Are you really sure that Nintendo only makes games for everyone? Discover with us Emio: The Man Who Smiles and his story.
As soon as we mention the name Nintendo, many brands come to mind. Just think about Mario and Luigi, Zelda, Link, Yoshi, Donkey Kong and their related video game series. How can we not mention the series whose traces are lost in time? Such as Kid Icarus or Star Fox, just to name a few.
How would you react if I told you that there is a Nintendo brand that is even PEGI 18? Let’s talk about Emio: The Smiling Man.
Famicom Detective Club
Before the announcement, landed with a surprise trailer, let’s dig into the origins of Emio: The Smiling Man.
With Famicom Detective Club, we mean a series of visual novels with a mature tone. It offers more adult themes than the Nintendo classics. So we are dealing with interactive “movies” with murders, complex characters and plots.
Although nowadays the themes covered are not so original, at the time (late 80s) they raised the level of the genre.
These titles, released only in Japan, feature the figure of Yoshio Sakamoto behind them. With the experience of participating in series such as Metroid and Wario Ware, in Famicom Detective Club he has the role of head writer.
The real credit goes to Gunpei Yokoi (father of the Game Boy and the directional cross). Who entrusted the screenplay born from his idea to Yoshio Sakamoto.
Yoshio Sakamoto‘s ideas were based on great explorable scenarios, many dialogues with numerous characters with which to delve into the story and the collection of objects to gather clues. All this with the aim of getting to the bottom of the problem.
From all this, Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir, the first chapter of the saga, was born.
Some Curiosities
The amount of content in the game was so vast that the game was released in two parts. The first on April 27, 1988 and the second on June 14 of the same year. This forced Nintendo to use the Famicom Support Disc, a proprietary floppy disk. In order to use it, the Famicom Disc System was required, a proprietary add-on, which was connected to the Famicom and allowed the use of proprietary discs.
The first title was a good success for its time, so much so that it obtained a sequel/prequel. The following year the second chapter was released with the subtitle: The Girl Who Stands Behind.
A remake of the second chapter was made for SNES but only on rewritable cartridges via special Totems and only in Japan.
A spin off was also released and distributed for Bandai Satellaview: an add-on for SNES that allowed you to play only via satellite.
Yoshio Sakamoto, in addition to taking inspiration from the classic Japanese thriller novels of the time, declared another source of inspiration. The master of horror-thriller Dario Argento, whose favorite film is Profondo Rosso.
Let’s Talk About Emio: The Smiling Man
Finally, after 35 years, the third official chapter of the series arrives: Emio: The Man Who Smiles. With Yoshio Sakamoto returning as director and writer, the title maintains both the atmosphere and gameplay of the series.
The player will have to navigate the game environment, interact with the people and analyze objects and clues. All this to shed light on the main case of the story. In short, all the cornerstones of the genre, while also making improvements compared to past titles.
The narrative incipit consists of investigating the murder of a boy who seems connected to an urban legend from the past. The legend is precisely that of Emio: a man who goes around wearing a raincoat and is masked with an envelope with a disturbing smile on it.
What is surprising in the meantime is the PEGI 18 rating, which is surprising to see on a Nintendo game.
My Two Cents
By trying the free demo on the Nintendo Store, you immediately notice that the game is not a graphic adventure, but a real visual novel.
By this I mean that we should complete the dialogues and actions as the game expects. Only in this way can we continue the story and move forward. In addition to this we will have names to remember, deductions to make about how to act and with whom.
Don’t think it’s a point-and-click style like Broken Sword, Monkey Island or Day of The Tentacle. Imagine it as an interactive film where the player will have to make the “right” interaction to continue.
I understand that it can be disheartening to get stuck even though one is convinced of one’s reasoning. Especially those who are not familiar with this genre can suffer from this mechanic.
If you are a fan of games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, you will find yourself at ease with the actions and navigation.
Try the demo of Emio: The Smiling Man on the Nintendo Store. Only in this way will you be able to understand if the title fits you.
