pasithea

I've been ~~playing this game~~ exploring this psychosis titled Rule of Rose

Picture Lord of the Flies meets Little Orphan Annie on a great airship.

It is an evil twisted sick dream/fairy tale/nightmare/story. Game-wise, it isn't much. There's a lot of running around and a few very simple puzzles. Best bet with combat is to avoid it whenever possible.

On the other hand, the story and environment are rather disturbing and deeply unpleasant. Dreamlike and taking advantage of the uncanny valley, this thing slips into your dreams, the hissing murmurs of disturbed children closing upon the nape of your neck with icy black fingers. Nothing exactly frightening but lots of stuff that's quite unsettling.

Imagine the meanest girls you knew as a child and consider what things would be like with them in total control of your life. Manipulating, lying, teasing, ostracizing, and destroying you toys in cruel ways. Then throw in some child abuse, a couple of pedophiles, and a twisted lesbian love affair just for good measure.

That is Rule of Rose. As a game it's not great. As an experience, it's incredibly awful. I can't say I enjoyed it exactly, but it is incredibly compelling and drew me into it's depraved world more than any other game I've ever played. Even FF7.

If you like http://99rooms.com/ or the PS2 game Ico, and you have a thing for the macabre, and you don't need a lot of action or twitch-skills in your game play, this might interest you. I felt it was worth my time and money, but I'm clearly pretty sick.

There are plenty of cutscenes from it on youtube BTW. Search for "Rule of Rose"+rat Watch the butterfly one first, then the 'Sir Peter' one. That will give you some idea of what this thing was like. Do not search for the mermaid princess. I won't even attempt to describe how unsettling and horrible she was.