Rule of Rose

Rule of Rose
Developer: Punchline Publishers: SCEI (JP), Atlus (US), 505 Games (EU) Platform: PlayStation 2 Released in JP: January 19, 2006 Released in US: September 12, 2006 Released in EU: November 3, 2006 This game has unused animations. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has a notes page

To do: Organize the page a bit better. Things to add: Create a separate page for unused events. Document them. Create a separate page for unused voice lines. Document them. Document unused models. Document unused animations. Document unused enemy data. Document inaccessible places and other room oddities. Document the connection between rooms or_stepway and or_secret. Document the unused elevator in the Sector 9 Turbine Area, as well as an odd shadow placement. Document the missing item in the Radio Room. The layout of the shadow mesh is also entirely different. Document the VIP room changes between the normal and "roped" variants. Inspect if there are more differences between visible meshes and their shadow / collision counterparts. Document the monthly gift announcements and their position relative to each other, including the unused piglets one. Document room model duplicates never used by the game (different time of day variants). Document differences between the Trade Demo build and the final build. Document leftover Japanese text in the English release. Document the fonts used by the game. (they're different for the US and EU releases) Document real life elements used by the game? (books, posters, toys, etc.)

Rule of Rose is a psychological survival horror game about Jennifer, a girl that finds herself at the mercy of the Red Crayon Aristocrat Club, a group of young girls living in a dystopian Lord of the Flies-like setting. A crude game with some serious undertones and fascinating atmosphere, held back by awful combat, boring backtracking, and (at the time of its release) a huge controversy about the game's topics.

Sub-Pages

Notes

Resources

Unused Animations Yeek! So many gifs!

Unused Textures Wait, a pumpkin?!

Unused Models It's a bloody long one, so beware

Unused Text

Looks like there’s nothing here.

A line you get if you’ve received all the items and return to the Rickety Shed (something that's impossible in-game without hacking).

Though the unlucky girl
calls out to her friend,
she receives no response.

Her voice never even
reaches her friend...

Two pieces of text that can be triggered only by sequence breaking the game and calling for Brown as he's barking at Joshua in Rag Princess Sews.

A dog collar is chained to the pillar.

The dog collar in question is fully modeled; see the unused models subpage.

‥我が輩が知るところ
おまえがこの地に踏み込んだ#nそれこそ　全ての元凶か
なんとも悲しき不幸な少女#n‥‥こうして時は繰り返す
このちっぽけな小屋を出よ
そして白き服の少年を追え‥‥#nそれが唯一の道しるべ

Unused Japanese text for the Bucket Knight in the first chapter, inside the shed room.

Approximate translation based on the other Bucket Knight text:

If memory serves me correctly, you've just stepped into this land. What a sad, unlucky girl; is that the reason why? This is how time repeats. Get out of this little hut and chase the boy in white... that's your only clue.

Unused Weapons

For any weapon listed below, you can add them into your inventory by using the following PCSX2 code:

patch=1,EE,D030831C,extended,0000FAFF
patch=1,EE,2079B9C8,extended,0001????

Replace "????" with the chosen weapon's id. For example, for Master Wrench the last part would be 00010B35.

In game hold L1 + L2 + L3 and it will appear in the top-left corner in the inventory.

Id	Icon	Artwork	In game model	Notes
0xB35		It's a regular ol' wrench named "Master" just for kicks...		A high-damage weapon that's fully functional. The Master appellative suggests (judging by the Master Sword, Master Syringe, Master Tuna, Master Umbrella, and Master Racket present in-game) that it was supposed to be unlocked along as an extra costume for Jennifer. Due to being referred in the code as wpnrobo, it's highly plausible it accompanied the costumerobo (see below).
0xA3D		Torture Stick Something foul-smelling is tied to the end.		The torture stick that's seen more than once through the game (featuring a rat tied at the end) was originally supposed to be equipped and used in the game.

