https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=podX_cPaIHU
"In games, there are believable lies and unbelievable lies. We want to create realities that are believable."
- Translated quote from Rika Suzuki (https://shmuplations.com/adventuregames/)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is the kind of game to make elevator-sounding-music hit different.
Going to start off with the unconventional human-feeling parts of why I like this game but
the premise and the position Cing and the Hotel Dusk ip feel so close (and some have said
the sequel to this game is arguably even closer). Hotel Dusk is a game about being in a small
hotel in the middle of the California desert right before the new year of 1980, something
that very much to me draws in ideas of being alone while finding your way in life as time
progresses. I would say this game is about as accurate to having a feeling that captures
a lonely pre-New Years December and post-New Years January based on my personal experiences lol.
The protagonist of this game, Kyle Hyde, is shown directly at the beginning to
be in a very introspective time in his life where he can't let go of the past and ends up
working as just a door-to-door salesman after being fired as a police officer. I was a bit
worried that this game was going to turn a blind eye to the moral implications of sleuthing
to find whatever items you could use in a situation but I was pleasantly surprised to find
that this game did not let me down at all and only used those aspects to highlight Kyle's
character as well, a guy who absolutely was a cop at some point and is not even remotely
good with people but deep down he wants to listen and understand them. In fact to build on this
point this game is bold enough to hit you with a few "game over" scenarios that you can
quickly recover from which I found to absolutely spike some much-needed tension in the story.
Some other reviewers here (and critics in general) complain about this aspect and I think at
times it can be a bit too harsh but also this isn't Ace Attorney where you're going into a
court room, you are literally some nobody door-to-door salesman grilling people in a hotel
so why the hell wouldn't you back your stuff up or carefully think about what you're saying?
If there's an overall tone/appeal I can say that this game has it's that it can morph between
a sitcom and an intriguing mystery at ease, there wasn't any time where I was wondering why
the tone of the game changed the writing (done by Rika Suzuki) was solid. I was lucky enough
to find this game physically and the form factor of the DS is directly used multiple times
for puzzles, with the DS being turned sideways to be read like a book. With how I was holding
my DS, my thumb was on the bottom right corner of the screen where dialogue would be displayed
so I could quickly continue on with dialogue and I can't help but feel like this was absolutely
used to play into the detective novel aspect of the story while having an easy way to go
through dialogue.
Hotel Dusk is an excellent example of how just good writing (and art direction) and a consideration of the player interface
can trascend something as simple as "an adventure game where you play as a former cop in the 1970's" into something that
can still draw in those who would appreciate the concept today. Hotel Dusk uses the medium of games to draw you into
the mindset and perspective of Kyle with how it lays down character interactions, sets up its user interface to
make the Nintendo DS LITERALLY a book, and a narrative layout that recollects as many times as it progresses a story.
I very much believe this game was intended for a casual audience who probably never played a lot of video games
(or of the adventure game variety), and I think it succeeds in bringing the appeal of detective fiction to the DS.
Although the game is incredibly linear and at times grinds up against adventure game design issues such as
"what do I do to progress the story" and "why do I have to look at these items in that order", there were more times
I was using my head to think about where events could lead in the hotel and I think the focus on a singular setting
absolutely helps this game a lot. Hotel Dusk isn't a game that revolutionizes, it innovates on the kind of emotion
video games are supposed to invoke by playing into basic adventure game sensibilities, hooking you in on the
characters and mystery like a good book you just can't put down.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is the kind of game to make elevator-sounding-music hit different. A place
can just be a place but there are always secrets and wishes people have, everything depends on
how you spend your time on this Earth and Hotel Dusk is a game that shows that in the small moments
of nothing you can find something even if you're down on your luck.
"In games, there are believable lies and unbelievable lies. We want to create realities that are believable."
- Translated quote from Rika Suzuki (https://shmuplations.com/adventuregames/)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is the kind of game to make elevator-sounding-music hit different.
Going to start off with the unconventional human-feeling parts of why I like this game but
the premise and the position Cing and the Hotel Dusk ip feel so close (and some have said
the sequel to this game is arguably even closer). Hotel Dusk is a game about being in a small
hotel in the middle of the California desert right before the new year of 1980, something
that very much to me draws in ideas of being alone while finding your way in life as time
progresses. I would say this game is about as accurate to having a feeling that captures
a lonely pre-New Years December and post-New Years January based on my personal experiences lol.
The protagonist of this game, Kyle Hyde, is shown directly at the beginning to
be in a very introspective time in his life where he can't let go of the past and ends up
working as just a door-to-door salesman after being fired as a police officer. I was a bit
worried that this game was going to turn a blind eye to the moral implications of sleuthing
to find whatever items you could use in a situation but I was pleasantly surprised to find
that this game did not let me down at all and only used those aspects to highlight Kyle's
character as well, a guy who absolutely was a cop at some point and is not even remotely
good with people but deep down he wants to listen and understand them. In fact to build on this
point this game is bold enough to hit you with a few "game over" scenarios that you can
quickly recover from which I found to absolutely spike some much-needed tension in the story.
Some other reviewers here (and critics in general) complain about this aspect and I think at
times it can be a bit too harsh but also this isn't Ace Attorney where you're going into a
court room, you are literally some nobody door-to-door salesman grilling people in a hotel
so why the hell wouldn't you back your stuff up or carefully think about what you're saying?
If there's an overall tone/appeal I can say that this game has it's that it can morph between
a sitcom and an intriguing mystery at ease, there wasn't any time where I was wondering why
the tone of the game changed the writing (done by Rika Suzuki) was solid. I was lucky enough
to find this game physically and the form factor of the DS is directly used multiple times
for puzzles, with the DS being turned sideways to be read like a book. With how I was holding
my DS, my thumb was on the bottom right corner of the screen where dialogue would be displayed
so I could quickly continue on with dialogue and I can't help but feel like this was absolutely
used to play into the detective novel aspect of the story while having an easy way to go
through dialogue.
Hotel Dusk is an excellent example of how just good writing (and art direction) and a consideration of the player interface
can trascend something as simple as "an adventure game where you play as a former cop in the 1970's" into something that
can still draw in those who would appreciate the concept today. Hotel Dusk uses the medium of games to draw you into
the mindset and perspective of Kyle with how it lays down character interactions, sets up its user interface to
make the Nintendo DS LITERALLY a book, and a narrative layout that recollects as many times as it progresses a story.
I very much believe this game was intended for a casual audience who probably never played a lot of video games
(or of the adventure game variety), and I think it succeeds in bringing the appeal of detective fiction to the DS.
Although the game is incredibly linear and at times grinds up against adventure game design issues such as
"what do I do to progress the story" and "why do I have to look at these items in that order", there were more times
I was using my head to think about where events could lead in the hotel and I think the focus on a singular setting
absolutely helps this game a lot. Hotel Dusk isn't a game that revolutionizes, it innovates on the kind of emotion
video games are supposed to invoke by playing into basic adventure game sensibilities, hooking you in on the
characters and mystery like a good book you just can't put down.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is the kind of game to make elevator-sounding-music hit different. A place
can just be a place but there are always secrets and wishes people have, everything depends on
how you spend your time on this Earth and Hotel Dusk is a game that shows that in the small moments
of nothing you can find something even if you're down on your luck.