Famicom Detective Club Reviews
The Famicom Detective Club series is a good introduction to graphic novels. However, the scope that these remakes could have is limited, due to the absence of several important localization elements.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir and Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind are both well written adventure games with engaging stories. A striking visual overhaul does a great job of bringing both games into the twenty first century, without a doubt. Though this isn't enough to do the same for the gameplay, which could have used a bit more streamlining.
The Famicom Detective Club series has been remastered for the Switch and while the games look and sound great, the gameplay is a little outdated.
Famicom Detective Club is a fun adventure murder mystery game that will keep you engaged from start to finish.
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir is a fun adventure game that does show its age, but it'll captivate you until the end.
There are also other small features that I appreciated, such as the ability to turn off the Japanese voice acting for every character or just for the protagonist, which I made use of because while I liked hearing the other characters' voices, for some reason the protagonist's was oddly distracting. I also very much appreciated the ability to switch back and forth between the new arranged soundtrack and the original Famicom chiptunes, as I found myself constantly flipping back and forth just to hear the differences. If you like yourself a fun junk-food mystery, or you're just curious about this game finally hitting western shores after 33 years, you will probably be happy spending your time with Ayumi and company.
Like The Missing Heir before it, The Girl Who Stands Behind features an enjoyable and thought-provoking story, but its style of gameplay will take some getting used to whether you’re a connoisseur of visual novels or not.
Famicom Detective Club bundles two games for 60 euros. The fact that these are old games meant only for the Asian market is clearly visible. The dialogues are in Japanese and the games are clearly polished in various aspects. Still, if you like a good story or two and feel the connection with your inner detective (and have a lot of time on your hands) these games scream for you. The writing of Metroid creator Yoshio Sakamoto only justifies the price even more!
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind has an excellent murder mystery plot that is sadly obscured by frustrating and arbitrary road blocks. The visuals, writing, and soundtrack are excellent, but actually getting to those will take a lot of patience.
A beautiful-looking game, which is perfect for those with a lot of patience and a natural desire to uncover the truth. I just wish it was more interactive and allowed to do more than just ask questions.
An interesting historical curio that has its charms, and some surprisingly good storytelling, but the old school gameplay and very modern pricing are not a good combination.
The stunning visuals, UI streamlining and great voice performances mean that Famicom Detective Club can stand toe to toe with any contemporary visual novels. Let's hope more forgotten gems are localised and released. I'm looking at you Mother 3.
Anyone that has been dying to play the series or doesn’t mind a standard graphic novel will probably enjoy playing The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind. New players may also enjoy it, but don’t be too surprised if you find its guessing game gameplay to be too frustrating to enjoy things.
It's both an astonishing and exciting time in gaming to see Nintendo willing to dig into their archives and bring back a retro adventure title.
I enjoyed my time with Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir. It tells an interesting story that puts surprising twists on some expected tropes. While there were elements of the UI that showed their age, once I got used to them and played the game on its terms, I was able to work through it without much issue. With the story taking its time to get interesting, though and being fairly short at that, it is hard to call this a must-play. Still, for fans who have been interested for many years, finally getting to play this in English is a treat.
Those with an interest in Nintendo's history should undoubtedly pick up Famicom Detective Club, and those simply looking for a couple of good mystery yarns will have a fun time with it too. Just be aware that it’s a very linear adventure, and once you’re done there’s very little replay value.
Famicon Detective Club is a bundle package going the extra mile to satisfy long term fans whilst introducing newer gamers to the franchise. Although visual novels generally age well, this new port of both The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind wonderfully maintain the original feel of the games with some great new changes to make them future proof. They both feature truly spectacular narration as their stories unfold, and continue to keep things fresh with new themes interspersed at regular intervals. Both games look stunning as well, with superb visuals. Overall, this duology is perfect for lovers of visual novels who enjoy whodunnits with a side of horror and mystery added for good measure.
On the one hand, there are the very handsome graphics with great animations and a great voice acting. But then there are the repetitive passages and the problems with "finding your way", even though there are fortunately no dead ends. The decision will probably come down to gameplay and story. Those looking for fast-paced gameplay and unprecedented story will probably not be happy with Famicom Detective Club. However, if you're not averse to visual novels in general and can relate to scary stories from the 80s and 90s, you should definitely give the game bundle a chance.
Review in German | Read full review
I know this is starting to sound like a piece more dedicated to visual novels than Famicom Detective Club itself, but I promise you it's not. The games' history and their context is just so important. Visual novels aren't new, and they aren't unpopular, but still they end up being categorized as a niche genre for specific people, or as "smaller" or "easier" games. That's wrong, and Famicom Detective Club demonstrates that. These two games take mechanics from visual novels and adventure games of the past to create an immersive, diverse experience.