NightCry: The Biggest Trainwreck in Survival Horror History
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- Опубликовано: 12 июн 2024
- Hifumi Kono, the creator of the highly-influential Clock Tower series, revisited his horror roots in 2016 with the release of NightCry. Spoilers: the game isn’t very good. Today we’re going to explore the game’s rocky gameplay and even rockier development history.
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Check out more of my horror reviews here: • Survival horror reviews
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
4:55 - Gameplay
10:55 - Presentation
12:28 - Music
13:50 - Puzzles and progression
17:43 - Story (SPOILERS)
33:18 - Kickstarter development
50:17 - Outro
MUSIC USED IN VIDEO (IN ORDER):
Leaf of Chaos - Battlefield - Drakengard 3
Hall of Loneliness - Clock Tower 3
Scissorman - Clock Tower 2
Silent Circus - Silent Hill 4: The Room
The Day of Night - Silent Hill 2
After Rock Attack - Resident Evil (1996)
Save theme - Resident Evil Remake
Recorder 2007 (UFO ending theme) - Silent Hill: The Arcade
Live on Walnuts - Sonic Shuffle
Zanarkand Ruins - Final Fantasy X-2
Amethyst Princess - Xblaze Code: Embryo 
Игры
I played this game and I had diarrhea for 2 weeks...coincidence??? I think not
I certainly see why. Just watching a playthrough of Night Cry can be diarrhea inducing 😂
Usually when someone comments something like this, it's a joke... But I believe you
I hope it wasn't painful.
Gold
You made me laugh
This video made me realise that “Ex creator of game series goes to kickstarter to make a spiritual successor to said series only for it to suck” is a surprisingly common story.
@@FromBeyondTheGrave1could just be me having low standards but I thought Bloodstained was just Fine. A bit tedious at times with things like grinding, but it was just okay.
@@guggelguggel7491 it was "ok" for an indie castlevania clone, not for what they said it is going to be. And even then, there are much much better indie metroidvania games that are much cheaper too.
@@guggelguggel7491 I would imagine they're using Bloodstained as a counter example, it's basically the only one I can think of. It's a good game, it totally fits in with the Castlevania series while just feeling a bit low budget, which makes sense for a crowdfunded game. But it's complete, not buggy, and satisfying to play.
I have a feeling Eiyuden Chronicle will beat that trope. It's already looking very promising and it very near broke the Kickstarter page when it first launched
@@Jetsetlemming yeah, its way better than, whatever this abomination was, so I didnt get it but if it was a counter example as you suggest then yeah, just goes to show just how incomplete/probably a scam this particular development was.
That run cycle: "Dress... too... tight... can't move... thighs..."
O
M
G
XD
I can't breatheeee
Take off your heels you dummy!
Imagine being able to say, "I am an ex-Human member of Nude Maker," with complete and utter honesty.
Sounds like npc dialogue from a dystopian game, or just LA.
@@cerebrustusbordungolski7183 Can be Ohio too.
@@catcat63527Ohio 😂😂🤣😃🤣😃😆😂-😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐
@@catcat63527 dead meme
@@TheOfficialPWP Ohio never dies, it simply slumbers.
After El Donte defeated his brother Virgin he hung up his pants, shaved off his moustache, retired from demon hunting and went on a cruise trip under a new name, too bad his nemesis, the vending machine, had other plans for him.
Its not called "the vending machine" that thing that finally gets El Donte is his greatest nemesis called "la maquina"
El Virgino
Remembering Virility makes this way funnier
😆😆😆
This is wild reading without context
I played NightCry some years ago and discovered a game-breaking exploit in the first chapter that further trivialized the chases. So if you go into the pause screen and click a spot in the environment, the game will still register the click and move Monica even while the game is paused. So basically you'd pause, click on the environment, wait a few seconds, and she would "teleport" there while the Scissorwalker was still in his original spot.
Scissorwalker is female.
@@user-jk6iu6lf6bwhat am I supposed to do with this information?
@@satanamogila9251 Scissor her ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
@@satanamogila9251hentai commission, now
@@satanamogila9251 The person who rote the original comment referred to the scissorwalker as a him but the scissorwalker is actually a her. The person you replied to just corrected them.
I imagine the tombstone saying: "Here lies Dante #2, excellent dental health, died eaten by a vending machine, missed by very few."
(I miss him. I'm your prom date etc 😅)
hilariously enough, Dante's character model was a popular model to animate in * ehem * "spicy amateur sfm animation".
* cough * deadpool * cough *
@@chuckshirley1227Which is so funny considering the original Dante is so much more attractive, but I digress 🙄
@@JasonToddsThighs oh yeah, the twunk AND the uh 'daddy' version of original Dante are also popular in the uh, 'spicy' sfm world. But his model's bodies hasn't been updated from those early 2015's free sfm full body model. Which if made into sfm these days will looks REALLY janky lol.
okay i've revealed meself too much lol
Vigo addressing the crazy scissor wielding monster about to kill him as if he was telling the waiter to stop grinding pepper in his soup
When I read the title of this video, I thought to myself "how did I forget about this game?!". Now I know why...
