Release Date: August 29, 2024
The third part of a series of dark adventure games from Nintendo, launched in 1988. Emio: The Smiling Man – Famicom Detective Club has us playing as a detective's assistant. We are trying to find a killer who places paper bags with smiling faces on the heads of their victims.
Emio: The Smiling Man - Famicom Detective Club is the third installment of the series of detective adventure games titled Famicom Detective Club, launched in 1988. The game was developed by the Nintendo company.
The story told in Emio: The Smiling Man – Famicom Detective Club was overseen by Yoshio Sakamoto, the author of the scripts for the two previous parts of the series - The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind. The titular Smiling Man is an anti-hero from a fictional urban legend who killed his victims and placed paper bags with a drawing of a smiling face on their heads.
When a body of a dead student is found, treated in the same way by an unknown killer, the Utsugi detective agency steps into action, specifically - the main character who is the assistant to the private detective, Shunsuke Utsugi. Our task is to investigate potential links between this murder and a series of unsolved murders from 18 years ago, and consequently - to discover the identity of the perpetrator.
Apart from the protagonist and their patron, during the game we meet other characters known from earlier parts of the series, led by Ayumi Tachibana (over whom we can also occasionally take direct control).
The gameplay in Emio: The Smiling Man - Famicom Detective Club is based on the pillars established by the two previous installments of the series. We must conduct a detailed investigation, which leads us through various locations. During the game we examine crime scenes and collect evidence, as well as conduct conversations with characters who are often a source of valuable clues.
The graphic design of Emio: The Smiling Man – Famicom Detective Club is maintained in a manga style.
Platforms:
Nintendo Switch
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Game Ratings for Emio: The Smiling Man - Famicom Detective Club Video Game.
Eurogamer: 3 / 5 by Lottie Lynn
Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a successful homage to the venerable series, which tells an enticing story despite its repetitive nature.
Digital Trends: 4 / 5 by Giovanni Colantonio
Despite thin detective gameplay that may be light on actual deduction, Emio — The Smiling Man makes up for that with a slow-burn visual novel story that goes in completely unexpected directions. Its grisly tone and M-rating may feel surprising for a Nintendo game, but Emio meets young players at a level Nintendo is uniquely positioned to reach them at.
Cubed3: 7 / 10 by Az Elias
Although not without its faults in due part to the trial-and-error situations that require exhausting all options in conversations, Emio - The Smiling Man is a game that will keep fans glued to the end, topped off with a very appealing art style and fair 10+ hour storyline that doesn't overstay its welcome. There isn't much else to see and do once the full story is done, but it is one worth experiencing.
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