Nintendo DS fans are likely to have heard of Hotel Dusk: Room 215, the visual novel adventure that put Japanese developer Cing on the map. But less people will have heard of its sequel Last Window which, against all odds, arrived in Europe after Cing sadly went bankrupt.

Hand-drawn artwork gives the characters plenty of personality.

Last Window takes place a year after the events of Hotel Dusk, in 1980. Kyle Hyde, an ex-detective and our favourite grumpy protagonist, has returned to his home in Los Angeles’ Cape West Apartments. Kyle works for Red Crown, a door-to-door sales firm with a sideline in finding lost and mysterious objects, and within moments of the game starting he receives an order sheet from an anonymous person. The order tells him to find the Scarlet Star, which went missing 25 years ago while Cape West was still a hotel.

The story is lengthy, spanning more than a week of Kyle Hyde’s life, and the writing is brilliant. Like all visual novels, Last Window involves a lot of reading, but the plot unfolds quickly enough that I never found it a chore. There’s also an unlockable Last Window novel that doesn’t add anything new to the story, but is a solid and well realised bonus feature. It’s worth noting Last Window does make reference to Hotel Dusk, and it probably helps to have played the original, but Kyle does a good job of explaining everything so it’s by no means necessary.

Like in Hotel Dusk, the story is completely linear and, rather than leading to different outcomes, wrong decisions will often lead you to the Game Over screen. The game is pretty forgiving and the action restarts right where you left off, but it still seems silly having multiple conversation branches if most of them result in disaster.

The game itself retains its predecessor’s vertical layout (that is, you hold the DS like a book to play it) and distinctive Take on Me-style artwork. The character sprites are more expressive and detailed than ever, and there are occasional cut-scenes that do a good job of illustrating Last Window’s more dramatic moments. Unfortunately, there’s little in the way of movement and, outside of the cut-scenes, I found myself wishing for a splash of colour. Black and white really grates on you after a while.

Cut-scenes give more detail, but they’re a little too infrequent.

During Kyle’s adventure, he runs into a variety of different obstacles which are presented as mini-games. The mini-games include things like puzzle solving and code breaking, and nearly every aspect of the DS’s control scheme is used along the way. Some mini-games are even completely optional, but you won’t want to skip them as there are neat bonuses waiting for committed players.

When you’re not scrolling through text, chatting to people, or solving puzzles, Last Window tasks you with exploring the apartment building. During these sequences, a map appears on the touch screen while a 3D view of Kyle’s surroundings is displayed on the top screen. The graphics engine seems to have been upgraded since Hotel Dusk, and the 3D environments definitely appear more detailed, but even by DS standards they’re pretty grim. Get even slightly close to an object, which you’ll have to do to examine it, and the textures get very muddy. Controlling Kyle’s movements, which can be done using the touch screen or face buttons, also feels sluggish as there’s no “run” option. Getting from the first floor to the fourth floor can be a real pain, especially as the elevator starts out broken.

The 3D environments look OK… from a distance.

And walking isn’t the only thing that’s cumbersome. Many things that could be condensed into a couple of clicks (e.g., examine the elevator, choose a floor) actually take several (examine the elevator, call the elevator, zoom in on the buttons, choose a floor, and leave the elevator). It’s not a major problem, but towards the end of the game when the pace picks up it did stop me getting properly immersed in the story.

Like all the Cing games I’ve reviewed, I’ve been surprised at the amount of negatives I’ve pointed out. When the credits rolled I certainly wasn’t thinking about the clunky controls or frustrating, linear storyline. I was reflecting on what is, despite its flaws, one of the best adventure games available on the DS, and mulling over the story’s finer points in my mind.

The Verdict

 4 ¼ – Great

Last Window is a long lasting, entertaining novel that ties up Hotel Dusk’s loose ends nicely. Its rough, hand-drawn style suits the story brilliantly, and the 3D environments have been given extra polish. Sadly, linear storytelling and clunky controls make the game feel slow in parts.

Want to start your own adventure? Get Last Window now from Amazon.co.uk.