Clock Tower 3

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Clock Tower 3
Clocktower 3.jpg
North American cover art
Developer(s) Capcom Production Studio 3
Sunsoft
Publisher(s) Capcom
Director(s) Kinji Fukasaku
Tomoshi Sadamoto (Game director)
Producer(s) Tatsuya Minami
Programmer(s) Masahiro Imaizumi
Artist(s) Keita Amemiya
Writer(s) Noboru Sugimura
Hiromichi Nakamoto
Yosuke Hirano
Composer(s) Cozy Kubo
Series Clock Tower
Platforms PlayStation 2
Release date(s) JP December 12, 2002[1]
NA March 18, 2003[2]
EU June 27, 2003[3]
Genre(s) Survival horror
Mode(s) Single-player

Clock Tower 3 (Japanese: クロックタワー3 Hepburn: Kurokku Tawā 3?) is a 2002 survival horror video game for the PlayStation 2 co-developed by Capcom Production Studio 3 and Sunsoft, and published by Capcom. The game is the fourth installment in the Clock Tower series, and was released in Japan in December 2002, in North America in March 2003, and in Europe in June 2003. It is the first and only video game directed by film director Kinji Fukasaku (Battles Without Honor and Humanity, House on Fire, Battle Royale).

Clock Tower 3 is the first game in the Clock Tower series to incorporate direct control over the protagonist, as opposed to the point-and-click adventure gameplay used in the previous games.[4] It is also the first game in the series not to feature multiple endings. In terms of the plot and characters, as with Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within, Clock Tower 3 has very little relationship with the original Clock Tower games.

The game received mixed reviews, with many critics praising the cutscenes and Fukasaku's direction, but criticizing the gameplay. The game was not a commercial success, selling considerably less than anticipated.

Gameplay

Clock Tower 3 is a survival horror game played from a third-person fixed camera perspective in which players control 14-year-old school girl Alyssa Hamilton. Progress through the game focuses on finding items to unlock new areas, solving puzzles, and fleeing and hiding from enemies ("Subordinates"). Eventually, each Subordinate must be defeated in battle. Throughout each level, the player also encounters the spirits of innocent people slain by the Subordinates. These spirits will attack Alyssa if she approaches them. In order to pacify them, an item of sentimental value must be found and returned to the spirit's corpse.[5][6]

Alyssa is given no weaponry during the majority of the game, other than a limited supply of holy water, which can be used to temporarily stun pursuing Subordinates.[7] Within each level, the Subordinate can appear in any location after a set period of time, randomly, or if Alyssa makes noise. Subordinates also appear in certain set locations.[8] When the Subordinate appears, it immediately begins to chase Alyssa, attempting to kill her. The player must either hide from or evade the Subordinate. Evasion can only be accomplished in certain places, and each evasion point can only be used once. Using an evasion point does not kill the Subordinate, but instead renders them unconscious for a set time. The primary means of eluding the Subordinate, however, is by hiding. There are multiple hiding points throughout each level, and each one can be used multiple times. However, hiding places are ineffective if the Subordinate sees Alyssa enter them.[9]

Alyssa stumbles as she runs away from Sledgehammer in "Panic mode".

Throughout most of the game, Alyssa has a "Panic Meter" visible on screen. If she is scared by a Subordinate, attacked by a spirit or simply frightened by her surroundings, the meter will begin to rise. If it fills, she enters "Panic mode". In this state, the screen starts flashing, Alyssa becomes difficult to control, stumbling and falling over, she is unable to use holy water, and she cannot enter hiding spots. After a few seconds, she will momentarily freeze, covering her ears. Panic mode only lasts for a certain amount of time, and its duration can be reduced by using "Lavender water". However, if she is hit by a Subordinate whilst in Panic Mode, she will die instantly.[10][11]

After the majority of each level has played out, Alyssa must confront the Subordinate who has been chasing her. At this point, her holy water bottle transforms into a longbow, allowing her to fight back. Each battle is confined to a single area, and both Alyssa and the Subordinate have onscreen life bars. During the fight, Alyssa must dodge attacks while firing arrows. In order to inflict any real damage, she must power-up her attacks. However, while powering-up, Alyssa cannot move or re-adjust her aim, leaving her vulnerable to attacks, and making it possible for her enemy to move out of her line of sight. A fully powered-up shot will tether the Subordinate to the ground. If the Subordinate is transfixed with multiple powered-up shots, Alyssa can perform a highly damaging "Super attack" with her next shot, killing or severely wounding the Subordinate.[12][13]

