"Clock Tower 3 is explicitly about how bewildering it can be for a young person stuck in a hostile and oppressive world and how often they are subjected to abuse and exploitation by those in positions of power and authority" ah yes that classic Utena flavor
The most impressive tech I've seen from this game where many other games has never ever attempted or bothered with; bed physiques. During certain cutscenes you can see the bed mattress deforming when the character sits on it or that they animated the comforters which many games normally dont bother with and have the characters just lie down on top the comforter.
I remember being blown away the little details like that at the time, because a game hadn’t done that until then for me, like her opening a CD player, a bottle falling over when she bumps into it.
@@bronsontolliver9027 I'M SO STRONG, I CAN LIFT THIS ENTIRE HUMAN WITHOUT EVEN FLEXING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alyssa is totes a final girl in a slasher movie. Outside of the gameplay, I loved how she was able to dodge the stalkers in cutscenes. Outside of her magical girl status, she was always a survivor.
Same! It's nice to know I'm not the only one who remembers Utena (and will be forever sad Chiho Saito and Be Papas won't do a remaster or anything else. Tho perhaps it's for the best.)
As an artist, I’ve always loved how the main girl of this game has such an unusually warm colour palette for a survival horror game protagonist. Usually you see them in washed out colours unless it’s something like Danganronpa. This game’s character has hair so warm toned I’d almost call her a redhead, and her clothes are such a shade of green. It sort of gives a stark contrast, her “natural” colours versus the somewhat faded colours of most of the rest of the game
@@hikari67 well in Japan they only start high school in tenth grade, so it’s possible that she could be finishing or just finished middle school, but I don’t know what time of year the game takes place in, so I could be wrong. Edit: forgot she’s British for a second.
Honestly, the fact that the stalkers were so terrifying AND goofy made it even scarier imo. A killer that torments people while laughing and behaving like a rambunctious child? Oof.
@@suhailshaikh8529 The twins are the aforementioned "creepy and also silly" level of unsettling, Sledgehammer is just a Leatherface-esque dumb brute. I don't wanna be in a room with either, for sure, but as a concept i found the twins scarier because of their more gleeful nature.
@@RagnarRoxShow The footage of the acting reminded me of a skit competition show that I used to watch a lot call Kasou Taishou, and it really makes me appreciate such a unique perspective and attitude towards theatrical performance
id love for you to do a review of Haunting Ground/Demento!! It used to be developed as Clock Tower 4, but eventually scrapped and eventually became a spiritual succesor to it instead. And its one of my all time favorite survival horror games from how well it uses atmosphere to inflict that sense of paranoia
Really nice analysis, I love how you structure them so that it feels like a complete circle with a closing statement based on the initial ideas mentioned, brings it together nicely.
This game series is ridiculously underrated. I remember reading that The First Fear was heavily inspired by Dario Argento's film "Phenomena". (A favorite of mine.) Specifically, it was Jennifer Connolly's first name as well as her likeness in "Phenomena" that inspired the character Jennifer in the game.
That makes so much sense! When I first saw Clock Tower, it reminded me a lot of Suspiria, another Argento film, just from the tone, some of the kill scenes, and the sound design. I’m gonna have to check out Phenomena now.
I remember renting Clock Tower for the PS1. I was blown away. Just randomly picked a game to rent as a child, and it was such a unique horror game. I was pumped full of adrenaline playing that game. But seeing your game footage, it turns out I remembered it incorrectly. I've only played the one that is inside an old clock tower. There was just this slow scissor man. Very slow and he would keep on following you, so sometimes you just had to run to the other end of the clock tower to make time. I have no idea what I played. I think it was the first PS1 title but I never progressed to playing the other characters? Was i that bad as a child that I only ever managed to get through a small portion? That sounds like me. I also never made it past the school in Silent Hill.
The two PS1 clock towers start in a psychologists office and Japanese townhouse. If your memories are of a 2D entry then that's the port of the SNES original which may or may not be official.
