Yet another game that has been on my radar for a long time, but I only got to it recently because a new game in the franchise is releasing soon! Famicom Detective Club was a game I had never heard of until the remakes got announced, and since I am a fan of visual novel games, this just seemed like a no brainer to try. Years later, it was finally time to try, and this was a great story that hit at the right time for me. The vibes of Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir just was one that I don’t see often in games, and it makes me very happy to have experienced it.
The game follows an unnamed protagonist (I named him Taro Ninten, his name in promotional material), who had lost his memory. Soon after being rescued by friendly neighbor Amachi, he soon gets wrapped in the mystery of the Ayashiro family, and their ambiguous plot of who gets the inheritance of their company. Many twists and turns are to be expected, and these can be so severe, you’ll be left with whiplash. While my knowledge on the Famicom versions are limited, I can only imagine experiencing a story such as this would have been mind blowing, especially if I’m blown away at this game’s plot now! As much as I did enjoy the story, it does have its pacing issues. Many times I would feel this high of information and excitement, only to have some pretty drawn out exchanges with characters. I know they’re there for the thickening of plot and whatnot, but I did feel that was worth mentioning. In addition, sometimes I wish I had some more scenes with some plot points too. I felt like they were a tad bit too short in my opinion, and could have been a bit more fleshed out with its details.
Possibly the biggest thing to mention is how much this game got the GLOW UP of the century. The original game did have this aesthetic to it, with detailed pixelated portraits, but the remake takes it to brand new sights. These detailed anime expressions and illustrations and sets just really makes this game pop. It's so vibrant and so detailed it is insane. And to take it one step further, everything is animated as well. From body motions and gestures, down to the super specific ways characters breathe. It just really gives this game personality, and really does take the whole experience to a new level, because this would feel like a completely different game if characters were just still portraits. It might be my favorite part of the game, it’s just so COOL.
While not my favorite part of the game, I want to give a nod to the music. Remade tracks for this game just match the overall vibe of the game, from playful innocent tracks during interviews, to the sinister and down-right creepy tracks during the dramatic scenes. It’s borderline stock music, but in the best way possible. Stock music is there to give something music and that’s it; just fill in the silence. This game’s music does fill in the silence and lowkey does give stock music energy, but it’s matched with the tone of scenes well. It gives more depth and adds to each part of the game well. This will be stock music I’ll be adding to my playlist.
One more comment I have with the game, and it’s my biggest nitpick. I blame 80s game design for this one, and me not playing it in the 80s too. Since I’m used to my Phoenix Wrights and Danganronpas, I’m used to progression being pretty linear. Talk to one person, look at this one item, answer questions, and do all that for 30 hours. Famicom Detective Club works a bit differently. Most of what you do are in menus, which means EVERYTHING needed to progress is in the menu select. You have commands like talk, examine, travel, remember, open, engage, speculate, and show. You then have several options to select from these options, and sometimes different characters to interact with at the same time as well. When these commands have to be done in specific orders, as well as needing to be kept track of too, and needs to be done multiple times in a row too, it can get pretty difficult to keep track of. Granted, sometimes the game does highlight commands in yellow to tell you what to do next, but they either don’t show up when they’re needed the most, or show up when it's obvious what to do next. Again this could always be a me problem, but it’s a problem I’d like to explain.
Either way, there’s a reason this deserved a remake. It’s too much of a cult classic to not bring attention to it, and with a new game coming, it just makes sense that this series gets more attention. I’m starting the next game right after beating this one, and I cannot wait to take in more of this niche series from the g.o.a.ts at Nintendo.