Let's goooo! I already ordered this bad boy physically. For three reasons!

1) I quite enjoyed the remakes of the originals
2) I love Sakamoto
3) I loooove when Nintendo digs deep and actually follows up some of its old IPs
4) And FDC, like Metroid, is so interesting partly because it's so un-Nintendo.

To that last point, this is a first-party series that's very story-heavy along with containing mature themes, language, and imagery. Haven't the IGN GameCube board trolls been asking Nintendo for those very attributes for decades??

I do hope they'll consider smoothing out some of the gameplay issues from the 35+ year old games. A little more interaction and decision-making would be nice, as would a way to avoid those "I'll just try everything until I get unstuck" moments. But either way, count me in.

EDIT: I just realized I can't count. Oh well, leaving it in.

I haven't played the first two, but I was just looking the other day at Sakamoto's track record, after finishing Zero Mission. The parallels between Wario Land and Metroid have always been fascinating to me; on some level, Rhythm Heaven is a Metroid spin-off. This one dude has had his hands on some of my favorite Nintendo series ever!

On the other hand, Other M makes me slightly nervous about his skills as a writer... ah, maybe he's improved in the past decade and a half.

@Secret_Tunnel Other M's main throughline was pretty rough. On the other hand, the murder mystery side-story was decent, so that could bode well for this.

@nate38

I remember thinking it was really cool how they never explicitly tell you who the deleter ("the de-leader...") was. And actually, the little subplot where you see baby Ridley grow up was neat too. That game had a lot of cool scenarios come to think of it, just some bad characterization and dialogue...

The trial for Emio is now available! This chunk of the game includes the Prologue + Chapter 1, and your data can carry over to the full game.

I've only had time to play about 20 minutes so far, so these are super-early impressions. They've bumped up the production values a bit as expected, with somewhat smoother and more detailed 2D (?) rigging and animation transitions. At a few points the characters even looked polygonal but I'm not sure if my eyes are just playing tricks on me. The font is a little cleaner and more modern than before. The lip-synching also seems tighter.

I'm not sure which team handles the writing but my gut says it's not the Treehouse. It feels less flashy, like it's drawing less attention to itself. These games have an understated feel to them that I really vibe with, so I'm very much okay with that. The Japanese voice acting and emotions of the characters give enough panache to the proceedings to keep me interested.

The beginning of the game works well enough. You get a brief introduction before it's off to the crime scene and there's enough intrigue to hook people. But I think even for this genre that FDC has more of a subdued feel to it so players used to the zanier antics of Danganronpa or even Ace Attorney might not have as much patience for straight-laced Detective Utsugi and his well-behaved disciple.

And that's about all the impression I can wring out of less than half an hour of play, but what do you guys think so far? Once I reach the demo's end, I'll start talking more in detail about my thoughts so far on the case.

@TriforceBun

These three games are all related, aren't they? Realistically, I won't play all three of them, so I might as well jump in with this one either way.

@Secret_Tunnel
Yeah, there's continuity but only in a pretty loose sense. It's maybe comparable to the Ys games or Professor Layton in that the main characters show up and maybe one or two side characters, but the mysteries are largely self-contained.

Longtime players are privy to some fun easter eggs! Like I discovered today in a callback to an infamous, pervy moment from the second game: in The Girl Who Stands Behind (original and remake), you can actually trigger its only Game Over screen by repeatedly "Examine"-ing the lady police officer's boobs. This results in you getting your butt thrown in jail and having to restart. As it turns out, the same officer shows up in Emio fairly early in the demo. And well, I had to see what would happen. Turns out, it's another easter egg, albeit one where she's much more casual: "Yeah, they're real. And this isn't the first time I've caught you looking, is it?" Followed by a phone call where the main character gets flustered. I actually love that they had this weird bit of continuity.

I liked the two Famicom remakes quite a bit, and I love the fact that we're getting a new one, but I'm not feeling this one as much. Maybe I've just forgotten what the two first games were like, and maybe I cut them some extra slack because of them effectively being Famicom games with a new coat of paint, but this latest one feels even more guided, and the plot/dialog pacing seems off. I'm basically just exhausting dialog inputs until the game advances. Not a whole lot of exploring or detective work going on.

