One of the Nintendo DS games I finally completed back in 2013 after leaving it unfinished for several years was Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Cing may not be a widely known company, but every game I’ve played from their library has been stellar when it comes to storytelling. Set in the early 1970s, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a detective adventure with a strong noir atmosphere, where you play as a burned-out ex-police detective named Kyle Hyde who stumbles into a mysterious yet strangely fateful encounter.
In Hotel Dusk, Kyle Hyde now works as a sort of odd-job freelancer after leaving the police force. His journey leads him to an inn called Hotel Dusk, a place that hides far more secrets than it first appears. Throughout the game, you interact with the hotel’s guests, each of whom seems to have their own connection to the hotel and their own personal stories waiting to be uncovered. Piece by piece, these encounters gradually lead Kyle closer to the person he has been searching for ever since leaving his job as a detective, someone tied to unresolved business from his past.
If you enjoy text-heavy adventure games with a visual novel-style presentation, this is a game you absolutely should not miss. Hotel Dusk has a truly one-of-a-kind presentation, from its rotoscoped character art to the way the Nintendo DS is held like a book during gameplay. The atmosphere and writing give it a style that still feels unique even today and nothing really came close to this series after Cing’s departure.
While the gameplay can occasionally feel a little clunky or frustrating, the story of Hotel Dusk is on an entirely different level, something that remains surprisingly rare even among Japanese games. It’s honestly a shame that Cing went under so early, because they created games with genuinely interesting stories and unique experiences. After finishing Hotel Dusk, I later played Last Window: The Secret of Cape West, which continues and abruptly concludes Kyle Hyde Saga.
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