Prior to its reveal in a Nintendo Direct earlier this year, Famicom Detective Club was not a title most western fans were familiar with outside of small cameos in a couple Smash titles. The series had been Japanese exclusive for years on the NES and SNES with seemingly no interest in bringing it to the west. Even the remake was initially only announced in a Japanese Nintendo Direct, which made it seem even more likely it wasn’t ever going to be localized. But now both titles have made their way over and for the first time players are seeing a side of Nintendo that doesn’t get shown off very often. An anime-inspired murder mystery visual novel is not what one thinks of when it comes to the company that created the likes of Mario and Pikachu, but this may be the perfect time for them to revisit the idea with brand new entries in the series.
For long-time fans of detective or murder mystery dramas, Famicom Detective Club likely didn’t bring anything new or revolutionary the table. The Missing Heir had perhaps one of the most common plots in detective dramas and games to date, but that didn’t stop it from being an enjoyable experience. Meanwhile The Girl who Stands Behind offers a more engaging experience both in gameplay and story. It’s also easy to give these titles the benefit of the doubt for predictable story elements, as they originated in the ’80s and it’s unlikely Nintendo wanted to change the story much which is for the better. There was actually a third entry into the series on the Super Nintendo, but this was exclusive to the Satellaview which inevitably means that parts of it have been lost to time due to the live broadcast element. There has never been a time when Visual Novels were crazy popular like so many other genres, but Famicom Detective Club managed to gain a lot of notoriety for being a new Nintendo series to many people trying it for the first time.
One of the most well-known visual novel series these days is Capcom’s Ace Attorney, which does well in part to the emphasis on excitable stories and the court-drama gameplay that remains unique. Famicom Detective Club feels more like a mix of traditional visual novel with a point and click adventure mixed in for a little bit of gameplay. For the most part, however, it’s just talking to characters and trying to piece the puzzle together along the way. The benefit of it as a whole is the fact that the characters are so easy to expand upon where the story has left off. The main cast of the protagonist and Ayumi Tachibana make for a team that can fit into any situation solving crimes or mysteries together, so it’s a shame it only ever got three total titles. It feels like there’s tons of more stories that these characters could have, and the two main ones we’ve gotten have only just scratched the surface of its full potential.
The best part of making brand new entries for Famicom Detective Club would be the ability to truly revitalize a lot of the mechanics that feel dated. The remake does a good job bringing the titles to a more modern setting, but there are a lot more quality of life improvements that could be added to make a new entry pop out even more. It feels like the team wanted to really be faithful to the original which is great for a lot of reasons, but there’s plenty of room for improvement when diving further into this series. Famicom Detective Club doesn’t feel like a Nintendo game, and that’s a good thing, as it adds a brand new variety that people might not have realized they were missing out on. It’s hard to tell at this point, but response to a first-party visual novel from Nintendo could also help highlight others for people who haven’t dabbled in the genre much before, making it an easy opportunity for continued interest on other such titles on Switch.
Famicom Detective Club is one more gem of Nintendo’s past that has risen from the ashes of what was assumed to be a graveyard of Japanese exclusives that were unlikely to reach western audiences. The past couple of years have proved that wrong with this remake and even the release of the first Fire Emblem title. For mystery dramas there’s just no end to the possibilities, and it would be a shame if Famicom Detective Club didn’t receive any future entries after these wonderfully enjoyable remakes. There’s not only a lot that can be improved upon, but so much untapped potential that awaits the characters along the way. Now that we have it, Famicom Detective Club should remain a mainstay Nintendo series that’s able to build upon the bricks they’ve laid down for Ayumi and the protagonist to make for brand new investigations to uncover the truth about.