@@valerienagy8764 my best horror game memories are exactly that. Just watching my cousin play Silent Hill and Resident Evil. I get paralyzed from the constant tension and puzzle-solving would be impossible then
@@MarcRitzMD You're describing my experience with these games perfectly! Strangely enough, about two weeks ago I thought about "Clocktower", remembering the images of that scissor man pursuing the character (me!) & feeling helpless because I knew I couldn't fight back & eventually he would find me & as you know, the game was over. I couldn't remember the title of the game though. A day later I saw something on RU-vid about Silent Hill & that triggered the memory of the title "Clocktower"! What a relief 😊. Those were fun times, hearing about a new game & trying it out. I don't know if it's a matter of growing up (ugh) but the gaming world seems so different now. I miss that excitement. Oh well. Thanks for replying to my reply. Oh, one more thing- can you believe how much these old games cost now? I was looking into buying another PlayStation game & it was going for over $500! A sad state of affairs. May you be safe & happy. May you live with ease. (Yes, I'm practicing Buddhism these days so I try to spread lovingkindness whenever I can.)
@@valerienagy8764 : D that is all very cool. It's true, it's become like collecting antiques in terms of cost but luckily even smartphones would be powerful enough to emulate those games and they won't end up lost.
It would make for an amazing horror short movie. Just one girl and one actor for scissornan in an old-timey clock tower. The objective would be to get cell signal at the top of the tower or something.
I needed more than anything for both The Clock Tower series and its spiritual successor The Haunting Ground series to continue because I thought Haunting Ground is scarier than Clocktower and is like truly terrifying and horrific and is the like really gorgeous serious dark horror game to continue. It's I think it's what most people think they're going to get when they get a horror game good and I wish we continue to that Siri and that direction. But I also wanted the Clock Tower series to continue alongside it going in the direction of Clock Tower 3 of just something that is fucking batshit. Clock Tower 3 is mad mad mad mad mad mad mad and I love it. When I play that game there was a smile on my face from ear-to-ear and I'm really happy to see someone giving it the the love it deserves
As someone who loves Argento’s Phenomena and has insisted it’s a “magical girl giallo”, I appreciate that the game inspired by Phenomena is also about magical girls
As a foreigner, I want to thank you so so much for your subtitles, it save my life each time and I greatly appreciate the effort. Also love your videos !
This was one of my little sister's favorite horror games and in fact, for the longest time, the only one of us to be beat it. I never good until I did a let's play of it on her birthday some time back. I only wish she had seen me do it.
You made Clock Tower 3 out to be the perfect and only workable origin story for a Sailor Moon movie. Have her transform in the end to give her the ability to eliminate these demons. You could really do some amazing character development where the protagonist learns to be able to be comfortable with fear and to trust in the small clues that she does have a power to the face these demons if she only gives in to them
The first clock tower I played with my cousins (the one at the police station that's actually the second one) it scared me more than anything and I obsessed over that game all the time especially when she looks through the peep hole and it's the cop but she opens the door and his dead body falls in and scissor man comes charging in. Absolutely terrifying!! Clock tower two, the struggle within was also traumatizing I was SO scared to play but I tried. It was too hard for me to beat without a walk through guide.
No, look. This game is everything. This game holds a super special place in my heart. My best friend got this game for me back in the day (didn’t do too well at least we’d never heard of it), I had turned her on to horror gaming, and she found this in a bargain bin. I still have CT3 today. It’s broken from moving, but I will not get rid of it. The amount of times we played that game throughout high school, knew every line, still managed to jump a little even when we knew every scripted jump scare… great times.
This game is truly unique, as it manages to be a comedy and horror at the same time, the introduction scene of the corroder is very disturbing, but 10 seconds later there is a toilet with a hilarious evasion point that always manages to crack me up. Another game I know that does this sort of thing is shadow hearts, as a series.
