Famicom Detective Club

Elementary.

During the Zelda stream that was not a Zelda stream (damn you Nintendo for getting my hopes up) there were a few upcoming projects that caught my eyes for the right reasons, except for being purely distilled hate juice like DC Superhero Girls. Some of these new games that dominated Nintendo screen time really branched away from the typical sort of game you'd find at a major console developer run event, to the extent where I actually said "Huh, that looks interesting". What's more, the game that actually arrested my interest for this particular blog was a remake of something I'd never even heard of before but was certainly interested in, so how lucky was I to be present for the grand revival process! I am of course referring to Famicon Detective Club, as the blog title implies, and honestly I'm a bit mad at myself for not hearing about this game. This here's almost as unforgivable as not having played any of the classic Ace Attorney titles, but then I suppose that's the wonder of living in an age of remakes, that which is lost can come back around again to surprise us.

To be fair, Famicon Detective Club might not have always been up my street, being a murder mystery title set in Japan. But I guess I just saw this title at the perfect time for it to stick in my subconscious, what with me recently discovering the amazing English dub for Ghost Stories, (which takes place around a rural Japanese town and is hilarious) falling in love with the PC port of Persona 4 Golden (Another murder mystery in Japan) and watching Jojo Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable for the first time. (About the wild and scary goings-ons in another rural Japanese town.) What I'm trying to say is my entertainment consuming habits just sort of threw me into the perfect state to absorb this game and maybe you don't see the same enthusiasm I'm currently experiencing; but, in such a case, if you keep an open mind perhaps you'll see some merit in this title that you might have missed out on too some 33 odd years ago.

Releasing back in 1988, Famicom Detective Club represents a very old-school version of the point and click adventure genre in which you navigated a world forever in a context box, exploring environments with situational cursors and questioning subjects by getting right in their grill, Oblivion style. If you're one easily charmed, then, by classic point and click married with a rough Famicon-rendered approximation of 90's anime, perhaps this is a game you should be tracking down right now. Wait a little, however, and you'll be able to get ahold of these remakes that completely rebuild the game graphical, musically, in terms of presentation and, I'd imagine, with everything but the story modernised. I'm talking an official English localisation paired with semi-animated cutscenes and even a smidge of genuine voice acting; these guys really did go above and beyond to bring these old mystery games to life!

Right away I knew this would be a game for me in the setting alone. Sleepy Japanese towns just seem like the perfect breeding grounds for 'murder' mysteries in a manner that no other setting really captures for me. Sure, there's some promise in the 'American town' murder stories too, they both share that sense of isolationism, but I find that whenever Japanese storytellers broach into their own towns they bring a certain level of bizarre mysticism that tickles me with uncertainty. (Even if that's uncertainty about whether or not these are the accounts of former locals remembering childhood with spook-tinted glasses, or simply city slicker propaganda jumping on the 'rural = weird' bandwagon. Eitherway, I love it) The isolationism, accountability and quiet nature of these settings never disappoint for me, and so these remakes are an instant must buy already in my shoes.

In the manner of great murder mysteries, (and, I'd imagine, adhering to the inherent limitations of the original hardware) these detective stories take up one encompassing tale each, rather than try and handle several over the course of a single narrative. In terms of writing this allows for the full weight of the tale to be on the single story, and for the mystery to branch out to it's fullest, so I'm quiet excited to try them out both. Unfortunately, as this is a Nintendo game with their help attached to the creation process, I can only imagine how this very fact is going to exploited for their notorious 'overpricing' structure. There's unfortunately only two of these stories to be bought to the Switch, but they are of course being sold separately and for an eye-watering $35 each, because Nintendo refuse to miss an opportunity to squeeze a triple A price point out of their projects.

The reworking of the presentation is what has really got me sold on this game, because I find it simply gorgeous to look at. The original, obviously for releasing on the Famicom, was limited in what it could achieve thanks to the system and thus was artistically rather sparse, especially in colour, for The Missing Heiress. The sequel had a lot more going for in this department, with complex backgrounds and in-depth character colouring. Over the years a few releases here and there have breathed more into the game's art, but I think this marks the first time of a complete reworking, so now the visuals pretty much rival stills of what you'd see in a full blown anime. The animation does leave somewhat to be desired, however, with background characters somewhat gently blowing in the breeze to indicate some rough approximation of life, but it's still a worlds of difference from the original. I genuinely find this pleasing to the eye and commend the team for the effort.

The art of the murder mystery in fiction is quite a storied one, reaching back across all mediums for literal generations. There's something about the pursuit of a culprit against the steely hand of death that writers and consumers alike find endlessly fascinating, else we wouldn't keep this genre in business still in today's world. I think that comes out of a dual, and possibly conflicting, search for newer presentations of the formula we enjoy as well as the familiarity of a story that's designed to be satisfactorily wound-up without feeling cheap. And maybe the very genre itself serves as a comforting affirmation to it's readers, as it did back in the days of the earliest Sherlock Holmes novels, that no matter how heinous the crime or ingenious the perpetrator, some justice will come their way, maybe through the flourish of some crude and enigmatic detective fellow.

Famicom Detective Club marks another step in the way that games are slowly making their way across the continental barrier and becoming more available than ever before. More often than not it's becoming clear that limited releases in one region of the world is simply refusing yourself money, as fans of media lie in every which corner despite nationality. This game's localisation after so long does inspire some hope, however slight, for some of the most long requested Nintendo localisations. And for me, given that Nintendo is the biggest Japanese game's company, I hope their example will shake something loose in the noggins of their contemporaries because, darn it, I want the full Yakuza series localised! Yeah, I took a blog about a Nintendo game and found a way to wind it back around into Yakuza, what of it?