REVIEW

A Rose In The Twilight Review

by Rob Pritchard, April 20th, 2017

The humble puzzle platformer has been one of the gaming world’s favourite genres for many years, with titles such as Braid and FEZ becoming household names within a matter of months. A Rose in the Twilight is the latest offering from NIS America, and tells a gruesome yet enchanting fairy tale alongside the usual array of puzzles and expertly timed leaps into the air.

A Rose In The Twilight follows the story of a young girl named Rose, who has been placed in a desolate colourless castle with all of her memories erased. As if this weren’t traumatic enough, she has been afflicted with the Curse of Thorns. This mystical disease gives Rose the power to control the flow of time, and drain the lifeblood out of selected objects and restore life to them in return. As she wanders through the castle, she encounters a kindly stone giant, who joins Rose on her quest to find a way out of her castle prison. The ten hours that you spend in A Rose In The Twilight are definitely worth your investment, as the gripping storyline grows darker with every area you complete, particularly the ending which will have many gamers reaching for their handkerchiefs.

The aim of the game is to take control of Rose and her titanic friend through the many rooms of their castle prison, jumping onto platforms and solving puzzles as they go. Transferring Rose’s blood to white objects will render them susceptible to gravity, but it will need to be used sparingly as she only has the capacity to store one vial of blood at a time. The blood transfer mechanic makes for some interesting puzzles that will certainly require some brainpower, particularly when faced with a large gap and falling rocks that need to be frozen in time to build a bridge. Most of the puzzles are well constructed, although they tend to be on the easy side once you have worked out the general rule of thumb for their solutions.

As Rose and the giant wander through the castle, Rose receives reminders of her past in the form of Blood Memories. These take the form of a brief shadow puppet show, and paint yet another piece of our hero’s tragic past. Although they are an entertaining distraction from the puzzle sections of the game, they are also the key to progressing through the castle’s different areas, providing that Rose is willing to commit suicide in order to do so. The idea of using the protagonist’s death as a metaphorical key is something that many games won’t touch, but in the world of A Rose In The Twilight, it becomes an activity you must repeat on a regular basis to proceed. Despite its relatively censored nature, it is not a scene that the faint of heart will wish to spectate.

From a graphical perspective, A Rose In The Twilight feels like a mixture of American McGee aesthetic combined with manga styled illustrations in a Brothers Grimm styled environment. There are very few graphical artefacts to be seen, and the frame rate rarely slips to a point where it becomes unplayable. As you might expect, the soundtrack is a mixture of sorrowful orchestral interludes inter spliced with the occasional intense track when certain events and Blood Memories are being played. One of the highlights is a song named For You and Me, a faster paced piece which was showcased back in the game’s original reveal trailer.

Overall, A Rose In The Twilight has all the ingredients of a miniature fairytale masterpiece, but lacks the difficulty for it to be a tale as old as time. Its macabre graphics and darkly enchanting story will keep you coming back to complete Rose’s journey, alongside a minimalist soundtrack that draws you further into its desolate world. If you are looking for a solid puzzle platformer to fill your time, A Rose In The Flower is a flower that has bloomed at just the right moment.

With it's unique aesthetic and intriguing storyline, A Rose In The Twilight will certainly entertain both fans of the genre and newcomers to the puzzle platformer experience.