Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club Review

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Fast Facts

Smile for the Camera

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a visual novel that follows a detective agency on the quest to solve a murder. A key suspect, the Smiling Man, plays a crucial role in the story. Does this antagonist make for an exciting adventure? Find out in this Rapid Review.

To me, the most important parts of any visual novel are the writing and the premise. I enjoyed the premise of Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. The game features an investigation with urban myth elements and a preexisting cold case. As someone who enjoys murder mystery novels, this concept was completely up my alley. I also like the way they set the stage and the interpersonal connections I got to make with different characters throughout the game. 

Unfortunately, despite being completely on board with the premise, I had some issues with the way Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club presented the narrative. For starters, most of the game was dialogue between my character and the people they encountered. This is a fairly normal occurrence. However, in this game, I play as the detective. This meant I actively progressed the dialogue by selecting different ways to interact with others. While this made my experience immersive, it also significantly slowed down the pacing of the story. 

Specifically, when talking to people, I needed to select between a variety of options such as listen, think, or look at. While these options largely make sense, it was often unclear which option to choose at any given time. This did not restrict my ability to complete the game, as with enough trial and error, the story would eventually unfold, but it progressed slowly. 

Making a Visual Novel

This dialogue option choice mechanic is especially confusing because the narrative is very linear. When I selected an option that did not immediately progress the story, I got a simple one-line response about the scenario that would repeat until I selected the correct one. This did not ruin my experience, but it certainly did not improve it. Plus, there was not much strategy associated with selecting the right option. As I got familiar with the title, I learned that certain cues indicated that certain options should be used, but even then, selecting the options did not add any value for me. This mechanic made diving deep into Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club a bit tedious.

Still, I do not want to understate that the writing is solid. The title features unique characters and neat plot points. Plus, the developments in the story make sense. I specifically appreciated how small events at the beginning of the game genuinely mattered. There are some details written in that foreshadow the ending nicely. I enjoyed the writing elements involved in this story.

However, the gameplay components come shy yet again. In addition to taking part in the interviews, I worked with the detective agency to review critical case information. While this sounds interesting in premise, I was disappointed by what I got. Instead of tying connections between events or analyzing evidence, I simply recalled information that I had been told earlier. What disappointed me here is that not only do I not use problem-solving skills, but my role in this game is not to solve the crime, but to watch it get solved and explain what information is relevant, after already being told what is significant. These segments felt tedious, and while inoffensive, failed to captivate me.

Checking out the Sights

Another crucial component of any visual novel is the visual design. I thought that the art style in Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club was top-notch. The text was clear and easy to read, the backgrounds were interesting, and the characters were visually distinct and interesting. I think one of the highlights of this was looking at the different facial expressions each of the characters would make. Throughout each interview, different questions or comments would make characters act differently. This was interesting to me, and I thought it added a lot of character and charm to the package. It was a simple thing, but it was done well, and the facial expressions were recognizable. 

The ending of the game also has a brief section that features a lot of animation which serves as a pseudo movie. This was excellent and brought out so much charm from all the characters within it. Though most of the game is not played like this, it was a delightful inclusion.

I also think the music is excellent. After finishing the game, I found myself humming along to the soundtrack which is very powerful and often replicates the scenes going on in the novel. I will say, however, that some segments had far louder music than others. It occasionally distracted me and made it challenging to read. This was not a large issue, but it was a bit frustrating. Overall, the music was solid.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club also features voice acting in Japanese. I cannot particularly comment on this, as I do not understand the language, but it worked. I also appreciated that you could skip the voice lines with no issue since I often read the dialogue faster than it was spoken.

A Decent Time

Overall, Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a solid game. The writing is good, and I enjoyed learning more about the world. However, I almost found it was held back by being a visual novel instead of just a regular novel. In my experience, the pacing was slow, and the gameplay elements of the title simply did not add much. I enjoyed looking at the visuals, but considering the steep price of the title, it is hard to justify. Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club tells a great story, but I would recommend holding off for a discount before picking this one up.

You can purchase Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club on the Nintendo eShop here.