REVIEW: ‘Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club’ Offers A Great Story But Little To Investigate (Switch)

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is the latest adventure visual novel from Mages and Nintendo. The title is the third and most recent entry in the beloved yet niche Famicom Detective Club game series, which hasn’t had a game in over 35 years. The title includes excellent visuals similar to the older games’ remakes and elements that make the title engaging. However, the game notably includes disappointing aspects that sometimes hinder the experience.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is themed similarly to the first two games and includes several returning characters from the series, including the protagonist, his co-assistant detective Ayumi Tachibana, and their private detective boss and mentor, Shunsuke Utsugi, who owns the Utugi Detective Agency.

The story starts as the protagonist and the agency are tasked to help investigate the brutal death of a 15-year-old middle schooler. His head was covered with a paper bag with a disturbing smiling face drawn on it, and his death was a result of strangulation. It turns out that the circumstances related to his death are suspiciously similar to a seemingly related case that occurred 18 years ago involving a string of murders.

What’s more, the murder also seems to be inspired by the urban legend of Emio, the Smiling Man, a killer who is said to place such a bag over his victims’ heads. It’s up to you and the members of the Utsugi Detective Agency to get to the bottom of the case.

Emio‘s narrative is highly intriguing and engaging. The story starts slowly as the protagonist tries to piece together whatever clue he can get from a tough case. As players progress through the game, they learn that the case has several conflicting and confusing pieces of information, some relevant and others not. Finding what clue is critical and discovering details in unlikely ways is essentially how he gets closer to the truth. The slow transition from gathering information casually to uncovering that said information is important is one of the game’s best aspects. Unfortunately, due to the game’s narrative-heavy structure, players spend less time investigating and more time trying to trigger lines of dialogue.

Despite this, players will still find themselves engrossed in both the game’s serious and light-hearted moments, of which there are many. Emio features several peculiar characters, all making the experience much more engaging. Almost every character in the game has instances of committing to humorous moments. From a detective trying to flirt with a female cop to the protagonist talking to himself at a desolate bus stop, all these moments make the novel highly entertaining.

Gameplay-wise, Emio – The Smiling Man is just a visual novel in terms of its mechanics. Like in previous games, players interact with characters and their environments by looking around the screen with the left stick and clicking on items or characters. They also have several options to select when interacting with characters. This includes the Ask/Listen option, which is used to talk to characters; Call/Engage, which gets their attention if they aren’t actively looking at you; Think, which is helpful when you need to know what to do next; and other options like using your phone to call a character, or checking logs in the notebook.

These options differentiate Emio from other visual novels as players have to interact with characters and objects to progress constantly. Most conversations involve selecting multiple options to progress, which adds to the level of interaction and immersion, and some options even lead to unexpected results. Several funny movements occur when you select odd options in the game when interacting with things. On the other hand, players can also miss some dialogue options if they’re not thorough enough.

However, the system can be incredibly frustrating, specifically when you must select the same option multiple times or the Think option to learn what you need to do next, even in scenarios when it’s obvious. These moments slow down the pacing significantly in the most irritating way possible.

Visually, Emio – The Smiling Man sports great 3D visuals with really emotive character faces and models, along with precisely limited animations. However, while these animations are intricate, they might throw some people off due to how slow each character’s motion and reaction is, so they might take some time to get used to. Aside from visuals, Emio—The Smiling Man has a production quality that is unlike many visual novels. This includes a stellar soundtrack and fantastic voice acting, heard throughout the fully-voiced novel, complete with narrated recaps for each chapter.

All in all, Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a great adventure game that lives up to the legacy of the older games. While the experience is marred by its many drudging moments, it is a highly entertaining, engaging, and well-produced entry that fans of the series will likely enjoy.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is available now on Nintendo Switch.