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Rougoku


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Rating: 3.4/5 (120 votes)
Comments (58) | Views (6,151)

Weekday Escape

JessPrisons are not, generally speaking, meant to be the most luxurious or comfortable of environments. In furnishing its new escape game Rougoku, however, Japanese developer Bianco Bianco may have gone a wee bit overboard: four gray walls, a foreboding door and a sad-looking pallet are all that there is to see in the game's dismal cell. Well, ok, that's not quite true. Anyone familiar with the escape game genre knows that such rooms are invariably filled with all sorts of nooks and crannies, secrets to be found and puzzles to be solved...but still, what a depressing place to be stuck in! Definitely an incentive to escape as soon as possible.

RougokuIn keeping with the game's minimalist aesthetic, Rougoku is generally simple and straightforward: there's no backstory, no music, no frills whatsoever, just a handful of puzzles and a door standing between you and freedom. Rougoku falls into the category of more "realistic" escape games, those that concentrate in large part upon collecting and using items in practical ways (with, of course, a few genuine puzzles thrown in); considering the game's environment, this makes sense. The puzzles themselves are not very difficult, and the game will most likely not take you terribly long to complete.

Despite the cell's spartan appearance, Rougoku's graphics are rendered very nicely and lend the game an appropriately desolate atmosphere. At no time is there pixel-hunting (yay!), but the game does lack a save feature (boo!). Unlike most room escape games, Rouguku's inventory can be closed or opened at the push of a button, which affects the experience neither positively nor negatively. Navigating the room is easy and intuitive.

The one element of the game that I found to be truly irritating was the unfair "surprise" at the end. Without giving too much away, it seems nearly impossible to succeed on your first play-through without some sort of precognitive ability; this, particularly considering that the game lacks a save feature, is very poor form. I don't want to entirely spoil the end, but I'll offer a piece of advice: before rushing out of the room, consider what might occur if a real prisoner were to somehow open his or her cell's door. With this in mind, act accordingly.

That criticism aside, Rouguku is a nice, solid room escape game. While hardly the most polished or complex example of the genre (and not Bianco Bianco's greatest work), it's nonetheless perfect for a coffee break or to satisfy that occasional, gnawing escape game hunger. Enjoy!

Play Rougoku

Walkthrough Guide


(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)

Rougoku Walkthrough

  1. Get the two brackets, the knife, the pan.

  2. Sharpen the knife on the weird spot on the wall.

  3. Use the knife to get the rope off the bed.

  4. Fill the pan with water, then put it on the walls to show the X spots. The one with a W is West. Label the others in your head accordingly (the one near the bed would be North).

  5. Combine the two brackets.

  6. Using this combined bracket, get the loose bar from the water area.

  7. Using this bar, hit the block on the top right of the west wall to knock it loose. It'll fall to the left side of the bed.

  8. Combine the new stick with hole in it and the bar to make a mallet.

  9. Look on the left side of the bed to get the code. If there's an arrow switching two letters, then switch them.

  10. After switching, my code was E5 N2 S3 W2.

  11. Using the mallet, bang out the code on the X's on the walls.

  12. To the left of the bed, an area opens containing a nut/bolt. Get it.

  13. Use it to connect the bracket together firmly.

  14. Attach the rope to the combined bracket.

  15. Toss it through the window above the door of your cell to unlock the door.

  16. Open the door, but instead of going through it, immediately turn left and hide under the bed.

  17. Wait for the guy in the doorway to leave. Then get out and leave.

58 Comments

Robloxian Many (Clan) May 6, 2009 12:21 PM

Ok, here's what I've figured out so far,

The knife under the bed can be used to cut the rope on the bed. The brackets can be combined. The pan can be filled with water to reveil markings on the wall.

Where should I go from here?

Reply
mike_311 May 6, 2009 12:24 PM

I believe

the markings on the bed are directions North South East West, corresponding to the markings on the wall, WX being West, but i don't know what to do with them...

Reply

About the sewer bars:

You can pull one of the sewer bars back, too.

