REVIEW: Rose & Camellia Collection


Title	Rose & Camellia Collection
Developer	NIGORO
Publisher	WayForward, Limited Run Games
Release Date	April 16th, 2024
Genre	Action, Fighting
Platform	Switch
Age Rating	Teen
Official Website

I have to say that the Rose & Camellia Collection is probably one of the oddest games I’ve played in a long time. This collection of five different titles has you battling it out in epic slap fights with a variety of opponents. The game is almost completely motion controlled with a single Joy-Con, and has some of the most over the top stories I’ve seen in a long time. The real question is, was it any fun? Let’s dig in and find out.

There are five different stories here to slap your way through. The first follows Reiko as she tries to take over the Tsubakikoji family after the death of her husband. She will have to pummel the other ladies in the house to make this happen! The next story follows Saori as she seeks to get revenge on Reiko for taking over the family, but things do not go as planned. The third story sends a young maid in training, Rightie Mita, to complete a fierce competition, The Death Queen Circuit. This is like Street Fighter for slap fights. The next story has us taking control of Shizuka Tsubakikoji as she keeps getting some unwelcomed house guest. There is only one way to handle them of course, pummel them with slaps! Lastly, there is the La-Mulana bonus episode. This follows Mulbruk as she proves she is the true heroine of the game, by slapping down all the other girls that oppose her.

All of the stories here are well written and presented in a very nice visual novel style. Each story is more more over the top than the last. Some of the stories try to present themselves as serious, but you will be laughing too hard at just how ridiculous it all is. The voice actors really drive this home as well, they go full ham on these characters, and I loved it! Their performances with the era fitting music just really make all the storytelling here top notch and a pure joy.

Graphically, Rose & Camellia Collection is nicely done. All of the 24 characters found in the game are nicely detailed and vary in style. You have the La-Mulana characters, maids, boxers, a giant robot and much more. The battle effects here are all great as well, along with great sound effects that really seem to give your slaps a lot of weight, especially when you land a critical hit or get a nice counter attack.

Now let’s dig into the gameplay of this one, and this is where things fall apart some. There are two different controls schemes to choose from. Most players will opt for the motion controls because the touch screen controls are completely unusable. I tried them for a couple of battles and had nothing but problems. The motion controls do work for the most part, players will hold down A and swing the Joy-Con in order to smack their opponents. There is a timing mechanic here in order to get critical hits, and after completing all 24 fights here, I never did quite figure it out. I kinda got the timing on the double slap you unlock late in the game, but there is another strike called a Palm Strike which I wasn’t able to pull off even once. When you’re not on the attack, you can hold down the R button and swing the controller at the right time to dodge enemy attacks. These characters have some tells that let you know when they are about to strike at you. This is sorta like those you would find in a Punch-Out!! title. If you successfully dodge an attack and time it just right, you can even counter attack your foe, but be warned, they can do this to you the same way if your attack is poor.

Overall, the Rose & Camellia Collection isn’t a terrible experience, it’s just not a great one. While the controls sound good on paper, they are inconsistent in execution. Throw in some crazy difficulty spikes on top of this and things can get frustrating very quickly. I had a blast with over the top stories and the campy but fitting voice acting, but I think this package might be a bit overpriced at $20 for around 3 hours of gameplay. That said, if you catch this one on sale, and want a fun story with some unique controls, this might just fit the bill.