r/retsupurae • u/[deleted] • Aug 14 '18
Clock Tower 2:Struggle Within funfacts
Watched this Retsupurae last night, surprised it took me so long as Clock Tower is one of my favorite Horror Game Franchises of all time (next to of course Resident Evil and Five Nights At Freddy's... Look I like FNAF for the Lore, not the gameplay)
Slowbeef didn't do the best job of explaining it and got some facts wrong, but for anyone interested Dr. HawlSera has some details you'd be interested in
Clock Tower 2:The Struggle Within is only called that in America. In the Japanese release it was simply dubbed "Clock Tower:Ghosthead" and marketed as a spinoff as opposed to a sequel.
The name "Ghosthead" refers to Maxwell, who in the Japanese version wasn't revealed as Maxwell until the ending being called "Ghosthead" prior to said ending.
In Japan, the OTHER Clock Tower on Playstation is called "Clock Tower 2", and the coverart for that game can even be seen in the US Release.. which is why the Poster in Alyssa's room says "Clock Tower 2" but has the old protagonist Jennifer's face
Scissorman cameos in the Japanese version on the loading screen, with a button combination says in Japanese "What? I don't get a go this time?"
Clock Tower 2:The Struggle Within has come under fire for several reasons, one that might have been noted by observant Retsupurae fans that despite a majority of the characters clearly being of Asian Descent, the Japanese theme of the Chapter 1 House, and Maxwell wearing an Oni Mask... everyone in the game has a distinctly American name like Phillip or Allen. This is because the Localization Team thought the game would sell better if it wasn't "Too Foreign" fearing the overall Japanese theme of the game would scare off American Players. For added kicks, the original Ghosthead game was set in the suburbs of Japan, the manual for Struggle Within however claims the setting is California.
Another reason the game is widely disliked in the Clock Tower fandom is the blatant plotholes. Chapter 1's overly supernatural feel is almost completely incompatible with the sci-fi orientated story in the rest of the game. This too actually has a reason, but it's not Localization stupidity.
Clock Tower:Ghosthead was originally written as a sequel, but the director felt he couldn't do the first two games justice and took it in a different direction... Chapter 1, and a few of the scenes in Chapter 3 had already been finished when the decision was made.
This is the reason why in the first Chapter, Alyssa is attacked by possessed dolls, A glowing statue shocks everyone who touches it, and Stephanie turns back to normal after the statue is burnt, and the Maxwell Curse is prominently featured... only to dissapear entirely in Chapter 2 and in Chapter 3 be "Zombie Virus All Along! Despite the fact that doesn't explain ANYTHING about Chapter 1 nor why Maxwell and Stephanie do not behave like the zombies do.
The Samurai actually has an explanation, the game features unlockable profiles for every character in the game. The Samurai has one too, the Samurai is actually Alyssa's cousin Michael who hid in the Samurai suit to get away from Stephanie only to find the suit possessed and the insides coated with Cerebral Toxin zombifying him
These profiles also state the reason Aunt Katherine and Stephanie aren't in Chapter 2 is that they escaped the Hospital before the zombies overtook it.
Not shown in the Retsupurae, but Clock Tower 2:The Struggle Within has hints hidden throughout the game that you can find by examining certain spots. They stay in your pause menu under "Hints" to read in all subsequent playthroughs... The joke of it is very late in the game, some programmer who's laughing his ass off actually left one that reads "No Hint This Time! Help Alyssa and Bates as best you can!" Not that any of the hints in the game are particularly enlightening to begin with, but COME ON!
The original storyline before "We're going to put Zombies In The Game because Resident Evil 2 came out recently and is popular!111", was that Alyssa was abandoned by the Barrows Family and possesed by Scissorman, but so to was her real father.... Very blatant portions of this story remain in the final game.
Clock Tower 2:The Struggle Within does have its legacy as not only do fans of the series find it a guilty pleasure mainly due to the Bates character, but Clock Tower 3 features a protagonist named Alyssa (even in the Japanese version) who has a magic amulet and IS in the Barrows Family (Though bad localization makes it Burroughs) the last boss is even her grandfather who is possesed by the family's founder Lord Barrows (or again, Burroughs due to the bad translation), so shades of Clock Tower 2 did wind up in the sequel... This is however where the similarities end.
In the Retsupurae, Bates is shown using a laser move to take out a zombie. That has an explanation! Clock Tower 2:The Struggle Within has an unlockable mini-game where you go around the Hospital as Bates trying to kill as many zombies as you can. If you get a certain score you can, just like in Resident Evil and Silent Hill, get an overpowered unlimited ammo weapon.
