Screenshot of gameplay showing both DS screens in their vertical format
The player, as Kyle Hyde, interacts with the environment using the DS' touch screen. Gameplay involves navigating the hotel, having conversations with hotel staff and patrons, and solving puzzles using the handheld's various features including the touch screen, microphone, and clamshell cover. The game is played with the DS rotated 90 degrees, held like a book.
Most chapters end with an interrogation of a major character, as a form of boss fight. The player may ask questions about items that Kyle has collected, or topics which have been brought to his attention. By asking the right questions, Kyle will uncover the information he needs. If he asks the wrong question, makes a wrong assumption, behaves rudely, gets caught with contraband, or is caught in a restricted area, he may confuse, frighten or anger the person, indicated by a darkening of the character in question. This may result in a game over, which usually involves the hotel manager expelling him from the premises, or a crucial character refusing to cooperate, preventing him from ever solving the mystery.
The game is filled with adventure-style puzzles, most of which involve using the touch screen to perform a simple task. Movement is performed by leading an iconic representation of Kyle around a map of the hotel on the touch screen or d-pad while a first-person three-dimensional view is shown on the other screen.
There is also a journal to write in, which is used by several other characters as well, though all critical in-game story notes are copied automatically. It gives three pages to write in, with a simple pencil/eraser system.
Synopsis
The game takes place on the night of December 28, 1979 at Hotel Dusk, a rundown motel outside of Los Angeles. Kyle Hyde, a former N.Y.P.D. detective, is working as a salesman for a company called Red Crown. He arrives at the hotel in search of his former partner, Brian Bradley, and checks in to Room 215, a room rumored to grant wishes. Hyde soon finds that the hotel has many mysteries as well as connections to his past, and begins to look into these further. The order of the discovery of these elements within the game will depend on choices players make, and as such, the summary below is the chronological order of the larger story.
Robert Evans and Dunning Smith were friends at college, but went their separate ways. Evans inherited his family's art gallery, while Dunning wanted to become a professional painter. Both married and each had a daughter: Mila and Jenny, respectively. In 1960, they reunited in an airport, after both of their wives died in a tragic plane crash. A year later, Evans came up with the idea of creating "Osterzone", a dead painter from the 19th century whose works would be highly valued. Evans deeply admired Dunning's skill at painting, and offered him to paint works to be credited as Osterzone's, to which he agreed. While Dunning painted, Evans displayed the works in his art gallery and created the mythos of Osterzone. The scam was successful; the paintings sold for fortunes, including one called Angel Opening a Door, and Evans and Dunning became rich. However, as Dunning kept on painting, he slowly became depressed as the fame of being Osterzone began to be a huge burden on him and he was exhausted in the process.
Their activities attracted the attention of a crime syndicate, called "Nile," that Evans worked with. Evans bought Hotel Dusk in 1969 to use as a front for his illicit meetings and to provide a secret workshop for Dunning to paint, despite Dunning's wishes to get out of the scam. During one meeting with Nile, Dunning refused to continue painting, prompting Nile agents to kidnap Jenny. During the skirmish, Mila, who was playing with Jenny, was knocked into a coma. Evans forced Dunning to continue to paint as Osterzone in order to see Jenny again. Evans, now in trouble with Nile, was forced to close down and sell his art gallery, and gave Hotel Dusk to Dunning before keeping himself secluded. Dunning lost hope of seeing Jenny again after three years and quit painting, but Evans, now having severed ties with Nile, convinced him to wait at the hotel and Jenny would be returned in time, implying that he intended to rescue her. Dunning became the hotel's owner and renovated it to hide the evidence of Nile and Osterzone, while creating the mythos of Room 215 so as to attract customers.
Three years prior to the game's present and before Evans ended his allegiance with Nile, Hyde and Bradley investigated a series of art thefts by Nile in New York City, and Bradley was assigned as an undercover cop in the case. Evans informed Bradley that Nile was holding his sister—also named Mila—hostage to force him to disclose confidential information on the investigation. During the time he was working as an informant for Nile, Bradley learned of Dunning and Osterzone, and later stole Angel Opening a Door from Nile, who had previously stolen the painting from Evans' art gallery, in anticipation of returning it to Dunning. However, despite giving Nile the information they sought, Bradley's sister Mila was murdered by Evans. Hyde received word about Bradley being on the take. Blinded by rage at his partner's betrayal, Hyde confronted Bradley at the Hudson River and shot him. Bradley survived the wound, but fell into the river and disappeared; unbeknownst to Hyde, he continued to pursue Evans in order to avenge his sister's death. Hyde, feeling remorse over his actions, quit the force and took up the salesman job to search for Bradley.
