In Chapter 3, the main character is Rooney Simpson, a morose girl and Leonard's distant relative/student also on the Oceanus attempting to escape the Scissor Walker and discover the truth behind the attack.

Other characters include Eric, a crew member, and Vigo Boradsov, the owner of the Oceanus, leader of a cult called the Faithful and the one responsible for bringing the Scissor Walker on the ship.

Caitlin Cooke of Destructoid gave the game a 2 out of 10, saying that in light of the numerous game-breaking bugs, the absence of voice acting from most scenes, and the unreliable controls, all of which remained even after several post-release updates, she could not "recommend anyone play NightCry unless you have a steel resolve, unlimited time on your hands, and a penchant for terrible physics and animations straight out of the PS2 era.

"[7] Reviewing the game for Adventure Gamers, Drummond Doroski echoed Cooke's complaints with the controls and lack of voice acting, but said his biggest disappointment was with the story, since that was the aspect he felt the Clock Tower series most excelled at.

He gave it two out of five stars, and summarized, "I had a lot of fun playing NightCry, but I have to admit that the nostalgic feelings it evoked made me much more willing to overlook some of its many flaws, as objectively it’s far from the best of games.

"[1] In contrast, L. Harvard of Digitally Downloaded gave the game a 4.5 out of 5, calling it "an authentic Clock Tower-style, classic stalker horror experience for the modern day.

"[8] Leo Faria of Way Too Many Games gave the Vita version a 3.5 out of 10, citing the extraordinarily numerous loading screens, primitive graphics, and minimal touchscreen use despite the point-and-click gameplay format.

He criticized the story as incomprehensible, the animation as bizarrely unrealistic, the interface as confusing and poorly explained, the loading screens as excessively frequent, and the controls for the chase sequences as unmanageable.