NightCry

NightCry[lower-alpha 1] is a graphic adventure survival horror video game developed by Nude Maker and published by Playism Games. NightCry is directed and written by Clock Tower series creator Hifumi Kono, and is considered a spiritual successor to the series. It was first released for Windows in March 2016, and later for the PlayStation Vita in January 2019. Ports for Android and iOS were also planned, but never released.

NightCry
Developer(s)Nude Maker
Publisher(s)Playism
Director(s)Hifumi Kono
Producer(s)
  • Douglas Watt
  • Shunji Mizutani
Designer(s)
Programmer(s)
  • Masaki Higuchi
  • Yuki Yamazaki
Artist(s)
Writer(s)Hifumi Kono
Composer(s)
Platform(s)Windows, PlayStation Vita
Release
  • Windows
  • 29 March 2016
  • PlayStation Vita
  • 31 January 2019
Genre(s)Graphic adventure, survival horror
Mode(s)Single-player

Development

The game was directed by Hifumi Kono as a spiritual successor to the Clock Tower series. Kono notes that the female protagonist of NightCry is louder and more confident than the female protagonist from Clock Tower. He cites the differences as a result of his changing perception of women, who he no longer idealises as docile and ladylike.[1] Kono collaborated with film director Takashi Shimizu on the project, who directed a 12 minute short film to promote the game.[2]

Originally intended to be released for Android and iOS, the game took to crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise funds for a PC version in January 2015. The campaign was successful, raising US$314,771 in February 2015. The Windows version was released on 29 March 2016, while a PlayStation Vita port was released in North America on 31 January 2019.[3][4]

Plot

NightCry largely takes place on the Oceanus, an ocean liner attacked by an evil creature called the Scissor Walker. There are three chapters to the game with a different controllable character in each. In Chapter 1, Monica is the main character, a lady being set up for a date on the cruise. In Chapter 2, the main character is Leonard, a professor who explores a nearby ruin guarded by cultists. In Chapter 3, the main character is Rooney, a morose girl also on the Oceanus attempting to escape the Scissor Walker and discover the truth behind the attack.

Reception

Western critical reception to NightCry was mixed. Caitlin Cooke of Destructoid gave the game a 2 out of 10, saying that 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".[5] In contrast, L. Harvard of Digitally Downloaded gave the game a 4.5 out of 5, saying "an authentic Clock Tower-style, classic stalker horror experience for the modern day. The ambition and the unique vision of NightCry genuinely make me excited that there is a future in traditional gameplay".[6]

Notes
  1. Japanese: ナイトクライ Hepburn: Naito Kurai
gollark: This is at least... internally consistent and whatever, I think, it's just rather horrifying and not something I want to be judged by or anyone to be judged by.
gollark: Oh, and if for some reason you're an *incredibly* self-confident person who thinks all acts they do are right, you'll turn out maximally non-evil.
gollark: Being vaguely aware of that sort of thing, and also that I live in a relatively comfortable position in what is among the richest societies ever, I feel bad about *not* doing more things, which would cause me to be more evil than someone who just ignores this issue forever, which is not, according to arbitrary moral intuitions I have™, something which an evilness measuring thing should say.
gollark: With any actual planning you can just give away as much as reasonably possible. It's just an issue of good management of stuff.
gollark: There are *not* that many people who actually go to the logical conclusion of that line of thinking and go "guess I'll donate all my excess income to charities".

References
  1. Matt Leone (2015-01-21). "First look: Clock Tower spiritual successor Night Cry". Polygon. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  2. Gavin J. Blair (2015-02-10). "Japanese Director of 'The Grudge' Working on Horror Video Game". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  3. Adam Smith (2016-03-30). "Turn Back The Clock Tower: NightCry Released". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  4. "PLAYISM is proud to announce that NightCry for the PlayStation Vita is out now on the North American PS Store, with the European PS Store release date to be announced soon". Gamasutra. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  5. Cooke, Caitlin. "Review: NightCry". Destructoid. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  6. Harvard, L. "Review: NightCry". Retrieved 10 October 2016.
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