So after completing 9,9,9, I bought Hotel Dusk and having completed it a short while ago, I figured I'd report back

So after completing 9,9,9, I bought Hotel Dusk and having completed it a short while ago, I figured I'd report back.

First things first, my god, it is ridiculous how many ways you can Game Over. It was unintentionally hilarious, all the ways I found Kyle could end up getting his ass booted out the hotel. When I first started the game, I ended up having to put it down for almost a week, so I restarted from the beginning because fuck it, and I made the kid cry, which got me a swift Game Over. It left me dumbfounded.

Second of all, through the game, I kept going back and forth between "I fucking hate everyone in this hotel" and "You're actually kind of decent people." I'm not sure what side of the fence I stand on now that it's all said and done. I don't feel as though any of the characters were overtly memorable outside of Kyle. He did have the most screen time, but he was the most well written one there. I suppose Summer was well written as a plagiarist scumbag and Louis has a decent sort of redemption arc, helping out Kyle and applying himself with running the bar. The story, I feel was a little bit frayed at the ends, and they could have done a better job with drawing out some plot points, namely Melissa's mom getting involved with Nile, or Bradley doing the same. It feels kinda rushed. "She needed money so she went to Nile." "Nile randomly kidnapped Mila Bradley because they wanted a man on the inside, so that's why Bradley went bad." It just seemed to on the nose. The way the game was rolling, I thought things would be a bit more drawn out, or elaborate. Still, I consider the game to be well written, and I was really bent on getting to the end and wrapping up Kyle’s story/giving him closure. I had heard there were multiple endings for the game, I got to see Mila go with Kyle as he left the hotel.

The gameplay itself was minimal, being a point and click ish game, but I think it utilized the DS features incredibly well, which more than made up for it. Platforms with gimmicks built-in need to have games like Hotel Dusk in order to justify said gimmicks. (If you can't think of a bunch of clever ways for devs to handle your shit, you shouldn't have designed an out-there console.) I'd put Dusk way ahead of other "story-driven" games like Heavy Rain and that kind of garbage, because I don't feel like me watching a longplay on Youtube would have given me the same experience as having played it.

So I guess now, I'd ask for recommendations on other good games to play, doesn't have to be DS, but I'd prefer something similar: solid story, medium-long play time.

Glad you enjoyed this game OP, it's one of my favourites.

Melissa's mother was heavily implied to be involved with the fencing of the Angel Opening a Door painting.
From what I remember, Bradley was investigating Nile initially, and this is what cased Nile to kidnap his sister.

I thought that the characters were fleshed out quite nicely, with multiple layers to their personalities. No one in that Hotel is as they seem except for Grandma Patch. I especially enjoyed the sequence with Jeff, when Kyle dresses him down and he takes responsibility for his actions. It was just satisfying to see the characters change and evolve over the course of the story.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but Hotel Dusk has a sequel called Last Window, which is just as if not more so enjoyable.

Cing also made another game called "Again" for DS. It's interesting but nowhere near as good as HD or LW and the plot gets a bit predictable, but it's worth a go. Play with an FAQ handy.

Finally, there's a spiritual successor to these games featuring not-Kyle Hyde on the 3DS called Chase Cold Case. It's only about two hours long but I bought it anyway to support the devs. It's nowhere near as good as HD or LW though.

Other gud story games
Time Hollow on DS. This one is very interesting and satisfying, and leaves you wanting more.
There is of course the rest of the zero escape games on 3DS.
Jake Hunter Memories of the Past on DS is very gripping, but it is a little dated, audio and visuals wise.
Phoenix Wright games are great if you haven't played them already.

It's a different genre but the world ends with you is kick ass and I consider it to be a perfect DS game.
Good hunting OP

I also forgot to mention. Fuck me for not finding the blacklight. That made the room in the basement a fuck of a lot harder to figure out, especially given the time limit

Probably would have been better, in my opinion at least, if things were fleshed out a bit more. It would have been cool to hear HOW Grace Woodward found out about Evans' and Smith's con job simply by being an employee at the gallery. For Bradley, the revelation was kinda just dropped on Kyle/me so I guess that's just why I'm disappointed.

I'll take the recommendations into consideration. The sequel I'll keep an eye out for. I'll take a look at Jake Hunter, and yes, I've played through the Ace Attorney games. The World Ends With You, I've been wanting to play for a long time, maybe now is finally the time.

the time limit did build a sense of urgency, but fuck me did i cock it up a few times. it was a bit annoying i'll admit

Well, that's what I liked about the game, the essential lore was spelled out for you, but the backstory was given to you in pieces. Remember that you only hear of Nile's dealings through second-hand accounts of people who were involved or who knew people involved. It left me puzzling over the finer plot points, and because of it, I picked up on story cues that I missed on my subsequent playthroughs. The game is just full of those, like how Iris is the model on the cover of the mens magazine.

