Thread by @TrainDetective

With the new Famicom Detective Club releasing a demo soon, let's take a minute to talk about the original games’ approach to ADV design, and why I think their old-school style of command-select gameplay is so fun, if you approach them with the right mindset… 🧵

First, we need to understand the origin of the modern Japanese ADV - Yuji Horii’s “The Portopia Serial Murder Case,” and the idea of games that progress “through conversations between a human and a computer.”

This is an oversimplification, but I think we have a tendency to view adventure games as having two separate modes; conversations, and puzzles. We think of conversations as the parts that move the story along, while puzzles offer fun challenges to solve along the way.

Plenty of Japanese ADVs work in this way; generally speaking, I’d probably put Hotel Dusk and Another Code in this category, as well as Professor Layton, which has perhaps the strongest separation between conversation and puzzle gameplay.

But, going back to the original idea of games that “progress through conversations between a human and a computer.” In this model, there doesn’t have to be a separation between puzzle and conversation: the conversations ARE the puzzles, and you solve them with the command menu!

Famicom Detective Club, inspired by Horii’s design, works this way. Both FDC games are mostly about facing unique conversational situations, and your goal is to figure out how to use the short list of available commands to navigate through them.

Take this conversation with a teacher, Hayama, in FDC Part 2. We know that she’s shy, and wary of talking about her experience with the rumor you’re investigating. When you try to ask her about anything here, she won’t talk, no matter what you say to her.

The “puzzle” involves recognizing that she isn’t going to talk to you with someone else in the room, which you can deduce based on her responses to you and your knowledge of her personality…

…And the solution is to first confirm that the other teacher in the room is eavesdropping, which you do by talking to him again, and then, moving to a secluded spot and confirming that there is nobody around, which will give you the option to call Hayama there.

One of the most fun parts of FDC is how you change your approach to using commands depending on who you’re talking to. How do you try communicating with a reserved person, vs. a suspicious person? How do you navigate a conversation with a drunk?

Not every conversation requires you to think this way - some are just about gathering information - but most of them revolve around understanding the context of your situation, analyzing who you’re talking to and your surroundings, and choosing commands accordingly.

In FDC, most conversations can be solved by following this kind of logic; but, just as important is when they subvert your expectations. Commands sometimes don’t do what you expect them to; someone may interrupt you, or a phone call will stop you when you try to leave a room...

…Or, an option like “Show,” typically used for presenting characters with evidence, can serve a humorous dual-purpose, like in this scene where you’re given the option to show “Guts” when challenged by Hitomi.

At their best, the fun of these games comes from experimenting with commands; feeling smart when you’re able to follow logic to a solution, feeling surprised when something unexpected happens, feeling rewarded when you get a response for trying things. It’s very immersive!

So: what happens if you get stuck? What if the chain of logic you’re following doesn’t seem to match what the designer intended, or if you really can’t figure out what commands you need to select in order to progress?

In games with an open-ended command menu structure, this is bound to happen from time to time. But in FDC, it’s difficult to get stuck for long, because there’s no failure state - you are free to try anything and everything. If you’re thorough, eventually, you WILL figure it out.

As early as 1987 - before FDC even existed - Horii recognized that “brute forcing” in this way was possible with command menus, and worried about players resorting to it without engaging with the game’s logic puzzles. If you ONLY play this way, the game will feel tedious…

…But, if you treat the conversations in FDC like puzzles, and recognize them not as cutscenes you select from a menu, but as back-and-forth interactions with malleable commands that are affected by context, they are a TON of fun to navigate!

As an aside - progression in these games isn’t everything. Sometimes, it’s just fun to try things; FDC, for instance, has some funny interactions if you try unusual things, and it can be very revealing to see how each character reacts to certain commands.

Remember: you’re having a conversation with a computer. Enjoy the back and forth, and don’t worry so much about what you’re SUPPOSED to do - just do what seems to make the most sense, or whatever seems interesting to you, and you’ll get pretty far!

It remains to be seen how different Emio will be from classic FDC - but, either way, I hope this thread has given you a perspective on the command menu that might make the gameplay of these classics more approachable :)

Thanks for reading! And, if any of this sounded interesting, you may like our own command-select ADV, which takes inspiration from many sources, Famicom Detective Club included. Check out our demo on Steam and add us to your wishlist!