Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club Announced for August 29

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Jul 172024
 

Well, this turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

Last week, when we discussed the mysterious “Emio” teaser, we went over several theories that had been presented.

One theory was that it was a new Famicom Detective Club title, but I dismissed that one.

The only credence I gave it was that “The Smiling Man” sounded like it could be a Famicom Detective Club title, but the atmosphere of the teaser felt too horror-themed for me to accept it as a plausible theory.

Well, I was wrong. Today Nintendo officially announced Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club.

That’s right, a brand-new Famicom Detective Club game is being made, and it will be out on August 29. Not only that, but it will be available both digitally and physically.

When a student is found dead with a paper bag over his head that has a smiling face drawn on it, it calls back to both a string of unsolved murders from 18 years past and the urban legend of Emio, the Smiling Man.

That premise reminds me of The Girl Who Stands Behind, so I’m excited to see where it goes. According to a video from producer Yoshio Sakamoto, Emio is the culmination of the team’s experience working on the previous games, and he describes it as “the Famicom Detective Club series at its best.”

He also says the story’s ending will be divisive, so make of that what you will.

I played the Famicom Detective Club remakes this past May, first The Missing Heir and then The Girl Who Stands Behind. Although they had some tedious elements, I enjoyed them and finished by asking when we could have a third game. I didn’t actually expect it to happen… and certainly not this soon! As neat as it would have been to get a first-party survival horror game from Nintendo, I’m pleased with this outcome.

(Actually, it turns out that Emio is technically the fourth game in the series. In 1997, Nintendo released an episodic Satellaview game starring the main character’s assistant, Ayumi. Like me, it seems most fans aren’t aware of it… and since Emio is being billed as the first new Famicom Detective Game in over 30 years, and the official store page says Ayumi will be playable in certain parts “for the first time in the series,” I’m not sure Nintendo remembers it either.)

The first two Famicom Detective Club games are quite short, with each taking less than 10 hours to beat. I’m curious as to whether a brand-new entry in the series will be of a similar length, or if it will be longer.

Its file size listed on the store page is 5.4 GB, compared to 3.5 GB for both of the remakes together. File size isn’t always an indicator of length, but since it looks visually similar to the remakes, I’m inclined to think it will be significantly longer.

We’ll find out when Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club comes out on August 29! Are you planning to get it?

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers is My Favorite Expansion So Far

 Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jul 152024
 

It’s time to talk about Final Fantasy XIV again!

Last year I finally played Stormblood after the winner of one of my contests picked a Stormblood playthrough & review as her prize, and that same winner won the Celebrating All Things Romantic contest back in February and picked the same for Shadowbringers.

(Yes, February. Shadowbringers took me a while.)

Note: talking about Shadowbringers is impossible without discussing its premise, so if you don’t want to know anything about what leads up to this expansion, stop reading now.

The post-Stormblood patches started out on about the same mixed level as Stormblood itself, but they quickly became more exciting as they began to build toward Shadowbringers. I’d say they were the most exciting patches yet, even beating the intensity of the patches after A Realm Reborn.

And so after a dramatic lead-in that brought us to another world, Shadowbringers began.

Different parts of Final Fantasy XIV have had different tones, and Shadowbringers is the closest it’s come to horror. Set in a world overtaken by the light, the survivors live in danger from the monstrous sin eaters. It’s filled with unsettling moments and creepy events that made me joke I’d started playing a horror game instead.

This also flips the usual situation on its head, as we see firsthand that an abundance of light is just as catastrophic as letting everything be overtaken by darkness, and although the main character has been known as the Warrior of Light, we now step into the role of the Warrior of Darkness trying to bring back the night.

It’s a great way to kick off the story with a decidedly different feel, although for the most part everything still follows the tried and true Final Fantasy XIV formula.

Maybe too much so. For the most part, the structure of Final Fantasy XIV has started to feel very formulaic to me. That goes double for dungeons; there’s now a system that lets you do main story dungeons with a party of NPCs, which I absolutely love, but even though I can theoretically explore to my heart’s content, there’s nothing to explore now. I disliked doing dungeons with other people because they always rushed through without giving me time to look around, and now that I can take my time, dungeons are basically a straight line from start to finish anyway.

But that’s not an indictment of Shadowbringers itself. In fact, a major change starting in the post-Stormblood patches is that there are occasionally set piece duties where you play as a different character. There was even a solo duty with some interesting mechanics besides just fighting. Things like that shake up the formula, so I hope to see more like it.

