Real Escape Game by SCRAP - "Escape from the Lockdown: The Demon Forest"
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Real Escape Game by SCRAP - "Escape from the Lockdown: The Demon Forest"

Updated: Apr 9, 2021


Videos/ Photos provided by Real Escape Game by SCRAP

Company: Real Escape Game by SCRAP

Game: Escape from the Lockdown: The Demon Fortress

Country: Japan 🇯🇵

Language: English, Japanese

Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻

Genre: Hero, Adventure

Date Played: 3/5/2021

Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6/10

Size of Team: Unlimited. (Recommended 4 Players)

Time: Unlimited (Approx. 2-3 Hours)

Price: ¥‎ 2,800/ pp (~$27/ pp)

This is the second game of the Real Escape Game by SCRAP's "Escape from the Lockdown" series. Check out our review of the first game - "The Strange Village".


🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈


Nine heroes have been captured by the Demon King. They are currently being locked up in the Demon Fortress. It's up to you to connect with them through your "communication crystal", solve all the puzzles and figure out a plan to save them!

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈


If you've played their first game "The Strange Village" before, then you'll have an easier time with this game as it uses the same online platform. The game starts with an intro video from the mayor of the town. If you remember the "crystal ball" from the first game, it's making its appearance again in this game with the same function: communication.


We played this game over Zoom with our team and each of the players logged into the system with their own game code. The game is not synced so it's important to keep your team updated on solutions so you can move forward together. There's a lot of narrative components to this game so we strongly recommend headphones. The narrative is in Japanese with subtitles. At times we found that we had to rewind quite a bit because we were unable to follow so quickly (especially for a part at the end). I hope you're a quick note taker!


Our goal was to defeat the "Big 4" first before facing the Demon King. Each hero has special powers that they're able to use on these missions. We love the prerecorded videos of the dramatic reenactments from the characters.


🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂


Each "level" of fighting with the "Big 4" had mini puzzles that we had to surpass. It actually worked really well for a team of 4 as we each tackled one and quickly went over the puzzle after solving them. We would then join forces to defeat the demon on a "video game" command type of puzzle. This would go on for 4 rounds until we were faced with the final beast. Most of the puzzles were based on word play. I wish there were a few variations in terms of puzzle types. Although one puzzle really surprised us on its reusability. We really enjoyed that one. The final puzzle was also one of our favorites as it gave us that "I totally did not expect that" feeling.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

This was a heavily narrative based game with light puzzle elements. I am a big fan of anime so the graphics and the actors' voices drew me into a fantasy world right from the beginning. The script was very clever and our favorite part was always the plot twist. You never know what was going to happen and it's usually totally unexpected. I look forward to another "Escape From The Lockdown" series from SCRAP but this time with more puzzles and some variations would be great. I wouldn't change a thing on their narratives though. I haven't seen anything like it out there that's similar to their production value yet.


A unique and engaging story line

Overall production value was very high

Videos were entertaining

Use of D&D style strategic puzzles worked well

Harder puzzles encouraged lateral thinking

Cons

The game is a bit longer than most which may tire out some non dedicated solvers

Some of the early puzzles were trivial

This online adventure style of this game was very refreshing. You can tell just how much effort the creators poured into this experience. The game itself is nicely divided up into segments each kicked off by a video to introduce the next narrative chapter. Since the game is as long as a movie would be, you have the opportunity to follow the cast of characters along this puzzle filled journey to it's wild conclusion. Where most other online escape room games devote their time to their puzzles, SCRAP instead carefully constructs full experiences that truly entertain for the duration.

The puzzles start off quite easy but eventually become much more involved and challenging as the game progresses. The turn based combat puzzles are well conceived and allow the solvers to take on the roles of the characters in the narrative. The illustrations and images for the puzzles are well polished and fit seamlessly into the adventure as well. Some of the puzzles also require some outside-the-box thinking that really encourage the solvers to pay close attention to the dialog and events of the story.

Overall this game is exceptional. It's unique presentation and theater are surely memorable. I would highly recommend this game to anyone.

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This game was unlike any I've experienced before. It was engaging and fun and at times felt like watching a play. I really enjoyed the fact that there were multiple puzzles to solve at the same time so everyone had a chance to feel like an essential member of the team. I think the progression of the story flowed really well.


The things I liked the most were the beginning puzzles, while not overly challenging it was a great group exercise. I also enjoyed the fight puzzles because they were decently challenging but also well constructed; knowing which answer was incorrect was very helpful.


The only things I can say negatively are more preference based. I have a hard time reading the conversation while taking notes so that very minimally affected my experience. The game was also super long which may be a deterrent to some. Just as you think "YES! We did it!" you get another prompt which I did not mind but some people may need to take breaks in between videos.

As someone who has participated in more than my fair share of escape rooms (both online and in person) I feel that this company really set themselves apart from the rest. I would say this is one escape room that I will not easily forget. I highly recommend this experience!

(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)


Disclosure: We thank Real Escape Game by SCRAP for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

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