Play it on: Switch
Current goal: Discover the truth about a chilling crime
I haven’t played either of the earlier Famicom Detective Club games, but the marketing around Emio — The Smiling Man was enough to seduce me into finally giving the series a shot with this, its first truly new entry in decades. Nintendo has smartly released a pretty substantial demo that allowed me to try out the first few chapters, and after playing them, I remain unsure about whether or not the game’s classic adventure-oriented visual novel gameplay is going to click with me. I did buy the full game, though, so clearly I’m intrigued enough to keep going and find out.
I’ve heard others complain that games like this can feel arbitrary, not requiring real thought, insight, or ingenuity to progress, but rather just encouraging you to cycle through menu options until you hit upon some trigger that moves things along. And I admit, I did experience a bit of that during the demo. At one point, for instance, I had to look at a woman’s face to trigger the next bit of interaction, which I didn’t feel I really had any way of knowing. But I’m not ready to criticize the game for moments like that just yet. This is a different type of gameplay than what I’m used to from the adventure games I grew up with, and I want to keep an open mind about what it’s doing.
Perhaps I’ll find that there’s something unique to this approach that’s worth appreciating, something that slows me down and pulls me deeper into the tale it’s telling. In any case, it’s nice to have a game I’m excited about not because it’s dangling rewards in front of me or offering me a chance to get more powerful as I go on an epic, action-packed quest, but because I think curling up with it in bed each night, just like I would with a good book, might be really cozy and enjoyable. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a murder to solve.—Carolyn Petit
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