Last night I finally was able to grab Rule of Rose. I made Lady Grey tea with lots of cream and sugar, put my hair in pigtails and didn't leave the couch for the next two hours. I haven't gotten too far in, instead taking my time skulking and listening and psyching myself out. I have a lot more planned for tonight.

My initial reaction is simple: I like it.

My buddy Sizzlepig asked me how it was going once I finally quit for the night.

sizzlepig: how is the game?
eliza: I poked a ragbaby with a dessert fork.
eliza: And ran like the dickens.
sizzlepig: good.
eliza: My only friend is a bucket.
eliza: And everything talks, even scissors.

The game has a very solid world to it, an almost perfect immersion. Imagine that Lord of the Flies was written by Lewis Carroll, adapted for stage by Jules Verne, scored by Paul Mercer and performed aboard the Hindenburg, and you're starting to catch on.

My favorite aspect of the game is that I have absolutely no theories about where the story is going or what's going to happen next. I'm kind of hoping there is no pat little plot, no wrap-up. That it just continues in an insane fashion until a gruesome end.

One thing that surprised me about the game is the age difference between Jennifer, the player character, and the rest of the children. They're about half Jennifer's size, and Jennifer appears to be in her late teens at the youngest.

This underscores the niggling little voice I always endure while playing games of this type, you know the one. The voice demands to know why Jennifer doesn't just grab the little brats and get some real answers, instead of whimpering and skulking and looking for butterflies. This little voice is going to get louder once the really bad bullying starts.

Speaking of which, where's the protests against this game, huh? Jamming a rat on a stick into my face is okay, but recovering lost character sheets for Nerds isn't?

But I can't complain too much. That ragbaby spooked me proper, dessert fork or no. Eliza Gauger

eToychest was kind enough to point this out to me and since I can let no Rule of Rose material slip through my grasp, I am logging it here with mad glee. This video documents a bit of movement and a boss fight, and talks about various dog functions and the overall mechanic of the game.

The reviewer says the dog is used primarily for locating objects and solving puzzles, generally with a "find" command with which you can match keys to locks and so on. The beast helps in combat by distracting critters so Jennifer can run, but doesn't appear to inflict or absorb damage.

It also looks like combat is not a big part of the game at all, and in fact is to be mostly avoided. I've heard reports of frustration from people who got their hands on a review copy that boss fights are annoying, due to the three-strikes-you're-dead feature. I usually don't mind low character health or even one-shot kills (remember Bushido Blade? That game was sweet.), so I don't think it'll be insurmountable.

Overall, the game is reputedly more along the lines of an old-school adventure game than a survival horror, the difference being the focus on the combat that survival horror usually entails. I will definitely be picking this up, but any review I give will be late because I'll be getting it the same time everyone else does. But my review will have a lot more literary references, of that much you can be sure. Eliza Gauger

more here [eToychest]

There's some new Rule of Rose stuff over on MTV's game site, Overdrive (which runs like complete crap on OSX Firefox), and it's completely without context. Who's talking in the clip with the broom goblins? The subtitles don't seem to correspond with anything. The music is pretty, but extremely repetitive. A lot of it is inappropriate for the variety of scenes it's laid over.

Basic gameplay doesn't seem all that great, or at least not much of an improvement. It could be that combat is not a big part of the game so what we're seeing here is a rare event.

Do pay heed to the character animations in the cutscenes, which look fairly good. I especially liked the way the villain's fingers fluttered when she put her hand on the fat girl's head.

Although it looks like once again, the main character is the blandest in the game. Her expressions are very toned down, and her face and posture are extremely restrained. I'm guessing that player characters are the ones subjected to the greatest amount of committee review, and have all their edges worn smooth by the time they're put onscreen. What a shame.

I believe Rule of Rose comes out next week, and I'll definitely be picking it up. After all, I'm in this for the steampunk lolitas and the fishblimp, not the broom goblins. Or the dog. Eliza Gauger

New Rule of Rose stuff on MTV Overdrive [MTV, thanks GayGamer]

One thing I haven't really been clear on is what Rule of Rose is actually about. The plot synopses I've seen are all vague and full of innuendo.

I've been able to piece together that much of the game takes place onboard an airship or something description, probably the fishblimp we see in screenshots and trailers. And there's a wicked cabal of cute little girls, who are called the Aristrocracy of the Red Crayon.

