Rule of Rose

The events of the game take place in England in the 1930s, and its story crosses the borders between reality and imagination. Jennifer is a young girl who has lost her memory and now finds herself on a bus, holding a storybook given to her by an enigmatic little boy. Following the boy into the dark countryside, Jennifer discovers a strange orphanage. Soon she finds herself trapped in an area controlled by a group of twisted orphan children, who call themselves the Red Crayon Aristocrats. Unwillingly, Jennifer has to obey the rules of this society's hierarchy, re-discover her own past, and distinguish between reality and nightmare...

Rule of Rose is an adventure game with survival horror elements. Jennifer is exceptionally weak even for a typical protagonist of this genre; though she can fight (sometimes with improvised melee weapons, such as pipes), often the alternative to fighting is running away. A unique gameplay feature is Brown, a Labrador retriever dog who accompanies Jennifer throughout the game. The player is able to issue commands to Brown. Though he cannot fight, his growl will deter many of the enemies Jennifer may encounter. Brown's ability to track items is also widely used in the game, whether for plot-related purposes or for finding health restoratives, raising Jennifer's chances of surviving.