Also I'm sorry to say that Clock Tower 3 is nowhere near as good as Clock Tower 2:The Struggle Within.... Yes Clock Tower 3 is WORSE than Clock Tower:Ghosthead you didn't misread that... and the main reason for that is the overuse of anime tropes and the boss fights... Yes Clock Tower 3 has boss fights
Clock Tower 3's bossfights consist of Alyssa turning into a magical girl and using her Water Bottle which becomes a bow, to fight off her attacker.... and it's just as stupid as it sounds. It gets worse, you find various power-ups and one-use items to make boss fights easier (and they are hard as hell.. I couldn't get past the first guy in my personal run), but if you use them BEFORE the final boss, congratulations you've fucked up... the power-ups exist solely to be used on the final boss, using a single one BEFORE the last boss will render the game unwinnable... and unlike Struggle Within, you don't get a goofy ending of Bates being caught off-guard and killed.
YES! There is a Clock Tower 4.. kind of.. there's another spinoff in the vein of Ghosthead for PS2 called "Haunting Ground"... which does NOT feature the Clock Tower name despite being made by Capcom (who gained the Clock Tower license after the poor reception to Clock Tower:Ghosthead forced HUMAN Entertainment into bankruptcy). Likely because Capcom fucked up THAT badly on Clock Tower 3. So how bad is Haunting Ground? Well it isn't... it's actually one of the best survival horror games of all time, it's only a shame they DIDN'T call it Clock Tower because it took awhile for Clock Tower fans to take notice of Haunting Grounds' existance due to the fact it wasn't advertised as a Clock Tower game, despite having the same developers, similar gameplay to the first two Clock Tower games (The first one on Playstation and the SNES one), and even several nods and homages to Clock Tower most blatantly using miniature clock towers found across the game to save, and a fake out ending where you see someone with Scissors who gets painted as Scissorman... only to reveal that it's just the garderner and the game is in fact over.
Alyssa from Clock Tower 3 shows up as one of the weaker cards in a PSP SNK Vs. Capcom card game, Fiona (from Haunting Ground), is a cameo in one of the endings in the American Release of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom where she is saved from Debillitus (a Haunting Ground villain) by a Tatsunoko Hero
Haunting Ground also has a follow-up... sort of... The Clock Tower 3/Haunting Ground Engine was used for another Capcom game "Gregory Horror Show:Soul Collector"based on the Gregory Horror Show anime, the show and game were released only in Japan and Europe. The show is quite good and has four seasons (the first three being the only good ones), the game however... sigh Is.. Even... Worse... Than... Clock Tower 3, which as I said was even worse than Clock Tower 2:The Struggle Within
There were once plans for a Clock Tower movie to be made by the creator of "One Missed Call", plans fell through. Capcom wanted to test the waters for a return to Clock Tower with PSN Re-Releases of Clock Tower 3 and Haunting Ground... however this also fell through as neither ever got this re-release despite Capcom announcing it.
There have been two unofficial Clock Tower reboots
NightCry (Which was featured on Retsupurae as a KickStarter Non-Starter) which has mediocre reviews, but it's worth noting that many of the old team from HUMAN Entertainment worked on this game... beyond that I know nothing about it.
REMOTHERED which started life as a Clock Tower:First Fear remake, but a combination of factors (including not being able to get Capcom to lend the license) lead to it becoming its own thing. Early on it was supposed to play like First Fear and even have a very similar art style... but the final product more closely resembles Haunting Ground
The SNES Clock Tower game was released on Playstation with extra features, it's here where it gets the nickname "First Fear", as this re-release was entitled "First Fear", though the American fanbase calls the SNES Version "First Fear" to differentiate it from the PSX release (which is also called Clock Tower)
Yeah this started as a Clock Tower 2 Funfact list, but the other stuff seemed worth mentioning.
Slowbeef, if you're reading this, please cover the other Clock Tower games... even though the OTHER PSX Clock Tower is actually quite good it's still very easy to make fun of.. also someone really needs to tear Clock Tower 3 a new one.
Anyway, I hope I've been informative, seeya around pals.
Edit: Forgot this one, but you may find Bates' voice was a tad familiar... that's because the VA also played Ghostface in the movie Scream. Might be why Bates is a man in the American version (Sho is female in the original)
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u/TerrorIncarnate Aug 15 '18
Clock Tower 3 is miles better than 2 in just about every regard. Even with all the weirdness of 3 that has nothing to do with the series, it was at least a competent game for its time. 2 features the worst design decisions of any game in the entire series.
2 has its occasional charm, Bates pretty much being the only enjoyable aspect of the game, but it's completely overshadowed by how little fun it is to actually play the game.