Hey, love your vids dude. Good to see you popping up here on this channel.
@@Estorium Thanks! I was on a long train ride and this was the perfect pairing. Really good stuff.
@@AvalancheReviews Yeah this channel is right up your alley!
I have noticed that you really support many RUclipsrs that explain and review videogames.
I see your comments often
This is really nice of you❤️
Hi! Still waiting for you to make an only fans
By “ultimate Japanese horror experience” they meant the horrifying real-life experience of so much promise resulting in so much garbage.
As well as the downplaying of mental health-
I personally don’t think the game is saying to bully depressed people just because they’re depressed. I think the game is more forcing us to feel sorry for Runnie like “Feel sorry for Runnie because she’s depressed and being bullied for it!” Grant it that still doesn’t mean that the writers aren’t doing something massively offensive here.
Also on a side note, I’m kinda shock that Donna Burke is a voice in this game given she played Angela in Silent Hill 2 and it makes me wonder if she knew anything about Runnie or not.
offensive doesn't mean bad. Offensive just means you're too weak to play a fucking game.
its not really that offensive, people need to grow up
@@LordRobaZeRude.
@@LordRobaZe You... do know what might happen if you keep bullying someone suicidal, right?
The impression I got of Rooney’s subplot when I saw the game played is that the devs had started out with the intent of making some sort of statement about the way people with mental illnesses are treated but they screwed up the execution so badly it just ended up being a conga line of every character being needlessly cruel to her to the point it was almost comical, but given the way the ending frames her struggles with suicidal urges as her “running away” from her problems that’s probably giving the devs far too much credit
Japan is a very conservative country, so they view mental problems as things that cause individuals to hold back the entire group/collective.
From the point of the writer(s), Rooney is holding the group simply by being there, so from the POV of the writer(s), her arc is about stopping holding back the group by braving up.
@@diegojose4173
How unfortunate. There's nothing wrong with being brave and gaining some self-confidence, but at the end of the day, it should be for your benefit and yours alone. It's unfortunate that dealing with depression is viewed as "holding everyone up." :(
They didn't need to make her suicidal to make her character arc work. She could've just been a shy, scaredy cat that learns to be brave because she wants to help everyone. She could still be made fun of, but even with this version the others' behavior towards her should still be addressed as unacceptable.
It could also be showing the REALITY of mental health issues. While the things the person in the video mentioned are IDEAL, that's not the real world. It's a horror game. What's more horrifying than being discarded for your mental illness?
Not to defend the subplot but could bad translation not be one of the reasons it’s so bad. I’ve played a few games with really bad stuff like this and it’s mostly been a bad translation issue
Monica’s hair physics is insane. Also, who runs like that in scary situations?
Frankly all those bathrooms were clogged up, can't blame any of them running goofily
@@noyoucantnoicantnowecantsostop try not to shit challenge
Maybe dinosaurs😂
@@ThankyouDeer029 LMAO
This isn't a valid criticism. You never run realistically in horror games. How about Resident Evil? Who quickly jogs away from certain death? Nobody, they'd be sprinting.
Roonie was a bad ass, she was cursed to be in a bad game though, despite her mental health challenges, she still tried harder to survive than anyone else by an order of magnitude.
Well duh, she has to. Being the character you play
@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme Do you have Aspergers? Serious question.
@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme Congratulations on being edgy. Would you like a medal?
Vigo sounds more like some guy getting his car repossessed rather than someone about to be murdered by a vengeful supernatural entity.
Honeslty the whole abuse sections makes me wonder if there was gonna be a point during the game where Roonie can chosse to save the people who abused her or jsut let them die, wich could maybe affect the story or the endings, since some horror games back in the day had hidden morality systems (Haunting Grounds being an example of it).
But then that was dropped since the game either was scam from the begining or it slowy became a scam during the development.
That's an excellent point I never considered! Now that you mention it, I believe one of the kickstarter goals was to give Jerome his own dedicated chapter but this unfortunately never happened. Since Jerome is pretty central in Rooney's arc, maybe there was going to be some kind of resolution to her mental health story in his chapter...?
Unfortunately, we'll never know :(
Yeah, its very unfortunate xno
Brightside: we now have a terrible game to use as an example of "Things you Shouldnt do when making an Horror Game."
Months late, but that actually sounds reasonably plausible considering the first three Clock Tower games.
CT1 had you choose between one of two characters surviving if you went for Ending S, the final level of CT2 has characters killed off depending on... something I don't understand and you're rewarded for having them all live with the Secrets menu, and The Struggle Within... well, the journalist could die if you chose to answer a seemingly inconsequential question the wrong way.