Now, the story is pretty interesting, although it does hit a bit of a lull in the middle parts. The end makes up for it, though, as it hits those same high notes as in the beginning with pretty exciting parts. I even ended up with a new favorite character.

Click for Shadowbringers spoilers
No, I’m not talking about Emet-Selch. I’m talking about G’raha Tia!

G’raha Tia was ready to sacrifice everything, to save both us and the world! He’s been through so much! Someone give this man a hug! He rose rapidly from a guy I barely remembered to being my #2 favorite character after Estinien. I love him, and I hope we get to take him with us from now on.

Now, as for my joke there at the start… I kinda don’t understand the obsession everyone has with Emet-Selch. He’s fine, probably the best antagonist in Final Fantasy XIV, and sure, he’s somewhat sympathetic… but I don’t know. Something about him just didn’t click with me like it did for a lot of fans.

So it started out strong, leveled out in the middle, and then peaked again for an epic conclusion. After thinking about it, I’ve decided Shadowbringers beats out Heavensward to become my favorite part of Final Fantasy XIV so far.

As always, I still need to get into the post-expansion patches before I’ll have completely wrapped up this storyline, and I intend to move on to those soon instead of taking such a long break this time. Endwalker is on the horizon! Although the next expansion is already out as well, there’s finally a very real chance that I’ll be caught up in time for the next one after that.

What did you think of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers?

Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- is Disappointingly Short, Yet With Some Fun Parts

 Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 122024
 

I loved the lighthearted otome game Radiant Tale, so I was thrilled when they announced localization of its fandisc, Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-.

(As a reminder, a fandisc is similar to a sequel, but focuses more on the aftermath of the romances like a game-length epilogue, often with some other new content as well.)

Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- is split into three main parts: after stories, interludes, and “if” routes.

After stories are usually the main draw of a fandisc. These are the extended epilogues that follow the end of an individual character’s route from the main game. Unfortunately, I found Fanfare’s after stories to be… lacking.

It started out well enough; I picked my favorite love interest, the intimidating-yet-actually-sweet warrior Ion, and was treated to some cute romantic scenes. Then I reached the end of the first chapter, much sooner than I’d expected to.

Now, fandisc after stories are always going to be shorter than full otome routes, just by their very nature, but these ones feel very short. I completed each after story in an hour or less, which made them feel like they finished disappointingly soon. (I’m a fast reader and usually move to the next line once I’ve finished reading, so I’d expect it to take closer to 2 hours for a story if you let all the voice lines play out.)

Worse, the after stories of my two favorites, Ion and Zafora, both felt more focused on external events and conflicts keeping the couple apart, instead of the romance emphasis I want from a fandisc.

Click for Radiant Tale Fanfare spoilers
Zafora’s in particular being focused on him not communicating his feelings and taking until the very end to tell Tifalia he loves her felt frustratingly like we were still in his main route, not experiencing an after story.

Because of this, I find myself in the bizarre position where Radie, whose route was my least favorite in the main game, ended up having my favorite story in the fandisc. His after story had the perfect emphasis on fluff and romance, along with a lot of funny moments.

That’s one area where I can’t fault Fanfare. Its after stories might be short, but they aren’t lacking in humor. There were a lot of parts throughout the game that made me laugh.

The interludes are great for that, too. These are a collection of scenes, each only a few minutes long, that focuses on short interactions between the characters. For example, there’s an interlude where the younger side characters are attempting to adopt behaviors they believe will make them gentleman. These scenes are funny and cute.

Finally, we have the “if” routes. These are two all-new routes that branch off from the end of the common route with a short new common route that lets you pick choices that lead to a route for either Jinnia or Liyan. These routes are still shorter than the main game’s routes, but fortunately longer than the after stories. Additional choices lead to short endings featuring Colivus and Alest, as well.

Jinnia turned out to be the MVP of this fandisc. The flashy, flamboyant type isn’t usually my preferred character, but his route is so much fun, with a great amount of romance (and more spice than all the after stories combined) and a believable conflict. The character dynamics in his route were excellent as well.

I didn’t enjoy Liyan’s quite as much, but it had some exciting moments near the end that also made it a fun read.

As for the two characters who only got bonus endings, Colivus’s scenes were quite cute, and Alest’s… made me desperate for a full Alest route. He’s such a great character, and I love him. Despite my criticisms here, I’d still buy a second fandisc in a heartbeat if it delivered a full Alest route.

Overall, I did have fun with Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-, it just felt lacking compared to other fandiscs I’ve played. If you loved Radiant Tale, I’d still recommend getting the fandisc eventually… but maybe when it’s on sale.

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