'Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club' Launches On Switch Next Month

Awesome to see that the detective club remakes sold enough to warrant a new entry, but a bit underwhelming to see that this was what the creepy teaser was for. It all makes sense in hindsight, though.

Happy for those who like this genre/series regardless

Physical or bust.

Do I need to play any of the Famicom Detective games before this or nah?

Not at all what I expected, I can see some people being disappointed since it's a niche genre but I'm happy with the outcome.

@SillyG Physical has already been confirmed luckily
https://x.com/Lbabinz/status/1813563019634598297?t=cl4dKmUZ7gkk-pyHBkzFUw&s=19

@BenAV this one seems to be more horror/mystery related than others.

Also much more darker because the previous games were T rated while this one is M rated

Oh, sweet!
I hope some of the gameplay is modernized a little more. I enjoyed the other two Famicom Detective Club games on Switch, but they could be pretty obtuse. I'd talk to everyone a dozen times, doing the same dialogue prompts, and just cross my fingers and hope that eventually something would work.

did not expect this to be the case and releasing esrlier than expected. welp it looks like a pretty fun game thats been worked on a lot. heres hoping theres a demo !!

SamusHunter said that Emio was the new Famicom Detective game. But no one believed it. I might start to look forward to playing. I've always been a fan of the Famicom Detective games.

Oh that's so cool! Famicom Detective Club 3! After the surprise remake, we get an all-new entry. 🙂

This blindsided me. Was not expecting a new famicom detective club

I love that Nintendo’s doing this to their old franchises. Shows how much they care about every single game in their library, even the niche ones like FDC!!

@JokerCK which Famicom Detective Club game should I start with to play?

The Emio teaser was not as exciting as I hoped it would be.

@BenAV Yeah I like horror related things as well. This one is leaning more towards horror and darker mystery imo. Might be considered a horror game technically, who knows.

Also which Famicom Detective Game should I start with? Should I play all 2 before playing Emio. Because I want to get at least one of the games and then Emio.

Im like 40% disappointed and 60% hyped? I LOVE detective visual novels.

Pretty cool! I've never played one of these games but I do like the art. I might pick this up physical if it gets a release.

Not at all what any of us were expecting, but a new Famicom Detective Club game after so many years is pretty cool to be honest.

Cool! The other two Famicom Detective Club games are great, and I'm glad Nintendo decided to remake and localize them. I hope this means that maybe even more FDC games are planned even after Emio.

@anoyonmus "The first entry, The Missing Heir, was released in 1988, followed by a prequel released the next year titled The Girl Who Stands Behind."

• Taken from Wikipedia

Literally got FCDC last week. Not really started either game yet but i love the look of them so this could be a good one for me. I would like to say i will wait for a sale but looking at the origionals that have never had a discount since launch i wont be holding my breath.

Marketing on this one felt a bit deceptive to me.

First the EMMI from Metroid and now Emio... dude needs to come up with more original names for horror antagonists, lol.

@BenAV this is the order ive chose to play in, although ive done about 5 minutes so far 😂

Rather surprising given how much darker Emio looks even than the darker aspects of Girl Who Stands Behind but I'm down, especially since those parts were the highlights. Definitely picking this up.

@SillyG

You can order the physical copy directly off Nintendo of America’s website. Better hurry before scalpers get them all.

I'm half expecting an EMMI robot to show up now

@anoyonmus You can play them in either order since the second game is a prequel, but I'd play the first one - Missing Heir - first mostly because Girl Who Stands Behind is a lot stronger so it's a harder act to follow.

Fans of other Nintendo series that haven't even had a remake of an old entry on Switch lambast, as Famicom Detective Club had a remake of the first two games, and now a new game.

Us Punch-Out!! fans will eat soon enough one day, mark my words on 3/9/2025

@Lizuka so play the Missing Heir first.

Got it. So can I just play the first game and then get Emio? Because I really want to get Emio and such.

Also how long is the Missing Heir may I ask?

And say if I just decide to get Emio and start with that, is that okay as well?

@anoyonmus They're both pretty short, maybe like 7 hours apiece.

I'd imagine Emio will largely be able to stand alone. Other than sharing the two main characters the first two games aren't really connected.

