Line #26 VisualNovel/ClockZero


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/569758.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''A world without you, is a world I cannot live in.'']]
3	-> ''"[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor I want to become an adult soon]]...but thinking about that makes me a child, doesn't it?"''
4	-->-- '''Nadeshiko Kurou'''
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6	'''''Clock Zero ~ Shuuen no Ichibyou ~''''', also known as ''Clock Zero ~ A Second from Ruin ~'' is an OtomeGame VisualNovel published by Creator/IdeaFactory and Creator/{{Otomate}} for the Platform/PS2 on 2010, and later [[UpdatedRerelease rereleased]] on the Platform/{{PSP}}. It received a more updated port with higher resolution graphics and new additional routes on the Platform/PlaystationVita in 2015, dubbed as ''Clock Zero ~Shuuen no Ichibyou~ Ex Time''.
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8	The story follows Nadeshiko Kurou, the young, 12-year old [[{{Ojou}} heiress]] of her father's company, the Kurou Group, who, along with her childhood friend Riichirou Kanou, attends a private school like most regular rich kids her age. Recently however, Nadeshiko is plagued by strange dreams where she's in a ruined, dystopic world and where she herself appears ten years older. These dreams begin appearing in more frequency the moment the resident NewTransferStudent, Takato Kaido, enters her life.
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10	One day, her class advisor Kaga-sensei, decides to round her, Riichirou, and Takato, together with four other "problem" children: [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Shuuya Tokita]], [[BigBrotherWorship Madoka Hanabusa]], [[{{Delinquent}} Toranosuke Saionji]], and [[{{Keet}} Nakaba Hanabusa]], to form an after-school club of sorts for them to do extra assignments Kaga-sensei hands them, a club they eventually name, [[TitleDrop Clock Zero]]. Excepting her strange dreams and the strange new talking stuffed animal Kaga-sensei gives her, Nadeshiko spends living her school days peacefully, albeit in a livelier way, with her newfound friends.
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12	That is, until the figures she keeps seeing from her recurring dreams start to appear in reality and she soon finds herself in the ruined world she thought she'd only see in her dreams...
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14	As this VisualNovel has yet to see an English release in the west, '''beware of unmarked spoilers'''.
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18	!!''Clock Zero~Shuuen No Ichibyou~'' contains the following tropes:
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20	* AbusiveParents: Toranosuke's father beats him (and his brothers) up from time to time, while his mother turns a blind eye to it.
21	* AlternateTimeline: The dystopic future world Nadeshiko dreams of and eventually travels to comes from an alternate timeline where [[spoiler:she gets hit by a vehicle and goes into a coma, prompting King, a.k.a., future Takato Kaido, to create a world where nothing can harm her, resulting in said ruined world.]] Nadeshiko, can, however, change this future in each of the boys' routes depending on the players' choices, notably, in the Return endings.
22	* AlternateSelf: ALL the characters have one, thanks to King tampering with time in Nadeshiko's present.
23	* AloofDarkHairedGirl: A rare protagonist example is Nadeshiko herself, being nigh asocial and usually preferring it that way.
24	* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Wanderer [[spoiler: a.k.a. alternate future Riichirou]] will always come to save Nadeshiko no matter what. This also applies to Nadeshiko's other love interests, but not to Wanderer's extent.
25	* BadFuture: The Ruined World is actually an alternate future from the game's present timeline that was created as a result of [[spoiler:Rain's schemes that got alternate Nadeshiko in a coma in the first place. King's immediate reaction to this following her coma only made things [[{{Dystopia}} wo]][[WellIntentionedExtremist rse]].]] Naturally, the characters involved with Nadeshiko all want to prevent this from happening.
26	* BigBad: Shared between two people, though their roles vary depending on the routes: King, the government's ruler, and the one responsible for the CrapsackWorld everyone in the future is living in, and Yoshimune, the ruthless leader of the Yuushinkai rebels who abduct Nadeshiko in Riichirou's, Shuuya's, and Toranosuke's routes.
