We’re a year away from the May 2026 launch of Grand Theft Auto VI. It’ll be a lot, even though we should be able to expect more insights and announcements over the coming months to help us learn more about what to expect. That does mean that we might need one or two open-world games to welcome into our lives while we wait, but fortunately there are plenty of options to scratch the GTA VI itch.

Best Grand Theft Auto game to play while waiting for GTA VI: GTA: Vice City  4o426j

I know a lot of people are going to perhaps take issue with my suggesting Grand Theft Auto: Vice City instead of GTA V as the best entry in the series to play ahead of GTA VI. Hear me out. First, this is also an absolutely exceptional open-world game. It’s among the best installments Rockstar made, right up there with GTA V and GTA: San Andreas. We also get to hear the fantastic Ray Liotta as our antihero Tommy Vercetti as deals with the mob. But even more critical is that this is an opportunity to visit Vice City again before returning to it as the new location with Lucia and Jason.

GTA: Vice City is available on the PS2, Xbox, PC, and also showed up on mobile devices.

Best open-world game with a medieval setting to play while waiting for GTA VI: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 16l5c

This is another suggestion that could be controversial, but I have my reasons for it. Yes, I believe Skyrim is the superior game. However, it’s one of the most popular open-world games in the world and available on every possible platform. Odds are, you’ve played it. The original Oblivion came out in 2006, which means folks maybe missed it, and the new remaster is a fantastic update with tons of quality of life adjustments and visual enhancements based on Skyrim. It’s well worth a look if you need a game to play while waiting for GTA VI. 

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is available for the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. 

Best open-world game with a more modern setting to play while waiting for GTA VI: Yakuza 0 6v315e

I can’t recommend Yakuza 0 highly enough. It’s a wonderful entry point for the series, due to introducing Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima. We’re seeing them as young, up-and-coming yakuza, which sometimes fits in with the characters climbing the ranks in Grand Theft Auto games. There are tons of side activities to engage in around the city, again just like in GTA. Plus, the execution makes the city and its residents feel like a priority, which is great.

Yakuza 0 is available on the PS3, PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and the Director’s Cut will come to the Switch 2 on June 5, 2025. 

Best open-world game with a futuristic setting to play while waiting for GTA VI: Cyberpunk 2077 136n6k

CD Projekt Red open-world games are known for the same sorts of details and optional side activities and quests as Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto games, and Cyberpunk 2077 is a good pick to play while waiting for GTA VI. It features an incredibly futuristic story with unusual modifications you can pursue. It’s far enough from its original release that it’s in fantastic shape at the moment, complete with a Phantom Liberty add-on you might have missed if you only played at launch. 

Cyberpunk 2077 is available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC, and the Switch 2 version launches on June 5, 2025. 

Best open-world sci-fi game to play while waiting for GTA VI: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition 56h2o

Listen, I will take any opportunity to hype up Xenoblade Chronicles, and Xenoblade Chronicles X is a fantastic installment. There’s character customization. There’s a city to explore. A world to survey. Skells to pilot. Tons of mission to undertake. Allies to find. It’s a huge game with an intricate story, and the new Definitive Edition helps wrap up some loose ends.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is available on the Wii U, and Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is on the Switch.

Grand Theft Auto VI will come to the PS5 and Xbox Series X on May 26, 2025. 

The post 5 Open-World Games to Play While Waiting for GTA VI appeared first on Siliconera.

As part of the NieR series’ 15th anniversary, Square Enix released an interview with Creative Director Yoko Taro and Producer Yosuke Saito about the games, and that involved details about both the NieR and NieR: Automata inspiration and endings. In addition to citing Evangelionas an influence for the second game, the two talked about certain choices and endings for both the first and second titles.

First, the Evangelion element came up when Square Enix specifically brought up NieR: Automata inspirations. Yoko Taro mentioned that anime. He then also said, “But then, everything I make is influenced by Evangelion.”

