The latest entry in the previously latentFamicom Detective Club,Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, is a visual novel. It’s not really an investigation game, as you don’t have much agency in searching for answers, so it’s largely linear. Having said that, how long does it take to complete?
It will probably take youbetween 12-15 hours.
There isn’t really much you may do in terms of side activities, and the structure is rather rigid. There may be some moments where you don’t know what the game is expecting from you, and you’ll find yourself temporarily stuck, but it’s unlikely it will be for very long. There aren’t many variables, and you can always “Think” to get a hint. There isn’t much you can do to really extend your playtime.
One thing to note is that you can get a plot recap whenever you load your game. You don’t have to play 12-15 hours within a short window to really understand everything, and the game won’t punish you for forgetting a detail (not significantly, anyway).
How many chapters are there in Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club
There are 12 chapters inEmio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Clubplus a prologue and an epilogue. Once again, this is linear, so you will absolutely need to go through the 12 chapters to reach the end. The epilogue is optional and is provided separately. Here is a list of all the chapters:
If you’re wondering what makes the epilogue “optional,” the game warns you (in character) that it’s dark and heavy. I can confirm this. While it’s a very quick and straightforward chapter, it delves into the past of The Smiling Man. It covers what drove them to murder, the murders themselves, what happened before the game’s narrative, and their fate. It gets disturbing, and it contains details that answer some lingering questions, but you don’t have to play through it if you don’t think you may stomach it. The mystery is solved in the previous chapters; the epilogue is just extra.
