When Nintendo announced remakes of Famicom Detective Club, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that both games stood the test of time in terms of narrative but also looked great. It was a fun experiment, but I thought Nintendo was done, and we’d never see them again. Thankfully, they weren’t done, and they were actually preparing us. The newest game in the series, Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, is easily the best and not like anything you’d expect, especially from Nintendo.
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is the first game in over three decades, but takes place a short time after the events of The Missing Heir. You play as a pair of detectives investigating the murder of a high schooler, found dead with a paper bag over his head with a smile drawn on it. Curiously, the murder bears some similarities to a string of murders that occurred eighteen years ago, which themselves formed the basis of a local urban legend. The detectives must investigate the murders and discover if or how the crimes are linked.
While I enjoyed The Missing Heir’s more straightforward whodunit approach, Emio feels much closer in tone to The Girl Who Stands Behind. The plot follows similar threads – a mysterious and potentially supernatural crime of the past influences a crime in the modern day. But as Emio progresses, it’s obvious how this instalment differs from the previous two games. For one, it’s easily the darkest of the Famicom Detective Club games, but I can’t say much more without ruining things, so I’ll leave it there.
But while the presentation is undeniably slicker, Emio is still largely the same as the games that came before it. A pure visual novel, its core gameplay loop is similar to the investigation sequences of games like Ace Attorney, albeit much more simplified. You’ll travel to different areas, speak to people to gather intel and investigate crime scenes for clues. It’s very typical adventure game fare, which is by no means a bad thing.
That said, being a modern game of the series unshackled by the baggage that a remake naturally brings, I hoped that Emio would do more than tell another story. It doesn’t help that Emio inherited the quirks of navigating the original two games. The game splits how you interact with the world into a menu comprising options like “Call/Engage”, “Speak/Listen”, “Think”, and “Look/Examine”. And while they all are ostensibly different actions, the way conversations flow can sometimes feel particularly off.
As said before, I had a similar issue with the older Famicom Detective Club games here. How much that issue was an issue for you will really inform how you feel about Emio. It definitely happens less here, though, which is nice, but it still happens. Once, I had to move a conversation forward by selecting “Think”. Thinking is a way to hear your character’s inner monologue, and there is often an (optional) highlighted word that will suggest what you do next. But even if you know what to do next, Emio won’t progress the conversation once you select Think. It can be annoying, especially if you’re several steps ahead of the characters in the story.
One time, I had to select “Think” to continue a conversation where no actual “thinking” took place—the second I selected it, the character in front of me would continue the conversation. No thinking occurred, and there was no indication of whether I had to do it. It can be a tad frustrating, but it is by no means deal-breaking.
Eventually, if you don’t choose to use the word highlighting system, you’ll still eventually “adapt” to the sense of logic that the writers employ. Thankfully, Emio is a very linear story, so it takes a lot of work to get stuck at any point, as you might in the Ace Attorney games. However, the fact that there is no formal punishment for making a wrong deduction removes some of the tension from the whole affair.
But these issues are drops in the ocean that I’m willing to forego, given how strong and engaging the story is in Emio. It knows exactly when to introduce the right amount of doubt and red herrings to keep you guessing from beginning to end. While the first third feels a bit slower than the rest, the story picks up quickly and hits the ground running after that point. You’ll most likely discover the final reveal before the characters do. Still, the game has one final surprise that has yet to be done before in a Famicom Detective Club game that makes it well worth playing until the end.
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But even if you work things out quickly, so much of Emio’s appeal is rooted in the drama more than the mystery itself. Both of these aspects of the story come together as everything comes to a satisfying close, resulting in what I can only describe as a great payoff.
And even more surprising, there were times when I found Emio to be unnerving. I consider myself a seasoned horror veteran, so it was a welcome surprise when I found myself getting notably tense in the story. There are several sequences, too, where the game dials down the soundtrack and lets the text do the heavy lifting in establishing the horror, and these are easily my favourites from the story. The game, as a whole, does a great job of establishing Emio’s presence as the titular urban legend without seeing him much. So, when you eventually encounter him, it feels mythical and terrifying.
While I wish there was more to Emio regarding gameplay, it has kept the underlying mechanics that make it flow so well, no matter how you play it. Recaps are available to players whenever they load up their game, and almost every chapter has a “Review” system in which you recount your findings to your partner. It works as a great way to catch the player up, and even if you get something wrong, the game corrects you and progresses anyway. The notebook returns, too, allowing you to catch up or double-check any facts you might have forgotten at almost any point.
While a new font goes a long way in making Emio feel a lot more modern, the presentation remains just as slick as the remakes do. Employing a similar art direction, the game looks super crisp when things aren’t moving. When things move, it’s almost startling as these 2D images come to life in subtle but believable 3D animations. It does great work in bringing tension and livelihood to the dark and grittier scenes involving Emio himself. Still, it simultaneously brings so much character to yourself and Tachibana as they interact with each other, too.
The soundtrack is similarly filled with personality – while I’d have loved a wider variety of tracks to break up some of the conversations better, the music in Emio is well put together. Each track does a great job of adding atmospheric depth and sometimes even drama to key events, and as discussed earlier, sometimes horror. The voice work is entirely in Japanese, and while I’m not a native speaker, the acting feels natural and well-realised, too.
So while Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club doesn’t add much newness to the formula three decades on, it’s still well worth a look. It’s a testament to the team’s strong writing that after so long, they can craft a story rich with drama and intrigue that sits firmly beside (or even slightly above) the other games. And perhaps that’s just enough for now, but I can’t wait. I hope we’ll eventually see more of the Famicom Detective Club, hopefully, less than three decades later.
