Operation Backlog Completion 2025

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?

Nintendo Seemingly Teases a New Horror Game With “Emio” Trailer

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jul 102024
 

I thought we’d be talking about the Radiant Tale fandisc today, but instead we’ve got something much darker and weirder to discuss.

Without any explanation, Nintendo shared a mysterious new teaser trailer across social media today.

Titled only “Emio” in English and “The Smiling Man” in Japanese, the teaser is only a few seconds long and shows a man standing with a bag over his head that depicts a smiling face, with quick glimpses of other faces as well. Everything about it appears to be a teaser for a horror game, and the trailer shows that it’s rated M.

The Japanese trailer’s description includes a link to the official website. There aren’t any more details there yet, but that supports the idea that this is either developed or at least published by Nintendo.

As you can imagine, this has resulted in a ton of speculation. Many people have suggested this could be related to Eternal Darkness or Fatal Frame, but there isn’t much evidence for that besides those being the horror games Nintendo is most closely associated with. I would love to see a new Eternal Darkness game someday, but nothing in that teaser suggests the Lovecraftian atmosphere of that game.

Fatal Frame is a closer match since it has that sort of Japanese horror styling and presentation, but it doesn’t feel like a teaser for a story about ghosts. I’m also inclined to think a new Fatal Frame would be teased as Fatal Frame.

A few people have guessed a new Famicom Detective Club game. While I’d love that, this feels like it’s going too much in the horror direction to fit with that series (although I have to admit, “The Smiling Man” would be a title in the vein of “The Girl Who Stands Behind”).

All of that makes me inclined to think this mysterious “Emio” game is either a new IP or something obscure.

Rumors started circulating shortly after that it might be developed by Bloober Team, but there’s no basis for that beyond Bloober Team saying they were working on a game for Nintendo platforms. It’s not even remotely confirmed that their game is Emio, certainly not enough for people to be arguing about it as much as they have been.

Whatever the case may be, I’m excited at the potential of a new Nintendo horror game. What do you think Emio is?

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