As for the NieR and NieR: Automata endings, those came up twice. First, Saito brought it up. He mentioned how he wasn’t “supposed” to know about NieR and its Ending D deleting save data. However, he brought up how he did find out ahead of time. 

Here’s Yosuke Saito’s statement about that:

“Mr. Yoko kept the fact that the game deletes your save file a secret from me, but some other of the team revealed this to me in secret. My favorite memory is probably choosing to let this slide. "It's fine!" I said. "It's probably just an homage to Dragon Quest!”

Although apparently it wasn't an homage to Dragon Quest (laughs).”

Finally, Yoko Taro discussed the multiple endings in NieR: Automata. He cited how his past games and Square Enix’s requests affect design decisions. He noted, “That's an idea that we brought over from Drakengard. And the reason we did it is that Square Enix told us to ‘add more content!’”

As a reminder, we may hear about NieR Reincarnation again soon. The anniversary site included a teaser referencing the now-closed mobile game. An update will appear there on May 2, 2025.

NieR is available on the PS3 and Xbox 360, NieR Replicant is available on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and NieR: Automata is on the Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. 

The post Yoko Taro Talked About NieR: Automata Inspiration and Endings appeared first on Siliconera.

The PlayStation Network will undergo maintenance on April 15, 2025. During this time, some PS3, PS4, and PS Vita games’ online functions may not be available.

The maintenance will run from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. That would convert to 6:00 PM PDT/9:00 PM EDT of April 14 to 1:00 AM PDT/4:00 AM EDT. The English s for Sony and PlayStation have not made any announcement for maintenance, so it appears that this is only for Japan. 

Many of the replies and QRTs to the original Tweet are complaining about how long the maintenance will last, as well as how many consoles will be affected. Some are wondering what they should do during this time, even though April 15, 2025 is a Tuesday. As a reminder, the maintenance will only impact online services, which means that games that have an offline mode will still be playable during the above hours.

As of the time of writing, Sony has not mentioned anything about the PS5’s servers going offline for any maintenance. This likely only affects the PS3, PS4, and PS Vita due to the age of the above consoles. For reference, the PS3 came out in 2006, the Vita in 2011, and the PS4 in 2013. All of them are already over a decade old.

The PlayStation Network maintenance for the PS3, PS4, and PS Vita will run from 6:00 PM PDT/9:00 PM EDT of April 14, 2025, to 1:00 AM PDT/4:00 AM EDT of April 15, 2025.

The post PS3, PS4, and Vita PlayStation Network Maintenance Announced appeared first on Siliconera.

The recent release of Atelier Yumia is here. This brings with it the start of a new sub-series in the Gust series. Looking back at all games, what is the best Atelier game? This is a question our Siliconera staff wants to find out. Look below for our picks for the best Atelier game in the series. Some of the results may surprise you!

Siliconera Speaks Up: Our Favorite Atelier Games 604x48

I miss the Atelier Iris trilogy. I think it would be fantastic to see a remaster collection that brought all three games back for the Switch, PS5, and PC. I mean, we've seen NIS bring back its PS2 classics. It feels like it's time to revisit those JRPGs. -- Jenni

The Atelier Iris trilogy was fantastic. However, if I had to pinpoint my favourite entry from the series, it would be Atelier Iris 2. Not only did it have the most engaging plot, but the dynamic between the characters was surprisingly heartfelt. Hopefully, the trilogy will return in some fashion to modern consoles. -- Yasmine

Call me nostalgic, but I am still a sucker for the very first Atelier game I ever played: Atelier Rorona. Rorona has the right mix of simplicity in its 3D visuals and combat while still having enough depth in the synthesis mechanics. I also appreciate the daily system with requirements for completing objectives before time runs out. This gives the game an almost Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons vibe to it, which is quite different from the more open-world, action-packed adventures of more recent Atelier games. That said, the recent Atelier Yumia is a close second for me. It broadens the series in such smart ways with a fun open-world to explore and a surprisingly solid story. Strangely enough, Atelier Yumia is pretty much what I wanted Tales of Arise to be, though not necessarily what I wanted the Atelier series to be. That said, it is an incredible game if you look at it without the lens of the rest of the franchise. -- Cody

Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

The post What Is the Best Atelier Game? appeared first on Siliconera.

