The story takes place in Norway and follows a variety of characters as they attempt to survive the return of Scissorman and uncover the mystery of his seemingly immortal state.

Director Hifumi Kono was not interested in developing a sequel to the original Clock Tower at first, but was swayed after seeing the technical possibilities of the next-generation consoles.

The team felt challenged to create high-quality graphics after being impressed by the visuals of Resident Evil (1996), which was announced during development.

[7] After the events of the original Clock Tower, central protagonist Jennifer Simpson was adopted by Helen Maxwell, an assistant professor of criminal psychology in Oslo, Norway.

She begins undergoing treatment at a university research building in order to learn more about the Scissorman murder case at Barrows Mansion and help her cope with her trauma.

Having heard the details of Jennifer's original encounters with the Scissorman, Helen begins searching for information that could put an end to the seemingly immortal killer.

[7] The first chapter places the player in control of either Jennifer or Helen, escaping from Scissorman within the university research building.

[9][10] At first, director Hifumi Kono was not interested in working on a sequel to the first Clock Tower, but after seeing the technical possibilities with newly-released hardware of the time, he agreed.

Kono eventually settled on the PlayStation, and in retrospect considers it the best choice he could have made since the console's future success helped Clock Tower sell better than expected.

Since it was also a horror game and the visuals were impressive, the team challenged themselves to develop higher quality graphics and outshine Resident Evil.

The team used 3D graphics and extensive animation as they sought to portray murders as real as possible in both normal and surreal settings.

[11] The game sold close to half a million copies and was successful enough for Human that each staff member received a ¥100,000 bonus.

"[1] Mark Skorupa of Gamezilla compared Scissorman favorably to slasher film villains such as Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers, and declared Clock Tower's atmosphere to rival that of any horror movie ever made.

[1][2] Shawn Smith of Electronic Gaming Monthly, however, asserted that "there are plenty of instances in Clock Tower that'll keep you on the edge of your seat - more so than Resident Evil in my estimation,"[21] and Next Generation, noting particularly the tension created by the gameplay mechanics involved when trying to elude Scissorman, similarly concluded, "Even Resident Evil, with its focus on shooting things, can't deliver the creepy feeling Clock Tower does.

"[23] Critics recommended the game to players looking for slow-paced point-and-click adventure games, with Rignall stating that "for the vast majority of PSX players out there...buying a point and click adventure is simply not even a consideration," when compared to the rest of the PlayStation's library.

[26][c] The multiple endings feature was noted for adding replay value and interactivity to the story,[20][21][1][23][26] but some critics found that the puzzles can be excessively difficult.