Reply
Anestoh May 6, 2009 12:30 PM

About the bars and the rope:

You can wiggle that bar out if you do it long enough. Alternately, use the rope. I had the rope selected when I finally got it out so I'm not really sure if it was the wiggling or the rope that got it out. You can then use the bar to move the thing on the w wall

Reply

I have collected

a spring and two rusty brackets I have connected (looks like they need a pin to hold them together?). Have made the hammer. Also found the code.

I have used

the dish and water to reveal Xs on all four walls.

I see the other place that I need to interact with, but can't. Is there another object I need first?

Reply

The rope:

It doesn't need to be selected to yield the bar.

Reply

I opened the door but now I'm too scared to step outside. :)

Reply

I have no idea what to do after

opening the door.

The guy comes in, but clicking on him does nothing. I don't have any usable items and there's nothing new in the room.

Reply

I tried

Using the code as a guide to hitting the "x"s with the hammer. That is, I hit the walls in this order: East, South, North (twice), South (3x), West (2x).

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work!

Reply

ellis:

you don't need another object. Use the

hammer on the Xs, but keep in mind

there is a certain order

Reply
Anonymous May 6, 2009 12:38 PM

Alright.

I've gotten the hooks, I've gotten the knife. I sharpened the knife on the rough spot of wall, then used the knife to cut the rope off the bed. I filled the pan with water and used the water on the four walls, revealing the xs and the wx respectively. I've wiggled to the bar loose from the sewer grate, used it to get the object down from the wall, then combined to two to make a hammer.

Now what?

Reply

Bed code:

The handwriting is messy but it says:
E5S2N3W2

You are supposed to swap S & N so you get:
E5N2S3W2

That is the code for the wall Xs.

To escape (good ending):

Once you open the door you must hide under the bed. Basically turn Left so you are facing the bed and then click underneath it (the same view where you found the knife).

Reply
mike_311 May 6, 2009 12:40 PM

Modox, i tried the same thing

but it only makes a sound on hitting the east wall.

Reply

@Modox
You will not need to come back to a wall once you have already "hammered" it.

Reply

When you use the bar from the sewer on the thing in the hole in the wall, the thing falls down to the left of the cot and can be collected. It can then be combined with the pipe from the sewer to make a hammer-like tool.

Reply
Robloxian Many (Clan) May 6, 2009 12:42 PM

Totally lost now.

Got the hammer, bracket/grapple thing, and rope. What are the numbers mixed in with the directions on the bed? Are they multipliers?

Reply

Modox and mike_311:

the problem here is unclear handwriting.

The first three characters are "E5S," not "ESS."

Reply

What is

the rope

for?

Reply
Brennsa May 6, 2009 12:44 PM

Finished. That was easier than I thought it'd be, though I was stuck for a while,

but then I found the bar and formed the hammer. After that I was able to follow the directions on the bed and actually accomplish something. Just make sure you take the double-ended arrow into consideration.

Not a bad game. Now I'm gonna go through and see what the bad ending's like.

Reply

Rougoku Walkthrough

  1. Get the two brackets, the knife, the pan.

  2. Sharpen the knife on the weird spot on the wall.

  3. Use the knife to get the rope off the bed.

  4. Fill the pan with water, then put it on the walls to show the X spots. The one with a W is West. Label the others in your head accordingly (the one near the bed would be North).

  5. Combine the two brackets.

  6. Using this combined bracket, get the loose bar from the water area.

  7. Using this bar, hit the block on the top right of the west wall to knock it loose. It'll fall to the left side of the bed.

  8. Combine the new stick with hole in it and the bar to make a mallet.

  9. Look on the left side of the bed to get the code. If there's an arrow switching two letters, then switch them.

  10. After switching, my code was E5 N2 S3 W2.

  11. Using the mallet, bang out the code on the X's on the walls.

  12. To the left of the bed, an area opens containing a nut/bolt. Get it.

  13. Use it to connect the bracket together firmly.

  14. Attach the rope to the combined bracket.

  15. Toss it through the window above the door of your cell to unlock the door.

  16. Open the door, but instead of going through it, immediately turn left and hide under the bed.

  17. Wait for the guy in the doorway to leave. Then get out and leave.

Reply

I am also having trouble figuring out

what to do when you open the door! There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to prevent the guy coming after me. Plus I can't be bothered to continually start the game over. Would have been an okay escape game, but that just pulls the score down further.