Sony released a new firmware update for the PS3. This is despite the console being discontinued in 2016.

While Sony’s site has limited information on what the new PS3 update contains, there are some brief notes about what to expect from the firmware. However, it is likely to be a simply update to the system’s Blu-Ray encryption key. This is due to a note saying that s are required to install Version 4.92 in order to continue playing Blu-Ray discs. Other than this, the update exists to “improve system performance” although Sony has not elaborated on this further.

It may seem strange for the PS3 to receive a new update nearly 20 years after its release, and almost 10 years after its discontinuation in 2016. However, the encryption key needs to be renewed on an annual basis in order to continue playing Blu-Ray discs. This only affects standard Blu-Ray releases and does not affect PS3 games. This is only an issue on the PS3 as the PS4 and PS5 both automatically update their encryption keys.

While Sony are still updating a past system, they’ve also opened a new program that looks to the future. The PlayStation beta program recently opened, allowing those who sign up to playtest PS5 games. New system features will also be included in these playtests.

The new PS3 update can be ed now, despite the system being discontinued in 2016.

The post PS3 Somehow Gets New Firmware Update in 2025 appeared first on Siliconera.

Taito featured multiple Spiritale figure reveals at WonFes 2025 Winter, and one of them ended up being a first look at the cute Bridget figure based on her Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R appearance. This is the first time an actual physical version of this product appeared, as the company only previously shared concept and announcement art. 

This figure will be a 1/7 scale model. That means it will probably be between eight and ten inches tall when it is finished. She has her nun’s coif and veil on her head and is wearing her blue and white dress. Her yo-yo is in her left hand. Roger the teddy bear is behind her. Her handcuff is also around her waist, as usual. The design is intended to replicate official art of the character from Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R.

Here’s how the Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R figure of the character is looking so far:

Spiritale released another Guilty Gear Bridget figure not too long ago. However, that one was based on her Guilty Gear Strive look. It debuted in March 2024 worldwide. That was also a 1/7 scale figure, and it stood at over 10 inches tall.

There’s no release window for this Spiritale Bridget figure yet, and Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R is available on the Switch, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360, and PC. 

The post New Bridget Figure Based on Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R  appeared first on Siliconera.

At Wonder Festival 2025 Winter, Good Smile Company shared details about three Final Fantasy scale figures of Fran from FFXII, Claire “Lightning” Farron from FFXIII, and Noctis Lucis Caelum. from FFXV. The three are at different stages of development, which means we’ll see likely see Lightning or Noctis appear first. 

The three characters appeared as separate updates. In the case of Lightning, a painted prototype of the character appeared. She’s standing with her back facing toward the viewer and turning around to look at them. She’s holding a gunblade at her side, out of its holster. It appears to be the Blazefire Saber model. 

Likewise, Noctis is at the painted prototype phase of development as well. He’s depicted as he appears at the outset of FFXV. He’s wielding his signature Engine Blade sword in the design. 

In the case of Fran, we only have a piece of concept art. This suggests a possible pose for the final figure. She’s wearing her attire from FFXII. If the image is accurate, than she may be wielding the Shortbow from the game in the final product.

Here are the photos and concept art for the FFXII Fran, FFXIII Lightning, and FFXV Noctics Final Fantasy figures so far:

There’s no release window for the FFXII Fran, FFXIII Lightning, and FFXV Noctics Final Fantasy figures yet, but we’ll likely see Lightning or Noctis first since those prototypes were painted ones. This could mean pre-orders will open in the next few weeks. You can get FFXII on the PS2, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and PC. FFXIII is available on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, as are FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns: FFXIII. FFXV is now on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and the Pocket Edition version is on those platforms, the Switch, and mobile devices.

