WackerJr Posted July 19 Posted July 19 Maybe they’ll finally put the other FDC games on sale to help promote this? Hey, I can but hope. I’m keen to play them but my backlog is still so large I need a really good reason to justify buying them…
Julius Posted August 16 Posted August 16 (edited) Free demo dropping on 20th August (Tuesday) with the opening chapters of the game, and additional chapters being added on 23rd and 28th before the full release on 29th August – and yes, you can carry your progress from the demo over to the full game! Lovely stuff! Edited August 16 by Julius
Dcubed Posted August 28 Author Posted August 28 (edited) Haven't seen one of these in a while... But we have a new Not-Iwata-Asks Ask The Developer interview to go along with this game! https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/News/2024/August/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-12-Emio-The-Smiling-Man-Famicom-Detective-Club-Chapter-1-2637237.html Interestingly, it turns out that the FDC Remakes only happened because MAGES were able to successfully pitch the project to Nintendo with a fully animated prototype, which in turn allowed Sakamoto to pitch a brand new FDC game afterwards (and yes, MAGES have also co-developed Emio). The possibility of getting a FDC remake or new game greenlit hadn't even crossed Sakamoto's mind until MAGES came hard at Nintendo with their prototype, by some miracle succeeded with their pitch, and opened up the door for Sakamoto to get involved. Also, the game's co-producer Kaori Miyachi (who was also co-writer alongside Sakamoto) only first played the FDC games for the first time when they came out on the 3DS VC! Edited August 28 by Dcubed
Hero-of-Time Posted September 18 Posted September 18 Currently £35 on Amazon for those interested. That's a tenner knocked off the price already. Do you have to play the other 2 games to understand what's going on in this one or are they are separate thing?
Ike Posted September 18 Posted September 18 1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said: Currently £35 on Amazon for those interested. That's a tenner knocked off the price already. Do you have to play the other 2 games to understand what's going on in this one or are they are separate thing? Not played this one yet, but I’d say you don’t need to have played the others. 1
Dcubed Posted September 19 Author Posted September 19 19 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: Currently £35 on Amazon for those interested. That's a tenner knocked off the price already. Do you have to play the other 2 games to understand what's going on in this one or are they are separate thing? AFAIK, it’s a standalone story. So you don’t need to have played the others first. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted September 22 Posted September 22 I ended up enjoying the demo and bought the full game from Amazon. I like how breezy the first 3 chapters have been. They don't overstay their welcome and I hope the rest of the game stays that way. The story seems very grim at the moment but the game does a good job with sprinkling a few lighter scenes in between the dark ones. Some of the interactions with characters have been quite funny. I know I've mentioned this before but I appreciate Nintendo actually finishing a game before release. I popped the cartridge in and no update needed. Lovely stuff. I really need to get some new joycons. I'm constantly having to fight with the cursor when I'm investigating scenes. I managed to play through Wario Ware and Another Code with them being knackered but they seem to be getting worse. 1 2
Hero-of-Time Posted September 24 Posted September 24 I've now finished the first 7 chapters. Still loving it. I have a few thoughts about who the culprit could be. It could be too obvious though but then the game may want me to think that. I'm very intrigued to see how all of this plays out... 1 1
Hero-of-Time Posted September 25 Posted September 25 It's over and the credits have rolled. What a finale. I can't be faffed with sorting out spoiler tags so I won't go into the story and ending. I will say that I loved playing through this though. Enjoyed it far more than the Pheonix Wright trilogy that I played a couple of months ago. I found those games to be tedious, whereas this I found to be very compelling and intruiging. If the other 2 games on the eShop ever get a decent discount then I will certainly pick them up. I could buy some vouchers and get them that way but, with me buying physical when I can, there isn't another game on the list for me to buy. Anyway, surprisingly there appears to be some post game content. Wasn't expecting that at all. 2 1
Dcubed Posted September 25 Author Posted September 25 Looking forward to tucking into this as soon as I finish AAI 2. Glad you enjoyed it @Hero-of-Time. You gonna go back and play the other two FDC games?
