VGFacts

Resident Evil 3 has the clock tower and the name comes from another game




is this a reference?

If its by the same company, maybe.
If not, no. Clock Towers are a thing after all.

I bet it's a reference to the MK3 stage.

/jk

By the time RE3 came out Clock Tower was still owned by Human Entertainment. The company went defunct a year later, though.

The only Clock Tower game made by Capcom is Clock Tower 3 but by the time they had used the IP RE3 had been out for 3 years. For reference they only acquired the series after Human Entertainment had gone under.

What I'm trying to say here is that it's not a reference. The only thing common between each game is the existence of a generic clock tower in each.