September 16, 2006 - There are games out there that value substance over style, simple-looking games that hide a lot of depth within their gameplay. There are also those games that value style over gameplay. Everything meshes well, stylistically speaking, whether it's music or graphics, and the game is fun to watch, though it may lack any real substance beneath. Rule of Rose is of the latter, opting for an intriguing and perplexing story set in a rich 1930's setting, while skimping heavily on gameplay elements.

You are Jennifer, a 19-year-old girl whose parents have just perished. You're off to an orphanage, which would sound odd for someone that old to go to, but trust me, you'll find out why. But this isn't just any orphanage. Set in the lonely British countryside, this is the kind of place you never want to go to as a kid. Run by the 'Aristocrat Club,' a creepy cabal of young girls, this orphanage is home to creepy creatures, a peculiar past, and some seriously confusing plot. The gameplay is your standard survival-horror fare, but there are some key elements that differentiate how the game is played. Whether that's enough to actually warrant a purchase is another matter.

The plot of the game is probably the most important part of it, and likely what'll keep you playing. It's...it's something else, I must say. Those uninitiated to the psychological-horror genre need not apply. It's hard to actually describe the plot without giving any of the key points and twists away, so I won't try. Suffice to say, it's like a giant jigsaw puzzle that the game expects you find the pieces to and then put together. You'll need to actually think about what's happening, what you saw happening, what you read, who said what, why, and so forth to get a tenuous grasp as to what exactly is happening to the unlucky girl (as the narrative describes her), Jennifer. If you just play through the game expecting to suddenly be revealed the inner workings of the story, you're going to be left scratching your head at the end. So if peculiar plots and strange twists are your thing, then this might be something to look for. Though I warn you, this can be confusing. We're talking about reading a children's story book in a mansion and looking up to find yourself suddenly in a rose garden. And when I say story book, I'm talking about one where goats get torn in half. Yes. Those kinds of storybooks.

The looks of the game are excellent, and fit extremely well with the setting of 1930's Britain. It's encouraging to see a Japanese studio represent the setting so well, down to the slightest details, as it gets you further immersed into the strange going-ons. Even the voice work is done by native British actors, so the accents are authentic (though the acting, sparse as it is for some characters, could've used some polish.) The music is excellent, done with string instruments and piano, including a few vocal tracks, all in the style of the decade the game is set in.

Combat is usually standard in a typical survival horror. I mean, if there's nothing to fight the main character, where's the fear in death? Well, combat's in Rule of Rose is, in a word, clunky. Terribly so. I mentioned in my first paragraph that gameplay elements were skimped on, and this is exactly what I meant. Jennifer is a young woman who's never seen combat, so it's understandable that she wouldn't wield a blade with finesse. But fighting the creepy things that come at your from the shadows is just painful in this. Your attacks are slow and your reach is not too far, so the enemy is likely to move out of the way before your weapon gets to it, and even the collision detection tends to be off. Sometimes you'll swing through an enemy only to miss, other times they'll jump at you and hit even though it doesn't look like they've hit you at all. Add this to the slow pace of battle, and you'll see why most enemies are avoided.