It was supposed to be simple: break in to the department store, steal the top secret documents, and get out. But someone gassed you, and now you're alone on the store's roof, and things are bound to get more complex before they get simpler. So begins Japanese developer Gatamari's newest escaper, Mission in Department Store. Click the green and red arrows to navigate, and click on various objects to zoom in on them, interact, or pick them up. Once something is in your inventory, click it to highlight it for use, and if you want to take a closer look at it or combine it with something else, that's what the "About Item" button is for. Your ultimate goal is to nab the top secret file and leave the department store... and maybe do a few things more, if you're interested in getting the better of the game's two endings.
You may recognize this developer from a past Weekday Escape. There's no way around it, Gatamari is an expert at this trade. The graphics are the antithesis of the fancy photorealism that developers like Robamimi or Tesshi-e might be fond of, but it's never difficult to tell what you're looking at. The puzzles are logical and cleverly designed. Although there's no changing cursor, you never have to click anywhere unintuitive, although some clickable areas are difficult to find if you're not really looking for them. The game may be in Japanese, but the language barrier is non-obstructive when it comes to gameplay, and the important things are in English. There's even the option to adjust how quickly the elevators move and how fast the doors open and close, in case the tediousness drives you crazy. It's hard to find fault with Mission in Department store, especially if you're looking for an elaborate, enjoyable escape game to kill some time.
Walkthrough Guide
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Mission in Department Store Walkthrough
Getting to Know the Department Store
You start on the rooftop. There are three views of the city around you, but nothing to see in any of them, so turn to face the elevator doors.
Some joker wrote "TOILET" next to the elevator. Weird... maybe it's a hint for something. We'll tackle that later. Call the elevator and step inside.
The department store has eleven floors, including the basement and rooftop. Inside this elevator you see a list of them all. Let's look at them from top to bottom.
Floor 9 is the office. It's locked with a keycard.
Floor 8 is the restaurant. The display with pasta and a fork is locked with a four-digit code.
Floor 7 is the interior department. There's a drawer marked "JUNK"; it's jammed and won't open.
Floor 6 is the "erectric" (silly Japanese and their R's) department. There's a strange panel with four blue circle quadrants, and apparently the hint for it is on floor 1.
Floor 5 is the toy department. You can see a toy car on a ramp course in there.
Floor 4 is the book department. There's a stack of books, and you can look at the top one: "yellow car - red car = 8F pass". Odd.
Floor 3 is the mens' department. Examine the mannequin and take one of its socks.
Floor 2 is the ladies' department. The door has a red arrow and some squares on it.
Floor 1 is the amusement (?) department. There's a dispenser there, but you don't have a coin for it.
Lastly, there's the basement parking garage. The exit's down here, but it requires a keycard, too. There's also a locked panel and two cars to the left, and something in the blue car to the right.
You may have also noticed two other elevators besides the one you first took. The left elevator goes to every floor but the rooftop, and has a wobbly picture of two women and a vase inside it. The right elevator is out of order.
Enough window shopping, we've got some puzzles to solve!
The "TOILET" Puzzle and the Wobbly Picture
There's no restroom in this department store, so what could the word "TOILET" possibly refer to? Perhaps it's a code for something. That panel in the parking garage was locked with a six-digit code, but we'd need to translate the letters into numbers somehow.
The floor guide in the center elevator might serve another purpose. T-O-I-L-E-T... Toy, Office, Interior, Ladies, Erectric, Toy perhaps? That would make the code 5-9-7-2-6-5.
Try that on the panel in the parking garage and it opens! It's a fusebox! For some reason the 2 switch is off, so turn it back on. Also, take the diagram on the door's inside; you'll figure out what it means later.
Maybe turning that switch on changed something on Floor 2. Go back there and investigate.
It's lit up inside the ladies' department now. And those red squares look like they're highlighting different parts of the ladies' faces. Now where could we use that sequence?
How about the wobbly picture in the left elevator? Jiggle it in the appropriate order: upper left, lower right, upper right, upper left, lower left, lower right, upper right.
You'll get an RC car remote for your trouble. Now if only we had some batteries for it...
The Floor 6 Panel and the Restaurant Code
We know the hint for the panel on Floor 6 is on Floor 1 somewhere. Let's go investigate. Hm... what looks like that?
Well, the out of order sign by the right elevator looks like that. And it has numbers on it on Floor 1! The code's easily translatable: from 1 to 7, press the top panel, then right, left, top, bottom, right, bottom. Then press A for your prize...
...a pair of batteries? Well, you DO have a use for them. Put them in the RC car remote. Now we just have to find an RC car.
Go to Floor 5. Use the RC car remote, with batteries, on the door to make the RC car go. After a cutscene, it'll crash into the door. Now... what was the point of that?
