It made interruptions ruffling, whenever you'd walk down the hall or be in the middle of a conversation and a door suddenly opened. With these elements of enforced consequence, you felt like an undercover detective who was one careless move away from having their cover blown. So there was also a trust factor involved - especially when it came to Rosa and Louie, as they have a regular presence in the storyline but their loyalties are initially hidden. If the latter questions came after seeing something you shouldn't have, then discussing it with certain people would have been damaging. Questions with a yellow label could only be asked of a specific person, but those labeled white had no specific target so it was up to you to experiment. While speaking with someone or after making an odd discovery, Kyle's thoughts would become entries in your question library. There was also reason for caution in conversation - not giving an answer that would tip people off about your motives. If Rosa was doing her cleaning duties nearby, or you heard a door close as you left your room, that was not the time to sneak into a guest's quarters. With these moments emphasizing that you're on rocky ground, it created an environment where you'd need to keep a sharp eye on your surroundings. Using the crowbar felt like a double whammy because you needed it to retrieve something from Dunning's office - so that's perceived theft and trespassing. Solving a puzzle at times meant borrowing tools from a staff locker by necessity, but these were not meant to be personal keepsakes! Running around with these would get you booted immediately if caught. The owner, Dunning, is serious about no shady business on the premises, and there was a sense of dread whenever you would, for example, see him coming out of the same Utility Closet you were snooping in not moments before. You're warned at the time of booking that the hotel doesn't take kindly to suspicious characters - and these aren't empty threats. The main character, Kyle Hyde, was serious-yet-sly with a hint of mystery, so it's fitting that the presentation adopted a similar smoothness. Louie's unofficial theme) has a welcoming hush meshing with the lingering trumpet and light drums, while "Hangover Blues" makes a chipper Saloon-like theme out of a harmonica, tambourine and galloping piano notes. The down-tempo track "Easy Feeling" (a.k.a. Hotel Dusk also boasted an excellent jazz-driven soundtrack that was an embodiment of the time period the game was set in. While there's no voice work, character animations conveyed emotions of sadness, distrust and shock rather adeptly. With the non-static approach taken in its hand-sketched motif, characters were represented as 2D sketches with line shading and white outlines, supported by looping animations where poses would change or refresh as dialogue advanced.
This blend made for a compelling and suspenseful detective story, one that nailed a 70s-themed noir art style. Following the format of a visual novel, Hotel Dusk was heavy on dialogue with a story laden with secrets, but its gameplay was in line with a point-and-click with elements of risk similar to Broken Sword, as well as the occasional puzzle treatment. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a quiet achievement in Nintendo's library: an overlooked mystery game for the DS that felt like it belonged on the system, but still only "quiet" for being relatively unknown to most.
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