27	* BigBrotherWorship: Madoka holds Nakaba in very high regard, often making others agree to his opinions despite how weird they may sound, and getting angry at those who insult him.
28	* BittersweetEnding: Regardless of Nadeshiko's choice in the end of staying or returning in each of her boys' endings, she will always have to leave one world [[spoiler:and one version of the love interest in question]] behind. More apparent in the Return endings where Nadeshiko eventually forgets her adventures in the Ruined World over time.
29	* ButNowIMustGo: The Return endings have Nadeshiko leaving the Ruined World along with her chosen love interest behind to return to her original timeline.
30	* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: It's an OtomeGame after all.
31	* ChessMotifs: The Government characters from the Black Rabbit paths are all named after chess pieces. King, who is the leader and dictator of the Ruined World, Bishop, one of King's closest [[TheDragon followers]] who is mysterious and unpredictable when matters of the heart come into play like when he falls for Nadeshiko, and Rook, another one of King's two cohorts who is pretty straightforward, holds King's "kingdom" at bay [[spoiler:and can take away his power when needed at the right circumstance, and is the one who is responsible for most of the mess that happens in the plot.]] Nadeshiko is given the designation of Queen, both for her great importance in the plot (as the main character) and to King, making her an invaluable asset to both sides of the war, and then there's her own versatility to account for in all the routes. Wanderer was also originally designated to be the Knight for the Government, which is fitting considering his own unpredictability in the plot as well as his [[KnightInShiningArmor devotion]] to Nadeshiko.
32	* ChildhoodFriends: Nadeshiko and Riichirou have known each other since childhood, and while they bicker with one another from time to time, are shown to be really close and deeply care for each others' well-being.
33	** ChildhoodFriendRomance: If you choose his route.
34	* CrapsackWorld: The Ruined World in Nadeshiko's dreams, which is actually the state of the world ten years from the present.
35	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[spoiler:Shuuya]] telling Nadeshiko that [[spoiler: his memory transfer has failed]] is eerily reminiscent of somebody telling their loved one that they are suffering from a terminal disease.
36	* DudeMagnet: 12-year old Nadeshiko Kurou stands as one of the youngest examples of this trope in OtomeGame history.
37	* {{Dystopia}}: The Ruined World, ruled under the iron fist of King and his cohorts, where everyone who doesn't have bar codes that act as [=IDs=] lives in destitution and poverty,and are subject to King's tyranny and his followers' cruelty. The people rebelling against him are no better than him.
38	* EvilVersusEvil: The Government, led by none other than the aptly named King, and the rebels known as the Yuushinkai, led by Yoshimune.
39	* EyepatchOfPower: While it doesn't really do anything, Toranosuke hides his left eye with an eyepatch since his eyes are heterochromic. [[spoiler:As Traitor, he loses the patch and hides his right eye with his hair instead.]]
40	* EyesAlwaysShut: Bishop, one of King's two [[TheDragon Dragons]], only opens his eyes occasionally and his default sprite has them shut all the time. [[spoiler: This is why his identity as an alternate version of Madoka comes off as a huge surprise to Nadeshiko (and to an extent the player) since his younger self has bigger, wider eyes.]]
41	* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler:Nadeshiko's accident sometime in the near future set off the events that started the entire VN's plot.]] Preventing it from happening would result in a [[spoiler:future where the explosion that triggered the rise of King's tyrannical reign and the tragedies that would occur as a result of it never happened]] leaving everyone to go about their lives in peace. [[spoiler:Nadeshiko's accident will always be prevented in the Return endings somehow and the present character's futures are altered for the better.]] Only [[spoiler:Riichirou's]] Stay ending is this trope explored however.
42	* GildedCage: In the White Rabbit routes, this is Nadeshiko's situation while she's under King's custody.
43	* GratuitousEnglish: Rain spews out a couple from time to time. Some of the promotional trailers for the game also suffers from this.
44	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Takato and Philosopher. King [[spoiler:aka Kaga-sensei and/or alternate future Takato]] on the other hand is a [[spoiler:partial]] subversion.
