


An updated version, titled Clock Tower: The First Fear, was ported to the PlayStation, WonderSwan, and Windows. It was directed by Hifumi Kono and originally released for the Super Famicom. Clock Tower (1995) is the first entry in the series and was released only in Japan.A film based on the series was rumored from 2006 to 2011, but never materialized. The second was NightCry (2016) for Windows, which was directed by Kono and crowdfunded through Kickstarter. The first was Haunting Ground (2005) for the PlayStation 2, which was similar to Clock Tower 3. Although no Clock Tower titles have been released since 2002, the series did see two spiritual successors. The first game solidified Human Entertainment as a developer and heavily influenced the survival horror genre. They are often praised for their high levels of presentation and horror elements, but criticized for their cumbersome and archaic gameplay. The Clock Tower games have received mixed reviews. Together with Capcom, they developed Clock Tower 3 without creator Kono's input which was a critical and commercial failure. Developer Human Entertainment went out of business in 2000, after which Sunsoft purchased the Clock Tower intellectual property. It sold well enough to prompt a direct sequel which competed with Capcom's Resident Evil (1996). The game began as an experimental project with a low budget and small staff. Kono's inspiration for the first Clock Tower title came from watching Italian film director Dario Argento's horror films, especially his film Phenomena (1985). Scissorman is a reoccurring antagonist and sometimes the sole enemy in the game. Gameplay in the series generally involves the player hiding and escaping from enemy pursuers without any weapons to defeat them. The fourth and most recent title, Clock Tower 3 (2002), was co-produced by Capcom and Sunsoft for the PlayStation 2. Human Entertainment developed two more entries, Clock Tower (1996) and Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within (1998), which were released on the PlayStation and localized outside Japan. The first entry, Clock Tower (1995), was developed by Human Entertainment and released on the Super Famicom in Japan. Clock Tower is a survival horror point-and-click adventure video game series created by Hifumi Kono.
