Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club - Switch Review
"Had me smiling from ear-to-ear."
There was once a time where, for many years, we assumed we were never going to get an official western release of the Famicom Detective Club series. Come 2021, we were treated to full remakes of the original duology. This was beyond our wild expectations, until they were surpassed with the announcement of Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club.
In this brand new entry, you'll resume the role of the young detective from the original entries and investigate a brand new case. Upon coming to the detective agency office in the morning, you receive a call to come down to the scene of a crime, where a young junior high school student has been strangled to death. But not only that, the victim was discovered with a paper bag over his head that had a crude drawing of a disturbing smiling face on it. But why? Well, that's the mystery you're there to solve!
The Good
Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club’s plot is an absolute roller coaster in the best possible ways. This may well be the darkest game Nintendo has ever produced and, without spoiling anything, the game tackles some dark and sensitive subject matter. Much like the previous entries in the series, there is only one ending, and that ending, holy cow, that ending!
Having just recently finished up the first two Famicom Detective Club remakes, I found myself in a good position to review this brand new entry. My immediate thought after five minutes is that the animations and artistic attention to detail has been greatly improved on, which really brings to life each character and their personalities.
In the original Famicom Detective Club remakes, there were many times where I felt as though I had to make a leap in logic to continue conversations. Sometimes, I even found myself clicking every possible answer and the answer ended up being to inspect an item that was completely and utterly random. This gameplay flow was cumbersome and seems to have been given plenty more thought and careful planning this time around. Conversations seem to flow better, there’s a much more natural progression of deduction and, overall, feels more cohesive.
TL;DR
- Engrossing plot and the ending, hoo boy, that ending!
- Improved character animations
- Better conversational flow
The Bad
While the ending payoff is incredible, the path there has some unfortunate pacing issues. It’s an entertaining journey, don’t get me wrong, but there are plenty of scenes that either go on for far too long or simply didn’t need to be there at all.
Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a new entry in a series that’s been around since the late 80s. While it’s nice to harken back to the classic gameplay that it was inspired by, it feels extremely dated and clunky. It was understandable for the remakes, and while it has been spruced up a little here, the clunkiness is still there.
TL;DR
- Pacing issues
- Clunky menu navigation
Final Score: 8/10
Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club had me smiling from ear-to-ear. While that may sound a little ominous, the game itself has a gripping murder mystery narrative that can rival the best within the detective genre. This entry gives me a lot of hope for the future of the series and I’d love to see more entries in the years to come.
Thank you for checking out our Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club Switch review, thank you to Nintendo AU/NZ for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:
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