Waiting Room, by Japanese designer Ikutama, is without doubt the newest member of the elite "so sweet it'll make your teeth ache" escape game club. Melodic, tinkly soundtrack? Check. Cute, colorful graphics? Check. Sentimental and slightly sad story involving lost love? Double check. Don't let the game's charming trappings deceive you, however; Waiting Room has real substance and some formidable puzzles. The extent of the efforts needed to complete the game, which includes searching the internet, might turn off some casual gamers; those who persevere, however, will surely be delighted by this quirky and clever escape game confection.
Waiting Room begins with your arrival at a train station in the middle of the Japanese countryside. As the game's slightly confusing introduction explains, things seem a little odd—a little old, to be more specific. It's as if you have stepped back 20 years! Perplexed, you enter the station's waiting room, and are confronted by a beautiful but downcast young woman. She is searching for a ring, and asks for your assistance. Seeing as you are mysteriously unable to leave the room anyways, why not give her a helping hand?
There's more to the story, of course, but in order to find out the details you'll need to make your way through some pretty tricky puzzles. Oh, those puzzles... I have some mixed feelings concerning them, actually. On the one hand, the majority are really quite good, and they do follow a certain logic. At times, though, some of the connections between clues seemed somewhat abstract; that is, I sometimes felt that the necessary links to connect document X with code Y, or whatever the case was, were not terribly obvious. This could, of course, just be a failing of my own intellect. However, if you're like me, you might find yourself engaging in more than a little bit of trial-and-error. Furthermore, one of the puzzles does (unless you randomly have the specialized knowledge required) necessitate searching the internet. Some players hate this, some aren't bothered by it in the least; in this case, I did find it to be mildly disruptive to the flow of the game. Still, despite these potential flaws, Waiting Room on the whole delivers well-crafted and entertaining puzzles (and two different endings!). Be patient, don't be afraid to try everything with everything else, and you'll make it through.
Waiting Room's neat, detailed graphics are very appealing, colorful but not cartoonish. The sweet, slightly melancholy soundtrack nicely enhances the game's ambience without excessively distracting from the gameplay. While the game has a multitude of hotspots, some of which are not immediately apparent, the cursor changes when mousing over a clickable area. This, happily, eliminates most pixel-hunting. The inventory system is clean and user-friendly, and navigating around the room is simple. The game's main technical weakness is the lack of a save feature, which is a serious no-no; Ikutama does, however, get points for including a volume control feature. Not perfect, but all in all a good job.
A damsel in distress, a missing ring, a room full of secrets and a sad tale to set right: the perfect recipe for your mid-week escape game indulgence. It's not easy—but really, what fun would it be if it were? Enjoy!
Walkthrough Guide
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Waiting Room Walkthrough
Note about the different endings:
There are two endings here. One for regular, and one for happy. This walkthrough shows you how to get happy ending. If you want normal do everything in this walkthrough except get the two tickets.
Walkthrough
Turn around and talk to the girl. She wants you to find her ring.
Turn right, get the rusty nail from under the bench
Use the nail to get the ticket from the bench.
Turn right, and get the broom
Turn right, and pull the box out from under the bench.
Get the sharpie from the box.
There is a hot spot on the top right corner of the bench, click there and get the bottle cap.
Turn right twice. Read the letter on the bench.
Click the broken window. smash it with the broom and then use the marker on the cracks.
The code it gives you is 62439. This code is for the green bin at the bottom of the bench.
to use the code just click the bars in the right order and then use the latch.
About item the ball of cloth and click them to get gloves.
Turn left and open the garbage can, using the broom.
Get the string.
Use the rusty nail to get the cork out of the bottle cap.
Use the bottle cap to scoop up the candy. (Gross.)
Turn right, put the candy on the windowsill.
Back up, and then go back to the windowsill to get the beetle.
Tie a string to the beetle, and throw it at the towel, then pick it back up.
In three places around the station there are lady bugs one by a sunflower outside, one by the ripped calendar, and one by the book on the bench. If you count the spots on the ladybugs and match them up to the schedule on the back you will see that the amount of dots on the lady bugs corrosponds to the numbers. If you match the numbers up and then look at the hours you will get 23 8 16.
Enter that code into the blue box, located in the box where you got the marker.
Get the magnets out of the box.
If you look out the window you can see that deer plateau is next to the station you are in. Wet the tower in the bucket and use it on the window to see the rest of the sign..The poster on the back says east fox river is 10 minutes from monkey valley. The towel says cat forest is 12 minutes from monkey valley. The ticket you have says crow garden is 120 yes.
Putting all these clues together the order of the stations is Rabbit hill, Deer plateau, this station, Fox river, East fox river, Monkey valley, Cat forest (to the left), Crow garden (To the right).
Pick up the schedule. Use the work gloves to repair the red wire. and turn the lights on.
When you look at the lights the top left light has a dot in it when its on. Poke the dot with the broom when the light is on.
use that bag you just got on the ashtray and the gloves to put the butts in the bag. Get the key.
The order of the lights tells you the order to click the corners of the garbage chute. top left, top left, top right, lower left, top right, lower right, lower left. then click the handle to open it.
In the letter you read earlier it said the password to the box was her name, and the colors of her favorite things. in the notebook you will see her name is Natumi. And she's drawn some butterflies.
If you google some butterflies you can match the colors to what they would be, or i can just tell you here. blue, orange, yellow green
Examine the route map, you'll see the back is a mirror. Use this to light up the hole behind where you pulled the box out from under the bench.
Open the box, and get the ring.
Skip this step if you want normal ending. Open the box again and get the ticket from inside, using the key.
Turn around and give the girl her ring.
Leave the station.
The end.
Posted by: Kero
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July 8, 2009 12:01 AM