Difference between revisions of "Clock Tower"

Latest revision as of 16:29, 17 May 2016

ClockTower クロックタワー

Developer(s) HUMAN
Publisher(s) HUMAN
Series Clock Tower
Platform(s) SFC(Initial Release) Wonderswan Playstation
Genre(s) Horror Point-And-Click Adventure

Clock Tower (クロックタワー) is a video game made for the Super Famicom by the now defunct company HUMAN.

Setting

The game takes place in the fictional Barrows' Mansion located in Romsdalen, Norway. The protagonist of the story Jennifer Simpson was adopted along with 3 of her friends, Ann, Laura, and Lotte in September of 1995 by a wealthy man who is only known to the girls as Mr. Barrows.

The game begins as the girls are walking toward the Barrows Mansion after having been adopted. Jennifer is excited and, given the context, has been asking a lot about their new home and their new father. They enter and rest in the foyer of the large mansion while their caretaker, Mary, goes to get Mr Barrows.

After talking with the other girls Jennifer, who the player is now in control of, goes to look for Mary since she's been taking quite a while. A scream is heard and upon reentering the foyer Jennifer finds the other girls missing. Thus the intro to the game is finished.

Genre Explanation

Clock tower incorporates a few genres in its implementation, most notably point-and-click, the generic adventure, and of course horror.

Point-and-Click

Clock Tower implements a different style of genre mix for a horror including point-and-click. This genre is seen in many other games including an author favorite Wonder Project J. Point-and-click is severely self explanatory, but the player moves a pointer around and clicks, after which Jennifer interacts with an object or moves in that direction and stops where the pointer clicked.

Adventure

Adventure is a very broad genre because it's a very general term, but Clock Tower does incorporate an adventure. The player has the ability to move around the mansion freely. There are keys and other, necessary and unnecessary, items to collect as well as rooms to just explore and interact with. It is quite expansive and does, mildly, incorporate adventuring aspects in the game. But, some players might be too scared to explore in abundance.

Horror

Clock Tower has an interesting take on the horror genre. A common horror integration involves weapons and moving through an area while fighting, running, or sneaking. As the main protagonist of Clock Tower you can do almost nothing. When you are discovered you run and hide. You can defend yourself, in the sense that you can stop Bobby for a moment, but not indefinitely. This allows for a significant amount of fearful atmosphere. Incorporating this brings a sense of fear in the player that many games don't come close to.

Characters

Jennifer Simpson

Mary Barrows

Dan Barrows

Bobby Barrows

Anne

Lotte

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[File:Clock_Tower_Cover.jpg|thumb|alt=Clock Tower Cover|Cover of the Super Famicom version of Clock Tower]]
+{{Infobox VG
+| Image=[[File:Clock_Tower_Cover.jpg|frameless|alt=Clock Tower Cover]]
+| Title=ClockTower <br /> クロックタワー
+| Developer=[[HUMAN]]
+| Publisher=[[HUMAN]]
+| Platform=<span style="font-size: 10px">[[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|SFC]](Initial Release)<br /> [[Wonderswan]]<br /> [[Playstation]]</span>
+| Series=Clock Tower
+| Genre=<span style="font-size: 10px">[[Genre: Horror | Horror]]<br /> [[Genre: Point-And-Click | Point-And-Click]]<br /> [[Genre: Adventure | Adventure]]</span>
+}}
-Clock Tower (クロックタワー) is a video game made for the [[Super Famicom]] by the now defunct company [[HUMAN]].
+Clock Tower (クロックタワー) is a video game made for the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super Famicom]] by the now defunct company [[HUMAN]].
 ==Setting==
+The game takes place in the fictional Barrows' Mansion located in Romsdalen, Norway. The [[protagonist]] of the story [[Jennifer Simpson]] was adopted along with 3 of her friends, Ann, Laura, and Lotte in September of 1995 by a wealthy man who is only known to the girls as [[Simon Barrows|Mr. Barrows]].
-==Characters==
+The game begins as the girls are walking toward the [[Barrows Mansion]] after having been adopted. Jennifer is excited and, given the context, has been asking a lot about their new home and their new father. They enter and rest in the foyer of the large mansion while their caretaker, [[Mary Barrows | Mary]], goes to get Mr Barrows.
-==Series==
+After talking with the other girls Jennifer, who the player is now in control of, goes to look for Mary since she's been taking quite a while. A scream is heard and upon reentering the foyer Jennifer finds the other girls missing. Thus the intro to the game is finished.
 ==Genre Explanation==
-Clock tower incorporates two important and rarely mastered, at least when coupled together, genres.
+Clock tower incorporates a few genres in its implementation, most notably [[Genre: Point-And-Click|point-and-click]], the generic [[Genre: Adventure | adventure]], and of course [[Genre: Horror | horror]].
+===Point-and-Click===
+Clock Tower implements a different style of genre mix for a horror including point-and-click. This genre is seen in many other games including an author favorite [[Wonder Project J]]. Point-and-click is severely self explanatory, but the player moves a pointer around and clicks, after which Jennifer interacts with an object or moves in that direction and stops where the pointer clicked.
+===Adventure===
+Adventure is a very broad genre because it's a very general term, but Clock Tower does incorporate an adventure. The player has the ability to move around the mansion freely. There are keys and other, necessary and unnecessary, items to collect as well as rooms to just explore and interact with. It is quite expansive and does, mildly, incorporate adventuring aspects in the game. But, some players might be too scared to explore in abundance.
 ===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.
+Clock Tower has an interesting take on the horror genre. A common horror integration involves weapons and moving through an area while fighting, running, or sneaking. As the main protagonist of Clock Tower you can do almost nothing. When you are discovered you run and hide. You can defend yourself, in the sense that you can stop [[Bobby Barrows | Bobby]] for a moment, but not indefinitely. This allows for a significant amount of fearful atmosphere. Incorporating this brings a sense of fear in the player that many games don't come close to.
+==Characters==
+*Jennifer Simpson
+*Mary Barrows
+*Dan Barrows
+*Bobby Barrows
+*Anne
-===Point and Click===
+*Lotte
-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. Many games that implement point and click do it well, [[motas| there]] [[Wonder Project J| are]] [[Myst| 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.