The post FFXII Fran, FFXIII Lightning, and FFXV Noctis Figures on the Way appeared first on Siliconera.

Capcom revealed that it will sell a new book containing key art from games it released in the up to 40 years since its first release. The book will have the title "Capcom Key Art Catalog since 1984 to 2023," and it will be available on March 20, 2025, at 9,900 yen (~$65.20).

The A4-sized book will have a total of 376 pages. It will cover over 300 games Capcom has released on numerous platforms throughout 40 years since 1984, with explanations in Japanese and English.

The first-ever title Capcom released was the arcade shooting game Vulgus in May 1984. Since 2023 is the cutoff year, the latest games featured in this book should include the Resident Evil 4 remake, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, Street Fighter 6, Exoprimal, Mega Man X DiVE Offline, and Monster Hunter Now.

Here are the samples for some of the pages in the book:

The new catalog book will be available for purchase in Capcom's physical and online storefronts. The company will also sell the book at the Capcom Exhibition, which will take place at Osaka's Nakanoshima Museum of Art from March 20, 2025—the same day as the book's release date—until June 22, 2025.

The "Capcom Key Art Catalog since 1984 to 2023" book will be available for purchase in Japan on March 20, 2025.

The post Capcom Key Art Catalog Will Cover Over 300 Games appeared first on Siliconera.

Square Enix has announced that it will launch a live stream showcasing Xenogears music to mark the game's 27th anniversary. People from all around the world will be able to watch the nine-hour stream on YouTube on February 11, 2025, in American time zones, or February 12, 2025, for the rest of the world.

The company will play various music tracks from Xenogears soundtracks in this stream. It implies that it will play not only the original tracks used in the game but also the album-exclusive arrangements of the tracks.

Squaresoft originally released Xenogears for PlayStation in Japan on February 11, 1998. However, Square Enix will time the worldwide stream in American time zones, even though the game's English localization came out in North America in October 1998. The company's Japanese X acknowledged the discrepancy when it announced the stream, which will go live in Japan on February 12, 2025, from 12 PM until 9 PM JST.

Even though Xenogears has been widely regarded as one of Squaresoft's defining RPG titles, Square Enix has still yet to release the PS1 game on subsequent platforms outside of Game Archives for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation Vita. The company has been instead focused on releasing action figures and model kits based on the title's Gears like Fei's Weltall and Rico's Stier.

The Xenogears Music Special Live Stream will be broadcast on YouTube on February 11, 2025, at 7 PM PST / 10 PM EST.

The post Xenogears Music Special Live Stream Will Air in February 2025 appeared first on Siliconera.

To commemorate the 15th anniversary of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (BBS), which launched on January 9, 2010 in Japan, Share Enix once again shared the secret ending video from the second game and a message from Tetsuya Nomura about the series. At the end of the statement, the director suggested that we still have yet to hear about what the Lost Masters gained and lost when they met at a crossroads in Kingdom Hearts III. 

First, here’s the full Kingdom Hearts II secret ending, which marked the first appearance of Kingdom Hearts BBS heroes Aqua, Terra, and Ventus. In it, all three were wearing full suits of armor, meeting at X-shaped crossroads while grabbing their keyblades.

And here is the full Tetsuya Nomura statement in which he discussed the importance of crossroads in the Kingdom Hearts series and hinted that we still haven’t heard the story about the Lost Masters yet.

pic.twitter.com/KmxbWSPDBh

— KINGDOM HEARTS (@KINGDOMHEARTS) January 9, 2025

There are two Kingdom Hearts games in development that we know about at the moment. One is Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link for mobile devices. That was supposed to launch in 2024, but ended up delayed. The other is Kingdom Hearts 4, which was teased at the end of the third entry.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep first appeared on the PlayStation Portable worldwide, and it is now available on the PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and PC via Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix. 

