Ep. 2 - Clock Tower

Playing Dread

Our second episode is a mega-sized look at Clock Tower, Clock Tower 2 and Clock Tower: Ghosthead, AKA Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within! Adrian gushes endlessly about the first game, Lamont flexes his manga knowledge, and both of us struggle over the confusing naming conventions between the Japanese releases and the American ones. Also; more talk on Giallo horror, the influence of western mysticism in Japanese media and much more!

Sources and References

Polygon article “What is Giallo, Really?” (Noel Murray)

https://www.polygon.com/22732575/giallo-movies-explained

GamesRader+ Interview with Hifumi Kono (Sara Elam)

https://www.gamesradar.com/the-making-of-clock-tower-1995-snes/

The Untold History of Japanese Video Game Developers Vol. 2. (John Szczepaniak)

https://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-Japanese-Game-Developers/dp/1518655319

The Rise and Fall of the Clock Tower Series (tangomushi)

https://youtu.be/8TS-tlkKmI4?si=ExnusMAmUZH5X1Pc

Clock Tower: Official Reveal Trailer (Limited Run Games)

https://youtu.be/3gfUIOkvZYs?si=MQmkTGzPR5gYMez8

Clock Tower: Ghosthead VS The Struggle Within (WaddleBih)

https://youtu.be/SrFWrF4-XXA?si=WHIafkOlGr-u4yie

Clock Tower 2: Is It Really THAT Bad? (Stop Skeletons from Fighting)

https://youtu.be/gsC1Khb-ro4?si=vrt63ajchI8rPWBf

TheGamingMuse’s video on the influence of Western Occult & mysticism seems to not be up any more but he still has an amazing YouTube channel you should check out, so here’s his video on Clock Tower 3:

https://youtu.be/t1MiWyLCHDU?si=wik5qIdZVAiwHtNy

Clock Tower: The First Fear Death Scenes (Liam Moore)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iY_5IuItE8&pp=ygUXQ2xvY2sgVG93ZXIgRGVhdGhzY2VuZXM%3D

Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within Character Bios

https://disquietedpalefish.tumblr.com/post/184214029480/clock-tower-ii-the-struggle-within-bios-28

Clock Tower 2: Ghosthead Fan Translation

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7591/

“The Burning” 1984 Movie Wikipedia Entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burning_(1981_film)

“Phenomena” 1985 Movie Wikipedia Entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomena_(film)

“Left Hand of God-Right Hand of Devil” Manga on GoodReads

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/25395241

Bloomberg (paywall) “X-Files Supernatural Hold on Japan” (Edith Hill Updike)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1995-11-26/x-files-supernatural-hold-on-japan?embedded-checkout=true

Helen Maxwell & Gillian Anderson

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M9U7SZXho9bZQZ0ACEc6bToW94kw9zUj/view?usp=sharing

Optional drinking game: take a drink every time one of us says the word ‘vibes’.*

*Not recommended for obvious legal reasons. Please drink responsibly.