Lost Branches: The Human Entertainment Cinematic Adventures (part 2)

In our second Lost Branches installment we will discuss Human Entertainment's other Super Famicom cinematic adventure, Clock Tower.

Today, Survival Horror is an established genre with widespread popular appeal.  The breakout success of Capcom's Resident Evil franchise turned horror games into a hot commodity in both the east and the west, and in the modern video game landscape we can see dozens of games that show its imprint.  However, the history of survival horror does not begin with Resident Evil.

It is hard to point to one game that truly invented the genre.  For example, the early Resident Evil's owe a lot of their presentation to Alone in the Dark.  This PC horror game introduced many hallmarks of the Resident Evil experience, it had impressive (for the time) 3D modeling for its characters, and used fixed camera angles on static pre-rendered backgrounds to present more impressive visuals than the hardware could normally present while creating the illusion of a three-dimensional environment.  Its stiff controls and puzzle solving gameplay elements (all of which took place in a mansion) made it the first game I thought of when I first played Resident Evil on Playstation One.

Impressive at the time.  Also too scary for me to play.

Another game one can also look to the Famicom classic "Sweet Home."  Released coinciding with Juzo Itami's 1989 film, Sweet Home (which I realize I am going to need to give it's own article) was also created by Capcom and involves battles and puzzle-solving in a scary mansion environment.  The noteworthy cinematic moments, grotesque monsters and emphasis on inventory management with limited healing items all call to mind the original Resident Evil experience.  Also, Resident Evil's "door opening" loading sequences are first seen in Sweet Home.

However, what do we mean when we say horror?  In film, the genre encompasses many different and distinct visions.  Night of the Living Dead is very different from Jacob's Ladder, Poltergeist is very different from the Thing, but all of these are horror experiences.  In the world of video games, George Romero is well represented in Resident Evil and especially in Dead Rising, Ridley Scott can be heard echoing in Dead Space, the Silent Hill games (at least the real ones, being 1,2,3 and 4) have a distinct aftertaste of Davids Cronenberg and Lynch.  One of the things that makes Clock Tower so different, is that it is more evocative of the woefully underrepresented Dario Argento.



At this point my more informed readers may point out to me that Clock Tower spawned a remake as well as three home console sequels, as well as a spiritual successor in the form of Capcom's flawed but fabulous Haunting Ground.  What makes this a "Lost Branch"?  Simply put, the original Clock Tower is in a class by itself, and despite its imperfections I would have to say it is the most original, well-realized and well executed of them all.


SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BOTH CLOCK TOWER AND DARIO ARGENTO'S PHENOMENA


The resemblance to Argento's work, specifically the film "Phenomena", can be seen in a variety of superficial ways.  The game's protogonist, "Jennifer Simpson" is a dead ringer for Jennifer Connelly, the estate where the game takes place looks very much like the school where much of Phenomena takes place, and the game's signature villain, "Scissorman", bears a striking resemblance to the deformed child revealed in the film's climax.  However, the similarity that really matters is more conceptual.  Instead of conserving ammo as you battle against zombies/space monsters/horrifying manifestations of your frustrated sexuality, you spend most of the game silently searching the mansion for help while knowing that around any corner, Scissorman could be waiting to attack you.  It is at these moments where the game really shines.

This was actually supposed to be a surprise party but nobody showed up. 

Scissorman always shows up in style.  At certain points, both fixed and random, you will encounter a specially created event where he appears.  In other words, you don't just walk into a room and spot him.  You might notice a strange shadow beneath a curtain and examine it only to suddenly have him leap out at you, or you might just happen to walk in on him brutally slaying one of your friends, which to be fair is kind of rude on your part.  When you think of this, keep in mind that Clock Tower is presented entirely in 2D graphics.  What this means is that everything you see had to be drawn out and edited frame by frame.  What makes this so impressive is that the game is littered with these special one-time events, and only a few of them will even necessarily happen in a single playthrough.

Marco!

Once Scissorman gets on your case, you have to make a run for it.  The memorable and entirely style-appropriate main theme will play as long as he is still on your trail.  Just as the game has special events coded just for his appearance, there are also special hiding places you can use when trying to evade him.  I remember one of the game's nastiest surprises involved a fake-out when I had escaped to a loft area.  The music stopped playing and I had just breathed a sigh of relief when suddenly Scissorman came tearing through the ceiling, leaving a gouged out hole in his wake.  In addition to the Scissorman events, there are a number of scares waiting to punish your curiosity.  Make sure you open the fridge.

Hint: what you find is pretty much the opposite of this picture.

The gameplay is a kind of hybrid between the point-and-click adventure game style and a more action oriented 2D game.  Instead of a lifebar, you have a panic meter represented by a picture of your character.  She is shown with a color background which goes from blue gradually to red.  The higher the panic level, the less able she will be to fend off Scissorman when cornered.  It can seem a little nondescript at times, and it can be a bit slow-moving.  It is frustrating that running instead of walking can increase the panic level.  However, the slow pacing combined with the usually silent, eerie environment really helps increase the suspense and tension experienced by the player.  Special action events are handled by using one button which is designated as the "panic button."  While this is not used to as great effect as it maybe could have been, it does allow for some very exciting moments that couldn't really be handled any other way.  This is somewhat predictive of future games use of "Quick Time Events" and Resident Evil 4's genius use of one context-sensitive button for various instant actions.  While the game is not particularly long, it is similar to SOS in that your free exploration can lead to several different conclusions.  While the endings ultimately can be divided into surviving or not surviving, they are thoughtfully done and it's fun to try to see them all.

So what of the sequels?  After being re-released on Playstation One, Clock Tower was given a direct sequel. The game, Clock Tower 2 (released simply as "Clock Tower" in the US), picks up where the story of the original left off, which is neat, but much like the sequel to SOS, the game is hampered by the fact that its early 3D presentation just couldn't match old fashioned 2D artistry.  Also, the experience suffers for trying to cover so much more ground (literally and figuratively) than the original.  Having the mansion be the only location made it a kind of "character."  The same goes for the Playstation One spinoff that followed.  Clock Tower 3 was an enjoyable game that did a good job of refining the cat-and-mouse gameplay, but the fantastical plot took things into a different sort of territory from the subtler, slow-paced, moody original.  The game that is most evocative of the original experience would have to be the superbly scary Haunting Ground, but the game was not a big-seller, and stands out as a unique callback to the earlier games' sense of cat-and-mouse suspense.

Much like SOS, the thing that keeps a game like Clock Tower from having a truly fitting sequel is its presentation and its economy of gameplay elements.  Its true you play pretty much the whole game in one building, pursued only by one primary antagonist, and the story is a pretty straightforward tale of somebody having Satan's baby, but the simplicity of those elements make the game a lot easier to get into.  These elements become more special because there aren't many of them.  Modern graphics could do a great job of rendering a big scary place to play in, but it would be hard to make the same game in it.  A short, simple, scary little adventure.  Kind of like Sharron Angle's run for senate.

Well, okay, not THAT scary.

Bonus:
Kotaku has started releasing translated episodes of Japan's delightful "Game Center CX"!  Under the new name "Retro Game Master", the show chronicles long-time gamer Shinya Arino and his friends as they are tasked with making their way various classic games.  Follow this link to see their great episode about Clock Tower!  Its a good way to see the highlights of the game from start to finish without having to play through it yourself.