Rule of Rose - If virtual scavenger hunt was a game, this would be it

You've probably not heard of Rule of Rose but you know it was banned. Why was it banned? Well I wasn't really sure until I did some research for the sake of this post. It was banned in the UK along with some other countries. I was thinking "This must be the scariest game in the world!" But I was wrong. It was banned for Psychological torture. You're thinking what the hell is that supposed to mean? Violence and torture by kids towards other kids. Also underage lesbianism as well. The psychological torture isn't the game characters, its on you for playing this game. Its torturing you with its boring running around.

Rule of Rose is a very short horror game by Atlus, yes another Atlus game. I'm not bashing on Atlus games or anything it just happen to be Atlus that made these games. For example, I thought Disgaea to be fairly fun even though the story was crazy and the council system stupid and the whole thing was annoying as hell. You know what, that game sucked. How about Rhapsody: A musical adventure then? Your a girl rescuing the prince with an army of stuffed animals. Cutest game in the world. Not something you'd want to admit to playing though. Anyways enough about Atlus games.

Its one of those horror games where you are a helpless girl instead of someone with a gun shooting hordes of zombies. Only exception is that those games you're actually scared. The difference between those games is that there is something chasing you. You're actually running away. You're in a panic. In rule of rose it has none of that. If its a horror game without horror then what exactly is it? It can't be something and not something at the same time. If I had to describe it as something else then I'll say its like a virtual scavenger hunt and a fairy tale. Doesn't' sound very scary does it. Its not meant to be scary.

The game is set in the 1930's somewhere in Europe. It's made for people with European fetishes. I don't blame them because Europeans are hot, but since this is Japan most of them are 12. You start off the game as Jennifer, a 19 year old young woman on a bus and some boy asks you to read him a story. Then he runs off and you chase him for some odd reason and end up at a orphanage. Off the start you can see some kids with paper bags on their head bashing an animal tied in a bag to death with sticks. Sets the mood of the game because that's you in the bag and those sticks are the game play and those kids are the developers. After you get past the bloody mess you open the door and its mysteriously locked. I was thinking "Ohh typical haunted house game?" No you just wander around and start digging at a grave and some girls come and pour water all over you and push you inside the coffin. Now you wake up on an airship and the kids ask you to join the "Aristocrats club" Every month you need to give them a gift or they kill you.

I just want to point out how much I hate Jennifer. She's absolutely frightened of everything. She'll faint randomly or get scared and start shaking and scream all the time and break down crying. Everything makes her yelp and everything scares her to the point of going insane. She's probably already insane.

The story is divided into chapters and each chapter is a different month. The chapters are not always chronological either. Now you're untied you get to walk around the airship that is like four times the size of Russia. You go to the Aristocrat Club door and the poster says "This month's gift is a butterfly." Now you have to find a butterfly. You walk around the huge airship looking for a butterfly but half the doors are locked or unopenable. Eventually though as you talk to people or see scenes more of these doors will be open. But you have no indication of what will be opened and what will be locked next. So you'll have to keep looking around. If you have a bad sense of direction you'll probably be stuck lost running around in circles. The good thing is 90% of the game you are in the airship. Its just different sections are open and closed during different months and people move around. Eventually even if you suck at directions you'll memorize it since you'll be bashing the walls with your fist if you can't find a door or room.

Near the start you'll find your pet dog "Brown" and the game gets much easier. You are able to let him search for items by looking at your inventory. If the item says "Find ??????" Then you can let brown smell it and he'll go looking for the ?????? item. Nothing is in plain sight. If you know where it is, you can't find it unless brown smells it and barks. But at least you have a dog now right? Well sometimes it wants to go into locked rooms so you're stuck finding things out yourselves. Unfortunately Brown isn't of much use in combat. In fact he just stands there blocking your way.

Combat in this game sucks. I know they are trying to make the game a little realistic with you being a helpless girl. I thought something like Clock Tower series made it right where when you run your panic meter rises and you start running more and more wildly. In here you pretty much just "run" around and when you attack its slow and awkward. Jennifer closes her eyes and turns the other way while waving whatever weapon she finds in front of her. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be closing my eyes while waving whatever I have in front of me hoping it'll fall dead. Because chances are they'll miss if I'm not looking and I'm dead. Well that's exactly what happens. You're accuracy is terrible. If you miss it takes a long time for you to stop the attack and "run" away. And by running I mean walking. You don't exactly run even though the animation shows you running. Its like someone trying to run as slow as they can. Your weapons can be anything you find. For example the first combat you see is a weird child and you're armed with a fork. You stab the thing to death with your fork.

Another thing is that items have no indicator on how powerful it might be. You would have to guess the lethality on the weapon and then actually test it out. Combat is awkward as your goal is to walk behind them and stab them then run away. This pretty much is the only way to fight as getting hit about 2-4 times means you are dead and you'll need to hit them around 6-8 times to kill something. Most things come in packs and when you get hit you're stuck which means if you get ganged up on you're dead by just one hit. Bosses are different. It's much easier because they are alone but they are an endurance fight. It'll take you five minutes just to kill something repeating the same thing over and over again. Most combat can be avoided though, until you get to ones where its like a pack of mobs inside a small room. The room is locked until you clear the enemies. That's the hardest part of the game. The game itself is confusing as there is not a lot of combat and there is no scare at all. You're just mindlessly running around talking to people finding items. At the end of every chapter though you'll get tortured.

The game itself is about you remembering a lost memory. Everything is something that happened in the past and all the people are ones you knew. It starts to build up slowly and slowly until you get to the ending. Its like a suspense movie that stopped halfway and said "hey movie is over! Haha suck it up we're not telling you the rest go home and bitch." It never really explained what happened. The enemies are things from your past that comes back to haunt you. The whole game has a fairy tale vibe from the very beginning with the chapter Once upon a time... to the enemies and even the narration. If you're looking for horror this is not it. If you are looking for combat this is not it. If you're looking for a story this is not it. What is it then? What exactly is it?

The story might be the main point of the game but the combat and the searching is so frustrating it really grates on your sanity. Not only that its a slap in the face as it ends without telling you anything at all. You're still lost in the end as everything is just a messed up fairy tale like Alice in Wonderland. I love fairy tales. But this story is like a hole in your head being filled with vomit. Also if you happen to finish the game you get a special key that lets you go into a room where you can change your costume. You can switch to things such as, nurse costume, tennis costume, gothic lolita costume, octopus costume, and even a chair. Yes a chair. Your dog brown also changes too and you get matching weapons that are super powerful. For example as a Octopus your dog becomes a crab and you get to wield a frozen tuna. Check it out on youtube if you don't believe me. It's completely stupid though. Who'd want to play it a second time?

A good thing about the game is the graphics, the music, and the feel. The graphics you can set to have a grainy effect. I especially like this effect. It feels like you're in a old movie. The music is amazing. I can sit there and listen to it all day. Its mostly string instruments and piano. The feel of the game with the music and the graphics makes it really feel like the 1930's. Unfortunately, this is all that is good about the game. If you like to be tortured by playing a boring game then go ahead.