News > Italian Mayor wants to ban Rule of Rose
November 15, 2006
Content taken from Life In Italy:
Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni
crossed swords with horror and playstation addicts on Friday,
vowing to seek an Italian ban on a controversial Japanese
video game called Rule of Rose.
"There is no way that a violent video game should be
sold and distributed in our country... this game must not
enter Italian homes," said the popular left-wing mayor.
Rule of Rose, a psychological horror adventure, was
released in Japan last January by Sony and has arrived in
Italy via the publisher 505 Games.
Because of its allegedly disturbing content, Sony itself
decided against releasing the game in America, where instead
the small publisher Atlus snapped up distribution rights.
Veltroni argued that "there is no need for massive doses
of horror to entertain our children. I think those who create
and make such games must have perverse minds.
"Our youngsters are living through difficult times, with
violence present on a daily basis in all the media... Small
children have the right to be shielded from violence".
The mayor pledged to do everything possible to get Rule
of Rose withdrawn in Italy.
The game is set in 1930s England and revolves around
Jennifer, a 19-year-old girl who is held captive in an
orphanage by a group of deranged, sadistic children known as
The Aristocracy of the Red Crayon.
The player becomes Jennifer who, assisted by her dog,
must keep herself alive by offering gifts to her mad captors
and buy time as she searches for a way out of the orphanage.
Although the game relies more on psychological horror
than gore, it does contain violence as well as hints of
sadomasochism and lesbianism.
It was allegedly the erotic bent that led Sony to drop
the game in America, saying its content clashed with its
corporate image there.
The head of Sony's Italian division, Corrado Buonanno,
stressed on Friday that his company had "completely
disassociated itself" from Rule of Rose in Italy and the rest
of Europe.
"Probably, the sense of what's acceptable in Japan and
what's acceptable in Europe are different so our Japanese
division did not feel the need to block this game's
production and distribution on its own market," he said.
"But from our point of view, this game is unsuitable for
the Italian and European public because of its content. That
is why we have decided not to sell it here," Buonanno
concluded.