I could see them having intended to take this idea a step further with NightCry, but then, well, whatever happened with this stupid game happened.
You know what I found out playing this game? Don't run during the chases. Literally just walk away from Scissorwalker, you'll have enough stamina to fight it off and recover before it gets back up. I literally turned the game into a walking simulator.....*siiiiiiiiiighhh*
Gotta tell my gf that she was Right! We were watching a playthrough of this, and she guessed that it would be better to walk.
omg it really did play like clock tower 😍
That actually gave me and interesting idea!
NeveRun
Control your Stress
Reduce your Fear
If you Run…DEAD WILL BE *SWIFT*
@@Ramsey276one If you don't it'd be... 🎶 TROUBLE! TROUBLE!🎶
...
... Sorry once you said "Swift" I couldn't help myself 🤣
Between the main character's run cycle and her amazing reaction to Harry's death, I really want to play this now. Seems like it is a 10/10 of unintentional cheese and comedy.
John Wolfe has a really great series playing NightCry if you don't want to spend the money on actually playing.
@@tandy7919 I've seen this series! the plot (?) is so unhinged though XDD Also, the physics 👀✨
Like to say never plop down money on something just because it's grabbing you on the cheese alone. Everyone and their brother knows how bad the acting was in Resident Evil 1 on the PS1. Of course underneath the cheesy as hell dialogue was a good survival horror experience. Not a fan of the term guilty pleasure when we all know the final product sucks ass.
@@tandy7919 "Boobasaurus"
@Yeahyeah Wowman NightCry is fine. It's not fantastic but its memorable and goofy.
Clock Tower walked so Nightcry could awkwardly walk cycle and trip off of the stage and die
As soon as I recognized Donte's model in the first dead guy, I knew I could not take this game too seriously lol
His death was pretty much the funniest part of the game for me
If I am gonna be honest the scissorwalkers design is the best part of the game and it actually looks menacing. It's just unfortunate that it's stuck in such a trainwreck.
Don't you mean a shipwreck? :D
I'm sorry. 😂
And yeah, I agree, the Scissorwalker does indeed look really cool. :)
Same dude who designed Pyramid Head from SH2 designed Scissorwalker for this game.
@@datatsushi2016 I know.
From what I've been able to tell, the soundtrack is also glitched: you only hear 3-4 tracks in the entire game despite there being 20 on the score release. The long stretches of strange silence are meant to have music playing during them and apparently do in the the Vita release , but no one ever fixed the Steam version.
But there never was a cell phone release, despite it was the original goal for this game.
The most cursed game feature in this one was Monica’s sentient hair
Man, knowing you're going into Haunting Ground next gives this a happy ending. It's not flawless, but it's a really good game, and Daniella is one of the creepiest antagonists out there.
The death audio when Daniella kills you tho 💀💀💀
@@sofiayourbestie28 My creepiest Daniella moment was just finding her passively polishing something during her section. Somehow it was so much more frightening than her actually chasing you.
@@KassFireborn tbh for me she wasn’t that scary but i still loved her as a villain-kinda character. Perhaps it’s because i simply cannot get scared of old horror games anymore lol. Anyhow, I literally died of laughter when i heard the deathscene audio.
I do wish there had been a sequel that built on everything. It was a fun game. I'm hoping Huey shows up in the RE4 remake.
It seems like the best part of NightCry is the prequel short video they made. I bet a large chunk of the budget was blown with that.
Hey did anyone notice how the Scissor walker is missing an eye, which probably ties into being controlled by an eye.
The developers sure as fuck didn't. You just made a more intriguing plot thread in the span of one sentence than they did in an entire game.
@@caralenalindberg6098 fuck memories of this video are coming back.
@@caralenalindberg6098 okay I know the game is shit, but a missing eye is too much of a detail even for a monster to not have it be related to the magic eye.
7:13 getting hand cut off, sucked through the slot was a legit fear I had as a kid. I can't remember what Steven King movie that was from, where a sheriff sticks his hand into a soda machine and it gets mangled, but that was burned into my head. I could not stick my hand in a soda vending machine until I was like 12 or 14.
I think you're thinking Maximum Overdrive.
I think the Sheriff scene you're thinking of was in The Tommyknockers
I remember reading The Mangler and that had a guy getting his arm crushed.
30:08 Lol, Vigo's final lines sound like a guy who bombed so terribly during his standup, everyone's leaving the building, and he's having a nervous breakdown as he wants at least one person to stay for his "best" jokes.