The post Tetsuya Nomura Kingdom Hearts BBS Anniversary Message Includes a Teaser appeared first on Siliconera.

Good Smile Company opened up pre-orders for a Nendoroid of Akechi Goro (School Uniform version) from Persona 5 Royal. Good Smile Company first announced this Nendoroid in November 2024.

You will have until February 19, 2025 to put in your pre-orders. If you order from the Japanese Good Smile Company site, it’ll cost 6200 JPY, and ship out some time in July 2025. Meanwhile, the North American site offers the Nendoroid for $36.99. It’ll ship out some time in Q4 2025. As a reminder, Good Smile Company will only ship to the United States and Canada.

The Persona 5 Royal Akechi Goro Nendoroid (School Uniform version) will come with two face plates, as opposed to the usual three. He has a smiling face and a default cheery expression. Optional parts include his attache case and extra hands. As opposed to his Crow (Prince version) Nendoroid, he doesn’t have a lot of options. However, since Nendoroid parts are interchangeable, you can technically swap around some of the parts if you have the other version of him.

Here are some more pictures of the figure:

The Persona 5 Royal Akechi Goro Nendoroid (School Uniform version) is available for pre-order via Good Smile Company until February 19, 2025.

The post Persona 5 Akechi Goro Nendoroid Wears His Uniform appeared first on Siliconera.

PlatinumGames has opened a new webpage on its official site to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Bayonetta. The new page is available in both Japanese and English.

Even though Sega first released Bayonetta for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in Japan in late October 2009, PlatinumGames opted to start celebrating the game's 15th anniversary in January 2025 to coincide with its global releases. Sega subsequently released Bayonetta on the same platforms in North America on January 5, 2010, in Australia on January 7, 2010, and in Europe on January 8, 2010.

The company that developed the Bayonetta video game series will use the new webpage to share new smartphone wallpapers with an optional calendar every month. The January 2025 wallpaper features Bayonetta and Jeanne with Japanese attires to symbolize the New Year festival season.

On the same webpage, PlatinumGames also shared the new Bayonetta music box, which Wayo Records will release in Q1 2025 for €220.00. The latter will design the music box after Bayonetta's Super Mirror, and it will play Masami Ueda's "Theme of Bayonetta - Mysterious Destiny" for 30 seconds with 10 loops.

The first Bayonetta is available on not only the PS3, Xbox 360, and Switch, but also PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, and PC worldwide.

The post Bayonetta 15th Anniversary Site and Merchandise Shared appeared first on Siliconera.

G-Walk announced the release of the PlayStation 3 Perfect Catalog book, a new entry in the publisher’s console retrospective series that will brings plenty of information on the different PS3 hardware and games released. The book will release in Japan on December 26, 2024 and it will cost 2,750 yen (~$18.04). [Thanks, Game Watch!]

The new volume is only available in Japanese via retailers such as Amazon Japan, which offer overseas shipping. The book is of B5 size and it includes 224 pages of information on the history of the PS3, the games released for the system and the hardware specifications for each version of the console released, as well as a record of all game titles released for Sony's seventh generation console.

Other Perfect Catalog books released by G-Walk feature retrospectives on various classic Sega consoles, such as the Mega Drive (known as Sega Genesis in North America,) Sega Saturn, and Dreamcast Perfect Catalogue books, released in 2018, 2019, and 2021 respectively.

Sony released the PlayStation 3 in Japan 18 years ago on November 11, 2006 and 6 days later in North America, with its PAL release taking over 4 months and being March 23, 2007. As a reminder, the PlayStation Portable console celebrates its 20th anniversary today, on December 12, 2004.

The PlayStation Partner Awards 2024 Japan Asia recently celebrated some of the best games released in the region in the last year, and it included the new PlayStation Generations Awards category that celebrated the best games in each generation of PlayStation consoles.

