Comparison

Escape Game CAROUSEL vs Ryokan Journey

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Escape Game CAROUSEL

Explore a mysterious toy shop filled with curious mechanisms and cute dolls. Solve puzzles by investigating, collecting items, and combining them to uncover secrets and escape.

Highlights
  • Beautiful 3D graphics
  • Mysterious toy shop setting
  • Toy-themed puzzles and mechanisms
  • Hint function
  • Auto-save
  • Handwritten note feature
Features
Read full description

◯ Escape Game: CAROUSEL You find yourself inside a mysterious toy shop. The shop is filled with cute dolls, toys, and all kinds of curious mechanisms waiting to be discovered. Uncover the mysteries hidden among the toys one by one and find your way out of the shop. ◯ Features - Beautiful 3D graphics - A mysterious toy shop filled with cute dolls and toys - A variety of puzzles and mechanisms built around toys - Hint function for beginners - Auto-save - Handwritten note feature ◯ How to Play - Tap areas that catch your eye to investigate - Collect items and use or combine them to solve puzzles - If you get stuck, use the hint button to view hints tailored to your progress ◯ Credits Game Design, Programming, 3DCG sumino: https://x.com/sumino_plumist ◯ Asset Credits 【BGM & Sound Effects】 DOVA SYNDROME 効果音ラボ 魔王魂 【Icon Assets】 Icons8: https://icons8.com icooon-mono: https://icooon-mono.com Thank you for the wonderful assets!

About

Ryokan Journey

Explore traditional Japanese inns through a series of escape room puzzles. Solve intricate contraptions and unlock the secrets of each unique ryokan setting to progress through the story. Hints are available if you get stuck.

Highlights
  • Traditional Japanese inn settings
  • Intricate escape room puzzles
  • Beautiful 3D scenes
  • Over 200 contraptions
  • Hint system available
  • Automatic progress saving
Features
Read full description

Ryokan Journey is a series of escape games set in traditional Japanese inns (ryokan). Six inns are included now. Episode 1: Winter Ryokan An old farmhouse inn deep in snow country. You wake on a snowy night to find every door shut. Search the hearth room and the storeroom behind the wooden door, solve nine contraptions, and step out into the snowlit garden. Episode 2: Autumn Ryokan A hot-spring inn in the autumn mountains. You can see the open-air bath beyond the room, but the glass door to the garden has an unfamiliar lock. Collect three tags, open the lock, and head for the bath. Episode 3: Sakura Ryokan (additional inn, in-app purchase) A spring night in a detached cottage of an inn in the hills of Kyoto. Outside the paper screens, a weeping cherry glows white in the moonlight. Solve the puzzles hidden in a folding screen, sweet dumplings and a tea-serving karakuri doll, light the lantern, and go out into the night sakura garden. Episode 4: Firefly Ryokan (additional inn, in-app purchase) A summer night at a riverside inn in the mountains. Wind chimes ring softly outside the paper screens. Search the river room, the earthen-floor kitchen and the courtyard, solve ten contraptions, and step out onto the riverside deck where fireflies dance. Episode 5: New Year Ryokan (additional inn, in-app purchase) New Year's Eve at an inn on a cape overlooking the sea. The innkeeper is away, and every door is closed by his contraptions. Read the pages of his diary, solve eleven contraptions with kites, battledores, a sugoroku board and a compass stone, raise the flag on the lookout, and watch the first sunrise of the year. Episode 6: Peach Blossom Ryokan (additional inn, in-app purchase) An afternoon on March 3, Girls' Day, at an island inn where peach trees bloom. The family has gone to the shrine by the beach, and the doll stand is still empty. Solve contraptions with a folding screen, gears and a ruler to find the boxes of hina dolls, hand the musicians their instruments, set out the tiny furnishings, and finish before the family returns on the evening boat. HOW TO PLAY - Choose an inn on the first screen - Tap anything that catches your eye to examine it - Use the left and right arrows to turn, and the down arrow to go back - Select an item you found, then tap where you want to use it - Stuck? Tap the light bulb for three levels of hints (the last one is the answer) - Your progress is saved automatically for each inn FEATURES - Beautiful 3D scenes of a farmhouse hearth room and snowy garden, a hot-spring inn and its maple garden, a spring cottage and its night sakura garden, a riverside inn with fireflies, a cape inn at the first sunrise, and an island inn with peach blossoms and a seven-tier doll stand, redrawn every time something changes - Over 200 moves of Japanese contraptions across six inns: a rotary phone dial, a karakuri picture frame, a ring of symbols on a chest, icicle locks, a frozen padlock, kokeshi dolls, a secret puzzle box, a pendulum clock, mirror writing, shell matching, a tea-serving doll, wind-chime strips, a bamboo gutter, a well bolt, a firefly cage that glows in the dark, a sugoroku board with jumping squares, and more - Puzzles that don't depend on language - Bonus: collect ten camellias, maple leaves, cherry blossoms, fireflies, gold coins and clams. Ten in an inn reveal the Contraption Maker's Notes (in the New Year Ryokan, the innkeeper's New Year gift; in the Peach Blossom Ryokan, ten clams open the shell box), and after escaping you can walk the inn again to find the ones you missed - Available in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) and Korean - For iPhone and iPad ABOUT HINTS The first and second hints are always available. The third hint, the answer, can be seen by watching a short video or by purchasing the Answer Key. The Answer Key unlocks the answers for every inn with a single purchase. No horror. Take your time, as if you were relaxing at an inn.

Screenshots

Escape Game CAROUSEL4 screens
Ryokan Journey4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Escape Game CAROUSEL at none against Ryokan Journey's 8. Escape Game CAROUSEL also leads on review sentiment (67% vs 50%) and ratings volume (37 vs 3). On price, rating, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Ryokan Journey sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. Escape Game CAROUSEL asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Escape Game CAROUSEL against 5.0 for Ryokan Journey. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Escape Game CAROUSEL has 37 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of Escape Game CAROUSEL's written reviews are positive against 50% of Ryokan Journey's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly daily. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Escape Game CAROUSEL versus Ryokan Journey: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEscape Game CAROUSELRyokan Journey
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (37 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings37 — better3
Update frequencyDailyDaily
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size316 MB333 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKensuke MiyaharaJUNYA TOGA

Customer experience

Escape Game CAROUSEL

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

Ryokan Journey

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Escape Game CAROUSEL

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

Ryokan Journey

One-time8
  • お茶代(小)$0.99
  • Episode 3: Sakura Ryokan$0.99
  • 答えの鍵$1.99
Show 5 more
  • Episode 6: Peach Blossom Ryokan$2.99
  • Episode 5: New Year Ryokan$2.99
  • お茶代(大)$2.99
  • Episode 4: Firefly Ryokan$2.99
  • Episodes 3 & 4 + Answer Key$4.99

Questions

Is Escape Game CAROUSEL free?
Escape Game CAROUSEL is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ryokan Journey free?
Ryokan Journey is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Escape Game CAROUSEL or Ryokan Journey?
Ryokan Journey is rated higher. Escape Game CAROUSEL averages 4.9 out of 5 from 37 ratings, while Ryokan Journey averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Escape Game CAROUSEL or Ryokan Journey have ads?
Both Escape Game CAROUSEL and Ryokan Journey show ads.
Which is updated more often, Escape Game CAROUSEL or Ryokan Journey?
Escape Game CAROUSEL ships an update daily, and Ryokan Journey daily. Most recently, Escape Game CAROUSEL was updated on October 31, 2026 and Ryokan Journey on November 1, 2026.

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