Just a week after Nintendo announced a horror game that it said was “not suitable for some users,” the company revealed what its mysterious project “Emio” is about: it’s a new installment in the 35-year-old Famicom Detective Club adventure game series, and it’s coming out next month.
Emio – The Laughing Man: Famicom Detective Club is a brand-new game built around an original urban legend created for the title, series producer and writer Yoshio Sakamoto said in a video posted Wednesday by Nintendo. The legend surrounding Emio is that he appears to crying girls and promises them “a smile that will last forever.” But Emio is a murderer, and he leaves his victims dead wearing a paper mask with a smile scrawled on it.
As an assistant private investigator at the Utsugi Detective Agency, players are tasked with helping the police solve a chilling new Emio murder, one that echoes a series of unsolved killings from 18 years ago. Players will hunt for clues, talk to witnesses, and investigate testimonies as they attempt to unravel the truth behind The Smiling Man.
Sakamoto said that Emio – The Laughing Man: Famicom Detective Club will feature a “risqué plot” and that “the ending may be divisive for some,” but he hopes players will discuss their feelings and theories about the mystery after solving it. The game’s producer described his new game as “the culmination of the Famicom Detective Club series,” which launched in 1988 with Famicom game The missing heir. That graphic adventure game was followed by The girl standing behind you from 1989.
Nintendo re-released those original interactive mysteries for Switch in 2021 with the remakes Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir And Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Behind the Scenes.
The third game in the franchise, Emio – The Laughing Man: Famicom Detective Clubwill be released on August 29 for the Nintendo Switch.