voodooism or qi) . Unless you mean something else?
+1 for saying what was also in my brain. thanks for sharing knowledge
Bruh you ain’t gotta type all of that
@@kilgoretrout8896 Don't know why not hahahaha. Have a nice day.
This looks right up my alley. I find OOPARTs fascinating so the fact that this game uses them as a plot point is pretty cool.
found this video because they put one of the games in the series OST on the Atlus Sound Team spotify. I was amazed to learn of this expansive series. I remembered seeing Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters in stores and would have never guessed it was part of something like this.
This could be a SMT spin-off game
Awesome video I’d love to see you review the other games in the series
Yup...just came across this video, felt exactly like my long ago high school experience in the Kowloon area 😂
Wow, an Armed Police Batrider reference? This here is a man of good taste.
Japanese exclusive is code for "Your about to see some weird, essoteric shit" I come to realize.
Conceptually I like this game. Mechanically I can see some tweaks one could make which would be rather simple I feel.
The emotion wheel I like. Reminds of that talk gauge from the Sakura Wars games where you have to time the intencity of your words from a moving gauge but just more thought out. Add more clear text or maybe have a tutorial explanation for it at the beginning that uses colors to represent the words for clearer UI.
The combat seems fun actually. At most it probably want the characters to saw something to explain what they are inflicted with or add effects to clearly show the alligment your under as to not mess with the atmosphere of the game.
I thought I recognized that goth girl from somewhere. I remember seeing her on the Visual Novel Database years back as freshman in high school. The aesthetics good.
Honestly the UI elements are rather charming and reminds me of a tweet I saw recently of a mech game for PS1 that has a girl in her mech and you choose what to do from that as a menu while shes facing you and she reacts based on your choice. The girl shown was a tsundere but you could use others.
VN's in general seem to have a lot of random things attached to them that make them really intresting to look into. Like an old school Doom clone, multiple tactics games, a fighting game with a completely second disc thats a school life sim that ends up being mostly an otome game with how many male options you would have to date and medical simulator.
Playing this game is kinda like reading some old Lovecraft monster description, you will attempt to understand it as far as you can, however, to no avail.
I love weird games too, I recommend looking up Kowloon’s Gate
This was a fantastic watch!
Great storytelling and editing! I look forward to you next video. Subbed.
That was a fuckin' trip. Though not in the same, 'genre,' give El Shaddai: Rise of the Metatron a look-see. Very weird devil may cry/God of War type Japanese game that's based on the Dead Sea Scrolls concerning Enoch, grandfather of Noah. It's fuckin' bananas man.
This game is actually got some great systems lol 😂
woah i didn't know there's a game even about like.. kowloon. i was too hyperfixated on this shit for too long, and it was worth my time. pretty interesting topic to learn about
Thanks for this wonderful video, sai!
Great video, hope you get that limelight and more!
This is a trip! What you are describing sounds weird enough as it is, but your visuals mostly switch to static and blank screen. Were you meant to put game footage there?
...nah, kidding, this actually looks and sounds like an interesting game to try--albeit a bit of a pain in some of the aspects you described, such as the obtuse status effects.
Side note, my take on "hot" and "cold" emotional responses would be something like the following.
Hot is explosive, aggressive or assertive, bordering on violent expression; think "hot-headed."
Cold is the opposite: calculated, emotionless, clinical, often callous or at least coming off as such. The type of response that makes one go "Dayum dude, dat's *cold* ". Think "cold-blooded."
If you love weird games, have you ever heard of "Millenia: Altered Destinies"? It literally cannot be pigeonboxed into any genre, there have never been a game like that since (or before, for that matter), it is truly one-of-a-kind.
True quality video. Thank you ❤
glad I found you while your sub count is under 2k because in a year when you hit 50k, I get OG bragging rights
I got Tokyo twilight ghost hunters when I was 19 I wanna say. The game is extremely short, nonsensical (not half as much as Kowloon though), and isn’t particularly enjoyable. Like the game prides itself on its social link type system, but the only interactions you have with your friends outside of the story is in a short two sentence chat you can have between missions.