Nintendo of America has just made a demo available for the upcoming narrative adventure game Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. Originally teased with a brief (and rather cryptic) video released back in early July, Emio marks the first new Famicom Detective Club title in almost 30 years.
While Western audiences’ earliest experience with the franchise was likely 2021’s stellar Nintendo Switch remakes, the original series dates all the way back to the late 1980s on Japan’s groundbreaking Family Computer—the Famicom Disk System peripheral, to be precise.
Tonight marks the first in a three-part “episodic” demo release that allows new and returning fans to begin their investigation early ahead of the game’s August 29th street date. This initial installment lets you play through Chapter 1 of Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, with Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 automatically added on August 22nd and 27th respectively.
(And, yes, any progress you make can be carried over to the full version of the game.)
I spent the weekend making my way through the earliest hours of Emio – The Smiling Man, and Chapter 1 definitely gives you a proper feel for what this creepy and mysterious visual novel truly is.
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club opens with the body of a young student being found in a remote location. While all signs point to murder, the paper bag (complete with crude smiley face) left covering the victim’s head ties the crime to both a similar series of killings nearly two decades prior as well as to the Smiling Man, a local urban legend.
You, as an assistant private investigator, must work with local police and your fellow members of the Utsugi Detective Agency to uncover the truth behind this macabre death. Has a killer from 18 years ago returned to wreak more havoc? Was the tale of Emio, the Smiling Man, inspired by these gruesome crimes… or is it the other way around?
Players will move from location to location, interviewing witnesses and law enforcement, searching for leads, and following clues. Using a simple text command menu, your investigator can use Call/Engage to engage a target in conversation, Ask/Listen to interrogate said party, and Look/Examine to take in your surroundings.
Other commands include Think (which is very useful in parsing new data) and Open Notebook to view your growing collection of case notes. The Save/Quit Investigation command is also available for when you need to wrap up a game session quickly.
While it is certainly not necessary to play through the two previous Switch releases, The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind, Emio – The Smiling Man is able to import existing player data for returning detectives, and you’ll likely notice some familiar faces even early on in your playthrough.
For those wholly unfamiliar with this old-school point-and-click-style gameplay, however, my best advice is just to take it slow. While the command system and overall flow of the narrative seem arbitrary at first, within the span of Chapter 1 alone you’ll likely fall into the proverbial groove.
Take in the scenery, paying special attention to available characters and anything visually interesting or out of place in the environment. Call/Engage the person to whom you’d like to speak, and make your way through the various topics available in their Ask/Listen list. Don’t be afraid to revisit topics and dig for more information, particularly with regard to the “Observations?” prompt. Folks often remember new details or connect seemingly trivial information as you’re talking to them. If you get lost or need a hint as to what to do next, review your Notebook or simply take a moment to Think.
And keep a keen eye out for words or phrases written in orange text. These are important and can help point you in the right direction.
With its stirring music and ambient sounds, gorgeous anime-style visuals, and extensive Japanese-language voice acting, Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a very different experience from the typical Nintendo Switch release, right down to its ESRB rating. Rated M for blood, language, and violence—yes, this procedural murder mystery does include some grisly details and mild swearing—it’s certainly not for everyone, but for those already turning their attention to the spooky season of Halloween, it’s exactly what you’ve been looking for.
Review and promotional materials provided by Nintendo of America. This post contains affiliate links. Daisuke Kamihara is either a total creep or an unassuming super-cop… possibly both.
