| Rule of Rose | 
 enlarge | From: Atlus Video Games
Category: Video Games
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $17.92
You Save: $22.07 (55%)
Buy New/Used from $17.92
Avg. Customer Rating:   (25 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3520
Platform: Playstation2
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 53020
Model: RR530205
UPC: 730865530205
EAN: 0730865530205
ASIN: B000FPM3HS
Release Date: September 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Befriend a faithful dog and work together to locate crucial items | | • | Intense melee combat against bloodthirsty monsters | | • | Musical score by Yutaka Minobe (Panzer Dragoon Saga, Skies of Arcadia) | | • | An immersive storyline with 50 minutes of award-nominated CG scenes (Official Selection of the Annecy 2006 International Animated Film Festival) | | • | Multiple endings and hidden extras |
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Product Description
Rule Of Rose takes you into the past for incredible and strange gaming action. It is March, 1930 when young Jennifer's parents are killed in a tragic airship accident. She is sent to Rose Garden Orphanage, in a remote portion of the English countryside. In this dilapidated building, a ragtag mob of children who call themselves the "Aristocracy of the Red Crayon" rule. They kidnap her and take her into the dark heart of an impossibly large zeppelin, on a meandering course for a distant land. Now, with the help of a canine companion named Brown, Jennifer has to find valuable gifts for the Aristocracy, or suffer a fatal punishment for her insolence...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Such a sad, unlucky girl... July 6, 2008
What an oddity 'Rule of Rose' is! Why would anyone choose to play a game in which the main character is a nervous, awkward teenage girl and the story the game tells could best be described as disturbing? And yet, there's lots of good answers to this question. How about, just for starters: beautiful graphics, unique gameplay, and a compelling and rich plotline?
The graphics of 'Rule of Rose' are one of the things that sold me on the game almost immediately. Just watch the game's opening trailer to get a taste of what you'll see -- visually lush and beautiful animations, expressive characters, and a style perfectly suited to the game's story. Like the 'Silent Hill' series, 'Rule of Rose' takes a simple real-world environment and wraps it in darkness and just a slight tinge of surrealism to keep you off-guard. As gorgeous as the backdrop is, the creatures and dark edges of the story are rendered just as lovingly, products of a twisted imagination. In some scenes, sun streams through huge windows and bathes the world in a golden glow, while later the same windows are darkened except for occasional flashes of lightning, illuminating shuffling figures and featureless masks for faces. The visual style of 'Rule of Rose' is breathtaking, both terrible and beautiful.
Playing through 'Rule of Rose' can be frustrating at times. Jennifer, the main character of the game, is awkward, kind of slow, and clumsy with weapons. She is no fighter and is easily overpowered. This makes sense for the way the game's story is told, but can still make the experience difficult sometimes. This is more than offset, though, by the added dynamic of Jennifer's faithful friend, Brown the dog. Once you find and befriend him (early on in the game), Brown becomes your indispensible companion. He will help you find everything from restorative items (scones and lollipops for Jennifer, bacon and bones for Brown) to the next item needed to progress the story (everything from keys to teddy bears) and more. Brown also helps Jennifer in combat by frightening some enemies and giving Jennifer a better chance to strike or run away. Jennifer by herself may have made for a somewhat weak and frustrating experience overall, but playing 'Rule of Rose' with Jennifer and Brown is considerably more interesting.
Which all leads to the story. Told mainly through a series of crudely-drawn storybooks Jennifer finds and assembles along the way, 'Rule of Rose' is like a modern-day Grimm's fairytale gone horribly wrong. Thematically, the nearest comparison I can think of is William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies,' as 'Rule of Rose' is another story is which children are left to discover a society all of their own making (the mysterious Aristocrats of the Red Crayon), and the result is seldom pretty to look at. The children in 'Rule of Rose' are cruel and malicious to one another, as conniving and manipulative as any adults, and as selfish. Even so, 'Rule of Rose' is hard to turn away from, once begun. The storybook motif and the way the stories translate to Jennifer's reality are compelling, and in their own twisted way, beautiful too. Discovering the fate of the Aristocrats and the identity of the mysterious Stray Dog kept me playing to the bitter end.
