Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind is the second game in the Famicom Detective Club series, which has been completely remade from the ground up at the same time as its predecessor Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir.  These two games are now available on the Nintendo Switch and this also marks the first time they have been available outside of Japan. I enjoyed my time with The Missing Heir, even if the story was fairly predictable. Now having played The Girl Who Stands Behind, I can attest that this is the stronger of the two games.

In Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind, you once again play as the young male protagonist who starred in The Missing Heir. However, this game is actually a prequel to The Missing Heir, so the focus is on how he came to join the Utsugi Detective Agency. You’ll also discover how he first met his future junior detective partner, Ayumi.

When Ayumi’s close friend, Yoko, dies unexpectedly after investigating the disappearance of a school girl from years past, you are sent to the school to look into the gory details. While trying to find some answers surrounding Yoko’s death, you learn of a rumor that has been going around the school since the time that the first girl disappeared. The legend says that a blood soaked girl will occasionally appear behind someone and if she does, then that person is doomed to die soon. She is known as The Girl Who Stands Behind. It’s up to you to get to the bottom of the mystery before she claims another victim.

In terms of the story and characters, The Girl Who Stands Behind is much stronger than The Missing Heir. While the latter has a murder mystery premise that you would more than likely find in a Hardy Boys novel or an episode of Scooby Doo, The Girl Who Stands Behind is more of a paranormal mystery. Both games had very well fleshed out characters, but there’s a complexity to a few characters in The Girl Who Stands Behind that adds an extra layer of depth. It’s also a bit darker than the other game, which I personally liked a lot more. It had more unexpected twists, which better sold the whole mystery for me.

In terms of the gameplay, it’s very much like The Missing Heir, that is to say mostly a visual novel. You can choose what to talk about and with whom, examine your surroundings, take and show items, and think about what things mean. That being said, The Girl Who Stands Behind has a few more tricks up its sleeve, such as asking you to fill in certain answers when you’re pondering something. Doing this correctly allows the plot to advance, while missing the answers can have you go back for more research. It’s a small change, but one that made it more of a challenge and helped to keep me more invested in what was being said when speaking to people.

As far as the visuals and sound design, they’re pretty much the same as what you can find in The Missing Heir. The art style features gorgeous hand-drawn visuals and animations. The only small differences with The Girl Who Stands Behind is that it has a few more actual character animations than the other, but also a few less locations to visit. The sound design has the same things going for it as The Missing Heir: great voice acting, but a forgettable soundtrack.

While I did enjoy my time with both of the Famicom Detective Club games, I will say that The Girl Who Stands Behind is definitely the better of the two. The darker storyline, complex characters, and addition of a few speculation mechanics made for a more polished and captivating experience. I would still recommend picking both of them up as there is the option of purchasing them bundled together versus separately. However, I would advise to play them in the order they were originally released, with playing The Missing Heir first and The Girl Who Stands Behind second. Although, if you can only afford one of them, then go for Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind.

 

Graphics: 8.0 The beautifully hand-drawn visuals breathe new life into this over thirty year old game.	Gameplay: 8.0 While still mostly a visual novel with limited investigative elements like the The Missing Heir, The Girl Who Stands Behind does offer a couple more gameplay features that make it more of a fun challenge.
Sound: 7.0 Just like in The Missing Heir, the sound design has great vocal performances, but somewhat a forgettable soundtrack.	Fun Factor: 8.0 The story in The Girl Who Stands Behind is much stronger than that found in The Missing Heir. It’s a creepy and surprisingly dark tale that will keep you guessing until the end.
Final Verdict: 8.0

Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind is available now on Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind was provided by the publisher.