Kowloon High-School Chronicle
Kowloon High-School Chronicle is a hybrid RPG, adventure, and first-person simulation game originally released in 2004 in Japan.
Treasure Hunters – Adventurers who search for buried treasure scattered around the world.
In Shinjuku, Tokyo, a young man appears as a transfer student at Kamiyoshi Academy. While he seems like a normal student, he is actually a treasure hunter. His mission is to discover a mysterious ruin hidden deep beneath the school. Accompanied by his new friends from school, he sets out to discover the mysteries of a super ancient civilization. However, numerous traps, monsters called “”Kehito”” that lurk within the ruins, and the clutches of the “”student council”” stand in his way!
Build your relationship with friends, solve puzzles, dodge traps, defeat enemies, and discover the great mysteries and treasure sealed beneath the school!
Game Discussion
Steam User 6
Obtuse? - nope.
Cryptic, demanding, thought provoking and best of all yet ironic -
Archaic by design of its reintroduction - totally.
Phenomenal dungeon crawling and puzzle solving from 2004 direct from Japan and Atlus thanks to Arc systems.
Entwining mysteries and deciphering ancient civilizations through the lens of high school students moonlighting as adventurers.
By day drama plays out as class and teachers take precedent in visual novel format, an affectionate system of conversation is simple yet emotive enough in all manners , and expect to get retorts of varying degrees.
Nighttime is for spelunking and archeology, gearing up and dungeon diving through interconnected tombs.
Shortcuts are found, walls can be blasted, floors crumbled etc.
Inventory management and crafting.
Monster diversity and status effects. Leveling, skill and ability points, and you are able to farm.
Kowloon High School Chronicle is a solid experience and the dungeons hold great trepidation and ambiance.
Steam User 3
Definitely clunky and outdated in some aspects, and I imagine this game won't appeal to a ton of people. If you're reading this review for an obscure game though, more than likely you're at least adjacent to this game's target audience. From there your enjoyment of the game will depend on how much you can tolerate a little bit of jank here and there.
Gameplay: Dungeon crawler / visual novel. But the dungeon crawling is more puzzle focused, and combat focuses more on positioning than stats. If there's one thing I'd tell anyone who plays this, max out agility/geology asap so you have more points for movement. The game is pretty easy to break though, if that's your thing, and the puzzles are pretty easy. The visual novel sections are what you'd expect, although the dialogue wheel thing is definitely confusing, and might take a bit to get the hang of.
Story: The game plays out sort of like an anime. Each chapter is a monster of the week type plot. There is an overarching plot, but that doesn't really come into the spotlight until the last couple chapters. The characters are fun to be around though, and the game being fully voiced like I mentioned helps convey their personalities.
Graphics: Character sprites are nice and dungeons have varied environments. This game originally came out in the early 2000s, so it definitely is retro.
Music: Unexpectedly good. Mash up of genres, but the combat music is jazzy.
Overall I do recommend, and if this game looks like it'd appeal to you at all, I recommend trying the game out and giving it a little bit of time to click.
Steam User 0
About 50% of the game is dedicated to dungeon crawling, the other half are the visual novel parts of the game.
The dungeon crawling and combat are both very fun, though they do start getting repetitive near the end of the game. There are some puzzles, but they are all way too easy in my opinion.
The story is mostly episodic, most chapters focus on a single new character and their problems. I like most of the characters, they have a lot of charm to them and are fun to be around.
I think it's one of those games that need to be played with a guide though, it's very easy to miss out on a lot of content of the game by picking wrong choices or not getting specific items before certain points. The subpar translation doesn't help that either.
Steam User 3
Please release the Director's Cut and other games in the series!
Steam User 0
So, I pretty much put all Arksystem works games on my wishlist. Never would I have thought this game would be made by the studio behind Tokyo Majin Kenpuchou. Well, at least I have played one of those games now. BTW this game has nothing to do with Kowloon or Hong Kong. I guess saying Nine Dragons isn't fancy enough.
As for the game it is pretty fun. The setting is a weird mix of Indiana Jones plus some mix of 90's anime with transfer students, student school council and Ooparts. Story is mainly told visual novel like with full voice acting. I also liked how it is told in a 13 episode format like an 1 season anime show complete with opening and ending.
Gameplay is first person dungeon crawler with the combat playing out in turns. Later on you can clear entire rooms within 1 turn as long as you build your character right.
The puzzles and systems of the game are really vague though. I highly recommend using a guide to play through the game if you don't to waste your time. The problem though is that the good guides are in japanese. I recommend the one on spwiki.net/kowloon.
Steam User 1
Fun and unique game. A shame this isn't way more popular.