There's no denying that Atlus seems to have its fingers on the pulse of American gamers if you consider what it's already brought here in the past. Games like the upcoming Contact for the DS, Steambot Chronicles, the Digital Devil Saga series, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and many more have proven to be seminal hits here in the United States. Atlus' next entry (excluding Contact which will be out very soon here) is a horror survival game called Rule of Rose, which mixes a lot of interesting elements to create a surreal gaming experience.

The best way to describe the story behind Rule of Rose is as Lord of the Flies meets a Nancy Drew mystery. The game tells the tale of Jennifer, who by all accounts is a very unlucky young lady who ends up in an orphanage after a car crash kills her parents. The moment Jennifer steps into this terribly dreary place it becomes hard to unravel the truth from fiction and gamers will have to figure out what part of the story is real and what part is the product of Jennifer's own active (and dark) imagination.

Skipping ahead and not unraveling too much of the story, Jennifer finds herself on an airship at the mercy of a group of children known as the Red Crayon Aristocrats. This group demands a monthly tribute which each of the lower class within the group must go out and collect. The punishment for not collecting the prize is horrific but the reward means a better standing in this royal society. We mention Lord of the Flies because the story really is about what happens when kids are left to create a hierarchy of power and discipline, and Rule of Rose delivers such a hierarchy in spades. The game's visual representation of this walks the fine line between shockingly violent and disturbing but does a nice job of not using blood and gore to convey that imagery.

The real selling point of the game is that presentation, which mixes the isolation of being an orphan with scary stories told by children within the backdrop of the bizarre airship Jennifer is trapped on. The children in the game also play an important role in driving the story along with various emotions including avarice, selfishness, cruelty and more. Even the few adults in the story serve to make the player feel unwanted. I'm not sure how it would feel to be a ward of a 1930's English orphanage, but Rule of Rose certainly enforces the notion that many of these institutions were not kind to children...

As i've already outlined, the world of Rule of Rose is very bleak and depressing. There's very little food to eat, and the characters you interact with are snobbish, snarky or overly depressing. Jennifer's goal is to get out of the airship, escape the orphanage and return to civilized society without expiring. To do this, she'll have to simultaneously find an escape route while providing the monthly tributes the society seeks. Being in the society allows her to roam the airship freely, so this part of the game is a means to an end for Jennifer.

Jennifer, unlike the other girls, has an edge in finding these special items - Brown. Brown is a Labrador that she frees during the course of her adventuring on the ship. Brown is a capable companion for a number of reasons. First Brown can use the "scent" from one object to find a person or another object. A good portion of the game utilizes Brown's keen sense of smell to locate items, though most require a chain of these sniffing out sessions to find the final object desired. Brown can lead Jennifer an assortment of objects and people using a variety of commands that are represented in the inventory menu. But Brown's usefulness doesn't end there. Her pal can also be used as a distraction during combat that allows her to escape.

Combat is interesting in Rule of Rose, though most times unnecessary. There's no real reward for fighting so it is oftentimes more prudent to just avoid these confrontations altogether. Jennifer will find many items she can use as weapons including the lowly fork to the more formidable pipe. But as I've already stated, sometimes it's just better to run away. There are fights that Jennifer can't avoid so it makes sense to at least learn the basics on combat to survive. combat is pretty straightforward, and using your head to figure out what action works best is a given in this game. Health items are pretty rare so taking on every fight you come cross is a waste of time and since you can only save in certain areas it's best to stay safe and run away.

Our first impressions of Rule of Rose are pretty positive. While the game doesn't break any new ground in terms of graphics (which are admittedly pretty average) it's the overall presentation that will make survival horror fans pretty satisfied. If you're a fan of games like Silent Hill or Fatal Frame then Rule of Rose will be worth checking out when it ships later this year. - James Fudge.

Want to learn more? Check out the official Rule of Rose Web site .