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I left my hometown of Hong Kong in 2022, but through Slitterhead, I've found a portal back. It's like experiencing a walking sim with a touch of supernatural mystique, I think to myself, as I hop into the body of a hairnet-clad market vendor on Yiu Tong Main Street. Immediately, I rotate the camera to stare up in awe at the overlapping signs above, basking in the familiar canopy of neon lights and hazy cigarette smoke. A disgruntled old man wearing a dirty white vest suddenly appears at my elbow. He tuts loudly, clearly unimpressed by my rude interruption of his evening stroll, before carrying on his way with an emphatic shake of his head. I just know he's muttering something unintelligible yet most likely obscene under his breath. Home sweet home, alright.
Slitterhead is not the first time I've seen a dystopian reimagining of Hong Kong in a horror game, but it is definitely the most well-researched. Welcome to Kowloon's quietly threatening wet washrooms are sobering enough, as are the rickety air conditioning units of Walled City-inspired Stray. But Slitterhead goes the whole nine yards and then some; from the green-topped public light minibuses parked in the street to red taxicabs, local pharmacies, and bustling night markets, I'm utterly entranced by how well Slitterhead uses the inspiration of a real city to feed its most compelling theme.
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To understand why Slitterhead's attention to detail is so profoundly impressive, I'm going to spin you a little history lesson to put Kowlong – the city's in-game name – into context. The city is heavily modelled on colonial-era Hong Kong in the mid-1990s – right down to the precise topographical features as seen in the world map – with the majority of the game's events essentially taking place on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbour. Attached to China's mainland, real-life Kowloon is larger in surface area than the tiny speck that comprises Hong Kong Island, but the region has long been considered one of the most densely-populated places in the world. In the '90s, Kowloon also doubled as one of the most dangerous parts of the city itself.
This air of lawlessness paired with its closely packed human population is no doubt what inspired Bokeh Game Studio in creating Slitterhead. The overcrowded city of Kowlong contains multitudes of unique individuals, and in turn, they each become a source of great power. As the spirit-like Hyoki protagonist in Slitterhead says, "their bodies are weak, but their strength lies in numbers" – and even when each of the Hyoki's Rarity companions is not being possessed, they lead dynamic and individual lives. Tri is an Indonesian housekeeper who wears colorful head scarves and manifests oven mitts to battle Slitterheads with. Edo is a rough-sleeping old man, and although he once made money through illegal street boxing, he now turns his fists toward the monster invasion with the help of the Hyoki.
They both live on Kowlong side, along with all but two fellow Rarities who also just happen to be the only two Westerners in the game. I'm talking about special police force officer Blake, either of Australian or British descent, and a sweet little old lady named Betty who just happens to look and dress exactly like the late Queen Elizabeth II. A cursory glance at the map reveals they live in two regions of Slitterhead-ified Hong Kong island respectively – two regions that, in the real world, have always been very popular with foreigners.
Bokeh doesn't stop there. One conversation between Julee and the Hyoki sees her alluding to the old Kai Tak Airport, which was famous for planes flying alarmingly close to residential buildings before it was demolished in 1998. Tri shares a heartwarming conversation with the Hyoki where she talks about her life as a domestic helper, shining a light on one of the most important yet undervalued communities in real-life Hong Kong by turning her into a literal superhero. It would have been easy for the developer to draw from the city's population per capita alone to tell a story about humanity's strength in numbers, but Slitterhead is also about the strength of the individual and why each one matters – even in an overstuffed place like Kowlong.
Slinking through the packed streets to a gaudy nightclub, observing the working girls chain smoking next to trash cans, I can't help but feel weirdly moved by how Bokeh Game Studio just gets my city. This game handles historical context, quirks, and sentiment with such maturity and depth that it leaves me dumbfounded more times than I care to admit. I think Slitterhead will always make me feel some type of way, and it's good to know that even as I fight for my life against something called a Spotted Flame Mantis, I need only look up to a fluorescent street sign to find my way home.
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