Escape from Restaurant MINSHIO 1.0

Warning: You need to have a special piece of software to run this game. You can find the special software right here. Then, you'll need to follow the instructions in the review to play the game.

There are a couple of incredibly well-known figures in the online flash point-and-click escape room scene. One of them is Hottategoya, a Japanese developer known for escape room experiences that are easy and quick to complete, but with just the right amount of challenge to provide a satisfying experience. Another well-known figure is Tesshi-E, who shares a very similar style to Hottategoya but with their own twist. Let's look at one of their games - Escape from Restaurant MINSHIO.

To play Escape from Restaurant MINSHIO, you have to unzip all the files into the folder you extracted the FPSoftware files to. Then, navigate to FPSoftware -> Basilisk-Portable -> Basilisk-Portable.exe. Afterward, drag the HTML onto the Basilisk browser.

There is an animated intro and the protagonist's thoughts are conveyed at the bottom of the screen as you play the game. This game finally has English subtitles! The game now has subtitles during gameplay too, which means you can finally get the full experience.

The story is strangely convoluted. You accept an invite by a friend with whom you're apparently engaged in a prank war involving escape rooms with. You plan to lock him into the room, but instead sit down to enjoy a nice meal prepared by him and he locks you in instead. Now, you have to find your way out.

This game has a special examine item button so you can zoom in and interact with an item in your inventory closely. This will prove essential as you try to escape from the dome room as there are some hints that can only be found by examining items closely.

All in all, Escape from Restaurant MINSHIO is the first step the creator takes in appealing to English players, and still manages to show off his amazing puzzle room design chops.