Our heroine, little blonde Jennifer, arrives in this group somehow and immediately becomes the whipping girl. I assume the game is a sort of Lord of the Flies in petticoats.

Siliconera just posted a rundown of the characters in Rule of Rose, complete with little portraits.

Jennifer

The main character of the game. An unlucky, helpless and timid girl who's dragged into an alarming world. She's doomed to face unimaginable hardship with her companion Brown. To find a way out of this nightmare, she's forced to obey the ridiculous rules of the Aristocrats of the Red Crayon.

I like "Aristocracy" better. Eliza Gauger

The Characters of Rule of Rose [Siliconera]
Interview with Atlus about Rule of Rose [Siliconera]

Demian sent this in and I'm very pleased with them. This is the newest Rule of Rose trailer, appropriately titled "Creepy Kids" over on GameVideos.

Lots of sadism, short skirts, and spooky smiles. And my special friend, the fishblimp, makes another spectacular showing at the very end.

This video is completely nonsensical but I couldn't look away. Eliza Gauger

I've been eagerly devouring everything related to Atlus' upcoming lolita-creepout, Rule of Rose, and while I wish i could deliver unto ye your own Kotaku-flavored gallery, that didn't work so well earlier today.

I will simply link, with a heavy heart, and give you the crowning image from this particular batch: fat scary kid with lipstick.

Unfortunately it looks like the difference between in-game and prerendered shots is going to be fairly astronomical, and it doesn't seem like much headway has been made in terms of play graphics. Still, the setting seems so bizarre, a sort of steampunk horror softened by childishness, that I imagine the atmosphere will fill in quite a bit. Eliza Gauger

New Rule of Rose screens here [Computer and Video Games]

Now taking speculative comments about what that...thingy...is, in the last shot. It looks like a flying robo-whale. Eliza gauger

GS: That makes sense. We didn't really get into the sexuality there, though.

YT: Ok, sure. This is rather delicate, but the theme is supposed to be one of intimate familiarity.

SI: If we look at it through the eyes of adults, when girls play with each other in this way it may be considered somewhat erotic, but with kids, I...really don't think they'd see it that way. It's more genuine, not lustful. It may appear so because these are things kids actually do, but we don't want to see.

YT: Yes, it's children being children without the filter of guilt or sin.

I find this game particularly intriguing because I have been watching, with great interest, the slow seep of Elegant Gothic Lolita fashion into America for the past couple years. EGL, as it is shortened to, deals with similar themes of innocence vs. eroticism, child vs. adult, and doll vs. human. I find it utterly fascinating.

No official word yet on Rule of Rose's panty-vending minigame, however. Eliza Gauger

Interview with Rule of Rose developers [Gamasutra]

Every man craves (or at least ends up with) an obese, troglodytish wife. Hi honey! So this account of an amazing Oblivion glitch that will allow you to roleplay a frustrated chump with no sexual discrimination whatsoever! Play your cards right, capitalize on a glaring Bethesda bug and you, too, could go home with the alluring orcish vixen Mazoga.

Ma-zo-ga: Light of my life, fire of my loins.

She has the most green skin, and the cutest upturned nose. She has a husky, deep voice, sultry and enticing. Her hair is arranged in exquisite black plugs that pepper her otherwise bare skull. Those beautiful teeth. She is bold and forthright, never afraid to tussle, and I've personally seen her take a man's life in just a few swings of her two-handed sword. She is a sight to behold, and a knight to boot.

A Nabokov reference will get you quoted here everytime. Now how about some Pnin?

My Oblivion Wife, or: Of Orcish Bondage [Games First]

How do you know you are too obsessed with one of the crappiest games of all time? When you design a custom made, six-foot-tall light gun controller for Death Crimson, a game that scored only 1.0909 out of 10 stars when it was released for the Sega Saturn.

As our more observant visitors will note, the controller resembles a gigantic alien phallus with wings and legs. It is apparently both hard to wield and completely unusable for vastly superior games. The light gun itself is apparently housed in the alien penis' glans.

Probably an excellent conversation starter for when you entertain door-to-door Jehovah's Witnesses.

Death Crimson overkill controller [Insert Credit] Thanks, Randy!