Regarding Rooney's mental health, I remember being weird out by all the abuse and negative comments she received, but I was kind of expecting the typical troop of "the main character overcomes it and takes something valuable out of the experience", but it was never there: she was verbally abused the entire game, even at the end of the game by Monica, and the character development on Rooney was basically cero. I honestly expected way more of NightCry after experiencing Clocktower (specially the first one), but the only similarities between both games are: 1) you explore; 2) a scissor welding maniac chases you (and it's all scripted, no random encounters), that's all: the story itself, the characters, the ridiculous soft-locks and the weird animations... man even for a 300k USD game the story left a lot to be desired, the grafics are okey-ish. Great video btw, really enjoyed it! Cheers!
the mental health thing isn't much of a shock to me given how much japan handles it themselves
Ngl during NightCry’s development, I was instantly hooked. The premise sounded so promising and Clock Tower just felt like a forgotten gem, at the time… part of me today kinda wishes it stayed that way with how NightCry ended up.
it certainly looked more promising during development - it may not have surpassed the Clock Tower games, but it would've given the genre some life. Unfortunately it did the exact opposite...
It's a shame that Clock Tower's heirs, both Remothered and Night Cry, are so disappointing in their execution. There is a rumor though that Clock Tower might see another attempt at being revived, so maybe third time's the charm?
I am a massive fan of Rule of Rose, Haunting Ground/ Demento, and even Clock Tower 3 (for all its cheesy faults), so I am always on the hunt for games in that vein. It's always hit/miss.
And I have to agree with another commenter; the best parts of this game are Rooney basically Tina Belcher running through the game, and Harry-Dante's fate.
Rule of Rose needs a port. So expensive. Down for Haunting Grounds too but especially rule of rose
First Remothered was decent. But holy hell they dropped the ball with 2.
@@nobodybw1962 It pisses me off. I loved Clock Tower so much, and Remothered just dropped the ball so damn hard. It bothers me even more, since my wife plays a minor character in Remothered 2, so I bought it day 1. Booooi was I disappointed. At least I got to hear her voice in a game.
I actually loved NightCry. I struggle with depression, anxiety and suicidal tendencies, and this game is SO DAMN DUMB that it actually made me laugh at myself. It was kind of therapeutic.
@@ToastyPCvidya If you don't mind me asking what character does your wife play as? (in remothered)
@@marispicnicbasket1707 She plays Ashmann's Assistant. It's a very small role, but it was her first time playing a character in a game proper. :)
THIS is the "ultimate Japanese horror experience" nowadays? Now that is a truly horrifying thought!
This tought is the real "ultimate japanese horror experience".
The real one is Japanese men locking themselves up as the population gets older
Oh my god, I kickstarted this game. When it finally came out I was legitimately perplexed at how bad it was.
This also somehow got ported exclusively to the Vita?!
I can imagine that the dev team just want to bury the game along with the Vita but at the same time still some money out of it.
Kinda weird that they didn't manage to have it ported to mobile too being that they do use touch implementation of the Vita.
Ty for kickstarting a classic
I can't help but feel this story could have been so cool. Being on a cruise ship, the height of luxury and all that quickly turning to horror as a slasher monster starts killing people. Sure you can run, but there's nowhere to truly escape to. You're surrounded by water. And then finding out it's a cult ritual, and some of the survivors holding up and wondering whether to go out and try and find an escape or just staying put. That sounds like it has amazing capacity for tension.
RIGHTTT
im of the belief that had they went to fixed camera angles for the whole game it wouldve been a far better experience as far as being able to actually click to move to different areas. point and click doesnt do well when youre over the shoulder/behind the protagonist view
I love the bimbo graphics and the psychological drama. It is a profound reflection about modern times.
Rooney's subplot kind of rings true to my experiences with depression - you get a lot more ridicule than you get compassion.
I also think that even though some of the dialogue is super harsh, to the fact I was shocked when I first watched a walk walkthrough of this game, but I also think it can be portrayed as a metaphor due to Rooney simply believing or taking people's words the wrong way. I can relate to that too. Imagining that everyone around sees you as nothing but a burden and that your issues are just something to be mocked and ignored. I don't think it was deliberately meant to be malicious, but considering Japans attitude towards mental health, that could also be a commentary into that as well.
@@Phoebe5448 Yeah, and irl these people never really face consequences either. I disagree with the idea that media has to have bad people face consequences in order for people to realise it's bad to act that way. I definitely don't think it was a _good_ plot, it would've been better if Rooney learned that those people were idiots and not worth listening to rather than no character development, but that the people got away with being nasty isn't 'disgusting' on the part of developers in my opinion. People who act that way towards people with depression think they're totally in the right, until the individual does something drastic, and then they either outwardly double down or become seemingly sympathetic in a condescending way.
Although EVERYONE dogging on her is a bit weird. While there would be plenty of her peers mocking her, plenty would also just not get involved, and it starts to feel a bit like gratuitous torture porn towards Rooney. I'm not very good at explaining it, but have you ever read online stories made by young people, and the main character will be dogpiled by EVERYONE so they're constantly miserable, called ugly, bullied, beaten up, etc, it feels like that.
@@LTDLetsPlaysthey project, like you in this comment?
