History YMMV / ClockTowerIITheStruggleWithin

* {{Sequelitis}}: Of the four installments in the ''Clock Tower'' series, ''The Struggle Within'' is the considered the worst. This was attributed to the game's reliance on TrialAndErrorGameplay and GuideDangIt, which wasn't helped by the point-and-click interface being incredibly slow and clunky. The story also drew criticism for being too confusing and lacking explicit details to make sense of it.

** Zombies function entirely differently before and after Bates finds out about their weak point. Beforehand, they will always collapse after being shot; if Bates leaves the room, there's a chance they're not actually ''dead'' dead and will be back up on their feet the moment he reenters. Once you find out about the weak point though, Zombies are immortal and can't be killed without shooting said weak point (indicated by the crosshair changing color when aiming at that body part).
** The chase segments are noted as being ''incredibly'' tedious compared to past games, as you're unable to do anything while being chased but often you can't lose what's chasing you. This often causes a ''lot'' of forced backtracking to something you can use to defeat whatever's chasing you; often for you to only run into ''another'' thing that will chase you a few screens after the ''previous'' thing that was chasing you was encountered, resulting in the process starting all over ''again''.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Does Bates really care about Alyssa, or does he just want her for her body? That is, does he want to keep her body safe so he can dominate it? No, wait...

* {{Sequelitis}}: Of the four installments in the ''Clock Tower'' series, ''The Struggle Within'' is the considered the worst. This was attributed to the game's reliance on TrialAndErrorGameplay and GuideDangIt, with wasn't helped by the point-and-click interface being incredibly slow and clunky. The story also drew criticism for being too confusing and lacking explicit details to make sense of it.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Of the four installments in the ''Clock Tower'' series, ''The Struggle Within'' is the considered the worst. This was attributed to the game's reliance on TrialAndErrorGameplay and GuideDangIt, with wasn't helped by the point-and-click interface being incredibly slow and clunky. The story also drew criticism for being too confusing and lacking explicit details.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Bates/Sho. Both are complete badasses, but Bates is also played by Roger Jackson, and he's the only voice actor in the game who does a good job.
* EsotericHappyEnding: In the best ending, Alyssa Hale lives, [[spoiler: but her father, the only person she truly cares about is dead, alongside her uncle and cousins. Before that, her father also revealed she's the cursed daughter of George Maxwell. Oh, and the zombies have escaped and are running around in the city. While Alex Corey leaves her alone at the street and swears he'll take care of the zombies.]] Subverted in the drama CD, where the whole story makes more sense and is played more realistically.
* {{Macekre}}: ''Ghost Head'' is set in Osaka, Japan. They try to fit it in California in the localization, despite everything being so Japanese. The references to Japanese folklore were completely removed as well.
* {{Sequelitis}}: Of the four installments in the ''Clock Tower'' series, ''The Struggle Within'' is the considered the weakest. This was attributed to the game's reliance on TrialAndErrorGameplay and GuideDangIt, with wasn't helped by the point-and-click interface being incredibly slow and clunky. The story also drew criticism for being too confusing and lacking explicit details.
* SoBadItsGood: ''The Struggle Within'' is generally seen as this by fans of the ''Clock Tower'' series that are willing to forgive its flaws.
* ScrappyMechanic:
** The game seems as if it was designed without guns in mind. It gets even worse when you play as Alex since the hit boxes to click on the zombies are '''really''' picky to where it is nearly impossible to finish unless you shoot each zombie in order of who walked in before the next. It also drags. The standard gameplay somehow had reduced difficulty over all. The only real difficult part about it is hoping you saved your game before you get locked into any of the bad endings.
** Zombies function entirely differently before/after Bates finds out about their weakpoint, beforehand, they'll always collapse after being shot, if Bates leaves the room, it's only knocked out and isn't dead, if he does, it's dead, once you find out about the weak point though, Zombies are immortal and can't be killed without shooting the weakpoint. (indicated by the crosshair changing color when aiming at that body part.)
** The chase segments are noted as being ''incredibly'' tedious compared to past games, as you're unable to do anything while being chased but often times you can't lose what's chasing you. This often causes a ''lot'' of forced backtracking to something you can use to defeat whatever's chasing you; often for you to only run into ''another'' thing that will chase you a few screens after the ''previous'' thing that was chasing you was encountered, resulting in the process starting all over ''again''.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** As a lot of reviews point out, ''The Struggle Within'' is just a ripoff of ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' (although it didn't start out as such - Memorial Pharmaceuticals was innocent, and George Maxwell was the one who released the zombies). The story however had potential, but the developers decided to MindScrew us by letting zombies take over the plot after the first scenario and never fully explaining the backstory.
** Even the Zombies are somewhat interesting, essentially being the Regenerators from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' years later. It could have been interesting to have regular enemies having a constantly changing weakpoint. However, the mechanics are poorly explained and once they're introduced, the shotgun/machinegun that ignore weakpoints are introduced soon afterwards.
** A main character with split personalities who play entirely differently, react differently to things, and experience different events in their playthrough is a really solid idea that deserved better gameplay/plot than this.
* TheWoobie: Alyssa later finds out that her [[spoiler:real father is George Maxwell, who went insane due to a lab conspiracy by her adoptive father and uncle to discredit him. Shannon, who is revealed to be her step-sister, has been neglected by her father and hates Alyssa with a burning rage. On top of that, the people she loved and cared for (except for Kathryn) and some people she met (except for Alex and maybe Cook and/or the journalist) are all dead by the end of the game.]]

