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Emio: The Smiling Manblends a compelling mystery, memorable characters, and occasionally archaic gameplay mechanics. While that’s hardly a dealbreaker - there’s nothing bad here - it can be frustrating at times to properly deduce what exactly the game wants you to do, when specifically it wants you to do it, and more.
This makes Emio: The Smiling Man a prime candidate for a quick collection of tips from us. With the following suggestions in mind, you’ll not be surprised by the first few instances of obtuse mechanics. You’ll get the gist of the game before it baffles you in its early hours.
You May Need To Ask The Same Thing Several Times
We’ll start with the thing that threw us off the most. There are many instances in Emio: The Smiling Man in whichyou’ll need to select the same prompt multiple times.
Here’s a spoiler-free example:you might have to choose the “Ask/Listen” command repeatedly to keep a character talking, or alternatively, you might even have topick the “Ask/Listen” command then inquire about the same character or subject repeatedly.
At first, this may feel counterintuitive to you. But you’ll get the hang of it. A telltale sign that this will be the case is thatthe person with whom you’re speaking will seemingly leave their answers unfinished, so you’re essentially being given a brief pause.
If Something Seems Off About Someone, Look At Them
Sometimes,the protagonist will think to himself that someone is acting strangely, or fidgeting,or something along those lines. At this point, you’ll be back to needing to input something to keep the conversation flowing.
When this happens,you might find yourself locked out of further dialogue in the “Ask/Listen” command, getting ellipses, grunts, and the like rather than further information.
If you’ve hit this sort of bump in the road,your best bet is to select “Look” from the command menu and then choose the character. We should add that this isn’t an especiallycommonissue, but it can crop up a couple of times per chapter.
Underlined Information Is Sometimes Tied To Review Questions
Emio: The Smiling Man makes heavy use ofyour detective notebook,which serves as an ongoing encyclopedia ofinformation on the many characters you’ll meet throughout the investigation.
As further information on the cast is compiled through dialogue and observations,many of them will obtain added tabs within their notebook entries. This doubtless helps each tab to escape too much clutter in its text.
What’s more - and it isn’t quite as obvious at first -by selecting an underlined portion of an entry’s text during certain review questions, you’ll be redirected to further contexton the matter.
Don’t Be Overwhelmed By Those Sudden Text Entry Prompts
In addition to the myriad answers you’ll need to select from a multiple-choice list,there are a handful of situations in which you must manually enter textin order to progress the story. The Nintendo Switch’s keyboard will pop up accordingly.
At first blush, this can feel a tad overwhelming. Buttry not to overthink it, because themost direct and relatively short reply is usually the right one.
We’re going to provide an example of this thatwillexclude the question itself. Nevertheless,it can be construed as a spoiler, so skip the following passage if you’d prefer to maintain the full mystey.
Toward the end ofthe second chapter,you’ll be tasked with manually entering some text duringa review sequence. The quickest, and arguably most intuitive, answer is the proper one: simply enter the word Emio, and the scene will continue apace.