The “I-desperately-need-to-pee”-power-walk whenever the characters are running for their lives cracks me up every time
I love the Tina Belcher run cycle of the female characters. It really is the best part of the game. 😅
Edit: On further thought, it is more Jimmy Jr. than Tina, heh.
Now im picturing the protagonist nervously saying “HMMMMM” like Tina when running from the villains 😂
@@Anomalous_Phenomenon It is more of a groan going. "UHHHHHHHHH."
That just unironically is the best comment to me though.
I want a parody game of this, with just Bob's Burger's characters.
@@CosmicChris Tina would be an interesting horror protagonist given her uh.. uh… “thing” with zombies.
Wait, Tina WHAT?
Not to mention the hyperventilating HUH HUH HUH
Alright RUclips, we need to have a talk. You steal my data and know all my secrets. And I’ve accepted that. But it took you this long to show me this amazing channel. Person with calming accent taking about horror games is my main RUclips genre.
37:55 This is pretty late to mention this, but turns out the PSVita version of NightCry doesn't use the Point-&-Click setup and instead you control the character directly with the analog stick. Maybe this is why it took a few extra years for the PSVita version sense they probably needed to recode everything for the game to work with a controller, but it funny that the thing that many requested is only available on a handheld that not many people owned (I own a Vita).
The shot of Monica and Rooney at the end of the good ending.. I know what you are
I only discovered clocktower through this channel, but seeing how so many people loved the series and genuinely seemed to love Kono's work the entire ordeal with this game is just so disappointing. Obviously it's not uncommon for a bad game to come from good developers here and there, but for it to be a kickstarter game with so much money wasted and so many of the rewards seemingly ignored this is on a whole other level. I truly cannot imagine being one of those backers who lost all that money on either cheap or forgotten rewards. Truly a massive shame and you could even argue it puts such a bad look on indie kickstarter games. Even as Tango mentioned, there are so many phenomenal horror indie (or indie in general) games out there with a fraction of a budget as this game. As someone who pretty much only plays indie games at this point, I definitely would have been disappointed beyond belief had I been a fan of Kono (and especially all the other big names) during the kickstarter phase of this game. Game development is fucking hard but you could at least try not to scam your already paying fans
These edgelord Dante model shenanigans are quite a find. What a fitting fate. Oh yeah, and thanks for the effort of editing out these rogue frames, it shows that you care for your viewer's experience, and more than most. Subbed, obviously. And try Signalis maybe.
I hope he shows up randomly in something else, I’d love Donte to become a meme that randomly shows up when you least expect it.
@@stingerjohnny9951the next best thing is Big John in New Blood shooters.
@@yoshi314 Oh that’s a good one XD
Watching this while half tired, but I'm fairly sure that only Monica knew that the Vigo dude had a prosthetic eye, and she had lost her own phone at some point. It wasn't until Rooney found Monica that things could connect. Rooney didn't know Vigo had a fake eye, and Monica never saw the text from Leonard.
That's all I can correct. That's the only part of the plot that I can explain. This game is just... something.
Sadly, Hifumi Kono and the rest of the crew didn't reach their ultimate goal in the kickstarter for the game so the game couldn't be bug free (or close to it) on release day, I think a lot of initial ideas that Hifumi and the others had for the game were left on the metaphorical cutting room floor (or shelved for another game I guess?), and the game couldn't be ported to mobile devices. And what's even sadder is that the dev team totally released the game on steam and abandoned it, left it to rot without any bug fixes or updates for the game and the game hardly ever goes on sale. It went on sale once around the first halloween after it's initial release.
Your channel popped up as recommended today. Loving the coverage of everything related to Clock Tower and have been watching all day.
I was so psyched for NightCry, when it finally came out I had a friend over for a "launch party". Worst night ever. We cried.
Man, I can only *imagine* the disappointment. I remember the Kickstarter and never heard anything more, so to come and play it all these years later and see how garbage it is was just as disappointing!
Thank you for the kind words, appreciate you! ❤️
Just because I feel like it, I'm going to explain how the first Silent Hill game locks you into endings and when without really spoiling anything.
So during the game you get a bottle of red liquid. This liquid can save certain characters from corruption. There are two characters you can use this on- either a friend of yours or the final boss. Some people would probably use it on the friend not knowing that you can use it on the final boss for a better ending.
But during like, the last hour or so of the game you can get a second bottle of this liquid if you search for it. So really you'd only be locked out from getting the best ending if you don't use the first bottle on the friend and can't find the second before the final battle. If you rotate saves you can easily go back and get all four endings. (The fifth ending is a joke ending that you can only get after beating the game once anyway.)
And here's the deal- if you get the worst ending you already have the tool to get the second best ending because that'd mean that you haven't used it to help your friend. It's sitting right there in your pockets. Sure, unless you rotated save files it's still too late to get the best ending without starting from the beginning, but the two best endings aren't actually totally different. They're both leads to Silent Hill 3. The best ending just has your friend added to it. And again all five endings have a conclusion. (The UFO ending does continue through other games though.)
