Ukiyo - The Crumbling Prince (Episode 2) Review (Melbourne)

Hi all

Back in February 2023, my usual team of 4 took a kid-free trip down to Melbourne over a long weekend.  After hitting the Mornington Peninsula, we headed to the city and checked out (among other rooms), the rooms at Ukiyo.

The Crumbling Prince (Episode 2) was our 223^rd room to date. 

We played The Crumbling Prince Episode 2 immediately after Episode 1, so I confess I find it a little difficult now to differentiate between the 2 rooms.  You can read my review of The Crumbling Prince Episode 1 here – the majority of my comments apply to both Episodes.

My additional thoughts on The Crumbling Prince series are as follows:

·        one of the episodes (I think Episode 2) contains a musical puzzle. The puzzle requires players to listen to a musical pattern and then repeat the pattern by “playing” certain musical notes scattered around the room.  The pattern starts off with only one or two notes, but then gets progressively longer.  I am not a fan of musical puzzles in escape rooms – I think people either have the ability to hear and differentiate between notes, or they simply don’t.  Musical puzzles, especially long puzzles here, can be difficult for some players and there is no way to provide a subtle hint in the right direction.  With trial and error we managed to solve the music puzzle, but I would describe it as more of a chore than a fun experience; and

·        one interesting aspect of the Crumbling Prince series is that both Episode 1 and Episode 2 are played in the same physical space.  I have played rooms that adopt this space-saving approach elsewhere.  The biggest issue I have had in the past with this model is that the different puzzles between each experience can be confusing.  That is, there might be puzzle elements in one experience that are clearly puzzles, but they are not part of that experience (but instead are part of the second experience), so you have to ignore them.  I have found that confusing and quite distracting.  I did not have that experience in The Crumbling Prince series – I think they did well to camouflage those puzzle elements that did not relate to the game we were currently playing. 

As with TCP Episode 2, the pace in Episode 2 was just too slow for me. I enjoyed the theming and the interesting interactions with the NPC, and each character having their own special power, but it missed any sense of excitement or urgency for me. I look back and would describe both Episodes as more interesting than fun, which is a shame.  I think escape rooms should be immersive and interesting/engaging, but most importantly, they need to be fun (especially at this very high price point).

Where:                       Ukiyo

Duration:                    90 minutes

Themes:                      5 (but more planned)

Cost:                           $81.25 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           An interesting take on the escape room experience

More details:              https://www.ukiyo.com.au/