Hero-of-Time Posted September 25 Posted September 25 Just now, Dcubed said: You gonna go back and play the other two FDC games? As I said, if they go on offer then I will pick them up. Having played this, I'm eager to see how the other games are. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted September 25 Posted September 25 Post game is done. Wow. Grab the popcorn because there's a cracking bit of viewing that's around half an hour long that wraps up everything. Very well done. The main game is pretty grim at times but I was wondering why an 18 rating was given. If that didn't warrant the rating then the post game stuff certainly did. Very dark, chilling and gruesome. It's absolutely nuts that Nintendo is attached to this and admire the balls they had to do it. It's funny, they are pretty much always seen as a kiddy company but this game is probably more adult and better written than most of the Western story driven games that are out there. Definitely a high recommendation from me. Great game to snuggle up with on a night and play a few chapters, especially with the Winter nights drawing in. 1
Dcubed Posted October 23 Author Posted October 23 (edited) Thoroughly enjoying it so far. It's certainly a more grounded affair than the likes of the Ace Attorney series, very much in-line with the previous FDC titles. The story has some interesting twists and turns, but it feels like we're still far off the ending and finding out who Emio is; despite me having a pretty good idea about who the culprit might be... ... wait, what? ... well that flashed up all of a sudden out of nowhere! Alright! Let's see where this rabbit hole takes us... Edited October 23 by Dcubed 1
Dcubed Posted October 23 Author Posted October 23 Ok Sakamoto, well played. I didn't call it after all. An excellent set of final twists at the end! Throughly enjoyable! Now, let's see what the post-game sequence holds...
Hero-of-Time Posted October 23 Posted October 23 7 minutes ago, Dcubed said: Throughly enjoyable! Now, let's see what the post-game sequence holds...
Dcubed Posted October 23 Author Posted October 23 (edited) 1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said: ... you certainly weren't kidding! It definitely earned its 18 rating, that's for sure! I'll have to leave more detailed thoughts later on, as time is not on my side right now, but I can certainly see why Sakamoto said that the ending would be divisive! To be honest though, I have an issue to raise that isn't so much related to the content of the ending itself, but moreso about the overall game structure... Spoiler You can really tell that Yoshio Sakamoto and Kaori Miyachi really began by writing the ending first and then working their way backwards. It was clearly the main focus, as the rest of the game's story is kind of a big red herring from start to finish. The fact that almost all of the Minoru Epilogue is told in the form of a literal 30 min FMV movie (while almost no FMV is used throughout the entire rest of the game) is also emblematic of how all of the game's production effort was placed on the ending first and foremost. To be honest, I feel pretty conflicted about how top-heavy the storytelling really is here. While I ended up enjoying my time with the game all throughout, I can absolutely understand why some people might feel a bit short changed by the way the game's story is told; as it's so top-heavy that the majority of the start of the game may feel like it is essentially a big waste of your time, since a lot of it ends up being largely irrelevent to Minoru's overarching story, despite having most of the necessary breadcrumbs that lead to the end. Also, the ending comes along very suddenly, with what feels a bit like a deus ex machina moment as some random construction worker just so happens to tell you where he drove to, and then you just so happen to arrive at the same time as Junko. It feels a bit rushed and out of nowhere as a result. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game! The ending certainly was worth the ride! BTW, minor little thing but... Spoiler I like how the game ended with you getting a report card/grade for your investigative work; just like in the original two FDC games. Had a feeling that it would be the case, but nice to see regardless Edited October 23 by Dcubed 1
