D3Publisher, known for Earth Defense Force, have recently released the latest game in their Escape Trick series, in Escape Trick: The Five Dangerous, Secret Rooms for the Nintendo 3DS. In previous Escape Trick games, the player had to escape amusement parks, convenience stores and TV studios. This time something goes wrong at what was supposed to be a friendly get-together at a bar.
The story revolves around the main character, Kentaro Sagara, who goes out to on a friendly drink with his old college buddies. After sharing a pleasant time with his friends, the drinks get the best of him and causes him to fall asleep at the bar. Before he knew it, he wakes up to the cold feeling of concrete on his face, in what seemed to be some sort of a confined secret room…
His friends were nowhere in sight and Kentaro finds himself in a completely closed-off room with no windows. As he tries to shake off his pounding headache from the hangover, a mysterious voice is heard from a speaker:
“Congratulations, you’ve been chosen as the first player of my game. The rules are simple: you’re imprisoned in that room. You must now find a way to escape.”
While trying to grasp the situation, Kentaro tries to open the only door in the room. His attempts are quickly proven futile, as it seems to be firmly sealed. Upon further inspecting the iron door, he notices there aren’t any key holes on the door, but there’s some sort of sensor instead.
Forced by an unknown person, Kentaro must now participate in this game and find a way to escape without knowing anything that is going on. It’ll require him to face countless traps and puzzles, should he wish to ever leave the room. However, this won’t be the only dilemma Kentaro will be facing, as this is just a prologue in the form of a game, to a much bigger incident that is waiting to begin…
Similar to Spike Chunsoft’s Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, you’ll need to utilize your keen observational skills to find your way out in Escape Trick: The Five Dangerous, Secret Rooms. It’ll require using the touch screen to solve various riddles and tricks that are scattered around the secret rooms. D3Publisher describes the game to be an orthodox “escape” game, with a mix of mind boggling story elements and attractive characters.
A lot of the puzzles will be solved using the memo function seen in the above image, which can be used to take notes for your puzzles and even take pictures.
The room may seem empty at first, but as you continue to observe and search around, you’ll come across various items. These items can also be synthesized together for a new use, which will be a key factor in finding your way out.
There are also achievements that can be acquired for meeting certain conditions. They can be viewed in a list of achievements and it also is said that there’s a nice little something that awaits players who finish the game with high achievement rates.
For players who are new to the genre, Escape Trick: The Five Dangerous, Secret Rooms offers a Beginner Mode, where Kentaro speaks his mind and provides hints on your current objective. In contrast, the Veteran Mode won’t provide any hints, leaving all the searching to the player.
Here’s a look at the characters:
Kentaro Sagara and Sakura Shinohara
Takashi Umeda and Shinji Hattori
Masayuki Kawakubo and Kurumi Kasuka
Daisuke and Yuri
Escape Trick: The Five Dangerous, Secret Rooms is currently available on the Japanese Nintendo 3DS eShop for 700 yen.
