Last Window



The sequel to the DS game Hotel Dusk: Room 215, originally released in Japan under the title of Last Window: Midnight Promise. This installment again features Kyle, now in Los Angeles in 1980. After waking up from a day spent sleeping in his car, he gets a message on his pager and calls his employer to find out he's been fired and is being evicted. Returning to his home at the Cape West Apartments (due for demolition) Kyle receives an anonymous letter requesting that he find something called the Scarlet Star in the apartments. He soon realizes that the apartments are connected to his father's death, and begins investigating. Though Cing's bankruptcy initially threatened No Export for You, it was eventually confirmed for an EU release in September 2010 under the title Last Window: The Secret of Cape West. Although there was no North American release, the fact that the game has no region locking means North American gamers can play an imported copy with no problems, especially since the English, French, and Spanish are among the languages that version of the game can be played in.


 * Abandoned Area: The 4th floor.
 * Adaptation Expansion: The in-game novel adds snippets of dialogue
 * Adventure Game
 * Armor-Piercing Question:
 * American Kirby Is Hardcore: The EU cover changes the time of day from dawn to midnight.
 * This kinda leads to a Lost in Translation Mythology Gag since the Japanese subtitle is "Midnight Promise."
 * There's also the fact that while Kyle at one point goes for a walk outside early in the morning, he never does the same at night. What once depicted an actual scene from the game became just a bit of promotional art.
 * The Bartender: Sidney Reagan, and a very friendly one at that.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Book Ends:
 * Also,
 * But Thou Must!: Whenever making either a non-Game Over worthy choice or presenting evidence followed by a deduction.
 * Breather Episode: Chapter 7, in which
 * Call Back: Lots. Aside from the Book Ends example, there are also Kyle receiving an anonymous letter and having to find a stolen item,
 * Captain Obvious: Kyle again, as he can still comment on everyday items.
 * Chiaroscuro
 * Cool Old Guy : Kyle said this word to word to Sidney when he told what a real fans are.
 * Continuity Nod: Also a lot of them. Bradley is mentioned a lot in the in-game novel, for example.
 * Contrived Coincidence: Kyle lives in the apartments in whic his father took One Last Job.
 * Dark and Troubled Past:
 * Defrosting Ice King: Kyle is still a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but he has visibly softened up somewhat. This is probably because of what happened in Hotel Dusk, and also the fact that the events of Last Window are much more personal for him.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything
 * Dialogue Tree
 * Doing It for the Art: An Even Better Sequel done by Cing when they were already on the brink of bankruptcy.
 * Event Flag: A particularly jarring one occurs when you have to identify someone on a set of pictures and to do that you must note a particular piece of jewelry on them. Your attention is brought to this piece of jewelry  in a conversation with its owner, but you can't identify the person in the pictures until you answer your pager (that beeps just as you finish that conversation), even though the conversation that takes place when you answer the pager has no relation to the jewelry nor the photos.
 * Expy: Tony has a lot in common with Louie from Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Both are womanizing, long-haired slackers with hearts of gold and . Like Louie, Tony also looks up to Kyle.
 * The Faceless: Ed again. Kyle's mother is also shown faceless during the scenes set in the present, but it's shown during flashbacks.
 * Film Noir
 * First-Person Smartass: Kyle.
 * Florence Nightingale Effect:
 * Foil: Will White is in many ways an antithesis of Kyle. Both are salesmen, but Will is much better at charming people (the official website describes him as a "gentlemanly smooth-talker"). Also, like Kyle, Will asks a lot of questions, he pries around in other people's private business and has.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: The in-game novel is basically an e-book that narrates the events that happened while you played the chapter, including your actions and the branches of the Dialogue Tree that you followed. However, there are points in the gameplay where you can choose two paths, and no matter which one you choose the novel only narrates one (you can, for example, bother Charles when you, but the novel skips to the two people that are mandatory to advance the plot). There is also dialogue that never happens during the gameplay but is described in the novel (for example, Claire commenting on  ).
 * Guide Dang It: Quite a few puzzles, but most notably
 * Some instant Game Overs are very difficult to avoid without knowing they're coming beforehand. Examples include
 * The final puzzle is simply fiendish, even if you do cut open the relevant envelope.
 * Have A Nice Failure: Triggering a Game Over scene will set off this music.
 * Mood Whiplash/It's a Wonderful Failure: ...and as you move to the Game Over screen itself, you get this music.
 * Ho Yay: Kyle and Tony.
 * Kleptomaniac Hero: Toned down since Hotel Dusk: Room 215, but still present.
 * Lost Forever: The vending machine prize (but this time you have multiple occasions to get it and you're even required to try once) and the one you get by not opening the secret files in the novel (again, you're told you'll get something if you don't).
 * The Messiah: Kyle, even moreso this time
 * Mineral MacGuffin: The Scarlet Star.
 * The Mole:
 * Multiple Endings
 * What? Unless you count game overs as endings...
 * My Greatest Failure: holds himself accountable for the death of.
 * No Export for You: When Cing filed for bankruptcy, a lot of people suspected that Last Window would never be released outside Japan, but a release in Europe was finally announced after a few months. The game will most likely never see the light of day in America, but since the DS is region-free non-Europeans can still import it, and it helps that, as mentioned above, that version of the game can be played in North America's major languages.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: Notably in Chapter 10.
 * Novel Within A (Visual) Novel: The in-game Last Window novel, written by Martin Summer from Hotel Dusk.
 * One Last Job:
 * Ship Tease - Exponentially increased between Kyle and Rachel.
 * Shout-Out: "I like suits. They're comfy and easy to wear."
 * You can unlock a Game and Watch-like minigame with Pinkie Rabbit as the main character. What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome??
 * To Another Code R: next to Mrs. Patrice's apartment is a painting of Lake Juliet, Kyle likes (and can buy) Cool Pop and Betty's favorite clothes brand is the same as Elizabeth's.
 * Solve the Soup Cans: Subverted. Solving the Lucky's Café crosswords puzzle
 * The Syndicate: Condor and Nile.
 * Visual Novel
 * Solve the Soup Cans: Subverted. Solving the Lucky's Café crosswords puzzle
 * The Syndicate: Condor and Nile.
 * Visual Novel