Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club Review – A Gripping Return to Classic Detective Mysteries

Introduction to Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club

When Nintendo dropped that 15-second-long teaser for ‘Who is Emio,’ the last thing I was expecting was an entirely new game in the Famicom Detective Club series. This series of mystery adventure games, originating from the late 80s with a third game in the 90s, had two entries remade for the Nintendo Switch in 2021. Inspired directly by one of the progenitors of the detective fiction video game genre, The Portopia Serial Murder Case from 1983, The Famicom Detective Club games star a Private Investigator’s office with a couple of teenage sleuths on the payroll.

While the first games were remade with their warts and all, this is a whole new one! They could do so much with it. I was so excited for this game and yet entirely unprepared for how much it would enrapture me.

Plot and Premise

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club starts us off with the resurgence of an urban legend that spawned from a serial killer from nearly two decades ago, the titular Emio. This mysterious killer would find upset girls whilst roaming the city streets and offer them a smile that would last forever- in the form of strangling them and placing a paper bag on their head with a crudely drawn smile.

This game masterfully balances classic detective gameplay with modern storytelling, making it a must-play for fans of the genre.

Whilst the new case doesn’t entirely match the old case, the crudely drawn smiley face on a bag is more than enough of a calling card to bring back the fear of the legend. And so, after a call from a certain inspector, the Utsugi private detective office employees, our insert-name-here Protagonist, and Ayumi Tachibana are on the case.

Gameplay Mechanics and Features

Famicom Detective Club games are classic adventure games. You examine parts of the screen, select from various dialogue prompts, and mull over your thoughts as you scrape every clue you can from a scene. The first couple of games were very specific about what was needed to progress, and this could feel very frustrating, almost as if padding out the game for time.

This isn’t too insane a thought, given the first couple of games were released in the late 80s. But Emio—The Smiling Man seems to streamline it a bit. There’s still friction to be found, but I feel it wouldn’t be right to make it entirely smooth. Rotating through the options ask/listen, think, and examine the person’s face will solve 90% of interactions, with think often pointing you on the right track.

The friction also helps you embody the protagonists more as they ponder their next courses of action. There’s also a ton of flavor dialogue, which really helps you feel like an investigator. Playing as both Ayumi and the Protagonist is an entertaining feature, too, as it makes the Private Investigating team feel, well, much more like a team. Ayumi and the Protagonist have individual notebooks, and if perspective shifts between them, then the notebook is only up to date as far as that one character’s perspective before they sit down together to review facts.

The Live2D animation is the best I’ve seen, adding life to every character interaction and scene.

It also means that the characters you interact with can show different sides of themselves, depending on who’s being talked to. Whilst this doesn’t occur often, it is a very fun touch.
Every character in this game rules. The cast has complicated and nuanced characters, with some fantastic animation work. Their personalities are on full display.

Character Dynamics and Animation Quality

The Live2D in this game is the best I’ve ever seen used, with its implementation allowing for small cutscenes containing gripping sequences full of tension as well as small extra details like Detective Kamihara’s extra goofy moments, the Protagonist showing up in the background of an Ayumi focused scene or Ayumi encroaching on his personal space as she tries to listen in on a call he got from their boss.

These details add to how endearing the cast is and how alive the world can feel. The background artwork is incredible, and the way various scenes are shot creates both a combination of proper movement in a scene or the recreation of what would be to the viewer as a variety of camera angles.

Narrative Structure and Themes

The game is fully voiced, too- not in English, but the voicework is still great, and in every line of dialogue. Your viewpoint character gives a small thought to everything around them, which changes depending on context and this goes a long way. Takeshi Abo, of Science Adventure fame, is behind the game’s score too, and he never misses. The stand-out track and all three of its remixes are the main themes, but the soundtrack is so good at every angle.

One of my favorite aspects of this game’s story is the characters’ refusal to speculate. No one comes up with wild theories or runs off on useless goose chases. The cast works off of as hard facts as they can, and it makes the case feel very grounded. When something feels grounded in some frame of reality, it’s easier for it to be more immersive, emotional, and relatable. Emio—The Smiling Man succeeds at this in a way I did not expect this murder mystery to attempt, turning the final acts into enthralling nail-biters.

I spent most of the final chapter with a pit in my stomach. There’s no way that could be the resolution, right? That the culprit would be them? They wouldn’t just end the mystery like that. Right? But as I waited for the rug to be pulled out from under me, the pit only grew deeper. And it never came.

Emio – The Smiling Man delivers a meticulously crafted narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

There’s an underlying theme, a connecting thread, throughout this game’s story: regret. It relates to what we chose to say, what we didn’t say, and what we wished we could have done differently. Toward the end, during this fruitless waiting, I developed some spite—spite directed at the game, that it shouldn’t have ended like this.

Final Thoughts on Emio – The Smiling Man

But that was the point. That’s what happens in a murder mystery, after all. (I’d love to be more detailed, but then I’d spoil everyone.) Only I realized this when the game delivered the most incredible ending cutscene ever. I haven’t played an adventure game that offered something that left me with this kind of raw, visceral feeling in a long time. Just how much effort and work went into this cannot be understated. Someone is absolutely ruining it for everyone by uploading it to YouTube unspoiled for everyone to see. So, if you’re interested, you better play it now. Don’t look.

It feels like a sendoff, the last big adventure game on the switch. I’m happy that this will be the last one on this console, but I desperately crave for Nintendo to fund more Famicom Detective Club games. No expense was spared in crafting this meticulously crafted and fleshed-out narrative. You’d expect the kind of polish and detail if Nintendo were the frontrunners for the adventure game genre.

Emio – The Smiling Man will stick in my mind for some time.