Compare that to this 8-14 hour game where you're locked out of an "ending" that isn't really much of an ending if you don't do a few dumb things in the first hour in a game that's just not really good anyway and it's easy to see how people can get frustrated with this game really easily.
Wait, so this actually is "Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series"?
The freaking “hey, wait”. Every time you think its done it keeps going.
I backed this. The idea of a spiritual successor to Clock Tower was really exciting. When the game was released I saw gameplay and thought “is this it?” I never redeemed the download code I received. Your excellent video has convinced me that I made the right decision.
OMFG! The Donte model finding is hilarious. How come nobody ever talked about it? Oh... Wait, that would require people to actually play Night Cry, my bad
lmaooo I think that's exactly why it's not talked about haha!
(P.S. Nice White Album profile pic!)
I remember when this and Remothered were our only hope for the franchise.....
Yeah, that went well for us. I heard NightCry was a mess but I didn't know until now that it was THIS much of a mess...
Hey, think you'll cover Man of Medan eventually? It's a game that has a ton in common with NightCry: characters acting in idiotic ways in a horror situations, an abandoned ship, a plot with a lot of half-assed explanations, frustrating mechanics during chase scenes, and lots of ways to accidentally corner yourself into a game over.
I actually did a casual playthrough of Man of Medan over a year ago, but I'd definitely love to do an overview of all the games made by that company. Admittedly that style of cinematic-style game isn't my favourite, but I'd love to walk through all of them in a video and see how they change (and hopefully improve?!) with each game!
I just realized 19:10 what a way to be immortalized. Imagine being remembered as that "girl from nightcry"
Haha it's definitely... a bit random isn't it? 🤣
22:01 Otoja! He was one of the Japanese kickstarters. I watched his LP of Nightcry when it came out and he hid his disappointment well, but the commenters were brutal 😂
Dude yes fellow Otoja watcher!! He really did try so hard, he 100% at least made it a hilarious joy to watch. I might go rewatch their playthrough 😂
I'm surprised that there was no mention of remothered (1, at least) in terms of recommended alternates to night cry! It's a flawed game for sure, but it also feels the closest to a modern-day clocktower and a solid horror game at it's core
i kinda liked broken porcelain storywise tho. I was not expecting a gothic love story
Yeah it still does the whole "split personality psychopath" thing, which really should've stopped getting used years ago.
It was kind of left by the wayside since Chris Darril seems to want nothing to do with the series, after the horrible almost alpha release of Remothered: Broken Porcelain. I would honestly compare R:BP to NightCry in terms of brokenness--but at least BP eventually got a 2.00 that fixed almost everything. NightCry will never be able to say the same.
I remember when that game started off as a fan remake of Clock Tower 1
Neat vid.
Only played ClockTower, not any of the sequels.
Night Cry had nice character models though. I dig the art style.
I love how this boils down to "and it get worse" and each time it legit does
I still have this game on my Vita and have played though the whole thing after watching Matt and Pat play it for a Shitstorm of Scariness episode back in 2016. I don't know how the hell i endured it. 😂
I miss Matt and Pat and super best friends.
When you mentioned the Clock Towers series at the beginning, my first thought was, "wasn't there once on an ocean liner?" I'm so glad I skipped playing this one, so thanks for taking one for the team
This game proves its worth by giving the edge lord version of Dante the ending he deserves 😂
6:34 NO FREAKING WAY! DoNTE!
29:59 riveting dialogue right there! Oh No... wait
this channel is a hidden gem for survival horror games.
Thank you very much for this in-depth look at the infamous NightCry. I thought I had heard it all about it - turns out I was wrong. The backstory behind it was very fascinating, naturally in the most heinous of ways. Sure, I knew about some, but certainly not the full extent. Those so called "collector's boxes" are truly outrageous. It is baffling how they dragged Clocktower through the dirt just to make a quick buck. These days you can find quite a few Let's Plays making fun of the game, but one really has to take a look behind the scenes to understand how vile it all was. Apparently, some of the backers got to record their screams for one scene in the game - in exchange for a large amount of money. And the actual scene barely lasts a second. I thought that was one hell of an act, just burning your money like that, but my god, the whole story is so much worse. Clocktower did not deserve this one bit, and how can you dare to make Ghost Head look decent by comparison? I would rather run back to broom closets and fire extinguishers all day than lay eyes upon this filth ever again. In conclusion - great video, rock on ♥
Dang, I've thought that looked like Dante for years and just assumed it was coincidence. Nice to know that it was his model.
33:39 is interesting to think about considering how Masahiro hates having designed Pyramid Head and has an entire website showing off a tweet where he states that. I'm not saying the scissor walker is better than PH (although despite all of NightCry's flaws, I do actually enjoy his design even though we never learn literally anything about him) but it's funny to think about nowadays.