Story

The game is set in London in 2003.[14] Alyssa Hamilton (アリッサ･ハミルトン Arissa Hamiruton?), is a fourteen-year-old girl who has been living at a boarding school for three years. Her mother, Nancy (ナンシー･ハミルトン Nanshī Hamiruton?), sent her there after her grandfather, Dick (ディック･ハミルトン Dikku Hamiruton?), disappeared. The game begins with Alyssa receiving a letter from her mother telling her to go into hiding until after her fifteenth birthday.[15] Alarmed, Alyssa decides to go against her mother's wishes and return home. However, when she arrives at the boarding house in which they live, her mother is absent, and the only person there is The Dark Gentleman (闇の紳士 Yami no shinshi?). He tells her he is a lodger, and that her mother has gone out and won't be returning.[16]

Determined to find her mother, Alyssa explores, finding a hidden note from Nancy and a vial of holy water. Nancy predicted Alyssa would return and left the holy water to help her.[17] As she enters her mother's room, Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu suddenly begins to play, with no apparent source. Alyssa is then transported back in time to the city streets during World War II. In a tailor shop, she witnesses the murder of a young girl by a man wielding a sledgehammer. Eventually, Alyssa is able to piece together what happened: May Norton (メイ･ノートン Mei Nōton?) was killed on Christmas Eve 1942 by the apparently deceased murderer Robert Morris (リチャード･モーリス Richādo Mōrisu?), aka Sledgehammer (ハンマー男 Hanmā otoko?), a stonecutter who went on a killing spree before being caught and executed.[18][19] Alyssa then witnesses an event from prior to May's death; her father, William Norton (ウィリアム･ノートン Wiriamu Nōton?), telling her he must go to war, at which point she gives him a pocket watch as a reminder of his dead wife and herself. While in battle, however, William is killed. Alyssa comes to realise that she must free May's spirit, which is trapped on earth, by giving her the pocket watch. On her way to do so, she is confronted by Sledgehammer, whom she destroys. She then gives the watch to May's spirit. May is reunited with William, and the two thank Alyssa as they ascend to Heaven. At that moment, Alyssa faints.

She wakes up in her bedroom, wondering if what she experienced was a dream. Meanwhile, her friend, Dennis Owen (デニス･オーウェン Denisu Ōuen?) arrives at the house. He has the key to Dick's room, which Nancy gave him the previous day.[20] While searching the room, Alyssa learns that the girls in her family are known as "Rooders", young women with supernatural powers. Rooders are the sworn enemies of "Entities", beings which can infect innocent humans and drive them to acts of murder. However, killing the human possessed by the Entity (known as a "Subordinate") doesn't kill the Entity. Instead, the agony of the souls of the murderer's victims feeds the Entity and allows it to remain in possession of the human, even after death. Rooder powers peak at the age of fifteen, and wane afterward, disappearing completely by the age of twenty.[21][22]

Alyssa fights Corroder in boss mode. She has tethered him twice, but three tethers are necessary for her to use her Super Attack.

Meanwhile, Alyssa travels back in time to the 1960s. Entering the house of a blind elderly woman, Dorothy Rand (ドロシー･ランド Doroshī Rando?), and her son, Albert Rand (アルバート･ランド Arubāto Rando?), she sees them murdered by a man who throws them into a vat of acid. During the struggle, a shawl Albert had made for his mother falls into a sewer. The murderer, known as Corroder (硫酸男 Ryūsan otoko?), was staying with the Rands at the time of the killing. His real name was John Haigh (ジョン・ヘイグ Jon Heigu?), and he claimed to be Albert's cousin.[23] Alyssa finds the shawl in the sewers, destroys Corroder, and returns the shawl to Dorothy's spirit, freeing both herself and Albert. She then returns to the present, where The Dark Gentleman congratulates her on killing two Subordinates. He sends her to the top of a massive clock tower where he tells her that when her fifteenth birthday arrives they will be united for eternity.[24] He also tells her that her mother is dead. When she refuses to believe him, he flings her from the tower.

