Hotel Dusk - UI and Gameplay

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a visual novel and logic puzzle game for the Nintendo DS. It follows former detective Kyle Hyde as he attempts to uncover the mystery behind his missing partner. While similar to Phoenix Wright in terms of story being the main part of the game, the overall tone is far more serious. Hotel Dusk attempts to immerse the player and make them feel like Kyle himself via an in-character interface. Also interesting is the way the player is required to hold the DS. Unlike many games, Hotel Dusk requires the player to turn the DS on its side, as though they are holding a book in one hand.

As a standard when moving, Kyle's view of the room is shown on the left and the floor plan esque map representation is shown on the right. To move Kyle around, the player touches the stylus to the screen and drags, much like in Phoenix Wright spinoff Ace Attorney Investigations. For accessibility, the player can choose to set the game to left handed mode, allowing them to turn the DS the other way around and play in exactly the same way in comfort. Other games in this format neglect to implement such an option, so this is a smart decision on the part of the developers. As can be seen below, the layout is very versitile, swapping screens around when needed.

When investigating an area..

Questioning another character..

Observing character reactions..

Or solving children's puzzles!

As mentioned previously, the UI keeps the player immersed in their character of Kyle Hyde. By selecting the notebook item while in movement mode, the player can access the save/load menu, the character list, the item list and the memos (a free draw page where the player can write info for themselves). Please excuse the quality of some of the screenshots below -- my capture device didn't like the horizontal layout.

Note: All screenshots below were taken using the left handed setting.

The memo pad, seen on the menu screen above, allows the player to record their own notes. However, with the small stylus and limited screen space, notes often end up squashed and difficult to read. Combined with the game's own very adept way of recording information via the characters screen below, the memo feature ends up seeing very little use. In my own multiple playthroughs, I've only ever used it when forcing myself to attempt to involve the feature.

The mood maintained in Hotel Dusk is one similar to old detective and crime shows. Colours are muted and are regularly absent entirely, with character portraits often done entirely in black and white. The main protagonist is dry and reflects this art style quite accurately. Stylistically, the artists involved with the game have chosen to regularly leave things looking incomplete or unfinished -- possibly a reflection of the run down state of the hotel and many of the characters involved.