@r_hjort
I'm currently in chapter 5, and I see what you mean. There are two aspects of this one I'm finding a little off-putting; the first is like what you said, it's very guided. This is probably to alleviate some of the frustration in the first two games/remakes where you'd bounce between a few locations trying to see who's going to trigger the next step forward. In Emio, so far I've pretty much only been confined to one place at a time ("Travel" essentially leaves that scene behind). This does help keep new dialogue coming at a steady pace, but...

...my second problem is that this one really drip-feeds new info for you! (very mild Ch 4 spoilers) Ayumi and her senpai meet at a coffee shop and share a 30 minute conversation and all you really take from it is that the victim's grades were slipping--something that could've been conveyed into a single text box! Likewise, a scene in the next chapter takes about as long and reveals about as much directly about the plot.

Now, look, I like Hayao Miyazaki's ma--the time between action where you can contemplate and reflect--as much as the next guy. I know these games aren't just about plot, but characterization, atmosphere, environment, and vibe. And those two scenes above do flesh out the characters some, albeit usually in pretty subtle ways. But there's a point where it goes too far, and outright repetition is what I find unnecessary. Ace Attorney, which itself is guilty of repeating catchphrases and similar lines, is much more too-the-point with its interaction; my five days in Emio could've been accomplished in one or two with Phoenix.

Even so, I'm still enjoying it well enough, and it's true that the first two games did take some time to get rolling too (more the first than the second). Time will tell to see if this slow-and-steady style of storytelling will end up working out for the game overall.

@TriforceBun
I'm at chapter eight or nine right now, and things are exactly the same as they were in chapter five. Well, I do have more info and things have advanced, but still at a snail's pace.

I think it's kind of telling that the game will have to tell you what your character thinks of the person you're speaking to, because even though there are so many words being exchanged, they don't really help bring the characters or the plot to life very well. It's like you say, you can spend half an hour in a conversation only to get a small tidbit of information that could have been conveyed in a matter of seconds.

I don't want to blame Sakamoto for this, because there's a whole team behind the game, but I can't help but draw parallells to my feelings about Other M. Like, if you're going to push a narrative down my throat at the expense of my freedom to explore or figure things out for myself, you have to make the narrative worth it.

Gonna get back to the game later tonight, 'cause even though I don't think too highly of it as a game right now, I still want to see where the story goes. I'm just gonna treat this like a book where I have to re-read certain paragraphs a couple of times before I can turn to the next page.

EDIT: Decided to sit up and beat the game. And...o..kay... This sure was...a...thing. There are ideas in here that could have been molded into a compelling mystery, but I can't help but feel that everything just sort of happened around me. And Emio's motivation basically just being that he's nuts or whatever is not exactly satisfying. The animated sequences in the post game section look fantastic though. Would have been cool if the game had been able to let me unravel the story rather than just have everything explained at the end.

I do hope that Sakamoto gets to take another stab at this, though. Maybe have someone proof read the script, and get someone to design some puzzles to go with it next time.

@TriforceBun
@r_hjort

I played about two minutes of the demo and decided I'd rather read a book. Sounds like made the right call.

My name is The Police Officer. I'm investigating this crime scene to solve a crime.

We’re really itching to play this one. And also Miles Edgeworth 2. And also all the games I just got on the Humble Narrative Bundle. Whoops.

@Secret_Tunnel
Don't let this game deter you from the two first games in the series, though. They're both a good time. And maybe this one is too. T-bun's final word isn't in yet!

@PogueSquadron
Speaking of narrative experiences: Have you played Citizen Sleeper? Played that during my summer vacation and had a fantastic time. Balances plot, interactivity and chance in a very solid way, and has cool cyberpunk aesthetics and writing to go with it.

TriforceBun said:

To that last point, this is a first-party series that's very story-heavy along with containing mature themes, language, and imagery. Haven't the IGN GameCube board trolls been asking Nintendo for those very attributes for decades??

Yeah, which is weird even back then. The GameCube itself always looked “cute” but Nintendo’s output during that era was the least “kiddy” they have ever been. Between Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime, and arguably Fire Emblem…that generation had some of the most mature content the company had in a while.

Not to mention getting third parties to put games like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and Tomb Raider on the platform. And…Geist, I guess?

Anyway, Emio is fun if somewhat clunky. But the story itself is solid and I feel that counts most for an adventure game like this.