That motion capture is amazing. Especially for a game that came out in the PS2 era, it still puts to shame some of our current generation games. Granted, the budget and sizes of our games are vastly more complex, but just that one scene where the guy comes through the window and gives her a key had so much soul put into it. I think a lot of our (comparable) games are missing that kind of soul.
True, if developers reduce the scale of their ambitions abit and focused on more liner experiences they would be able to create true works of art instead of the next open world live service that'll be forgotten about the following year.
I bought this game during the PS3 era looking for 'classic' games I'd missed and I have to say that even though I completed it it I did find it way too goofy. I've forgotten most of the game with just a few tidbits lurking around in my memory but one thing I'll always remember is the scene where Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu starts playing out of nowhere. The manic frantic energy as she searches for the source of the ghostly music is perfectly complimented by the piece itself. It also goes perfectly with the story of the little girl victim that defines the chapter, it's like the frustrated anger also felt in Cohen's Masterpiece in Bioshock, the manic inner turmoil of the performer (in the girl's case) and the composer (in Bioshock's case). I do vaguely remember the primary plot as I cast my mind back and the history of the family even though the moment to moment actions have slipped away but I do remember one thing that confused the heck out of me when I actually played. "So this clock tower where all these terrible things happened was lost to history and no one could find its hidden location, it must have been really out in the countryside in some dark corner where only lost travellers would stumble onto it." Then the reveal came and nope, it was smack bang in the middle of London, the capital city of England.
RIP Human Entertainment. Still the most underrated defunct studio. Seriously, every game they made, be it a masterpiece experience or one of the most confusing ones (SOS anyone?) They were unique, fascinating and wonderfully esoteric.
The only game that truly terrified me as a kid. Only this game, Freddy Krueger and the hotel level of vampire the masquerade ever as ever frightened me.
I love the Clock Tower series... there's something about being chased by a dude with a giant pair of scissors that is both terrifying and comical at the same time.
I’m not that into horror, nor am I all that prolific of a gamer, but I was lucky enough to have a friend who would bring clock tower 3 over to my house to play together. And you’ve really captured what a unique experience it is, you’re laughing at the weird acting one minute then screaming along with Alyssa as both of your panic meters run red. I even remember a couple glitches where the subordinates would break the rules leaving us feeling even more helpless and frantic. It really is an iconic game, and one of my most memorable gaming experiences. I’m sad to hear it’s being forgotten and I hope it has a renaissance in the discourse that helps it gain the respect it deserves.
I remember when I first started this game. It was over the top but such a valuable gem. It's one of the games that I bought on a chance and enjoyed immensely. I do hope one day there might be a spiritual successor.
this was the first survival horror game I ever played, i picked it up on a whim on the used games shelf of a game store & practically marathoned it with a friend, & it's held a sweet spot in my heart ever since. every horror game i have played since then has had big shoes to fill, honestly, with this game being my first experience ever with survival horror. even now, it holds a space in my holy trinity of survival horror alongside Rule of Rose & Haunting Ground. so excited to hear a positive review that does this game incredible justice.
I found Clock Tower 3 for 15 bucks online six years ago, I found it incredibly strange but I eventually finished it. I made a small presentation about the game at college, I even played it for my class for a bit, good times.
Well I'll be damned. The guy who coined the battle royale genre directed clock tower 3, and it was the last work he saw released before his death a month later. wild shit
I really searched for that why clock tower is not popular and i got your video.. I'm a big fan of clock tower series and i love them all so i'm upset when i look that no know really about this masterpiece. I hope it get more attention. Cuz it have a lot details and beautiful story. Horror and sad things happened and i love them all ❤️🔥😭👍🏻
Ah yes, I remember seeing a trailer of Clock Tower 3 on a DVD that came with a Playstation magazine. I was intrigued but didn't end up buying it back in the day during its release.
I remember watching a buddy play this one back in middle school. The sledgehammer stalker and the acid one were pretty deranged antagonists and their intros equally frisky spectacles. I also didn’t know about Nude Maker’s pedigree. I knew they had done Steel Battalion but I mostly enjoyed their game Infinite Space for the DS. Star Trek - The Anime - The Game. Neat little game if you can accept the visual novel story telling.
