Controversial PS2 survival horror Rule of Rose absolutely deserves a remake or re-release, but Bloober Team isn't doing it

A screenshot from Rule of Rose showing a girl being attacked by strange trollish creatures

(Image credit: Atlus)

Last month Bloober Team, the horror studio responsible for the Silent Hill 2 Remake and The Medium, posted a teaser for an unannounced project. The teaser featured an illustration of a rose, leading some brilliant internet sleuths to deduce that it must surely point to a remake of the cult 2006 survival horror Rule of Rose.

Rose in picture, rose in name of game. Who could fault this theory?

The teaser appeared at the URL remosdneulserorehsoovamceyerd.com. In addition to the suspicious rose there's also the text "some things never leave the walls. They only learn to wait", as well as a counter counting down to 11 days from now: on February 15. Andy Chalk listed all the various conspiracy theories that have arisen from this deliberately vague marketing tactic, in case you're interested.

I'm more interested in Rule of Rose, which is a fascinating specimen from the PlayStation 2 era. It's set predominantly in a British orphanage, which is part of the reason why it raised the ire of European tabloid press and ultimately led to its release being canceled in the United Kingdom and Australia. Rumours of sadomasochistic content featuring children is what led the panic, but no such content actually appeared in the game. Indeed, contemporary reviews of Rule of Rose range from lukewarm (GameSpot gave it a 6) through to damning (our stablemates Edge gave it a 3).

RULE OF ROSE Full Game Walkthrough - No Commentary (Horror Game) - YouTube

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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.

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