Regaining consciousness in a sewer system, she is forced to confront another Subordinate, Chopper (斧男 Ono otoko?). After temporarily escaping, Alyssa again sees an incident from the past. Shortly after she was born, she sees her father, Philip (フィリップ Firippu?), struggling with Dick on the balcony. Dick pushes Philip over the edge onto an axe head, killing him. Alyssa believes it to have been an accident. She is then attacked by Chopper. She defeats him, but fails to kill him and is sent to a graveyard. There, she learns her mother has been killed in a car accident. She learns Chopper was a woodcutter called Harold Powell (ハーベイ･パウエル Hābei Paueru?), who was deformed at birth. When Powell was seventeen, he proposed to the innkeeper's daughter, but was rejected. In turn, he dismembered her and continued to murder other women in the same fashion for two years until he was caught and killed. However, as he was possessed by an Entity, he was reborn, eventually becoming the head Subordinate.[25] Alyssa then learns of the "Ritual of Engagement"; if a human wishes to become an Entity, they must remove the heart of a Rooder to whom they are related on her fifteenth birthday and drink her blood.[26] Eventually, Alyssa fights Chopper again and is able to destroy him.

Dennis arrives, and he and Alyssa find their way to an abandoned hospital where they encounter Scissorman (シザーマン Shizāman?) and Scissorwoman (シザーウーマン Shizāūman?), who kidnap Dennis. Alyssa is then transported to a castle, where she encounters Dick reciting a strange incantation. She learns Dick knew of the Ritual of Engagement, and had discovered the "Legend of Lord Burroughs". Determined to learn more, he set out looking for information three years previously.[27] As Alyssa explores the castle, she learns it once belonged to Lord Darcy Burroughs (ダン･D･バロウズ Dan D. Barouzu?), who had married into the Hamilton family. He too had learned of the Ritual of Engagement and was planning on performing it on his daughter. However, the night before her fifteenth birthday, she died in an accident. Burroughs became enraged, and began to kill his staff, the villagers and even his wife. He was eventually crushed in the gears of the clock tower whilst fleeing a mob of villagers.[28] Alyssa also learns Dick had found Burroughs' castle and discovered that he was directly descended from Burroughs.[29] She also learns the true nature of the twins: Jemima (ジャニス Janisu?) and Ralph (ルディ Rudi?), who were hired by Burroughs to carry out murders for him.[30] She then sees an incident from the past; Dick approaches a portrait of Burroughs reciting the incantation. He asks for Burroughs to help him become an Entity, inviting Burrough to enter his body and for them to complete the Ritual together. Burroughs' spirit takes possession of Dick, turning into The Dark Gentleman. Meanwhile, Alyssa is able to rescue Dennis from the twins, killing them in the process.

The Dark Gentleman then tells Alyssa if she wants to save Nancy's soul, she must come to the top of the tower. She makes Dennis wait behind and heads to the summit. There, The Dark Gentlemen turns into Dick. Alyssa begs him to return her mother, but Dick points to a nearby statue, telling her Nancy betrayed him and had to be punished. He then turns into Lord Burroughs. He destroys the statue and begins The Ritual of Engagement. However, Dennis arrives and distracts Burroughs, allowing Alyssa to fight back. Nancy's spirit transfers what is left of her own Rooder power into Alyssa, giving her the strength to destroy Burroughs. After she defeats him, she reunites with her mother's spirit. The tower then collapses. Alyssa awakens in a field, where she sees Dennis. She runs to him and hugs him as she says "Mom...we did it. We did it, Mom."

Development

The game was officially announced on April 11, 2001, with Capcom revealing they had taken over the Clock Tower series from Human Entertainment, and would be co-developing the new game with Sunsoft. They also revealed that acclaimed film director Kinji Fukasaku would be directing the cutscenes, Keita Amemiya was in charge of character design, Noboru Sugimura was writing the scenario, and Kouji 'Cozy' Kubo was composing the music. At the time of the announcement, the game was still in the casting phase; over two hundred actresses had auditioned for the motion capture of Alyssa.[31] The game was first shown at E3 in May 2002, where a non-playable demo was on show at the Capcom booth.[32] In November, Capcom announced the game would be released in Japan on December 12.[33]