Reply
Patreon Crew SonicLover May 6, 2009 12:47 PM

Finished.

After you've got the door unlocked, open it, then hide.

Reply
DrewAlmighty May 6, 2009 12:52 PM

I wouldn't call it a "good ending"

Reply

Thanks Neddo! I, too, was done in by the

code's handwriting.

Reply

None of the sewer bars move for me, even though I have the combined brackets and rope. What am I missing?

Reply

Ah, I answered my own question.

Apparently, you have to click in the middle of the third bar from the left.

Reply
Gobsmacked May 6, 2009 3:07 PM

Okay, so I apparently have the broken version of this game? You know, the one where there's no code, anywhere, at all?

Why does this keep happening to me?

Reply
Gobsmacked May 6, 2009 3:10 PM

Grrr, never mind. Blasted pixel hunt. Urge to strangle designer: moderate. PIXEL HUNTS STINK AND ARE NOT FUN AT ALL! Why is that so hard to understand?

Reply
gobsmacked May 6, 2009 3:23 PM

Like Mike_311, I got to a point where only the East wall would make a sound. It's either a bug, or some irreversable way to screw up that puzzle.

The only way to recover was to reload and try again.

Why do these escape games always have these little glitches that make them so annoying, when they are so close to being actually fun?

Reply

Got out completely on my own without reading any comments (with the sole exception of Jess's warning in the review).

But like Brennsa, now I want to play again to see the "bad" ending.

It's a cool game. It's good to have an easy game once in awhile.

Reply

I have to agree with Squiddly (and Jess, sort of).

Having the game restart when you get the bad ending just makes the game twice as long (and arguably half as much fun).

Sometimes too much realism is a bad thing.

Reply

I liked this one :)

About the walkthrough...

It says "Using this combined bracket, get the loose bar from the water area." You don't really need the combined bracket for that.. just click on the middle of the bar a few times to take it off.

Reply

As for the good ending:

The only problem I really have with it is that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. In a room that looks like that, "under the bed" is not much of a hiding spot, unless the guard is blind and stupid.

Reply

I don't think there was a glitch for clicking on the wall. It did that a while for me so I tried moving away from there and trying again.

Maybe the code was being entered wrong, like you clicked the east wall one too many times or accidentally hit a wall out of order when trying to go around

Reply
FunnwellRLY May 7, 2009 12:10 AM

My version has a bug where

I can't cut the rope on the bed with the knife. i got all the way to the end and didn't know how to beat the guard then it restarted and now i can't cut the rope...lame.

Reply

The only problem I had with this game is the "unclear writing". It felt more unfair than difficult. That was its only problem, because otherwise this was a fun quickie.

Reply

I had a few problems with the code... Since the first time you see the code you don't really know what is it for, it's hard to distinguish 5 and S.

Reply
dogfloss May 7, 2009 7:25 AM

My advice: don't bother replaying just to get the bad ending. I did it, shouldn't have bothered, so I'll tell you what happens.

When you click the open door to leave it, a guard appears in the doorway. He gets a red exclamation mark over his head, and then the screen blacks out, and then it comes back completely reset to the beginning, and you can start over if you wish. I guess the guard hits you over the head or something, but it doesn't show it happening so it's not even funny.

Reply
Gobsmacked May 7, 2009 10:46 AM

@Lindi: It may well be the result of screwing up the wall sequence, but to my (exhaustive) experimentation, it's irreversable once you get to that point.

Using other objects, doing other things, moving from wall to wall, nothing enabled you to hit any wall but East and get a sound...

Kudos to anyone who finds a way around it, but I just wanted to spare anyone stuck there the twenty minutes of frustrating clicking I spent trying to undo it and failing.

Reply

Problems with the walls? Solution:

If the other walls won't make a sound, then go back to the East wall and hit it the correct number of times. Then try the other walls. This happened to me the first run through, that solved it.

