i highly recommend people read that whole thread about 'tower of babel' tech demo. i never came across this information before.
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/sh ... Babel-Democlearly Suzuki took inspiration from the tower of babel painting in the creation of his version of kowloon. explains whys its situated so differently from the real life kowloon.
It is pretty well-understood that the Tower Of Babel demo was the basis for Kowloon / Kowloon Tower from the Shenmue beta footage (which was Shenmue 1+2) and although modified, very much present in the released Shenmue 2 game. Both the Tower Of Babel demo and Kowloon in Shenmue beta / Shenmue 2, were presented in the same way, with sweeping camera angles.
Compare:
the only online footage of Tower Of Babel tech demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLUG214M398Shenmue Beta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiQ1wh6XKTc
they even have a video of tower of babel demo running on emulator.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4fAbTrhvtocome to think of it didn't Yu suzuki say his new game was about a city on a hill? reminds me of this but its probably just a coincidence.
in regards to the arwork they are very interesting especially the picture on the woman holding the flask. its the same style as shun di's drink flask, and she even looks a bit drunk.
who is it... maybe early shenhua of xiuying? meadow of flowers and pond in background would might imply its shenhua. but probably a who new character not yet introduced to the series.
thanks ziming for links