Six months before the start of the game, Bradley checked into Hotel Dusk under Hyde's name and spoke to Dunning about what he knew of Nile and Osterzone. Despite Dunning's distrust, Bradley turned over Angel Opening a Door to him, and while staying at the hotel, left several clues for Hyde to find and uncover the truth, including a goodbye letter asking Hyde to give up searching for him because he was now on the run from both Nile and the police. Bradley then left the hotel and visited Evans' daughter Mila, who bore a resemblance to his sister in addition to having the same first name. Seeing his own sister in Mila, Bradley gave her the bracelet that belonged to his sister. Shortly after this visit, Mila woke from her coma unable to speak, believing that her father gave her the bracelet. It is implied that around this time, Bradley succeeded in hunting down and killing Evans, since the latter's visits to the comatose Mila suddenly ceased. After waiting several months for Evans to appear, Mila decided to leave the hospital, following the only clue she had: a pamphlet to Hotel Dusk that Bradley had left behind.
At the start of the game, Mila and Hyde arrive at the hotel around the same time. Hyde is able to piece together all the clues to the hotel's past, including the hotel's secret hideout and the identity of Dunning and Mila, who eventually regains her ability to speak. After helping to reconcile the two, Hyde leaves the hotel to continue his search for Bradley. Mila asks to come with Hyde and he accepts, and the two leave in his car.
In a secret post-credits scene, a now-adult Jenny (presumed to have been rescued from Nile by Evans before he was killed) is seen arriving at the hotel on New Year's Eve.
Development
Hotel Dusk was in production for about a year and a half. The development team comprised 20 staff members. In an interview with QJ.net, Director Taisuke Kanasaki explained that they wanted Hotel Dusk to have "an unprecedented visual expression not found in any other game".[3]
The game uses rotoscoping to animate its characters. Game environments are illustrated in a brushwork style, with backgrounds drawn half-finished and 3D objects strewn about. While not a first in gaming, rotoscoping is still rare in most games (with only a handful, namely the original Prince of Persia using the animation style).[4][5]
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregation website Metacritic.[6] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 33 out of 40.[11]
The game was selected as one of Gaming Target's "52 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2007".[23] It was the 76th best-selling game in Japan in 2007, with 213,208 copies sold.[24] A retrospective at Kotaku described the experience as "a big puzzle; everyone has a secret, and the writing (and localization) is done so well," adding "I was constantly surprised by the characters and their motivations".[25] 411Mania gave it a score of seven out of ten, saying that the game is "easy to like and easier to want to get more of."[26]
The New York Times gave Hotel Dusk an average review, calling it "unrelentingly linear".[27]The Sydney Morning Herald gave it three stars out of five, and said: "Having to wait until the game lets you solve a riddle even though you have grasped the solution long ago is particularly galling. Players too often feel like passengers on a scripted ride, rather than individual auteurs directing their own unique experience".[22]The A.V. Club gave it a D+ and pointed out that "while a mystery should keep you alert for clues and misstatements, Hotel Dusk slaps you in the forehead with every new piece of evidence, then patronizes you with reading-comprehension quizzes after every chapter".[21]
In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Hotel Dusk the 65th-best adventure game ever released.[28]
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Orcs & Elves is an adventure role-playing video game for the mobile phone and Nintendo DS. It was developed by id Software and Fountainhead Entertainment and published by EA Mobile and licensed by Nintendo for the DS version. It was released for mobile phones in May 2006 before being ported to the Nintendo DS in November 2007. The game is based on Doom RPG's engine and is id's first original intellectual property since Quake. The DS port of the game included graphical enhancements, such as 3D environments and camera cutscenes, along with improved character sprites, two new levels and the use of the touchscreen feature.
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Last Window: The Secret of Cape West, known in Japan as Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku, is an adventure video game developed by Cing and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is the sequel to Hotel Dusk: Room 215, starring protagonist Kyle Hyde, and takes place one year after those events. Set in 1980 Los Angeles, the Cape West Apartments, the story deals with a new mystery in a new location, but it also delves into some unanswered questions from Kyle Hyde's past. Last Window was the last game developed by Cing before the company filed for bankruptcy on 1 March 2010. Unlike its predecessor, it was never released in North America. A spiritual successor entitled Chase: Cold Case Investigations - Distant Memories developed by Arc System Works was released in 2016 with many former developers of Cing working on the game.
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References
↑ Known in Japan as Wish Room: Angel's Memory (ウィッシュルーム 天使の記憶, Wisshu Rūmu Tenshi no Kioku)
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