Plot
Jennifer Simpson is a child from the fictional Granite Orphanage in Romsdalen, Norway. She and her friends, who are also orphans (Laura, Ann and Lotte) are adopted in September 1995 (the same month the game was released) by a wealthy recluse named Mr. Barrows, who lives in a mansion known as the "Clock Tower", named after its most predominant feature.
The game immediately begins with these characters walking towards the Barrows mansion and settling in the main foyer. Mary, the woman who brought the children to the mansion, leaves to find Mr. Barrows, but she takes an unusually long time. Jennifer offers to investigate, but upon leaving the room, a scream is heard from the main foyer. Jennifer returns to find the lights are off and the girls are missing. She soon finds herself being stalked after finding either Laura or Ann killed by a murderous little boy with deformed features, wielding a huge pair of scissors. The boy is Bobby Barrows, the Scissorman, who will be Jennifer's main stalker and tormentor for the rest of the game.
While exploring the mansion, Jennifer will need to find out Mary's true intentions - either by discovering Simon Barrows trapped in a jail cell inside the courtyard, or by discovering her father's corpse in a hidden room. If the former happens, Jennifer will need to give him a piece of ham as food. If the latter happens, Jennifer will find his death letter that tells of his account about Mary Barrows and her twins, Bobby and Dan. It says that he was trapped there for three days, until his death on November 10, 1986.
Jennifer visits a small, Satanic-looking church. However, to obtain the key to that church, Jennifer fights off a possessed doll in Bobby's room that tries to kill her. If the player has collected all the necessary items and clues, then Jennifer is able to gain access to the underground catacombs of the mansion - using either the Devil Idol or the Sceptor, but the former is canonical as it appears in the sequel. Jennifer sees a cloaked figure walking ahead of her; this is Mary. She follows it, wearing a disguise to fool the guard dog using Mary's perfume, and a black cloak found in the mansion. If she did not need to rescue Jennifer from the jail cell, Lotte can be found dying at an altar, and tells Jennifer about the switches in the clock tower. Otherwise, she rescues Jennifer from the jail cell, but is shot by a threatening Mary.
Jennifer enters a room, where she discovers the humongous Dan Barrows, hidden within curtains. At that point, the awakened Dan chases down Jennifer to a steep cliff. She successfully climbs over, knocking down a can of kerosene which splashes onto a nearby candle. This triggers an explosion that immolates Dan, and Jennifer rides an elevator in the catacombs. She ends up defeating Bobby in the clock tower, and Mary as well in (or around, depending on prior actions) the clock tower. If Ann (or Laura) had not died yet, then this survivor would reunite with Jennifer at the clock tower, but later be thrown down the tower by Mary. These actions would lead to one of Endings A, B, or C - any of these could be canonical according to the events of the next game. Because of the game's open-ended nature, the player can also discover a number of other endings.
Read more about this topic: Clock Tower (1995 Video Game)
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