Good. I hope that AT LEAST this one will not be censored outside of Japan. I hate censorship, and I will not support anyone who's doing this bs.

As a fan of horror games, I'm disappointed with this outcome. Well, good thing for those who like the narrative detective genre.

WHAT?! We're getting a brand new Famicom Detective Club game! It's so good to see more Adventure games from Nintendo and by Yoshio Sakamoto himself no less. This is the best news I've heard this year by far.

Well that’s very cool. Pretty much the best outcome out of all this.

Not what I expected but still, pretty neat. Only thing I don't like is that they switched the positions of the title and subtitle and that IRKS me

@Fizza @anoyonmus Worldwide versions of Famicom Detective Club remakes are censored, be warned.

Kind of wonder if there's any chance they might at some point back up and also remake Lost Memories in the Snow. If nothing else judging by Ayumi having the same actress in the remakes the developers clearly remember it.

@RenanKJ Me too, kinda. I hoped for something more dark, mature, and brand new.

@Vyacheslav333 They cut some stupid minor perverted jokes that don't mean anything. It's a dumb thing to have been mad about at the time, much less years later.

@Lizuka If they don't mean anything, then, why they were removed in the first place?

@Lizuka Then that begs the question, why remove it at all if it "didn't matter"? Are we not allowed to have a little giggle at something as humane as sexuality?

I am sadly disappointed by this. I was hoping for Nintendo to embrace creating a full-on horror game.

I guess for fans of the Detective Club series, this is exciting. It's not my cup of tea.

Well the good news is that at least now we know it isn't related to the Bloober Team.

@Samalik Yeah! Agreed.

@Zach777 Thanks for this link. I wonder if this particular title will ONLY be available via Nintendo’s online store or whether I should be able to buy this on Amazon and elsewhere. Any info on that?

@jedgamesguy Still it's mostly just their Japanese style of IPs that got the focus. Most of their western style IPs like Kid Icarus, F-Zero, 1080s, Wave Race, and Golden Sun hardly ever got focus or revisit at all.

@Zach777 : It's currently midnight in Sydney, so, pre-orders probably won't go live until tomorrow morning at the earliest. I'll consider my options if we miss out on a local physical release.

In any case, I strongly doubt that it will be exclusive to the My Nintendo store.

I'm happy about these news. Played through the remakes of the first two games earlier this year and really enjoyed them.

@JohnnyMind It seems like with these bundle releases they just absolutely never discount them no matter what because the same goes for Bayonetta 1 and 2, even with the option to buy them together they're absolutely never on sale. Shame since I've long wanted to pick those up but don't want to spend $60 to do it.

@JohnnyMind I hope that you'll be able to buy them on sale on Japanese Nintendo eShop.

I haven't played the remakes of the first two games in this series yet, maybe at some point this year but it's not on my list priorities, but I am very happy for the fans of these games
I'm just glad that it's not a Bloober Team game, that would've been the worst outcome

Now the question becomes: Did the killer give the victim the Brown Bag Special before or after they were murdered??

(Horatio from CSI: Miami puts shades on)

YAY

gonna take at least partial credit for this after my review of the first two 😉

@mereel

I’m not sure… I checked my usual spots (Amazon and Best Buy) and they didn’t have a physical listed, so I went ahead and secured one just in case off the Nintendo site. Usually a physical link has the other locations on the Nintendo site and this one didn’t so I’d assume that it won’t go anywhere else but who knows.

ngl theres just a pinch of disappointment this isnt a flat out new horror game with a nintendo-spin i was expecting. did anyone else thing the game was gonna be in 3d given the teaser? made me think it'd go any other direction than a VN

that said i do love me a good VN, hard to say it ill check it out but i hope it sells well for fans

@Serpenterror at this point considering they’ve brought back games like FDC I’m not ruling out anything anymore.

Now would be a great time to put the originals on sale. One of the few Nintendo releases I've never seen discounted at any point.

Called it. That’s all that needs to be said.

@SpeedRunRocks It looks like the victim was strangled so presumably after.

...I was expecting something else...

Was hoping for a proper horror game by Nintendo, oh well.

