All right. Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. Nintendo’s first in-house M-rated game. With this being a new entry in the series, this has been 30 years in the making. I don’t know how or where or why this game exists, but I blame the initial teaser for my interest in this game. If it weren’t for that teaser, I don’t think my excitement in this game would have been at the point that it was as I played this game. This game was so exciting to play through.
I will go out of my traditional order and actually start with my negatives first. My two nitpicks are the dialogue options, and the pacing of the game. I had this complaint with the other two games, but the dialogue options actually has had some massive improvements and basically has been modernized. You still have a long list of options to choose in the menu when playing, but new to this game are highlighted words and phrases. These are what help the player know what option to pick next, and continue the flow of the game without needing to painstakingly go through each menu option and each sub-option. It’s not perfect though, where sometimes I still would get stuck sometimes on what my next choice needed to be. This happened a lot less in Emio though, and that is because of these new highlighted words and phrases. This might be the best QOL addition to the game. As for my other nitpick, it’s not as prominent.
Sure, pacing is always subjective. Sometimes a scene that may feel like it goes on forever may be someone’s favorite scene in the game. Emio, I’d say 90% of it had some excellent pacing, and always kept me engaged, eager to see what would come next. But that 10% was pretty slow for my taste. It’s weird because these moments were pivotal to the overall story (the retirement home and the bar is what I’m specifically talking about). I don’t know, maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace or something, but pacing is not a big issue in this game to me.
Now onto the GOOD stuff, the pacing both was a nitpick and also something I praise the game on. In that 90% of game, I was so excited to learn more about the mystery of Emio. The whole game talks about the central mystery of who, or even what Emio is. It was so intriguing and I was constantly wanting more. If a dog kept panting over wanting more treats, then I’m that dog wanting more tea on Emio. Again I blame the teaser trailer. That trailer did such a good job setting the tone of the game. The entire plot is focused around the one question of “Who is Emio?” It was so smart to ask such a vague question, but one strong enough for someone to start digging, and then purchase the game. Good on you Nintendo, whatever you got me.
Another great change to this game was the animations. Going from the 2021 remakes to Emio is a massive step up, and it’s only been three years! Before, characters did have their limited animation with the occasional hand raise, head nod, and walking cycles, but here, it’s a whole new step up. You still have the limited animations the remakes were applauded on, but now there’s MORE hand gestures, head movements, whole idle animations, and even straight cutscenes with full body movement. It’s so nice to look at, and it feels so natural and fluid too, and it’s not even fully animated either. How they still kept their limited animations, but turned them into entire detailed and expressive movements it’s beyond me. It’s arguably the best part of this game.
There’s just so many small things to this game that I can’t just talk about it all. There’s snappier menus that make navigating them feel less choppy. The new music fits right in with its legacy tunes and fits the whole “background music but good” aesthetic I love to talk about. The M-rating makes the story and illustrations just that much more impactful, and while I wish there were more of that “M” vibe, I still really enjoyed seeing a mean abrasive side of Nintendo. Emio - The Smiling Man is all I wanted in a visual novel. I’m beyond impressed with this game, and I cannot sing its praises enough. This was an unexpected game to release during the last months of the Switch, but it’s one I wish can continue to grow, and even push past its limits now that they’re cozy with that M-rating.
Well, now the Famicom Detective Club marathon has concluded, I’m going to miss this series. The way these games are presented, and the specific cozy yet unsettling vibes they give off make it stand out like no other visual novel I’ve played. It’s super fun to play a longer case and have your speculative theories change with each chapter. Every story will never end the way you expect it to, and The art style going for a traditional anime feel makes it fresh to see from Nintendo, and just… man. As I type, I just can’t help but praise this series. It truly isn't anything I’ve seen before, and it nails the specific vibes it achieves. It’s wholesome, yet dark. It’s traditional, yet breaks the mold in its execution. This is one of my personal favorite visual novels already, it’s just that good. To wrap it up, my favorite to “not-my-favorite-but-still-great” Famicom Detective Club games go as follows: 1) Emio, 2) The Girl Who Stand Behind, and 3) The Missing Heir.