“This Is Fine.”

Thoughts on Rule of Rose being a game of a “Men’s Cruel World”

IN NO WAY IS THIS TO SHAME SOMEONES THEORY, FEELINGS OR STATEMENT OF THIS GAME! I JUST WANTED TO GIVE MY THOUGHTS AND OPINION ON A GAME THAT IS EQUALLY NEAR AND DEAR TO MY HEART

I just wanted to say, I love and adore everyone’s theories and perspectives on this game, picking at each other’s brains is always fun and great, I just saw someone’s post on the Twitter Machine and wanted to give my two sense since it would be a lengthy post.

“A Men’s Cruel World” is a broad statement in my opinion, what could this be leading to? Is it to show that ‘Women’ live in a Men ‘dominated’ world? Is it referring to “The Male gaze” how in some Men’s POVs Women and girls are viewed in an over SEXUALIZED state Possibly! Unfortunately the post I’m referring to was quite vague and didn’t elaborate on their statement or give references on their narrative.

The two men we see in Rule of Rose are Gregory and Hoffman

Gregory to me is equally a Victim and someone who is guilty of his own crimes, while Gregory did take a small Jennifer into his home, dress her up and use her as a “replacement” for Joshua, his son that he lost, Gregory is also struggling with a lot of inner turmoil, we see in his home there is alcohol bottles, alluding to him not being in a clear state of mind, Gregory most likely drinking any form of guilt, sadness, or anger away, he is constantly struggling with reality, Jennifer? Joshua? Jennifer? Joshua? He lost his son, and we wants his son, he can’t come to terms with the reality that his son is gone, his son is here, he looking right at him…no, that’s not Joshua, this is Jennifer, who are you? While Gregory did abduct Jennifer, he never HARMED Jennifer when she was a child, she had a roof over her head, clothes, food, bare necessities, yes. Though his home was unnerving, Gregory never seemed to have any intention of HARMING Jennifer, since he viewed her as Joshua.

You could argue the “what about that cut scene where he hurts Brown and Jennifer!?”

We as the Player and Viewer of the game don’t know WHERE and WHEN this scene is to take place. We see Jennifer and Brown snooping around Gregory’s home, we seen Jennifer as 19 in this scene too, and something to keep in mind with Rule of Rose is Jennifer’s memories are fragmented, she herself is trying to make sense of her past just as much as we are. So I don’t view this cut scene as anything important, more so a “what if” type of thing

But to me this doesn’t fit in with the narrative, in my personal opinion, though do feel free to give your thoughts!

And some may ask, Well what about the Orphanage incident? Gregory caused lots of harm there! As a reminder, Gregory is not in a sound state of mind, easily manipulated and abused. Like Jennifer, Gregory was manipulated by Wendy in this situation, Wendy used Gregory’s love for his son and antagonized the grieving father to cause harm. While he was in the wrong, I don’t view this as anything of “living in a men’s cruel world”

This situation would be for a future discussion on ROR and Wendy’s character.

Let’s move onto Hoffman, since I’ve talked about Gregory enough

Hoffman is a character that I could understand where this narrative or statement of a “men’s cruel world” could come from

Hoffman is a character we see demean the children of the orphanage, Jennifer especially, referring to her as “filthy” or even lazy and trying to get out of her chores. Hoffman is someone we see have his interests on two characters, Diana and Clara, both being hinted at and implied of being victims of his abuse. Clara especially

do keep in mind like I stated with Gregory, we as the Player and Viewer of the game are seeing this from 19 year old Jennifer reminiscing on her fragmented and repressed Childhood. So Jennifer’s memories may also not be a reliable narrative too, since she is technically still a child overlooking these traumatizing memories.

We see Hoffman quite handsy with Clara and Diana, talking down to them on more than one occasion, Hoffman gravitates quite a lot towards Clara do to her more meek and vulnerable nature, an easier target for him unfortunately, while Diana being more bold and less likely to stand down for things, also does have her moments of weakness and being an easy target, the two are children at this time as well.

Clara’s mermaid form does give some look into the torment she’s received, seeing many symbolizing traits of someone who has been harmed emotionally, physically, and even sexually. Her “tail” being her legs tied closed, her “gills” being deep cuts, and of course the bile everywhere, many theorize Clara was given an abortion since she becomes very fearful and disgusted if Jennifer snoops around the med bay, keeping prying eyes away from the drawer, with who knows what lays inside.

While Hoffman was a very impactful moment in the game, and memorable, I still can’t see this as a strong enough argument of Rule of Rose being a game focused and centered around a “men’s cruel world” While these moments are awful and disgusting, like Hoffman, these aren’t the focal points in the game.

Rule of Rose is a game centered around the fragmented and disjointed memories of Jennifer’s past, The Aristocrat Club and Wendy being the source of her torment and what it’s like growing up around cruel children. Children can and are unrelenting, Children are some of the harshest bullies out there in the world because they don’t understand right from wrong, they don’t understand at that early of an age. They’re told they “shouldn’t” do certain things, but do they understand the intentions behind actions?

That will definitely have to be a topic for another post, since this one is getting quite lengthy as it is

But! Let me know your thoughts and opinions!