Gather round everyone. Let's all take a selfie with this article so we can use this as evidence for the 'Nintendo doesn't do anything with their dormant franchises' gang

@JohnnyMind Just, Japanese(JP versions are the original ones, after all) versions are the only ones which uncensored. That's why I've mentioned Japanese Nintendo eShop specifically.

Loved these when I played them, just started replaying the second one.
@KateGray I can't think of that dude as anything other than Badguy Murderman.

@Joeynator3000 @XE77 @GamingFan4Lyf well this entry is way more darker and horror compared to the other two. ESRB checks it out. So technically this one is a horror game, albeit a horror visual novel.

Way too expensive!

@martynstuff Also use this as evidence for the “Nintendo is only for kids” gang.

@Spider-Kev it’s better than DK Country Returns which is full on 60 which had hardly anything new other than 3DS levels.

This one is a new game in a series that hasn’t gotten a new game in like more than a decade.

This is a welcome suprise I loved playing Famicom Detective Club. Looks like the games sold well enough to warrant a sequel which is great. I know some people will be disappointed but I'm gonna grab this one when it comes out.

Guess that Emily Rogers rumour was true. They stated Nintendo was working on a new FDC years ago and low and behold we have one now.

@Serpenterror It wasn’t at all from the beginning???

It’s already known it isn’t a Bloober Team thing because Project M is a Broken Mirror Game label. No involvement of Nintendo so if you had read into that, you know that Emio has nothing to do with Bloober.

Besides, we’re getting a Bloober game on Nintendo platforms anyway, whatever that Project M is.

I had a good feeling that teaser was going to be something random and underwhelming. This is still interesting though and I’ve never played on of these games.

YEAAAAAAASSSSSSS
https://youtu.be/wSv2HfXOqx8?si=74IB8W37uDyIcGDq

THE REMAKES WORKED! FDC4!

AND THIS INE IS GETTING A FULL INTERNATIONAL RELEASE! THE REMAKES WERE ONLY RELEASED IN JAPAN, THE US, AND SOUTH EAST ASIA, AND THE RETAIL WAS ONLY THE COLLECTORS IN JAPAN! IMPROVING RESULTS!

I'M GOING TO BUY THIS GAME TWICE

Hah, I had a feeling it might be a mystery game rather than outright horror. Well, they certainly did a good job getting attention on it, but we'll have to see how much that actually translates into sales.

I really liked those Detective Club remakes released a few years back. I did think they were a bit short though. Hopefully this new one will be longer.

@XE77 What do you mean Proper?

@martynstuff You got that right.

@anoyonmus I guess, but the whole anime aesthetic mutes the horror for me.

I was hoping for something more like Silent Hill.

@GamingFan4Lyf

“Anime aesthetic mutes the horror”

I’m assuming you haven’t seen or heard or played Corpse Party…

“Something like Silent Hill”

You know that’s never gonna happen right with Nintendo. They’re not Sony or MS. They’re not gonna do fill on horror by themselves. They’ll only do it if with a 3rd party. Nintendo has many IPs and something like SH will not happen with them.

@anoyonmus You should, but it remains to be seen how they, or the otherwise not mentioned 3rd entry will play into this

@EVIL-C This is 4

@FX29 I refuse to believe that wasn't just a lucky blind guess

@Zeebor15 I hope I can play the 3rd one without having to play the previous one. I want this one specifically but if I can’t then okay.

Also is there another game that isn’t localized yet?

A lot was (and still is) made of Eternal Darkness being the first M-rated Nintendo-published game. (Conker and Perfect Dark were Rare-published.) Of course, there was an external developer for that one. And now Bayonetta is Nintendo-published.

But is this the first internally-developed M-rated Nintendo game? It should get similar notoriety for that angle alone.

Also, I keep saying, the end of a console's life, when it has a high install base and you need to stall while working on the next launch lineup, is a great time for some of these artisanal releases. Reward your staff for their hard work and success with a passion project or two.

@Thomystic Bayonetta is published by Nintendo but Platinum Games developed it. And I believe Sega owns the IP still but I could be wrong.

Nintendo has also published the Wii and Wii U Fatal Frame games as well but those games were from Koei Tecmo.

