Is it a lucid dream by someone highly feverish? Is it a new escape game from Detarou? Well, why the heck can't it be both? It's JanJan Escape, and, as is standard for the genre, there are puzzles to solve and a room you must get out of. Not standard for the genre, of course, is the bed full of spaghetti, the leering koala man, the salaryman-swatting plant creature, and the duo of literal pot-heads in the wrestling onesies. Of course, they're pretty standard for Detarou.
You have to be in a certain frame of mind to enjoy the certain kind of surreality this Japanese designer brings. If you're in that frame though, there's nothing better. Be warned though: the puzzles, while having their own consistent logic, will require quite a bit of mulling over before the Eureka! moment comes along. Just remember to click everything, examine all the weird set-pieces closely, and prepare for everything. Yes, even that. In short, JanJan Escape is another installment of all the Dentarou-brand strange things we love and are confounded by. It's awesome, weird, and awesomely weird.
Walkthrough Guide
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JanJan WalkthroughWalkthrough
You'll start facing a glass cabinet and a door. You can zoom in on the locking mechanisms of both, but there's nothing you can do with either one yet. Turn right.
A weird arrangement of arrows above a koala-headed weirdo having a drink. And an empty alcohol stein to his right. Whatever. Zoom out and turn right again.
The plant guy is having trouble with all those businessman-flies. You can't help him yet, but check out the bed to his right. Investigate the mess of spaghetti under the covers and get the batteries in them.
Now, the bookshelf. A few locked things you can't work with, but what about those books? Look at the diary. Flip through the Japanese nonsense to the last page, which is at least partially comprehensible. Remember both those pages, they're important clues.
Back away and turn right one more time. Take the paper from the TV screen... odd pattern. Also note the three men displayed; you'll know what they mean later.
Check out those two kettleheads in the center. The red one has a keypad on his knee. And, come to think of it, don't you remember that red symbol in the corner of the last page of the diary? Reminds you of this guy, right?
Here's how to read the clue on that page. The V symbols don't mean "is greater than" and "is less than", they mean "comes before" and "comes after". Start at 9, find what comes after it (8), and put the chain together.
...Okay, fine, I'll do it for you: 9-8-5-6-3-2-1-4-7-0-E. Go enter that on the red kettlehead's knee and watch the little cutscene. Looks like he opened the door.
Go through the door and take a look around. Right in front of you you should see another door (locked with a... nose lock?), a sofa, and a calendar. Look closer at the calendar.
Hmm... hey, I think that calendar matches up with the grid on that paper you got from the TV. Remember that for later. Also remember those colored shapes up above.
Now back away and turn right. A vent, too high to be reachable, and a strange machine with a control panel. Wait, those six dots on the side... they look kind of like the picture on that second-last page in the diary.
Look at that picture again. Five circles up top: 2-4-black-3-1. And at the bottom is a picture of a TV. But the control panel had four dials and three switches... how does it match up?
Remember the circles above the koala-head? Match up the circles from the diary and unscramble: 1-2-3-4 becomes east-northwest-south-southeast. As for the switches, remember the TV? The first guy's head was up, and the other two were down, so set the switches like that.
Once it's all set, there's a cutscene. You can reach the vent now... but it's screwed shut. What else? Well, there's a sequence of green and yellow men popping out of the machine...
Hold on! The glass cabinet doors in the first room wanted a combination of yellows and greens! Let me write down the sequence... green-yellow-yellow-green-yellow-green-green. Try that on the lock.
The doors open now! Ignore the fire-starter on the right and look at the mannequin. You can take his hand, which doubles as a screwdriver. Handy... no pun intended.
Go back to the air vent. Unscrew it with the hand-screwdriver and check out the room through it, which is relatively sparse. A pedestal for something... a few colored numbers around a hole in the wall... nothing much to see here, let's get out of here.
Oh, hey, I didn't see those two travelers in the second room before. We can't do anything with them yet.
Go to the nose door again and unlock it by jamming the nostrils with the hand-screwdriver. (You must do this AFTER unscrewing the air vent, because the hand-screwdriver disappears afterwards!)
The door's open now, but don't go through. Return to the first room and check out that bookshelf again. I've got a hunch.
Notice the gray upside-down 4 in the upper right corner. Also notice that the grid is one row smaller than the calendar and the note. The calendar had a gray 4 in the lower left...
Here's what you need to do: enter the heart pattern upside-down on the grid, omitting the top of the heart. The result should look something like a tent. Then press the button on the right; if you did it right, the light will turn green.
A beer bottle! Go pour the stuff into the empty stein by the koala-head, then back up and zoom in again. It attracted the businessman-flies from the plant-guy, so grab one, then go see the plant-guy and take the leaf he offers you.
--BREAKPOINT--
Use the businessman-fly on the two travelers in the second room. Watch the cutscene, then take the... er... doll body.
Now, the leaf. Give that baby to the koala-man and he'll reply with a note. Square, upside-down triangle, star, circle. Sounds like a combination... for something. Let's translate it into something more usable.
The colored symbols on the calendar translate the note into red, upside-down green (?!), yellow, blue. The colored numbers around the hole beyond the air vent translate THAT to 5, upside-down 6 (otherwise known as 9), 2, 8.
Go enter 5928 on the box on the bookshelf and you'll get a... doll head? Oooookay. Nevertheless, we've got everything we need now.
Put the doll head on the doll body, then inspect the bottom and put the batteries in it. Now that it's moving, put it on the pedestal past the air vent and it'll move the walls.
You now have a straight shot to the exit! Yahoo!
EndingsEndings
Bad ending: Go through the nose door at any time after opening it.
Standard ending: Follow the walkthrough above, ignoring the breakpoint.
Good ending: Follow the walkthrough above until you reach the breakpoint, and STOP THERE. Instead of using the businessman-fly on the two travelers, use it on the hole in the middle of the colored numbers. Watch the cutscene, and THEN go through the nose door.
Posted by: SonicLover | February 2, 2012 12:39 PM