Remember, be kind to yourself, treat yourself, and stay hydrated~

- Belli

How am I just now playing this game

Characters that are literally me

I didn’t know you could find the crew’s IDs! I’m missing Curly and that other guy’s ID, so on a second playthrough I’ll have to scavenge for them!

PEDESTAL is a freeware investigation and puzzle game by Uri made in WOLF RPG Editor.

One month ago, Cosmos Girls’ Academy student Shiori Natsume was found dead on campus. Though rumor spreads that it was suicide, Aoi Ooe of the newspaper club wants to know if that’s really true. Accompanied by her friend Akari, she begins an investigation to uncover the truth - no matter what may come of it.

Be sure to note the warnings on the page, both regarding the dark topics involved in the central mystery and the theme of the story.

For context: I decided to pass on translating this game a year ago when it came out. Uri felt unconfident at the time whether it would land with English audiences, and given the volume of text, she insisted I didn’t have to translate it if I didn’t want to. But I never really “didn’t want” to translate it; ultimately, I think it just came at a bad time for me focusing on something of this size. I wanted to come back to it someday, so now I have.

It’s important to recognize that this game is something of a departure from Uri’s previous games. Things to do with Japanese high school culture are rather prominent, assuming some familiarity with it, though I’ve of course done my best so that people can pick up on things with minimal external context. In addition, it’s not a “horror game,” nor going for that kind of atmosphere. I’d also say there’s more dialogue and less gameplay, and a good deal of that gameplay involves questioning lots of people to find those who have important information. It’s bound to be divisive, but I believe it’s a story worth experiencing if you’re willing to see it through.

There’s a walkthrough on my page, which I would encourage people to refer to if they want to meet the numerous special ending requirements without having to replay.

I really need to give Alan Wake a second chance, playing it myself was enough to want me to pull my hair out… I’m so curious about his journey though

Definitely will have to watch a playthrough one of these days after I finish replaying Silent Hill 4

Asked by no one but wanted to ramble and list some horror games that I think are pretty neat~

Mouthwashing:

If you couldn’t tell I adore this game, the premise and theme of the game is handled so well, the characters are great and there is so much ‘show don’t tell’ in this game that sparks so much conversation

American McGee’s Alice:

I know Madness Returns is the more popular Alice game due to it being more accessible at the time but please, PLEASE watch a playthrough or give McGee’s Alice a chance. While the gameplay is rough and bumby the atmosphere, THE ATMOSPHERE CHEFS KISS. I love how sharp, angular and jagged everything, wonderland is twisted and macabre the music is THE MUSIC MAGNIFICENT!

Alisa:

A fairly recent horror game that has their own special place in my heart. While the story is confusing and doesn’t make sense, to be fair it could just be part of the game’s charm and will probably be fleshed out in the sequel. Alisa is such a cute and creepy little game that takes me back to my childhood of first discovering horror games on the PS1. The characters are fun, the love is oozing from the game and the music makes you feel like you’re in a toy box filled nightmare.

Haunting Ground:

I’ll get out of the way that I am extremely biased towards Haunting Ground and will get territorial of this game. This is my comfort game, it’s been with me for my lowest points in life and highest points of life. Belli Castle is my second home. I’ll be here all day rambling nonsense about this game so let’s just move to the next one!

Silent Hill 3

This here is a game to play when you want to relive your teenage angsty years. Heather is such a lovable character as we go through her average day to a not so average revenge plot. I’ll go ahead and add (beg) to please check out Silent Hill 1 and Shattered Memories because Harry Mason is just as deserving of attention as his blonde who has more fun daughter.

Clock Tower

The original Clock Tower is one of my gateways into the realm of survival horror, it’s how I discovered Haunting Ground, Siren, and many other horror gems. While I unfortunately haven’t played Rewind I can still praise the classic and its series. I am a sucker for horror games that allow you use brains over brawn and allow the character to shine through their wits and the Clock Tower games do just that!

Kuon

This eerie gem pulls you in right away just with the title screen, the soft lullaby that greets you has stuck with me years after I have played the game and it still unsettles me. Although the game can be a tad slow since the game recommends you to walk not run I do think it adds to the creepiness because you don’t want to risk alerting enemies. I love how you can play the game from multiple perspective as well! Though this is a game if you can play it versus watching a playthrough, I’d recommend that! Watching a no commentary playthrough of this game is more of a sleep aid unfortunately…but playing it and forcing yourself to continue the journey, very spooky, very creepy, especially in the dark.

Can we give Swansea some more love and attention that he deserves, because while he is not completely in control of his emotions and is quick to react, it all came from a good reason that being he cared so much for the crew.

Daisuke, he saw so much potential in almost like a son, for him to be there for Daisuke at every turn, even being the one to put him out of his misery so he didn’t have to suffer anymore, even telling Daisuke to close his eyes so he wouldn’t see what would happen, he cared so much.

And when Anya confided in him about what happened to her, he came CHARGING to put an end to all of it, for Anya, for Daisuke, for EVERYONE.

I feel like we don’t give Swansea enough attention, and we should!

women in horror games icons 🩸

The employee cards of Anya, Daisuke, Swansea, Curly and Jimmy

Source: Mouthwashing - ALL Achievements & Secrets (Behind The Scenes) by KeeTee