Rule of Rose

As the teen and young adult male populations tend to consume the profit-making minds of game developers, anything (even superficially) deemed too "kiddie" or "girly" is often left out. Females that aren't either boring sex ciphers, perky and cute anime archetypes, or unrealistic, token "strong women" are a rare sight in the video game universe. Young children in active roles are practically non-existent.

It's encouraging, then, to see Rule of Rose break these two annoying trends. The player takes control of Jennifer, an English schoolgirl who arrives in a bus at a big, spooky house. The premise may seem entirely generic at first, but this is intentional. Absolutely nothing is know of Jennifer's past or even her life at the outset. However, as the game unravels, more and more is revealed until we learn her devastating history.

As a mystery/horror story, Rule of Rose is a sparkling success. Jennifer runs into and is basically imprisoned by the girls of the Red Crayon Aristocrats. Each g...

THE GOOD:
Characters, music, dog, scenes, the "find" feature.

THE BAD:
Long loading times, combat, backtracking, not much good stuff after you beat it.

SUMMARY:
Rule of Rose was actually a really fun game. I enjoyed it a lot.



The story is very confusing in the beginning and it may be confusing for a lot of people even in the end.

Jennifer is asleep on a bus when a little boy wakes her up, asking her to read a story to him. He hands her a book, then runs off. Jennifer goes to chase him, but as she steps off the bus, it drives away, leaving her alone with the book, and in search for the boy.

Jennifer is referred to as an "unlucky girl" through most of the game. And she certainly is unlucky.

Jennifer follows the boy to a mansion, where kids are beating something with a stick. Once she enters the mansion, the game starts, and gets a bit confusing.


The characters in the game are pretty interesting. The children are all mean to Jennifer, and always tormenting her.

Jennifer also finds a dog tied up,...