Famicom Detective Club: Emio – The Smiling Man (Nintendo Switch) Review

Following a rather uncharacteristically (by Nintendo's standards) creepy marketing campaign that took fans by surprise, it is clear this point-and-click style mystery game is quite an unconventional title for Nintendo, whose forte is platformers and action adventures. The popularity of the Nintendo Switch has been great for the company in that it can afford to develop slightly risky and potentially less popular types of games like this, though.

Seeing if there are markets for internally developed visual novels is exciting for the fan that is keen to try out Nintendo's takes on such genres that are normally outside of its scope. Thankfully, Emio - The Smiling Man, as well as the two remakes of the previous titles, prove that the company can create appealing products in areas that aren't its usual bread and butter.

It should be noted that Emio - The Smiling Man doesn't require having played the other two Famicom Detective Club games in the slightest. There are very minor nods to those titles, but nothing at all that impacts on the story in this new entry. It is an entirely self-contained narrative that anybody will be able to enjoy.

Emio - The Smiling Man is quite basic as far as detective games go. For the most part, events play out very straightforwardly, with a lot of dialogue and basic options to select from a menu during pauses in conversations with other people. Generally, the "Ask/Listen" option gets the most use, as the protagonist questions his interviewee on various topics that get brought up in discussion or are relevant to the case.

There is a "Look" option that turns the screen into a point-and-click mode, where the player can move a cursor to click on points of interest or highlight a change in a person's demeanour or facial expression. The intriguing "Think" command reveals the inner thoughts of the protagonist as they ponder the information relayed to them, sometimes collating things to push the player in the right direction again as they go back to questioning on specific topics.

Other chapter specific options exist, such as "Show" in order to present items like a portrait sketch, and there is a "Call/Engage" selection that normally grabs nearby people's attention.

The general flow is similar with each chapter, and there aren't often excruciatingly frustrating parts that wrack the brain to figure out what to do next, but there is a persistent problem of coming to many halts within certain conversations.

Using the "Ask/Listen" function will normally get a discussion going, but the ending of the dialogue that brings the choice menu back up again tends to mess with the player, tricking them into thinking another type of option must be explored, only to find out "Ask/Listen" simply needs to be selected again. Depending on topic choices within the "Ask/Listen" command, sometimes the same topics must be repeatedly selected, triggering more from the speaker, instead of simply having them say everything in one go.

In a sometimes-odd choice, even the "Call/Engage" command, which had already taught the player to get somebody's attention from a distance, starts to require usage in unexpected moments. The only way to know to use this in such instances is through trial and error - going through every available option in the menu in the hope that something works.

This can be the case for many of these types of games where questioning and clicking on things is involved, but it doesn't change the fact that it seems to be a common occurrence in Emio - The Smiling Man. Furthermore, in moments where dialogue choices are presented, there doesn't seem to be any major repercussion for picking particular options or taking different paths. This is a game with a very fixed story, and the game is designed in such a way that every player will be able to have the same narrative experience.

Emio - The Smiling Man's plot is an engaging one when it gets going, though. After the discovery of a child's body with a paper bag with a smiley face over their head, the urban legend of Emio, the so-called "Smiling Man", resurfaces among citizens locally. As the assistant detective on the case, the protagonist proceeds to delve into the mystery surrounding the death of the child and how it is linked to murders of a similar kind from 18 years ago.

With every progressive chapter, different people can become more suspicious, keeping the story appealing right through to the end. There are slow moments, but characters are rarely uninteresting and there are splashes of humour that help keep things going. This is coupled with some lovely backgrounds and character animations that almost give off an anime vibe, coming across as more attractive than if still portraits were used.