Reply
Gobsmacked May 7, 2009 1:45 PM

I'd be interested to hear if anyone gets Otto's solution to work; that most definitely did not work for me, and I ended up in that situation twice (while re-doing to get the "bad ending", and in the second case am 99% sure I didn't mess up the sequence, either, but anything's possible).

Reply
Anonymous May 7, 2009 3:16 PM

This takes forever to load. :(

Reply
sparrow May 7, 2009 3:34 PM

Thanks for the Walkthrough.

I liked the escaping from prison idea. Makes more sense than escaping from bedrooms. There's no need for a back story or reason to want to escape from here!

Reply

I cut the rope out once but got the bad ending. Now I want to get the good ending but I can't cut the rope! I clicked around so much my finger hurts.

Reply
The Great Dane May 7, 2009 9:46 PM

About using the knife:

Make sure you sharpen it on the bare wall

Reply
ShanVan May 7, 2009 11:15 PM

Nowhere is it explained how to combine objects. Can anybody explain how to do it?

I click on one object and then another that it can supposedly combine with, but no dice. You can't drag objects to each other to combine. Basically all the intuitive ways to combine objects don't work.

Anyone on here who would be kind enough to explain?

Oh, and this game=FAIL for this reason. If a particular function is required to win the game, the use of said function must be *completely clear*. The interface should not be part of the puzzle!

Reply

ShanVan, to combine items double click one of the items in the items panel to bring up a picture of it. Then single click on the second item. Finally, click on the first item where the two items would go together.

Reply
Melissa May 9, 2009 10:19 PM

More on the walls:

I only got the other walls to make a sound by going around the room to the RIGHT (so, after hitting the east wall, go right 3 times to get to the north - don't just go left). Not sure if it's a glitch or intentional, but it worked for me.

Reply

I actually liked the ending. Sure it's unfair to force the player to play through again, but it's short enough not to be *too* frustrating. Then again, I'm old enough to remember those ancient Sierra adventures so maybe I am conditioned on such things. I agree it's not a game feature I would like to see often, though.

What I didn't like was the "bed code puzzle". I will not spoil it, but the silly handwriting is just there to make the puzzle artificially more difficult. It could - and should - have been handled better.

Reply

Okay we have all the stuff besides the spring,
how do you combine things is my main question.

Please. Help.

-Juliet

Reply

well, besides the wall hammering ok

Reply

so, how do u connect the 2 brackets???

Reply

yah, i need to know how to combine things too

Reply

It was okay, but I found quite a few things to be a bit ridiculous... I don't know how I was supposed to know what to do with the pan of water. When I found out what it was used for, I was annoyed.

The same goes with what I had to do with the combined brackets...

The bed code is frustrating. I'm stuck there now. What annoys me is that I can't tell if there's a '5' or an 'S'. It's really messy... Even when I do the

switching of the numbers/letters in the code,

it still doesn't make any sense.

Still, it could just be that I can't tell if it's a 'S' or a '5'.

EDIT: I found out the problem. I thought the N was roman numeral for 4. It was just a really ugly N. *curses under her breath*

I give this a 3/5. If they just made a change with the code, I would've been a bit happier.

OH YEAH, TO COMBINE THINGS! I'm going to use the brackets as an example... (Forgive me if this counts as a spoiler.)

•Double click the left bracket so it shows the close up image.
•Click the right bracket in your inventory once so that it just lights up. You don't want it to close up on it.
•Click the close up image of the left bracket once the right bracket icon in the inventory is highlighted.
•It should combine.

NOTE: If an item isn't meant to be combined at the moment, it won't let you simply highlight the icon when you have a close up on another item.

Reply
solved it! September 8, 2009 9:52 AM

WALL PUZZLE solution:

Refer to 'code' beside bed.
(E5S2N3W2 BUT! there's a change so,
follow E5N2S3W2, ok?)

East 'x' knock 5 times
North 'x' knock 2 times
South 'x' knock 3 times
West 'x' knock 2 times

of course you already know this but! -
you thought the door wall was north!
BED WALL is NORTH! ok?

so,
knock 'x' 5times on door wall then,
knock 'x' 2times on bed wall
knock 'x' 3times on wall with canal
knock 'x' 2times on scratch wall with 'w' on wall

[Edit: Spoiler added ~Kayleigh]

Reply

It won't load for me - the screen comes up but nothing happens. Any help?