But yea I do agree that this is the first internally developed Nintendo game that is M rated so yeah this should deserve some credit as well. It’s not everyday you see that.

I'm not into visual novels, like at all, so I'll probably skip this unless I got nothing else to play.

You all forgot that this is internally developed by Nintendo themselves and not by an external studio.

This is the first internally developed Nintendo game to be M rated.

Thank you, @Thomystic for the information.

Can Nintendo finally put the remakes on sale?

I am excited regardless and physical lets go!

@anoyonmus I know about Corpse Party. I haven't played it, but I have seen gameplay. It's gory, sure. But it's not scary to me. I don't find any anime horror to be scary (I don't think it's bad, just not scary).

I guess I am just so desensitized, now. Alien: Isolation is probably the most terrifying game I have ever played, so it takes a pretty high bar to scare me.

Plus, this a visual novel - again, not my cup of tea.

Basically, I found the actual teaser trailer creepier than this reveal. I was hoping for something that would have the same mood - not looking at a bunch of anime still shots.

I am happy for those that are looking forward to this. For me, I am let down because that initial teaser really had me hoping for something drastically different.

@GinMiguel

Amnesia series, Soma, Song of Horror, Eternal Darkness, Project Zero, or at least Resident Evil

I’m genuinely super hyped for this!! My GF loves visual novels as well so this would be perfect to play together

@Zeebor15 If you're counting the Super Famicom Satellaview game...okay. I wasn't even aware it existed, and it's never been re-released since. My understanding is that it was essentially DLC for the SFC remake of the second game, The Girl Who Stands Behind.

@anoyonmus

I was hoping for a brand new Nintendo horror IP, unfortunately it is not it.

@MrCookieCrisps For real. Seriously, 3 years later and its never gone on sale once!

Shouldn't it be Switch Detective Club now?

Jokes aside, I'm glad the series gets a new entry. I still need to play The Girl Who Stands Behind and The Missing Heir, though.

It's also weird that the teaser wasn't included in the June Direct.

@XE77 well it isn’t. This game seems to be more horror themed though compared to others.

@HammerGalladeBro because of the ESEB thing I believe.

Yes!!! New Detective Club game!!!🔥🔥🔥

@EVIL-C Otherway around, actually. FDC2 was remade AFTER BSDC, which was made to be the tech showcase for the live simulcast radio stuff. FDC2Remake was meant to be a graphics stress test for the pixel artists. Essentially, it was practice for Fusion and the SA-X.

@anoyonmus This is game 4, but it looks like the plot is most directly tied to 2. Depending on what they do with Ayumi, stuff from 3 may be necessary cause 3 was all about expanding her backstory.

It's funny, I didn't even bother looking at the teaser because I don't care for horror.

...but knowing it's Famicom Detective Club, this suddenly become almost as interesting as the Another Code Recollection announcement.

Looking forward to it now, but then what about the Satellaview title?

How about putting the remakes up for sale now? Crazy idea maybe?

Make them 30 bucks and I promise I'll bite.

Is this the longest ever gap between a new installment in a Nintendo franchise ever? Regardless, glad to see more Famicom Detective Club.

@Zeebor15 Man, that is completely confusing AF...

Well, it looks like it was actually an in-character announcement from Nintendo.

It is great that they are releasing a new game. My only disappointment is that the 2 games have never been on sale on the EU eshop. Hopefully with this release that it will go on sale.

I was intrigued by the teaser video and thrilled by the reveal.

@Vyacheslav333 What was censored in the previous games?

This is why I like nintendo, not only they have big AAA titles like mario odyssey and zelda totk, but they have smaller games like zelda link awakening remake and this game too 😃

this is disappointing thought it was a horror game.

when switch 2 arrives we will get some native resident evil games back on switch

@Zeebor15 ??? The remakes were released in Europe and Australia too.

@JohnnyMind @Vyacheslav333 iirc, the Japanese versions of the remakes only have Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese subtitles available, so as long as you can understand one of those languages, you should be fine.

Soooo many disappointed people. Ah well, whether it's horror or mystery, they're both not my cup of tea, so no disappointment for me, just apathy. Best wishes to those who love the series, may y'all have a grand time with this one!!