The PlayStation 3 Perfect Catalog book costs 2,750 yen (~$18.04) and will release in Japan on December 26, 2024.

The post PlayStation 3 Perfect Catalog Book Chronicles All Games and Systems appeared first on Siliconera.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced the winners of the PlayStation Partner Awards 2024 Japan Asia. While the company has also opened worldwide polls for the PS Blog Game of the Year Awards 2024, this award presentation particularly continued the yearly tradition established by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, which would also later expand to the rest of Asia.

One of the awards featured in this presentation is the s' Choice Award, where Japanese and Asian PlayStation Network owners voted for their favorite titles released on PlayStation platforms between October 2023 and September 2024. Five games won the award:

1. Black Myth: Wukong
2. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
3. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
4. Rise of the Ronin
5. Stellar Blade

As announced previously in October 2024, this year's edition featured additional PlayStation Generations Awards where s would vote for their most favorite titles from each of the PlayStation consoles released before the PS5 that had also won in previous PlayStation Partner Awards.

• PlayStation Generations Award: Final Fantasy VII
• PlayStation 2 Generations Award: Final Fantasy X
• PlayStation Portable Generations Award: Monster Hunter Portable 3rd
• PlayStation 3 Generations Award: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• PlayStation Vita Generations Award: Persona 4 Golden
• PlayStation 4 Generations Award: Elden Ring

In the same presentation, Sony Interactive Entertainment also gave awards to games based on sales performances on the PlayStation platforms between October 2023 and September 2024. One of which is the Special Award, which it gave to the following two titles for recording success while being developed by a third-party Japanese or Asian studio and published by SIE:

1. Stellar Blade (developed by Shift Up)
2. Rise of the Ronin (developed by Koei Tecmo's Team Ninja)

The company also handed over Partner Awards to seven PlayStation games with notable worldwide sales performances during the same period:

1. Dragon's Dogma 2
2. Honkai: Star Rail
3. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
4. Persona 3 Reload
5. Tekken 8
6. The First Descendant
7. Zenless Zone Zero

In addition, it gave Grand Awards to the top three titles with the highest worldwide sales:

1. Black Myth: Wukong
2. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
3. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

In the 2024 edition, Sony also added an Excellence Award for a game with a consistently significant impact for three straight years. It gave the award to HoYoverse's Genshin Impact, which has been available on the PS4 and PS5 among other platforms. A more recent PS5 bundle featuring the same game also appeared in Japan in July 2024.

The post PlayStation Partner Awards 2024 Winners Announced appeared first on Siliconera.

If you are a fan of the survival horror genre, then you owe a big, hearty "thank you" to Human Entertainment and its 1995 classic, Clock Tower. Clock Tower: Rewind is the enhanced international remaster, marking the first time that the game appeared in regions like North America. Since it's a remaster rather than a remake, you get to experience the first fear in all of its wonderful, old-timey glory.

Despite its dated graphics, B-horror campiness, and the fact I never actually played Clock Tower myself, the Clock Tower series holds a very special place in my heart. When I was a wee lass, I saw my friend play through the second game. (Not Ghost Head, I'm talking about the actual sequel.) However, I didn’t understand what was going on. He got Ending C, in which Jennifer dies, and when the paramedics are retrieving the sole survivor of the whole incident, we see that the survivor is the second Scissorman. The camera dramatically pans down on him and his eyes snap open, implying that he will go on to continue his reign of terror.

Somehow, I must’ve confused this scene with a nightmare I had and was under the impression that he was in an air vent. Strange how your mind can play tricks like this on you, especially when you were in the unlucky half of kids who suffered from chronic nightmares and night terrors. But the point is that because of this misunderstanding, I grew up with an irrational fear of looking into air vents, worried I’d see some crazy murderer staring out at me. So playing Clock Tower: Rewind wasn’t just a way to enjoy a piece of horror game history. It was a way for me to reclaim my ability to look into vents without fear.