This was my first step into the horror game genre. My older sister sent it to me in the mail cus she wasnt feeling it. I remember playing and beating it so many times to see how fast i could beat it. I remember spending summers speed running it for my friends. Strange game to have fond memories with.
I remember feeling really sad for the victims, especially the mother and son. Their fate was so cruel. I never felt anything remotely close to that level of sympathy for any of the Resident Evil games. The Cloth Tower 3 casualties felt like real people.
I'm 30 years old so I was around when the first clock tower game came out and I would always see it at the video store for rent on the PlayStation 1 but I never picked it up I knew for a fact it was way out of my league lol I regret not trying it though,
I am so thankful for finding your channel, these videos are really insightful. I never knew of Clock Tower 3 and how whacky good it seems. Sad to see the game not exist in any form nowadays. At this point due to game preservation I would def. advocate to just emulate it until you can actually buy it again.
Finished the game a couple of weeks ago (what a tough final boss!), now playing Haunting Ground. Now I can finally watch this video without fearing spoilers.
Clock Tower 3 has a special place in my heart because it was the first horror game I ever played or rather, tried to play. I remember renting it at Blockbuster and being too afraid to even start because the title screen freaked me out so much. I was in like, 7th grade at the time btw.😅In the end I had my older step-brother play it for me and we got three bosses in before I forbid him from playing anymore because I was so scared. I had trouble sleeping for weeks. I never got to beat the game in the end, but still have weirdly fond memories of this game that totally terrorized me and started my love-hate relationship with horror games.
A ton of that mo-cap footage is still on youtube. Highly recommend watching it, it's absolutely bonkers. Also there's a long mix of all chase themes that SLAPS.
Damn, you REALLY got me hooked up ! How I've never heard of this game before? It sounds amazing ! Those cutscenes left me anxious and I wasn't even playing ! Alyssa is clearly struggling for her life during those cutscenes, jumping over things, throwing everything that moves against her attackers and they don't act goofy and "squared" on cutscenes, they are viciously assaulting her. The sensation of beating those monsters with a magical bow should be amazing !
I know this game gets a lot of crap for the cut scenes but I always found that scene of the little girl getting killed by the hammer killer, so unsettling
I love the deliberate structure, your keen sense of detail and specific wording, and the excellent perspectivation that your videos always have. Also, the occasional gags are legitimately funny. In short: your videos are of high quality, and I appreciate that they're here on RU-vid for me to watch. Well done as always, Ragnar.
One of my favorite games. I'm glad somebody is talking about it because this thing was so unique and still is. I loved the Corrodor. I always wanted to know what it meant when you sentenced the bosses to however many years they got before the boss fights.
I just finished watching Fear Street part 1 and 2 and I couldn't help but think about Clocktower 3 with some of the "posession" mechanics and how their souls are forever bound afterwards. now this in my feed. Perfect.
Clocktower 3 has always stuck with me since childhood. One of the absolute most underrated gems of the horror genre! It was actually horrifying…and as a huge RE fan, this game did a wonderful job of not copying or trying to adhere to trends of the era! The graphics, voice acting, scare factor, and story were all S tier for a title you’d expect to be underperforming and low budget. I’d say it suffered during its release because so many people were spoon fed tons of other horror games around the same time. It didn’t fail because it was a bad game, it failed because marketing was focused on everything else (probably because no one expected a masterpiece from a resurrected title which had struggled in the past). I would go as far as saying, this may be THE most underrated horror game of all time. I hope someday, they continue the Clock Tower series…as it was such a scary yet rewarding experience!
Thank you SO MUCH for giving this game the love it deserves with one of your (as always) excellent videos! I have considered Clock Tower 3 a hidden gem of a survival horror game for years, and I'm so glad to see I'm not the only one! Especially since you're one of my favorite RU-vidrs for covering the genre and have covered all the special gems from my personal collection - this game, Rule of Rose, Kuon, the Fatal Frame series... etc. and so on. Keep up the most excellent work! I can't wait to see what game you cover next! :) Might I suggest a video on Haunting Ground, at some point? That's probably the one game from my PS2 collection I can't remember having seen a video on from you.
