Game Series Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within Endings I Through M

In Clock Tower II there’s only one main storyline, as compared to Clock Tower (1) where you can play as two different characters, each with their own set of endings.  However, that doesn’t stop Clock Tower II from having multiple endings.  Like its predecessor, there are basically three “scenarios” that the game goes through, and each ending gets, generally, progressively further into the scenarios.  The first scenario is at Alyssa’s Uncle Philip’s house, when Alyssa first arrives, being after the introductory scene when you start a new game.  What has happened?  The second scenario focuses on a hospital, where Alyssa is generously taken to.  And the third scenario is set in a laboratory.  We actually are going to go through the endings in “reverse” alphabetical order because in that sense we can see the necessary steps to take in succession.  Each ending, starting with ending “M”, builds on the previous ending, in general.  I say in general because as you’ll see in another post, ending “G” is a bit apart from the other endings and requires a little special planning.

Ending Rank “M”

The scenario’s are actually “chapters,” with titles.  Chapter 1 as outlined above is titled “Yellow Cursed Doll,” and we see its contents in the earlier endings below:

We start out ending “M” with the intro given for a new game.  I apologize for how dark the videos are, I unfortunately only discovered I could adjust the brightness on my capture device when I started filming Clock Tower 3.  For the most part, you can make out what’s going on pretty well.  This is pretty much how dark it was on my screen too.  In the intro for a new game we see Uncle Philip explain to Aunt Kathryn that Alyssa is coming to stay with their family… why, well, we have no idea.  (There are many strange plot ‘holes’ or points in this game that I feel take a bit away from its immersiveness).  What do the children not know about, and why would they knowing change anything?  A lot in this game is explained at the VERY VERY end, kinda, which is one of my caveats with the game.

Either way, Kathryn goes to check on Ashley arriving home and there’s a scream! Gotta go through that door as slowly as possible…  Fade to black… (what was that about Allen Hale and the Maxwell Curse?) enter Alyssa.  The video above shows Alyssa entering the Philip’s house twice, sorry, bit of an editing error.  Anyways, we gain control of Alyssa after she has heard a mysterious sound, so what do we do?  We immediately go to the bathroom (of course, after we turn on the light in the outside hallway, because that makes sense.)  In the bathroom we discover a leg in the toilet and yellow blood.  “Wh-what’s that?!” Alyssa exclaims, and then in classic video game avatar fashion returns to complete calm.

After that, it’s time to go to… some kind of utility room.  In the utility room we discover a key in the cupboard (the “Dining Key”), and of course another body part.  This time it’s a torso with yellow blood in a yellow bathtub.  This time, after asking the air what happened, we hear the laugh of a little girl.  Classic.  So, we progress further into the house…

We encounter an elaborate and beautiful dining room.  Man, I wish I had this dining room, it’s quite impressive.  There’s a fireplace, which will come in handy later, and a phone.  Sometimes the phone rings, and I’ve answered it before to some amusement.  I don’t believe I have that captured however, but feel free to answer it if you’re near it and it rings.  Notice there’s a candle holder thing on the table in the Dining Room, as that can be used later to “escape” from the little girl that laughed in the previous paragraph (yes, we’ll meet her).  For now, proceed through the room to the right where we can reach a more homey dining room with the “Dining Key.”

In this cozier dining room things don’t stay cozy for very long when Alyssa discovers an arm on the table… and is taken aback, literally, when it moves!  What is this madness?  It also sounds, kind of odd.  Why dose an arm sound like bad plumbing, actually kinda reminds me of that hentai I saw that one time (trust me, it was just once, I don’t particularly like hentai.)  Ah well, anyways… that’s all we really need to see for this ending, so let’s venture upstairs.

Once we’re upstairs, we’ll just wander around a bit.  Not really, go in the first door you see and down the hallway to the far left door.  There’s a piano here, and if you inspect it it’ll start playing by itself.  Which makes sense once you understand the whole backstory at the end of the game… wait, no it doesn’t!  Why the hell does the piano play mysteriously if there’s no “supernatural” causes, allegedly, to this whole debacle?  Spoiler alert, but, does genetically engineered bacteria just happen to make the piano mysteriously play?  It doesn’t make any sense, which seems to be a thread in this game.  Anyways, in Ashley’s room we discover some random suitcase with… dun, dun, dun, Ashley’s head in it.  This causes Bates, Alyssa’s dual personality, to come out as she has somehow dropped her “amulet” (as the pamphlet says she calls it).

