I wish Hotel Dusk: Room 215 was more accessible than it is.
It has all the requisite ingredients to become a giant hit.
It sounds intense, but Hotel Dusk isn’t entirely doom-laden.
It might be the least “adventure” ever put into an adventure game.
Hyde is a sympathetic character, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say he’s likeable.
He’s often rude to strangers unprovoked and, is purposefully withdrawn when talking to most people.
But that’s exactly why he’s such a great protagonist.
In some sense, Hotel Dusk is a story about Hyde’s own development and growth as a person.
Unfortunately, a remaster of Hotel Dusk is almost likely to never happen.
Other Cing games have had an afterlife - not least Another Code, which hit the Switch this week.
The defining thing about Hotel Dusk is that you have to play it sideways.
you oughta physically rotate the DS in your hand as if you were holding an open book.
It’s a simple switch-up, but it vastly transforms your relationship with the game.
The DS wasn’t a particularly powerful gadget, relative to home consoles anyway.
Something screenshots can’t show off is that all of the character portraits in Hotel Dusk are rotoscoped.
Each character comes across as a convincing person with their own quirks and traits.
Even basic actions like walking require an analogue input on the touch screen.
Poking around the screen does nothing.
So, what’s the solution?
I never figured this out organically.
My actions outside of the game directly affected the world inside it.
Plenty of games offer that.
It’s called Last Window: The Secret of Cape West.
And it’s sitting fully translated just waiting to be played.
