Rule of Rose

[Vogue_Dirge]

This is one of my most favorite games for the PS2, and it is probably one of the creepiest I've played, even more so than Silent Hill.

Here's the plot summary:

Rule of Rose is a survival horror game for the PlayStation 2. Its plot, set in 1930s England, revolves around a nineteen-year-old girl named Jennifer, who becomes trapped in a world ruled by young girls who have established a class hierarchy called the Red Crayon Aristocrats. The game has been compared to survival horror games Silent Hill and Haunting Ground, due to the psychological horror used throughout and that the main character is accompanied by a canine companion.

Players control Jennifer, a young woman who is led to an abandoned mansion by a small boy. After experiencing a traumatic event, she wakes up on a virtually abandoned airship which is ruled by a cruel group of children known as the Red Crayon Aristocrats. Under the threat of death, Jennifer must appease the Aristocrats by finding an offering for them each month.[3] Whilst doing so, she must piece together clues and recall forgotten memories which will ultimately allow her to escape their clutches.

And the trailer than was released during E3 06:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obfxV0MqpeQ

Those of you in parts of Europe may not be able to get your hands on the game, due to the fact that its release was banned due to erotic and violent themse involving children. But I've played it, and really there or like 3 scenes that could be considered erotic.

Besides that, this game is beautifuly disturbing, so if you can, I'd give it a chance and play it.
:]

[Bertha]

I liked the game...and it was good for a few jumps...but to me it felt like it lagged a few times. The story kept me going and I wanted to see the ending, but I actually stopped playing the game for about a month and then started it up again to finish it. To me it didn't have a high replay value. It was definitely creepy though...I may play through it again one day if I get time.

[James]

I forced myself to play it for quite some time (approximately three hours I think) but I just couldn't get into it. I wasn't finding it creepy, and the combat REALLY fell flat for me. I was so disappointed because I had really high hopes for this game.

[Darkmoon]

I played this mostly to see why it got banned in the UK. Honestly, I found it clunkier than a rusted truck being driven by Resident Evil 1. As I understand the reason it was banned was someone mentioned 'Child' and 'Abuse' in the same sentance and the censorship folks went off on it. Since it's the kids doing the abusing...meh.

It was an incredibly good looking game, and the story intruiged me, though. Might grab another copy and take a look again now I have more patience.

[Skunky]

Yeah, I thought it was pretty creepy... It's certainly weird and unique.
I wanted to keep playing to see what kind of bizarre, weird shit they were gonna come up with next.
I love the Japanese style of horror (even when it has cockney British accents).

[A-J]

its a good game, but the sloth slow pace and the loooong loading times really kill the experience.

[The Dude]

It was banned in the UK if memory serves, so I imported the US version, to be honest I really can't find peoples fascination with the game, I thought the controls were horrible, the loading times pretty dire, found the audio more irritable then disturbing, and the big controversy was really just the fact that the cast were predominantly children?

I can see why the UK censors would ban it, they don't get the game code to play, just a DVD of cutscenes which would give them an idea of the content of the game, so they would have pretty much been given a reel of the abuse cutscenes amongst other things which would have provoked them into banning the game.

[Darkmoon]

Well, according to Wiki (and bearing that in mind) it was awarded a 16 rating here but the publishers pulled the release because of a bunch of false claims. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Rose#Controversy for more Wiki fun.

[The Dude]

Usually don't trust anything on Wiki, but whatever, I can see why it'd get pulled following the media hype, I read the BBFC had banned it outright as they did with Man Hunt 2 and almost did with Bully.
*Im a huge supporter of removing the BBFC and replacing it with a newer system*

[Carnivol]

Thing was, for some reason, someone decided to pick up on some of the content in the game as it was more "direct" than in other games that contains even more gruesome and terrible themes than Rule of Rose.

Unfortunately, games are still not seen as a proper art form and only specific parts of the movie industry and public funded artists are allowed to touch "touchy subjects" for their narratives and illustrations. And the funny thing is that if you're a good boy (or girl), paying your taxes, chances are that you funded the latest "Random stupid dogme movie that people praise up in the skies but at the end of the day is nothing but a two hour long boring hippie fest about guys being 'cool' while abusing drugs/alcohol or being abused by someone on drugs/alcohol while all you really remember when you get out from the cinema is either the scene with the naked grandma, the people having sex in a boat full of fish or the piss poor acting"-movie.


Anyway, on-topic; Rule of Rose was one of those games I actually looked forward to before it was released in Japan. I even picked up a copy and somehow managed to sell the game off to a couple of friends to mine too by just showing them some of the early trailers.

Seemed like a good game, but in the end was only a so-so (but perfectly doable) game. It's not my top choice, but it's certainly one of those games I'd recommend that people pick up if the like to have a bit of different stuff to pick from when they play games.

Also, I actually managed to snatch myself a sealed UK copy of the game, even though it kinda vanished before it even properly set foot on the UK market.
(Just wish I could do the same for 505's Raw Danger PAL release... for now I'll have to live with a French copy I got as a gift.)



And boys and girls, remember that Stray Dog Gives Us Candy!

[Gradon]

You might've got the European copy, the one with the PEGI rating.
Yeah, I got the European copy too, games quite good, never completed it though, couldn't beat that ugly mermaid bitch. >.>
No matter how hard I tried.
I really enjoyed the game though, very freaky.

[Rombie]

Usually don't trust anything on Wiki, but whatever, I can see why it'd get pulled following the media hype, I read the BBFC had banned it outright as they did with Man Hunt 2 and almost did with Bully.
*Im a huge supporter of removing the BBFC and replacing it with a newer system*

I recall seeing the reports in all the UK gaming sites that the game was pulled at the choice of the developers courting controversy Europe wide because of the mis info from the issues in the UK. The PEGI system gave Rule of Rose a 16 for Europe and got a very limited release as the above posts note.

[Vogue_Dirge]

You might've got the European copy, the one with the PEGI rating.
Yeah, I got the European copy too, games quite good, never completed it though, couldn't beat that ugly mermaid bitch. >.>
No matter how hard I tried.
I really enjoyed the game though, very freaky.

I hated the mermaid bitch too! Ugh!
I ended up doing the boss battle 6 times because she kept killing me.
In the end I got a good hit-and-run strategy going with the butcher knife and after about 30 mins, that hoe went down
>:[

[Carnivol]

I recall seeing the reports in all the UK gaming sites that the game was pulled at the choice of the developers courting controversy Europe wide because of the mis info from the issues in the UK. The PEGI system gave Rule of Rose a 16 for Europe and got a very limited release as the above posts note.

I don't recall seeing boxes with only pure English on them, though.
I don't have it infront of me now as I'm out of country (as usual).
I'll try to remember to check this when I get back home (next Friday, I believe).