Rule of Rose
Rule of Rose is a 2006 survival horror video game developed by Punchline and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. Set in Britain in 1930, the plot revolves around a nineteen-year-old young woman named Jennifer, who finds herself trapped in a world dominated by young girls who have formed a social hierarchy known as the Red Crayon Aristocrats. The game was published by Atlus USA in North America and 505 Games in Europe.
Development on Rule of Rose began after Punchline was asked by Sony Computer Entertainment to make a horror game. Punchline wanted to develop a "new type of horror game" with an emphasis on psychological horror. This decision led to the concept of childhood, specifically the "mysterious and misunderstood" nature of young girls. The team drew inspiration from the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales for the narrative, and the Silent Hill series for graphics and art style. The entire score was produced by studio musicians in order to bring a human element to the game's atmosphere.
Rule of Rose was the subject of a moral panic in Europe prior to its publication there, based on rumors of its alleged content. These rumors ranged from erotic themes to obscene brutality. Various European authorities condemned the game and called for its banning. The game was cancelled in the United Kingdom, despite the Video Standards Council calling the complaints "nonsense". Rule of Rose received mixed reviews from critics, with gameplay being criticized the most. The game has been compared to Silent Hill and Haunting Ground, due to the psychological horror elements and the presence of a canine companion for the main character.
Physical copies of Rule of Rose have become highly sought-after collector's items. Prices for pre-owned copies range from around $300 to $800, and some sealed or mint-condition copies can sell for in excess of $1,000.
Gameplay
Rule of Rose is a survival horror game in which the player guides Jennifer through exploring the game environments and advances the plot by accomplishing tasks while sporadically encountering enemies and bosses.Described as "essentially an interactive movie" by its director Shuji Ishikawa and associate producer Yuya Takayama, the narrative of Rule of Rose centers on the traumatic childhood memories of Jennifer, "an ordinary, vulnerable girl"; these memories sometimes manifest in exaggerated ways.
Combat is almost exclusively melee-based, with a variety of improvised weapons available, such as kitchen knives and pipes. Jennifer is a timid character: her melee attacks are neither powerful nor long-ranged. Evasion of enemies is often a more viable strategy instead of fighting. With the exception of a handful of bosses, all enemies in the game are imps—skinny, dolllike creatures the size of small children. Different animal-headed imps appear throughout the game, alongside regular imps.
Every level of the game takes place over a month. Each chapter begins with the reading of a homemade storybook related to the plot of the chapter.
During each level, Jennifer is tasked with finding a specific object that will be gifted to the Aristocracy.
Early in the game, Jennifer encounters and rescues a dog named Brown. Brown accompanies her throughout the game and responds to the player's commands. Brown can be ordered to track items by scent, be commanded to 'stay' and be called to Jennifer's side. Brown cannot attack enemies, but will growl to distract some imps and bosses, allowing Jennifer to retreat or attack without fear of retaliation. He can be injured to the point of collapse, causing him to stop distracting enemies or track items.
Brown's ability to locate items is an integral part of the game, and is used in almost every chapter to progress further. The same system allows the player to find health restoratives and other items which, while not essential to complete the game, can help the player survive enemy encounters. Players select an item from the inventory for Brown to locate, which is then connected to the 'find' command until changed or removed. Every item selected this way can be used to find at least one type of item. When tracking items, Brown will lead the player through the game environments, scratching at doors in his way, signaling the player to open the door. Most health restoratives and all tradable items are hidden and must be uncovered by Brown, though the player can choose to avoid searching for these items to progress quickly. Restorative items include snack foods, candy, and chocolate. The different types of restorative items heal varying amounts of health. Bones and other items can be used to restore Brown's health if he becomes injured. Other items such as marbles and ribbons have no immediate use, but may be traded with non-playable characters in order to obtain food, rare items, and weapons.
Most levels are puzzle based. The primary puzzles require the use of Brown's scent-finding ability in order to find objects that are related to one another in order to solve a larger puzzle. Others require finding markings on the wall in order to solve the chapter's puzzle. The game is largely linear and the player cannot affect the story through their actions, although they are rewarded for exploration with secret items, additional details and combat upgrades.
Plot
19-year-old Jennifer is given an unfinished storybook by a mysterious boy on a bus ride, but he runs away before she can return it. While following him to the dilapidated Rose Garden Orphanage, she finds a dog collar in a shed, and witnesses masked children beating a bloody sack. She infiltrates the orphanage before a funeral is announced, which the boy claims is for her "dear friend". After the funeral, Jennifer unearths the coffin and notices the bloody sack inside, but the orphans force her into the coffin and onto an airship, where she wakes up as the captive of the boy who introduces himself as the Prince of the Red Rose. She is made the lowest member of the Red Rose Aristocracy, who require monthly gifts as tithes for the Prince and Princess of the Red Rose, with failure leading to humiliation or sacrifice to a being called Stray Dog. The Prince gives Jennifer handmade storybooks to help recover her memories and releases her to participate in club activities. Jennifer frequently faces punishment for incidents caused by higher-ranking members, but manages to rescue a yellow Labrador named Brown, who accompanies her. She befriends other lower-class members, Amanda and Wendy, and gradually recalls an oath she had made as the experiences of Jennifer reflect the storybooks.Jennifer is suddenly taken off the airship by a suicidal man, Gregory Wilson, and follows him into the basement of his home. She discovers a stuffed bear, storybooks, and letters between Wendy and a boy named Joshua, who address each other "Princess" and "Prince" respectively. Wendy rescues Jennifer after taking Gregory's gun to prevent him from committing suicide, and trades a rose-shaped brooch for Jennifer's stuffed bear. Back on the airship, the club is in a state of emergency trying to find the stolen stuffed bear. Amanda is revealed to be the thief, but frames Jennifer for stealing it. The Aristocrats attack Jennifer, who wakes up back at the orphanage where all the children from the airship are present, but they either ignore or harass her, except for Wendy. Jennifer learns that herself and Brown are wanted as the monthly gift. She follows a bloody trail to the attic and discovers Brown's corpse in the bloody sack. Wendy approaches Jennifer, revealing herself to be the Princess of the Red Rose. Outraged, Jennifer slaps Wendy and throws away her brooch, denouncing the Aristocrats and herself for not standing up to them. Wendy departs, humiliated.
