“Wannin are—how should I put this—a human that has become half-object. There’s no other way to explain it. Well, then why are they called wannin? When someone becomes a wannin they have to keep thinking they’re no longer human, but an object; they must have delusions. If those delusions run out they’ll become an object instantly, and completely.
That is to say, continuing their delusions is proof that they’re half-human.”
Kowloon’s Gate is a game that I’ve been interested in since I first saw its name in a collection of PS1 isos. Feng Shui? The Kowloon Walled City? 4 discs named after the Four Symbols? It was immediately interesting to me, and only became more so after I saw images from the game. I only had good impressions, so how was the actual game?
Well, it’s good, there’s some issues, but no more than the average adventure game, and they don’t really bring it down too much. It’s really surprising how mundane the issues for this game are, all things considered: I’ve experienced more surreal gameplay issues in low-budget brawlers. A couple simple flaws you’ll observe early on: incredibly slow movement in the JPEG dungeons (the non-combat pre-rendered sections,) annoying specific dialogue flags in the JPEG dungeons that block off progress, and the navigator holding your dick so hard in the first real-time dungeon that you might as well not be exploring. The latter thankfully resolves itself after the first dungeon, since the later dungeons have more complex layout, but the former two remain throughout the game. Thank god Kowloon’s Front is destined to go to hell and die.
Anyway, the gameplay foibles for me were fairly minor. I can see people possibly being annoyed by the real-time dungeons since the gameplay is fairly basic (you attack weaknesses based off of wuxing,) and the dungeons are labyrinthine, but I thought they were a nice breather from meandering and dialogue-heavy JPEG dungeons. The main draw for this game is its story and art, so I’ll move to that now (well the story, I don’t have any ability to judge the art, besides saying I like it.)
I like the story of Kowloon’s Gate. A story, in part, about fate and destiny works very well with the linearity of an adventure game. Even if the protagonist changes every area they enter within the game, since you’re pretty clearly told what you need to do, it very rarely feels like something that you actually did of your own free will. The lack of puzzles might be a little disappointing, but it helps the story move along in several ways here: mainly, it allows for the game to go on philosophical tangents without much risk of the player getting too lost thinking about what it would be like to be an electric fan.
So, in effect I would say there’s two major aspects of Kowloon’s Gate story: the surface story you’re given at the beginning about restoring balance to the to worlds of Yin and Yang, and finding the Four Symbols, and then the more esoteric aspects like wannin, minli and so on. The former is effectively the vessel of the story, and the latter is the cloudy narrative liquid that resides within it. Part of one whole but distinct from one another, so the story ends up being simple and at the same time complex. Thematic! The general formula for the narrative is that you enter an area, scout around, find out there’s a problem, some guy hints that an item you got 1-3 hours ago can turn the problem into dust, some philosophy, some dungeon crawling, you find the problem and use said item to turn it into dust. Rinse and repeat until the end of the game.
Perhaps a little reductive, but it was a contrast I found difficult to ignore. For every bit like the start of this review, there’s another where someone tells you that the evil guy in your way is weak to wigs, and can be defeated easily if you have one. Personally, my favorite part of all of it was the wannin. Since being a wannin isn’t exactly a good or bad thing, you get a wide variety of wannin characters. Besides that, the wannin designs are interesting, and I like the odd metaphysical position the story places them in.
Anyway, that’s it for 2023 I suppose. Pretty good end to the year, maybe it’s for the best that I took a long ass time finishing this game.
Supplemental information for the initial quote: since wannin must have delusions (妄想) to live they are as a result, wannin.(妄人) The first character in the word for delusion+person. This is spelled out more clearly in the rest of the page past where I ended, but I preferred leaving it where I did.
That is to say, continuing their delusions is proof that they’re half-human.”
Kowloon’s Gate is a game that I’ve been interested in since I first saw its name in a collection of PS1 isos. Feng Shui? The Kowloon Walled City? 4 discs named after the Four Symbols? It was immediately interesting to me, and only became more so after I saw images from the game. I only had good impressions, so how was the actual game?
Well, it’s good, there’s some issues, but no more than the average adventure game, and they don’t really bring it down too much. It’s really surprising how mundane the issues for this game are, all things considered: I’ve experienced more surreal gameplay issues in low-budget brawlers. A couple simple flaws you’ll observe early on: incredibly slow movement in the JPEG dungeons (the non-combat pre-rendered sections,) annoying specific dialogue flags in the JPEG dungeons that block off progress, and the navigator holding your dick so hard in the first real-time dungeon that you might as well not be exploring. The latter thankfully resolves itself after the first dungeon, since the later dungeons have more complex layout, but the former two remain throughout the game. Thank god Kowloon’s Front is destined to go to hell and die.
Anyway, the gameplay foibles for me were fairly minor. I can see people possibly being annoyed by the real-time dungeons since the gameplay is fairly basic (you attack weaknesses based off of wuxing,) and the dungeons are labyrinthine, but I thought they were a nice breather from meandering and dialogue-heavy JPEG dungeons. The main draw for this game is its story and art, so I’ll move to that now (well the story, I don’t have any ability to judge the art, besides saying I like it.)
I like the story of Kowloon’s Gate. A story, in part, about fate and destiny works very well with the linearity of an adventure game. Even if the protagonist changes every area they enter within the game, since you’re pretty clearly told what you need to do, it very rarely feels like something that you actually did of your own free will. The lack of puzzles might be a little disappointing, but it helps the story move along in several ways here: mainly, it allows for the game to go on philosophical tangents without much risk of the player getting too lost thinking about what it would be like to be an electric fan.
So, in effect I would say there’s two major aspects of Kowloon’s Gate story: the surface story you’re given at the beginning about restoring balance to the to worlds of Yin and Yang, and finding the Four Symbols, and then the more esoteric aspects like wannin, minli and so on. The former is effectively the vessel of the story, and the latter is the cloudy narrative liquid that resides within it. Part of one whole but distinct from one another, so the story ends up being simple and at the same time complex. Thematic! The general formula for the narrative is that you enter an area, scout around, find out there’s a problem, some guy hints that an item you got 1-3 hours ago can turn the problem into dust, some philosophy, some dungeon crawling, you find the problem and use said item to turn it into dust. Rinse and repeat until the end of the game.
Perhaps a little reductive, but it was a contrast I found difficult to ignore. For every bit like the start of this review, there’s another where someone tells you that the evil guy in your way is weak to wigs, and can be defeated easily if you have one. Personally, my favorite part of all of it was the wannin. Since being a wannin isn’t exactly a good or bad thing, you get a wide variety of wannin characters. Besides that, the wannin designs are interesting, and I like the odd metaphysical position the story places them in.
Anyway, that’s it for 2023 I suppose. Pretty good end to the year, maybe it’s for the best that I took a long ass time finishing this game.
Supplemental information for the initial quote: since wannin must have delusions (妄想) to live they are as a result, wannin.(妄人) The first character in the word for delusion+person. This is spelled out more clearly in the rest of the page past where I ended, but I preferred leaving it where I did.
SugoiBoi
3 months ago