Add in a surprisingly touching music score by Yutaka Minobe, consisting mainly of string arrangements that are positively haunting, and chillingly effective voice acting for each character, and 'Rule of Rose' comes together as an occasionally frustrating but overall compelling game.
Mind you, 'Rule of Rose' is not for everyone. The story features cruel behavior among children, and hints at physical and sexual abuse and cruelty to animals. There is very little that is overtly shown, but the undercurrent of dread and the implications of the story will frighten some and downright offend others. On the other end of the spectrum, those who like action games packed with blood and mayhem are likely to be disappointed by the slow pace of the story and the limited combat moves of the the teenage heroine. For those, however, who can appreciate a dark fairy tale, who can see beauty even in terror, who believe that even the story of a sad, unlucky, lonely girl has merit, 'Rule of Rose' is a game well worth the playing.
Worth your time if... July 1, 2008
Rule of Rose is a great game if you are into symbolism. The combat is very limited and is not the mail focus of the game (as made clear by the poor choice of weapons). You are given items such as a fork and small knife to fight initially, so really you are merely meant to explore and survive rather than track down monsters and be a slayer (except of course during boss battles).
What's great about this game is the mystery. Each level is separated into two parts basically: exploration time and escape/fight time. During exploration time, little to no monsters are present and your character is free to check all of the accessible rooms and read clues as to what is going on. It's very hard to get lost and its usually pretty obvious what you have to do, thanks to Brown -the dog.
If you play through it once, you probably will not understand everything that happened (especially if you achieve the game over ending).
What I liked most about this game was reading about the children and analyzing them and Jennifer. The complex characters and mystery of just what is going on makes this game great.
To put simply what I should have started out saying, if you're into a lot of action and killing, this may not be your type of game. If you prefer to run from monsters and focus on plot and characters (and you don't mind lesbians, cruelty and animal violence) then this game you may find suitable for your taste.
The game's theme of the cruelty of children from an adult's perspective is really rather thought provoking and just plain awesome.
 There are many better survival horror/adventures out there... April 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
First of all, I don't see the controversy in this game that everyone was talking about. It's disgusting yes, it may make you cringe, but not in a way other survival horror games do since all the freaky moments in this game involve being poked in the face by rats tied to sticks. Oh boy! Sign me up!
Just kidding. While that's reason enough to move on to many of the better survival horror games out there (Silent Hill and Siren are great), the controls in this game are utterly useless, since there is no gameplay whatsoever. You spend half of each level encountering no monsters, just running around telling a dog to find stuff, and that's worse than you think. You'll find an item that has no use but so that the dog will smell it and find another item that has no use, and so on and so on, until you finally find a healing item that will heal about 3% of your health bar. Oh happy day when you find that reclusive item.
And you'll need it because the boss battles are out of hand. And any of the monsters basically. This is one where you fight only if necessary, because if you want to stand in a room and fight the main character just closes her eyes and blindly stabs while 10 monsters overtake her. The boss battles are incredibly one sided, as they require you to dole out 50+ hits while dodging. attacks that will take huge chunks out of your life bar, and are almost unavoidable.
I'm not going to say that Rule of Rose is one of the worst games I've ever played, but it is slow, boring, and has a difficulty that will drive even the most hardened adventure and survival horror players like myself away from it. If you can keep from breaking your controller in disgust of the game over screen, and keep from falling asleep during the cutscenes (I literally did so twice), then you might be able to withstand Rule of Rose. I just hope you don't pay $30 like I did.
Should Have Been a Movie... April 19, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I admit, I haven't played a lot of survival horror. I rented this game because I thought it would be a good intro to the genre without the need to worry about twitch shooting and ammo counts. Plus, the story sounded interesting.
Things didn't turn out that way. The game is SLOOOOWWWW. Action? What action? You spend your time running around through the same areas, looking for items. Sometimes you end up in combat. Mostly you run around.
I use the word "run" loosely, since Jennifer does not seem capable of fast movement. Imagine running with your legs tied together - that's her speed. (To add insult to injury, if you make her move too much, she bends over and pants once you stop her...)
On the other hand, graphics and audio are very well done.
 Animal Abuse Hell March 1, 2008
0 out of 12 found this review helpful
If you love animals stay away. Brilliant in many area horrendous in others the ending does not allow for anything but anger and misery IMO
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