The story of Clock Tower: The First Fear is fairly simple, since it’s not a very long game. It starts with Jennifer Simpson and three other girls from Granite Orphanage going to visit the Barrows mansion after the patriarch of the family adopts them all. Their teacher, Mary, tells them to wait in the foyer, as she’s going to go fetch Mister Barrows, but when Jennifer tries to check up on Mary, she hears an ear-piercing scream sound out through the night. And thus begins Jennifer’s jaunt through the Barrows house of horrors as she has to elude and survive the implacable Scissorman. Throughout her journey, Jennifer may come across the gruesome corpses of her friends and canonically, she is the only one who survives the night.

While the idea of a helpless horror protagonist isn’t so rare these days, Clock Tower: The First Fear pioneered it. In fact, during development, some people actually thought that a horror game in which you can’t shoot or fight your way out of trouble wouldn’t work. Time certainly vindicated director Kono though. Whether you enjoy the Clock Tower series or not, it’s hard to deny its overarching influence on the horror genre as a whole, considering it’s basically the first survival horror game.

Jennifer cannot fight off the Scissorman. She can only hide from him using set evasion points throughout the manor. For example, you can hide in one of the storage rooms behind the armoire. Throughout my playthroughs, Scissorman never caught onto my hiding spots, meaning that you could potentially use the same place over and over again. This must be a limitation of the AI. Future instalments like Haunting Ground (even if it’s more a spiritual successor rather than a direct sequel) had stalkers like Daniella start to wise up to your hiding locations and they’d drag you out if you tried to re-use them too much. Even disregarding the limited technology of the 1990s, I can understand why Human didn't want to make Scissorman too smart. The manor’s not that big. So on the off chance that you’re unlucky enough to trigger Scissorman too many times, it might lock you out of progressing the game if Scissorman could start catching onto your hiding points.

I will note that Clock Tower: Rewind features a rewind function in which you can turn back a short amount of time. Because all of my runs were perfect, I never had to use it. Okay, that was a joke. The reason that I didn’t really rewind time a lot is because early on, I was testing it to see precisely how much time I could undo. However, I must’ve bugged it out because the game became unresponsive. I could still open up the main menu, but Jennifer wouldn’t move or investigate anything. So, stuck in a random bathroom, I had no choice but to restart the game. Thanks to that incident scaring me off from the mechanic, I only rewound once to test Scissorman spawn logic. It was still possible to clear the game though, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

As you can imagine, the goal of the game is to escape the Barrows house. You can collect various items throughout the house to help you with this endeavor. There are some items you desperately need to pick up or else risk a dead end. For example, if you hadn’t found the Ham in the house and you triggered the scene in which Jennifer is in a cage, you’ll have no choice but to restart the game or load up a previous save file. The game also randomizes where certain rooms are or what items you’ll need, so there’s quite a bit of trial and erroring you’ll need to get through. Once you know what you need and where things generally are, it's a lot smoother sailing.

As a game from 1995, it’s not very long. Barring random Scissorman encounters throwing you off, it only took me give or take an hour or two for a good ending. It also lacks a lot of modern conveniences like maps, meaning that you’ll need to rely either on your memory or your own mapping ability. Thanks to the changing layout of the Barrows mansion, existing maps online aren’t that precise, meaning you will need to pay attention every time you start up a game. Thankfully, while rooms shuffle around, they only shuffle around within their respective hallways. So for example, you won’t need to backtrack all the way to the foyer if you want to look for the taxidermy room because the taxidermy room will always be somewhere in the west wing.

I highly doubt Human intended this, but the 1990s aesthetic was really charming. There are some random scares in rooms, which remind me a lot of how old educational DOS games and Fisher-Price: Dream Dollhouse would have random stuff move and make noises. Something else about the age of the game is that it uses a really interesting control scheme that you don’t really see anymore these days. When you move Jennifer around, she goes in the direction you input until you tell her to stop. If you want to interact with items, use stairs, or open doors, you would need to use the cursor (via analog stick) to point and click. It can make for some tense moments when you only have a limited amount of time to do something, but you’re fumbling through your inventory or trying to click on the right thing.