45	* HappilyMarried: Nadeshiko marries the boy you choose at the end of each of their respective routes.
46	* IChooseToStay: In the Stay endings.
47	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: A gradual example. [[spoiler:Excepting Shuuya's Return ending,]] Nadeshiko eventually forgets all her memories and adventures in the Ruined World, including even the love interests in the routes the player chooses, in the Return endings. However, she will occasionally have [[WistfulAmnesia vague recollections]] of the time she spent with said love interests, bringing her to tears at times, [[ImCryingButIDontKnowWhy even if she doesn't remember why]].
48	* LonelyRichKid: Both Nadeshiko and Riichirou, whose bond stems from the fact that they don't have that many friends and are seemingly content with having only each other in their lives. Naturally, this changes the moment they're forced to join Clock Zero.
49	* LoveAtFirstSight: Takato immediately felt an attraction to Nadeshiko the moment they first met on his first day in school.
50	* MentalTimeTravel: How Nadeshiko and [[spoiler:Shuuya]] travel to the future and the past, the former thanks to King's machinations, and the latter thanks to stolen government technology.
51	* MultipleEndings: With two different endings (the Stay and Return ends) for six routes to choose from this is inevitable. Of course, there's also the occasional [[DownerEnding Bad Ends]], the NonStandardGameOver endings if you fail to successfully complete the assignments Kaga-sensei gives you or for other reasons, the neutral ending, and there's also the bonus endings from some routes if you choose certain options that'll trigger those endings.
52	* NewTransferStudent: Takato Kaido.
53	* OlderThanTheyLook: Shuuya is two years older than Nadeshiko and her peers except Madoka [[spoiler: physically. Mentally, because of time travel, he's in his twenties]].
54	* PromotedToLoveInterest: In the original ports of the VN, Nakaba was the only member of Clock Zero who didn't have a route despite his strongly implied crush on Nadeshiko in extra materials and in the neutral epilogue. Come 2015's PS Vita port and much fan demand, he finally has a route of his own!
55	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Clock Zero is a club full of social misfits formed by Kaga-sensei to help these students make more friends and to help iron out their quirks. [[spoiler:Though he has more ulterior motives behind gathering them together in the first place.]]
56	* ShadowDictator: King, in the white rabbit routes where Yoshimune is the closest thing they have to the BigBad instead of him.
57	* SheIsAllGrownUp: Puberty was ''definitely'' kind to the main characters in their adult years.
58	* SmurfettePrinciple: Nadeshiko is the sole female member of Clock Zero.
59	* SpoilerOpening: More evident in the PS Vita port, but this also applies to the original ports as well. Silhouettes of the boys' [[spoiler:alternate future selves standing behind them in the opening]] spoil who's who before the VN slowly reveals who they are.
60	* TimeStandsStill: Occurs before Nadeshiko is taken to the Ruined World from her dreams once Rain, the tiny plushed bunny Kaga-sensei gave her, instructs her to go take him to the clock tower.
61	* TimeTravelRomance: The premise of the VN.
62	* {{Tsundere}}: Riichirou towards Nadeshiko. [[spoiler:Wanderer, his future self, is more of a [[SugarAndIcePersonality Kuudere]], however.]] and Madoka [[spoiler: and Bishop, his future self]] to Nadeshiko. Nadeshiko herself can be one in some routes too.
63	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Ultimately, the reason the Ruined World is [[{{Dystopia}} as it is in the future]] is because King wanted to create the perfect world for Nadeshiko to live in, where she would never be hurt nor would anyone dare hurt her, thanks to his love for her. Unfortunately, he went too far in his methods for her to actually completely appreciate this sentiment.
64	* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Nadeshiko's mindset is very mature for her age, always acknowledging her faults and showing much self-awareness in her internal monologues.
65	* {{Yandere}}: King, who "danger-proofed" the Ruined World and made it into what is in the future due to his love/obsession with Nadeshiko. Traitor/Waka also shows some shades of this as well [[spoiler: especially in his Return ending]].
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Context VisualNovel / ClockZero