Kowloon's Gate

Kowloon's Gate (クーロンズゲート, Kūronzu Gēto) is a 1997 Japanese adventure video game developed by Zeque. Set in the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, it is considered a cult hit.

Kowloon's Gate
Developer(s)Zeque
Publisher(s)Sony Music Entertainment
Composer(s)Kuniaki Haishima
Platform(s)PlayStation, PlayStation Network
Release
  • JP: February 28, 1997
  • JP: April 14, 2010 (PSN)
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

On June 22, 1997, before the handover of Hong Kong, the demolished Kowloon Walled City reemerged from the realm of Yin (陰界) back to the streets of Hong Kong in the living realm of Yang (陽界). The Hong Kong Supreme Feng Shui Conference (香港最高風水会議) determined that the reappearance of the walled city was a sign of an imbalance of the Yin and Yang, and if the two parallel worlds are not separated once again, great calamity would occur. To set things straight, the order of Feng Shui would need to be re-instilled in the realm of Yin. Thus the protagonist, a Super Feng Shui Practitioner (超級風水師), was sent into the Kowloon Walled City to seek and awaken the Four Symbols so that order would be revived.

Development

The game was developed by Zeque,[1] who also co-developed Planet Laika.

It was released for the PlayStation in Japan on February 28, 1997, and re-released for the PlayStation Network on April 14, 2010.[2]

Reception

Famitsu gave the game a score of 26 out of 40.[3]

Critic Shin Muramatsu drew on his experience with the game's "Hong Kong Gothic" version of the Walled City to compare the past and future of Hong Kong itself.[4]

Though never released abroad, Kowloon's Gate was a cult hit in Japan.[5] It ultimately sold 135,000 units in the region.[6] In the video game magazine Famitsu, a 2009 reader poll of games with highest demand for a sequel ranked the game tenth with 151 votes.[7]

Prequel and sequel

On October 26, 2017, a VR prequel named Kowloon's Gate VR Suzaku was released as a PlayStation VR exclusive by Jetman Inc..[8] A non-VR version was added in an update to the game on December 21, 2017, allowing the game to be played without a VR headset. An Oculus Go version was released on October 2, 2018.[9]

In November 2019, a sequel, Kowloon's Rhizome: A Day of the Fire, was announced.[10] It was originally planned to be a 3D dungeon crawler, but the prototype did not match the developers' expectations in its entertainment value, so they decided to make the game into a visual novel instead.[11] A fall 2021 release was planned for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows in Japan,[12] but this has not been realized. A pilot version of the game split into 8 parts was planned to be released on Pixiv's Booth service, with the first part released on February 22, 2023.[13]

References
  1. "Kowloon's Gate". C-games.info. Archived from the original on 2009-04-06. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
  2. "ARTDINK BEST CHOICE クーロンズ・ゲート -九龍風水傳-". PlayStation.com(Japan). Sony. 2010-04-14. Archived from the original on 2010-04-20. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  3. "クーロンズ・ゲート -九龍風水傳- [PS] / ファミ通.com". www.famitsu.com. Archived from the original on 2015-01-17. Retrieved 2018-12-14.
  4. McDonogh, Gary; Cindy Wong (August 30, 2005). Global Hong Kong. Routledge. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-415-94770-1.
  5. Sato, Ike (November 30, 1999). "Planet Laika Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
  6. "Kowloon's Gate surgit du passé en VR - Actu - Gamekult". Archived from the original on 2017-05-27.
  7. "Famitsu Readers Voted Their Most Wanted Sequels | PS3Hyper". 2009-05-04. Archived from the original on 2009-05-04. Retrieved 2018-12-14.
  8. "「クーロンズゲートVR suzaku」が本日配信を開始。PlayStationの奇作「クーロンズゲート」の世界観をVRで再現". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  9. VR編集部, Mogura (2018-10-02). "【Oculus Go】「クーロンズゲートVR」の世界を体験できるGo向けアプリが配信". MoguLive (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  10. "『クーロンズゲート』の次世代版続編『クーロンズリゾーム』始動". Dengeki Online (in Japanese). 2019-11-12. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  11. "ADVからムービーノベルへ…『クーロンズ・ゲート』続編新作の『クーロンズリゾーム』が大幅な仕様変更". Game*Spark - 国内・海外ゲーム情報サイト (in Japanese). 2022-05-30. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  12. "Kowloon's Rhizome: A Day of the Fire due out in fall 2021 in Japan for PS4, Switch, and PC; crowdfunding campaign launched". Gematsu. 23 October 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  13. "「クーロンズリゾーム」木村央志監督インタビュー - アキバ総研". akiba-souken.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-10-01.
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