Clock Tower

About

Clock Tower^[1][4] (クロックタワー Kurokku Tawā) is a point-and-click psychological survival horror video game series by creator Hifumi Kono^[13] of Human Entertainment, continued by Sunsoft, and then later Capcom. The game shares some similarities with the 1985 Italian horror film Phenomena (Creepers in the US version) but in a different direction. YouTube Let's Players who are fans of survival horror games do a commentary review of the series.

History of Clock Tower Games

Clock Tower: The First Fear

The first Clock Tower game started in Japan for the SNES in 1995 and later ported versions for the PC in 1997 and WonderSwan in 1999. In 1997, an enhanced port with new features for the PlayStation was released as its official title Clock Tower: The First Fear. Because this game was psychological scary, Clock Tower: The First Fear was never released outside Japan. It was later made into a English fan translated rom for SNES emulators.

Clock Tower 2 / Clock Tower

Clock Tower 2 (also known as Clock Tower in North America) is the sequel of Clock Tower: The First Fear for the Sony PlayStation in 1996. Because Clock Tower: The First Fear wasn't released outside Japan, the title Clock Tower 2 was dropped and title it Clock Tower as the first Clock Tower game for North America.

Clock Tower: Ghosthead / Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within

Clock Tower: Ghosthead (also known as Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within) is the first spinoff of Clock Tower that takes place in a different storyline instead of the same one from the other two. It shares the same gameplay mechanics of the other two Clock Tower games. Released in 1998 and outside of Japan as Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within.

Clock Tower 3

Clock Tower 3 is the third installment of the Clock Tower series released by Capcom in 2002 for the PlayStation 2. The game features full 3D environments, realistic graphics, and new gameplay mechanics. Clock Tower 3 is very different from the other Clock Tower games and doesn't feel more like the psychological horror type game that Clock Tower is, but it does share some similarities.

Spiritual Successor Clock Tower Games

Haunting Grounds

Haunting Grounds, also known as Demento in Japan, is a survival horror game for PlayStation 2 in April 2005 by Capcom. After the release of Clock Tower 3, Haunting Grounds was originally going to be called Clock Tower 4, but that idea was scrapped and decide to keep the name Haunting Grounds as a spiritual successor of Clock Tower.

Remothered Series

The Remothered^[8] series (stylized as REMOTHERED) is a indie psychological survival horror game by Italian director Chris Darril^[9] from Italy and published by Darril Arts. Remothered is a tribute and inspiration to Hifumi Kono’s Clock Tower: The First Fear as well as other horror-related media such as Dario Argento’s cinematography. Originally Remothered was going to be a remake of Clock Tower: The First Fear under the new name Remothered,^[15] but unfortunately Chris Darril no longer wishes to continue and cancels it, and decide to work on Remothered as a actual survival horror series and as a spiritual successor to Clock Tower.

Chris Darril's first Remothered game of the Remothered trilogy, Remothered: Tormented Fathers^[16] was released on January 30th, 2018 for PC, July 25th, 2018 for XBOX One and PlayStation 4, and later September 6th, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch. Remothered: Tormented Fathers received high praises and won many gaming awards for best Italian survival horror game along with best atmosphere, best gameplay and best storytelling for a survival horror game. His second Remothered game, Remothered: Broken Porcelain, is scheduled to be released later in 2020.

NightCry

NightCry^{[5][6][7][10]} (former title Project Scissors) is the spiritual success of Clock Tower directed by the creator of the Clock Tower series Hifumi Kono, also directed by filmmaker behind Ju-On and The Grudge (American Remake) Takashi Shimizu, and developed by Nude Maker. NightCry is a psychological survival horror game for the PC, PlayStation Vita, iOS, and Android (and later PS4 and XBOX One if pledges are successful) in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the release Japanese SNES game Clock Tower: The First Fear. NightCry was first announced at Tokyo Game Show 2014 as Project Scissors.

A English and Japanese version of Kickstarter^[11] for NightCry was made on January 23, 2015, and has only a month to reach the $300K goal. In February 21st, 2015, a month has passed and the pledges barely became a success with 2,408 English backers pledged $314,771, and the Japanese backers pledged 4,194,000 yen.

A full short film of NightCry^[3] has been released on Jan 24, 2015 in promotion of Hifumi Kouno's game NightCry.

On March 20th, 2016, the official Project Scissors YouTube page^[13] release a new trailer for NightCry with a available release date of March 29th, 2016, on Steam^[14] for PC and later the PlayStation Vita.

Search Interest

External References

^[1] Wikipedia – Clock Tower

^[2] Wikipedia – Scissorman

^[3] IGN – NightCry, the Spiritual Successor to Clock Tower, Gets a Live Action Teaser

^[4] Wikia – Clock Tower Wikia

^[5] NightCry – Official NightCry Website

^[6] Twitter – Project Scissors

^[7] Facebook – Project Scissors: NightCry

^[8] Remothered – Official Remothered Website

^[9] deviantART – Chris Darril

^[10] Clock Tower Wikia – NightCry

^[11] Kickstarter – Project Scissors: NightCry

^[12] YouTube – Project Scissors

^[13] Twitter – Hifumi Kono

^[14] Steam – NightCry

^[15] Lost Media Wiki – Remothered, a cancelled remake of horror game Clock Tower 2007-2012

^[16] Wikipedia – Remothered: Tormented Fathers