Unused Items

J's Diary

A shared diary between Wendy and Jennifer during the latter's permanence in The Gingerbread House. The dates contradict the W & J Letters memo and some infos are redundant - maybe it was removed for one of those two reasons.

Picture	Readable Text
	May 1 Hello, little bear. Do tell me your name. -W
	May 7 Our own secret flower garden, hidden behind the gingerbread house -W May 8 Biscuits, chocolates and candies! Sweet guides for the lovers! -J
	May 5 Let's play together again in secret. -W May 6 After everyone's asleep sneak out into the moonlight. And meet me behind the gingerbread house. -J
	May 4 My name is Joshua You have freed me from my curse. I am no longer a bear. And so I will be your faithful servant. Now let me kiss you back. -J
	May 2 My name is Joshua I shall be your faithful servant. You need only give me a kiss. -J May 3 Yes, I shall give you a magic kiss. -W
	May 9 Please, Oh please, may they guide us true! -W

Unused Storybooks

There are two storybooks that went unused - one is The Gingerbread House (probably to be used in the chapter of the same name). The other one is The Little Princess, which further explains Jennifer's backstory prior to the game's events.

The Gingerbread House
The Prince and the Princess lived in a gingerbread house.
The Prince and the Princess had red and black servants.
The Prince ordered a servant to guard the treasure.
The servant ordered his servant to guard the key.
The servant's servant ordered his servant to guard the key.
The servant's servant's servant's didn't have any servants, so they ordered no one.

The Little Princess
Once upon a time, there was a precious little girl.
Her friend, the princess of the Red Rose, was always at her side.
But one day, her mumy and daddy died suddenly.
And from that day, the little girl found herself taken away to a strange house.

Unused Rooms And Room Oddities

A bit of useful info: every room in the game is represented by 3 separate mesh files.

1. Visible mesh. This mesh defines how the room looks and is usually of most interest. It has all the details, the textures and the materials.
2. Shadow mesh. This is a somewhat simplified version of the visible mesh that defines surfaces that are affected by shadows. For example, a table could be reduced to a simple square that represents the table's surface, which Jennifer could cast a shadow on.
3. Collision mesh. This mesh defines the physical boundaries of the room. Important objects are usually represented as boxes of varying size that stop Jennifer from walking through objects like pieces of scenery.

Unused Attic Room

The room with the internal id of 208 is not accessible in the game and actually refers to a model file or_stepway, which is not present on the game's disc.

The room layout files still exist though, placing two doors in an empty void.

The layout files connect this room to rooms 206 (Attic Storage, or_meg) and 202 (Attic Hallway, or_way)

The room layout that you see if you attempt to enter it.
The camera angle and Jennifer's position were adjusted via hacking tools, as the room doesn't have any default camera settings.

Unused Trapdoor

Under a pile of straw in the Attic Storage area, there's a (hole for a) hidden trapdoor that goes completely unused.

 

Starboard Livestock Room oddities

This room contains quite a few hidden elements.

First of all, the locker here is interactable. If you press X near it, it will shake slightly for a few seconds.

In the game's code, the locker usually remains in the animation state called "action1", but when interacted with, it briefly switches to "action2" (aforementioned shaking), which could imply a hastily cut interaction. The locker does not have any other animations.

Next, the wooden plank near the locker hides a secret passage which is never used in the game. On the other side there is just a small empty room with no hidden items in sight.

The plank itself has no animations and doesn't seem to be interactable. Even removing it will not give access to the passage, as the blocking collision is baked directly into the room's model.

Oh, and if you look closer at the plank's texture, you can see that it is actually a crude drawing of the locker. They even have the same width, which allows the locker to fit nicely into the passage.

As a side note, a very similar passage (albeit mirrored) is briefly shown in the opening movie of the game. (see the comparison shots below)

Finally, the shadow/collision models reveal a hidden ladder in the room behind the passage!

