Escape from Piano Room
Yes, long, complicated room escapes are fun to get lost in, but really good ones are few and far between. A large, multi-course meal is only good if it is edible, so sometimes you might want to settle for something slightly less filling, yet very tasty. Today's mid-week escape snack comes to us from the ever expanding smorgasbord of Mild Escapes by Tesshi-e. Can you find the objects, solve the puzzles, and Escape from Piano Room? Hopefully you can, otherwise the music might drive you insane.
Anyone who has ever played any of Tesshi-e's escapes will be familiar with the set-up: locked room, puzzles to solve, objects to manipulate, and of course a happy coin to find for an alternate ending. The games are still in Japanese, although more English phrases are creeping in, and it is not necessary to read Japanese to solve your way out. The familiar navigation arrows and lack of a changing cursor will also be no surprise to Mild Escape veterans.
What is surprising, perhaps, is the design aesthetic of Escape from Piano Room. Gone are the soothing, lush rendered backgrounds. In their place are garish colors, wildly clashing designs, and some very harsh lighting. Combined with the piano/accordion music, well, let's say it's quite an incentive to get out of the space pronto.
Despite the headache-inducing scenery, though, the puzzles are top notch. Lots of logic, a small amount of combining of found objects, and no construction make for a tight, well designed puzzle. Perhaps the only complaint when it comes to the escape design is the presence of a color-based puzzle, but you will have to search pretty far for a room escape that doesn't include at least one.
So there is some pixel hunting, and you might need to wear sunglasses and earplugs while searching the room, but Escape from Piano Room is still a fun, logical, challenging escape guaranteed to brighten up the mid-week. Be sure keep the aspirin (or Tylenol) on standby though, just in case, although escaping out into the fresh air should clear that headache right up.
Walkthrough Guide
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Escape from Piano Room Walkthrough
Facing the door
You start off facing a blue door with a panel either side. Click the left panel for a close up and note the three coloured holes.
Back up and click on the right panel
Open the panel and take the red ball ("red part") and the silver contraption.
Note the "O Center" clue
Facing the pictures
Click the lower part of the rabbit painting to get the green stick.
Click the pedestal for a closer look...legsyswings??
Facing the sofa
Take the spade key in the middle of the sofa.
Click the right foot of the sofa for a close up. Note the clue.
The "yellow part" is under the sofa. Use the green stick to get it.
Facing the piano
The piano is locked but we have a key…
Unlock the piano and take the bent wire and the "blue part"
Click to the right of the piano and take the glass plate
Opening the left panel
Turn back to face the door. We now have the 3 parts for the coloured holes in the left panel but we need a code.
Open the right hand panel. Is that a weighing scale?
Bring up the silver contraption and add one of the coloured parts to it.
Now put it on the scales.
Repeat using each of the three coloured parts and you'll get a different weight for each.
Red = 1 Blue = 3 Yellow = 7
Back up and click on the left panel.
Add your coloured parts to the coloured holes and then input the code (317) to the left.
Now open the panel!
Note the "Left" clue.
Take the bent wire.
Take the club key from the right teacup
Click the white switch and a green light will come on.
Back to the pedestal
lgsyswings?
Legs…Eyes…Wings
Click to the bottom left of the pedestal to see a locked panel
Use the club key to open the panel and then flick the switch
The pedestal is now live!
The example tells us that we need to enter a 3 digit code.
Take a look at the rabbit and chick pictures and work out how many legs, eyes and wings they have between them.
6 legs…4 eyes…2 wings
Put 642 into the pedestal keypad, press the big button on the right of the keypad.
Another piece of bent wire…hooray!
The coffee table
Examine the glass plate. Note that there are holes in it. Combine your 3 bits of bent wire with the glass plate and voila! A very unattractive sculpture.
Look at the coffee table…the spotlights are now shining on it.
Place your sculpture on the table
A code appeared on the floor!
It's upside down...
537
Back to the piano
Click on the number panel on top of the piano
Input the code 537 and Enter
A heart key!
Normal Ending
Take the heart key and open the door!
