Rule of Rose Q&A: "Is it questionable? Yeah."

GamePro sat down with Zach Meston Assistant Marketing and PR Manager for Atlus U.S.A. to get the lowdown on their latest controversial title Rule of Rose.

GamePro: Rule of Rose isn't a traditional survival horror game, is it? Can you briefly describe Rule of Rose for those who are not familiar to the title?

Zach Meston: Generally speaking, it seems like survival horror games, or action horror as we PR knuckleheads call it since survival horror seems to be a very Capcom term, are divided into two categories. The first category is the action stuff like Resident Evil and Dead Rising where you're blowing Zombies up. The second category is the psychologically based horror games that are slower pace and more disturbing and you can imply things instead of going for the gross out factor.

Rule of Rose is one of the later types where the horror is largely psychological. There are some nasty things you see during the course of the game and really nasty things that happen but it's largely psychological in nature. It's moody and has the same type of effects as Silent Hill with the grainy filter for the graphics. The stuff is dark, the music is moody, and it's definitely a messing with your head type of horror game oppose to the "Oh my god, there are a million zombies attacking me" type game. It's much more psychological. There is combat, but it's actually a much more Silent Hill style of combat as well where your character is not a commando but a regular person who is grabbing stuff from the environment to defend herself with.

The game is basically a really disturbing storyline that is told slightly out of chronological sequence. It's quite messed up, but by the time you finish the game you'll need a shower.

GP: Some of the early buzz about Rule of Rose was the comparisons the game has gotten with Capcom's Haunting Ground. But, it seems that the comparisons are a little inaccurate. Does Rule of Rose have anything in common with Haunting Ground other than the main character having a canine partner?

ZM: The games don't really have that much in common. The way the dog works is different. In Rule of Rose the dog is primarily used to find items. You can basically send the dog to locate a particular scent and locate items. Also the dog will defend you in the combat sequences by barking and try to bite the various Imp creatures that attack you.

I think what happened is that people saw the two games and they both have blonde chicks with dogs and assumed that they were the same, but both games have a very distinctive feel. Haunting Grounds, as I recall, only had a couple of creatures that were trying to find you. A lot of Haunting Grounds gameplay was a hide-and-seek style gameplay where you could crawl under beds and hide in closets while a huge deformed hunchback guy was trying to find you --almost a stealth type of gameplay.

Rule of Rose is nothing like that. It's exploration with combat mixed in with really "F-ed" up CG sequences and cut scenes. They're quite different games. Obviously they belong to the same overall genre but you're not going to play this and be reminded of Haunting Ground --both games have very different looks and feels.

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