Emio – The Smiling Man Is A Gripping Mystery Poorly Told
This article contains spoilers for the ending of Emio – The Smiling Man
One of the things I love about mystery video games is that I get to be the one who cracks the case. Gathering seemingly disparate clues and gradually figuring out how they connect is thrilling and, most importantly, makes me feel smart. There is no greater sensation than having that lightbulb moment where it all clicks, and I let out an excited gasp — something the likes of Ace Attorney and Danganronpa have been especially good at.
I never got to experience such a moment while playing Emio – The Smiling Man, the first wholly new entry in Nintendo’s Famicom Detective Club series since 1989. Not through lack of trying or smarts, but because for a game all about playing a private detective, The Smiling Man seems bizarrely uninterested in letting the player figure out anything.
Between glacial at times pacing, dated investigation mechanics ripped right out of the ‘80s, and occasional scenes that are meant to offer levity and fun character moments yet feel like annoying distractions, The Smiling Man routinely spins its wheels. It was a blessing to receive any new information, especially if it provided new insight on the case or opened up new avenues for investigation.
As chapter by chapter passed, I thought to myself, “Man, this game must be way longer than the last two,” especially once I finally learned some important backstory for one of the chief suspects in the case. Next thing I knew, I was in the final chapter, railroaded to a rushed conclusion to find our killer already dead (even the other Famicom Detective Club games let you confront the bad guy) and for the truth behind the inciting incident — the apparent murder of a middle school boy — to be explained by other characters.
It's a bafflingly way to end any story, let alone a mystery game. And with several other unresolved plot points hanging, I suspected I had made the wrong choices and failed to reach a “true” ending. I never considered The Smiling Man would have a far more audacious explanation in mind. The reason for that hasty ending and dangling plot threads? It was for the sake of a glorified post-credit scene.
Upon rolling credits, I unlocked a second mode titled Minoru, which consists of my detective boss sitting me down and regaling me with the backstory of the titular character, which he discovered during the main game but off-screen. This is then followed by, I kid you not, a twenty-plus minute OVA that fills in the rest of the blanks, explaining how Minoru became the Smiling Man and the reasoning behind all his actions.
This isn’t just a bad way to end a mystery game; this is a bad way to end any mystery story. I can’t see this being any better had The Smiling Man been a TV show or a movie. Imagine watching new episodes of a mystery drama week by week, keeping track of all the clues to see if you can piece things together ahead of time, only for it to suddenly end and for the show to info-dump all the lingering questions you had in its final episode. Imagine reaching the end of a thriller film and needing to wait past the credits for an extra half an hour to explain the villain’s motivations. It all sounds like a fundamentally bad idea and yet it’s one the team behind The Smiling Man signed off on.
Fans of the mystery genre like to feel smart. They like solving puzzles. I recall when Gravity Falls, a show all about mysteries, was airing. Fans would scour each episode for hidden clues and codes to see if they could unravel answers to the biggest questions. A whole community was fostered around this and some fans even managed to correctly find those answers long before the show was ready to present them. I doubt Gravity Falls would be as fondly remembered had its big reveals dropped all at once in the last ten minutes of the final episode.
The worst part about all of this is that The Smiling Man’s story is pretty damn good. Or at least the core mystery is. Throughout the Minoru segment, I saw how neatly the pieces of this elaborate puzzle came together and how the main game foreshadowed so much of it rather expertly. Not to mention Minoru’s backstory is tragic, brutal, and possibly the most mature of any antagonist seen in a Nintendo game.
There also seems to be a genuine attempt to shine a spotlight on mental health issues and critique the complete lack of support people with these struggles had in the ‘90s (and still do). The residents of Minoru’s village express regret for never intervening in his abusive home life, which resulted in his sister’s accidental drowning and Minoru’s murder of his father. Even afterwards, Minoru never really got the help he needed. He spent his time in juvie as a quiet but intelligent recluse and since he never acted out or got violent again, that was deemed good enough. He was eventually let back out into the world, with his handler blissfully unaware that his grief still lingered and had warped his mind.
It is heartbreaking seeing the smiling paper bag — a representation of Minoru’s love for his sister and a remnant of innocent childhood playtime — mutate into an icon of fear as his killing spree begins. The whole thing is phenomenally done, and it is so frustrating that this story is not attached to a better game. For as effective as Minoru’s story is, I not only would have much preferred uncovering it piece by piece throughout the game, connecting the dots for myself, but I also think it would’ve made the overarching plot a lot more interesting.
Minoru’s mental health issues are a last-minute twist that make the game seem like it has something to say, but this plot detail comes too late for it to be truly meaningful. Maybe The Smiling Man wanted to be more subtle with its commentary, but I believe more time should have been spent on it. Especially since another late game twist is how the inciting murder was actually a suicide and the victim had his own mental health struggles, which were admittedly hinted at but, again, seem to mostly serve as a gotcha moment rather than any sort of statement.
Had The Smiling Man’s commentary on mental health been anything more than surface level and its methods of peeling back the layers of the core mysteries been more engaging, this could’ve been one of my favourite mystery games. Sadly, Minoru’s fantastic backstory is wasted on this game and that’s nothing to laugh about.
