So, with that in mind, what do we have here in terms of a game? Tank controls and slightly awkward melee combat for the most part and a story with incredibly deep levels of intrigue that may leave you a little flat at the end. There is clearly A LOT going on in Rule of Rose, story and character wise, but when viewed through the lens of protagonist Jennifer and her limited interpretation of events can leave you wanting to know more. More might be there, if you can find it, without having to resort to what people have said in the wider fandom. If you want to go off the beaten path of the chapters, you may come across newspaper clippings or diaries or interactions that might contain nuanced information, but it’s not like in other survival games where these items can be picked up and stored in your inventory for later reading, nor are they highlighted amongst the set dressing. It feels the game wants to tell you everything, wants to give context to the wider madness, but then gets shy on the details and heaven forbid if you find something you will remember the exact details later or remember where you found it.
The game does have collectibles that require you to explore and utilise your Dog companion, oh yes, we get a dog companion, and he is a very good boy. Brown, the Golden Retriever, can find items for you by tracking things via the scent. This is the games way to direct you from key item to key item, your first playthrough will definitely be spent most following Brown around as he tracks down the next story item or character. This works fine for the story, but for the extras, it becomes this rather clumsy series of events where you find X to get Y to eventually find Z, if you just so happen to be close enough to Z for Brown to find it. And this doesn’t include items you can’t shove into your very limited inventory. It should be mentioned that your inventory will fill up quickly, as you probably want to have some healing items, a weapon and chapter relevant items, which you won’t realise will lose all relevance very quickly. Unless you want to drag yourself back to the garbage (storage) bin on a regular basis to unload said items. Credit to the old Resident Evil games which will tell you when that key is useless after you have opened all relevant doors with it. It’s a weird in-game thing, but it’s nice to know I don’t need to keep the Knight key in my inventory or storage.
Possibly my biggest gripe with the game is the way each chapter locks off certain doors to you, limiting locations where you can save or drop off items to one or two for the entire chapter. Very annoying when you want to save before a boss fight and your choices are watch through some sequences you cannot skip and then trek halfway across the map to save when you know that there is a closer one, but the chapter has locked it off…. Because it wants to be awkward. Enemies also respawn when you re-enter most areas, so there isn’t a case of clear out the enemies, run back and save and continue danger free. It’s my own fault really, I was playing this game for RetroAchievements, so this issue was more apparent to me, as it wanted me to do certain things damage less or without healing.
With that in mind, how is the combat? Clumsy and it is purposefully design in this way, as Jennifer isn’t some bad-ass, swinging a lead pipe or meat cleaver with reckless abandon. She’s a terrified young adult and evasion is probably better than straight up fighting as it can be quite easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of little imps that the game throws at you. Besides your barely effective swings, you have a near useless stomping attack to use on downed enemies. I swear I only hit with that move in a blue moon, and the game likes to prioritise that when you are remotely near a downed enemy. Sod the other enemies near you, this guy needs to fail to taste my foot! It can also be quite easy to get temporarily stun locked as some enemies grapple you, and once you have shaken them off, another one has already latched on. Thankfully, unless you are locked in the room, you can evade combat as most enemies move even slower than Jennifer does. Brown can also temporarily scare enemies into a state of semi-paralysis, but honestly, best avoid the fights if you can help it. It will save you time and effort. Though I would also recommend that you get some practice in for the combat, as the game really likes throwing encounters at you, and knowing how to fight well is useful for the late game.
So, we haven’t really touched on the plot yet! How could I forget, because honestly, the plot is really the main selling point of this game, or at least the intrigue of it. No, that undermines the entire experience a bit. The plot to Rule of Rose is interesting and probably has some degree of interpretation involved. The game revolves around a young woman named Jennifer, who chases after a strange child who approaches her on a bus and ends up in an old orphanage. At the orphanage, she meets the aristocratic society, who force her into playing by their rules where she must present a gift to the society every month, failing so she will be punished. The story loop is that each month you are presented part of a twisted children’s story which creates the foundation for the events of the chapter as well as initially cryptic hints on how to find the chapter’s requested item. This allows Jennifer to rise up the ranks of the aristocratic society. It all has a bit of a smattering of Lord of the Flies. All the children seem to taunt and insult Jennifer, calling her dirty and disgusting, conspiring against her and taking glee in the eventual punishments of Jennifer.
There is an overarching theme of bullying, abuse and trauma in this game, which is a very uncomfortable subject, and I feel that that is what the game is aiming to do, make you feel uncomfortable and does a great job of doing so. Having gone into this with the mindset that the game was a “nasty” warranting a ban in countries, it did get my head working in overdrive in regard to some of the possible worst case scenarios for a lot of the implications of the dialogue. But by the end of it all, I mean, it all makes a weird kind of sense, even if some of the explanations are a bit… I dunno, perhaps weak. I don’t want to get into spoilers, hence why I am not going into huge amounts of detail regarding the story, it really is something that needs to be experienced and not told to you.
Rule of Rose is a fascinating game; it is one of those games that on a second playthrough you can connect the dots and it all makes sense. As mentioned previously, if you can get used to the way combat is and are not too deterred by some of the frustrating elements of this game, there is a fair amount to enjoy here. The game isn’t too difficult, aside from one of the bosses which can be a little frustrating but will find yourself chugging along with this game at a medium to slow pace. The game does a great job of giving an oppressive and unsettling atmosphere, and as I have said earlier, once you get into the intrigue of the story, it is a powerful draw into a surreal and messed up story that really needs to be experienced.
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