Zero Escape Is Getting Its Own Real Life Escape Room

Here's a bit of rad news about the worlds of video games and real-life crossing over: An Escape the Room game themed after the popular series Zero Escape will be making its way to Los Angeles later this year.

The game series actually started off as 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, and became Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward when the sequel arrived on the PlayStation Vita and 3DS. The third game in the series will continue to bridge those communities as Zero Escape 3 has been annoucned for both the 3DS and Vita later this summer.

In the games, a collection of people wake up to find themselves trapped in a dangerous facility. Kind of like Saw crossed with the popular death game genre of anime/manga, the Zero Escape games task folks with escaping the facility without dying. Some of the puzzles will kill one of the characters if you do them incorrectly, and you can even kill off characters in more deceptive, self-serving ways. On top of all of that mistrust whirling around, you've got X amount of hours to get the hell out of dodge before your collar or bracelet or whatever kills you off.

A less deadly version of those types of puzzles have bled into the real world in recent years, a popular being the Escape the Room series. Folks go into a room or series of rooms and, simply by investigating their surroundings, clues and the like, they have to figure out how to get out of the room within a given time limit. If you like puzzle games, consider this your ultimate evening out on the town. Think of it as a real life version of The Witness, but with less line drawing. And no island. And—you know what, that was a shaky example at best.

Anyway, thanks to the folks over at Eurogamer, we now know that we're getting a crossover between the two called Real Zero Escape: Trust on Trial. North American publisher Aksys Games and series developer Spike Chunsoft are partnering with SCRAP, a Japanese puzzle event studio that makes experiences similar to Escape the Room, to make this new game.

Set to launch on April 15, Real Zero Escape is primed for a stay of several months in Los Angelas' Little Tokyo district. If it does well, they'll keep it around longer. Considering the timing, that's basically fantastic news for anyone planning on heading to E3 this June or visiting the west coast at the start of the summer.

In case you're worried about having not played the games, apparently Real Zero Escape will boast a heavy theme based on the titular series, but you need not have played any of the games to enjoy the puzzles. But it's kind of like playing Bloodborne. If you go in fresh, you've still going to have a rad time. If you've played the Souls games beforehand, though, there's all sorts of little touches and references that will give you even more joy.

So tell us, readers: Anybody planning a trip to LA now?