It’s time the ‘Clock Tower’ series gets a remake

Return to survival horror history

Have you ever heard of the Clock Tower franchise? If you’re not a hardcore gamer or survival horror fan, probably not. It’s one of gaming’s legacy titles that gets mentioned in history but has long stayed dormant. We’re talking over 20 years since the last game! With a trend of video games turning to successful remakes, there is a treasure trove of older titles that could benefit from the treatment. One of those such cases is the Clock Tower series and its terrifying yet lurking killer, Scissorman. As the original game is getting its first enhanced worldwide port on October 29th, 2024 (now Clock Tower: Rewind), we’re looking back at the series and making our case.

Clock Tower started its life as a point-and-click survival horror game. The first game, Clock Tower (or in its officially titled form, Clock Tower: The First Fear), was released in 1995 in Japan by Human Entertainment. The game never officially got released outside of Japan, but there are some fan translations out in the world that gamers have played. However, the first entry that got a true worldwide release was its sequel in 1996, also named “Clock Tower” (or Clock Tower 2 in Japan). What you’ll soon learn about the Clock Tower series is that the name and the story details go all over the place. (The less we say about the spin-off, Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within, it’s for all our sakes. Trust us!)

The last mainline game in the series came in 2002 with the release of Clock Tower 3. This version steered away from the point-and-click style of the three earlier titles, instead choosing conventional survival horror tropes of the era. Clock Tower 3 wasn’t bad by any means; it was fun and campy at times, and its combat mechanics were a vast improvement. One of its issues, though, was that it was a vast difference from earlier games. The aesthetics completely changed, the previous story and its characters were gone, and even Scissorman was completely reworked. It didn’t have the same Clock Tower energy, and not even spiritual successors like NightCry or Remothered could match the feeling. The original story of the first two games, specifically the first game, was magic.

A Final Girl’s fight

Close your eyes and put yourself in this setting: you’re Jennifer Simpson, an orphaned girl in Norway who has just been adopted by the mysterious Simon Barrows. You, along with three friends, will now live in his large creepy mansion, but suddenly, the lights go out and everyone goes missing. What ensues is a night of terror as people start getting viciously murdered by the deformed creature wielding large oversized scissors, the Scissorman. This is a slasher movie plot at its finest!

Clock Tower was inspired by the works of director Dario Argento, like 1985’s Phenomena. The game has plenty of kills, paranoia, and creepy influences weaved throughout its short run-time. Just like other recent remakes (Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 4), there is plenty of foundation here to expand into a fuller game. Why not take the current story and add more? Maybe there are scenes from the girls’ orphanage? A flashback chapter to when Jennifer’s father was invited to the mansion? An origin scene of Scissorman? The base of the story is strong enough to carry more weight to it.

And if that’s still not enough for a plot, an idea could be to combine the stories of Clock Tower: The First Fear and its sequel. The original game has a 1–2-hour runtime; the gameplay style is engaging, but you can breeze through it. What if the games were combined to be an “Act 1 & Act 2” narrative structure? The sequel takes place a year later as Jennifer goes through treatment after the first game’s events. A remake could build out the first game while reining in the story of the sequel to focus on Jennifer fighting against Scissorman. We’d be following Jennifer during both of the killing sprees; she would be in true Final Girl form.

Remake possibilities

One area that will need to be changed in a remake is the point-and-click mechanic. The style works on a smaller scale, but a remake could shift itself closer to Clock Tower 3. There are two ways this can be approached. The first would be the current style of remakes, like Resident Evil 2. Expand to make Jennifer playable and more in control of the movements. The next-gen graphics and capabilities would allow us to explore the locations and traverse the mansion. Plus, we’d have to face the full fear of Scissorman. (Just picture the iconic kills in current-gen graphics!)

The second option could be an interesting experiment – a blending of two worlds, as it were. What if Clock Tower got “The Butterfly Effect” treatment? What I mean by this is a style closer to Supermassive Games’ line-up, like Until Dawn or The Casting of Frank Stone. Supermassive Games’ bread and butter are horror games and slashers – and they just did their first collaboration for Dead by Deadlight. Those games blend the balance of exploration and a point-and-click tone for decision-making. This approach would allow us to control supporting characters (Laura, Anne, etc.) and have a greater impact on their chances of survival. The idea is writing itself.

Rewinding to a renaissance

The Clock Tower franchise needs a renaissance. Even though contemporaries from the last 20 years have used the “looming killer following you around non-stop” trope, Clock Tower led the way. Clock Tower has an allure from the first screams that are heard through the Barrows Mansion. And after so many years, the series could rise from the grave and return to its horror roots. Clock Tower: Rewind will be a nice return to the beginning of the horror tale and a fresh start for new gamers to the series. But we’re keeping our hopes on a remake – you can’t keep Scissorman dead for too long.

Clock Tower: Rewind will be available to play on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam / Windows.

Featured image credit: © Sunsoft / © Capcom / WayForward / Limited Run Games