In the last episode of Aries Escape, you enjoyed a sun soaked, blue sea drenched island vacation marred only by a slight wardrobe hitch: a misplaced suitcase key resulting in an inaccessible bikini. Now the holiday is over, you're returned to much more mundane surroundings and it's time to wash the spilled Mai Tai and suntan oil from your clothes. I mean, you can't always go around in a lime green cropped top and sweatpants, can you? But since this is an escape game—Aries Escape: Episode No.13 to be precise—doing laundry isn't a simple affair. Not only will you have to search the coin-op from top to bottom for the secret codes to operate the washers and dryers, you'll also have to figure out how to solve the puzzles and unlock the front door. You know, so you don't live out the rest your years in this place and become the plot for the next Japanese horror movie.
For the most part, navigating the scene is straight-forward: you have arrows at the sides of the screen to let you know where you can move, even when you're in a close up view, so it's important to not overlook that as you'll only end up missing an important clue hidden at the side of some object or other. It's also helpful to pay attention to the changing cursor although some of the active areas are small or close together. Perhaps the messaging that pops up as you click around the room would be of use, but only to those who can read Japanese; the rest of us will need to rely on both inference and trial-and-error to get past some less-than-intuitive spots. Still, as long as you can find the clues, it takes only a bit of deductive reasoning to solve the puzzles. Finally, before you head out the door, remember to turn around and look for the second ending (you can save your game by clicking the blue disc icon). As ordinary as the setting may be, Aries Escape manages to make the room interesting and unusual in a character-driven escape game with a few quirks yet full of playful personality.
Walkthrough Guide
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Walkthrough
Exploring
Wall o'Washers
(So, these are apparently washers AND dryers. Do such mythical devices actually exist in Japan?) Examine each washing machine. From left to right:
The first one says "diamond diamond 137" in blue, and doesn't seem to have any buttons (or at least, it doesn't have any buttons that do anything).
The second needs a 5-character code. The buttons are pink.
The third needs a 5-digit code, and the buttons are green.
The fourth also needs a 5-digit code, but the buttons are purple, blue, yellow, green, and red, in that order.
Window & Door
Look at the magazines on the end of the shelf/table.
Get the crossword puzzle.
Pick up the middle stool.
Click where the middle stool used to be and note the shapes.
There are 5 green... what the heck are those? Curtained windows?
Click the door. Notice the shapes.
There are 9 blue crescents pendant. (That's the heraldic term; look it up.)
There's also a locked panel to the right of the door.
Examine the doormat.
Get the ruler.
Bookcase & Clock
Open the doors at the bottom of the bookcase. There's a box that needs yet another five-digit code. The box has a concentric-circles symbol on it.
Before zooming out all the way, notice that there's a leftward-pointing arrow. Click it and note the code.
459 written in yellow on the side of the bookcase.
Look at the pink box on the wall. Hm, some of those shapes look familiar. Make a note of which other shapes to keep an eye out for.
You've seen the crescents, windows, and diamonds. Still need to find the flowers and teardrops. (Well, it's not really a teardrop, but what else would you call it?)
(And no, I have no idea why there's a coin slot on this box.)
Before zooming out, notice the rightward-pointing arrow. Click it and note the code.
268 written in red.
Look at the clock. Hah! Teardrops!
There are four blue teardrops, but apparently their color doesn't matter.
Put the stool under the clock, and look at the clock again.
There's a locked panel behind it, similar to the one next to the door.
Vending Machine
The vending machine doesn't seem to be on - it's all dark and the buttons don't do anything. But you can still see the shapes.
There are 7 pink flowers. (Sorry, I know we've already ascertained that the colors don't matter.)
Next to the vending machine, there's some sort of recycling station with a lever and a coin-return-type slot.
Look underneath the vending machine. There's something you can't quite reach... or can you?
Use the ruler to get the paper. It has a familiar-looking concentric-circles symbol on it, and some numbers that look like degrees - 180, 360, etc. Looks like we'll be rotating something to open that box.
Solving Time
Crossword puzzle
Remember that paper you got from the magazines? Look at it and note that some of the letters are highlighted. ACLNE - wonder what that could spell?
Don't forget, you're in a laundromat: CLEAN.
There was only one place that needed a 5-letter code.
