Video Game Review: Kowloon High School Chronicle

Kowloon High School Chronicle

Developer: PQube

Genre: Dungeon Crawler, RPG, Visual Vovel

Platform: Nintendo Switch

If you’ve never heard of Kowloon High School Chronicle before, that wouldn’t be a surprise. The game was never released outside of Japan and was originally released on the PS2 back in 2004. Now it’s seeing its first western release on the Nintendo Switch – but how does a game first released seventeen years ago hold up? The answer is, surprisingly well. You play the role of a treasure hunter, part of a mysterious organisation, and sent to a high school in Japan to investigate the strange ruins that lie beneath the cemetery. As you do so, supernatural mysteries surround the area, affecting the students and faculty of this odd school. Can you uncover the truth behind it all, help bring peace to the students, and of course find lots of treasure?

It’s a fun little premise, and the game has a very distinct comic-book style that bares more than a passing resemblance to Indiana Jones films, right down to the colours of the game logo. The game itself is predominantly split into two halves. The first half where you wander around the school ground, talking to the various characters and finding clues. The second half is full dungeon crawl as you investigate the ancient ruins. The dungeon crawl segments are where the game’s age really shows as it’s first-person with awkward controls much more reminiscent of old-school dungeon games than the modern fluid motions we’re more used to these days. Still, despite the clunkiness of the controls, there’s a certain charm to it and it doesn’t take too long to get the hang of once you’re used to it. Combat uses the same mechanics with your movements and actions all costing AP so you have to think strategically about how you progress – this adds an extra layer of complexity to the combat which, whilst frustrating at times makes for more dangerous fights. Boss fights in particular are usually in two stages and you really have to think carefully about your resources in the first half to make sure you’re not caught off guard later on.

The art and music are some of the strongest areas of the game and absolutely oozing with style. The music has jazzy elements and the soundtrack, in general, is absolutely killer. Mimicking anime series, each chapter in the game has a proper opening and ending which whilst odd at first, does add a nice little sense of closure to completing a segment. The art in the school segments is very reminiscent of manga styling and I personally really liked the more muted colours – some of the characters and monsters have very odd, spooky designs too which gave me huge Junji Ito vibes (Toride, I’m looking at you here), which really enhanced the more creepy elements of the story. Inside the dungeons, the art noticeably degrades in quality. The rooms looking very dated and like you’ve stepped into an old pc game.

The story itself isn’t afraid to go to dark places and despite the more action-centric plotline initially, the supernatural mysteries and the people are genuinely terrifying at times, such as one character’s complete misunderstanding of what death entails resulting in them callously inflicting pain and suffering on others. Interactions between the protagonist and other characters are similar to that of a visual novel, except that rather than giving a choice of written responses there is something like an emotion wheel – the wheel looks archaic and confusing at first but eventually it becomes clear that you’re supposed to pick an emotional response to reply to people: Joy, Love, Amity, Hot, Cool, Anger, Sombre, and Grief. It’s a little unclear at times which I suspect can be put down to the translation but it’s an interesting way to go about it.

It’s easy to see similarities between this game and other popular Japanese RPGs like the Persona series and like many of those games, the story is surprisingly long, with a whole array of side quests and even a mini-game that fill out the content further. The length however can be something of a challenge for some however, especially given the clunky controls and the fiendish difficulty of some of the puzzles. I definitely got stuck a few times and it’s not always clear of the right way forward at times. (Top tip to those struggling with compound ingredients – click the minus button on your switch controls, to bring up a list of what any item can be blended with!) The game only has a voiced Japanese cast and at times not everything is translated on the screen which can lead to some confusion.  There’s definitely a lot that the game just expects you to figure out via trial and error.

Overall this game has a lot to offer and oozes style. It comes across as rather dated at times but given how long ago it was initially released, it really does hold up well and I found a lot to love about this game.

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