So, let’s go find the amulet.  It’s pretty easy to spot, just head on downstairs again and into the fancy schmancy dining room and then into the humble dining room and the camera pretty much points it out.  We put it back on and Bates disappears undramatically, returning Alyssa to her… less purple self.  Heading back upstairs we walk further down the hallway, ignoring the Samurai armor for now, and into the upstairs bathroom.  Of course, we turn on the light in the outside hallway first, who laid this house out?  In the upstairs bathroom, also in the cupboard, is a pistol.  Weapons are a new addition to the Clock Tower game and are useful for combatting baddies.  We read the ominous note on the sink, and exit back to the hallway.  Now… we examine the Samurai statue and it begins to move!  Why?  I don’t know, but it’s a pain, because whenever you encounter it you have to go somewhere else for two minutes or so and then back.  By this time he’ll have moved to a different place in the house, presumably by magic.  In the video I tried to pass the time by identifying the body parts as Ashley’s as well as picking up Hint #1 from the washer.

Once the Samurai statue is gone we proceed back upstairs and into the only door we haven’t explored.  Of course, we have to turn the lights on (what is it with the lights?)  Here we find some sort of sitting room, and another person!  It’s Uncle Philip Tate.  He’s just standing here… in a completely dark room?  Unfortunately, he’s not much help as he cowers in the corner and tells you to hide.  Uh, thanks.  Not shown in this video, but there’s actually a hint here on the coffee table.  So we saunter off to… dammit, the Samurai statue!  Ah well…

Once he’s gone (like I wrote, just wait in another room for a couple minutes) we venture into the hallway to go across to the other door we haven’t explored…. dammit, there he is again!  Forget him.  So, we go into Stephanie’s room to find a mysterious statue on her bed.  Somehow, presumably because it’s purple (the same effect Alyssa has when she’s Bates), Alyssa magically knows its possessed.  Are we to suppose Bates is a possession of Alyssa from this?  When Alyssa tries to touch it it zaps her and she proclaims that the statue has some kind of power.  Of course, in the end, this makes zero sense and is a complete red herring, and leads me to think once everything is revealed that the first part of this game was written by committee, one half thinking it’d be a ghost story, and the other half thinking it’d be a Resident Evil sci-fi thriller.  In the video I then picked up the drawer key by mistake, it turns out you never really use it for anything.  What I meant to pick up is in another room, which we access by first going through Ashley’s room and then around an outside walkway.

This is Michael’s room, presumably the guy hiding in the Samurai costume, but for whatever reason Alyssa wonders about Stephanie instead of Michael when the door mysteriously shuts.  Then we worry about Michael.  Whatever.  Here’s where I get what I was looking for before, the “Bedroom Key” from the closet.  This key goes to the other door down in the humble dining room where we’ll find our first ending (ending “M”).  So let’s head down there now.

When we enter the humble dining room with the alive hentai arm we hear Kathryn begging Stephanie to stop.  She must be in the bedroom, so use the Bedroom Key to enter the bedroom and we get a cutscene of Stephanie attacking Aunt Kathryn.  Being that this is the “M” ending, this is where the game stops as Alyssa tries to save Kathryn and ends up stabbed herself (since she can’t turn into Bates being that she has the amulet).

Ending Rank “L”

Ending Rank “L” plays out very similar to ending “M”.  In the second part of this video I did actually have Stephanie attack me so I tried to defend myself with the chair in Ashley’s room.  That didn’t really work though, so I hightailed it back to the humble dining room and hid behind the bar.  Apparently crazy Stephanie, as I call her, falls for it.  Okay, once I got past Stephanie’s attack I went back into Michael’s room and proceeded as I did with the “M” ending.

The difference between “L” and “M” lies in when you get ready to confront Stephanie with Aunt Kathryn in her bedroom next to the humble dining room.  As you can see at 11:53 I put the amulet in the vase of the fancy dining room.  This enables me to turn into Bates when Stephanie is attacking Aunt Kathryn.  So, when the used-to-be final scene occurs I transform into Bates and kick little Stephanie down.  Then I run into the fancy dining room where Bates, who’s tougher than Alyssa, actually shoots Stephanie with the pistol we gained earlier.

