Clock Tower (series)

Clock Tower is a series of video games created by the now defunct company HUMAN. The final game in the series made by HUMAN was Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within. The series was then purchased by Capcom who later released Clock Tower 3.

Games in the Series

For more information on each game in the series see the main page for the respective game.

Clock Tower

Clock Tower, Aka Clock Tower: The First Fear, is the first Clock Tower in the series. It was originally released on the Super Famicom/ Super Nintendo, but was later ported to other consoles including the Wonder Swan and the PlayStation. It follows Jennifer Simpson as she tries to survive in the Barrows' Mansion.

Clock Tower 2

Clock Tower 2 is the second Clock Tower in the series. It was released for the PlayStation on December 13, 1996 in Japan and on October 1, 1997 in North America. Since the first Clock Tower was never released in North America Clock Tower 2 is simply known as Clock Tower outside Japan. The story takes place one year after the events of the first Clock Tower game and seem to follow the A-Rank ending story.

Genre Explanation

Clock tower incorporates two important and rarely mastered, at least when coupled together, genres.

Survival Horror

The first is the obvious. Clock Tower implements the sense of horror very nicely in a number of ways. The character you control, while free, doesn't have much strength or ingenuity for that matter. Since she can only defend while at full strength and doesn't often use any means of weaponry. This gives the player a sense of weakness or helplessness. While other games allow the player to use some type of weapon, grenades, handguns, and gibble sandwiches, Clock tower does not. In terms of actually fighting you are completely helpless.

Point and Click

The other main genre that Clock Tower incorporates is Point and Click. Point and click is not used too often in more recent games, but for Clock Tower, it adds so much more to the fear that is instilled in the player. While in more recent years it hasn't been used that often there are many games that do a really good job. The use of point and click coupled with horror magnifies the fear the player experiences. Since the player is not in direct control of Jennifer, there is an air of uncertainty. The player can only tell her where to go but not move her there. This solidifies the weakness that the player feels and beautifully strikes fear in the player when Bobby appears.