* SoBadItsGood: Ghost Heads/The Struggle Within is generally seen as this by fans of the Clock Tower series that are willing to forgive its flaws.

** As a lot of reviews point out, ''The Struggle Within/Ghost Head'' is just a ripoff of ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' (although it didn't start out as such - Memorial Pharmaceuticals was innocent, and George Maxwell was the one who released the zombies). The story however had potential, but the developers decided to MindScrew us by letting zombies take over the plot after the first scenario and never fully explaining the backstory.
** Even the Zombies are somewhat interesting, essentially being Resident Evil 4 Regnerators years earlier, which could have been interesting to have regular enemies that have a constantly changing weakpoint, however the mechanics are poorly explained and once they're introduced the shotgun/machinegun that ignore weakpoints are introduced soon afterwards.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: As a lot of reviews point out, ''The Struggle Within/Ghost Head'' is just a ripoff of ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' (although it didn't start out as such - Memorial Pharmaceuticals was innocent, and George Maxwell was the one who released the zombies). The story however had potential, but the developers decided to MindScrew us by letting zombies take over the plot after the first scenario and never fully explaining the backstory.

* TheWoobie: Alyssa later finds out that her [[spoiler:real father is George Maxwell, who went insane due to a lab conspiracy by her adoptive father and uncle to discredit him. Shannon, who is revealed to be her step-sister, has been neglected by her father and hates Alyssa with a burning rage. On top of that, the people she loved and cared for (except for Kathryn) and some people she met (except for Alex and maybe Cook and/or the journalist) are all dead by the end of the game.]]

* EsotericHappyEnding: In the best ending, Alyssa Hale lives, [[spoiler: but her father the only person she truly cares about is dead, along side her uncle and cousins. Before that her father also revealed she's the cursed daughter of George Maxwell. Oh, and the zombies have escaped and is running around in the city. While, Alex Corey leaves her alone at the street and swears he'll take care of the zombies.]] Subverted in the drama cd, where the whole story makes more sense and is played more realistically.

* EsotericHappyEnding: In ''The Struggle Within''/''Ghost Head'', In the best ending, Alyssa Hale lives, [[spoiler: but her father the only person she truly cares about is dead, along side her uncle and cousins. Before that her father also revealed she's the cursed daughter of George Maxwell. Oh, and the zombies have escaped and is running around in the city. While, Alex Corey leaves her alone at the street and swears he'll take care of the zombies.]] Subverted in the drama cd, where the whole story makes more sense and is played more realistically.

** ''The Struggle Within'' seems as if it was designed without guns in mind. It gets even worse when you play as Alex since the hit boxes to click on the zombies are '''really''' picky to where it is nearly impossible to finish unless you shoot each zombie in order of who walked in before the next. It also drags. The standard gameplay somehow had reduced difficulty over all. The only real difficult part about it is hoping you saved your game before you get locked into any of the bad endings.

* ScrappyMechanic: ''The Struggle Within'' seems as if it was designed without guns in mind. It gets even worse when you play as Alex since the hit boxes to click on the zombies are '''really''' picky to where it is nearly impossible to finish unless you shoot each zombie in order of who walked in before the next. It also drags. The standard gameplay somehow had reduced difficulty over all. The only real difficult part about it is hoping you saved your game before you get locked into any of the bad endings.

* TheWoobie: Alyssa later finds out that her [[spoiler:real father is George Maxwell, who went insane due to a lab conspiracy by her adoptive father and uncle to discredit him. Sharron, who is revealed to be her step-sister, has been neglected by her father and hates Alyssa with a burning rage. On top of that, the people she loved and cared for (except for Kathryn) and some people she met (except for Alex and maybe Cook and/or the journalist) are all dead by the end of the game.]]