Over this February break I took some time to play a game that has been rotting in my backlog: “Hotel Dusk: Room 215” for the Nintendo DS. Developed by the now defunct Cing Inc. and released on Jan. 22, 2007, you play as Kyle Hyde, an ex NYPD detective turned salesman looking for his former work partner, Brian Bradley, at the titular Hotel Dusk on the night of Dec. 28, 1979. The rundown hotel is full of secrets to discover, puzzles to solve and people to befriend to figure out what caused Bradley’s disappearance.
The game is a point and click adventure style game, with the DS’s touch screen being used for most if not all actions. As you explore, the top screen shows what Kyle sees, while the touch screen has a map with labels for each room, and four buttons to tap that involve interacting with people, objects, doors and your memo. The memo is used to write notes and check info on the items you’ve collected and the people you’ve met, as well as seeing the layout of the hotel itself.
Nintendo of Europe did an interview with Mr. Takuya Miyagawa, (ex) CEO of Cing and Producer of Hotel Dusk, and he states that the goal of creating an “adventure game that includes unprecedented forms of expression” was a tough one, but one that brought them to a result that was truly unique: “We [Cing] still really wanted to create a game that pursues the affinity between the adventure game and the Nintendo DS hardware … Overall we believe that the adventure game is a genre that allows us to express ourselves freely, in which it is easier to convey the kind of experiences that can really pull at players’ heart strings. We feel that Hotel Dusk allowed us to truly highlight these aspects.” While the narrative is presented entirely through Kyle’s first person narration and the game is divided up into chapters, it is also experienced physically like a novel, since the game is played by holding the DS system itself at a 90-degree angle.
This is not the first game to tell the player to hold the console in “Book Position.” Games like “Brain Age” require the same, but there have been sequels to “Brain Age” on different consoles, and those consoles have their own unique way to play. However, I can confidently say that the truest way to play “Hotel Dusk” is by holding a dual screen console sideways and five inches away from your nose. Holding the DS close with both hands, looking back and forth from one screen to another as the conversations develop, maneuvering around social and environmental puzzles with the touch screen, all creates an intimate experience. The only way I can put it is by quoting Nintendo of Europe’s description of “Hotel Dusk” by calling it an “interactive mystery novel.” It would not be the same if I was playing it at a distance, my eyes would be on the screen and my fingers would be on the controller, but it would be a limiting experience.
Conversations with people are framed on both screens of the DS. You look at the touch screen as Kyle speaks and look at the other screen to whoever he is talking to. As the conversations progress, something might catch Kyle’s attention, and he’ll note it down later so it can be brought back up when it’s necessary. But even while someone else is talking, you need to pay attention to Kyle, because an icon will show up on the touch screen when he wants to interrupt and interject with his own thoughts or questions. Be careful not to miss these, or you might need to start the interaction over again. There are also times when the conversation pauses for you to ask questions as well. Mr. Miyagawa extrapolates on this mechanic, saying that: “The player will select the actions and utterances, but he will not be able to completely control Kyle freely … if you select an action that Kyle would never do, sometimes it could be Game Over for you.”
They always had in mind how the player was feeling at every step of development. There is this thick atmosphere of unearthed mystery that lets “Hotel Dusk” evolve from a game behind a screen into a world in your mind. Suspenseful music drifts through the yellowed hotel walls, and Kyle has a discerning eye that leaves no secret unturned. Mr. Miyagawa sources his inspirations from some of the most highly acclaimed old detective films like “Paris, Texas” and “Bagdad Café/Out of Rosenheim.” He also points out that the character animations are based off of A-ha’s music video for “Take On Me,” grounding the games aesthetics further in the past, yet still feeling otherworldly. Every character interaction sees their reactions in well drawn pencil sketches of their profile in that emotion, with lines constantly shifting and changing shades as the conversation moves. Through the process of filming actors displaying these emotions and then tracing over their movements, they literally bring people from outside the screen into this world.
Everyone in the hotel has a personality and life far beyond the reaches of the hotel. It almost feels like reading a book, and just like Mr. Miyagawa says in the same interview, it directly connects to the characters. “We really wanted to properly express the stories of each character in Hotel Dusk, and so we decided to make the story like the film “Grand Hotel,” in which multiple characters’ different human dramas are all happening simultaneously during a limited time frame and in one confined setting.” For example, Dunning Smith, the manager of Hotel Dusk, has a Southern speech pattern that reflects his unheard accent, as well as a lightly grumpy attitude. Louis DeNonno is a young pickpocket from New York turned hotel bellhop in hopes of turning a new leaf, and his dialogue is full of slang that Hyde needs to get used to, and occasionally translate. The cast is made up of characters with personalities and motivations, and it is a joy to meet and learn about them all.
If you like games that have unique control schemes, detective stories, a variety of characters and just an unapologetic vibe that defines the game in every sense of the word, I highly recommend “Hotel Dusk: Room 215.”
