Box Art Battle #2: Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series

Box Art Battle is a series where we compare box art for several games across multiple regions – and declare one of them the best.

Battle 1: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

The difference in covers between the US/Canadian and Japanese/UK versions of TFF shows a difference in culture. You may be aware of a trope known as “American Kirby Is Hardcore”. This is when a Japanese game with a cutesy and non-confrontational cover is imported and changed for other regions into something less friendly and more action-oriented.

US/Canada Cover

JP/UK Cover

In the US/Canada, the game’s cover sets up the conflict between the warriors aligned with Cosmos and the monsters that work for Chaos. It’s a simple dichotomy that perfectly conveys the game’s adorable art style.

However, in Japan and the UK, we have what appears to be a chocobo singing a song of the game’s numerous characters, protagonists of the Final Fantasy games contained therein. It’s more whimsical and even cuter than the US and Canada’s box art, so I have to give the edge to it.

Clock Tower Final Thoughts

Cover for Clock Tower: The First Fear original soundtrack

For a game that has never officially been released in English, there is a whooole lot to talk about in regards to CT.

The Presentation

I like the realistic style of CT‘s graphics. Some of the stills were digitized, though they have a slight illustrative look, as if the stills were touched up after being captured. For a 16-bit horror game, it works surprisingly well.

The music and sound are pretty effective, probably moreso because most of the gameplay is quite silent until something scary or emotional happens.

VGJ Quickie: Clock Tower

Clock Tower box art. I love it.

Clock Tower

System: Super Famicom

Publisher/Developer: Human Entertainment

Released: September 14^th, 1995

CT was one of the first games I played through when I first started emulating old games out of curiosity. I joked that I would emulate games until the FBI knocked on my door – and if they did, to please send Norman Jayden from Heavy Rain.