Before I start, I'd like to point out. Right before the trailer even starts, the age rating 'Mature +17' pops up on the screen; specifying that it contains : Blood, Intense violence and suggestive themes. So it is blatantly clear it is not directed for children at all.
Watching this without any other form of information on the game, it does have disturbing tones to the film; there is no, in your face violence so to speak, one of the girls pricks anothers finger and the dog that is wandering around stops to sniff a red stain on the floor- which does appear to be blood. The trailer depicts no actual violence, so far I am failing to see what is causing such an uproar. Implications of two of the girls sexuality do seem to play an undertone in the pricking with the rose sequence, the seemingly elder girl brings the girls finger to her mouth- although the shot conceals this from the viewer. Even so, does their sexuality even matter? True they are minors, but the girls are not portrayed in a sexual manner, if anything I found them to be more sinister. Many games today show same sex relationships, and some involve the player choosing whether or not, or what kind of relationship they wish to have; I shouldn't think their sexuality would be an issue at all.
The start of the trailer shows the three main girls bowing, as if introducting themselves; the eldest girl bow involves her pulling her skirt up suggestively high. She shows off a bandage on her thigh; which possibly hints at some violence against the girl. It still doesnt appear to me as a sexual thing, as she smiles it's actually quite dark.
Right at the end, the three- what can be assumed are the main girls of the game are seen hammering on an 'unidentifyable' (I couldn't make out what it was) object in an empty room; this quickly switches to them all in a row hammering nails into a long box, the viewer has no idea what is in the box; but assumes that it is a body, judging by the coffin-like shape to it.
I found the trailer to be very well executed, it didn't give anything definitive away and it was as disturbing as a trailer for a horror game should be. From the trailer alone I cannot see what managed to cause this game to get such attention from the media.
The game itself:
The game is difficult to get a hold of so I watched walkthrough videos online of it.
The beginning sequence:
'Rule of rose' begins in a childrens story book fashion; explaining how the plot of the game begins; it is mentioned that Jennifer- the protagonist's parent died in an accident and that she is being sent away- the player can safely assume an orphanage.
Jennifer is riding a bus, seemingly alone until the camera shows there is a small boy on the bus too. Somehow, and this is kept very vague until later on, the boy knows the protagonist. He asks her to read the story and hands her a makeshift book; the bus stops however and the boy runs away. To begin with I had absolutely no idea why Jennifer chased after the boy so adamantly; except that it was dark and he was alone- so just to make sure he was safe?
The book essentially describes the plot of the game through the a childs story; the entire game uses childrens storybooks as a device; but I will stress that it still isn't a childrens game.
A soundless narrator of sorts ^
Walking upon the old mansion, two kids with paper bags on their heads are seen hitting something in a sack- this is portraying violent children, but there is no context behind it and nor do we know what is in the bag. As she proceeds to enter the mansion you can hear children giggling and whispering; their heads popping up over garden walls to look at Jennifer; which just shows how cheeky and sinister- in a playful manner children can be, or possibly bullying.
She gets locked inside the mansion by one of the kids, so is left to explore the house- the narration refers to Jennifer as the 'unlucky girl'. Entering one of the bedrooms, its shows the player a poorly made doll, about the size of a child, tied to the pillar. Nothing so far at the start is anything to create such a fuss over.
The kicking point of what could have caused some of the controversy is this: Jennifer finds the boy, who asks her to read the rest of the story; asfter doing so the boy disapears and is told that she should go to a funeral for her 'dear friend'. As she reaches the grave she starts to dig it up; there lay a coffin, she looks in side to see a bag very similar to what the kids were beating at. The children surround her, calling her 'filthy' and proceed to pour water of her, a speaker interrupts, as if it were a flight carrier of sorts- making no sense with the location whatsoever. The character then falls into the coffin, getting shut in and carried away.
-The end of the first chapter signifies a degree of bullying towards Jennifer, who is considered an adult- 18; showing children abusing an adult character, this could be a possible point that children who see if will register it to be okay to do so but they way it is shown is gruesome and very unappealing. However I'm not a child, so this wouldn't apply to me.
I cannot stress enough the age rating for this game, children should not be playing this; if they are then surely the person whoallowed them to play it is to blame. As a fan of games the revolve around the human psysche- I refrained from making any immediate judgements on what I had seen. General rule of thumb with a phychologial game is that everything makes sense at the end. (Or a few playthroughs)
The Violence:
Thoughout the game, Jennifer encounters some surreal, infant- like monsters; which on some occasions it is necessary to fight. Violence towards 'monsters' is clearly not real, these things are fictional and the player would be able to differentiate this; you fight the monsters out of self defence, they are scary- you want to avoid them if anything. Along the same lines, in an interview with the making of the game 'Silent Hill 2' they intentionally gave the monsters human like forms as it was recogniseable in an earie way- the monster appears to be human. This is just conjecture, but the enemies seem to be a manifestation of the children that bullied Jennifer and possibly a representation of her fear of finding out the truth.
There is some violence towards people in the game, most of the boss fights being 'human', as I was watching the videos of the boss fights, they are quite disturbing; you don't want to confront them. Most of them being that adults; they were bigger and stronger than you, it was really put into perspective how intimidating an adult can be to a child.
Overall the violence appears to have great reason behind it, and what is discovered at the end of the game is, is that it is merely Jenniver trying discover her repressed memories- which have been distorted due to the trauma he experienced. 'Rule of Rose' in no way promotes the violence in the game, it is made out exactly how it should be, horrible.
"The burial of the protagonist or of any other child does not appear in any scene of the game, not even indirectly," according to 505 Games.
"The scene that has triggered the discussion is in reality a dream sequence that serves as part of the introduction to the adventure: a non-interactive video sequence in which the protagonist, who is not a minor, is captured inside a crate.
"The interactive part of the game is based primarily on exploration and the solving of mysteries. The only sporadic fighting scenes are against monsters."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news171106ruleofrose
The suggestive themes:
I did not look into this subject that was brought up in as much depth as it wasn't the main factor of the controversy that this game had stirred up. Between minors, there is nothing sexual going one between the characters; the character 'Meg' appears to have an infatuation with the older girl 'Diana', some of the plot revolves around Meg's love letter to Diana; nothing happens between the two however. I see no reason that it should cause a problem with the media. Another relationship that is questioned is between the main character Jennifer and her best friend Wendy, it only extends as far as an overbearing friendship; Wendy is very possesive of Jennifer- to the point of wanting her to herself; no ones sexuality is directly specified in the game.
Although this is not specified either, it is implied frequently in the game and the player assumes it to be true; the 'Headmaster' Mr. Hoffman, appears to be sexually abusing one of the girls- Clara. Many hints of this are shown in the 'Mermaid princess' chapter and at then end, when the player sees Jennifers past. Mr.Hoffman displays an interest towards Clara, who is roughly around 15-16 years old; like with the other suggestive themes, nothing is directly mentioned. The way it is approached makes the player feel sorry for Clara, she calls herself filthy and doesn't think much of herself, it presesnts real life issues with this subject. Clara is too scared to tell anyone, when the maid presses her on the matter she continues to deny it, eventhough she wants to help.
The suggestive themes announced in the game are not shown from any other perspective other than Jennifers, so it can me misread, the publishers announced all the themes they were covering in the game and I felt it was one the most unique psychological games I have seen.
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