Kowloon High School Chronicle by developer
Shout! Design Co., Ltd. (Internet Archive link)
and publisher
Arc
System Works—
Nintendo
Switch Review written by
Richard
with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Kowloon High School Chronicle is a localization I didn't know I
needed. A weird and wonky mix of Indiana Jones, Dungeon Crawler, Tomb
Raider, and Visual Novel. If that sounds like a weird mash-up, that's
because it is, but you know what? It works, and well.
KHSC is the story of a young aspiring Treasure Hunter (yes with
caps). After discovering a relic with some sort of mysterious powers
in Egypt, you are accosted by a group looking to steal the relics for
themselves. You manage to escape, and the Rosetta Organization, which
you are a newly minted member of, sends you to a highschool in Japan,
where there is supposed to be some sort of relic hidden. Upon arrival
you meet a cast of interesting characters, find out there is an
inverted pyramid type ruin beneath the high school graveyard, and do
battle against supernatural black sand that is possesing people. You
also steal anything that isn't nailed down, like a true RPG
protagonist.
Now before we get off on anything here, I'd like to note that this is
originally a PS2 game released in 2004, so before you go harshing on
it, please keep in mind that we are only now getting a port here in
North America. That being said, the game has held up well. Let's move
into what you're probably here for though: the gameplay. As you may
have picked up from the intro, KHSC is a weird mash-up of themes and
genres that surprisingly work really well together, although a bit
clunky at times. The core focus would probably be the ruin
exploration, as you are a treasure hunter after all. This is done in
a sort of traditional dungeon crawler fashion: you move around a 3D
labyrinth on a block-by-block basis, looking for the door or stairs
down to the next level.
What sets KHSC apart though is there is a large focus on puzzle
solving and movement. While inside the ruins, you have two different
states: investigation and battle. Investigation lets you examine
objects, jump and grapple, or use items. Battle mode lets you fire a
gun, throw a grenade, or wield a melee weapon. During the
investigation, you'll be tasked with solving puzzles, such as turning
or moving statues, inserting the correct object into door slots,
melting gold locks, and other various tasks. You will be climbing
ropes, jumping across pits, and throwing grenades and breakable
walls.
In combat mode you enter a turn-based battle style, but instead of
going traditional turn-based, you can still move around the room, but
performing any action, whether it be turning or moving or attacking,
consumes action points. When you run out you end your turn, or you
can end turn earlier for strategy reasons. Your main forms of combat
are the melee weapon, gun, grenade/throwable, and your up to two
assistants. Your melee weapon has a range and action point cost
depending on weapon, and can hit a different range of squares
depending on the weapon. Thankfully the little minimap shows your
attack range while your weapon is out.
Your gun also has an action point cost and range, but can also be
aimed, so you can target different areas on enemies. You should pay
attention to this because enemies will have weak points that you can
shoot for extra damage. The grenade/throwable is pretty self
explanatory: you huck something at something else. Now, the
assistants on the other hand, are friends that you can bring into the
ruins, two at max, and they give you stat adjustments, one active
skill, and one passive skill. For instance, the first partner you get
has a chance to reflect incoming ranged attacks as a passive, and has
a powerful smash attack as the active. Additionally, their stat
adjustment helps to increase your jump distance.
Speaking of stats, you do gain exp and levels from killing enemies.
Once you level up, you are awarded 5 basic stat points for your main
stats, and 3 “grade points” which you can use to increase you
grades in certain classes. This will give additional benefits, such
as increasing enemy item drops, or increasing lockpicking skill. It
can also increase quest rewards, which you may want to put some
points into, as quests are the main way to earn money. Essentially,
you can accept up to six quests from your room and when you head into
the ruins, you must perform certain actions in certain rooms to
unlock the treasure you're looking for. As an example, the very first
quest, which I still have yet to complete, is “Ground connecting
room, from the Southern Door, Daybreak Prayer”.
Now obviously enough, the middle part means I have to in front of the
Southern door in the room, and Daybreak prayer means you have to face
East for a little while. No idea where the room is though, which the
first part indicates, and I've already completed more than ten other
quests, this one is just eluding me for some reason. Once you meet
the requirements, you will see a golden glow. You can now head off to
a safe room to collect your reward, something that maybe wasn't well
explained. In a save room you can access the rewards for any side
quests you've met the requirements and send the rewards to either
your room, or into your combat vest pockets. You can now open up the
quest menu and send the rewards to the requester, who will give you
your reward. Keep in mind that occasionally quests will give more
than just the money, and that the item must be sent to the quest
giver, which can be sent from your room while in the quest menu in
the ruins. There is no time limit on the quests, but there is a fee
for checking the requirements, and for abandoning a quest.
