Rule of Rose: Difference between revisions

''Rule of Rose'' is an [[Adventure Game|adventure]]/[[Survival Horror]] game set in an [[Orphanage of Fear|orphanage]]/[[Global Airship|airship]] in [[World War One|post-war]] England ... '''or is it?''' It should be noted before going any further that the entire game is difficult to summarize for all sorts of reasons: the elaborate use of [[Fairy Tale Motifs]], the [[Unreliable Narrator|narration]], the [[Trapped in Another World|setting]] (and [[All Just a Dream|the setting]]... and [[Dead All Along|the setting]]), the surrealist horror aesthetic, and the purposely uneven story-telling. All this is used to weave a [[Grimmification|broken fairytale]] about [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|thoughtless cruelty]], [[Love Hurts|wrecked love]] and [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|childlike longing for an idealized adult reality]], culminating into an unusually thoughtful and heartbreaking story of [[Coming of Age Story|self-actualization and growing up]].

* [[All of the Other Reindeer]]: Everyone's so mean to Jennifer, even the adults.

* [[Animal Motifs]]: Many chapters have one, and they reflect on the enemies; there are rabbit imps, bird imps, goat imps, rat imps and pig imps.

** Different characters also have animal associations: Diana is a rat, Meg is a goat, Eleanor is a bird, Amanda is a pig, etc.

* [[Arc Words]]: Gathered slowly through three chapters: ''Everlasting / True Love / I am yours.''

* [[Brown Bag Mask]]: The Aristocrats are seen wearing these early in the game, and later on some imps are seen wearing them as well.

* [[Cassandra Truth]]: That whole "strange man abducting children thing" is just a figment of your imagination, Martha; nothing to be worried about in the least.

* [[Creepy Child]]: Joshua and the majority of the children at some point.

* [[Cry for the Devil]]: After playing the epilogue, you'll feel deeply sorry for the two people largely responsible for all the bad things that happened in the story - {{spoiler|Wendy and Gregory. It's utterly heartwrenching to watch Wendy silently plead for you to stay when you know it's impossible, and listen to Gregory trying to put together a happy story to read to his dead son.}}

* [[Crying Little Kid]]: Olivia, whose title is 'The Tearful Princess'.

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: Gregory's house has a clunky old refrigerator in 1929. The earliest self-contained home refrigerator came into market in 1923 and was a common sight only in wealthier houses.

* [[Dog Walks You]]: The majority of the game is spent following Brown to one place or another.

* [[Elaborate University High]]: Well, in this case, ''Elaborate Orphanage'' - inside an airship the size of the Hindenburg. Oh, As it turns out, this is ultimately {{spoiler|subverted, as the airship orphanage is a mixture of the memories of the most traumatic portions of Jennifer's life.}}

** It's still rather amazing. {{spoiler|Compared to the number of the orphans and the minimal staff, the manor in which the orphanage is actually set is still huge and extremely fancy - apart from the parts that the kids have doodled over or trashed.}}

* [[Ephebophile]]: Mr. Hoffman. And most certainly not depicted favorably.

* [[Fake Difficulty]]: The game's sub-par combat system and lack of any semblance of a targeting system makes combat harder than it should be.

** The lack of targeting can be explained by the fact that Jennifer simply doesn't have the most basic fighting skills - when she fights with a one-handed weapon she's seen covering her eyes while striking! The poor hit-detection and stiff movement controls on the other hand are inexcusable.

* [[Infinity+1 Sword]]: While all of the weapons associated with the [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|ridiculous costumes]] are powerful, the weapon that fits this trope best is the rusty sword. In order to receive it, five fancy, [[Lost Forever|easily missable]] dessert knives must be gathered from the various chapters, and traded for a key to a secret door that the player has most likely overlooked or forgotten about by the time they receive the means to unlock it.

** What makes this worse? You have to use each of the knives with Brown to find the next one, in order, however if you lack the previous knife, you will lose the one for that month and all others after. The kicker? There is a point in the game where you are allowed to choose three months to play in whatever order you like, but if you do not play them in the correct order, you will end up in a month whose knife is found by using a knife from a LATER month. [[Lost Forever|None of these are replayable until you finish the game]] and hit [[New Game+]].

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Everyone except Jennifer hates Brown.

* [[Murder the Hypotenuse]]: Poor, poor {{spoiler|Brown}}. {{spoiler|Wendy}} certainly does not like the idea of sharing Jennifer.

* [[Ontological Mystery]]

* [[Romantic Two-Girl Friendship]]: {{spoiler|Young Jennifer and Wendy}}, at least at first. Meg ''wants'' one, but Diana finds her unpleasantly clingy.

* [[Social Services Does Not Exist]]: Justified; what social services there were in depression-era England were very busy and did not have time to look in on every single rural orphanage.

* [[There Are No Adults]]: Even at the start the orphanage was heavily understaffed, but by the end the orphans were left to their own devices for an indeterminate out of time after Hoffman, Martha and Clara disappeared without trace.

* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]: Mr. Hoffman

** Except that he was in charge from the start. He just developed in a twisted direction. There's a mention at the final chapter of how Hoffman used to be a kind and respectable teacher.

* [[Two-Teacher School]]: Just one teacher, plus a cleaning lady and a sixteen-year-old girl who acts as a makeshift nurse and all around helper.

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: Unreliable because {{spoiler|Jennifer has amnesia, and the events as depicted in the story are a conglomeration of half-recalled events and traumatic incidents}}.

[[Category:Rule of Rose]]