It's not present as a visible mesh and there are no hidden / obscured objects to represent it. As such, nothing happens if you try to interact with it (well there's nothing to interact with).

The room script contains only one exit - back to the Sector 9 Turbine Area - so it is impossible to determine where the ladder would've led.

Since the hidden room was locked off and was never meant to be accessed, the developers probably forgot to edit these models to reflect the change in layout.

Unused Battle Rooms

Among the game's room models exist 12 unused rooms named btlXX. (Example: btl01)

These rooms have visible names assigned to them in both English ("Battle room XX") and Japanese ("バトルルームXX", lit. Batoru Ru~mu) versions of the game, but their scripting and room layouts are missing entirely.

It is uncertain whether these rooms were used solely for debugging purposes or were meant to be a part of some removed feature.

The room was loaded by injecting the room's model name via emulator's debugging features.

Hidden Fish Tank Details

The fish tank present in Hoffman's room (Headmaster's Room (o1_direct) in the Orphanage and VIP Room (au_vip) in the Airship) has the bottom doors fully modeled on both sides, as if meant to be opened.

More interestingly, behind the doors there is a hidden fish tank mechanism. The doors are never opened in-game and the mechanism is never seen.

You can also notice a slight difference in texturing. (On the bottom right of the image: left is from the Orphanage, right is from the Airship)

Unused Audio

Stray Dog's Audio

A reading of the Stray Dog story by Gregory, alongside the game's theme.

Unused Boys Lines

Several unused lines for the boys.

Unused Speaking Tube & Goat Audio

More unused audio that sounds like it would have involved the speaking tube and some goats.

Unused Audio IDs

The game's audio ID table contains references to a number of voice lines for Jennifer that may not have been recorded. These relate to potential additional states for Brown, and interactions with Brown that are not available.

SE_DOG_BREATH_SNEAK
SE_DOG_BREATH_SNEAK_2
SE_DOG_BARK_QUESTION
SE_PC_CMD_WAIT_1-2
SE_PC_CMD_SHITDOWN (incorrect Japanese transliteration of "sit down")
SE_PC_GOOD_DOG
SE_PC_R_U_OK
SE_PC_CRY_BROWN_DEAD

Unused Cutscenes

An unused cutscene, possibly from a game over if Jennifer does not escape with Wendy at the end of The Gingerbread House chapter.

An unused game over, to be played in case Brown died. This mechanic was not implemented in the final game, as Brown cannot die but will simply limper around and stop following orders until his health is restored.

An unused cutscene called ev11new06, where Jennifer asks why the love letter's torn during the Goat Sisters chapter.

(Source: Rule of Rose Wiki, Rule Of Rose_Decrypted)

Unused Cutscene Dialog

Two cutscenes have subtitles for lines of dialog that do not appear in the game. The dialog is unvoiced.

The first, "evt612m5", appears at the end of the in-engine cutscene at the start of Stray Dog and the Lying Princess, after the other girls have left to meet Wendy outside:

Do not concern yourself, Princess. I will find out what's going on.

As the line is unvoiced and the characters are off-camera it is not clear who is speaking but it is generally assumed to be Meg.

The second, "ev713a", appears at the end of the in-engine cutscene in Once Upon a Time where Jennifer leaves the orphanage and closes the gate leaving Wendy behind.

Wendy: Where are you going?

Development Text

Debugging Information

Unusually for a release console game, Rule of Rose is compiled with assertions enabled, meaning that the game regularly checks its internal state for bugs and can display developer messages if one is encountered. This creates a large amount of development text which also gives information about the structure of the source code. The full list of assertion failures is too long for this page, but the list of filenames referenced is:

bed/bedmemory.cpp
bed/bedpad.cpp
bed/bedpfh.cpp
bed/bedpfh.h
bed/bedsubmode.cpp
debug/mimu_debug.cpp
debug/motnamecnv.cpp
debug/motnamecnv0.cpp
dog/dogactor.cpp
dog/dogactor.h
dog/dogcamera.cpp
dog/dogentity.cpp
dog/doglight.cpp
dog/doglightpool.cpp
dog/doglightpool.h
dog/dogmodel.cpp
dog/dogmodel.h
dog/dogmotionblend.cpp
dog/dogmotionblend.h
dog/dogtexinfo.cpp
game/gamman.cpp
mag/maglife.cpp
mag/maglifebwn.cpp
mag/maglifebwnctrl.cpp
mag/maglifebwnmode.cpp
mag/maglifefadekey.cpp
mag/maglifeman.cpp
mag/maglifemenu.cpp
mag/maglifemenusp.cpp
mag/maglifepc.cpp
mag/maglifepc2.cpp
mag/maglifepc3.cpp
mag/maglifepcbtl.cpp
mag/maglifepceff.cpp
mag/maglifepcmode.cpp
mag/maglifepcmove.cpp
mag/maglifepcmsg.cpp
mag/maglifetest.cpp
mag/maglifewindow.cpp
mag/magloader.cpp
mag/magscene.cpp
mag/magscene.h
mag/magscene2.cpp
mag/magscenecamera.cpp
mag/magscenedebug.cpp
mag/magscenefocus.cpp
mag/magsceneif.cpp
mag/magscenelight.cpp
mag/magscenerender.cpp
mag/magscenetenkyu.cpp
mag/magsystem.cpp
mnu/mnuSelectLanguage.cpp
snd/rxmpeg.cpp
utl/utlbtl.cpp
utl/utlfile.cpp
utl/utlfind.cpp
utl/utlgame.cpp
utl/utlmisc.cpp
utl/utltm2.cpp

In addition, a textual GCC segment table appears intact at the end of the executable file which contains the mangled names of class methods. This means that the class structure can be partially recovered.

"dog" appears to be the base 3D graphics engine for the game: all moving items in the game are considered "DogActor"s! The actual code for Brown (the player's dog) refers to "maglifebwn.cpp".

Mismatched Development Names

The mesh files for Wendy use the name "mrb". Some low-resolution textures in the game refer to "Marie Belle", which may have been her original name. This in turn may be a reference to real-life 10-year-old murderess Mary Bell, aka the Tyneside Strangler.

The texture files for Diana have multiple different names, reflecting that the Japanese artists were unsure how to transliterate the name "Diana". Some other errors appear; for example, methods that refer to a "sector" are spelled "secta".

Potential Unused Game Mechanic

The segment table reveals a class "GamMan" which contains special methods for tracking three game entities: "Pc", "Dog", and "Murder". "Pc" is updated to track Jennifer and "Dog" to track Brown, but "Murder" is unused in the released game. Combined with the above large number of unused animations for Gregory, this may suggest that there may at some point have been a Clock Tower style chase or stealth sequence in which Gregory was a continuous threat rather than a single boss fight.

Funeral Chapter Imps As Real Kids

As part of the Funeral chapter Jennifer has to eliminate a few specific target imps in order to unlock the door to the inner court. While the game never states that openly, it is heavily implied that each imp is connected to a specific member of the Red Crayon Aristocrats society.

While inspecting the game's flags for this chapter, you may notice that this connection is made explicit in the game's code, as each defeated imp is referred to by a child's name.

They go as follows:

Location	Imps	Flags (names)
Library	A white goat imp and a regular imp	Meg and Susan
Playroom	A regular imp	Thomas
Balcony	A bird imp	Eleanor
Bedroom	A rat imp, surrounded by rabbit imps	Diana
Kitchen	A rat imp	Olivia
Central Hall	A pig imp and a white goat imp	Xavier and Nicholas
Sewing room	A pig imp	Amanda

Moreover, there is a fish imp spawned in the Sickroom, possibly referring to Clara, as well as a rare big bird imp spawned in the Classroom, possibly referring to Hoffman. While these connections are highly probable, they are not flagged in any way.