This post was getting too unwieldy, so I’ve moved past games to two archive posts: one for rooms/events, and one for real-world, offline nazotoki puzzle kits. Some of these are edited reposts from earlier posts: 1, 2, 3
⭐ indicates a top rec
Physical rooms
*Some of these might be available at multiple locations around Japan.
NoEscape Ikebukuro – 不思議の国の女王からの脱出
This is one of NoEscape’s Flagship Label games, so I was initially underwhelmed by the fact that it takes place in a single (!) room. Still, the puzzles are clever enough to carry it, and I loved how important the narrative was. Should be fairly accessible to players with basic Japanese.
NoEscape Ikebukuro – ワインセラーからの脱出
This other Flagship Label room felt much harder, both linguistically (we had to take a couple of hints simply because we couldn’t parse some words) and in its puzzles. There were some clever structural moves and a great endgame, but I’d only recommend this for fluent players. (There’s also an associated play-at-home puzzle kit.)
NoEscape Shinjuku – 危機迫るからくり城からの脱出
This Flagship Label room is new, but feels old-fashioned in its production values. Solid puzzles and a fun narrative make this worth playing (and the language level is more forgiving than ワインセラー) — but while I’d go out of my way for the NoEscape Ikebukuro flagship rooms, I might not for this.
⭐ SCRAP Asakusa – Escape from the Red Room [language-independent]
A clever, language-independent room with an amazing setpiece (which I’ve never seen anywhere else) and several great ahas. Hard to say more without spoilers, but a must-play for any enthusiast.
⭐ SCRAP Asakusa – オバケに聞き込みできる山荘殺人事件からの脱出
A delightful narrative-powered investigative room-based game, carried by a great actor. Clever, charming, and simply great fun. Less of a traditional escape/puzzle room; more of a mystery-solving experience.
SCRAP Kichijoji – ある沈没船からの脱出
This 10-minute game is decent but not as clever as the 10-minute options at Tokyo Mystery Circus. Worth playing if you’re at Kichijoji for 謎のタワーマンションからの脱出 (which is what we did) but not worth the trek on its own.
⭐ SCRAP Kichijoji – 謎のタワーマンションからの脱出
An engaging, puzzle-packed room with some incredibly fun in-narrative mechanisms, leading up to an excellent endgame. Leans into its “modern apartment” premise to great effect. Well worth the detour to Kichijoji, and ideal for larger groups with a decent command of Japanese.
⭐ SCRAP Tokyo Mystery Circus – Escape from The Runaway Train [available in English]
Part of the 9rooms series, this interestingly-structured game gains momentum and difficulty across its nine “carriages”, culminating in a fiendishly clever finale. If you clear eight carriages but fail the last, you get a ‘Retry ticket’ that let you re-attempt the final room alone — which is how I managed to finish. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED both for its unique structure and clever puzzles.
SCRAP Tokyo Mystery Circus – Escape from the Witch’s House in the Woods [available in English]
Another 9rooms game, with the added feature (some might say gimmick) of magic wands. These add an impressive layer of interactivity — but also, sadly, a much higher chance of technical malfunction. If you can stomach that, this is a charming magical adventure. I prefer 9train, but this is well worth playing too.
SCRAP Tokyo Mystery Circus – Escape from the Prison [available in English]
This compact, clever game packs a good amount of varied and creative puzzles into its 10-minute runtime. It allows solo players, which is helpful for tourists. Well worth playing, if you don’t mind the time:cost ratio.
SCRAP Tokyo Mystery Circus – ある隠し金庫からの脱出
Another 10-minute room, with a twist: first-time players just have to escape, but you can also play as a returning “veteran”, with new instructions that reveal more secrets in the same room. Both experiences are satisfyingly action-packed despite their short runtime.
SCRAP Tokyo Mystery Circus – 摩訶不思議な部屋からの脱出
This 10-minute room has some extremely clever moves, and an interesting automated hint system that should help usher most teams towards a nail-biting finish.
SCRAP Tokyo Mystery Circus – ミステリータワーからの脱出
An interesting format: 100 mini levels, tackled in 15-minute attempts, with the ability to save progress and pick up where you left off. The puzzles are less nazo-ish and more about intuiting rules, with levels often building upon insights from previous ones. We got to level 35 in two tries. Worth playing for the novelty of the structure.
SCRAP Tokyo Mystery Circus – ナゾだらけの部屋からの脱出
This was indeed a nazo-filled experience, but fell a bit flat for my group (perhaps due to the high language dependence of many nazos). The final three-minute section was a delight, though.
