Rule of Rose

"A worthy story, but my god the gameplay sucks"

I normally don't do these things, but this game I just cannot keep quiet on how terrible this game is!

Story 8/10:

We follow the tale of a nineteen year old girl living in England in the 1930s named Jennifer who is traveling on a bus to an unknown destination. A little boy asks her to read a story titled "The Little Princess". The boy runs off the bus when it reaches a stop and she follows the boy winding up for the bus driver to drive off and leave her in an unknown place. She follows the trail to an old mansion where she sees some kids wearing paper bags beating a bloody bag. What is in the bag is a mystery, but Jennifer already has a bad feeling. Following the boy deep into the mansion, she is bullied by the girls that belong to the Aristocrat Club. Jennifer winds up unconscious and awakens on a mysterious airship and a pawn of the childrens game. Since she is new, she is automatically placed at the bottom of their social ladder. In order to move up, she must bring gifts to the Aristocrat Club or suffer their cruel games. Jennifer later gets a canine partner named Brown who helps her by sniffing out clues and guiding you to your next location. Also there are weird imp children wandering the area that Jennifer must overcome. Okay, with the exception of the imp children (who have no purpose as far as I can say!) that the story is the only other good thing than the graphics of the game.

Graphics 7/10:

The graphics are wonderfully detailed in the special cutscenes that you will be rewarded at the end of each chapter and sometimes in the middle. The in-game graphics are pretty much like Silent Hill, except not as scary. It's not bad, but not outstanding. The imp children are more hilarious than scary, until you see the pig headed one, then they're kind of creepy.

Soundtrack 10/10:

The music gives the game an old feel to the game and pulling you into the atmosphere. They consist mainly of piano and violins. Not much to say, but the only thing that is perfect to the game.

Gameplay 2/10:

My god, I cannot get over how terrible and frustrating this is!!! Now, most will compare to this Haunting Ground, but even that game wasn't as frustrating as this game. I mention HG because I will clarify the diffences between Jennifer/Fiona and Brown/Hewie. All Brown does is bark at your enemies and gets bowled over, Hewie actually does something meaningful. Now, unlike Fiona, Jennifer will actually pick up items that are useful to attack, but she hits like a blind girl with arthritis that Fiona's kick does a better job than this. You have to get right in front of your enemies to even hit them with the steel pipe and gun, thus increasing your chances of being knocked down and grabbed, even if they don't touch you. This game does force you into battle every now and then, but you'll be running most of the time that there truly is no point in fighting. This I will alone warn anyone to stay away from this game. It is that terrible folks.

Replayability 3/10:

If you find the costumes and Magnum weapon that doesn't change much worth it, then there is some replayability in this game. But chances are you will be so turned off by the gameplay that it isn't really worth it.

Rent or Buy:

If you really want to play this game, then rent it for the sake of your sanity! This isn't worth 50 bucks. So until the price drops a good deal, rent it or just watch the cutscenes on youtube.

Pros:

-Good story
-Beautiful cutscenes
-Marvelous Soundtrack
-Jack Thompson is so focused on taking down Rockstar, that he didn't notice Atlus bringing this game over to the states

Cons:

-Gameplay is awful
-Brown serves only as a guide dog that you don't have to work at all
-Can earn everything in six hours (people say twelve but I earned it all in half the time!)
-Graphics are mediocre
-Main character can fight the imp children with no purpose, but just can't even speak against the girls who torture her

This would have made a better movie, than a game. I heard the developers even hated the gameplay. Umm...then you should have fixed it!!! I honestly don't see why some people love this game, but maybe they don't go to anger management meetings every week like I have to. The story is worth playing, after all, that's why most play it, but I just wanted to get out that it probably isn't worth discovering with the gameplay.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/06