A Message to the Team Behind Inescapable (Review/Feedback)

[Cleover]

This is going to be somewhat of a review for the game, along with my thoughts and feelings about it. Since I have a lot to say, I'll split this into sections to make it easier to read.

I've aimed to keep things mostly spoiler-free. I won't mention specific events, but I will touch on how actions can impact the game and alter the story.

Quick overall thoughts before starting

I think this game is honestly pretty fun if you know what you're getting into. This is likely one of the main criticisms I can give about my experience and what I've gathered from others' opinions. The game was marketed as a "Dangan/Zero Escape-like game" too much. While it shares a few similarities (mainly in terms of creative direction such as art and music), in terms of gameplay, it's not similar at all.

Regardless, however, I think I'm able to look past this as I'm not one of the fans who have been waiting for this game for a while. While I did know about it for a long time, I only remembered it a few weeks before release and was going in with lower expectations.

I enjoyed the dialogue quite a bit, and while I do think it kinda tapers off and becomes a bit "samey," I think this is mainly due to how little gameplay there is to split things up. I think overall it's a well-written game, but it's suffering due to it being mainly a casual visual novel-esque experience compared to gameplay to break things up like with Dangan/Zero Escape.

With most casual reading-only visual novel games, there is a lot of building that can be done on previous conversations and actions. This game falls behind as it's so "player-driven" in terms of the order and who you talk to, so nothing can become too deep for very long as it will return to choosing paths even when you do get into a longer scene. I think this would've been fine if there was gameplay to break it up or a more built-out story, but things move so fast that we don't have time to get to know characters on a deeper level. We see them change a bit every now and then, but it's not gradual. The game flaunted that it took place over a few months, but due to that, we move so fast from one day to another, leaving little room to see characters' emotions evolve.

This game reminds me a lot of "World End Syndrome" in terms of gameplay (choosing where to go each day), which is a game I loved. But that game introduced a lot more in terms of stats and such, which made it feel more compelling when you did things. This game lacks any reference to if you're having any effect on people, or if you're doing anything overall (I'll touch on this more later). WES also had the benefit of taking place over a smaller period of time, allowing for it to be more engaging.

To close out this section, I like Inescapable; it's not perfect. It's a bit overpriced, and it overpromised on what it would be, but if you're able to look past that, it's not too bad in terms of what it is on its own.

Now to get into the individual gripes I have, and more detail on them.

The price.

I think it's already been said a lot by others, but the price for this game was too much for what was delivered. While the number of hours you get out of the game does somewhat make up for it, the quality of things in those hours is lacking. It has been brought up how games like Dangan cost less but deliver much more. Given that the game was posed as a game similar to Dangan/Zero Escape, I would've expected a price similar to them, if not less. At the time of writing this, (in Canadian dollars) Dangan is CDN $45.49, while the latest Zero Escape is CDN $22.79. Meanwhile, Inescapable is CDN 64.99. I don't think this game should've been in the $20's, but I think 30-40 USD was the max that would've been justifiable given the game in its current state.

The gameplay.

I touched on this already in the opening section; however, the game is too much of nothing in terms of gameplay. It's a "click where to go 3 times a day and talk to people" type game, with only a few (very small and copy-pasted) events thrown in the middle. There is no "break" in this game to make it less jarring, like most other games in this same genre have. Dangan has the benefit of the detective sections as well as the sections which come after, and 999 has its puzzles, whereas this game has 5-minute multiple-choice questions a few times in the game, with nothing new to offer from one to the next. It's basic and unrewarding.

The (lack of) feedback.

One of my biggest issues with this game is how little feedback we get on the actions we take. I constantly felt like everything I did either had no effect, or that I wouldn't know for hours if anything I did mattered. From the start, I had characters I liked and wanted to "max" out in terms of friendship, etc., but despite spending "days" in the game working towards this, I felt like I was at the start even with the people I visited almost every day. I didn't see them any more than anyone else, and they reacted to me as if they didn't care at all most times. I know that the game aims to have many choices of who you can see, but has limited dialogue depending on what you do due to how much variety in how people will play, but it makes it hard to feel like anything I did mattered.