Soundtrack

The music for Clock Tower 3 was composed by Kouji 'Cozy' Kubo, with Norihito Kudo, Reiji Matsumoto, Akihisa Murakami, Naoki Kakuta, Shingo Suzuki, Kazuhiko Mizoguchi, Sai Konno and Naomi Amagata.[34] The soundtrack, Clock Tower 3: Original Soundtrack, was released on the Suleputer label in January 2003, containing forty-eight compositions.[35]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
Aggregator Score
Metacritic 69/100[36]
Review scores
Publication Score
Eurogamer 6/10[37]
Famitsu 33/40[38]
Game Revolution C[39]
GameSpot 7.3/10[40]
GameSpy 2/5 stars[41]
IGN 7.7/10[42]
OPM (US) 3/5 stars[43]

Clock Tower 3 received "mixed or average reviews," with an aggregate score of 69 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on twenty-eight reviews.[36]

IGN's Jeremy Dunham scored it 7.7 out of 10. He criticized the camera placement, the use of hiding spots and the boss battles, but praised the graphics and atmosphere; "successfully capturing the dirty, musty look of England's serial killer underworld, the environments are populated with objects and a variety of moving parts. Whether it's the sudden scurrying of a horde of hungry insects or the subtle tapping of growing rainfall, Clock Tower 3 is straight out of a Mary Shelley novel." He concluded "Clock Tower 3 comes across as a surprisingly enjoyable survival horror game. Rough around the edges in terms of gameplay (especially when fighting against bosses) and a little on the short side, it's still one of the scariest things we've played in quite some time."[42]

GameSpot's Brad Shoemaker gave the game 7.3 out of 10, writing "Clock Tower 3's movie portions are stronger than the gameplay that underpins them, and the result is a game that you'll probably want to finish more for its storyline than for the fun you'll have actually playing it." As with Dunham, he was critical of the boss fights. However, he concluded "Clock Tower 3 is mostly a welcome change of pace from the typical survival horror formula. It's interesting to play a game in this genre where your character basically can't fight back [...] This powerless feeling as you flee from a pursuer adds a good bit to the scariness of the game - it's just a shame that the gameplay parts don't come together in a less awkward fashion."[40]

Eurogamer's Kristan Reed scored the game 6 out of 10. He praised the camerawork, but was critical of the in-game graphics. Although he found the cutscenes "exceptionally well-realised," he argued "the general standard of detail in game is merely functional by comparison, while the somewhat floaty animation doesn't always fit in with the backdrops as convincingly as it should." He also found the game too short, and the chase mechanic too repetitive. He concluded that "the wonderfully directed cutscenes from Kinji Fukasaku combined with the decent plot without doubt give players plenty of incentive to keep plugging away, but despite the obvious quality on display the real meat of the game seems to lack that something extra to demand a glowing recommendation."[37]

Chris Baker of the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine scored the game 3 out of 5, writing "although Clock Tower 3 includes a little more action than the previous games, and remains as decent a core adventure game as other horror titles, it fails where it really counts: the scare factor." He was also critical of the story, pointing out that the Subordinates attempts to kill Alyssa throughout the game is antithetical to Dick's plan to use her in the Ritual of Engagement. However, he concluded, "even with its holes, the story holds up as well as that of any other horror game. It's a little nonsensical at times, but spooky enough to satiate genre fans. If only the rest of the game could satisfy that last category."[43]

Game Revolution's AA White gave the game a C. Like Dunham, he also praised the graphics and atmosphere, but criticized the length of the game, the general gameplay mechanics and the use of hiding places. He concluded that "though the cinematics and in-game graphics are both done well, Clock Tower 3 is ultimately one of those games whose cinemas are more interesting than the actual gameplay and from a gamer's standpoint, that's never a good thing."[39]

GameSpy's Adam Pavlacka scored the game 2 out of 5. He praised the script and graphics; "The game's strongest point is easily the script work [...] Combined with some excellent cinema scenes and a distinct visual style, Clock Tower 3 scores high marks in the presentation department." However, unlike Reed, he was highly critical of the "unnecessary hindrance" caused by the camerawork. He also found the game too short, and felt the gameplay to be too shallow.[41]

Sales

Clock Tower 3 was a commercial failure. Capcom had projected sales of at least 450,000, but the game fell considerably short of that number.[44] By the end of 2002, it had sold 78,961 units, making it the 151st highest selling game in Japan across all systems.[45] In 2003, it sold a further 43,061 units, bringing its total to only 122,022 units sold.[46]

References

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  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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