One of the biggest surprises of 2024 was undoubtedly the release (and accompanying marketing campaign) of Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. It marked the first proper new entry in the Famicom Detective Club franchise since 1989, bringing with it a whole bunch of dark, mature themes that we don’t often see from Nintendo these days.
In fact, in a new interview with Inverse, producer Yoshio Sakamoto and assistant producer Kaori Miyachi commented on the game’s development, with Sakamoto specifically noting how surprised he was that Nintendo opted to approve the project so willingly considering its more mature content. Miyachi, meanwhile, was significantly more confident:
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.
It’s worth checking out the full interview when you have a moment, as the pair go into all sorts regarding the game’s background design, similarities to the originals, and even the epilogue, but just be mindful that it does stray into territory that some may consider to be spoilerific.
Sakamoto and Miyachi end the interview by touching on the potential future of the series, with both expressing interest in working together on new entries should the opportunity arise.
