Explore a surreal world inspired by Kowloon Walled city in this turn-based RPG inspired by Japanese games from the Dreamcast and PS1-era.
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The game starts hard as fuck with a sick cutscene montage, some genuinly impressive in game world TV advertisements, and a well written dark parody image board.
That set my expectations high: Crass but pointed writing, packed in wildly unpredicable aesthetics.
Unfortunately, we never hit those highs again. While I vibe with the visuals a lot (very Umurangi Generations), we never really get any closer to meaning than "Things are absurd and vaguely fucked up" for the rest of this Prologue. The Turn-based combat is very basic and never challenging. Exploration is hindered by the movement system - I am all for novel choices if there is a strong intent behind them, but I dont see what moving in tile based dungeoncrawler style is adding to the game, apart from annoying you.
Special shoutout to Sergio, your sidekick, one of the most hateable characters I have ever seen in a video game. What an absolute asshole, thank god he s dead.
Despite everything I am still interested in checking out the finished game, the vibes are undeniable and there are some occasional pearls in here (standout was the guy writing his name on a Home invasion thread, to then ask you to please not kill him, he just wanted to hang out with someone, look, he even bought snacks), but as a stand alone game it s not very strong
That set my expectations high: Crass but pointed writing, packed in wildly unpredicable aesthetics.
Unfortunately, we never hit those highs again. While I vibe with the visuals a lot (very Umurangi Generations), we never really get any closer to meaning than "Things are absurd and vaguely fucked up" for the rest of this Prologue. The Turn-based combat is very basic and never challenging. Exploration is hindered by the movement system - I am all for novel choices if there is a strong intent behind them, but I dont see what moving in tile based dungeoncrawler style is adding to the game, apart from annoying you.
Special shoutout to Sergio, your sidekick, one of the most hateable characters I have ever seen in a video game. What an absolute asshole, thank god he s dead.
Despite everything I am still interested in checking out the finished game, the vibes are undeniable and there are some occasional pearls in here (standout was the guy writing his name on a Home invasion thread, to then ask you to please not kill him, he just wanted to hang out with someone, look, he even bought snacks), but as a stand alone game it s not very strong
A must-play if you're craving a creative indie experience. I refuse to elaborate, as it must be played blind to enjoy fully.
Disclaimer: I beat it before the new update.
Fun, packed with personality and not too long. Ilike games which reconize what they are, this self awareness often makes me forgive more flaws. The main flaw is the boring combat, fortunately there is not much of it here. Recommended
Fun, packed with personality and not too long. Ilike games which reconize what they are, this self awareness often makes me forgive more flaws. The main flaw is the boring combat, fortunately there is not much of it here. Recommended
This review contains spoilers
Kowloon's Curse: Lost Report is a turn based action RPG/"Surrealist Sergio Simulator" developed by Studio [notes.] as a sort of prequel to an upcoming turn based horror RPG also called Kowloon's Curse. This free game acts as a sort of prequel to this game, which was originally posted on Kickstarter back in 2021. It's targeted date was around 2022 but is still in development as far as I know, and they put this out as a sort of teaser. My encounter with this game mostly came out of a friend of mine Qwarky showcasing it in some discords so shout out to the Qwarkster. Since then it's been on a list of games to stream for a friend, and this was chosen for the next game after Eternal Evil.
Let me just say that this review isn't going to be one of those normal reviews, as I don't have a plot synopsis for you nor would I even try to. It's a surrealist game with a lot of background lore, gangster antics, strange visions, and talking animals but it's something that I've really enjoyed in all of its confusion. The main background is that you play as Tony Manslaughter who works for a gangster named "The Inspector" with his buddy Sergio, a misguided mixtape rapper with a hair trigger and a LOT of insecurity as you make your way through a series of unfortunate events. The story itself is masterfully done in my opinion but the sidequests are amazing too, varying from helping aliens escape Kowloon City, recruiting people for a cult, and even breaking into people's homes after looking through online internet forums. The variation in content has kept me thoroughly engaged with writing that feels both top tier and hilarious as hell and I've always wanted to see what was coming up next. In fact, I wish there was a guide because I couldn't find everything in the game that the achievement guide pointed out, like an apparent fight club. The main person you'll be interacting with is your sidekick Sergio, an old childhood friend who is a total a ss hole but is pretty funny and delivers some banger dialogue, but keep in mind his aim sucks and you'll have to get used to that a bit.
