Clock Tower 2 marks a significant evolution from its predecessor, though not always an improvement. It emerged during a time when many developers were jumping on the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 bandwagon, exploring new types of graphics, aesthetics and map navigation with items, characters, and environments finally rendered in three dimensions for home consoles

In pursuit of this new trend, the series abandoned certain unique features that still distinguish the original game. Among the most notable losses are the portraits and the exceptional pixel art, sacrificed for characters rendered with just a few hundred polygons. In defense of these changes, I must acknowledge that they're all perfectly recognizable, and their coloring is quite detailed despite the simplified facial expressions and clothing, thanks to a color palette that paradoxically adds some level of realism

There's many points of interest: later on in the game there's another mansion, while half of the experience takes place within various buildings such as a library, a dormitory, and a research lab. Each location is selectable from a map and the player can choose where to go next, hoping to interact with certain characters and advance the story

The point-and-click controls are still here (you could use the PlayStation Mouse if you wanted to), and there's a side-scrolling perspective: the escape sections are no longer seamlessly integrated into the overall gameplay experience and are instead confined to specific parts where the camera often shifts horizontally. This design choice likely nods to the original game, but it's also worth noting that the camera angles are more varied and, on a couple of occasions, mobile and not limited to some mere side scrolling. The small environments didn't leave much room for alternatives, and this setup undoubtedly made managing the polygon count easier, given that everything in Clock Tower is now in 3D; moreover, changing rooms involves a loading time masked by the slow passage of the character through the door, giving the system ample time to load a different environment

The main character must again navigate through the buildings, moving from room to room in hopes of finding hiding spots or items to defend against the killer's attacks. Meanwhile, the panic/stamina meter makes a come back: an encounter with the killer causes the character to tire, making them more vulnerable to a subsequent attack; terrifying sights have the same effect, though they are unfortunately less frequent compared to the first game. However, this time there are improvements: running is no longer impactful, allowing the player to escape safely without ever becoming more vulnerable because of this; the environments, being more compact and visually varied, have made it easier for me to orient myself

Events triggered by the protagonist's interactions with objects have become quite rare: they are almost entirely limited to sudden appearances of the killer and the player's reactions to these (e.g., using a spray against him). Opening a hatch, a closet, or entering a certain room can all pose this risk.

What intrigues me most about this game is that it was released the same year as Resident Evil, which came out several months earlier. Along the way, the developers learned about the existence of a competitor and invested more effort into creating a convincing 3D environment and well crafted camera shots. This curious branching in the development of survival horror in Japan is fascinating, creating also distinct certain differences in the adventure components of the gameplay

Notably, Resident Evil, having a stronger emphasis on action-oriented game design, also enhanced certain adventure elements significantly more than Clock Tower: the latter has fewer puzzles, fewer items and resources to find and collect,. Also, most of its content, unfortunately, is concentrated in the final act, which to me is quite charming compared to the other ones. Regardless, both games, explicitly inspired by B-horror cinema (American and Italian, respectively), facilitate exploration and interaction with NPCs: both feature sections where the player loses control of the action and can only watch the dialogues and interactions unfold, essentially becoming a spectator. Clock Tower allows some occasional freedom, letting the player decide how to respond to certain characters, thus customizing the experience to a certain degree. In fact, another parallel between the two games is their linearity: Resident Evil offers an illusion of non-linearity (you still need to perform the same actions in every playthrough in order to progress); Clock Tower is also absolutely linear despite some exploratory freedom but allows for different scenarios based on the player's actions (anticipating aspects typical of Silent Hill). Clock Tower also lets players control four different characters, in accordance to the specific scenario the player unlocked through his actions. Resident Evil, on the other hand, offers an entirely discretionary choice at the beginning of the game, with no changes along the way

The most significant difference remains the renewed impossibility of killing the Scissor Man in Clock Tower: no blankets or punches to the head will do; at most, he can be slowed down. Thus, Clock Tower continues to lead the tradition in psychological horror, featuring characters that constantly threaten the player's existence (a theme Resident Evil would only propose with its seventh installment, albeit not entirely)

Interestingly, it's possible to find notes while exploring, containing information on how to achieve various endings—a curious feature, given the Japanese developers' fondness for selling separate guides to enhance gameplay or reveal hidden elements in their games

P.S.: Two adult characters are attracted to two minors, and one of these attractions is only present in the original Japanese version

A very disappointing follow-up to the clunky but excellently-directed Clock Tower on the Super Famicom. I'm not referring to the wooden voice acting or the blocky graphics, which are par for the course for an early PSX game - there are other more fundamental issues where this drops the ball.

The original Clock Tower took place entirely in one location, allowing the spooky vibes and storytelling-through-contextual-clues to shine. This sequel takes place over several days with multiple scenarios and multiple locations - it tries adding more of a plot to string the setpieces together, but this just shines an unwanted spotlight on how threadbare the plot is and how weak the writing is. After scissorman appears and terrorizes Jennifer, butchering several security guards in the process, why does a single guard outside her home keep her safe? How does one of the characters go from hearing a passing mention of a castle that used to belong to the same family as the mansion in the first game to "let's round up 10 people, including two traumatized minors, to go on a field trip to this scary castle in another country"?