Dcubed Posted 2 hours ago Author Posted 2 hours ago So... Famitsu did a follow-up interview with Sakamoto and Miyachi regarding Emio, and certain things said in the previous Ask The Developer interview. It's fairly lengthy and worth a read, but be warned... they do discuss the ending and inner workings of the game openly; so probably best save it until you've actually finished Emio itself. https://sites.google.com/view/emio-smiling-man-interview A few non-spoiler excerpts... Quote Mixed reactions to the unexpected. What the developers feel constitutes Famicom Detective Club. While the menu system is similar to that of the remakes, things feel faster-paced here, with better guidance around what commands to pick during the investigation. On the other hand, it were too easy, it would reduce the need for players to think for themselves, and it might even feel as though the game wasn't voluminous enough. How did you find the right balance? Miyachi: Since this is the first new title in 35 years, we thought it would be a lot of people's first Famicom Detective Club game. If those people were to get stuck, or find themselves looking up a guide, they'd lose interest in the story. We wanted to avoid that as much as we could, so we tried to balance things to where anyone could make progress. We also made sure that the commands the player needs to choose wouldn't diverge too much from what would instinctively feel right. Additionally, while this isn't directly related... we've also made the conversations feel richer this time around, and added various other features, so I don't think the game feels like it's lacking in volume compared to its predecessors. Sakamoto: We describe the genre of this game as "interactive drama"—a hybrid between a visual novel and a text adventure. The game combines the comfort of a visual novel, where the story progresses with the press of a button, with the thrill of a text adventure, where you feel you've entered that world, and things are unfolding around you. Furthermore, as Miyachi expressed earlier, we designed the game by focussing squarely on what we felt were the most satisfying parts of investigation and deduction, so players wouldn't feel as though we were making unreasonable demands of them. So you've adjusted parts of the classic Famicom Detective Club system that were difficult to understand, and made them more approachable. Sakamoto: We were keenly aware of the confusing portions of the prior games. You had to go back and forth between multiple locations, trigger flags one by one, pinpoint the one thing you were looking for in large areas, have alternating conversations with two people... We've reviewed a lot of that tedium to make the investigation flow more smoothly this time around. Miyachi: We also reviewed the commands that serve no purpose. If there are commands you can use, but the only response you get is "...," it's bound to be disappointing. So we were careful to avoid that, and make it so people could enjoy having conversations and investigating much more. Sakamoto: Back in the day, the reason we used the "..." response was to make it easy for the player to understand when they were picking the wrong command. In the days of the Famicom Disk System, space limitations made it so the amount of text we could include was limited. This time around, however, we were able to have it so we didn't need to rely heavily on "..." as a response. It was eye-opening for me, too. Quote Despite the divisiveness, do you feel you've done all you could for the first new Famicom Detective Club in 35 years? Sakamoto: I feel we've done our best, and made the best possible game we could. But, to be honest, I don't think the interactive drama that is Famicom Detective Club is done just yet. How can we improve upon the aspects of this game that were positively received? What more can we do to evolve the series as an interactive drama? Those are the things I'd like to think about. I think there are a lot of fans that are looking forward to how Famicom Detective Club develops further in the future, now that it's been revived after 35 long years. And during the "Ask the Developer" feature on Nintendo's official website, you said you had found your successor in Miyachi-san...? Sakamoto: At this stage, I'm not sure where things will go, but if we can continue the Famicom Detective Club series, I'd like to continue to work with Miyachi, with whom I have seen the same things, shared the same thoughts, and shared in the same outcome through the making of this game. As an "heir that won't go missing," so to speak. (Laughs) What should the future of Famicom Detective Club look like? What challenges will we need to deal with? It falls upon us to address these things together. Miyachi: There's a certain pressure to being the "heir that won't go missing," and it's going to take a lot of resolve to nurture this franchise. However, there's great value in the fact that we've been able to revive Famicom Detective Club after 35 long years, and there are many characters I'd like to explore, so I would like to proceed with preparations while being mindful of all the possibilities available to us. I look forward to seeing more Famicom Detective Club in the future!
Recommended Posts