The gameplay is a turn based limited open world RPG where you can walk around the three districts of Kowloon City, talk to a variety of strangers, engage in hidden side quests, browse the internet, and honestly so much more. I wish I could describe everything that the game has but it just involves a lot of exploration. From the beginning you can choose between three skills which amount to hacking, brute force, and philosophical rambling. You can further each of these skills for new attack trees in combat as well as certain dialogue choices, though you can also do certain dialogue choices to grow these (though you could also get them all maxed later in the second run if you choose to). What happens with the combat skills also depends on who you use it against in game, as certain attacks will work for certain people while not for others. Also here's a tip: when you get money, buy a whole lot of soda and follow the quest with the phone scammer as you'll get twice the money back for the soda as the enemies sometimes unfairly target you if you're with Sergio and your health can go down pretty damn quickly. What I can say about the combat is that normally I don't care for turn based stuff, but everything around this game holds it up successfully.
Here is where my most positive points come in: I LOVE THE ATMOSPHERE! It's like a strange dreamworld with PS1 styled graphics, dripping in slick ooze that could come out of the Yakuza series and a dreamlike corporate nature added to it. The only thing I can say about this game is that I wish there were more of it, because all I want to do every time I play this is to have more. There aren't too many games that can mix and match a whole lot of different tones while still keeping their identity solid and I feel like this game does that. The confusing nature of the city yet familiarity of it all helps add to this surrealist nature, mixed in with strange denizens like people in Roman Soldier outfits, creepy amoeba looking things or journalists that spell FAKE NEWS on the front of their shirt just add to the delight. All of these models are basically 2D flat surface models that you can actually talk to from right beside and they won't follow you and it's a weird thing, a lot of the chicks look like "anime waifu" types too but it adds to the humor of it all. One of my favorite fights in the game is the alcoholic, because you can literally just give him booze and the fight will immediately end and it feels like such a comedic punchline that I couldn't help but laugh.
The sound design is very minimalistic, you'll have city sounds and some dialogue stuff maybe but for the most part you'll be hearing this s e xy ass soundtrack delivered by Kowloon Sound Team. From the Title Screen theme which I could mistake for a Silent Hill track to Sergio's Theme which fuels this weird nightmarish beat (and amateurish rap) to the Station theme which just sounds like the beginning of an epic Yakuza fight. I can't say enough about this soundtrack except I bought it after my first play session because it's that good. It adds to the ambiance of Kowloon City and makes it a memorable place to roam in.
Overall thoughts are that this game is amazing, it's free and that even if you don't care at all for turn based combat, you NEED to try this. Studio [notes.] put out an epic prequel for whatever the hell they're cooking up in the kitchen and I'm simping for more. I'd let this game kick me in the rib cage violently and leave without giving me any s e xual pleasure and I would let them because I really enjoyed my time with this. In fact, as soon as I know how to find the new areas and content, I’ll probably hop back on just so I can get more. Honestly, I'd consider paying the developers for this game, that's how much value I believe is in this, but the fact they're putting this out for free shows that there's a lot of confidence in this product and it shows due to the quality. The developer released some other titles like apartment14b and Cold Abyss as well as their work on the actual Kowloon's Curse. Whatever these guys make, I want it in my veins. Play this game, I don't care what you have in your backlog or what new game came out. Just play this. Thanks dawg.
Links:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kowloon-s-curse-lost-report-physical-version#/
https://studio-notes.itch.io/apartment14b
https://studio-notes.itch.io/cold-abyss
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kowloonscurse/kowloons-curse
https://twitter.com/KowloonsCurse
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
Let me just say that this review isn't going to be one of those normal reviews, as I don't have a plot synopsis for you nor would I even try to. It's a surrealist game with a lot of background lore, gangster antics, strange visions, and talking animals but it's something that I've really enjoyed in all of its confusion. The main background is that you play as Tony Manslaughter who works for a gangster named "The Inspector" with his buddy Sergio, a misguided mixtape rapper with a hair trigger and a LOT of insecurity as you make your way through a series of unfortunate events. The story itself is masterfully done in my opinion but the sidequests are amazing too, varying from helping aliens escape Kowloon City, recruiting people for a cult, and even breaking into people's homes after looking through online internet forums. The variation in content has kept me thoroughly engaged with writing that feels both top tier and hilarious as hell and I've always wanted to see what was coming up next. In fact, I wish there was a guide because I couldn't find everything in the game that the achievement guide pointed out, like an apparent fight club. The main person you'll be interacting with is your sidekick Sergio, an old childhood friend who is a total a ss hole but is pretty funny and delivers some banger dialogue, but keep in mind his aim sucks and you'll have to get used to that a bit.
