Emio: The Smiling Man Prologue & Chapter 1 Walkthrough

With the first new entry in over 30 years, The Famicom Detective Club has returned once again with Emio: The Smiling Man. As you prepare to enter this world, we’re here to help you through every step of the journey. With that in mind, here’s our walkthrough for Emio: The Smiling Man‘s Prologue and Chapter 1 sections.

Emio: The Smiling Man Prologue: A Face

After arriving at the Detective Agency, Mr. Utsugi receives a frantic phone call and you’ll be whisked out of the suburban setting you’ve grown so accustomed to and onto the crime scene. Multiple police vehicles await your arrival as you’re briefed on the situation that is unfolding before you.

Throughout Emio: The Smiling Man, you’ll have a primary set of actions that you can do:

• Ask/Listen
• Think
• Save/Quit Investigation

As you approach the first Police Officer, use the Ask/Listen prompt to be given the information that you need to know about the ongoing case. You’ll discover that a body has been found via an anonymous tip that they had received, and it’s up to you to discover who did this. Continue using the Ask/Listen prompt until you’ve received all of the information that you need. You’ll find out the following bits of information:

• A body has been found
• A young victim has been found, likely in middle school
  • He’s wearing a school uniform, local junior high
  • The cause of death was strangulation
    • Could have been strangled with a rope, cord, or some type of string
  • The time of death is 9:00 PM the previous night
  • The body looks like “nothing they’ve seen before”

Go to the Look/Examine feature, and you’ll find an option to look at the Victim. Select this option to progress the story. You’ll be introduced to a new character named Detective Kuze, a female officer who believes that you’re just a “looky-loo”, or someone there to see what is going on.

From here, she will ask you your name. Select whatever you would like your character’s name to be, but I always choose to be a self-insert in the story I’m taking part in. You’ll explain that you’re with the Utsugi Detective Agency and progress the story further.

She’ll ask who hired you, but you may notice that you don’t have the option to tell her. Select the Look/Examine feature, and select Detective Kuze’s face – if you select the Think option, you’ll find that it mentions that you can see the stress on her face. This will prompt the next portion, and introduce Inspector Kamada, another character in this quickly developing story.

You’ll learn that Kamada and Utsugi go back in their business together, and will be assisting on the case. Using the prompts that you’ll have, select the Ask/Listen to discover the following information:

• The kid was in middle school (previously known information)
• Kuze is surprisingly strict, according to Kamada
• Kuze is the best they’ve got, but she can be hard on others and herself

After continuing to speak and learn information, select the option to Think, and you’ll remind yourself that the victim looked strange, as per the Police Officer’s report. Select the Listen/Ask option once again, and choose the Victim Prompt. You’ll receive a first-hand report from Kamada detailing how the victim appeared.

You’ll be whisked away from the crime scene and treated to a, frankly, haunting cut-scene showcasing a terrifying man wearing a paper bag on his head that offers to give a young girl a “smile that lasts forever.” This is the end of the prologue.

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Emio: The Smiling Man Chapter 1: The Urban Legend

You’ll return once again to the Utsugi Detective Agency and speak with Utsugi regarding the case that you have been assigned to. Select the Ask/Listen prompt, and ask about the Victim to learn the following information:

• The Victim’s name is Eisuke Saski
• The Victim was only 15, and still in Middle School
• The official cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation
• The police suspect homicide, with no signs of a struggle
  • Police suspect a surprise attack or someone the victim knew
• 18 years ago, cases of murders involving suspects with a paper bag on their head

From here, you’ll receive a new Ask/Listen prompt, so select “Murders from 18 years ago” to learn more about the old cases. You’ll find that young girls had been murdered in Koufuku City 18 years ago, and all of them were found with paper bags on their heads. After learning this information, use the Ask/Listen prompt again and select Victim to learn more about the previous killings:

• All previous murders involved girls between the ages of 13 and 19
• Three victims in total
• The old killer used their bare hands/manual strangulation
• Paper Bags with smiling faces on them
• No connection between the victims
• The case was never solved, so the original killer may still be on the loose

This means that we could either be dealing with a copycat killer, or the original killer has begun to strike once again. We’ll need to keep pushing through the story to find out more, but I’m already invested. Select the Think option to progress the story further.