Old games aren’t all charming though and Clock Tower: Rewind has its fair share of annoyances. Actually, the main annoyance is the big man himself: the Scissorman. As much as he terrified me as a kid (granted, I was scared of the second one), he is a mere nuisance in this one. Since the only sounds you really hear in the game are Jennifer’s footsteps, the scare chord marking his arrival can be a bit of a jump scare. He’s relentless too, pursuing Jennifer no matter how many turns she takes or doors she runs through. However, the game is surprisingly generous to you. That’s fantastic, of course, but it kind of sucks away a lot of tension from the encounters and makes them a lot more annoying than scary.

The Scissorman is really slow compared to how Jennifer can sprint around the Barrows mansion. She gets tired though, and if the Scissorman catches up to her when she's not at max stamina, he can overpower her and kill her. However, because of how slow the Scissorman is, it’s very easy for Jennifer to literally stop, sit down, take a breather, and keep going. It kind of sounds like a Hanna-Barbera skit when I describe it in that way, but I guarantee that it’s not supposed to be funny. This is a very serious game. 

As mentioned above, in order to make the Scissorman leave you alone, you’ll need to hide from him using certain spots in the mansion. Then you can continue your exploration. Sometimes you might need to tackle your way past Scissorman depending on how lost or turned around you get. Again, you want to be at maximum stamina to push past him or else you won’t survive. But this is yet another reason that he's not as big a threat as you may think, as Jennifer at max strength can literally fight off his shears. A funny thing is that the Scissorman is invincible when he’s entering a room, meaning that if you try to leave while he’s in the process of entering, he’ll just kill you.

One of the extras in the game is an old instruction pamphlet in which Human warned against saving while the game is changing between screens. I’m guessing that something about Jennifer knocking down Scissorman while he’s between screens would destabilize the code, hence his invincibility. In any case, it's not hard to avoid deaths. So it’s not that Scissorman’s scary, per se, and more that he can drive you out of areas and rooms you want to explore. This then forces you to have to backtrack through the manor, which is small in of scale but still large enough that it can be a slog. It makes the Scissorman more of a tedious obstacle to shake off than a legitimate threat. Not that this is a major complaint though, as that's kind of what eventually happens in most horror games.

Something else I like about Clock Tower: Rewind specifically is that it’s basically a collector’s item. It contains motion comics (complete with voice acting), as well as little documents from the original release and such of the game. It’s really cool! I think that someone who’s really into Clock Tower would get a kick out of seeing all of that. The one thing that I don’t like is how distracting the alert is when you unlock a new scene in the motion comic. This is really annoying because you usually unlock more stuff when a scene is occurring or when you trigger Scissorman, so you have the giant notification pop up and block your screen while you’re trying to see or do something. An alert popping up after a run or when you return to the main menu, or even just a little blip in the corner, would’ve been much nicer.

I do genuinely want Clock Tower: Rewind to do well in hopes that we can see more ports or remasters of the other Clock Tower games. Honestly, I just want to see Haunting Ground, its spiritual successor. As for the main series itself though, it’s a little sad that Clock Tower 3 in 2002 was the last time Capcom really did anything with the property. As far as horror games go, Clock Tower isn’t exactly in my personal top five favorites, but it’s still such a highly influential and important work that I’m surprised it took this long for it to make its way out of Japan with an official English localization. While its dated graphics and gameplay may turn away some people, it’s definitely something to experience for yourself if you’re interested in this kind of history.

And no, I don’t believe that clearing this game cured my irrational phobia of vents. I suppose we’ll just have to wait until a Clock Tower 2: Rewind for that.

Clock Tower: Rewind will come out on October 29, 2024 for the PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.

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