Tumbleweed Hirameka – UNIVERSAL HIRAMEKI GAME 『TARGET』 [Japanese only but relatively language-independent]
More of a real-life game than a puzzle experience, this uses augmented reality to facilitate a co-operative approach to figuring out rules and executing tasks. Fun if you like this style of puzzling, potentially frustrating if you don’t.
⭐ XEOXY – LIMITER ROOM [Japanese only]
This indie (?) company presented an endearingly low-tech (and very interactive) approach to a high-tech premise. It’s hard to say much without spoilers, but this was full of clever ideas and just a really fun time.
⭐ よだかのレコード – Dramatic Dungeon Vol.3 『DIVE INTO FLASHGAME』 [Japanese only]
This game is the qualifying event for an escape room tournament. It starts simple but has some nice creative moves, and a genius endgame. Am definitely keen on playing more games by よだかのレコード.
Hosted events
⭐ 謎組 -『金田一少年の事件簿』ミクサライブ人形殺人事件
This is an outdoor site-specific kit game, but with surprising real-life (and “digital real-life”) interactions (which is why I’m putting it here and not with the other kit games). I loved the high degree of interactivity, which fleshed out the game world and facilitated puzzle-solving at a deep narrative level. Definitely looking out for other games by 謎組.
謎組 – インテリジェント・カクテル
This game, in the Sheraton Miyako Hotel’s M Bar, combined two of my interests: puzzles and cocktails. If you enjoy both of the above, then you should play this. (They also do non-alcoholic options, but this is more fun if you enjoy alcohol.) The puzzles start tame but lead to a clever endgame.
⭐ SCRAP Asakusa – びっくり謎工作室からの脱出
What I love most about SCRAP is that they keep coming up with new formats. This highly hands-on game is heavy on teamwork and observation skills, while still remaining more puzzle-y than execution-based. A worthy challenge.
⭐ SCRAP Tokyo Mystery Circus – Projection Table Game vol. 1 – Spellbound Supper [available in English]
This exciting and unique game starts off with usual nazo-style puzzles, but becomes something entirely different, with interactive light projections used to clever effect — it’s hard to say more without spoilers, but you’ll have to do all sorts of interesting things to progress.
SCRAP Tokyo Mystery Circus – Projection Table Game vol. 3 – The Magical Cauldron: The Culinary Academy’s Final Exam [available in English]
This game has few nazo-style puzzles, relying more on narrative understanding, task execution and spatial logic. The narrative aspect was particularly strong, and very satisfying in the endgame. Info-sharing and team coordination is key; we played this in a team of three (maximum size is six), which made some parts easier and others harder.
⭐ SCRAP – リアル脱出ゲーム×PSYCHO-PASS『管理社会に潜む爆弾魔からの脱出』
The most emotionally powerful game I’ve played, thanks to dedicated actors, overall staging, and — crucially — the integration of narrative stakes and puzzle-solving. SCRAP is very good at “difficult decision” endings; live actors made this one especially poignant.
Tumbleweed Switch – 深海の城 タイタン
This NPC-facilitated hall-style game is powered by a very specific type of puzzling, as well as the narrative. If you enjoy this type of puzzling, congrats; if you don’t, it could be exhausting. It’s certainly unique, and the endgame is brutally clever, but if you have very clear puzzle genre likes/dislikes, this will be a gamble.
⭐ XEOXY – タイムパフォーマンス
A mindboggling and hilarious event (check out the pre-event pdf on their website — if that doesn’t immediately intrigue you, I don’t know what will). Incredibly fast-paced, but pure fun. (Our group succeeded, thanks to hard-carrying by some Japanese team members.)
Puzzle kits
The play-at-your-own-pace 謎解き puzzle kit medium is highly developed in Japan, yet seems rare elsewhere; I’ve only come across it in Taiwan and Singapore.
These reviews are for site-specific kits that are played in the physical world (outdoor ones are usually called 街歩き). For reviews of play-at-home kits, see here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
SCRAP
地下謎への招待状2023
The latest in SCRAP’s long-running collab series with Tokyo Metro, this sold out, had its run extended into 2024 (omitting some stops), and is so popular that you need to book a pick-up slot in advance. The offline aspects didn’t feel that meaningful, but the kit itself was full of cool surprises.
⭐ 銀座令嬢誘拐事件
This cute Ginza-based narrative mystery is phone-based, with no physical kit — yet with considerable real-world aspects, as you find and “talk” to postboxes to gain clues. The nazo puzzles were light, but the central narrative mystery is substantial and satisfying. There’s a fun additional sidestory.
