Switching between the two characters can be a bit troublesome, as both have very slow walking speeds, but it gives the developer a lot more freedom to create more interesting puzzles.Īdditional mechanics are introduced as the game progresses, such as a watering can that Rose can use to grow plants or a very simplistic stealth mechanic, but there’s always one major flaw present in A Rose in the Twilight: the puzzles just aren’t fun to solve. This opens up new abilities for the player, as the giant can carry Rose across areas that would normally kill her, and toss her to higher areas. After bringing it back to life, the girl now has a powerful compadre in her journey. It’s a fresh mechanic that stands out above some rather boring puzzles that start the adventure.Īfter venturing past a few rooms inside the castle, Rose eventually stumbles upon a broken mechanical golem. The same goes for mechanical devices such as levers, as I often had to imbue them with blood in order for them to work as intended. Early puzzles taught me that objects that are in motion stop without blood, so I was able to remove blood from objects in order to cross bottomless pits. Likewise, lifeless objects that are able to be interacted with are white, so there’s never any guessing as to what can be used to solve the mysteries of the castle.īeing able to transfer blood between objects isn’t the most complicated of mechanics, but the game builds on the idea in a few smart ways. The majority of A Rose in the Twilight is presented in grayscale, so objects filled with blood stick out due to them being one of the few vibrant colors in an otherwise dull world. What contains blood doesn’t always make logical sense, as I regularly came across bookshelves, rocks, and other inanimate objects that held the vital fluid, but thankfully the game does a fantastic job of conveying these aspects to the player. The puzzle platformer starts off interestingly enough, as it begins to introduce the special power that Rose has. The fragile child is able to absorb blood from any red object in the environment, and is then able to transfer that blood to objects lacking life. A Rose in the Twilight is an absolutely gorgeous experience, filled with dark themes, that’s unfortunately not enjoyable to play. This isn’t due to any subject matter brought up within the game, although I could see how that’d be an issue for potential players, but due to some poor design that continually holds back the experience. These haunting visuals are only one small part of Nippon Ichi Software’s latest PlayStation Vita offering, but they also serve as a decent summary of the experience as a whole.

Each sacrifice is used to remove seals within the castle that Rose finds herself, and she magically finds herself fine after putting up with such torture. Shock value is undoubtedly an intended side effect of these tragic scenes, but they also serve to move the story forward.

These moments of self-harm get more outrageous as the game continues, and I ended up looking away from my Vita when I saw an iron maiden on-screen.

A rose in the twilight characters