Zoom in. The car's red, and has a license number of 1845. Hmm...
Remember the clue from the book? "Yellow car - red car = 8F pass". Recheck the parking garage; there's a blue car, a white car, and a yellow car there. The yellow car's license number is 6274; subtract 1845 from that and you're left with 4429.
That's the code for the box on floor 8. Open it and get a fork. A fork? What do we do with it?
The Out Of Order Elevator and the Blue Car
Did you notice a crank wheel when facing the elevators on the basement floor? It opens the door to the right elevator. Go inside.
The elevator's back wall is blank, but if you stare at it for a moment, you'll notice something sparkling. Look down; there's a coin lost in a gap.
Use your fork to retrieve a coin. Maybe we can spend it somewhere.
Before leaving the elevator, check its buttons. Only the open and close door buttons can be pressed, and why does it have an OK button?
We'll worry about that later; on to business. Go to Floor 1 and use the coin on the dispenser. You'll get... a whole bunch of marbles. Dispenser must be broken.
Well, we can probably do something with them. Put the marbles in the sock (the one you got from the mannequin on the men's floor, remember?) to make a... sock with marbles in it. Well, it'll probably be useful as a bludgeon.
Go to the basement again. Remember the blue car? Use your new sock with marbles to break the windshield. You'll get an office keycard for your vandalism.
The Office and the Out Of Order Elevator Revisited
Obviously, the office keycard is used to unlock the office door. But you also want to look on the back: "PC PASS ****". Hm...
Inside, take the pry bar from the corner of the room, then examine the PC. "****" isn't the code like the hint suggested, but did you notice how the keys were rearranged every time you pressed the * key?
The * key lands in the 2 key's position first, then 6, then 7, then 3. Thus, the combination is 2673. Now... what's there to see?
Mail? No mail. Text? Blank. That just leaves the "0001" folder. It's a diagram of the elevators... looks like the "BOX" is in the out-of-order elevator's shaft on Floor 4. The word "PASS" refers to that elevator, too... it's a bunch of triangles?
Wait a minute. Remember how only the open and close buttons worked in that elevator? Separate those triangles into pairs and they'll look familiar: close, open, open, close, close, open.
Go to the basement floor again, enter the out-of-order elevator, and press the open and close buttons in that order. Then press OK. The elevator will then work... too bad the doors won't open on any but the basement floor.
The Box and the Normal End
Remember the jammed drawer on floor 7? Use the pry bar to get it open and nab the wrench within. Now you need some bolts to undo.
If you were observant, you may have noticed a bolted-shut panel by the right elevator on Floor 4. Remove it with the wrench, then turn the familiar-looking crank handle beyond to work the elevator doors open.
You can see the box... but you're not going to be able to reach it across an open elevator shaft! If only you had something to stand on... say, that elevator is running now, isn't it?
Get the right elevator to Floor 3 without you in it. There are two ways to do this. One: get in, make sure the doors are open, press the 3 button, and get out before the doors close. Two: take another elevator to Floor 3 and press the right elevator's call button.
Once the right elevator is at Floor 3, you can go to Floor 4 and stand on it to reach the box. Now... what's the code?
Remember that diagram you picked up from the fusebox? The rectangles' positions match up. The trick is to set the numbers so their "endpoints" match those of the red lines. For example, the upper-left digit has endpoints at the upper right and lower left, so it has to be the digit 5.
Eventually, you'll be able to figure out the combination: 541 in the top row, 23 in the bottom row.
Take the top secret file, open it, and get the parking keycard. Go to the basement level and use the parking keycard on the panel, then press "OPEN" to clear your escape route.
You COULD leave now, but you won't get the best ending if you do. There's more to do...
E-Mail, Signal Lights, and the Good End
Did you notice the envelope icon that flashed on the parking garage panel when you opened the door? The office computer had an E-mail program... maybe there's a connection.
Return to the office and read a strange self-destructing E-mail that tells you to "GO UP!" The only thing above the office is the rooftop, so return there. (Remember, only the center elevator goes there.)
There are men on the roofs, signaling to you with lights of different colors! Look left and right to see them all: six green flashes, eight purple, and five cyan. Have you seen those colors somewhere before?
Yes, you have! The inside doors of the elevators were those colors! Get the left elevator to floor 8, the middle to floor 6, and the right to floor 5. (Remember, you can't get on or off the right elevator except at the basement or floor 4.)
When the last elevator is in place, everything will flash red for a moment. Get out and look at the elevators; floor 7 is now highlighted in red for some reason. Might as well investigate; maybe there's something there.
There IS something there: a gun! Take it; that's your Happy Coin. Now you can go to the basement level and leave, and you'll get the better ending. I recommend it; it's hilarious.
Posted by: SonicLover
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March 29, 2014 2:36 PM