Reply

I just played this game, and I'm not very good at escape games so I peeked at the walkthrough a few times. It wasn't very helpful. For example, it just said to

get the two brackets, the knife and the pan

but it didn't say WHERE or HOW, so I still had to go through the comments. And when I was done with the game I read through the whole walkthrough and there were many incidents like that where the writer neglected to explain the helpful details, leaving a person more confounded than when they began. Can I write a new and improved walkthrough for this game?

[Yes, please do! :) You never need our permission to write a walkthrough for any game you see featured here. -Jay]

Reply

So here's my attempt at a walkthrough for those (like me) who can't make sense of the walkthrough that's already up. I hope it's good enough =)

General Guidelines:

1. The cursor will change if you happen upon a "hotspot" or clickable area, but sometimes the clickable area can't be interacted with yet until you gather certain items.
2. Navigation is simple, put your cursor on the edge of the screen wherever you want to go and a blue bar will appear. Click the blue bar to move around.
3. Access inventory by clicking on the blue button on the bottong right of the game screen. Use items by clicking on them and clicking on the spot you want to use it with.
4. To combine things, double click them in your inventory to zoom in on it, select the item you want to combine it with by clicking ONCE, then click on the zoomed in item.

Walktrough

1.

Pick up the bracket no the floor to the right of the door. Turn left.

2.

Look under the bed by clicking the right side of the shadow under the bed and pick up the second bracket. Also in this view, pick up the knife under the mattress. Zoom back out by clicking the bottom of the screen.

3.

Click on the left side of the mattress. Note down the code. Zoom out, turn left.

4.

Sharpen the knife on the rough patch on the wall. Note the block above it. Turn left.

5.

Pick up the pan. Zoom in on the bars. Click the centre of the third bar from the left and wiggle it until it comes loose. This requires several clicks. Fill the pan with water.

6.

Zoom back out, then with the pan selected, move your cursor along the wall until it changes, then click on that spot. An X will appear. Repeat this with all four walls. You will see an X on each wet spot, and on one of the walls (the wall where you sharpened the knife) you'll see WX.

7.

Go to the wall with the WX, then zoom in on the block above the rough spot. Use the bar you got from the water area on the block and it will fall out. Turn right.

8.

Click on the thing you knocked out of the hole in the wall which is now on the left side of the bed. Now combine the thing with the bar. You now have a mallet.

9.

Remember that code you saw written on the left side of the mattress? Let's have a look at that now.

10.

It's very messy. How can anyone read that? Good thing we're experts.

11.

At first glance it looks like ESS2IV3W2. Well..that doesn't make sense does it?

11.

Of course it doesn't...because that's not what it says. As I said, the handwriting's very messy.

12.

It actually says E5S2N3W2. But wait! There's a double headed arrow, which means that you have to exchange the positions of the S and the N, so you get E5N2S3W2. A clue!

13.

Remember the wall with the WX on it? The W actually shows that it's the West wall. All you have to do is label the other walls accordingly in your head. This means the wall with the bed is North, the wall with the door is East, and the other wall is South.

14.

The mattress clue shows how many times you have to hit each wall. With the mallet selected, click on the Xs following the direction given in the mattress clue.

15.

The East wall 5 times, the North wall twice, the South wall three times and lastly the West wall twice.

16.

If you get it right, you will hear a thud after you've hit the last wall

17.

Now look on the wall near the floor on the left side of the bed. Something fell out. Pick it up.

18.

Use the sharpened knife on the rope of the mattress to cut it and get the rope.

19.

Now combine the two brackets, the thing that fell out of the wall and the rope. You now have a grappling hook!

20.

Now use the grappling hook on the small window in the door to unlock it. Now you can open the door.

21.

I hope you didn't go out immediately. That would be a silly thing to do. Prisons, after all, always have guards.

22.

As soon as you open the door, turn left and click under the bed. Wait for the guard to leave, then go out the door.

23.

You're freeeeeeeeeee!!!

Reply

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