Rule of Rose review

Unfortunately, it's the only thing that'll keep you playing. The story and visuals might be stunning, but the gameplay is bare-bones survival-horror fare. Jennifer roams from room to room, repeatedly covering the same ground as she hunts for specific items to bring back to the Aristocrats' lair. Along the way she'll solve simple puzzles and learn disturbing things about her hosts, and that's about it.

There is one innovation, though: Jennifer's dog, Brown. Brown is invaluable for keeping you on track, thanks to his ability to sniff out characters and items; if you have a piece of something you need (like the tail of a missing teddy bear, say), you can tell Brown to find it, and then follow him as he hunts it down. Sometimes he'll lead you to a blocked path, but most of the time his nose saves you a lot of tedious wandering around the gigantic, freely explorable airship.