How this could've been fixed (in my opinion).

World End Syndrome solved this problem by having a stat screen in one of the menus, showing the characters' personality and how it changed in the form of a stat wheel (I can't find the word for what these are called, but those stat circles which are multi-pointed stars where one point grows as that stat increases). Something like this could've been used to show the characters' current "direction" in terms of personality (as this does change in gameplay depending on choices, but it feels like a sudden shift one day rather than a build-up).

Another game which handled feedback from constant choices well is "Long Live The Queen." This game goes down the route of having little pop-ups on the screen whenever you do something with changes a stat showing things like "+1 Knowledge." That way you know how a choice affected the story. Having something like this for characters, or having a character's "friendliness" meter somewhere showing this stat would've helped drastically.

Something else LLTQ did well is showing when the game diverged in terms of choices. While I think this may not fit Inescapable, LLTQ showed a "Test: Public Speaking + Court Manners = Success" whenever a check happened in the game, allowing you to know when you failed an invisible check. This allows you to know what you needed to change in the future, however, it's something that may not work well in other VNs.

The characters.

Honestly, I have less to say here than in other sections. I liked how the game handled having multiple characters with differing personalities. Having everyone be from a different nationality was a great way to be "different" and make things honestly really fun. I loved how everyone broke into their native language every now and then, and how their experiences and personality were heavily based on their environment before the game.

While I do think they weren't quite built as well as they could've been, I think this is somewhat the fault of the gameplay making it hard to change things depending on how much you went to see someone, and outside factors as things are kept general to work in multiple situations.

Some characters also felt a bit too much of an "haha funny/weird" character. Sasha and Eva are very strong examples of "meme-ish" characters which feel too forced. While I liked them more after I got to know them, at the start they were just cringy and annoying.

The playable character.

This is another big gripe of mine with this game. I honestly grew to hate the MC more and more as time progressed. While at the start, he felt like a bit of a blank slate, he just suddenly flipped one day, becoming an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in the first route I did. This is likely the fault of the lack of feedback; however, I didn't even think I was doing things to cause the MC to become an ass. I frequently (and desperately) wanted more clear choices to say, "No, don't do this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing!!!" but they never came. It felt like I had zero control over this character, and I wasn't able to figure out what I was doing wrong until I looked at the steam guide page, and someone explained what changes the "route" you're on. To keep this spoiler-free, I won't touch on this more, however, I felt like I was constantly misunderstood in how I wanted the MC to act, and I had very little choice about it.

The choices.

Continuing where I left off with the playable character, the choices in this game are pointless 50% of the time, which would be fine if there were a lot, but there isn't. I think the game changes a lot depending on who you see and when, but I just wanted to see the characters I liked a lot at the start, and expected choices later which would change the outcome of the game. These never came despite the fact I waited for hours to be able to do something to change my characters' actions. I wanted to scream at the game to let me speak up in some situations or shut up in others, but I lost all control of the main character after the first bit of the game it felt like.

Concluding

Despite all this, I don't hate the game. I think it's just held back drastically due to it being marketed as a "Dangan/Zero-Escape" inspired game, as well as the price. I think the amount of hours it provides makes it feel more "worth it" even if a lot feels like filler. The price may have more justification if it's due to the art, programming, music, and such, and due to expecting lower sales compared to something like Dangan/Zero-Escape, but I don't feel like the price reflected the quality we received.

6.5 to 7 out of 10. I liked it, but it's sadly nothing to write home about.

[Cleover]

Still, despite this mixed review I'd like to say, thank you for making the game.
I had quite a bit fun playing <3

A lot of this is just my opinion on the game having played quite a few similar games. Take it all with a grain of salt, as I'm bias lmao ❤️

[DreamloopSteve]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to share your thoughts and for the detailed feedback!

I think there is a lot here we can learn from and also some potential action items for a future update, so I'll be sure to share your thoughts with the team.

Inescapable is a slow burn (specifically considering when you roll credits for the first time, you've only experienced about 1/4 of the game), but we think for those who do find its social thriller nature compelling, they will find more to love as they spend more time with it.

