Why Nintendo Didn’t Think Twice About Emio: The Smiling Man, One Of The Darkest Games Ever
Emio: The Smiling Man was heavy, deep, and dark — but ultimately a no-brainer for Nintendo execs.
Nintendo is a name associated with family fun, whether that’s gathering around the TV with Mario Kart or adventuring through the world of Hyrule. But in 2024 one game broke through that image to try something both harrowing and ambitious. Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club is a riveting story about the darkest of subjects, a serial killer. The game took its dark material seriously, weaving in dark themes like domestic abuse, suicide, and the cruelty of humanity. This was not your usual Nintendo fare.
That’s not to say it wasn’t great. Emio is in fact one of the best narrative adventure games released in years, treating its mature themes with care and thoughtfulness. It’s just that this boundary-pushing experience isn’t one you usually expect from Nintendo. But apparently, its developers didn’t have as much trouble getting it green-lit as you might think.
“I was honestly surprised how smoothly this project was approved,” producer Yoshio Sakamoto tells Inverse. “I was convinced that if we approached this theme sincerely and conveyed the message we truly wanted to convey, that would be the best way to live up to the expectations of Nintendo, who gave us the go-ahead, and that motivated us to do our best.”
Assistant Producer Kaori Miyachi added to this thought by saying she feels that Emio was an “ambitious game for Nintendo in many ways.” That’s clearly an understatement.
Emio is unique in the superb way it strings along its many mysteries — with it all culminating in one of the best endings ever seen in a video game. Just over four months after its release and a nomination at The Golden Joysticks for Best Storytelling, Inverse had the chance to talk to Sakamoto and Miyachi about the tribulations of developing Emio, innovating on a classic formula, and the future.
Emio stars the same young detective protagonist of the first two games, but tells its own self-contained story.
Emio: The Smiling Man sticks to the adventure gameplay of the original Famicom Detective games pretty closely. Was it important for the gameplay to feel similar to the originals?
Miyachi: Famicom Detective Club is known for its signature gameplay where the player interacts with the in-game world through a command menu. We maintained this gameplay in the new game as well. However, we felt that if we simply copied the format of previous installments, it may be difficult for today’s players, so we added some tweaks, such as coloring key words in conversations to give players a hint about what to do next. Additionally, we've added the Review option at key points in the game so that players can organize the story using a format similar to answering questions on a quiz.
Sakamoto: I have a strong feeling that the tweaks Miyachi mentioned worked out quite well. However, this is not the final form of interactive drama games. I feel we can still work to improve playability and make it even more pleasant to play.
Some of the scenes in Emio deal with mature and dark themes, to an even greater degree than the original Famicom Detective Club games. Why did you want to take that kind of approach with Emio's story, and did you encounter any difficulty with getting some of this more mature content approved?
Sakamoto: There was a theme and message that I really wanted to convey through this game, and in order to do so, there was no other way but to go in the direction we did. However, this game is clearly doing something different from most Nintendo games, so I expected that we would have a hard time getting approval from Nintendo teams internally.
Miyachi: While Sakamoto expected an uphill battle for internal Nintendo approval, I had the opposite thought. In fact, there were times during the production when a worried Sakamoto would say to me "Is it alright for us to make this kind of story?", and I would always reply, "I'm sure it'll be fine!"
Sakamoto: I was honestly surprised how smoothly this project was approved. I was convinced that if we approached this theme sincerely and conveyed the message we truly wanted to convey, that would be the best way to live up to the expectations of Nintendo, who gave us the go-ahead, and that motivated us to do our best.
Miyachi: Thinking back, I think this was an ambitious game for Nintendo in many ways. I hope that players sense that through what we’ve done in this game.
The first two Famicom Detective Club games were released in 1988 and 1989, only in Japan. But in 2021 a Nintendo Switch remakes finally brought them to the West.
One of the core pieces of Emio – The Smiling Man is the sense of mystery. How do you design a narrative adventure game like this and ensure that sense of mystery stays intact the whole time?
Sakamoto: In Famicom Detective Club games, we have appropriately sped up or slowed down the pace in a way that fits with each story. Also in this series, we've always tried to create a contrast between suspenseful and relaxed scenes by sprinkling in just the right amount of comical elements.
While following this approach, in the case of Emio - The Smiling Man, we challenged ourselves to create a story progression different from previous games, in that, many of the mysteries are not revealed along the way, and instead, remain a mystery as they build up towards a climax where the loose ends are tied up at once. Additionally, in this game, more of the important mysteries remain unsolved as the game once comes to an end, but the backstory is explained afterward in a way that is almost unprecedented for a video game, ensuring that all of the mystery is revealed.