I then pick up the amulet, and proceed back to where Uncle Philip was.  This is also where I happened to pick up the hint I mentioned earlier on the coffee table.  Progress through there and into the next door where, ugh, we turn on the freakin’ lights.  I’m not sure what this room is, but it looks kinda cool.  So we explore outside and find, oh no, Aunt Kathryn!  Examining Aunt Kathryn we remark at her deadness… and get stabbed by Stephanie.  And there it is.

Ending Rank “K”

Ending Rank “K” builds on the following two endings, so please refer to the previous endings for the beginnings of this rank.

In ending rank “K” instead of shooting Stephanie, we go by what the hint tells us and lock her in the room.  We then transform back into Alyssa by picking up the amulet we left in the vase in the fancy dining room.  From there we go to the utility closet/hallway where we, dammit turn on the freakin’ lights, and then talk to Aunt Kathryn.

She’s a bundle of laughs… “We’re doomed.  The Maxwell Curse is going to kill us all!”  Whew, well, anyways, we pick up some oil from the heater (though, the item tag is a little weird), which requires us to click it twice.  From there, let’s find out more about what Aunt Kathryn is talking about, and go into her bedroom.  Don’t worry, Stephanie somehow magically escapes, which of course suggests the supernatural, though, according to the pamphlet… ah hell.  There’s unsurprisingly a clue between the beds, a letter from Allen Hale (Alyssa’s father) begins to explain a bit more about what’s going on.  Postmarked 16 years ago it reads,

The statue I sent belongs to the Maxwell family.  Ultimately it was only a statue and probably has nothing to do with the Maxwell’s magic powers.  There is probably nothing to the curse, either.  For now, anyway, I’m giving you the statue.

Ooookay, anyways, now that we’ve identified the statue in Stephanie’s room we of course have to go back and check it out.  However, when we get there… it’s gone!  I’m shocked.  Now, we must transform into Bates.  To do that first we set down the amulet in the drawer (required for Bates) and then have Alyssa set off the “trap” by examining the radio.  Once Stephanie attacks (and we survive, something I don’t do the first time in the video) and we turn into Bates, now that we’re a bit tougher we shoot Stephanie with the pistol we grabbed (see ending M).  To get ending rank “K” we have to be Bates when we talk to Philip downstairs, which we do now.

Uncle Philip seems to know about Bates!  What is this trickery?  Multiple personalities or not, Philip blames the whole thing on the “Maxwell Curse,” just like Aunt Kathryn.  And of course, on that note he leaves.  So helpful.  Let’s track him down, we got some words for this man!  We proceed into the humble dining room where, in the video I encounter the damn Samurai (Michael Tate), but once I get rid of him we get a key from an arm on the floor (different from the “alive” arm on the table.)  With this we can unlock that other door, so do that now.

Ugh, we turn ON THE LIGHTS, and find the Statue in the “Corridor.”  We also find Hint #4, which is handy.  From here we venture into the Den and talk again to Mr. Tate.  Bates and Philip talk a bit, cryptically (I wonder whose arm that was?).  Tate tries to explain very poorly that Allen Hale and him did something involving the statue when suddenly Stephanie stabs him.  And then he stabs Bates.  That’s the end… at least, ending “K”.

Ending Rank “J”

In ending rank “J” instead of transforming into Bates before encountering Uncle Philip downstairs (after discovering the statue missing), we stay as Alyssa.  In this video above I actually avoid the Samurai and go and talk to Philip.  As Alyssa, rather than Bates, he’s not too different, still going on about the Maxwell Curse, but he does give you a key to the Den and tells you to hide.

To get ending “J” we have to turn back into Bates again though, so make sure you don’t have the amulet (in the video I had deposited back in the drawer again) and trigger another Stephanie trap.  In the video this was the clock in the fancy dining room.  Once Stephanie is summoned, since your Bates and tougher than Alyssa, shoot her with the pistol to get rid of her for now.  Then, venture with the key into the Den from the Corridor as above.