One thing that we have noticed is far more players seem to be getting the Lust path than we anticipated and very few players have gone on to experience the path where Harrison's better nature is revealed. We're taking a look at this mechanically to see if it needs adjustment.

We had (perhaps naively) hoped to spark discussion, intrigue, and joy when players compared notes about their vastly different stories, but it seems that has caused a fair bit of confusion (though it's good to see these discussions are happening, though!)

The meta-narrative of you being Harrison's moral compass and your decisions and in-game actions influencing which story you get is something we absolutely love, but perhaps it does require some more feedback to the player. This is definitely something for us to consider adjusting mechanically, and will definitely be a subject of discussion with our team.

In regards to the inspirations we have drawn from DR/ZE, they definitely do run deep in what Inescapable is. A conversation about whether or not your choices matter in Dangan actually inspired the entire game. But the areas where this is most prominent are in the over-the-top characters and their designs (which we hope players will learn to love, even on the ickier paths), aesthetics and creative choices, music, dialogue, and the premise/set-up.

It's definitely not a 1:1 comparison for us, as Inescapable is first and foremost a character-driven narrative game with smaller ambitions than those titles (considering our resources and team size), but those inspirations run quite deep.

We've also heard the community's thoughts loud and clear on pricing. This is feedback that we'll bring to our publisher for discussion, but not something that we have direct control over, unfortunately.

All things considered, we're excited to see how players feel when those interested in doing so have given Inescapable more time and compared notes, and feedback like this is absolutely great, so thank you again for taking the time.

All the best,
Steve

[Cleover]

Originally posted by DreamloopSteve:

...
One thing that we have noticed is far more players seem to be getting the Lust path than we anticipated and very few players have gone on to experience the path where Harrison's better nature is revealed. We're taking a look at this mechanically to see if it needs adjustment.
...

Thank you for the reply!
I didn’t expect one so soon :p ❤️

Note: The rest of this comment is a about the ending I received, while it’s not heavily spoilers, I recommend anyone who reads this first plays the game

I just wanted to clarify that I was getting the "greed" ending when I was stuck a few times. I still haven't obtained any other endings, but I'm currently following the aforementioned guide to try to get a different ending.

I believe the reason for this is that I focused on talking to Valerie/Lumi (although I don't think Lumi was related). I was generally achievement hunting a bit, which made me "good?" at the game, and this may also be a factor. In my first playthrough, I got the "greed" ending with around 2 million, and I assumed that might have been the cause. However, in the subsequent playthrough, I didn't choose to talk to Valerie unless it was a story-based event, and I also didn't focus on getting money. While I did win the multiple-choice mini-games as I knew the answers, that's really all I did, apart from talking to Lumi whenever I had the option.

I think this is why I was so surprised to have Harrison turn on me in both "greed" runs, as I initially just wanted to build my friendship with Valerie and Lumi in the first playthrough without aligning myself with Valerie's "scheme." As for the second playthrough, I still don't know what I did wrong, as I tried to change my route significantly by ignoring Valerie, but I still ended up following the same path.

Regardless following the guide now should help me hopefully fall into the other paths :p

Thanks again for your response <3

[PapaEthanF]

Originally posted by Cleover:

To close out this section, I like Inescapable; it's not perfect. It's a bit overpriced, and it overpromised on what it would be, but if you're able to look past that, it's not too bad in terms of what it is on its own.

This is pretty much how I'm feeling having done the lust route and ~90% of the sus route. I was expecting something more akin to DR/ZE going into this, but once I realized that that's not exactly what it was going for, I found more to enjoy.

I think a lot of negative responses are due to the misleading promises that it would be a spiritual successor to Danganronpa, which is a fair complaint, but many of them focus too myopically on that issue and neglect to consider the game for what it is, which is a good product in its own right.

[Quitch]

I mirror your thoughts on the MC. I just reached the greed ending, which I'm assuming you did too and had the same thought. Around day 65 it felt like his personality changed overnight to become an absolute tosspot of the highest order, and the game slapped on the rails and gave me no obvious way to get off. This is also when I stopped getting meaningful options around who to see, as you can do all events in the time available.

