Clock Tower (Game)

Clock Tower

GAME » on September 14, 1995

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Jennifer Simpson and her friends Laura, Ann and Lotte are orphans and have just been adopted by a man named Mr. Barrows. The girls begin the move into Mr. Barrows' Mansion when something horrible happens.

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Overview

Clock Tower is a survival horror point-and-click adventure game developed by Human Entertainment for the Super Famicom that was released in Japan on September 24, 1995. Players must guide Jennifer Simpsonthrough a secluded mansion, known as the "Clock Tower," while being hunted by the mysterious Scissorman. Clock Tower was later ported to the PlayStation (Platform) in 1997, re-titled to Clock Tower: The First Fear, to the PCin the same year and to the WonderSwan (Platform) in 1999. The original Super Famicom version was made available on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console in 2010 by Sunsoft (Company), who also released the PlayStation Clock Tower games on PSN. Clock Tower would eventually spawn an entire franchise with three sequels, starting with Clock Tower 2 in 1997 for the PlayStation, that would all see worldwide releases.

While the original Clock Tower never saw any kind of release outside of Japan, all the ports and re-releases of the first Clock Tower have received unofficial English translation patches. This began in 2001 with [http:/agtp.romhack.net Aeon Genesis]'s English patch for the Super Famicom version and was later followed by a translation of Clock Tower: First Fear in 2015 as well as a translation of the PC port in 2017.

Story

The Clock Tower itself!

Jennifer Simpson is an orphan from the Granite Orphanage in Romsdalen, Norway. She and her fellow orphans, Laura, Ann, and Lotte, have been adopted by a wealthy man named Simon Barrows, who lives in a secluded mansion known as the Clock Tower. The girl's guardian, Mary, brings the orphans to the Clock Tower and leaves them in the Lobby to find Mr. Barrows. This seemingly-normal event soon turns bad when Mary and the other girls go missing. Things get even worse when a disfigured boy with giant scissors named Bobby begins chasing Jennifer throughout the mansion and the bodies of her friends begin to stack up. Jennifer has to save as many of her friends as she can and get out of the Clock Tower alive.

Clock Tower has 9 different endings depending on Jennifer's actions in the game. The endings are categorized as endings A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H (A is the best and H is the worst). There is also a secret ending which is called ending S. According to the events in the sequel, the only canonical endings are A, B, and C.

Gameplay

Clock Tower is a 2D (Concept) point and click adventure, where Jennifer is controlled by moving a cursor across the screen. Throughout the game Jennifer is being stalked by Bobby, who randomly appears throughout the mansion and cannot be killed. When Bobby begins to chase Jennifer the player must either hide or attack Bobby with objects in the room. If Bobby attacks Jennifer she will go into panic mode, where the player must mash the panic button to escape. Jennifer can be killed in panic mode if the player does not mash the button fast enough or if her health is too low.

Health colors

Jennifer's health bar is not based on her physical state, like most games, but is instead based on her psychological state of mind. The more frightened or tired Jennifer becomes the lower her "health" is.This is indicated by the color of the Jennifer's portrait in the bottom left of the screen. The color begins in blue, which is full health, and moves down to the color red, which is low health. When Jennifer's health is low the chances of Bobby finding her increase, as do the chances that Jennifer will trip while running away, so it is important to make Jennifer rest to refill her health.

Characters

Jennifer Simpson (Character): The 14 year old protagonist.
Dr. Walter Simpson: Jennifer's father.
Anne, Laura, and Lotte: Jennifer's friends and fellow orphans.
Mary: The girls' guardian.
Simon Barrows: The owner of the Clock Tower mansion.
Bobby Barrows: A 9 year old boy with a giant pair of scissors.
Dan Barrows: Bobby's mutated brother.

Trivia

Japanese Phenomena Poster

The story of Clock Tower is said to be inspired by the ending of Dario Argento's film Phenomena (released in an edited form as Creepers in the US). The main character, Jennifer Simpson, even looks very similar to Jennifer Connelly in Phenomena.
On July 21, 2011 the Clock Tower episode of Retro Game Master aired on Kotaku. Shinya Arino, the host, originally played through Clock Tower on the 53rd episode of Game Center CX and acquired the S ending. The episode is also included on Discotek's DVD release of Retro Game Master.

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