And damn, the sound track to that game is fine. "On the Rocks" (interrogation music) is a perfect track and sets a tense mood right from the get go, especially when in the Summer and Jeff interrogation scenes.

And yes, when you re-play the game Louis gives you a special tape which has a code you must break with the basement computer. I don't recall the message though, sorry. But there is cool stuff like that in the game, like getting change off Dunning in the opening chapters allows you to buy stuff from the vending machine which you can give out to different characters. It's fun. Not to mention, showing off the mens mag to different guests.

As mentioned, Last Window: The Secret of Cape West is a sequel. However, it was never picked up to be brought to North America, and while PAL region saw it in English, last I checked it was a rather expensive import (between being English language and the DS being region free), so if you don't live in PAL and don't want to drop the money to get a copy shipped over, you might look into downloading it for emulation/flashcarting.

Have you considered Ghost Trick, assuming you haven't played it? It's a puzzle adventure game by the Shu Takumi (the guy that made the first three Ace Attorneys) and is downright phenomenal if you ask me.

Ghost Trick is not something that I've seen before, so I'll look into it

I picked up on that right away actually, Summer says she looks like Cecily Lee, then Iris outright tells you later on that she became a model for a bit, and that is was the shoot on the issue you have that got Grace's attention two years earlier

And yes, the soundtrack is solid. There are more than a couple of tracks on there I'd consider listening to regularly.

Not a huge amount of choice to it, but you can cause some funny-ass, unintentional deaths at times (which you can remedy due to the inbuilt rewind function, as the protagonist can rewind back to four minutes before a character originally died, the idea being to be to change their prior fate). The writing's really good, as is the presentation and music, and the gameplay works quite well with the premise (travel between and possess objects, and perform various actions with them) while establishing particular rules as to how the protagonist's ghostly powers work. Occasionally you can get bonus scenes by going back to already accessible locations between chapters and see how things change throughout the night, or even get additional dialogue with characters. All in all a damn good game, and one I'm really glad some anons recommended to me years back. I'd advise caution though; even with games well adored by anons, nothing is sacred, so be wary of people potentially looking to spoil shit.

I'm also glad you enjoyed the game so much, OP. It's a fantastic little slice into a bunch of people's lives and almost made me wish it was a long running series of puzzles and Kyle solving a load of cases. The OST, the art style, the setting, everything was pretty good. I agree that the pacing seems a little off towards the end, but it wraps up about as quickly as it starts. I found it to be fairly satisfying.

Now, without giving too much away, I like Last Window's control scheme way better, as it's Hotel Dusk but with minor improvements. But I prefer HD's setting, characters and story. LW isn't bad, by any means, but I like HD over it. Your mileage may vary and you'll probably still get a good amount of play time out of it if you do ever get it. This is one of the reasons I recommend getting a flashcart. Way cheaper than trying to import LW from yurop.

Shit, I never knew that.

Are you talking about the encoded message on the letter or should I replay HD to find this scene?

I tried playing Chase Cold Case, but I really couldn't get into it. When Kyle was on the force, he was probably way into it and only got burnt out because of Bradley. But the lead in CCC was just kind of insufferable. It's also a little graphically buggy. Beyond that, it looks like it would definitely be a fun amount of more of the same.
Is Another Code any good? I remember when magazines were talking about that game at release, but I've never tried it. I'm interested in Jake Hunter though, thanks for mentioning it.

no no, it's specifically a new game + thing. It's just as I described, you get a tape which you don't get on your first play-through. You have to go out of your way to go to Louis' room to play it and get the code, then you have to write it down somewhere and decode it in the basement yourself, as the game will never prompt you to do it. It's easily to miss if you're not paying attention.

Even though I don't recall what it said, I DO recall that it was very underwhelming. Not worth replaying just for that alone.

It's a big step down from HD and LW. The entire game takes place in an office, there's no serious problem solving or tense interrogation and generally few of the things that made the Cing games so great are present here. Also the "computer hacking" done by the kid was straight up silly if you know the foggiest about computers, and not-hyde's "traumatic past" plot thread was pushed too hard to the point where it felt forced, especially since it isn't resolved.
Well, that's the premise behind the entire thing. He is rumoured to be some amazing wondercop but now he's brooding in a dead-end job at his office. He's grouchy, unapproachable and completely devoid of any ambition. He's not a relatable down-on-his-luck salesguy like Hyde, he's a brooding has-been who slowly shows hints of brilliance throughout the short story.

I liked the relationship between him and his partner. He was the tough, all-or-nothing mentor and she motivated him to close the case.

Very shallow development compared to the other games, but at least the soundtrack on this one was decent. I hope they finish the series but I'm not holding my breath.