The gameplay is a turn based limited open world RPG where you can walk around the three districts of Kowloon City, talk to a variety of strangers, engage in hidden side quests, browse the internet, and honestly so much more. I wish I could describe everything that the game has but it just involves a lot of exploration. From the beginning you can choose between three skills which amount to hacking, brute force, and philosophical rambling. You can further each of these skills for new attack trees in combat as well as certain dialogue choices, though you can also do certain dialogue choices to grow these (though you could also get them all maxed later in the second run if you choose to). What happens with the combat skills also depends on who you use it against in game, as certain attacks will work for certain people while not for others. Also here's a tip: when you get money, buy a whole lot of soda and follow the quest with the phone scammer as you'll get twice the money back for the soda as the enemies sometimes unfairly target you if you're with Sergio and your health can go down pretty damn quickly. What I can say about the combat is that normally I don't care for turn based stuff, but everything around this game holds it up successfully.
Here is where my most positive points come in: I LOVE THE ATMOSPHERE! It's like a strange dreamworld with PS1 styled graphics, dripping in slick ooze that could come out of the Yakuza series and a dreamlike corporate nature added to it. The only thing I can say about this game is that I wish there were more of it, because all I want to do every time I play this is to have more. There aren't too many games that can mix and match a whole lot of different tones while still keeping their identity solid and I feel like this game does that. The confusing nature of the city yet familiarity of it all helps add to this surrealist nature, mixed in with strange denizens like people in Roman Soldier outfits, creepy amoeba looking things or journalists that spell FAKE NEWS on the front of their shirt just add to the delight. All of these models are basically 2D flat surface models that you can actually talk to from right beside and they won't follow you and it's a weird thing, a lot of the chicks look like "anime waifu" types too but it adds to the humor of it all. One of my favorite fights in the game is the alcoholic, because you can literally just give him booze and the fight will immediately end and it feels like such a comedic punchline that I couldn't help but laugh.
The sound design is very minimalistic, you'll have city sounds and some dialogue stuff maybe but for the most part you'll be hearing this s e xy ass soundtrack delivered by Kowloon Sound Team. From the Title Screen theme which I could mistake for a Silent Hill track to Sergio's Theme which fuels this weird nightmarish beat (and amateurish rap) to the Station theme which just sounds like the beginning of an epic Yakuza fight. I can't say enough about this soundtrack except I bought it after my first play session because it's that good. It adds to the ambiance of Kowloon City and makes it a memorable place to roam in.
Overall thoughts are that this game is amazing, it's free and that even if you don't care at all for turn based combat, you NEED to try this. Studio [notes.] put out an epic prequel for whatever the hell they're cooking up in the kitchen and I'm simping for more. I'd let this game kick me in the rib cage violently and leave without giving me any s e xual pleasure and I would let them because I really enjoyed my time with this. In fact, as soon as I know how to find the new areas and content, I’ll probably hop back on just so I can get more. Honestly, I'd consider paying the developers for this game, that's how much value I believe is in this, but the fact they're putting this out for free shows that there's a lot of confidence in this product and it shows due to the quality. The developer released some other titles like apartment14b and Cold Abyss as well as their work on the actual Kowloon's Curse. Whatever these guys make, I want it in my veins. Play this game, I don't care what you have in your backlog or what new game came out. Just play this. Thanks dawg.
Links:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kowloon-s-curse-lost-report-physical-version#/
https://studio-notes.itch.io/apartment14b
https://studio-notes.itch.io/cold-abyss
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kowloonscurse/kowloons-curse
https://twitter.com/KowloonsCurse
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
sergios tape is FIRE !!!!!
I haven't played the newest update, but the game is fantastic! A surreal and grimy Kowloon inspired setting is absolutely perfect!