I went to 'Escape from the Last After-School'!
I'm going to ramble on about my thoughts on the puzzle-solving performance I participated in✏️
There are no spoilers, but if you don't want to know about the atmosphere, please refrain from reading🙇♀️
The other day, I went to 'Escape from the Last After-School', which is currently being held at the SCRAP Shibuya store🌸
The puzzle-solving series by the Hikagaku Real Escape Club that started in 2024.
Since this is the final chapter,
I participated having already played 'Escape from Our Real Escape Game', 'Escape from the Never-Ending Summer Festival', and the take-home puzzles created by the Hikagaku members for Mystery for You.
I have never succeeded in a Hikagaku Real Escape Club series performance before, and I have often ended the performances feeling bitter, but was I able to finish on a high note?🤔
Difficulty, etc.
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
The puzzles require wordplay, logic, a bit of inspiration, and the ability not to miss any information💡
Also, I felt there was quite a large volume of tasks right from the first step.
It feels like it's easy for checkpoints to get congested, so it's best to rush through the beginning and middle sections🥠
I was participating with a group ticket, but one person suddenly couldn't make it due to feeling unwell, so we participated as a group of 3💦
Every table was full, so it was a sold-out session, and
unfortunately, we failed and were unable to finish on a high note😭
Impressions
If you have played the previous Hikagaku series, there were many puzzles and productions that made me go 'Oh!', so I recommend it to those who have played the Hikagaku series before✨
The format of interacting with members at checkpoints along the way is the same as before, but this time, the checkpoint experience felt more like we were collaborating with the Hikagaku series members, which was nice.
Also, although the checkpoints are narrow, there were measures taken to avoid congestion, and it seemed like they were sending teams to the next session if there were too many teams passing through.
(I wondered if this was in consideration of the complaints that kept coming up during the previous Summer Festival*...🤔)
*During the Summer Festival, for sold-out sessions, it felt like they were packing too many people into the checkpoints, which lowered the value of the experience.
However, even though there are considerations this time, such waiting is likely to occur, so if possible, it seems best to rush through the beginning🏃♀️💨
We were conscious of that as well, so we raced through to the relatively large puzzles and were able to reach the final big puzzle as one of the fastest teams.
I can't say much about what happened because it would be a spoiler, but honestly, I felt a lingering sense of frustration from that point until the explanation ended...
Out of the 17 teams that participated, only about 3 succeeded, so I think the success difficulty is on the higher side for a SCRAP performance.
(Though I think that's also due to a certain production element...🤔)
Compared to other SCRAP collaboration puzzle games, there are more small puzzles and more steps in each stage, and the difficulty feels a bit higher, so I think we did quite well to be in the lead with a team of 3, even though the session was full with a full table.🏆
Unfortunately, we couldn't finish on a high note, but I could clearly feel that I had grown since the first time I did a SCRAP puzzle festival two years ago, so I'm glad I did it.💖
Of course, it's also thanks to the members who solved the puzzles with me (thank you!🙇♀️)
Whether you have played the Hikagaku series before, which offers quite substantial puzzle-solving despite its cute appearance, or are starting with this work, I think you will enjoy the production of the checkpoints.
Please enjoy communicating with the cute members of the Hikagaku Real Escape Club.✨