Yesssss

Ohhhh a detective game makes SO much more sense 😅 the dark themes present in the Australian ratings board made me question why Nintendo would be willing to make such a game.

Marketing it this way was super smart. Famicom detective club is not that popular an IP just by itself. This went from being something I was perturbed by to something I'm genuinely interested in possibly trying!

Why are the two original games bundled in Europe and never seen a price drop? Why was this not even mentioned in the last direct?

TBH I was hoping for something like "PT". How does this play? Looks like a visual novel.

@Scollurio because it is a visual novel.

@Markiemania95 It was like a weird half localization where they just got the Hot ng Kong version.

@EVIL-C welcome to the Sattelview. Even Nintendo forgetsit happened now apparently.

@GarlicGuzzler thats a really good point, i hadnt thought of that before! It totally makes sense to do it like this, it really feels like nintendo is coming into their own in terms of advertising compared to the wii u era

@Tyranexx if we consider the ace attorney games visual novels (or at least partially), then i like visual novels a lot! But those other visual novels that flood the eshop really arent my jam

@Zeebor15 I have the European version. What’s the difference between that and the North American version? Afaik, there are only two versions: the digital-only NA/PAL English versions, and the Asian Japanese/Chinese versions.

Nice to see a new FDC game. Pretty nice way to market the game with the Emio tease.

@Woodyshoe Yeah it’s annoying as hell. I’ve wanted to play these games since they launched but I’m not paying £50 for a download. I’d pay £25 max for the digital versions or £40 happily for a physical copy. This new game looks great but I don’t want to play it before the other two…smartest thing to do would be to bundle the trilogy on a cartridge.

As for it not being in the last Direct I guess they wanted to give it its own spotlight. It’s a really niche game; giving it some hype with that teaser last week has given it more attention than it would have seen were it sandwiched between a new Zelda and Prime 4

There will be a physical release in the UK, it's on Nintendo UK's website....

@Andgiles62 Do you have a link? I can only find the digital pre order

@Tyranexx Same. At this point, it's principle: if I've waited this long to play them, I'm not paying full price.

@larryisaman the physical isn't available to preorder, yet. But if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you'll see it gives details of a game card as well as digital.

I'm Dissapointed To Say The Least (I'm Not A Fan Of Visual Novels)

Ooooooh fantastic!!! I never thought we’d get more entries of the Famicom Detective series 😍

Never played one of these games before, is it a pure visual novel with no actual gameplay or does it involve some gameplay like finding items and making decisions? Similar to danganronpa.

@Scooby-Doo this made me laugh very hard. I am so glad that Badguy Murderman lives on.

HELL YEAHHHHHHH

@anoyonmus ok thanks makes sense then.
Hmpf

Not a fan of visual novels or crime/mystery, just not for me but I'm sure fans will love the new game, at least we know what the smiling man was all about I guess

When Emio was first teased, and then later confirmed to be a Famicom Detective Club series game.
Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention! 😃

Getting digital version. Whoop whoop!

So happy to see this series get a new entry. Famicom Detective Club remakes were great as were Another Code. I only hope this means we get more of these types of games from Nintendo

Huge Ace Attorney fan here, and I’ve been wanting to take this series for a spin for quite some time. This announcement finally made me take the plunge and get the FDC collection on Switch. Can’t wait to try it out!

Wow, this is really cool! I don't think I'll play this one as I'm not super into disturbing games, but that's a 10/10 ad campaign and I hope they bring that energy to teasing games in the future.

It's been how many years since the Iwata era? Time for Nintendo to stop leaning on the Direct magic of "And one more thing" and do more weird stuff like this.

@Lightsiyd https://youtu.be/-jLOt5sgkLs?si=-IRSKRSGhox6Ztb_
There are (a few?) examples of censorship.

SO MUCH HYYYYPPPPEEEE

Is the drought real? (sorry I'll let myself out of the backdoor to this Nintendo party and return to my Hyper Mega Tech Super Pocket)

I say, is it accurate to call it famicom detective club anymore?

