Melissa Woodward

Melissa Woodward

"That's what my mom taught me. She said I should never tell strangers my name. Especially jerks."

Melissa Woodward is a young girl staying in Room 219 (Bravery) at Hotel Dusk with her father Kevin Woodward. She is very bratty at the beginning of the game, but becomes nicer throughout the night.

Spoiler warning! This article or section reveals major plot details below.

Appearance[]

Melissa's hair is brown and tied back in two pigtails. She wears a gray coat over a light orange shirt, and a blue skirt with black shoes.

Personality[]

Melissa throws puzzle — Melissa callously throws the puzzle on the stairs.

Melissa is childish, cheerful and playful. However, she gets very annoyed easily, and has a bad attitude towards Kyle Hyde at the beginning, with him even calling her "rude as hell". Apparently, she doesn't feel safe with adults or doesn't have a good image of them, since she also acted similarly with Iris when she threw her doll at Iris when she asked who made it, causing Iris to be shocked at how rude she was treated by Melissa. Iris later calls Melissa a "little hellion". Unknown to Iris, Melissa is actually her half-niece.

A lot of Melissa's negative personality is the result of the trauma of her mother walking out of her life, and her father's struggles with being a single father. Melissa loved both her parents and she hated see them fight every time. After the disappearance of her mother, Melissa blamed herself since the last time she talked with her and she was mad at her. She also got very sad and down while dealing in the search of her mom. Due to her confusion and often being ignored by her father, Melissa gets in trouble very easily, sometimes while trying to find ways to entertain herself.

During the first part of the game, she is shown to be a bit argumentative and speaks negatively about her father, saying she hates him and he tells lies. However, later on, she admits to being a "brat" and says she doesn't want to act that way any longer. Melissa then grows to respect Kyle, especially after he does things like sewing her doll, freeing her from a dark locked room, and lending an ear to her family issues. At the end of the game, she seems to be more stable and happy, now that her dad told her that he loves her and tried to understand her more.

Melissa enjoys to play with dolls, and she used to play with one her mother made for her, even though she seems to be reckless with them, since she left the doll alone at Moonlight Grill.

She enjoys the Christmas holiday and she felt down when she noticed that she couldn't celebrate with her family when she was in Hotel Dusk without her mother.

Background[]

Melissa car — Melissa on the day her mother walked out of her life.

Melissa is the only child of Kevin and Grace Woodward. She attended to elementary education and her father used to drive her to the school. While Melissa lived a common childhood and she loved her parents, she often got annoyed and sad to their constant arguments between them.

One day, she got so upset about it that she ended screaming at her mother asking her to stop. The next day, Melissa was going to the school with her father, while her mother stayed in the house alone. Suddenly, when both came back, Grace was nowhere to be seen or found. Since Melissa didn't get any explanations by her father, she was confused about the fate of her mother. She asked Kevin many times to get her back and find her. Before leaving alone, Grace gave Melissa a puzzle game of Pinkie Rabbit.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215[]

Kyle orders — Kyle demands Melissa to pick up her puzzle pieces.

Melissa is first encountered blocking the hotel's staircase while trying to solve a puzzle. She refuses to move because she is frustrated by the puzzle and asks for Kyle's help. After Kyle solves it, she throws it on the stairs, saying it's not fun if she can't solve it herself, annoying Kyle who sternly orders her to pick the puzzle pieces up, to which she eventually agrees to. She begins to cry and when Kyle becomes concerned, she calls him a stupid jerk, pleased that she fooled him with her fake waterworks, and runs up the stairs. Kyle notices she missed a piece.

Their next meeting takes place after Louis DeNonno delivers the wrong package to Kyle's room. Melissa is upset, saying she lost something important, and worries she won't be able to see her mom because of it. He gives back the puzzle piece, and she reveals it was a gift from Grace. After a bit of prompting, she draws a picture of her mother in Kyle's notebook.

Goodbye Melissa — Kyle discovers a secret message on the back of the puzzle.

Around 6 PM, when Kyle goes downstairs to the restaurant, he finds Kevin scolding Melissa in the hallway. Iris later explains that Melissa threw her doll at her after Iris commented on it. Kyle retrieves the doll and comes to room 219 later to return it. Melissa is grateful to have it back, and asks Kyle to stay for a while, since her dad stepped out. After he solves her puzzle again (and discovers the message on the back), she tells him it was a gift from her mother.

Not long after this, Melissa enters room 218 ("Daybreak"), and gets locked inside. The lights are off and she becomes terrified, crying for someone to help her. Kyle manages to get the power back on and pick the lock to get inside after it becomes stuck. She is grateful for what he did, and admits she came into 218 because she was mad at Kevin for (in her eyes) lying when he said they would be seeing her mother soon. Kyle grills her with questions for a few minutes before she explains the events that led to her mother leaving, and he convinces her to go back to her room.

Around 8:20, Melissa knocks on Kyle's door. She tells him she ripped one of the wings on her doll, and asked for help from Martin Summer, who told her Kyle would be able to fix it. After he sews it up, she casually asks if Kyle and Jeff Angel are friends, having seen Jeff coming out of Kyle's room earlier (not knowing this was when Jeff made his getaway after hiding money in 215's toilet tank).

The next time Melissa appears is around 10:00, when Kyle finds her in the hallway outside the bar. She says her father is missing again, and complains about not having had a good Christmas. He sends her back to her room, and on the way she stops to sadly ask Rosa Fox if the hotel has a Christmas tree. Since the tree has been taken down already, Kyle digs it out of the storage room and sets it up; Rosa sends Melissa to see it and help decorate. She is thrilled, and celebrates briefly before falling asleep on the floor in the storage room. Kyle has Louie carry her upstairs to 219.

When Kyle checks out of Hotel Dusk in the morning, he finds Melissa in the downstairs hallway. She happily reports that Kevin was sitting next to her when she woke up, and "he told [her] good morning right away." He also told her a secret: that Grace loves her and will come home one day.

Kevin appears to tell Melissa they've checked out and are leaving now. According to her, they plan to drive to the beach and then head home. She gives Kyle a big grin and waves goodbye.

Interrogation answers[]

Know why your dad lied?
- He hated to see you sad. (correct)
- He enjoys tricking you!

Know why your mom left?
- It's your fault!
- It wasn't your fault. (correct)

Let's talk about your mom leaving.
- Your dad's clueless!
- I'm sure your dad knows. (correct)

Trivia[]

Melissa's theme can be considered to be Pink Rabbit since it plays whenever she appears.
It is entirely unclear if her character design was inspired by Ashley Mizuki Robbins, since they have similar facial features.