Clock Tower: Rewind Interview – Localization, Quality-of-Life Enhancements, and More

When it launched almost three many years in the past, Clock Tower helped create the survival horror style, and although it didn’t see the type of mainstream success that later video games within the style would go on to get pleasure from, it did amass a sizeable fan following through the years. Now, WayForward is bringing the point-and-click horror sport again with an enhanced re-release, which, by the way, can be going to be the primary time ever that the sport releases outdoors of Japan. To study extra about how this chance arose and the way Clock Tower: Rewind enhances and revives a cult basic, we just lately reached out to WayForward with a few of our questions concerning the sport. Under, you’ll be able to learn our interview with Adam Tierney, director of enterprise improvement and publishing at WayForward.

NOTE: This interview was performed previous to the sport’s launch.

“Within the case of Clock Tower: Rewind, we provide each a normal “Unique” model of the sport (with solely the language adjusted) in addition to the “Rewind” model, which provides lacking content material again into the title and makes minor quality-of-life adjustments. This fashion, gamers can benefit from the sport because it was initially, or a barely up to date model of the sport, with out having solely one of many two choices.”

What prompted the choice to deliver Clock Tower again so lengthy after its launch? 

After the success we had porting Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka to fashionable consoles (as River Metropolis Ladies Zero) we mentioned what different titles may very well be introduced over in the identical trend. We search for video games which might be well-known within the USA and EUR, however haven’t had an official launch. The unique Tremendous Famicom model of Clock Tower was by no means launched right here, despite being such an influential collection of horror video games, in order that appeared like an ideal candidate.

With this being Clock Tower’s first official launch outdoors of Japan, are you able to speak us via the writing and localization course of? What sort of work went into making certain the remaster retains the unique’s spirit?

WayForward extracted the unique sport textual content and translated it into English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Our Japanese-to-English translation was tackled by a WayForward staffer who was raised in Japan, and speaks Japanese natively. As soon as that was completed, we made minor changes to phrasing to be as natural-sounding as doable for English-speaking players, then re-implemented the translated textual content again into the sport.

Given the survival horror style’s resurgence, was there ever a dialogue to reinforce Clock Tower in additional complete methods, or was it at all times the purpose to remaster the unique and modernize it with out altering issues too considerably?

With these “port plus” releases, it’s the primary time USA and EUR players are ever formally enjoying these titles. So with each the video games talked about, in addition to potential future titles we’re planning, we need to watch out to not change an excessive amount of. Within the case of Clock Tower: Rewind, we provide each a normal “Unique” model of the sport (with solely the language adjusted) in addition to the “Rewind” model, which provides lacking content material again into the title and makes minor quality-of-life adjustments. This fashion, gamers can benefit from the sport because it was initially, or a barely up to date model of the sport, with out having solely one of many two choices.

“The group actually cherished diving into this world, particularly with the brand new parts just like the animated intro and songs, which had been all produced model new.”

Clock Tower: Rewind will characteristic some new cutscenes, a brand new theme tune, and a brand new opening. What was it like engaged on new inventive content material for a sport that initially launched so way back?

The group actually cherished diving into this world, particularly with the brand new parts just like the animated intro and songs, which had been all produced model new. For the movement comics, we scanned previous mangas produced across the basic sport’s launch — one for a method information, one for a PlayStation particular version of the sport — and translated, voiced, and animated these. We additionally added a jukebox participant for all of the music tracks (new and previous), an artwork gallery viewer, a brand new interview with Kono-san (the sport’s unique director), and a Japanese retailer kiosk demo model of the sport as nicely. It’s a fairly strong bundle.

Are you able to speak us via a few of the key gameplay and quality-of-life enhancements that gamers can count on in Clock Tower: Rewind?

A number of the encounters, rooms, and moments deliberate for the unique sport both didn’t make it in, or had been added to the later PlayStation port. We had been in a position to fold all that content material again in for the Rewind model of the sport. We additionally mounted numerous bugs, made enhancements to Jennifer’s stamina, and made Scissorman much more relentless and threatening.

Someplace down the road, would you wish to develop a floor up remake of Clock Tower?

We might like to work with this model and with Sunsoft once more! Whether or not that may be a remake or a brand-new sport is to be decided. But when this model of the sport sells nicely, I feel it’s seemingly we’d collaborate additional in a roundabout way with this model.

“A number of the encounters, rooms, and moments deliberate for the unique sport both didn’t make it in, or had been added to the later PlayStation port. We had been in a position to fold all that content material again in for the Rewind model of the sport.”

As a developer, what are your ideas on the PS5 Professional? How does enhance in GPU assist in creating your sport in comparison with the bottom PS5?

As a developer, we’re at all times attempting to push the quantity of content material and visible polish in our video games, which is at all times a battle in opposition to system sources. We’re very excited at how the PS5 Professional may make WayForward’s upcoming titles much more spectacular than what’s come earlier than.

What are your ideas on PSSR? What sort of alternatives will this open for the sport?

We’re very curious how this may positively influence our video games on the system. I don’t think about there can be any distinction in a low-resolution pixel sport akin to Clock Tower, however the constructive implications for our different 3D titles look promising.