In 2023, many of us cannot imagine what it is like to live under the same roof as a bunch of strangers. Our privileged lives out here in the West often results in an ignorant and close-minded lifestyle that neglects the thought of life outside of our little bubble. For many countries, the citizens deal with dirty water, a bucket for a shower, beds made solely of spring and temperatures that would make a British person fall into a coma. For the increasingly popular Dev in the indie horror sphere, N4bA‘s horror titled, Welcome to Kowloon dives into the world of a long forgotten piece of real history where refugees, gang members, criminals and the poor would come together and live in what could only be thought of as four walls of pure claustrophobia. Imagine if what was destroyed long ago stayed and what remained was history that you could both see and feel in the derelict housing inside the Walled City of Kowloon. This is Vincent’s explanation of Welcome to Kowloon’s story and ending. I hope you enjoy this read.
A Brief History of Kowloon
For anyone interested, Kowloon was an actual place in China which was heavily populated in the late 1980s, with a staggering 35,000 residents at the time of sharing housing inside a 6.4 acre land. The area was congested due to its design which encased the residents inside four walls, created by the Chinese government as a military fort in 1898. Many years later and as a result to World War II, its four walls began to fill, primarily with those seeking cheap housing and often resulting in many that would either commit crimes or indulge in drugs and prostitution. Whilst the walls eventually came down in 1993-1994, its history is forever preserved. In its lifetime, houses would continue to be built upon until its limit of 13 stories tall which would house hundreds of residents that had to share a tiny space in the most claustrophobic and filthy conditions.
N4bA demonstrates life of inside Kowloon, as a single resident looking to save money by heading into a place forgotten by history, but kept alive by those who have been long gone. Taking a leaf out of Chilla’s Art’s book, Welcome to Kowloon follows the premise of a student who, like most, has to survive off harder living conditions to preserve what little money they have. But in doing so, will something sinister be revealed from inside Kowloon?
Welcome to Kowloon Story Explained
The story begins similar to Chilla’s Art’s indie horror games, telling a short description to the game’s premise by explaining who our protagonist is, where they are and what they are doing here. This time around we are following a young student who is trying to find cheap accommodation. But as we all know, nothing is ever free and is saving a bit of money worth it if you are not alive to even spend a dime? Entering into a giant block of flats which from the outside show life from the warm glow of interior lights, you discover very quickly that you may be the only real resident here. With most doors boarded-up, you start to wonder if what you are seeing is even real. The main question however is – whose dog is that?
Meeting the Landlady
The electrics throughout the building appear to be working fine but in this maze of hundreds of stacked houses, there is so much more hidden behind its façade of ordinary life. Your first glimpse into this is your adventure into the store outside to find your Apartment key. The sounds of life in an empty street are creepy to say the least but it is when the noise stops that truly makes you feel completely alone and suffocated by eyes watching you all at once. The landlady is one you read about through notes written by herself and previous resident. But you quickly learn that something is not as it seems. With the front door to the Apartment locked, you begin to wonder if this is why the previous occupant could not leave their room.
Always slightly out of of sight but always one step ahead of you, the landlady warns you to not leave the Apartment at night. But with the front door padlocked, you decide that it may actually be time to leave. You check the landlady’s room to discover that the previous residents of the Apartment did not ever make it outside but lay in pieces, soaking up blood inside a cloth bag and on full display for newcomers to see. This woman is confident. You get a glimpse of the landlady who points at you and vanishes in an instant. Is she even real? The washroom reveal a decapitated man hanging by a chain with flesh ripped out. With blatant evidence of cannibalism you try to leave but get attacked in the process, knocked unconscious and placed back in your room.
Related: Midnight Scenes: From the Woods Story and Ending Explained.
Inside the Neighbor’s Apartment
When you awake, you are able to go outside onto the balcony and enter the neighbor’s Apartment. You learn that your neighbor felt in danger and was working hard to finish renovations but never made it out due to the boarded-up front door from the inside. Things are beginning to change around you. The hanging clothes reveal a hanging body instead and the painting above the padlock key comes to life in brief moments that are used as jumpscares. Another padlock is found with the code – DECAY which is found in blood on multiple paintings that appear to show images taken of the landlady and framed. A single chair, trash bags and a crowbar can be found inside. You use the crowbar on the front door to get out.
The Streets of Kowloon
Outside of the Apartment but still with a long way to go before you get out (if it will even be alive), the threat grows when a man resembling one of the landlady’s victims chasing you. The code to escape is revealed as 5913. Now out onto the streets, you find the well-lit exit sign which requires bolt cutters to unlock the shutters. You have no choice but to enter back into the Apartments in search for money for the vending machine and gas. With the lever to the generator stuck inside the vending machine and notes being left behind leading you around on a wild goose chase, something is messing with you or perhaps it is just the Developer. You find a hideout which offers you the coin needed for the vending machine. A picture on the wall stands out of a golden retriever, assumed to be the same one you fed at the beginning of the game. Was this the previous resident who was lured into Kowloon by the landlady?
You hear the sound of a man who appears to be groaning in pain, his noise surrounds you as you scramble to find the generator room once more upon picking up the lever from the vending machine. Messages sprawled on the wall speak of living in the Walled City of Kowloon and how the government were hiding the deaths happening inside its walls. As Kowloon has been demolished since 1994, could it be that your visit into its place is not as it seems and that the ghosts that haunt you are trying to keep you there because you actually belong with them? You finally make it to the roof to get the bolt cutters and return to the exit for the final time where the dog awaits you, bowl in front once again. You use the bolt cutters and leave this cursed place once and for all.
The Ending of Welcome to Kowloon
The area outside of the exit shows something out of an Outlast sequel, with naked men praying, slamming their face into walls or hanging from the balconies above. Upon making out of Kowloon alive, you get back in your car and begin to drive off. As you veer off into the desolate land, you look behind you to see the tall block of flats turned to rubble, representing the Walled City of Kowloon of how it really is. Experiencing something supernatural and being called by forces beyond your reach, Kowloon had reached out to you to see the truth of what happened inside those walls. As the pipes flooded with toxic green gas that made people’s flesh fall off, caused cannibalism due to limited supply of food and increased aggression and paranoid to the point that people boarded up and padlocked their doors at night.
The gas, presumably in place by the government to “evict” their residents, killed them off one-by-one and left only the insane behind. The one moment of safety came from the roof which was the only area that felt homely compared to the entire Apartment complex. Although there would be no gas present on the roof, this was likely a place where residents dropped off of to escape the Walled City. The news shows a flooding of reports on people seeing the vanishing city of Kowloon. With the mass eviction that took place before demolition and the rise of crime in the final years that the walls stood standing, N4bA presents a dark theory of just how far the government went to forcibly remove its residents that saw the Walled City of Kowloon as their own.
That was our full explanation of N4bA’s Welcome to Kowloon. For more on the latest video game releases, be sure to see all GJ guides written here. If you made it all the way to the bottom of this story, thank you for reading this in full! You a real one.