After selecting the Think option to put the fact that three teenage girls and one teenage boy 18 years later don’t add up, select the Ask/Listen option again and select Victim once more. Your character will relay their thoughts to Detective Utsugi, who will echo your thought process. Now, you’ll finally receive access to your notebook, where important information will be stored as you go through your journey.

After checking through your notebook, you’ll want to press the Think option again, followed by the Ask/Listen button. You won’t have any options to select, as it’s time for the story to push forward and introduce another new character; Ayumi. You’ll relay all of the case information that you’ve discovered so far to her, and she’ll connect the recent killing to Emio, also known as The Smiling Man. This is a popular urban legend that has spawned since the original killings 18 years ago.

Select the Ask/Listen prompt again, and select the Smiling Man option. Ayumi will relay the Urban Legend to you, which commonly falls in line with the following: a young girl will be crying in a location, an unknown assailant wearing a paper bag on their head will appear, offer to give them a “smile that will last forever” before killing them and putting a paper bag with a smiling face on their head.

Select Ask/Listen, and select Smiling Man again. She will relay more information; if you stop crying and smile at the Smiling Man, he’ll walk away instead of killing you. This could be important, as I’m assuming we’re going to have a run-in with Emio ourselves at some point or another, so jot this down.

There’s a problem, however; she’s also heard that if you look him directly in the face, he’ll definitely kill you. It’s always a crying girl in the stories, however, which makes the fact that a young boy was recently murdered a bit more difficult to digest.

Utsugi will let you know that while not all Urban Legends are true, this one may hold a bit of factual information. He’ll hand you an Ayumi a cellphone, so select the option to Take them to add it to your inventory. Now it’s time to start the actual investigation, splitting up the workload between you and Ayumi. Select the Ask/Listen prompt to ask Ayumi what she would like to work on in the case.

She’ll mention that you should Review the information that you currently have. This will add a prompt to your list, so select the Review option to go through everything you’ve currently got about the murder that you’re attempting to solve.

You’ll be prompted to select a few multiple-choice questions, and I’ve got all of the answers you’ll need here:

• Based on what we know so far, I suspect homicide.
• It’s just like the Smiling Man urban legend.

After you have answered the questions, use the Think prompt once again. You’ll mention that you met the detective assigned to the case. The relationship between Detective Kuze and Utsugi is still unclear, but we’re likely to learn more about that as the case continues to grow and mature.

Select the Think prompt, and you’ll recommend checking in with the police again. A new prompt will appear at the top of your list, so select Travel and head to the Police Station to learn more about the murder.

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Chapter 1: The Police Station

Once you have arrived at the Police Station, select the Talk/Engage prompt and select “People Nearby” to strike up a conversation with a female police officer. Select Ask/Listen to ask if Inspector Kamada is available to speak with regarding the case. The police officer will ask if she knows you from somewhere, as you seem incredibly familiar. Maybe you should Think about where you may know her from, right?

Select the Examine option, and use the magnifying glass to scan the police officer. You’ll find that you do actually know her from somewhere, one of the previous adventures that the Famicom Detective Club had offered. You’ll learn that she recently transferred to this office, but that’s not of the utmost importance at the moment.

Use the Ask/Listen prompt once again, and she’ll mention that Inspector Kamada had mentioned that someone was going to be coming by. She’ll then leave to see if he’s available, but will bring back an unknown new character instead.

Oh, that’s why he looked so familiar; he was the partner to Detective Kuze who was getting yelled at earlier in the park. Kamada is busy, but Daisuke Kamihara will be happy to help us out for the time being. He mentions you can call him “Dice”, so I’ll be doing the same in this walkthrough – at least for now.

Ask/Listen once again, and Dice will deduce that you’re here to learn more about the murder. He’s great at his job, isn’t he? After a bit more conversation, you’ll move to a new location: the Interrogation Chamber. Thankfully, you won’t be the one getting grilled here, as you haven’t done anything wrong. Or have you? Time will only tell.

Once you have the option to do so, select the Ask/Listen prompt to start getting information about the case. You’ll have the following options to choose from:

• The Victim
• Time of Death
• Scene of the crime
• Observations?