Without a leader, the orphans elect Jennifer as their new Princess, but before she can decline, they see Wendy outside and leave to chase her away. Jennifer then follows their screams and encounters Wendy, disguised as the Prince and leading Stray Dog. Wendy confesses to having Brown killed out of jealousy and reveals that she manipulated Gregory into becoming Stray Dog and used him to massacre the Aristocrats by disguising herself as his son Joshua. Before she is killed by Gregory, Wendy gives Jennifer the gun to stop Gregory, but he asks for the gun and shoots himself instead.
Jennifer wakes up as her child self and realizes that all the events that have occurred were just her distorted memories of her childhood. Before meeting Wendy, Jennifer was kidnapped from an airship wreck by Gregory and made to live as a boy in order to replace his missing son, the real Joshua. Wendy rescued and brought Jennifer to the orphanage for companionship and together they formed the Red Crayon Aristocrats as a means of escapism. They made a loyalty oath to each other and exchanged Jennifer's bear for Wendy's brooch. Soon after, Jennifer adopted a puppy she named Brown and started to neglect club duties to care for him. Jealous of Jennifer's love for Brown, Wendy demoted her from the position of Prince, and ultimately ordered Brown's death to force Jennifer's submission. After Jennifer stood up to her for what she'd done, she brought the insane Gregory there who then killed everyone except Jennifer before killing himself. The media abandoned the massacre story after realizing Jennifer was the only survivor, leaving the orphans forgotten. In the end, Jennifer locates Brown inside the shed within her memories, gives him the collar bearing his name, and inscribes her oath on a chalkboard. Vowing to protect her memories, she leaves the shed and closes the door behind her.
Development
The company Punchline, which had previously developed the video game Chulip, developed Rule of Rose for the PlayStation 2. A group of twenty-five developers, Punchline began the project after being asked by Sony Computer Entertainment to develop a horror video game; not wanting to create a game similar to the survival-horror series Resident Evil, Punchline decided on the goal of developing a "new type of horror game, one which wasn't the usual zombie, ghost and slasher type," with an emphasis on psychological horror rather than "surprise- and shock-based horror." A proposed early draft by Yoshiro Kimura was a dark fantasy "boy's story" that centered on a boy abducted by "a big man" and his attempts to escape, while encountering the ghosts of previous victims. Keywords included "Kidnapping, imprisonment, children, bullying, dwarfs, airship, escape." This concept was turned down by the publisher on the basis of being "too dangerous a topic," and Kimura turned to the idea of examining the "fear between girls."This decision led to the concept of "a game surrounding childhood and children," but from both viewpoints to show how children and adults can find the other one terrifying, with a primary focus on the adult's perspective. Though the game has garnered comparisons with William Golding's 1954 allegorical novel Lord of the Flies, the developers did not draw inspiration from it, instead focusing on the "mysterious and misunderstood" nature of girls. The team visited Hyde Park for the accuracy of details such as the garden in the opening scene, and sought assistance from the British government and archives to gather information about the R101 airship that influenced the setting of the story. They ensured accurate architectural details due to Ishikawa's expertise. The story formed through trial and error as the developers figured out how to create a sense of fear, ultimately adding the children's secret society, the Red Crayon Aristocrats. They also included Brown as a way to balance Jennifer's "helpless and unhappy" personality and make the game more enjoyable. Because of budget and time problems, the combat system was left a little rough.
Rule of Roses graphics are heavily stylized, incorporating a series of visual filters similar to those used in the Silent Hill series. The developers researched the behavior of children, monitoring a group of European and American children, and photographed references for "the game's textures and models"; for the motion capture, the team had Japanese children act. At the request of the developers, the group of children also expressed through drawings or written words what caused them to be happy or afraid. The company Shirogumi worked on the computer-generated imagery present in Rule of Roses cutscenes. The musical score was composed by Yutaka Minobe, who also co-composed the music of Skies of Arcadia and some tracks from the Panzer Dragoon Orta soundtrack. The entire score was produced by studio musicians, including the Hiroshi Murayama Trio, and vocals by Kaori Kondo. According to the game's developers, the music was intended to bring a human element to the atmosphere in the game. A 6-track promotional soundtrack CD was produced by Atlus, which was issued to customers from certain retailers when Rule of Rose was pre-ordered.
Punchline included several themes in Rule of Rose, with the primary one being "intimate relationships between all people". A major theme in the game is the difference between a child's and an adult's way of thinking, and how children might treat adults if they were given power over them. Players are helpless to prevent their adult player character from being bullied by the children. Another theme is how attachment "to one thing can bring out the worst in people."