Continue through the rooms into the basement and you’ll discover Uncle Philip again, but this time as Bates.  So that’s where the statue went!  Anyways, he’s holding it and won’t give up on the “Maxwell Curse.”  Somehow he knows you’re possessed (I’m guessing the strange purple haze?) and tells you it’s the curse’s fault.  He alludes again to his involvement in something shady with the Maxwell family, and then… strangles you to death.  “Let’s end it all.  Death is the only way for cursed people like us.”  Come on Bates, really?  The end.  (Be sure to check out Philip’s laugh!)

Ending Rank “I”

In ending rank “I” instead of transforming into Bates before seeing Philip again in the basement, we stay as Alyssa.  However, we do drop off the amulet in the drawer again. You’ll note that when we go to the basement this time we pick up a lighter from the table before talking to Philip.  When we do talk to Uncle Philip he tries to strangle us again, still going on about the Maxwell Curse.  He really bought it didn’t he?  However, this time his dialogue is a little different.  He explains that Stephanie found the statue in the closet, and that’s when everything went wrong.  Oddly enough, when he tries to strangle us we don’t transform into Bates.  Anyways…

We go away from the den, and then back to the den, because… you know making time (and for really hard puzzle solving).  We find Philip on the ground telling us to “burn the statue!”  So… that’s what we’re going to do, burn the damn statue.  However, first, we must acquire Alyssa’s amulet again.  So venture upstairs and grab the amulet from the drawer in Stephanie’s room, and then go ALL the way back downstairs to the fancy dining room.

Now, we finally start the process of burning the statue.  Of course, as soon as we deposit the statue in the fireplace Stephanie shows up.  In a pretty well paced sequence we put the statue in, and then cover it with the oil we got in when we talked to Aunt Kathryn.  Everything begins to shake, even though allegedly nothing is supernatural about this, what the hell?  Anyways, even though we’ve picked up the amulet, we conveniently turn into Bates.  That’s because we dropped the amulet, which, in this ending, we don’t pick up again.  As Bates we stab Stephanie, which is pretty dramatic, and then… somehow Stephanie regains a weapon and stabs us.  The end.

And More To Come…

Stay tuned for the “G” ranking, which is a bit different.  We’re skipping “H” for the time being because, but we’ll get back to it in the post after.  Thanks for reading!

This article is part of a series on the Clock Tower games.

If you appreciate my play throughs please help support me through my Patreon.

If a monthly commitment is a bit much, you can always consider buying me a cup of coffee.

Asher Wolfstein

I'm a wunk (half-wolf half-skunk) anthromorph from the future that's stuck here in the past. Throughout my travels, I've learned that being true to yourself is one of the most important things you can do. On my blog I write about my life, interests, projects, observations, struggles, and whatever catches my fancy, otherwise I write reference/educational material on How To Program Anything and open-source software at Press Accept Software. Sometimes I make computer games. My projects are generally concerned with websites, computer science, linguistics, video game design/programming, and (animal/furry) costuming (fursuits). I study Japanese (日本語), read technical books, manga, self-help, cookbooks, and just about anything else, cook, make, and play games for fun. You can sometimes find me virtually on Second Life as kadar.talbot where I head up Falcraft Square, the premiere Cybercadia sim housing, among other things, Original Pursuits LLC's virtual office.

私は未来から来たワンク(半狼、半スカンク)の擬人化体で、ここに過去から立ち往生しています。 旅を通して、私は自分自身に忠実であることが最も重要なことの一つであることを学びました。 私のブログでは、自分の人生、興味、プロジェクト、観察、苦労など、気になったことを何でも書きます。それ以外の場合は、参考/教育資料やオープンソース ソフトウェアを書きます。 時々コンピューターゲームを作ります。 私のプロジェクトは通常、ウェブサイト、コンピューター サイエンス、言語学、ビデオ ゲームのデザイン/プログラミング、および (動物/毛皮の) 衣装に関係しています。 日本語を勉強したり、専門書、マンガ、自己啓発本、料理本などを読んだり、料理したり、作ったり、ゲームをしたりして楽しんでいます。 Second Life 上では、kadar.talbot として仮想的に私を見つけることができます。そこでは、ファルクラフト スクエア、プレミア サイバーカディア シム ハウジング、とりわけ Original Pursuits LLC の仮想オフィスを率いています。

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