Let's survive the Clock Tower... (100% Complete)

[ghostdog]

Since IMAGESUCK has put codex on the black list, in order to see some of the images you must do this : LINK

So, during my recent fascination of re-playing a shitload of old SNES games, I started replaying Clock Tower and it's the shit. It's amazing how a 2D game can be so atmospheric and scary at the same time. I laugh at pseudo-horror games like Dead Space and RE5 with their cheap scares and amphetamine pumped marines, when I see the awesomeness of Clock Tower.

Clock Tower is a 2D sidescrolling Survival Horror adventure (probably the only one of it's kind) and it's bearing a lot of similarities with Dario Argento's movies Phenomena and Suspiria. Since I'm a big fan of Dario's old movies you can understand my multiple orgasms while playing this game. The series have been continued in PS1 and PS2, though I haven't played any of them.

And guess what, the snes game was never released outside Japan --like a bunch of other great snes titles-- due to Nintendo's world-wide publishing and censoring policy at that time. Thankfully you can now play it in English using an emulator and a translation patch by AeonGenesis. The jap rom can be easily found in the net, by not removing it from an inventory.

Holy fuck
That's either James Brown's hair-styler, or a deranged serial killer. Or both.



==========================================

CONTENTS:

1. Prologue
2. Schizors
3. Hunted
4. No Tears For The Fallen
5. Crooked Paths
6. Dreams Of Freedom
7. Cradle Under The Stars
8. Wheels of Time
9. Deleted Scenes

==========================================

 

[ghostdog]

PROLOGUE

Clock Tower, now in STEREO®. Hmm, what's that "ending list" thing ?

What the... 8 endings ? Sheeeet. I don't know how, but I'll try to get one of the awesome ones.

So, let's get on with the prologue... And yeah, we're gonna play as a teenage girl. But how can you stomach playing a character of a different sex with whom you have nothing in common, you may ask. Well basically all you need is to *not* be a stuck up bitch/bitcher.

   ___           _                        
  / _ \_ __ ___ | | ___   __ _ _   _  ___ 
 / /_)/ '__/ _ \| |/ _ \ / _` | | | |/ _ \
/ ___/| | | (_) | | (_) | (_| | |_| |  __/
\/    |_|  \___/|_|\___/ \__, |\__,_|\___|
                         |___/

Remember, remember, that day in September...

Raised in the Granite Orphanage,

Jennifer and her friends were wanted as adopted daughters.

It happened in September...

Ok, let's be serious. Anyone who wants to adopt 4 cute teenage girls is either a dirty pervert, a deranged killer, or Woody Allen... or Roman Polanski.

Creepy piano playing
(Did I mention that the music is fucking awesome and the sound effects are really impressive for a snes game ?)

Welcome to the Barrows Mansion.

Yeah! The main hall is gigantic !

I gotta go get Mr. Barrows.

Ok, so now we get control of Jeniffer. The game is point and click with a cursor and we can also walk/run right or left. When we can interact with something, a bracket appears.

We can talk to our friends if we want. This is Ann, a brunette with a fondness for green:

You want to know what kind of man Mr. Barrows is, right ?

Yeah.


Laura, the coquette blondie, looks a bit nervous...

Is something wrong ?

This house makes me uneasy...


Lotte feels exactly the same...

Heh, Lotte's paranoid.

...

Ms. Mary... She's taking a long time.

I wonder what happened to her ?

Should I go find Ms. Mary ?

No, I'll go look for her.


Wisest decision Jennifer ever took. Let's go.

Now, where could that woman be...


:LOUD SCREAM:

!!?

The scream came from the hall...

C'mon, this isn't funny... !



I wish it was all just a game, dear Jennifer... I really do.

 

[Satori (original)]

FUCK YEAH! YOU GO MOTHERFUCKER :D

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Looks dashingly atmospheric.

 

[Tails]

Please continue, good sir.

 

[GarfunkeL]

:shock:

There will be raep, mark my words.

 

[ecliptic]

It's too bad what we got as Clock Tower II didn't look very good, and Clock Tower 3's boss fights unfortunately made an otherwise entertaining game unplayable for me. This and the real 2 looked pretty great though.

 

[ghostdog]

So, isn't any of the sequels worth playing ?

 

[RottingNaziSurfer]

:shock:

There will be raep, mark my words.

Oh Jaesus!

 

[spekkio]

I approve this thread.
Last-gen horror games FTW!

It's too bad what we got as Clock Tower II didn't look very good [...]. This and the real 2 looked pretty great though.

AFAIK:

• Clock Tower 1 (SNES, JAP only)
• Clock Tower 2(PSX), released as Clock Tower in USA
• Clock Tower: Ghost Head (PSX), released as Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within in USA
• Clock Tower 3 (PS2)

 

[TheCowburner]

Please continue, good sir.

 

[SCO]

Once again, showing good taste in LP land. Do the last express (after finishing bloodnet. Unless you want to pass from a dog to a pussy. Do you?).

 

[ghostdog]

Once again, showing good taste in LP land. Do the last express (after finishing bloodnet. Unless you want to pass from a dog to a pussy. Do you?).

I can't LP all these damn games. Why don't you do us all a favor and an make a Last Express LP yourself, SCO ? I'd sure like to see that one again.

As for the Bloodnet LP., it's probably dead, Jim.

 

[lightbane]

So, isn't any of the sequels worth playing ?

Dunno about the others, but about Clock Tower 3, well: http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/ClockTower3/

Long story short, it's so bad it's hilarious.

 

[ghostdog]

SCHIZORS


Let's review what has happened so far...

