Review By

Brad Gallaway

Upon first hearing about Rule of Rose, I was intrigued. There was early word of controversy and Sony's reluctance to localize the project for the U.S. due to disturbing portrayals of children and themes dealing with psychological horror. The screenshots I had seen depicted lifelike characters and a fairly realistic approach towards setting and appearance. Always willing to experiment and be open to different types of games, I eagerly awaited its arrival.

…After actually playing Rule of Rose, my enthusiasm for it died almost immediately.

To be perfectly honest, I can't understand why developers would want to create a game that plays as it does, especially at this point in time. Regardless of its intellectual content, Rule of Rose's structure is an archaic, outdated fossil that's been drained of all vitality and relevance.

Rule of Rose starts with its protagonist, Jennifer, dropped off at a lonely bus stop and making her way to an unsettling orphanage. Soon after, she's abducted and taken aboard an airship whose interior defies the laws of aeronautical architecture in too-many-hallways, too-many-doors fashion. Within moments, she finds herself in the clutches of the Red Crayon Aristocracy, charged with finding "gifts" in the airborne maze and delivering them to the Prince in order to avoid peril.

The concept is surreal and fairly frightening in the sense that it would be for anyone to find themselves under the control of deviant children far from the rules and behaviors that govern everyday life. However, regardless of how intriguing or challenging the story content may be, it can't salvage an endless series of stupefyingly boring fetchquests, the likes of which I haven't seen or endured since the darkest days of the Survival Horror boom.

Finding a key in the shape of a clover missing its leaves made me start to sweat, and searching for a nonsensical button meant to lower a pair of scissors suspended from a string made me shake. Nausea set in soon afterward. Within the first hour of gameplay alone, I was thrust into the kind of absurdist scavenger hunt hell that I thought I had left behind forever.

Rule of Rose makes a feeble attempt to alter this foul formula by introducing Brown, a canine companion with the ability to sniff an item and track it by scent. Although the use of partner characters is an aspect of game design that I'd like to see expanded, the dog's sole purpose in Rule of Rose is simply to lead Jennifer through hallway after hallway, passage after passage in the hunt for the next clue or item needed. I appreciated that Brown took the guesswork out of combing the labyrinthine passageways, but the fact is he really shouldn't be needed at all.

As an example of what a crutch the dog is, I had been in a room that was completely empty, exhausted my options and found myself aimlessly wandering. After having Brown sniff the right item, he led me directly to the room I had just left. Now that the dog was "on the scent," a clue magically appeared when the area had been empty just moments before. If that's not shoddy, stale game design, then I don't know what is.

Other aspects of the game are just as creaky and weak. The combat has Jennifer standing stiffly while flailing with a fork, knife, or some other weapon, arm outstretched. It's inefficient and coarse, and the game's long distances between save points guarantee unwanted repetition if enemies get the better of her. Movement feels very limited, and the camera angles are often problematic despite the ability to shift the viewpoint more often than not. The list of unsavories could go on and on, but the essence is that Rule of Rose feels like it was created in a time warp, ignorant of superior titles created in the last few years and taking a huge step backward in practically every way.

We are past the era of substance overriding form due to the limits of technology. In the current age it's unacceptable to hold pre-rendered cutscenes and non-interactive bits of storytelling as the sole carrot motivating players into slogging asslike through tedium and drudgery. I can't recommend Rule of Rose to anyone save those who place the value of an interesting tale above all other factors that go into creating a game, and even those should be cautious; I found the total experience so wearying and lifeless that I couldn't bear to sit through its entirety. For me (and many, many others I'm sure) Rule of Rose is the sort of inspiration-deficient throwback that wore out its welcome long ago.