Emio – The Smiling Man is an absorbing crime story with an average ending

Every detective story depends to some extent on its ending. Emi – Smiling Man: Famicon Detective Club makes me wonder how essential this diploma is.

The first eight hours of the game on Nintendo Switch fly by in the blink of an eye. As a private investigator, you begin investigating the death of a high school student whose body is found with a paper bag with a crude smiley face scrawled on it. There’s an older case with the same signature, as well as an urban legend about a killer who carries a paper bag and gives anyone he sees crying a “permanent smile.” It’s up to you to figure out if these things are connected, and how.

It mostly plays out through a series of conversations, and like previous entries in the Famicom Detective Club series, there’s a whole menu of verbs to lend a hand you get through them. “Ask/listen” isn’t enough; you also need to actively “think of” up-to-date things to ask, or “look around/examine” for clues like your conversation partner’s body language. The exact action is indicated by text, which might read “What are you doing?” think about this?” — making it a constant dance of paying attention not only to what the person is saying but also to what the game wants you to choose next. It takes some getting used to, but it keeps your mind from wandering, and where it gets tricky is there’s only so much trial and error before you get back on track.

Because it is conversation based, many EmiThe game’s success also depends on its writing, particularly its character development. For the most part, it succeeds in that. No one is so endearing that I feel like they stick in my mind long after I’ve finished playing, but they’re well-written enough to be fun to talk to, and each one is memorable in their place in the narrative. That goes for the protagonist as well, which means it feels a bit odd to call them — they’re definitely not audience stunt doubles.

That said, some of the writing feels tedious, mostly when it comes to the female characters. There’s nothing terribly jarring about it, but it falls into the elderly trap of women being defined by their relationships with men, while the male characters are, well, people. You can play as Ayumi Tachibana, the fan-favorite investigator from previous Detective Club games, but she spends most of her segments nursing the affections of a former senior. (You also have to sit through the protagonist dealing with the crush of a tortured 19-year-old, which is another reason why giving him my name when it was suggested seemed a bit odd.)

There’s a bit of investigating to do outside of the conversations — that “looking/investigating” action can also happen in your surroundings — but there’s not much to find in the way of clues beyond what people tell you. The player character is constantly reminded that he’s not actually a cop, which is fine, but it does mean that searching crime scenes for missed evidence is mostly out of the question.

This affects the game’s tone in two ways. First, it’s not super creepy. I’m a kid when it comes to horror games, and aside from one scene right at the end of the game, nothing gave me goosebumps. There’s something inherently creepy about a smiley face scribbled on a brown paper bag, but if you’ve watched the trailer, you’ve already seen the worst.

Second, it means the mystery has to be somewhat unsubtle. When a character is acting suspiciously, you’ll know it. Characters will comment on it multiple times in the moment, you’ll have a few attempts to talk to them about it, and then in the review section at the end of the day, it’ll come up at least twice.

These reviews are supposedly the heart of the game, with promotional materials claiming that you’ll need to “actively investigate your leads to draw the right conclusions and bring the killer to justice.” I’m not convinced that’s true—if you make a mistake in a review, Ayumi will gently steer you back on track. And aside from a question or two with odd wording, it’s tough to go wrong, as everything essential is jotted down in a notebook that can be consulted at any time.

The ease and lack of subtlety were positive things for most of the game. It keeps things moving, and in addition to signaling where the characters were in their own deductions, I was able to guess what was going on. Some of them were right and some were not, which I think is a great sign for a puzzle — not everything is clear, but there is a thread to follow.

But as I reached the final chapters, most of the massive mysteries remained unsolved. I’m not sure if Emi doesn’t explain some parts of what happened, or if the confusing formatting of the ending threw me off track enough that I missed some details. Either way, I’m still not entirely sure what happened, which is a pretty massive blow to any crime story. Some of the parts that are clear also feel unsatisfying.

Up to this point I was enjoying it Emi. It wove things together with convincing momentum. But then it stumbled and everything fell apart. There are some details worth discussing here, but Nintendo’s review guidelines clearly state that I shouldn’t. So all I can say is my overall impressions and, generally speaking, the last few hours Emi – Smiling man I felt incredibly disappointed. If this seems sudden, it may be something in the game itself.

Emio – Smiling Man will be released on August 29 for Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed on Switch using a pre-release download code provided by Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information on Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.