Room Escape Artist

The Dragon’s Song is one of the best escape rooms around Toronto, Canada. Here are our recommendations for great escape rooms in the Toronto area.

A Song of Puzzle & Dragons

Location: Toronto, Ontario Canada

Date Played: May 1, 2022

Team Size: 6-12; we recommend 6

Duration: 60 minutes, plus a 15-minute intro and 15-minute outro

Price: Wed/Thurs/Sun: $42 CAD per player; Fri/Sat: $50 CAD per player

Ticketing: Public

Accessibility Consideration:  Several narrow, spiral staircases were part of gameplay; players must also climb stairs to get to the game

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

The Dragon’s Song took our team to new heights in a highly immersive, larger-than-life setting accompanied by a simple yet satisfying plot line. Held in the Scottish Tower of historic Casa Loma, this escape room is a must-play experience for history buffs, scenery snobs, and fans of immersive entertainment.

The splendor was counterbalanced by some moments where the The Dragon’s Song leaned into its more mundane and repetitive elements rather than further amplifying its unique and spectacular assets, including some puzzles that stalled gameplay momentum. Despite these points, this escape room ultimately offers an experience you can’t get anywhere else, with something for both seasoned and newer players.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Fantasy genre fans
• Best for players with at least some experience
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
• Players who are comfortable traversing steep, narrow staircases during gameplay

Why play?

• A highly immersive escape room taking place within a beautiful, historic setting
• A simple, satisfying story that fit well within the gamespace
• Great in-room actors
• Incredible attention to detail
• Large-scale interactions
• Collaborative solves
• Non-linear and well-gated puzzle flow

Story

With dragons on the verge of extinction, we embarked on a perilous quest to enter the tower where the last dragon egg was supposedly located. Navigating a world of magic, and guided by some helpful friends, we had to find the dragon egg and prevent impending doom for these beautiful, winged creatures.

Setting

The Dragon’s Song took place in an actual stone tower (the Scottish Tower of Casa Loma) and spanned multiple floors.

Gameplay

Secret City Adventures’ The Dragon’s Song was a standard escape room in a large-scale setting with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, making connections, and puzzling, including several process-heavy puzzles. Players must climb several staircases during gameplay.

Analysis

➕ Playing an escape room inside an actual historic tower was truly special and unforgettable, and the level of immersion was outstanding.

➖ Several puzzles took much longer than was necessary to make their point and advance the plot. Their “aha” moments quickly became an exercise in extended process.

❓The volume of content in The Dragon’s Song was high, and at times, it seemed to compete with the grandeur offered by the tower setting. There was one moment in particular where an opportunity to enjoy the space was cut short by the rush to get everything solved.

➕/➖ One moment delivered a delightful wow factor on a large scale. Unfortunately, I was left wanting more because it was underutilized and our time to engage with it was limited.

➖ One piece of clunky tech slowed us down midway through gameplay and needed to be refined.

➕ The in-game actors were outstanding and did an excellent job building their characters, making us laugh, and going along with our team’s pace and puzzling flow.

❓Gameplay was a balancing act between interacting with the fun actors and needing to play hard to accomplish everything to complete the quest.

➕ Secret City Adventures found unique and creative ways to work around the design constraints inherent in building an escape room within a historical landmark, and the content expanded well within the space.

➕ The Dragon Song’s story made good sense within the setting of a historic tower. The ending was satisfying: straightforward, well clued, and provided a cohesive finale.

Tips For Visiting

• Parking is available on site in the Casa Loma parking lot. If there is an event taking place at the venue, you may need to pay for parking.
• Although this escape room takes place on Casa Loma property, Secret City Adventures is not associated with the castle’s activities and events. Please contact Casa Loma if you would like to book a tour or event with them.
• There are restaurants on the Casa Loma property and several more in the surrounding area.

Book your hour with Casa Loma Escape Series – Secret City Adventures’ The Dragon’s Song, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.