Happy Coin Ending
Take the heart key and note the series of stars and circles.
Remember the clues - on the side of the sofa, in the left cupboard and in the right cupboard? The stars and circle represent Right, Left, Centre.
The sequence refers to the piano's pedals.
Left, Right, Right, Centre, Right, Centre
Tap the piano's feet in that order and a happy coin will fall.
Pick it up.
Use your heart key on the door.
Posted by: NellB | June 9, 2010 7:31 AM
Escape from Piano Room Walkthrough
General Information
There is no changing cursor, so be prepared for a little pixel hunting.
The walkthrough will include directions for the color-blind.
Examine all of the objects and try to combine them, some combinations will be necessary to complete the game.
Enjoy!
Exploration
You begin by facing a blue door in a checked wall, with cabinets on either side of the door.
Click on the left cabinet for a close up.
This cabinet is locked, and there are some holes underneath, three round colored holes and three black square holes.
The round holes are, from left to right, blue, red, and yellow.
Nothing more to do here, so back up.
Click on the right cabinet for a close up.
Click on the cabinet to open it.
There's some interesting stuff in this cabinet.
Take the silver balance thing from the cabinet.
Take the red ball from the cabinet. It's a knob!
In the center of the cabinet is what looks like a balancing scale.
Pull up the silver thing from your inventory. There appears to be a ball missing from the right side.
Attach the red knob to the right side of the silver thing. It fits!
Close the silver thing back into your inventory, then place it on the scale.
The top of the silver thing should swing to the number 1.
Take the silver thing back into your inventory.
Before we leave, notice the word "center" next to a O just to the right of the scale.
Back up.
Turn right.
You are now facing a greenish-blue wall with a picture and what looks like a silver pedestal of some sort beneath it (to me it looks like a standing ashtray).
Click on the picture for a close up.
Awww, a bunny and a little birdie, how cute!
Look closely at the bunny on the left. Notice the green line towards the bottom of the painting.
Click on the green line to get a stick.
Now click on the pedestal thing for a close up.
Well, the top of the pedestal says "lgsyswings". Wonder what that means?
Notice the number pad sticking out of the pedestal. Guess we need a code.
Click to the left of the pedestal, towards the bottom.
Cool, a secret compartment that needs a key.
Back up three times.
Turn right.
You are now facing a glass coffee table and red couch. Notice up in the ceiling what looks like light fixtures.
Click on the couch for a close up.
Click on the center of the couch, on the seat on the seam between the two sides.
Take the object (spade key) and back up.
Now click just to the right of the couch at the bottom.
Hmmm, there's a solid gold star and the word "right" on the side of the couch.
If you look closely, there's also a faint object underneath the couch, just under the R of right.
Clicking on it does no good, it's pretty far back there.
Hey, you have a stick!
Use the green stick to collect the object (yellow knob).
Back up twice and turn right.
Okay, guess we've finally found the piano in piano room.
Click on the piano for a close up.
The keyboard cover is closed, and it looks like we need a key to open it.
Use the spade key on the keyboard to open it.
Take the objects from the keyboard (twisted wire and blue knob).
On top of the piano is a white object, click on it.
Hmmm, looks like we'll need a code to open the white thing. Back up.
Click to the right of the piano to look at it from the side.
Take the object leaning against the piano (glass plate).
Back up twice and turn right.
Solving the Cabinets
Time to solve some puzzles!
Pull up the silver thing from your inventory and click on the red knob to remove it.
Click on the cabinet to the left of the door for a close up.
We have a blue, yellow, and red knob, and blue, yellow, and red holes underneath the cabinet.
Let's put the knobs in and see what happens, shall we?
For the color-blind: in your inventory, the top row contains, from left to right, the blue and yellow knobs.
The red knob is in your lower row of the inventory, on the far left.
The holes are, from left to right, blue, red, and yellow.
Once all of the knobs are attached you will see that you need a three digit code to open the cabinet.
But where do we find the code?
Remember when we weighed the red knob, the number was 1?
Perhaps if we weighed each of the knobs, it will give us the code.
Take the knobs back into your inventory by clicking on them one at a time.