Enter the word "CLEAN" into the panel on the second washing machine from the left.
Get the coin.
You can also open the washing machine now, but there's nothing in it.
Pink box
You've now seen all of the shapes for the pink box on the wall under the clock.
9 crescents, 5 windows, 2 diamonds, 7 flowers, 4 teardrops.
Get the key.
Clock panel
There's only two places that needed a key; you can check the panel next to the door if you'd like, but I'll save you some time and tell you that this key is for the panel behind the clock.
There are two switches. The first one you can go ahead and flip right away, but the second one is covered with some sort of screwed-on doohickey. (That's a technical term. No, don't look it up.) You don't have a screwdriver, but sometimes, you don't need a screwdriver to unscrew something...
Try the coin.
Flip the second switch as well.
Drinking Problem
The vending machine is now on! One of those switches must've did it. You have a coin, you know what to do.
Yes, I know you only have one coin and there are six types of drinks. Don't worry about it, just choose one. Oh, and I hope you're thirsty.
Examine the can you got, top and bottom. While you're looking at the top, you should probably open it and drink it. While you're looking at the bottom, make a note of what's written there.
Now, go to the Magical Mystery Recycling Machine, put the (empty) can in the recess, and pull the lever. Hey presto, you got your coin back! (Apparently, in this universe, soda is free, the energy to recycle cans is free, and the can-making companies don't want to make a profit.)
Repeat these steps for each color of can. Now hurry up and escape, because as far as I can tell, this laundromat doesn't have a restroom.
Colorful buttons
Go to the right-hand washing machine and put in the code from the soda cans.
Colorblind help (or if you can't be bothered to drink all those cans of soda):
blue = II, yellow = III, red = V, green = VII, purple = VIII.
For the utterly lazy:
82375
Press Start, then open the door and get the paper.
Green numbers
While you were on your drinking binge, you doubtless noticed that there were some numbers on the wall. (One of the switches behind the clock was probably the culprit.)
Put the numbers into the third washing machine.
72508
Press Start and open the door. What's this, another code to solve?
Three buttons
Turns out, you already have this code.
You've seen three 3-digit numbers in colors that match the buttons.
The blue 137 on the first washer, the yellow 459 on the bookcase, and the red 268 on the pink box.
Press the buttons as the code indicates.
Colorblind:
The buttons are blue, yellow, and red, from left to right. Thus, press them in this order: LRLMMRLRM.
Get the paper.
Rotations
Time to tackle the blue box in the bookcase. This is very easy to overthink. All of the related clues have concentric circles on them: the black can, and the paper with the degree numbers. Yup, that's it.
The can says "L4—E9", and the rotations are 180 (half a turn), 360 (a full turn, i.e. no effect), 270 (three-quarter turn), 180 again, and 540 (a turn and a half, which has the same effect as half a turn).
Hint 1:
The dash is a character, same as any other.
Hint 2:
There are five characters in "L4—E9", there are five numbers on the paper, and there are five buttons.
Hint 3:
If you turn an L upside-down, what do you get?
Solution:
Turn each character as the corresponding number indicates. A half-turn makes an L into a 7, the 4 stays a 4, a dash given a three-quarter turn becomes a 1, an E turned upside-down becomes a 3, and a 9 becomes a 6 after a 540 degree turn.
Get the key.
Door panel
Use the key on the panel next to the door. OK, that was short-lived: we need another five-letter code. Oh, wait, we have all these papers...
One of the papers has shapes with numbers next to them, and the other has those same shapes (plus some others) with letters below them.
Diamond-4 means to use the fourth letter in the diamond column, which is an S.
Solution:
SCRUB
Put in the code and press the "unlock" button.
Exiting
Normal End
You can, of course, just go out the door, now that it's unlocked. But where's the fun in that? Plus, don't you have this nagging "unfinished" feeling? Like there was still something left to do? Something you never managed to unlock?
Happy End
Just to make things utterly obvious, there's now a spotlight shining on the first washing machine, the one you never opened.
Huh, it's now flashing "DRY". Well, you do still have a coin, don't you? (If not, go employ the Magical Mystery Recycling Machine.) Take a turn around the room, then open the washer. Get the shirt from inside it, which immediately turns into your missing earring.
Now you can go out the door.
Posted by: Reka
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July 31, 2014 11:14 PM