@Matl The producer in the video said they started thinking about making this while the remakes were still in development. This would have happened regardless.

@anoyonmus To answer your question about the order you have to play the Famicom Detective Club series, it’s The Girl Who Stands Behind first (as that is the prequel), THEN Missing Heir, then Emio (when it comes out).

@Serpenterror All of the games you mention got developed by Japanese studios, for the most part internally by Nintendo, one of them is a JRPG (which is as Japanese as it gets), so I'm really not sure what makes these games "western style".

@Alpha008 I mean Advance Wars was still called like that on DS.

@Ruler-Of-All-Evil I thought order doesn't matter much. And I hope Emio is stand alone enough.

Never thought they'd continue this series, so amazing!!

What? I was right when I said it was a Famicom Detective Club game?! Holy **** , I was just guessing! 😃

@Tyranexx dude i just finished the first game and im playing the second game in the trilogy and OOH THEYRE SO GOOD

I remember people on Twitter insisting Nintendo doesn't respect its IP. What gives?!

@IronMan30 Its Twitter. What do you expect from them?

Now they get disappointed when Nintendo does something that THEY WANTED NINTENDO TO DO.

Like come on.

Disappointing but neat. If only Nintendo put the remakes on sale once in a while. They have been sitting on my wishlist for a while and never seen one drop in price.

That's incredible news! I've been praying for a third game after those remakes. I even played the SFC remake of The Girl Who Stands Behind, FDC 1&2 are some of the best in Nintendo's catalogue.

@anoyonmus Yeah, you’re right, order doesn’t matter much, but Famicom Detective Club only has… 3 games as of this reveal? And that’s not counting the Super Famicom remake of Girl Who Stands Behind and the Switch remakes.

All of those dead Nintendo series were killed by Emio. Star Fox, F-Zero, Mother, ALL OF THEM. On that note,

#localizemother3

I’m a little disappointed to not see a unique game from Nintendo on horror, BUT I’m glad this is being made, hope it does well, and I’m 90% certain I’ll end up buying it.

Physical is confirmed for Australia, but the Japanese special edition is tempting for that two CD soundtrack, and unlike the previous remakes, it seems that there will only be one version of the game released internationally (unlike the Japanese release of the remakes, which only included Japanese).

Choices, choices...

@Tyranexx i played the intro case of apollo justice on my modded 3ds and no spoilers but its one of my fav cases yet hands down

Well this is disappointing. I hoped for a really gritty horror game. Not a visual novel. Disappointment of the year for me

The paper bag dude is such a generic design. Doesn’t do anything for me.

While a lot of people seem to be disappointed that this isn't some new horror franchise, my big disappointment comes from the fact that the first two games never got a physical release, but this one is getting one. Who knows, maybe Nintendo will do what they did with Cadence of Hyrule and give the first two games a physical copy after a bit of a wait.

I'll 100% buy a physical copy, but I won't give this series a try before Nintendo decides to put the first 2 games on sale on the eShop 😅

@anoyonmus @Thomystic Fun fact, Miitopia was 18+ in Russia due to the depiction of same sex relationships

The teaser definitely gave me a different impression of what sort of game we would be getting, but I guess considering how short and unclear the teaser was, I can't be entirely disappointed.

I'm happy for the folks who are into this series, but I'm just not really into visual novel games, so this is gonna be a pass from me.

rgt is very upset and so am i among many others nintendo dropped the ball playing there fans with this trailer and now reveal...

If this sells well will they release the original remakes on physical in Europe?

@Thomystic The remakes were made by Mages so I'd assume this new game is also being made by them. Sakamoto's producer/supervising team is probably the only internal development of this game happening at Nintendo.

My disappointment is measurable (0) and my day is not ruined. Couldn't be happier, I never saw this coming! I really hope this leads to a physical release of the first two titles.

...did they change the bag design for the west? Looks creepier?

So in the end the teaser was just for a new Famicom detective club, though that's still interesting. This one seems especially dark, seeing as it gets a 18 rating. That they are making a new one must mean that the remakes where a succes?

Sadly I couldn't play the remakes since I wanted physical or at least the downloads at a huge discount. Luckily the new one will be physical, so I'll get it down the line.