I wasn’t sure what to expect from Nintendo when I first saw the trailers for Emio: The Smiling Man circulating social media. The haunting imagery, paired with the analog-horror stylings reminiscent of projects like The Blair Witch Project, had me interested to learn more about what they were cooking. To say I was initially disappointed to learn that Emio: The Smiling Man was going to be a visual novel would be an understatement. But I wanted to give this one a chance, and I’m more than happy I did.
A Nintendo Game That Isn’t Family Friendly
Emio: The Smiling Man is the first entry in the Famicom Detective Club franchise in nearly three decades, and while slightly unfamiliar with the source material, I’ve officially become a fan of the self-insert protagonist and his partner in crime, Ayumi. A colorful cast of supporting characters helped build the world of Emio: The Smiling Man out beyond its 2D walls into a surprisingly deep and realistic experience.
The subject matter here is dark and depressing, with later chapters fully cementing the tragic legacy of The Smiling Man himself. After learning of the death of a junior high student, I was put on the case to learn everything I could through a series of investigations that had me trotting around the fictionalized locations within its world.
While the gameplay is simplistic, boiling down to a variety of question-and-answer segments between an increasingly large number of characters that we grow to know on a more intimate basis, the story that unravels before our eyes is one of the best I’ve experienced in any recent memory. Nintendo or not, the anime-styled visuals overlay a mature, dark, and frankly sadistic story that will break your heart without a moment’s notice beforehand.
Characters realistically deal with grief, and none of it is played up for laughs. It’s a serious tale from the get-go, and while it takes its time to build up the steam it needs before it can fully press the pedal to the floor, the finale chapters are some of the biggest twists that I could never have expected.
I’m the type of person who likes to try and take a guess at what might happen in a story before playing, and every one of my predictions came up incorrectly in Emio: The Smiling Man. Those that I thought may have had ill intentions ended up proving me wrong in some way or another, and some that I thought may turn out to be good were no such thing.
There’s also a surprising amount of dark imagery here, especially coming from an internally developed Nintendo game. Without spoiling anything, there are a few moments I could hardly believe were coming from the same house that makes games about jolly plumbers smashing colorful mushroom creatures.
I was also concerned about the number of plot points that I had thought were seemingly going to go unresolved, only for the final two chapters of the game, alongside the epilogue, to completely cover beyond any of my wildest dreams. Emio: The Smiling Man went from what I could have maybe forgotten about after a time into something I will never forget.
A Bouncy Soundtrack & Visuals Blessed My Eyes & Ears
While the writing is sublime, what good would a visual novel be without great art design and a memorable soundtrack? From the start, the art direction of Emio: The Smiling Man immediately pops off the screen. No matter if I played handheld or on the big screen, character art looked fantastic, and intricate details peppered into each of the locations I visited helped keep them from becoming more than a distant memory.
The soundtrack, on the other half of the coin, is a masterful mix of suspense and slice-of-life. While investigating, I would find myself pausing to continue writing while the soundtrack would continue playing in the background. Depending on the action transpiring on screen, every musical track felt suited for the moment. There wasn’t any time that I found myself wondering why they decided to pick a song for its part of the story.
Voice acting was also extremely well done, and while some may take issue with the lack of English voice acting, I never found it to be a problem throughout my playtime. Every character fits their role well, from the stern Detective Kuze to the eccentric Fukuyama. Even during their darkest moments, the voice actors put their hearts and souls into each recording.
A particularly heartbreaking scene that transpires near the halfway point of the game had me on the verge of tears after hearing the legitimate pain in the voice of the character. Every scene of Emio: The Smiling Man is fully voiced, so you never have to imagine what these characters are experiencing without living through it yourself.
This Ain’t Your New Fangled Visual Novel
The Famicom Detective Club has been around for quite a while, nearly as long as I’ve been alive, and the skeleton behind Emio: The Smiling Man is a mixture of old-school exploration mixed with some quality-of-life features from newer-generation games. Anyone familiar with classic point-and-click titles will feel right at home here, whereas some players may need to exercise a little bit of patience if they’re experiencing the game for the first time.
As mentioned above, the majority of the gameplay is your standard visual novel affair, with the most “game” element coming from the Review sections at the end of some chapters. You’ll need to chain together a set of events that happened throughout the day, but these are incredibly forgiving. If you select the wrong answer during one of these segments, Ayumi will correct you and set you on the right path once again.
You don’t need to worry about the main character or any of the other characters perishing under your watch. It’s a strictly linear adventure and one that takes a little longer to build up the steam it needs. Some portions of the game may feel slow to players, and that’s a perfectly fine reaction. It’s like when you tell someone to watch the first five episodes of a show before it finally starts to get good.
There aren’t any poor chapters of Emio: The Smiling Man, however. Each chapter covers a large portion of the adventure and comes together in a satisfying, if utterly depressing, conclusion. It’s just a game that requires patience and doesn’t immediately give you the gratification that other games of this generation may.
Even after 30 years on the back burner, the Famicom Detective Club proves that it’s still got the goods with Emio: The Smiling Man. It’s built on sturdy ground, and the foundation isn’t going anywhere. To be fair, the concept of a man wearing a paper bag on his head sounded inherently goofy to me when I first started this adventure, but by the end, I was fully invested in what was going on.
Emio: The Smiling Man isn’t a game that relies on quick jump scares to get the blood pumping. It’s a thrilling murder mystery that put me behind the steering wheel. It’s a game that may give players the heebie-jeebies in the dark, but beyond a few pieces of imagery that will haunt my nightmares for days to come, it isn’t the horror-fest that some may expect.
If you’re someone who loves a good story, then stop what you’re doing and order a copy of Emio: The Smiling Man right now. I was shocked to see how invested I could become with the characters, the locations, and the story that was unfolding before my eyes, and by the time the credits rolled, I was fully sold and looking to become a member of the Utsugi Detective Agency myself.
Just make sure that you stick around after the credits. Trust me on this one.
Verdict: Highly Recommended
Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is available to play now on Nintendo Switch. A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for the sake of review. Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.
Published: Sep 7, 2024 06:23 pm