Normally, When we think of Nintendo, nice games come to mind.for the whole family, but from time to time the Kyoto company dares with darker proposals like that Famicom Detective Club that generated good sensations on Switch three years ago. Now, the story continues with Emio – The Smiley, a sequel that maintains all its hallmarks.
Broadly speaking, we are facing a visual novel, that genre that the Japanese love and that is usually based on semi-static images and the choosing a few commands and dialogue options from the player.
We are back to being the Utsugi Agency Detective Assistant (we name the boy protagonist), who together with his boss, the Mr. Utsugi, and also the assistant Ayumithey set out to solve a new murder.
Eisuke, a high school student, is found dead by strangulation with a strange nuance: His head is covered with a paper bagwhich has a smiling face drawn on it. The surprising thing is that it is reminiscent of a series of crimes that occurred 18 years ago, as well as a creepy urban legend: the one of Emio, The Smiler.
According to legend, A guy with a bag over his head appears in front of crying girlsstrangles them and covers his head with a similar bag. Are the rumors true? Are all the crimes the work of the same perpetrator? And if so, why has he returned 18 years later?
Emio the Smiley’s analysis at Hobby Consolas:
Gameplay and gameplay of Emio, the Smiler
Although most of the time we control the young detective, this time There are also some sections where we give orders to Ayumiwhile she does research in parallel.
In both cases, the dynamics are the same: our character is in a setting (a street, a police station, a witness’s house…) and has different commands at your disposal: talk to someone, examine details, reflect on the next step to take…
The most common is usually Talk to someone and look around for any objects in the scene. Although selecting any option may lead us to a dead end, There is no such thing as game over and it is just a matter of finding the option that will make us move forward, sooner or later.
This can cause the most impatient users to end up trying all the options at random to advance by pure trial and error, but It’s all based on logic, even if that logic is sometimes a bit “forced.”
Apart from talking and searching, sometimes we will have to answer questions from our peers or other people. In these cases, we may have to choose between two or three possible answers, look for the key in what has been automatically noted in our notebook or even write a word ourselves with the Switch virtual keyboard.
Again, these tests will not prevent us from advancing in the game, they will only provoke a negative response from our companions such as “no, it wasn’t like that, focus” or that our character continues thinking. Of course, When we complete the game, we will be evaluated to see what “grade” we get. we have come up with detectives based on these answers.
In any case, There is no time limit to play or choose optionsso we can move forward at our own pace. The dialogues are very numerous (sometimes even a bit choppy, when by pressing a single option they should go more closely together), so Most of the time you will be having conversations with people of all kinds.
Insisting will be important to end up finding that new clue that puts us in the right direction. Many times, Our question may not be “triggered” until we select the reflect optionso that our character thinks about what the next step should be.
It also helps us consult the notebook oftento have the data fresh both when being questioned by colleagues and when we are the ones asking the witnesses.
The notebook now can be consulted from the general command menuso it’s faster (and the character annotations are clearer) than in the previous game.
If a dialogue is particularly dense, you can press R to fast-forward. If you feel you’ve missed something crucial, you can use the X button to review the last few sentences.
In this new story An extra element has been added, the mobile phonewhich we sometimes call our teammates with. It is actually just another option for certain tracks, but it would have been appreciated if it had given us more gameplay flexibility.
The technical section of Emio, the Smiling Man
A very important advantage for Spanish users is that, This time, everything is wonderfully translated into Spanish, Nintendo style.. The surprising thing is that the Spanish game was only in English, given the company’s track record!
The voices are only in Japanesebut they are very good and help to delve into the “Japanese lore” of the story with their expressions and screams.
And since we are getting closer to the technical section, we must take into account the peculiarities of this traditionally static genre. Here we have very beautiful and detailed backgrounds, but they are quite fixed, except for some detail or character that moves in the background.
The characters we talk to move in the foreground And while they are very expressive, they also have limited animations, generally based on some tricks to rotate certain body parts.
This is more of a plastic choice (it’s almost as if we were “watching” a mystery manga) than a limitation per se, although it is true that We would have preferred a bit more visual effects. and animations to make the experience more enjoyable.
But be careful, this static style may have some surprises in store for us, especially when we reach the final stages of the game.
Duration of Emio, the Smiler
That brings us to the topic of duration. Emio the Smiley: Famicom Detective Club is divided into 12 chapters and can take you around 10 hours to complete.. For an adventure of this type it is not bad and, in addition, the recommended price It is slightly cheaper than other Nintendo launch games: 50 euros.
Besides, Completing the main adventure unlocks an extra mode (whose name we won’t reveal to you to avoid spoilers) which is a sort of epilogue where we REALLY delve into everything that really happened with several key characters. Beating the normal game is enough to be satisfied, but the real meat is in that epilogue.
Not only because of what we get to know, but also because That’s where the game gets really sinister.. And you can be sure: although the general tone of the adventure is friendly and even comical at times, There are very hard times that can make your hair stand on end.How many Nintendo games do you know with a PEGI +18?? Well, that’s it.
This mystery is a pre-Emio
The story, although it takes a few detours, manages to captivate us and introduce us to several characters with whom it is easy to empathize, especially in those final moments that give us goosebumps. In fact, the game explicitly invites us to reflect on the fate of some of them: who are really the victims in this story? Very interesting.
You can see the hand of Nintendo personalities like the legendary Yoshio Sakamoto on the project.The man responsible for several Metroid titles and the original Famicom Detective Club, no less!
On the whole, Emio The Smiler is an interactive mystery novel which has its main strengths in its characters and plot. And it must be said that they are at a great level! In terms of gameplay it is a bit too simple (in that line, Ace Attorney or Layton are more satisfying, for example), but the experience will leave you with a smile… Of course, we hope that you don’t like it.that is, post-mortem.
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