Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club 3-Part Demo Announced

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Aug 162024
 

I still can’t believe that only a few months after I said I wanted a new Famicom Detective Club game, not expecting it to happen, one is actually coming out.

We’re less than two months away from the release of Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club for the Switch, and now a demo has been announced to let us try it even sooner.

Nintendo has opted for an unusual format for this demo, as it will be released in three parts. The prologue and Chapter 1 will be available on August 19, Chapter 2 will be added on August 22, and finally Chapter 3 will be added on August 27. Demo progress can be transferred to the full game.

This is an interesting way to handle the demo, and it makes me wonder if they’re imagining it almost like a book club format. Give players one chapter at a time to discuss while awaiting the full release. That could spark more discussion around it. And since Emio drew so much attention from the marketing campaign, a lengthy demo is a good way for new players to see if they’ll like it.

Releasing the first three chapters as a demo also supports my prediction that Emio will be significantly longer than the first two games, since that would be a significant chunk of an 11-chapter game.

I’m not sure yet if I’ll play the Emio demo or not. I’ve got plenty of games in my backlog to occupy me until the full release… but on the other hand, I’m excited to experience this new mystery (and a head start will help me finish ahead of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection)!

Are you planning to play Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club? How do you feel about this 3-part staggered demo format?

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?

Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind

 Celebrating All Things Mysterious, Reviews, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
May 272024
 

Last time, we talked about the remake of the first Famicom Detective Club game, The Missing Heir.

Now let’s continue on and talk about the second.

Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind is actually a prequel, and they’re set up so that you can play them in either order. (If you play one, you can carry over the name you used for the protagonist to the other, too.) I went with release order and played The Missing Heir first, but I can see how playing the prequel first might increase the tension at times. It’s up to you.

From the beginning, The Girl Who Stands Behind is the creepier of the two games. While The Missing Heir had slight hints of potentially supernatural occurrences, they’re much stronger in its prequel.

The case begins with the discovery of a murdered high school girl, and it isn’t long before you learn that before her death, she was investigating the school’s urban legend about a ghost that will appear standing behind you. With that as your one lead, you begin digging deeper into the origins of the legend and what the victim might have learned about it.

For the most part, the gameplay is identical to that of the first game. You’ll still be picking commands from the menu, inspecting backgrounds for clues, and running through a list of dialogue options and other actions to figure out how to progress. Progression didn’t feel quite as opaque in this one, although there were still a few times when I was stumped until I found the action I needed to try or re-try to make things happen.

Sadly, there aren’t any parts where you have to type your answer. Instead, there are a couple parts where you’re asked questions and have to choose the correct answer from a list.

The story was interesting, and I loved the creepier tone, although it lacked some of the excitement of The Missing Heir’s story. It also didn’t feel quite as tight, with more loose ends and aspects that should have been explored in more detail, plus the odd choice to add ambiguity right at the very end.

Click for The Girl Who Stands Behind spoilers
The implication at the very end that the girl died from being hit by the car and therefore might have been a ghost after all when she was seen at the window was interesting… but if they wanted to take it in that direction, I think they should have explored the supernatural aspect a bit more thoroughly so it felt earned.

I also feel like we should have learned the connection between Hibino and Urabe during the investigation, instead of just having it told to us at the end.

But while I’d say I enjoyed The Missing Heir more overall, The Girl Who Stands Behind was still a good mystery with a lot of excellent points. If you like one of the Famicom Detective Club remakes, you’ll probably like the other.

Now, when can we have a third Famicom Detective Club game…?

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