Game:

Clock Tower (1995)

Duration: 30:25

380 views

5

Gameplay Performed by: TrevorDFox.

Clock Tower is a survival horror point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Human Entertainment for the Super Famicom in 1995. It is the first installment in the Clock Tower series. The story follows orphan Jennifer Simpson soon after she is adopted by the Barrows family along with other orphaned girls. With the introduction of Scissorman, the game's antagonist, one of the other children is killed. Jennifer must then explore the Barrows Mansion to find a way to escape while evading Scissorman, leading to one of the game's multiple endings. Clock Tower utlizes a point and click interface with the player controlling a cursor to direct Jennifer's actions.

Much of Clock Tower's plot and artistic style are inspired by the works of Italian horror film director Dario Argento, most notably Phenomena (1985). Director Hifumi Kono loved horror films like this and wanted the game to feel like one. Many of the game's character graphics were digitized from photos of real people. Jennifer's movements were constructed from a woman in Human's planning division acting out the scenes. Her design was inspired by Jennifer Connelly's character in Phenomena.

The game sold "fairly well" upon release. An updated version, titled Clock Tower: The First Fear was ported to the PlayStation, WonderSwan, and Windows. Many years later, it was re-released again on the PlayStation Network, as well as Wii and Wii U Virtual Console. The game has never been officially released outside Japan, although fan translations exist. In retrospective reviews, Clock Tower has been praised for its haunting atmosphere and is considered a predecessor to other horror video games and the survival horror genre, but the puzzles and exploration drew criticism for being tedious.

Clock Tower was directed by Hifumi Kono, who wished to use the game to pay homage to one of his favorite film directors, Dario Argento. Most notably, the game borrows many ideas from his film Phenomena (1985). Clock Tower has strong relations to its plot and shares other similarities with Argento's 1980s films, such as occult themes, distressed young women, and bright colors atop a foggy setting. Kono had a passion for old horror films, and wanted Clock Tower to feel like one.

Kono described Clock Tower as an experimental project with a small budget and staff. His peers believed that a game where the protagonist runs away from the enemy would not work, but he continued on despite these concerns. Due to lack of staffing resources, developer Human Entertainment could not include mouse support and also needed to shrink the map down significantly. Although the graphics are two-dimensional, the mansion is designed within a 3D space. The character graphics in Clock Tower were created by digitizing photographs of real people, a popular technique of the time. The actress for Jennifer was a woman in Human's planning division. Many of the motions in the game came from her acting, such as hanging from a roof and stumbling in the hallway.

Support us!! Subscribe to Refresh Games!! Help us to create more content for everyone!! Thanks for watch!!

Just 15 Minutes is a Refresh Games productions.

Other Statistics