Rule of Rose

The unlucky girl. That’s what the protagonist, Jennifer, is referred to as in Atlus USA’s latest game, Rule of Rose. Well, if this girl is unlucky then I need to start buying lottery tickets. To start with, Jennifer is an orphan in the 1930’s. Her parents were killed in a zeppelin crash and the game starts off with our poor unfortunate heroine on the way to the orphanage. Jennifer’s story, along with the gameplay, just goes downhill from there.

After a little bit of exploring around the orphanage Jennifer is kidnapped by a group of children and taken aboard an airship. The children are ruled by a group of girls that call themselves the “Red Crayon Aristocrats.” The Aristocrats are led by the “Dutchess” Diana. She’s the type of girl that even boys would gladly give their lunch money to if it would keep her placated. Next is Meg, the “wise princess.” She’s the brainy one that comes up with all of the laws and rules for the Aristocrats. Wendy and Eleanor are sort of a middle rank with poor Amanda at the bottom of the pecking order. Jennifer starts off lower than Amanda and has to work her way up through the ranks if she’s ever going to have any hope of figuring out what on Earth is going on.

To placate this Machiavellian group and advance up the chain of command Jennifer must bring the Aristocrats a monthly tribute. The first gift you’ll have to find is a butterfly, with each month’s offering becoming progressively harder to obtain. Luckily, Jennifer isn’t alone in her endeavors. Early in the game you’ll rescue a dog named Brown from the hands of the tortuous Aristocrats. Animal cruelty is a running theme in Rule of Rose and it’s nice to see that Jennifer does have some sort of a moral compass compared to the rest of the depraved children on the airship. In return for your help Brown lends his nose to Jennifer’s task. By selecting “Find” on an item in the inventory screen, Brown can be commanded to track down various things. The majority of the game consists of having Brown track down key puzzle items and then following that scent to the next item. It’s an interesting concept, but it seems like the game is leading the player around by the nose most of the time instead of letting you find the clues on your own.

While you’re tagging along behind Brown you’ll often run into various imps and ghouls that inhabit the airship along with the Aristocrats. Up until now the game has been interesting, but here’s where it gets frustrating. While I don’t expect Jennifer to be a Green Beret I at least expect a game that includes combat to include a serviceable fighting system. To change Jennifer to “attack” mode you hold down R1, then you just hit X over and over and watch Jennifer flail around blindly with whatever melee weapon she has equipped. If you’re lucky you may hit what’s in front of you, but the terrible fixed camera might not let you see if there is anything in front of you in the first place. The monsters don’t drop anything so it’s easier to just avoid them and hope they don’t jump and grab Jennifer around the waist. If they do you’ll have to shake the left stick like you’re having a seizure to get them loose all while steadily losing health.

Luckily combat is easily avoided most of the time, but unfortunately the game designers thought boss fights would spice things up. I’ve made it fairly clear that the fighting system is weak but when the first boss can kill a fully healed Jennifer in three to four hits and can take a ton of damage before dying it just makes the game even more infuriating to play. It’s not that the bosses have hard-to-follow attack patterns or are impossible to hit either. They’re just incredibly cheap shots. Out of the umpteen times I replayed the first boss fight, the boss knocked me down at least four times right after loading the area before the game would even let me control Jennifer. I know this game is supposed to be a bit sadistic but that’s just mean.

After struggling through the first boss fight though, the game is a bit better about providing enough health items to keep Jennifer healed but combat and boss fights remain the low point of the game all the way to the end. Thankfully, the storyline continues to intensify with each chapter as Jennifer tries to get herself out of the mess she’s in. It’s not of the best “games” I’ve ever played but it has by far one of the darkest and most deviant storylines to grace a game. It’s rare that I’ll struggle through a bad game just because it has a good story, but wondering what was going to happen to the unlucky girl in the end helped get me through the parts that made me feel like an unlucky reviewer. 

Gameplay: 5.0

A terrible combat system drags down yet another great adventure game. There’s no point in putting enemies in your path if you can’t effectively dispatch them. Sure, Jennifer isn’t Jill Valentine, but there has to have been a better way to design the combat portion of the game.

Graphics: 7.1

Rule of Rose has beautifully rendered cutscenes. The character’s facial expressions and body language in the cutscenes tell just as much of the story as what the characters are saying. The in-game graphics, on the other hand, are fairly average PS2 fair. There’s a static-like filter on top of the graphics that give it an old film look and adds to the feel of the game, but it doesn’t do much to cover up the fact that all the corridors start to look the same after a while.

Sound: 8.9

The voice acting is excellent! When Diana drawls out Jennifer’s name in a sing-song manner it gives me the willies. The musical score is also well done and provides even more atmosphere to an already dark and twisted game.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Besides a few of the puzzles the game isn’t incredibly difficult to figure out. What will keep you up crying is the amount of times you’ll get killed because the combat system is so wonky.

Concept: 8.0

Rule of Rose is sort of like “Lord of the Flies” on an airship. It’s a downright creepy look into the mindset of children left to their own devices. It’s not often a game makes you think, but Rule of Rose sure will.

Overall: 5.9

The story in Rule of Rose is an amazingly twisted macabre tale that you won’t find on a daily basis in your local game store. Unfortunately, the design team appears to have been so focused on the story part of the game that they forget to actually put a game in it. If you’re at all interested in the demented story and have the patience to stumble through the combat sections, then by all means give it a try. Everyone else may want to find a different garden to play in.