There is really nothing more tragic than people who have some sort of intrepid vision for their magnum opus, and who then completely fumble it in the execution.
So many ideas, but not enough skill to utilise them. I agree, it's sad :(
The game still left an impact on me sooo...
it really isnt that bad, i always remembered the blonde girl and thought the early ambience of the game was cozy
A videogame IP's legacy doesn't begin and end just because it's gameplay is below average.
I LIKE weirdo uncanney valley games. And NightCry is far from my favorite, but I'm happy it exists
Fantastic video, love the way you narrate your videos. It’s like a casual chat about games.
That's exactly the vibe I'm hoping to achieve with these videos. Thank you for watching, Badger!!
as someone who has played this game and..often get told to end my self often by friends and family..Rooney's story ..was a slap in the face to me :c
30:25 Amazing voice acting. 10/10. It's like they just recorded him practicing his lines or something without him knowing, or he was just fucking around and they were like, "Great! That's a wrap."
Those hair physics are top tier
Never heard of this game until I came across your video, and it’s got quite the fascinating history behind it. Thanks for going so in depth! EASILY earned yourself a new subscriber :)
I completely forgot about the game until I saw this video. Feels like a lost fever dream that just now emerged from my subconscious.
That kickstarter is a textbook example of trying to get more people to pledge by overpromising on rewards while setting a funding goal much lower than what they actually needed. The thing is, in the world of video game production 300k is very little. Yes you cited a number of indies with lower budget but those games are either solo or very small teams, some of them were developed as a hobby by people with a day job, and from a production standpoint all of these are much smaller in scope. I very much doubt 300k covers the salary of the very famous people shown in the kickstarter pitch, let alone the rest of the team at nude maker for even just a single year. That's not even counting voice acting. And as a lot of poorly thought out kickstarters have figured out, producing physical goodies is EXPENSIVE. Big companies recoup that cost because they hope to sell *millions* of copies. Mighty No 9 got 3 millions dollars and was still a disaster because of how poorly managed it was. 300k is frankly kind of sad considering all the big names they had. The moment they realized their budget was this low was when they should have cancelled entirely and given people their money back.
Since this game is made in Japan, the culture of mental health is not very…supportive nor taken seriously. I’ve been there, experienced it and everyone sees you as very dramatic and a “black sheep.” Although, the recent years have become better. However, it’s not the same level as in the western side.
Japan is a very conservative country meaning people must be similar to each other, never stand out, must have the same ideal and actions and you must follow rules. Many Japanese people have struggles of fitting in but due to their culture, all they can do is to stay quiet and hold it in. That’s what I experienced.
If it weren’t for my supportive online friends and a healthy outlet. I don’t think I’ll be this far in my life
The true Japanese horror experience was the treatment of mental health and attempted sewer side all along
“sewer side”
Another great video! I'm looking forward to the Haunting ground one! It's nice to see how well this video has doe in less than a day, much deserved!
Man, RUclips has just been recommending more and more of some really good deep dive channels lately, keep it up!
I always suspected that this game blew most of its budget on the graphics as well. Graphics are a nice thing to have, but it's always better to put gameplay & story FIRST if you want people to have a good time PLAYING the game!
The fact that this game came out on my birthday is actually wild, I will continue to go about my life as if I don’t know about this games existence
I remember when Retsupurae were on their Kickstarter kick and they covered the Kickstarter for this, and I think they didn't realize how right they really were.
As a survivor of 2 attempts, thank you for calling out the mishandling of the topic of suicide and doing so while calling out the excuses of "its just a game." Really love your entire analysis of the game, and that heels run was hilarious I cant believe they released it with that animation.
As a matter of fact, the early graphics were simpler. The final game aimed to a more PBR (physic based rendering)
approach. You can see it on the carpet where the girl appears and Monica turns around, there is a granular shining in the final game, while the trailer is only the color. PBR is way more complicated to do than just diffuse. It also requires more memory since each material requires multiple textures (diffuse, specular, normal map, at the very least) and lighting is harder to do since you have to match it to the models and textures. If they had stuck to the art style of the first video, you do lighting with more intention, kinda like "what you see is what you get", it is less dynamic but way more predictable. But of course if people want "modern" and latest tech, the old way will be received as outdated.
Not really my man, most of the games I play, their art style make up for more than just realism. So no, the old way will never be received as outdated to the ones who truly enjoy things for what they are. Many recent games still keep their old art style, or straight up being "retro" games that looks and plays tremendously better than these PBR cash grabs lol
That's not what PBR stands for, it's physics based rendering. I'm not sure I'd say that it's more complicated, it's just a different workflow from the previous method. I'm also not sure I'd say that the lighting is harder either, since the whole point is that you get realistic or at least more natural looking results much more easily.