To me, the different playable characters and 'levels' feel like a band-aid over the fact that this game seems to have a lot less content than its predecessor. The levels are a lot smaller and generally less interesting than the mansion in the first game, which felt like a character in itself. And it misses the opportunity to at least provide some nice worldbuilding through flavortext, with the player character rewarding exploration of the environment with insightful gems such as "this is a couch."

I think I'd be much easier on this if I played it when I was younger - the tension of being a slow-moving defenseless waif who needs to evade a relentless pursuer is worth a few good scares - but without nostalgia goggles this comes across as a far weaker game than both its iconic predecessor as well as its survival-horror contemporaries.

If Clock Tower 1 was like a decent albeit forgettable horror film. Clock Tower 2 is like, a very enjoyable B movie. Some of the stuff that happens in this game, specifically in Gotts'/Nolan's level made me laugh out loud. The game has some really campy moments that I dare not spoil that overall makes this game much more memorable than its predecessor. Because of this, the game isn't really scary at all but it does have things going for it. For starters, there's way less telegraph to when Scissorman will appear and it makes for some pretty startling jumpscares. I also like how Scissorman can arrive at almost any moment instead of being relegated to showing up in specific rooms. The game isn't scary whatsoever, but it did make me panic quite frequently.

CT2 also makes a lot of improvements over the original. For starters, the game thankfully feels much faster. You're no longer needlessly punished for running and you can also run up stairs. The game is also set out much differently, instead of exploring one mansion for the whole game you explore different areas from a University, to a House to finally, the Barrows Mansion. This of course means the levels are much shorter and I prefer this approach because the areas here never overstay their welcome and I never felt like any area was a slog to get through. The only exception is the Barrows Mansion because it's not only bigger, but traversing through it is really frustrating since interacting with some items is locked until you interact with other, seemingly unrelated items. It's definitely the low point of the game for me. One thing CT1 has over this game is replayability. In CT1, how you play the entire game will impact your ending. In this game, only very specific actions in the Barrows Mansion would change what ending you get, the first 2 scenarios have you doing the exact same thing every time and it gets really dull if you're trying to get every ending. There's also no quick start feature this time around so you're forced to sit through the pretty long prologue with each and every playthrough which only makes things worse.

As for the story, I enjoyed it. Outside of the campy moments, it ties up the previous entries loose threads, gives more backstory on the Barrows family and overall just feels like a solid resolution to the plot.

All in all, I was positively surprised by Clock Tower 2 and I'd say I much prefer this game over the original. It was entertaining, paced much better, had great voice acting for its time and was overall a pretty enjoyable time.

Sería muy fácil decir que es como el primer juego pero peor. The First Fear bebe de la estética de Dario Argento para hacer un point and click atrapante como pocos. Incluso llegando a los peores finales, el juego nos hace pasar por momentazos en los que descubrimos la historia y aprendemos la distribución de la mansión en lo poco que dura cada run. En cuanto el juego se empieza a sentir repetitivo o esquemático ya termina, no llega a hacerse denso (cosa que intuyo, puede pasar si se quiere sacar el 100%).
Clock Tower del '96 va por otro lado, cada ruta es más larga, hay dos personajes jugables, más áreas, más muertes, y todo se siente sobresaturado. Pero el juego por momentos se relaja, en los interludios se deja de tonterías y entra en función una paranoia que no habia visto plasmada en un juego nunca antes.
Hay escenas en las películas de terror en donde los protagonistas están en peligro pero no pueden acudir a la policía ni a familiares por alguna excusa tonta, dejandolos en solitario para lidiar con la amenaza que los persigue, incluso a plena luz del día. Esos momentos me encantan, son cheesy y estúpidos, pero podemos ver a los personajes investigando o preparándose para enfrentar al monstruo. Y aunque este Clock Tower de PS1 no me haya gustado del todo, nunca voy a olvidarlo por haberme dado esos escasos momentos tan bien logrados.

Not going to lie, I don't think I've touched this game in maybe 15 or so years - 27 as of writing this for context I guess?

As a teenager this shit was fucking tight, I would tell friends in high school all the time that Resident Evil couldn't even compare, but I honestly don't think this was as nearly as good as I remember. The game was as slow as possible - built tension I guess - and the whole point and click nature just irks me to no end as I get older - again I guess the slower speed builds tension but eh. What really mattered to me was that the game felt darker at the time. For people who wanted to feel like they were really in a horror movie, this game was it. The tension and the atmosphere are undeniable here; Scissorman is just plain intimidating with the speed you have to react.

For anyone who is even remotely interested in survival horror, I whole heartedly recommend this game. It's flat-out worth all the jank - period.

The sequel went from the great 2D art of the SNES to ugly early 3D, losing a lot of the atmosphere of the first game and most of what made it memorable while still having some positive elements.

Good replay value, choice of playable characters that change events and character actions in the story, ability to save most characters leading to different endings. There is a lot more dialogue than the first game giving some more characterization, though it is mostly awkward conversations with often poor voice acting. Fairly slow working text box when exploring. There is now faster movement and response to commands than the first game which can remove some frustration but due to how the enemies work they just no longer seem threatening furthering taking away the horror and atmospheric elements of the previous title.