One of these days I'll write about how Rule of Rose is an underrated, mostly unknown exploration of prepubscent girls becoming viciously aware of the at-times cruel nature of the world, processed through fairytales as a means of coping and inflicting that violence on each other.

The title is the perfect summary of this theme. Roses are beautiful and elegant, and they possess thorns to defend themselves while harming others. Picking a rose is risking that harm while also destroying the beauty. That's the "rule" of a rose: your beauty has to be defended.

"Rule" can also mean "reign" of a rose, and the part of a girl's life (or her entire life, depending on circumstances) where this adage of "defend your beauty from harm; survive against violence with violence" is necessary.

This becomes another rule that must be obeyed as told by their doll, the Princess of the Red Rose.

The rule as law and rule as a reign is destroyed when Jennifer, the heroine, is disgusted by what that rule made her do and she rebels against them, a flower free from the garden.

Addendum: there are two pubescent girls in Rule of Rose, both of whom are subjected to one of the primary female fears. One is already long since "picked"/taken from the garden, while the other is, as we see in game, on the cusp of being "picked."

Or deflowered, if you will.

There are boys in Rule of Rose, but they remain on the fringes, not really interested or even effected by what the girls go through. They live in self-contained worlds and exist comfortably in selfishness. They're the lucky ones.

One of the girls even dresses up, acts, and calls herself a boy in an alternate persona. There she is safe and in control (and she commands a beast to do her bidding). Boys are free from the "rule", even if they live alongside girls who are subjected to it.

I would tell people to play it, but it's almost impossible to find a copy. The pity of it is there isn't a great playthrough of RoR--the most popular one is done by Cry, and he hated it. I don't know if there is a 100%, in depth, commentary-free walkthrough of it anywhere.

I would do that myself but I have no means to record and upload it. :c

Also by no means imaginable watch any of those "story explained" videos on Youtube. Rule of Rose isn't just a psychological horror game that needs to be pulled apart and studied. It's a fairytale horror game. Fairytales are meant to be taken as they are, on the tin.

There are psychological elements to the story, sure, but for the most part it's really just as simple as "it's a fairytale."