Since I mentioned the save rooms earlier, let me tell you a bit about
how the game functions as a whole in regards to ruin exploration.
Apart from equipment, you can bring up to 15 items with you into the
ruins, and any treasure you find must be stored in your vest. This
can get a little cumbersome, but fear not, as save rooms not only
fully heal you and any damage your armour has taken, they also allow
you to access your room and deposit or pick up items. Enemies only
appear upon entrance in the ruins, so clearing a room means that room
is clear until you leave the ruins and re-enter, and bosses will also
respawn, allowing for some easy experience grinding if you are good
at them. Your buddies also have limited active actions, and save
points refresh these. Guess what also always respawns upon
re-entering the ruins? Chests! Not the pots, but the chests do.
Usually these only contain basic items or items to help complete
puzzles though, so don't go expecting to try and roll a super awesome
item by constantly refreshing chests, those are in pots.
So what happens outside of the ruins? Well, you get to talk to your
new classmates and faculty members. Say the right things and they
might get a better impression of you. And you are given a wide array
of possibilities when talking. You have 9 “emotions” that you can
respond with on a sort of compass. If you choose nothing, then you
will remain silent. Holding a direction longer gives a “stronger”
response of the same emotion. For example, left is somber to grief,
up is joy to love, right is amity to hot, and down is cold to anger.
Yes I wrote these out because they are bloody hard to read on the
compass thingy. During your breaks during class, you can explore the
school and chat with people and investigate the rooms and areas
around campus. If there is someone in the location you visit, you can
both chat with them and investigate, no one or the other.
Investigating usually turns up some rudimentary items, like
chalkboard erasers, pens, or folding chairs. Other items, like
detergent or cleaner, can be found at the pool, and may be combined
to make other items. This also works for making food through
synthesis of items.
So, because this is an older game recently ported over to NA, I can
say for certain that it isn't exactly the prettiest thing going. Is
it bad? Definitely not. Could it look better? Yes, if it were to get
a remastering, but honestly, it has its own charm as it is.
Everything in the ruins is easily enough discernible, and the
character portraits used while talking have a wide variety of poses
and emotions to display dialogue interactions. The cast is also
fairly large and unique, which provides for some interesting
conversations with some of the quirkier characters. The music is also
pretty decent for a PS2 port title, and is generally quite fitting
for the scene or area of the ruins you're exploring. It really feels
like instalments of an Indiana Jones series, especially when they
used the same font from the movies for the chapter intermission font?
MMMMMMM
I'll be perfectly honest, despite how much I really enjoyed this
title, it isn't without its flaws. The emotion wheel thing isn't
explained before you first have to interact with it, and some of the
time, I wasn't certain whether the emotion I was responding with was
in regards to the character or what was being said. For instance, if
someone said something depressing, and I reply with “Grief”, it
could be hard to tell whether my response was “I don't approve of
your statement” or “I feel sad about what you said”. After
awhile you can sort of tell how a response will roll out, but the
first few times are tricky. There is a lot that needs better
explanation in general. While a lot is handily added to your digital
notebook, there were still some aspects where I was really confused
for awhile. The game is also a little clunky, and it feels a little
awkward switching between combat and investigation while trying to
solve puzzles, and the minimap shrinks when entering combat mode,
meaning it can get really hard to see enemy icons if you aren't
playing on a TV. The amount of grenades you need also feels a little
excessive, and they start getting real pricey for anything worthwhile
for the most part.
Summary
Overall I found that Kowloon High School is a great combination of
genres rolled up in a nostalgic Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider style
package. Yes it might be a little dated looking, and it may be a
little clunky and awkward here and there, but it has a real charm
that just can't be denied. Everything from combat, to ruin
exploration, to puzzle solving has that right feeling to it that kept
me coming back for more. I seriously suggest picking this up if you
are any sort of fan of dungeon crawlers or puzzle solving games with
combat mechanics, because this was a really great adventure that felt
exactly like that: an adventure.
Score: 9 / 10
