Real Escape Game Asakusa (Tokyo, Japan)
Time limit: 40 minutes
Age limit: None
Player limit: 2-6
Difficulty: Expert
Awards: TERPECA Finalist (2019-2021), TERPECA Nominee (2022-2024), Honorable Mention - Puzzle Master - Bullseye Award (2019)
Date visited: January 2025
After enjoying the Kansai region, our Japanese holiday took us to Tokyo, where we had a chance to try out the games by SCRAP, of one of the pioneers of the escape room format. As I understand it, their earliest games were essentially just a bunch of people sitting in a room or hall, working out puzzles using pen and paper (basically kumon lol).
One of their most famous rooms currently available is the classic Escape from the Red Room, a unique concept that regularly finds itself on the TERPECA nomination list. Unlike most escape rooms these days, Escape from the Red Room has no story and is literally just a room painted entirely in red, and you have to use your wits and teamwork to find a way out within 40 minutes.
Just a few things to note before I start the review. First of all, Escape from the Red Room requires at least 2 people and can be played by a maximum of 6 . If your group has less than 6 people, SCRAP will allow other people to book the same time slot (up to the maximum of 6), meaning you could potentially play with random strangers. To avoid this, you can purchase the "group ticket", which is slightly cheaper than buying 6 individual tickets. Given that we had 4 people and the exchange rate was very favourable, I got the group ticket so we could play alone.
Secondly, your gamemaster stays inside the room with you throughout the entire game, which took a while for us to get used to. However, given the design of the room and the fact that it requires no immersion (though it created a strangely cool atmosphere), this made sense to me in the end, though it did take something away from the experience. Thirdly, this is a room that requires no language skills, so you don’t need to know any Japanese — though you could potentially play with people who only speak Japanese, which I’m sure adds to the challenge. Lastly, you are allowed to bring your phone in with you and use the camera function as an aide if necessary.
Now for the review. Escape from the Red Room was a very refreshing, challenging, and unexpectedly thrilling experience despite not offering anything except pure puzzles. The main reason is because the puzzles were really clever and cool, requiring you to think outside the box and dare to try different things by relying on your instincts. In hindsight, there weren’t actually that many puzzles to solve, but 40 minutes was still a challenge because they were real head scratchers. It makes you realise how difficult puzzles can be when the language element is completely removed.
For us, after solving the first puzzle immediately upon entering, we got stuck for a very long time given that there was literally nothing else in the room. And when we finally figured out what to do next, it blew our minds. From there, we worked well together as a team and progressed along, with only a few hiccups along the way. However, we were tripped up at the final perplexing puzzle and just failed to get over the line. We probably would’ve succeeded with a couple more minutes or if we had asked for a hint, but our gamemaster spoke almost no English and had to use a translation machine to communicate, so we didn’t bother and it proved to be a fatal mistake. And when we were told of the solution at the end, it all seemed so obvious!
In all, we were all surprised by how much we enjoyed a completely red room with only puzzles and nothing else. We haven’t seen or experienced another room like this, and can understand why so many people liked it enough to nominate it for TERPECA every year.
PS: SCRAP has just released a sequel, Escape from the Blue Room, at their Ikebukuro venue in Tokyo. We’ll definitely be checking it out the next time we’re there!
Escape time: Failed!
Verdict: While it may be lacking in certain aspects compared to most of the flashy, immersive, hi-tech escape rooms these days, Escape from the Red Room remains a truly memorable classic that stands out for its uniqueness.
Rating: 9
Player | Theming | Atmosphere | Puzzles | Creativity | Fun | Average |
H | 8 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 8.8 |
E | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 |
Z | 9 | 8.5 | 9.5 | 10 | 9.5 | 9.3 |
J | 9 | 8.5 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8.9 |
Rating | 9 |
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