10 Video Games With Incredible Stories But Terrible Gameplay
1. Rule Of Rose
Even die-hard fans of cult classic survival horror game Rule of Rose won't say much to defend its core gameplay, because players and critics alike are pretty much united in praising its story and atmosphere while dog-piling on its clumsy, uninvolving gameplay.
Rule of Rose is set in 1930s England and follows 19-year-old Jennifer, who becomes trapped in a strange world ruled by young girls and attempts to recover the memories from her forgotten past.
From a narrative perspective, it's absolutely riveting - as a study of trauma and abuse, it felt years ahead of most other genre entries when it released in 2006.
Yet the mainstream media of the time predictably latched onto its mature, boundary-pushing content and made outlandish claims that it contained underage eroticism.
Beyond its story, though, Rule of Rose is a much rougher ride: the melee-based combat is a janky, unwieldy mess and there's an egregious amount of backtracking, with both issues being further exacerbated by rancid controls and unhelpful camera angles.
It is a quintessential game worth experiencing even if you might not actually want to play it. Considering that director Shuji Ishikawa himself called it "essentially an interactive movie," he probably wouldn't mind all that much if you just watched a Let's Play on YouTube.