Tokyo Mystery Circus – A Mystery at Magic Academy Shinjuku [available in English]
This is a very beginner-friendly experience that, correspondingly, may not impress the experienced puzzler. You’ll have to walk the nearby streets of Shinjuku (a handy map is included) to solve fairly tame puzzles; there’s one exciting real-world highlight and some clever moments, but nothing unmissable. There’s no time limit, but the estimated duration is 60 to 90 minutes; we finished it in an hour. RECOMMENDED for beginners, NOT RECOMMENDED for veterans.
SCRAP Yokohama – 横浜謎解き街歩き
Though designed to let you enjoy the tourist sights of Yokohama while solving puzzles, this game felt rather fiddly, involving both LINE and extensive physical kit manipulation. Not a bad game per se, but best enjoyed as a leisurely sightseeing experience than a puzzle speedrun.
takarush BLACK LABEL
All of takarush’s games are Japanese-only — which is a shame, as they’re one of my favourite escape/puzzle game providers in the world.
[Enoshima] 竜人リタと終末の日
Set on Enoshima (sold there at takarush’s Treasure Cafe) and leaning into the island’s folklore, this makes for a fun day trip from Tokyo. The amount of phone-based reading isn’t the friendliest for a sunny day, and the real-world integration felt stronger on the narrative front than in the puzzles, but I appreciated some unique puzzle elements and the endgame’s integration of narrative, themes and mechanics.
⭐ [Ikaho Onsen] 猫のハルナとあやかし番頭帖
This brought me to the charming onsen town of Ikaho, for which I’m grateful. The puzzles are solid, but the game truly shines in its story and site-specificity, with by far the most magical endgame location of anything I’ve played. Truly a moment where I felt: “Ah, this is why I play offline nazotoki games.”
[Kawasaki] カステッロ＝チッタの美味しい秘密
La Cittadella, a cute if kitschy Italian-themed outdoor mall in Kawasaki, makes an appropriate setting for this similarly cute game. Some stretches felt fiddly, but otherwise this was a solid BLACK LABEL game.
[Tokyo] 誰が為の衣装 for whom the Dress
This East Ginza game felt more accessible — if less substantial — than other takarush games. It includes nice locations (passing quite a bit of sakura), and I love its story, but it doesn’t provide more than 2-3 hours of puzzling.
[Tokyo] 青嵐トレジャーズと栄光のラストゲーム
As other reviews mention, this game’s endgame is difficult in a rather unsatisfying way. Which is a shame, because it’s a nice chance to visit the National Stadium.
[Tokyo] 大切な記憶とフシギな旅
This collaboration with Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance (!) is set in their headquarters, making it a good choice for a rainy day. While a bit predictable, it includes some fun and clever moves. At under 3 hours, it’s compact but feels substantial.
⭐ [Tokyo] 東京タワーと四十五秒の時間旅行
One thing I love about takarush BLACK LABEL games is how carefully they are tailored to their setting — not just physically, but to the setting’s own history, as with the Hanayashiki game and now this Tokyo Tower one. This felt quite forgiving puzzle-wise, while still featuring takarush’s classic kit-reuse moves.
Other companies
machihack/NeSalu – 日本橋古今七不思議
This Nihonbashi-based puzzle kit felt sadly flimsy. While I liked some of the stops, the overall feeling at the end was just “That’s it?” — I’d expected some clever meta-level narrative, but nope.
NAZO×NAZO – ヒビとあなたの不思議な1日
Set in Hibiya, this game felt geared to the general public, but still had some creative puzzles. The narrative was cute, though not very integrated with puzzle-solving.
NAZO×NAZO – 怪盗ブロッサムからの手紙
Playing just two NAZO×NAZO games already allowed me to spot similarities: map-guided mini puzzles; a more substantial meta; a narrative that’s disconnected from puzzle-solving; and a certain style of endgame. This free game was valuable chiefly as a way to enjoy sakura in Chiyoda-ku. Still, accessible games have their place in the nazotoki ecosystem, and it was cool to see many older couples playing this.
NoEscape – 宝箱シリーズvol.1『賢者とカギ眠る洞窟』and 宝箱シリーズvol.2『パンドラの箱』
In addition to escape rooms, take-home kits and walk-around kits, NoEscape has two 宝箱 games: you sit down in their shop and play a game that’s largely paper-based but has more props than a take-home kit. Volume 1 was a narrative-light, logic-heavy introduction to the format, and the sorts of tricks and flourishes that are possible. Volume 2 was a satisfyingly narrative-powered experience with an incredible final payoff. For me, at least, these were well worth several hours of a Tokyo afternoon.
escape.sg 