I sit here writing this, a week after finishing Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club just… stunned. I did not know the team behind the Famicom Detective Club games was capable of making this. I never doubted them for a second, either. I loved the two remakes that were released a few years ago, despite their flaws and dated progression mechanics. I love adventure games, especially the classics. I love mystery stories, and quite enjoyed how this team makes them work in game form. Everything was set for me to enjoy this game, but I didn’t know I’d love it so much. I’m not going to bury the lede: Emio might just be the best murder mystery game I’ve played in years.
After eighteen years it appears that a serial killer known as The Smiling Man has returned. A young man was found strangled and with a paper bag over his head, igniting discussion on urban myths and harsh realities. The police have decided to ask the Utsugi Detective Agency for help. This is where the protagonist of the Famicom Detective Club games works, and it’s up to him and his coworker Ayumi to piece together this new murder and the cases from long ago that have now gone cold. While there are a handful of returning characters whose backstory you’ll miss without the past games, I don’t think they’re required. The important players in Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club’s story are all unique to this game, and are supported brilliantly by the writing. There are callbacks to moments in past games, but nothing is required.
There’s a formula at play for most of the game’s chapters that feels incredibly satisfying. You’ll spend most of the day going around town and chasing leads, questioning people, tracking down information, and just about anything you’d expect to do as a private investigator. I can’t tell you how excited I was to go to a library and read old newspaper clippings of past cases at some point. At night, you’ll return back to the office to recap what happened and plan for the next day. You really feel like you’re starting from nothing early on, making only little bits of progress in the first few days of your investigation. It’s an uphill battle, and it feels like the main cast earns every bit of knowledge they acquire.
The biggest barrier to entry Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club will have is likely going to be its interface. You interact with the world with a list of commands, and you’ll often need to exhaust them all to make progress. You can call out to a person in the room with you, ask a question, examine your surroundings, or think to yourself. Sometimes you’ll need to ask a question several times to hear new information on a topic. Sometimes you need to think to either get a hint or push your protagonist in the right direction. Sometimes you’ll even need to look at the face of a character you’re talking to. So many obtuse ways to progress, and I honestly love it. After two games in this series though, I’ve become pretty attuned to the flow of these games. It’s very retro, intending to harken back to when this entire genre of game was in its infancy. It’s sure to annoy those without the patience to properly engage with it, but I think they made an effort to reduce how obtuse progression could be in the previous two remakes.
A new addition to this game is a very boxy, 90’s cell phone. You can either call someone from your contacts or type in a number manually. In the grand scheme of things, this is really only a way to progress the story at a few key moments. But the second my protagonist was given this in his command menu I immediately called the phones of every person in the room just to see what would happen. I would frequently try to call the people in my contact list to see if I could get unique dialogue. I giggled like an idiot to see I could call the answering machine of the office, leave a specific message, and then play it in front of my coworkers.
At a random point in the story, I called one of the new characters (Kamihara to be exact, who ended up being my favorite out of all of the new cast) on a whim, reaching his answering machine. No big deal, right? Later in that chapter, he called me back to have a fun conversation, acknowledging that I had called him and asking me what I needed. I lost my mind. I love small little details like this in adventure games, and I really hope there are plenty of more fun little easter eggs you can discover with this.
This game knows when to be silly, and is funny for a large portion of its story without it ever taking away from the grim tone hanging over the experience. I love stories that can pull off a tone that jumps to these kinds of extremes because it’s the quickest way to endear you immediately to the world the writers are depicting. People might be disappointed that Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club isn’t consistently serious, but handling the writing in this way makes its moments of grim horror even more impactful.
New to this modern take on the Famicom Detective Club series is a dual protagonist system with players being able to play as Ayumi Tachibana in several spots throughout the game. I’d say she’s roughly playable in about 40% of the chapters, which is great since I always found her to be a fun character. She contributes in meaningful ways to the mystery, and I enjoyed her talks with the protagonist to review the events of the day to try and piece together what they know.
This is a wonderfully constructed mystery, with plenty of red herrings and interesting characters that pull you in all sorts of directions. I thought I had everything figured out twice in my playthrough, and then each time my deductions were proven short-sighted. I adore it when a game is able to keep me guessing, and I genuinely believe most people will not be able to see where this game is going until all is finally revealed. The ending itself is just incredible too, being one I think ADV fans will be talking about in hushed tones for years to come. They’re a hard group to satisfy with surprises too, I know because I am one. You’re not ready for what this game has in store, I don’t think I’ve seen what this game does specifically anywhere else.
What is truly surprising to me is how modest the scope stays throughout the runtime, which makes its examination of the darkness of humanity just that much more daunting. It feels grounded, despite the exaggerated characters that keep the story so endearing. There aren’t any groundbreaking themes at play that will change your life, but the ways in which it engages with its story feels truly special. I should also mention that the game’s subject matter is much darker than I expected, and a good balance is struck between handling it with grace and knowing when to not shy away in a way that could detract from the overall points the story is making.