Miyachi: Fom early on in the story, we made a conscious effort to slowly plant seeds that are sure to be relevant to the story. Many scenes are peppered with things that will catch the player's attention, including subtle changes in facial expressions, little effects, backgrounds, and character dialogs. I believe that the way these many seeds sprout - sometimes little by little and sometimes all at once - has created a game that makes players want to know what lies ahead.
After completing the game once, if you try playing again knowing everything that you know, maybe you'll pick up on things that you missed the first time around. You may notice new things like "this character in this scene must've been up to this!", "there was a hint in this scene!", or "the answer to that piece of the mystery was right here!".
In fact, even among the development team members, we often noticed new things and discussed them as we played through the game repeatedly.
The backgrounds and environments of Emio – The Smiling Man feel exceptionally detailed. How important was the visual presentation to the game, and did you want Emio’s locations to feel like real places?
Miyachi: Although the town and characters are fictional, we were very conscious of presenting them as if they could be real. This is true for the scenario as well, but we think of the combination of what the player experiences, sees, hears, feels, and thinks as "interacting with the story."
Sakamoto: I believe that when portraying a scene, it is necessary to have a sense of atmosphere that makes you feel like you can even smell the place. The story of this game is set in Japan around 30 years ago, so we placed great importance on creating visuals that evoke that era. In other words, we needed to pursue realism. Fortunately, the studio that did the background drawings, MAGES, sensed the need to do so without us having to ask for it, and they delivered beautifully.
Emio is dedicated to using the same gameplay systems as the originals, with a few modern tweaks.
The epilogue of Emio – The Smiling Man is unforgettable, and something that a lot of reviewers and players alike have praised. Did you know from the start that you wanted the epilogue to tie everything together, and why did you make the choice to present it the way you did?
Sakamoto: As mentioned earlier, we created this game with the intention of wrapping everything up in an epilogue (which we refer to as the "deep reveal"). I feel a strong sense of accomplishment in the fact that what I thought would be the biggest challenge of this production was received so favorably by many people.
Miyachi: The scene where we take a direct look at a certain person's life ties into how we envision a detective to be. The mechanics of the Famicom Detective Club games are not about unraveling cleverly devised tricks to identify the culprit, but rather, focus on depicting human beings.
Each person's life, including their backstory, thought process, perception, and emotions, is unique. Therefore, not everything can have a logical explanation. As various people’s lives become involved and intertwined, the complexity increases, and the entanglements of various threads further obscure the truth. Searching for this truth is the job of the detective in the Famicom Detective Club games, as we see it.
Within that, a particular scene that stands out is the one where the audience gets direct insight into a certain person's life. We adopted this epilogue approach as a way of telling a story from the past where the player can only just watch and face the reality of what happens, as they can no longer intervene in the story or solve the case.
Sakamoto: I believe that the significance of this game is giving players the opportunity to come to their own conclusions through their interaction with that specific part and not through a controller but with their hearts, as that part is not from any character's perspective and cannot be interfered with by anyone.
How do you think narrative adventure games, like Emio, can continue to thrive in the game industry? How can they attract new fans, while still satisfying longtime ones?
Miyachi: Games where players read the story may be a niche genre, but I hope it gains more traction among people who love reading or enjoy pondering various things. Perhaps it might be good if stores other than video game stores, like bookstores, were to start carrying this type of game.
Sakamoto: I believe that interactive drama should not be limited as a category in games, and it deserves to be recognized as its own unique genre of entertainment equipped with interactivity that can only be achieved on video game consoles. For this, we will need other interactive drama creators to emerge. As games like Emio – the Smiling Man and others push boundaries for this growing genre, we hope it appeals to more unique creations strengthening this market for games like this by attracting new fans.
Emio features incredible levels of detail, with exaggerated expressions and animations highlighting important story pieces.
What do you think the future of the Famicom Detective Club series looks like? Is there room for the franchise to grow?
Sakamoto: To make that a reality, we must further mature and refine the game mechanics along with other aspects of the Famicom Detective Club series so that it can help the interactive drama genre flourish. There is still room for growth, and I believe that growth is the mission for the franchise. If I were to get the opportunity to take on this challenge, I would like to work on it together with Miyachi.
Miyachi: Famicom Detective Club may seem like a classic franchise considering the year the first game was released, but like Sakamoto said, there is still room for growth in the franchise and the genre. There are still many fascinating characters that have not yet been explored in depth, so I hope we get a chance to share more of the Utsugi Detective Agency story one day.