I agree also that it's due to the lack of feedback on your actions. When I hit the end I was shocked. How the hell did I get onto this route? It didn't feel like a natural development and I had thought I was still on the main path. Honestly, I just wanted to give the guy a slap with his endless parade of blatantly terrible decisions from 65 onwards.

If the greed railroad starts at 65, rather than later, then I'll also say it feels like it goes on for way too long as a branch. I kept waiting for ways to shape things to course correct, and I don't recall them coming. If they did it was way too subtle for me.

Missing a CGI gallery is odd, but for a replay game the lack of a flowchart feels problematic. The structure of the three day events feels like it won't gel well with full replays.

[Skailess]

Honestly, word-for-word how I felt with the Lust route. One thing I'd like to add is that it feels way too easy to end up on either the Greed, or Lust routes on your first playthrough. While they are fine as routes in and of themselves to add replay value, making the "bad" routes the easiest to acquire really hurts player motivation to continue re-playing for the rest of the routes.

The things you have to do to acquire the Suspicion, and Trust routes are so specific that if there wasn't a guide that gave you a checklist on what to do, the vast majority probably wouldn't have found neither of them.

I honestly wished the route splits weren't determined by a culmination of your actions (and key events), and was slightly more predictable for players to plan around. No matter what you do, it feels like you have to start a new save every single time because it feels you get locked onto a route really early in the game (I'm almost certain it's Day 65, or the time you get gassed), and you can't swap. It feels like the only indicator telling you what route you end up on is when the HUD/ day transition screen text changes color.

[Taiyo]

Originally posted by Skailess:

Honestly, word-for-word how I felt with the Lust route. One thing I'd like to add is that it feels way too easy to end up on either the Greed, or Lust routes on your first playthrough. While they are fine as routes in and of themselves to add replay value, making the "bad" routes the easiest to acquire really hurts player motivation to continue re-playing for the rest of the routes.

I personally felt that there were three problems contributing to the issue at hand regarding the Lust route. This is from what I have observed and noted in my guide.

One problem is that they decided to put Annika AND Eva, subjectively two of the sexist ladies, on the same route. They are basically like flames and the moths (the players, basically) would flock to them thus making some players think that Lust is the ONLY route in the game. Potential solution: Move Annika or Eva to a different route (it makes more sense for Eva to be on the Greed route, seeing how she's obsessed with ratings and popularity, but that's just my opinion) so people will discover that there are, indeed, more than just the Lust route.

Another problem is that the game advertises itself as a killing game, however there are zero killings on the Lust route. This in turn can confuse players. Potential solution: Include at least one killing. I mean, it's a Lust route - it could be easy to have some sort of a "spurned lover" event where they kill someone else that thinks that may have stolen their lover. Isak and Valerie would have been an interesting case of a spurned lover incident imo

The third problem is, from I have noticed, is that Dirt and Gossip likely gives large multipliers. I believe that if you unlock even a few Dirt or Gossip, you lock yourself into Suspicion (Dirt) or Lust (Gossip) route. Seeing how Annika and Eva are both on the Lust route, you will gain a LOT of Gossip points which will urge people to unlock as many Gossip as they can further solidifying themselves into that path. Potential solution: Introduce a third tab in the Biography app along with Dirt and Gossip that gives Greed multipliers. That should give people a way to get onto the Greed route.

They are just simply my opinions and observations, mind.

[Skailess]

Yeah, in my case. I saw and read your guide after I got the lust route. Annika, and Giovanni were the characters I'd initially spent the most time with after learning bits of information about them through the dirt/gossip thing. It made take an interest in their character, I so desperately to know why characters are the way they are, or did what they did. It's kind of a shame I never actually saw enough of either of their events cuz it felt like I barely learned much about either one (beyond what the dirt/gossip app already told me) despite spending most of my first playthrough talking to them.

[TheGodofSteel]

my main problem with the lust route is that while I do play these games for mostly the mystery, killing other students aspect, I also like a bit of romance, and if the only path where you can have potential romances are all doomed because of the MC being a horrible person to each of his partners, it kind of ruins the point of romances in the first place if no matter what you do, they aren't going to be happy together. Kind of a disappointment after going for Eva the whole time, only to not get a happy ending.