Last Window

File:Last Window Cover 1167.jpg

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.

Tropes used in Last Window include:

• Abandoned Area: The 4th floor.
• Adaptation Expansion: The in-game novel adds snippets of dialogue and features an extended ending which ties up loose ends.
• Adventure Game
• Armor-Piercing Question: Do you still love your wife?
• 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: Kyle finds out the truth about his father's death, but his pain remains. Cape West is demolished and Marie, Rex and Dylan are on the run from Nile, which is all but brought down. However, as in the last game, the story still ends on a positive note as Hugh Speck loses the elections and is soon to be exposed for his crimes by Frank, Sidney's family is back together, Tony is headed towards success once more and Kyle sends the Scarlet Star to a museum, leaving his past behind him. The extended epilogue reveals he's happy with his life after all.
• Book Ends: As in the first game, the player's first and final act is to open the door to Cape West Apartments.
  • Also, just prior to the start of any actual game play, Kyle is seen falling asleep in his car. The extended epilogue ends with him falling asleep in his car, too.
• 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 Kyle reunites with Mila, then later celebrates Christmas at Lucky's Cafe with fellow tenants.
• Call Back: Lots. Aside from the Book Ends example, there are also Kyle receiving an anonymous letter and having to find a stolen item, playing billiards (instead of bowling) with a friend, both of them getting attacked at the beginning of the last chapter and Kyle having to find a secret room. Some puzzles are also structured similarly to ones from Hotel Dusk: Room 215, like the one with the dual switches to cut the power off, which was done in reverse in the last game.
• 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.
  • Mila shows up in Chapter 7 and Kyle recalls her story.
• Contrived Coincidence: Kyle lives in the apartments in whic his father took One Last Job.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Almost everyone, with Mrs. Patrice and Marie taking the cake.
• 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.
• Elevator Passage: A really elaborated one.
• 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 (a necklace) 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 criminal records. 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: How Marie fell in love with her late husband.
• 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 a dead parent.
• 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 have to sell stuff to your neighbors, 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 your high score on the Pinkie Rabbit game on Christmas Eve).
• Guide Dang It: Quite a few puzzles, but most notably getting the Condor Key and finding the secret room.
  • Some instant Game Overs are very difficult to avoid without knowing they're coming beforehand. Examples include ignoring Tony in order to avoid giving him the money for the rent and stopping rewinding Frank's tape before it breaks. The latter is hinted at in a secret file, but the game itself discourages opening them, since it prevents One Hundred Percent Completion.
  • 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. You can even make Kyle tell Tony it feels like a betrayal when the latter goes out with Betty on Christmas Eve.
• 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 where he actually saves at least one life.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Scarlet Star.
• The Mole: Dylan Fitcher
• Multiple Endings
  • What? Unless you count game overs as endings...
• My Greatest Failure: Frank holds himself accountable for the death of Kyle's dad.
• 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. If you go to Frank's room and accuse him of spraying you on the 4th floor in Chapter 9, no matter what you do after that point, you will eventually head back to Room 406 only to be sprayed again, resulting in a Game Over. You're actually supposed to go to Margaret's room and accuse her instead, but the game in the previous chapter leads you to believe that it's Frank who's up to no good.
• Novel Within A (Visual) Novel: The in-game Last Window novel, written by Martin Summer from Hotel Dusk.
• One Last Job: Chris Hyde was going to turn straight after one last diamond theft, but unfortunately, he was killed.
• Ship Tease - Exponentially increased between Kyle and Rachel. Even worse (better?) between him and Mila, since three characters (including his mother) mistake her for his girlfriend, she seems a little too fond of his Christmas present and when they're on the rooftop he gives her an heartfelt speech about how he'll always come to her rescue should the darkness of life trouble her. In typical writing fashion, all the hints are turned Up to Eleven in the novel.
  • A grand total of four characters, actually. Tony, Hyde's mother, Charles and Margaret (in this order) all have their own remarks to make to Kyle regarding him and his "pretty girlfriend".
• 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 later nets Kyle a thousand dollars.
• The Syndicate: Condor and Nile.
• Visual Novel