When you just need to get away from it all without a lot of bells and whistles, you can always count on an Ichima escape to provide somewhere mellow for you to kick back with a passel of puzzles, and Room 9 Autumn is no exception. Though there's no changing cursor to tell you what to click on, the sparse, clean design holds no pixel hunting, so just explore at your own pace, using the transparent bars that appear when you mouse over the edges of the screen to navigate around the room. Don't worry... though the game's text is in Japanese, there's no language barrier for those of us who can't read the lingo. What there are, however, are a lot of very clever puzzles. Ichima excels at making games that marry just the right amount of whimsy with genuinely smart mechanics, so as you explore Room 9 Autumn, you'll need to think, but you'll also find yourself amused. There are a few puzzles where it's easy to overthink the solution, but the game is surprisingly good at never veering into obnoxiously vague or obscure territory when it comes to its clues, even with the Japanese-only text. Room 9 Autumn is a satisfying escape in all the right ways no matter what time of year it is, one that offers some pleasant surprises and never goes too easy on you, requiring thought and an eye for detail in equal measure.
Walkthrough Guide
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Walkthrough
If you're stuck with a particular puzzle, I've tried to label the spoilers below in a way that will let you go directly to the help you need, without forcing you to read spoilers for things you didn't want to know. If you want more step-by-step handholding, just solve the puzzles in the order given below. Note that I'm presuming you at least took a look around on your own, so when I say, e.g. "the desk", you know approximately where to find it.
Sliding panels, right side
The panels are on the wall under the screened windows, to the right of the big alcove. The right panel isn't locked, and contains a jack-o-lantern which you can't pick up. However, you can (and should) note the number on it.
6
Sliding panels, left side
The clue is the pine cones (?) hanging from the slat wall, just visible on the left when you're looking at the sliding wall panels.
Top, middle, top, bottom, middle
Get: tongs
Leaves
There's a box on the desk with autumn leaves on it. To get the clue, you need to open a hatch.
Go into the side room (the one with the lovely view) and turn right. Use the tongs to pull down on the hook. After the leaves finish falling, note the pattern they make on the floor.
RRRLLRLL
Get: some strange balls
Shield
The top drawer of the desk has four buttons arranged on a shield shape, which is apparently meant to be an acorn: the clue is the row of acorns on the windowsill of the screened windows, above the sliding panels.
BL, TR, BR, BL, TL, TR, TL
Get: small key
Small key
To get the key, solve the shield.
Use the small key to open the box to the left of the small alcove (the one with a plant in it). Flip the switch.
Get: noses? I swear they look like noses to me, but they're actually handle shapes.
Handles
There's a small chest of drawers in the big alcove. Five drawers each have a differently-shaped handle, and one drawer doesn't have a handle at all.
Use the small key to get the clue.
bottom left, middle left, middle right, top right, top left, middle right
Get: knob with a 6 on it
Grapes
The big alcove has a scroll with grapes on it. Note the direction the bunches are pointing, as well as the shapes of the stems.
+ points south; T points southwest; l points northwest.
The clue is for the coffee table in the side room.
Get: some very strange arithmetic
Numbers
There's a number panel on the wall next to the fish plaque. Put in the missing button, then input the code from the coffee table and pull down the lever.
The knob is in the handle puzzle.
The strange arithmetic is to simply increment each digit by 2. So it's kind of like adding 296+222, but forgetting to carry the one. In any case, 143658 becomes 365870.
Get: a firepit
Fish
The fish plaque is its own solution.
Remove a couple of letters to spell "fish" instead of "finish". Note that there's two ways to do this, but only one will work: remove the n and the second i.
Pick up the fish from the floor. To get it to reveal its number, try applying some heat.
Put the fish on the grate above the fire, then zoom in on it.
3 5
Potato, sweet
That red blob in the sand near the fire? It's a sweet potato, a.k.a. yam. Yeah, I know. Pick it up with the tongs and note the number.
1 4
Balls
Those strange balls you got from the leaf box go in the side room, left side, on that pedestal thing.
Get: an acorn. Note the number.
2
Corners
You now have all the numbers to solve this game's equivalent of the wobbly picture puzzle, namely that box on the floor of the big alcove (the one under the grape scroll).
Jack-o-lantern = 6, potato = 1 and 4, acorn = 2, fish = 3 and 5.
TR, BL, BR, TR, BR, TL
Get: sumi ink and a screwdriver
Calligraphy
Check the bottom drawer of the desk for a Chinese (or is it Japanese? Sorry, I can't tell) calligraphy brush. Pour some ink into the inkwell (it's that flat rectangular block next to the paper on the desk). Dip the brush in the ink, then use it on the paper. Apply a bit of imagination to make the resulting squiggle into a four-digit number.
6644
Checkerboard box
Use the screwdriver to open the number panel of the checkerboard box on the shelf in the big alcove. (Is that enough prepositional phrases for you?) Put in the number you found by practicing your calligraphy.
Get: the door key!
Right, but where's the door?
The door is to the right of the fish plaque. I.e. zoom in on the now-empty plaque, then turn right.
Posted by: Reka
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October 5, 2015 10:24 PM