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  • 10-11-2010 12:57am
    #1
    honru
    Registered Users Posts: 4,585 ✭✭✭


    So I recently completed Last Window (sequel to Hotel Dusk) on the DS. Clocked up about 30 hours, which seems excessively long... must have left the DS on a long standby a number of times.

    What I love most about the game are the character animations. I have to give Cing props for not limiting the number of expressions for all the characters. They didn’t end at the basics such as “happy” or “sad”; some characters also display “elated” or “pensive” emotions, for example. It breathed more life in to the characters and makes the back-and-forth dialogue engaging.

    The localization and translation of this game is fantastic, considering there are currently no plans for a North American release. Dialogue is spot on and I only spotted one very minimal spelling mistake in the entire game.

    If there was one thing I would knock the game down for, it’s the somewhat plodding nature of seeking clues and items. Again, I give Cing props for filling in the detail, but there’s only so many times you click around that you begin to get bored of Hyde’s recognition of unimportant items. Contrast this with the Ace Attorney games, where on examining items there is usually a fun bit of banter between, say, Phoenix Wright and Maya Fay. For Kyle Hyde, it’s something as straightforward as: “there is a picture frame on top of the dresser”. With the number of clickable items far exceeding the typical investigation sections in the AA games, this can get tedious quick.

    The other aspect I dislike is navigating using the overhead map as a reference. I think it would be way better if the screens were switched and navigation was aided primarily through the first person, with the D-Pad used to navigate Hyde, and the map located on the top screen. The circles/arrows on the map that act as character and direction indicators look terribly basic compared to the work that was put in to those wonderful character animations.

    There was also a puzzle near the end of the story which required the press of a DS button that is not used whatsoever elsewhere in the game. With me frantically motioning the stylus on the touch screen to no results, this was pretty irritating!

    I’d give the game an 8/10. Portable consoles like the DS are just a wonder to play interactive novel-like titles such as this so I hope we’ll see more games like this in the future. Shame that Cing have gone bankrupt but at least they’ve given us one last hurrah.


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