I like to work my way down the list from top to bottom, and I discovered the following information by asking:

• Reconfirmation of the victim’s name and age
  • The paper bag on his head was “dank and old”
• The time of death confirmed to be 9:00 PM
  • Pitch black, no streetlights, unsure why the victim was there
• The body was discovered at a Pumping Station, a deserted location
  • The body was found by an early-morning jogger
• Unsure why the victim was there, but there may have been people driving by that saw the victim before the murder took place, as the location is next to the road

By continuing to select the Ask/Listen prompt and picking Victim, you’ll eventually be asked a multiple-choice question about something that isn’t quite so similar in the case:

• The current victim is a different age
• They were strangled differently
• There aren’t any other differences

The correct answer in this case is that they were strangled differently. The Emio Urban Legend mentioned that they were manually strangled, whereas our current victim has been strange by some sort of cord or string. After getting this right, you’ll have some new questions that you can ask:

• Eisuke’s case
• Murders from 18 years ago
• Observations?

Working from the top of the list once again, you’ll find out the following information:

• Taking everything into account, even the murders that happened 18 years ago
• Kamihara was in elementary school and it was being broadcast on the news all the time
  • The victims weren’t much older than him
• Kamihara doesn’t remember the paper-bag part of the story

After learning this information, use the Think prompt again to try and place an age on Dice. Using the Examination option, select Dice and you’ll discover a new prompt under the Ask/Listen category: The Smiling Man. Since he is seemingly older than you, maybe he’s heard of the Urban Legend.

He’s completely unaware of the story, so you relay the information his way. He ponders if the connection between the Urban Legend and this case offers anything beyond pure speculation. Select Ask/Listen and pick Eisuke’s Case once again. Dice will go completely silent, just offering up a “hmm” if you ask anything, so you’ll need to Examine him once again.

Ask/Listen if Dice happens to have any Observations to share. He’ll share some… interesting information with you before your meeting is interrupted by Detective Kuze. She’ll apologize for her coworker, and formally introduce herself as Junko Kuze from Investigation Divison 1.

If you select the Ask/Listen prompt, Detective Kuze will promptly leave the room, leaving you in the Interrogation Chamber by yourself. Select the Travel option to head back up to the front of the Police Office once more to see if Kamada is available to finally speak to, only to be interrupted by the female Police Officer and Dice in the hallway.

After an embarrassing moment, you’ll have a chance to speak with the officer once more. Using the Ask/Listen Prompt again, you’ll receive the following options:

• About Kamada
• About Kamihara
• Observations?

If you speak to her about the following prompts, you’ll learn this information:

• Kamada’s meeting is running longer than expected
  • Perhaps coming back tomorrow would be best?
• She doesn’t care much for Kamihara and recommends not following in his footsteps

There isn’t much more you can do here, so Travel back to the Utsugi Detective Agency for the day.

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Chapter 1: Utsugi Detective Agency (Again)

You’ll be greeted by Utsugi and Ayumi, and she’ll inform you that she has gone and spoken with the Victim’s family, relaying that they were very nice and welcoming given the circumstances. However, something was off about Eisuke on the night of his murder. After coming home, he had locked himself in his room, something that he normally never did, and they had heard a strange noise at their front door around 8:00 PM.

Come to find out, Eisuke had never been in his room at all during that night. He was gone up until that point, was terrified that his mother had seen him, and then went into his room for real. This all takes place after finding Eisuke standing in the hallway on a telephone. Strange things, indeed. After this, he seemingly snuck out of the house and the rest is history, unfortunately.

Utsugi mentions that he has been digging through the cold cases from 18 years ago, and has dug up something chilling: the police never made the details public, especially the use of the paper bags on the heads of the victims. Utsugi needs some additional help to understand everything that we learned today, so it’s time once again to Review the information we have gathered so far.

Select the option to Review what you’ve learned, and select these answers during the multiple choice segments:

• Eighteen Years Ago
• Were Teenage Girls
• Something Seems Off About Kamihara

With Ayumi heading to the Middle School and the playable character heading back to the Police Station for more information, this puts a wrap on Chapter 1 of Emio: The Smiling Man.

This walkthrough for Emio: The Smiling Man is a work in progress. Future articles will have a link to the next chapter in this section. This article will be updated accordingly when the next chapter is available.

Emio: The Smiling Man will be available on August 29, 2024. A demo featuring the Prologue and Chapter 1 is available now.

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