Back up and click on the right cabinet.
Open the right cabinet.
Pull up the silver balance thing from your inventory and attach the blue ball.
Once the ball is attached place the balance on the scale and you will get the number 3.
Take back the silver thing, remove the blue ball, and repeat the process with the yellow ball to get the number 7.
Back up and click on the left cabinet.
Place the balls (knobs) back into their slots below the cabinet to activate the numbers.
Change the numbers to match the ball weights. From left to right this is 3, 1, 7.
If you entered the code correctly, you can now open the cabinet.
Lots of stuff in there!
Take the twisted wire from the top shelf.
There's a white switch plate above the top shelf where the wire was, click on it to activate it.
On the bottom shelf are two coffee cups, click on the one on the right to bring it into close up.
Click on the cup again to look inside and take the club key that is revealed.
Notice that on the back of the cupboard, below the "Mild Escape", is an outlined star with the word "left".
Back up and turn right.
Solving the Picture and Pedestal
You should now be facing the cute bunny/bird picture.
Click on the silver pedestal twice for a close up.
Click to the left of the pedestal to show the hidden compartment.
Use the club key to open the compartment.
Click on the revealed switch and back up.
Looks like we switched on the pedestal! We now have a clue, +e (2, 5, 7).
What can it mean?
The + seems to indicate that we would add the letter e to something.
Perhaps to the jumble of letters already on the pedestal?
The numbers would seem to indicate positions.
Take the letters that are on the pedestal, lgsyswings, and add the letter e so that it is in the second, fifth, and seventh positions.
That would be l(e)gs(e)y(e)swings.
Hmmm, legs, eyes, wings?
Let's look at the picture above the pedestal.
Add up the number of legs of each animal, the number of eyes, and the number of wings.
Add up the total number of each item the animal has in reality, not just what is visible in the picture.
That would be 6 legs (4 on the bunny, two on the bird), 4 eyes (two each), and 2 wings.
So perhaps the code is 642?
Enter the code into the pedestal and click on the large button to the right of the numbers.
A compartment opens up! Take yet another piece of twisted wire (you should now have 3).
Back up twice and turn right.
Solving the Couch and the Table
You should now be facing the red couch and glass coffee table.
Notice that there are now lights coming down from the overhead fixtures and hitting the table.
Click on the table for a close up.
Hmmm, maybe if we put something on the table?
Pull up the glass plate from your inventory.
Attach each of the pieces of wire to the glass plate. Look, a modern sculpture!
Place the plate with the wires on the table.
Cool, the light passing through the wires casts the shadow of a number underneath, although it is upside down.
That gives you the code 537.
Well, now we have a code, where do we need to use it?
Back up and turn right.
Getting Out (Regular Escape)
You should now be facing the piano.
Click on the piano for a close up, then click on the top of the piano to see the white code thing.
Enter the code you got from the coffee table and click "Enter".
The code is 537 if you forgot.
If you enter the code correctly, the white thing will open up to reveal a heart key.
Take the heart key and back up twice.
Turn right, click on the door for a close up, and use the heart key on the door.
Enjoy the fresh air!
Getting Out (Happy Coin Escape)
Follow the directions for the regular escape until you've opened the white thing on top of the piano and taken the heart key.
Notice the symbols in the open compartment of the white thing?
Remember the symbols scattered about the room?
From the weight cabinet, the open circle denotes center.
From the side of the couch, the solid star denotes right.
From the left cabinet the outlined star denotes left.
That would make the code left, right, right, center, right, center.
Once you figure out the code, however, what in the room can you use it on?
Back up once.
Look at the foot pedals at the bottom of the piano.
Looks like a left, center, and right pedal.
Using the code from the white thing, push the pedals in this order: left, right, right, center, right, center.
If you used the code correctly, the happy coin will drop onto the floor in front of the piano foot pedals.
Take the happy coin, back up, and turn right.
Now click on the door for a close up, use the heart key to open it, and enjoy a nice beverage before escaping.
Happy coin will bring happiness to you!
Posted by: grinnyp | June 9, 2010 6:24 PM