The connected article heavily criticised the game and video game violence in general.Īfter that, the rumor of the “child torture game” caught like wildfire. Things got worse in a hurry when the Italian magazine Panorama featured the game on its front cover with the caption “Vince chi seppellisce viva la bambina” (“He who buries the little girl wins”). Troubles seem to have started when Sony dropped the game for localization in North America, apparently feeling that the “sexual undertones” of the game clashed with the company’s brand image (Atlus, who doesn’t mind this kind of stuff, picked the game back up). If Rule of Rose is remembered at all, it is usually for the moral panic it inspired. Not just a game with a vulnerable or young protagonist, but a game set in a world filled with the fears and idiosyncrasies of children. Rule of Rose is a rarity among survival-horror games: it is a game about children. Innocence can be the mindspring from which absurd rules and cruel behaviors are born …

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