*Spoilers for Hotel Barcelona below
Hotel Barcelona is a game about repetition, and as such, it wants you to play again even after the credits roll. While all areas can be unlocked on the first playthrough, most players might miss a few hidden bosses and areas that remain locked on the map as credits roll, having thought they would unlock through the course of the story, following the trend of locations you are required to go through to reach the credits. While not incredibly hard to unlock, all three hidden areas will fill out the world map, requiring going off the beaten path to unlock them. Here, we will go over all three, allowing Justine to collect every heart to fully upgrade her skills, and all around feel good that you hunted down every boss in the game.
Death Doll (Bradley’s Heart)
Early on in the game, after a few deaths, Justine will feel sick from the loop, and the player will unlock the ability to explore the Hotel outside of their room. The ultimate goal of her exploration is to get something to soothe her stomach at the bar, which is where we want to go anyway, to unlock the Baby Doll boss and stage. Here in the bar is a pinball machine, which is just inherently a fun way to break up the monotony of death and rebirth anyway, but the game is also the literal gateway to this boss, which is only really obvious if you have beaten the game (the hidden bosses can pop up on the way to the final boss) or if you know what the boss is. The pinball has the Baby Doll head on it after all.
The game in the bottom right has a list of missions you need to complete in order to unlock the boss battle. The first is lighting the four entrance lanterns where the ball enters the main body, then you need to enter the gate on the upper left of the machine. After that, you need to hit the baby doll’s head via a ramp on the left of the machine next to where the gate was, and finally, a gate will appear in the center of the machine. You need to hit the ball directly into it. Thankfully, these tasks are marked with arrows over the objective, but this must all be completed in one game, which is a little tough, especially when the multi balls, should you get them, do not work towards this. You can unlock more plays through your ability upgrades that can help. Once done, you go into the boss fight, and once you enter it, you will unlock it on the board, so even if you lose, you do not have to go through the trouble again.
Death Doll is a little weird in that it does not take direct damage. His two arms and head can be hit, but this only serves to break it’s armor. The reason for this is that you are not actually trying to kill a giant baby doll; you are actually trying to kill its puppeteer, Bradley, who will fall to the platform once you have broken him and be stunned on the floor. It is possible to defeat him in one go, but he can recover and jump back up, and you need to fight the baby again. While he is stunned, the baby will recover and attack while you try to kill the puppeteer. Defeating the man behind the doll will grant you Bradley’s Heart.
Deep Jungle (Zill’s Heart)
Depending on whether you are good at pinball or not, you might find this challenge easy or hard. Either way, it’s a tedious challenge. As you run through stages, you have a chance to enter a room with a bonus stage, which should be noted on the door for the room before you enter. Bonus rooms require one free key and consist of three rooms, all with standard time limits, that are filled with shark statues you will need to find and slay. Good news, any shark statue you destroy will stay gone if you get kicked out, though this does not carry into a New Game+ run. The bad news is that you have a set number of hits before you get removed, and it can be hard to find and slay the sharks in each room in the time limit. To make matters worse, you will encounter one per stage, and it can be hard to predict the route, so it can be a process.
Thankfully, there is a way to cheat the process. At the start of the area is a Dr.Clown machine, like in the hotel, that you can talk to cheat the process to some degree. You can use coins to destroy a random statue, but this amount gets progressively higher with each use. These coins can be earned by passing through doors or by being bought from the bartender for 10 ears a piece, so if you save those up and want to go this route, given the process otherwise, nobody is going to judge you. Regardless of whether you brave the obstacles and rooms to find even the most hidden shark, or if you buy their disposal, a boss door at the start of the first area will unlock.
Here you will fight Zillion, a mechanical shark that swims around in the background, dashes at you at high speeds, and later flies around on rockets and shoots missiles at you. You know, normal shark stuff. It can be hit both in the air and in the water, though once the shark starts flying, you will want to be careful, as attacks from it can pile up and combine in some nasty ways. There is also a gap in the center of the stage, you can fall through and take fall damage like on standard stages, which is slightly annoying. Beating Zillion the shark gets you Zill’s Heart, and again, the stage is added to the map as soon as you unlock it, so getting bounced out will not lock you out.
Complex Area (Ayako’s Heart)
The final of the hidden bosses in Hotel Barcelona is a little weird and requires collecting four hearts total. After collecting your fourth heart, either by beating the story and continuing that play (not going into NGG+), or beating a hidden boss or two along with story bosses. However you accomplish it, you will unlock a TV, a VHS, and a game console that are in your room. This will then prompt the player to go to the front desk to ask about it, and you discover you can rent five different movies as well as a game cartridge. It isn’t completely obvious, but each of the movies has a spooky scene at the end with a part of a secret passcode. The code that you get, which you would still need to decipher, is entered on Crystal Sword, the game you rented. You will need to pay money to rent everything, so make sure you save up to rent everything you need. Or check below.
Crystal Sword is an isometric pixel sprite game where you can dodge and move, but nothing else, as you explore its few levels and avoid traps that will injure you. It’s a pretty easy task, mostly made up of avoiding torches that shoot fire at you and red flooring that will harm you as well. Each of these areas plays in a similar way to normal rooms you go through, just in a different playstyle. When you reach the final room, it will be empty except for a door you need to approach, at which point it will open a keypad and ask for a password. The videos will throw you slightly for a loop with one letter, but the password you need to enter is D3ATH, which will unlock the door and let you in.
Ayako is based on the film Ringu, having a similar appearance to Sadako and being the creepy figure that gave you the clues in the videos. This fight actually plays out very similarly to Undertale, with your character being able to move as the enemy attacks to avoid damage, with the enemy only having three attacks, with one being a combination of the two others. Attacks on your part are turn-based, with you getting a gauge that you need to hit at the correct time. Around halfway through the fight, she will transform into a more monstrous form, with the player getting two new attacks: a heavy attack and a very powerful carnival attack. Blend those into your combat to finish the fight. Once you win against her, you will get Ayano’s Heart.
And there we are, all three of the hidden bosses, and how to unlock them. It can be a bit of a process, but if you stick with it, you too can defeat them all! Good luck!
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