Emio – The Man Who Smiles: FC Detective Club is a successful homage to the classic series, telling a fascinating story despite its repetitive nature.
Let’s lay out the facts of the case: High school student Eisuke Saski is found strangled at a pump station outside of town. The items used to kill him are missing, but the real oddity is the paper bag with a smiley face drawn on it over his head. Eisuke is no longer just an ordinary high school student, and the bag links Eisuke to the uncaptured serial killer who did the same thing to his victims 18 years earlier. The twist? The three initial victims were all teenage girls. (If this were an episode of Law & Order, “dun dun” would be in here.)
It is for this reason that Officer Kamata asks the Utsugi Detective Agency to assist in the investigation. Together with the stern Detective Kuze and the slightly careless Detective Kanhara, you will use your little grey cells to discover why Eisuke is in such a remote place, who killed him, and whether his death is really related to an unsolved murder from long ago – even if Kuze is a bit suspicious and he really hopes you won’t get involved in the case.
However, that’s not all you have to deal with. Something is eerie, because the paper bag links the case to the urban myth of Emio, the “Smiling Man”. He appears to crying girls and promises to give them a smile. A permanent smile. If the girl smiles, Emio walks away, but if she doesn’t… well, she has nothing to smile about.
I love urban myths, and frankly, anything with a hint of the supernatural, so I was fully prepared to discover the truth behind Emio. While it’s important to the overarching narrative, the game chooses to focus more on the human element of Eisuke’s death and the mystery surrounding it, rather than supernatural shenanigans. There’s a subtle undercurrent of exploration into the effects of trauma and grief. As the secrets held by the characters are gradually revealed, you see how these emotions can overwhelm a person until they almost lose their mind. This can be seen with Megumi, one of Eisuke’s closest friends. You track her down in an attempt to learn more about his final days, only to find Megumi trapped in her bedroom as she wallows in grief and guilt over a possible role in his death. It’s a fitting theme, with the story being told through the eyes of a character not much older than the boy at the start of the story; depicting the brevity of life, and how events in our youth shape who we become.
Emio – The Smiling Man also does a good job of balancing suspense and revelations, so even if you stray from the main plot, you still feel like you’re working towards a definitive ending where no clues are left behind. The bittersweet tone also left me disappointed by the lack of focus on the urban myth storyline. I’ve always found it to be a perfect fit for detective fiction, as solving a case doesn’t always lead to a real solution for those who must rebuild their lives after the death of a loved one.
That’s not to say the script is flawless. Several characters are clearly hiding something, as seen holding a boombox outside the window that plays “I am suspicious” on repeat. Then there’s Fukuyama Tsubasa, a teacher at Eisuke’s high school and a senior to the series’ shoujo protagonist, Ayumi Tachibana. While Fukuyama’s dedication to his students is enduring, there’s a scene where he competes with the main character over who knows Ayumi better that feels uncomfortable. Aside from these moments, Emio does a great job with its other characters. For example, I found Detective Kanhara annoying at first, but grew to like him as his childish nature faded, revealing a skilled detective who puts people at ease with a mask of immaturity.
However, in terms of mechanics, Ayumi the Laughing does show some of the age of Famicom Detective Club. As you might guess from the name, this is a series that’s been around for a while, but outside of the 2021 remake of the first two games (and Ayumi’s cameo as an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee), we haven’t seen it in a while. This is the first new game in 35 years.
Staying true to the games, Emio – The Smiling Man retains a simple visual novel-like structure. In fact, it’s almost a carbon copy of the previous games in the series, with the only notable difference being the alternation of perspectives between the male protagonist and Ayumi, who is a playable character for the first time. It’s a pretty easy loop to follow – you use up a person’s dialogue options until you have to ask to observe, show them something, look at something, or think. Doing so either unlocks new clues to the question or additional dialogue for the previous question, causing you to repeat the cycle until the scene ends.
As a result, Emio – The Smiling Man is very linear, confining you to these dialogue scenes and moving you to the next one as quickly as possible. While fitting within the visual novel format, it undercuts the investigative aspect by depriving you of the ability to actively explore many key areas. Things only really open up in the final chapters of the third act, where you’re finally given the chance to move between locations – a very welcome freedom after so many long conversations. Admittedly, it adds a dose of realism – people certainly don’t stand around doing nothing and happen upon a teenage detective returning to them with “one more thing”, Columbo-style – but it can ultimately feel a bit restrictive.
Meanwhile, puzzles usually appear at the end of chapters, as you review your progress on the case, in the form of multiple-choice questions or inputting missing words. For the latter, spelling is important, as a wrong letter will result in an incorrect answer, and the game will ask you to try again (something I learned the hard way when I sometimes attempted a few “close guesses”). It was only when the hero himself was stranded at a remote bus station that I found myself completely stumped (which was likely intentional). Sadly, though, Emio – The Smiling Man rarely goes beyond the dialogue loop to utilize more point-and-click mechanics, or more puzzles that let you search for clues yourself.
While the mechanics of Emio – The Smiling Man are simple, it does manage to tell a good story. Many of the best detective stories hide the story they’re really telling. They offer clues to help you find the right path, but are never afraid to hinder your journey with red herrings. You’ll need to determine fact from deception and craft a solution based on all the clues you’ve gathered. Some will still be hiding something – some treasure of truth that, when told, has the power to completely change your perspective on past events. However, this twist will only work if the foundation it’s built on is strong enough.
When I first started playing Emio – The Smiling Man, I thought it was a story about a detective haunted by an urban legend, and as the plot took shape, I worried that I wouldn’t like the ending. However, despite that being the basis of the story, that’s not what the story is really about. In fact, it dares to delve into the complexity of human emotion and never falters. Without spoiling anything, when the ending finally arrived, I sat in the darkness of my apartment and pondered the conflicted sadness it brought to me.
However, it can’t be ignored that the over-emphasis on dialogue could easily turn off anyone expecting more complex gameplay. Even as a fan of dialogue-centric visual novels, I’d be happy to see the Famicom Detective Club series branch out from its established formula if we do get another entry. When it comes to Emio – The Smiling Man, though, what we get is a faithful adaptation of the last installment’s gameplay – perhaps too faithful for someone who last got a new main entry in the series in 1989 – wrapped in a story about love, loss, and the importance of recycling paper bags.
Nintendo provided a copy of Emio – The Man Who Smiles: FC Detective Club for review.