I'm glad! Haunting Ground has been suggested to me many many times and I've spent quite a bit of time playing and researching this game with the consideration of making a video on it, but my feelings on it are complicated. I haven't found an angle to talk about it that feels right without feeling obligated to harshly criticize a good portion of it, and that's not the approach I want to take for my videos. When I cover a game I want old fans of the games to rejoice and not feel like their baby is being torn apart, so until then I keep processing it until I hopefully find the right angle to cover it from one day.
Clock Tower 3 has my favorite type of acting EVER which is the japanese overstylized acting that is usually used for comedic purposes. With conversations that go back and forth as well as constant overdramatized movements, mood shifts and hoakey deliveries. I'd classify it as dorky acting and I absolutely love it.
Playing the first Clock Tower back in early 00s was a really strange, but special experience. And I have to say, Bates really carried The Struggle Within on his back. Too bad that the game was ultimately beyond saving. As for CT3, I always mixed it up with Rule of Rose back in the day. PS2 library had quite a few horror games with fixed camera angles starring teenage girls, now that I think about it.
I loved this game, one of the few games I would complete multiple times one after another, I found the lore surprisingly fascinating. I even still have my original copy.
Duuuuude I played this game as a kid and it absolutely terrified me! To this day my dad still says “Ali, come out and play” (my name’s Ali). Glad to hear someone talk so highly about it!
I feel like this game is slept on because of two reasons; it's very goofy and the running away gameplay gets kinda tedious near the mid-point of Hatchetman's chapter. It's a game you kinda have to look past to see what it's got going for it. Also, to this day, even though I grew up with the late PS1 and PS2 library, the OG Clock Tower still holds a dear place in my heart even I've never played it, it's such a unique and borderline perfect early horror game from the early years of gaming.
I never comment on videos, but I felt like I had to on this one. Clock Tower 3 has been my favorite video game for over ten years now -- two people sent me the link to this video independently of each other, because my love of this game is one of my defining characteristics -- and it's nice to see it get some recognition. I'll admit, it was scarier when I was 16 years old vs now, but this game was definitely my entry point into exploring all sorts of horror games. I doubt I would've started playing games like Amnesia or Silent Hill or Fatal Frame without having first played this game. You taught me some things that I hadn't known, such as Fukasaku's involvement in Battle Royale. Also, you managed to make the plot of the game sound somewhat badass . . . which I am impressed by. Gold star. Fantastic video. Really appreciate folks bringing this game into the light and focusing on its strengths rather than just the meme factor. Not that the meme factor is a bad thing, but CT3 has more to offer than just that. Overall, it's a fun experience that I think people who are dipping their toes into horror games should try!
I'm really glad you gave this some love. Anything Clock Tower deserves attention. I personally couldn't get past the campy and goofy stuff in #3 but still glad it's getting attention.
i didnt realize how lucky i was... i got a brand new clock tower 3 for the ps2 for christmas ! since ive been so obsessed with the clocktower series for so long. god
Awesome video! I've been wondering if you could play and make a video about the forgotten japanese PS3 exclusive game "Folklore" based on Irish folklore. It is a really cool and kinda unique game that a lot of people don't even know about. Also, game takes place in an actual Irish village called Dulin!
When I was a kid I just played games, now in this age of youtube I realized all those games I used to play were actually masterpieces in their own respective ways, from Clock Tower to Legacy of Kain, from Chrono Trigger to Tales of Phantasia
In my recommendation because I checked out CT3 vids of late for my _magical girl_ novella - she's trapped in a PS2 game. CT3 isn't new to me I'd saved information on it for yet an earlier horror and earlier still first came to my attention from an Xplay review. Says something when I turn to it after all this time...