I beat it! I LOVED this game and I also HATED this game. Yay? Yay!

Okay, that's a bit of an eye-catching headline I guess. This will be full of MEGA-SPOILERS but I'll use the block-outs when necessary. Let me start with all the good.

I thought the game's overarching plot was pretty awesome. It's tense, horrific, emotional, and covers a variety of adult themes in a smart and considered fashion. It even got me to shed a tear at the end which is no small feat. At its best, it has that blend of emotional highs with iconic and distinct imagery that helped the other two FDC games leave an impression as well. I'm never going to forget the finale of this one when thinking about memorable game stories.

The characters are largely a good bunch too, although here's where it gets into spoiler territory because I don't want to clue anyone into culprits or who's innocent, etc. Junko Kuze is basically the deuteragonist, with the story more-or-less being about her, and she's got a wide enough range of emotion and morally gray ethics to really pull it off. "Dice" Kamihara is a character that grew on me throughout the game, starting off one-note and a little annoying but becoming rather endearing over time. I particularly liked seeing the angry side of him. Besides the bad guy who I'll get to in a minute, my favorite characters were the Todorokis. They had the earnest love and righteous anger of adoptive parents who truly loved their kid, and I wish we could've checked in on them one more time before the game's end.

Let's talk about the villain, what might be Nintendo's scariest character to date. (do not highlight until you've finished) "Emio" as a premise wasn't all that spooky to me; I'd felt like I'd seen the "silly thing juxtaposed against a murderous character" too often for it to feel fresh. Five Nights at Freddy's, Chuckie, what else ya got? But then we get the tragic backstory that turns the paper bag from a cheap gimmick to an emotional core of the character...and then the reveal that he'd mutilated his face to resemble it? Ick! Really a harsh and memorable sequence. And then the epilogue! An entire hand-drawn and fully-animated animated "episode" of 20+ minutes?? Absolutely crazy, horrifying, and satisfying. I didn't really guess what was going on, but at one point my mind went to a place that's almost even darker than the truth: I'd guessed that Emio used his shears to "swap faces" with Makoto and that's why the construction workers thought he was the other guy. At least that didn't happened, only...every other awful thing that occurs during the game.

So yeah, it earns its M rating. And it tells its emotional story super well, and it's memorable and interesting and all that. And the art is great. And the music is great. And I want Emio for Smash Bros already! Lots of greatness in this game.

...Too bad some stuff here just sucks! Holy moly, Emio has gotta have some of the worst pacing I've ever seen in a game. I'm used to VNs portioning out clues and relevant info as you play, then providing the "glue" at the end to put it all together. Emio withholds so much info it's insane. As I complained about earlier in this thread, there are entire half-hour scenes with absolutely tedious characters that felt like a big fat waste of time. The passive and polite Ayumi will endlessly dance around any case-related question she has while her clueless senpai prattles on about absolutely nothing, and I just want it all to end, PLEASE. Why are you doing this to me, game!? These conversations are not interesting (like the game's ending), or funny (like some of Kamihara's scenes), or cozy (like reminiscing with Yoshie or the Todorokis). It's just a bunch of empty fluff, and they do it too many times. I get the point of the character and he has a place in the story (showing an example of a non-abusive character who can inspire the children of the next generation) but HOLY GLADIOLI did this game need an editor. Much like this post?

Here's the larger problem: that awesome story I mentioned? Yeah, you get like 60% of it all shotgun-blasted into your face during the last 10% of the game. They couldn't have portioned this out a little bit better? So many chapters feel like wheel-spinning; in fact I almost think cutting the entirety of Ayumi's stuff would result in a stronger game. I might make a later post in more detail about this since this is long enough. Likewise, the M-rated aspects of the game were handled weirdly--I don't think you even see a drop of blood until the very last chapter. I really think this game's storytelling could've used a second killing in the middle somewhere, like the first two games. That always gets the excitement going during slumps.

Anyway, I actually ended up liking this about the same as the past FDC games, oddly enough. Its gameplay is more streamlined, it's story ultimately is as emotional as Missing Heir and at least as spooky as Girl Who Stands Behind...but the way the story is told is really wonky and--along with the fluffiness--hurts it. Which is too bad because many of the characters, the art, and the music are all great. So I think I'll settle on an 8.0 or so. I'd still recommend to VN fans but you gotta be patient.