I remember hearing about this game and seeing so many Survival Horror fans excited to play this game. It sucks to see that the game came out as a massive disappointment, and as for the sketchiness behind the scenes along with the broken promises, I had no idea all that went on, but I'm happy to at least now know the context of the stuff around this game. Great video!
I would also include Haunting Ground to the Clocktower Franchise.
and Remothered series, since their creator loves Clock tower. Plus, he is working on a new game called 'Bye, sweet Carole', which is inspired by Clock tower gameplay and...traditional animation Disney style. Can't wait
I'm going to include the Amnesia series because that has a panic thing and that's all. It's exactly like Clock Tower.
@@coltonwilkie241 Oh wait, you're right! If Amnesia had only one big type of enemy then yes, it would have been just Click Tower in first person... Wow
I can't play scary games. Even baby's-first-scare games are almost universally too much for me to handle. I'm always on the lookout for RUclipsrs who can play them and explain them to me! It's weird, I have no problem with scary movies or watching someone else play a scary game, I can even sit in the room with them and watch them play, but the second I hold the controller it all falls apart. Maybe the feeling of being in control shifts my frame of perspective? Who's a new subscriber? This guy! Also, I love how she basically stands there and watches her boyfriend get eaten by a vending machine. Did, you know, running away from the possessed machine not cross her mind? What if it decided to eat her next? She's making some easy prey there.
He wasn't being the best boyfriend material either, so maybe she wasn't too worried about that (?) And I would say running in heels isn't the best idea, but the other girl is using sneakers and she also runs like crap, so there's no real winner here.
In any case, I'm with you on the rest, I can't play scary games, but watching other person playing? Hell yeah xD
I would reccomend John Wolfe for that, he's so dead inside that he actually prefers to chase over the scary monsters while criticising the bad decor choices (?) Still manages to make fun videos if you enjoy dry humor and high dosis of sarcasm
Same here! I absolutely adore learning about horror media, but I cannot play a horror game regardless of how desperately I want to. The first time I touched Bioshock around 13 years old I actually screamed at the opening haha.
I recently bought the Amnesia collection on Switch too since it was only 3 bucks, and I immediately couldn’t do it. Only horror game I’ve ever managed to play all the way through was Doki Doki Literature Club in middle school, and even that was a stretch for me
My "baby's first horror" was Fatal Frame V: Maiden of Blackwater, which has been deadpanned by fans of the franchise for being un-scary and very hand-hold-y 😅
Maybe try Bloodborne? It’s arguably a horror game with quite a few super creepy areas, but it also has fun Dark Souls like combat?
I’m thankful this was on my reccomendations, you were very informative and I was genuinely interested in Nightcry because I loved the cruise ship and point and click adventure concept, but knowing the devs really did just flat out scam the backers for this project really is an insult. Kinda makes me wanna make my own horror game tbh…
Do it 😊
NGL I didn’t know how messed up the development for NightCry was, I heard someone people didn’t get their codes but the Kickstarter was a straight up scam. Shipping signed “boxed” copies in a cheap DVD box from the early 2000’s 🤣 I’m surprised they didn’t get sued. The funny walking animations and bad cutscenes didn’t make up for outright scamming their fans, thanks for the video 🔥
Peeps got scammed bad tbh. I would flip if i had spent 200$ on some cheap ass dvd case with fake signatures 💀
@@bouncingbluesoul5270 it sounds like it
Vietnamese here, that dental video makes me get nostalgic feeling about that time, when we made fun of the national television for that video, mostly because around that time they were still basically seeing gaming as the deadly drugs for the young (typical media in anyother place)
This and few other stuffs from them around that time made them the laughing stock among the gamers. Nowdays, they promote gaming even more than game companies and game journalism
Btw love the video
I remember the heartbreak of backing this game and the desperate hope they'd add a huge patch that never came. At least some lore questions were answered by a Playism rep in the Steam discussions, but that should not be how that info is seen. Also, one of the main artists from the "art book" is Remothered creator Chris Darril, but he only supplied concept art for NightCry. The original Remothered game concept, a 2d point and click remake/expansion of Clock Tower made mostly solo, had better presentation trailers and even a full soundtrack sample before Chris completely reworked it into the final product. NightCry was a big shame.
still a relatively small amount of videos on your channel but every single one is fantastic
Even clocktower: struggle within had 1 redeeming factor in form of Bates dialogue and his snarky english va.
One notable aspect of the PS Vita version is that you directly control the characters in there, no point and click to be found
Was SO excited to see this in my subs today! Amazing coverage, there was so much I still didn’t know! Can’t wait for Haunting Ground. 😊
imagine reacting to your own impending gruesome death the same way you might react to debt collectors taking your TV
I still can't believe they haven't come out with another legit scissor Man game
I didn't know much about this project, so thank you for covering it. I can visually see the spirit of Clocktower in this, but man oh man what a disaster...
7:00 reboot Dante's model was in this game??? Man I knew Night Cry was wack but this is like a whole new level lol