Mystery Manila: World of Wizardry Review

"Yer a wizard harry," I remember telling myself as the elevator opens up trying to get my mind conditioned at the task ahead. Sadly that's about as much I know about Harry Potter as I have yet to finish a single movie or read a single book about the franchise. I'm more familiar with the wizards in the D&D Arcade than I am with Rowlings much beloved franchise. And yet here I am with my partner in wizarding-ish escapades at Mystery Manila hoping to have a spell at Mystery Manila's World of Wizardry which was an escape room based out of the Harry Potter books. We booked an evening schedule after work as usual and had dinner before we head out to save the wizard world from the evils that plagues it.

Mystery Manila is the first live role playing game in the Philippines. Its idea is simple. One room, One mystery, One hour, One way out. 

Breakout Manila: Press Play Review

I have always been a fan of detective novels. The typical whodunit kind of tale where you solve logic puzzle and searched for clues at a given scene to solve. It challenges ones logic, analogy and keen sense of observation. I cant say Im good at it but much like playing video games its a nice mind tickler on a lazy weekend. Solving puzzles to get that oh so precious gem or key to unlock a hidden door to the next area. I have always wanted to try one but most of them involve some sort of fear or horror theme and sadly as much as I hate to admit it I scare rather easily. That was until I found out about Breakouts new theme room is titled Press Play which judging by the poster is an 8 bit video game inspired Escape Room. Being a big fan of the 8 bit nostalgic games like Mario and Pacman I knew Ive found the Escape Room for me.

But what is an Escape Room?

Escape Room games is a concept that originated in the 90’s from Japan called “Takagism” and has challenged gamers from all over the world. Just recently, this experience has been taken to the next level by being brought to real life! With your team, you need to observe and use your environment to find hidden objects, decipher clues and solve puzzles to unlock different stages until you finally Breakout from the room.