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| Title | Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club |
| Developer | MAGES, Nintendo |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Release Date | August 29th, 2024 |
| Genre | Murder mystery, Detective, Adventure, Visual novel |
| Platform | Nintendo Switch |
| Age Rating | Mature |
| Official Website | |
It’s not often I associate “comfy” with murder, but when it comes to the Famicom Detective Club games, that’s the word that comes to mind to best describe them. Sitting down with one of the 2021 remakes is like curling up in your favorite chair with a cup of your favorite warm beverage and just vibing. After close to 30 years, would the newest entry in this series, Emio – The Smiling Man, give me the same feeling while also delivering a great mystery?
Rather than focus on the supernatural and ghosts, this time around our intrepid Boy Detective finds himself investigating the murder of middle school student, Eisuke Sasaki, that ties into a local urban legend. Emio – known as The Smiling Man because of the characters in his name – supposedly appears before crying girls while wearing a paper bag on his head emblazoned with a smiling face. If the girl laughs, he leaves her alone, but if she cries, he strangles her. So why, this time, would Emio appear before a boy, and why would he use a rope instead of his bare hands? And what relation, if any, does it have to a series of unsolved murders from 18 years ago?
Despite being the newest entry in this series in decades, Emio – The Smiling Man plays exactly like its predecessors. It carries over the visual style and voice acting from the 2021 remakes, which themselves retained the point-and-click adventure style gameplay of the original Famicom releases. You have a choice of several options in each scenario, including calling out to nearby people, talking to them, examining the surroundings or specific areas with your cursor, taking items, using your phone, and thinking about the situation. Each of these actions is meant to put you in the shoes of the protagonist and engage in the case the way a real person would. Unfortunately, it also results in a lot of cycling through options searching for the correct course of action. There were at least three times when I had exhausted every option and couldn’t figure out how to advance, so I just kept hammering my choices until something finally happened. There was also at least one instance where the correct option was to investigate a specific area, but I clicked the wrong part of the object and did not trigger the next event. These weren’t enough to ruin my enjoyment of the story, but it did lead to a lot of frustration.
Fellow Utsugi Detective Agency members – Shunsuke Utsugi and Ayumi Tachibana – return from previous titles, and this time you not only follow the protagonist, but you finally get to see Ayumi in action, as well. Throughout the investigation, you’ll keep notes to review, including important names and information you uncover about each person of interest. Periodically, the protagonist and Ayumi will review their notes, testing your knowledge of the case before deciding where next to go in the investigation. Having them both pursue different avenues of questioning gave the game a bit more breathing room to explore the story from multiple angles, as well as introduce a broader, eclectic cast. My personal favorite was Tsubasa Fukuyama, Ayumi’s former classmate and current middle school teacher at Eisuke’s school. Other notable newcomers include Junko Kuze, the serious detective in charge of Eisuke’s case, and Daisuke Kamihara, her jovial and easy-going partner. Each character is brought to life by some absolutely fantastic voice work, and Megumi Ogata especially deserves some kudos for her performance as the protagonist. She was a joy to listen to.
As for the story itself, I found this entry very engaging, with enough twists, turns and red herrings to keep me guessing for a significant chunk of playtime. The pacing was breezy and scenes never felt like they overstayed their welcome. That being said, the ending left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied, with one too many contrivances hampering an otherwise strong narrative. There is also an epilogue that ties up a few loose ends that packed an emotional punch, but the game rightfully warns you that it deals with some distressing content, so just keep that in mind if you’re at all sensitive to some of the broader issues explored in the main story.
Emio – The Smiling Man was a comfortable, familiar experience that both benefited from that familiarity and suffered from it. I loved revisiting this world and the characters, and the overall excellent writing was engaging and entertaining; however, retaining the same point-and-click nature of the previous games lead to some frustrating play sessions and unintuitive courses of action. The presentation was gorgeous, with beautiful background art, detailed and emotive sprites, excellent voice work and an amazing soundtrack. It took me roughly 20 hours to finish the game, and while the Fukuyama’s Report Card extra does give some minor incentive to replay for a higher grade, there isn’t much else, which makes it slightly more difficult to recommend at the $50 price tag, especially since you can get the twin pack of the first two games for only a few dollars more. To be clear, I really enjoyed my time with Emio, and if you liked the previous Famicom Detective games or really enjoy mystery visual novels, then this is a surefire title to grab. Due to its dated gameplay and shorter length, if you’re more of a casual enjoyer, I’d wait for it to go on sale. If you’re unsure where you stand, there’s a free demo available so you can test the waters yourself.
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