• Man living alone(?)in big mansion in big forest wants to adopt 4 teenage girls. Man's name is Barrows (presumably a pervert).
• Said teenage girls arrive in mansion with Ms. Mary (presumably an orphanage employee).
• Ms. Mary leaves the girls alone for a long time.
• Girls uneasy. Brave Jennifer goes search for her.
• Jennifer hears girly screams.
• Jeniffer returns back to find other girls missing.
• [Perception] Shit is about to hit the fan.

 __      _     _                   
/ _\ ___| |__ (_)_______  _ __ ___ 
\ \ / __| '_ \| |_  / _ \| '__/ __|
_\ \ (__| | | | |/ / (_) | |  \__ \
\__/\___|_| |_|_/___\___/|_|  |___/

We better turn on the lights.

Ok, Jeniffer just took a peak at that list at the start of the chapter and has deducted that the best course of action is to GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE. Let's try the front door...

Why am I not surprised... How about going upstairs ?

the

fuck ?

As you can see Jennifer's portrait has changed color and expression. This happens when she gets upset. The more upset she gets the more difficult it will be for her to get out of dangerous situations. And there will be *many* of those. If we stand still for a bit she will kneel down and regain her composure over time.

So, the only way to go now is through that other door in the main hall...
Eh? A gust of wind just banged the window to close. That was creepy.

Ok, let's enter that north room. Obviously the manor isn't in good shape. We also see that all windows are barred.

Jennifer knows when to get down and dirty. A search of the rubble reveals...

Good girl, she found a rock ! I'd prefer a *magic* rock, but we'll have to settle for an ordinary one. And how about that crack there on the wall ?

There's a deep crack in the wall... It's crumbling.


Hmm, we'll keep that in mind, let's head back to the corridor. And in case you didn't know, we're not alone... Evil eyes are watching us.

Moving on. Next we find a living room.

After turning on the lights we notice a suspicious box on top of the drawers.

It's the west wing key ! I'm sure it will come in handy. Other than that there's not much more here except for the fact that the tv is broken and that the outside world is covered in deep darkness.

Hmm, I wonder where that door leads...
It's a bedroom. And what a nice mirror. I'm sure Jennifer would like to take a look and straighten out her hair...

YIKES !

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Dead end ? Well, it sure is dead and we've definitely reached the end, Jim. Don't worry the game actually continues from the last room you were safe and there are also those nifty save states. But what did this remind me of? Oh yeah, anybody seen Prince Of Darkness ?

But why the fuck did we die here ? You see, I forgot to press the "panic button". Yes there's actually a panic button in this game. When you're in a deadly situation you've got to continuously press the button and *if* Jennifer is in a good state of mind she may overcome the danger, otherwise ... DEAD END. Also, this can be done only in some situations other times death is certain no matter what.


So, let's do it again.


:lalala fixes hair:

:handmirror deathgrip:

PANIC BUTTON PANIC BUTTON !!

buttonfuckingpanic

YES, we prevailed !
Hah, jennifer isn't such easy prey after all, is she ? you stupid satanic mirror !


Ok, but no more looking in mirrors, folks. Vanity is a deadly sin. Nevertheless there is a picture next to the mirror that has piqued my curiosity...

Hmm, is it a picture of two children ? It's been smashed and we can't make out the faces. A search of the drawer also reveals a bottle of perfume...

CLUE! Let's take it with us. A glance over the two beds reveals that the left one hasn't been used for a long time...

Hey, that's a cute little parrot. :Tries to cuddle it:
Ooops, it broke free from the cage.

KILL YOU ! KILL YOU ! KILL YOU ! KILL YOU !!!

Holy shit ! (yeah there's actual speech at certain points)

KILL YOU ! KILL YOU ! KILL YOU ! KILL YOU ! KILL YOU !!!

Goddamn evil parrot ! Let's get the fuck out of here.

Phew. This house is full of evil surprises. Ok, now that Jennifer has made her sanity check and passed, we should move on.

:splat: :splat: :splat: :splat:


Hmm, is that the sound of running water ? It seems to come from this room...

Damn, it's really humid in here. We should know better than to stay, but curiosity is a persistent bitch

WHOA!

Crap, Laura has been kil-

Eh?

SHIIIIIIIIIII-

 

[ecliptic]

I approve this thread.
Last-gen horror games FTW!

AFAIK:

• 
  snip

Damn. I just remembered what you wrote, and was hoping to sneak an edit in. You bastards are too fast.

Ever play Sentient? In some ways, that was survival horror.

Silent Hill 1 holds a special place in my heart though. It garnered a lot of respect from me when I finished it, and didn't have any clue what had just went on for the previous twenty hours.

Anyone play Echo Night on PSX? Worth playing? Echo Night: Beyond (PS2) was decent.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Well damn.

 

[ecliptic]

Good cliff hanger!

 

[TheCowburner]

But why the fuck did we die here ? You see, I forgot to press the "panic button". Yes there's actually a panic button in this game. When you're in a deadly situation you've got to continuously press the button and *if* Jennifer is in a good state of mind she may overcome the danger, otherwise ... DEAD END. Also, this can be done only in some situations other times death is certain no matter what.

So, when you are in these "panic button"/deadly situations, does the button start to blink or something? Or du you actually have to guess whether you are in a deadly situation or not?

 

[spekkio]

OMFG evol scissors of doom!

 

[Yeesh]

Woe.

Awesome so far.

 

[SCO]

If i recall correctly the portrait blinks. This is a game everyone should try. At night. In a dark room. Without a cigarette break.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Wow, looks like you found quite a gem, ghostie! Do continue...

 

[Erebus]

Looks like Laura forgot the safe word !

And the Panic Button is a great idea. More games should have one !

So, this game is purely adventure, right ? I seem to remember Clock Tower 3 was an action game.

 

[Lockkaliber]

More Scissorman!