There are a handful of excellent character arcs strewn effortlessly through the mystery, giving the narrative a lot of heart I didn’t really get from the previous games on this level. There are a lot of tragic moments you learn about, it’s deeply compelling to see play out. This is a very human story, and a lot of focus is put on the people thrust into the middle of this. In that way, Emio just further plays into the strengths of past Famicom Detective Club games. Environments are littered with characters that are equally detailed no matter their role in the story. It keeps you guessing since anyone can be important to the mystery or contribute something of value. Even people with little to say are drawn and animated well.
What brings everything together is the jaw-dropping presentation. Point-and-click adventure games and visual novels are niche, even if I wish more people were willing to give them a try. So whenever I see a publisher bank big on making one a full-fledged experience I’m thrilled beyond belief. This game has some serious money put into it, with it often feeling more like a long interactive anime than a static ADV title. Each place will often have several different perspectives, even when it would have been easier to just keep the camera still. While you do have areas you’ll visit often, there are also plenty of unique one-off screens you’ll visit for many minutes at most. It gives the city a true sense of authenticity, crucial to any mystery game. The background artists are all clearly immensely talented as well, with each background being packed with detail and things to observe to trigger plenty of optional dialogue.
Tying all this together are the character animations, which are equally stunning. This game doesn’t feel like any visual novel-like game I’ve ever played, being a step up from the previous Famicom Detective Club games which is a bar I didn’t even think was surpassable. Both of these key elements of the visual presentation come together to deliver an incredible atmosphere. Important story cutscenes have great cinematography and weight to them, brought to life by fluid character animations often unique for that particular shot. When the game wants to be haunting, the visuals absolutely deliver a thick and uncomfortable tension that dominates your thoughts.
But of course, the audio is perfect – that’s to be expected as a big-budget follow-up to the original Famicom Detective Club remakes. I think both the voice actors and the composer really brought their A-game. The music is outstanding, feeling like a perfect marriage of modern music instrumentation and the catchy retro ADV tunes. The investigation tracks are snappy, building intrigue and enthusiasm to learn more. This game will often dip its toes into horror and tension, and the tracks there are nothing to slouch at.
I don’t really have many negatives to bring up. The localization is solid, with the occasional awkward line that doesn’t take away too much from the story overall. That’s about it. Anything unconventional about how the story plays out feels like it adds something to the larger picture, and I think changing that to be more directly satisfying to players might make the overall package less special. It feels like a game made exactly for my tastes like the creators looked into my brain and gave me what I wanted. Playing this game was practically an act of self-indulgence, like it shouldn’t be possible for the designers to be on my wavelength this much. As it stands, I don’t think I’d change a single thing about Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. I think progression can be obtuse at times, but I genuinely just kind of love that too. Maybe that makes me a sicko who doesn’t entirely value my time, but if that time is spent in a game with vibes this immaculate then more power to me.
There’s no pixel hunting that bogged down The Missing Heir, they’ve done their best to streamline enough without taking away from the retro charm. I’m sure they thought to make this a more traditional visual novel or modernize the structure to be simplified to meet the standards set in a series like Ace Attorney or other popular works. I respect that they kept it just as it was, but made it harder to get yourself stuck. I got into a rhythm with this game’s interface that I just didn’t with past ones, and it cemented my love for this charming and archaic progression system. It’s like we as players exist in the control system of our protagonists’ brains, pushing them in the directions they need to solve the mystery.
If this were the last Famicom Detective Club ever made, I’d be satisfied knowing they went out on the highest note possible. A great trilogy of serialized mystery stories firmly rooted in classic game design. This feels like a game plucked right out of the ’90s and remastered, they didn’t miss a beat in all these years between entries. It left me hungry though, naturally unsatiated because I know that once I send this review in I’m going to exist in a world where ADV games of this budget will hibernate once more. I desperately need more games like this. I’d love to see the Utsugi Detective Agency tackle a new case every few years.
I lost sleep over this game. I can’t stop thinking about it, and reminiscing about my favorite moments gives me chills. It’s haunting, funny, beautiful, tragic, and so very human. I did not know Nintendo was capable of publishing something like this, or funding it. This is one of the highest-budget adventure games I’ve ever played, and I’m saying this fully understanding that Type-Moon localized the Tsukihime remake months ago. I really liked the past two games, but this is a new favorite ADV game for me. If you are a fan of mystery stories and can put up with an interface many would call obtuse, this is a must-play. I know not everyone will think as strongly as I will, but I just need people to engage with this game. I need to talk long into the night with others about this game. I think it’s truly brilliant, I don’t think I’ll play anything quite like it for a long time. I’d love to be proven wrong, though. Prove me wrong, Nintendo.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch
Review copy provided by Nintendo
