Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir - TV Tropes

^{Click for the Famicom Disk System covers}

Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir is the first entry in the Famicom Detective Club series. Developed by Nintendo and Tose, and released only in Japan, the game was split across two volumes on the Famicom Disk System: Volume 1 released April 27, 1988, while Volume 2 released June 14.

The story starts when the unnamed protagonist awakens after falling off a cliff to learn that he's lost his memory. After recuperating with a aid of a man named Amachi, he encounters his friend Ayumi Tachibana and learns that he's an assistant detective who is in the area to investigate the death of Kiku Ayashiro, the matriarch of a wealthy local family. Unfortunately, he soon learns that in addition to dealing with the mystery of both his lost memories and Kiku's death, that there seems to be a foreboding curse surrounding the family that's resulting in more and more members of the Ayashiro family dropping dead...

While the game and its sequel, The Girl Who Stands Behind, would see various re-releases on the Game Boy Advance and Virtual Console in Japan, the duology would not see an international debut until a Video Game Remake co-developed by MAGES. released for the Nintendo Switch on May 14, 2021.

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Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir contains examples of:

• And the Adventure Continues: The post-credit scene depicts the protagonist returning back to Utsugi Detective Agency to fill his friend Ayumi in on everything that happened that day, before presumably preparing for the next case that'll come their way.
• Asshole Victim: Most of the murder victims fall under this category, making it difficult to figure who killed who. As it is the player is told repeatedly of how most the village hates the Ayashiro clan, so there’s little sadness when members of the family turn up dead.
  • The biggest asshole in the pack is Akira Ayashiro, who murdered his own great aunt and attempted to kill the protagonist when he was looking into her murder. Even before this is revealed, people who knew him called him an unemployed layabout who took advantage of his great aunt for money and regularly got in trouble with both sides of the law, resulting in no one except his mother even questioning the idea that he'd kill his own father for a quick buck. As such, no one can bother to muster up any strong feelings about their death outside surprise over the timing.
  • The Ayashiro siblings are all conniving, backstabbing, and utterly cold-blooded. When Kanji turns up dead, Akira’s name isn’t even the first one floated as the murderer since the remaining siblings each blame and implicate the other for personal gain. Jiro only bothers to cry for his dead brother in the most melodramatic and fake fashion when the police and cameras are on him, only to go right back to business as usual since Kanji’s death gives him the leadership of the company that he always wanted. Azusa doesn’t even manage fake crying and her only concern when Jiro dies is getting her share of the fortune - and then blackmailing the REAL murderer when she works out who it is. Which promptly gets her greedy butt killed.
  • Even Kiku has shades of this as the player finds out her family gained its wealth through cutthroat and bloody means, even driving a family to suicide and creating the game’s murderer out of the child they left behind. In addition she chased her own daughter out over disapproving of her marriage and the second her husband died turned out his mistress and their child to fend for themselves. Later in life she has regrets but it’s far too late to save her life.
• The Atoner: It's stated that Kiku spent the later years of her life working to atone and make up for all the terrible acts that Ayashiro family, including her husband, committed in order to secure their wealth and influence.
• Bludgeoned to Death: After proving of no more use to Kanda, especially after his attempted murder of the one person he still needed alive for the time being, the man fatally strikes Akira in the head with the top of Kiku's tombstone, before stuffing the dead body inside the grave.
• Breather Episode: Downplayed with Chapter 7. It ends with the major reveal that Yuri is dead, and that the whereabouts of her child are unknown, but this chapter nevertheless contains the most instances of comedy in the entire game, ranging from goofy dialogue exchanges to over-the-top animated scenes.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The reason why the culprit saves the protagonist's life following Akira's unsanctioned murder attempt at the start of the game, as he hadn't yet retrieved the symbol of the successor needed to gain ownership of the company, which only the protagonist would be able to find.
• Chekhov's Gun: The doll you see in the background of the Utsugi Detective Office turns out to be the hiding place of the key that leads to the symbol of the Ayashiro Family successor.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The businessman you briefly encounter in Yatsuka, who quickly rushes off after bumping into you, turns out to be Kazuto Ayashiro, Yuri's half-brother.
• Driving Question: What caused the protagonist to fall off a cliff and lose his memories?
• "Eureka!" Moment: Invoked at three different instances in the latter half of the game, as you're expected to type out the answer to some of the conclusions that the protagonist makes.
• Everybody Smokes: Like over 40% of the Japanese population in the 1980s, many members of the Ayashiro family either regularly smoke or are stated to have smoked in the past. This becomes a plot point when it's revealed that the culprit used cyanide-laced tobacco to kill his victims, and was forced to find other ways of disposing of the non-smoker.
• Family Extermination: We eventually learn that this is the killer's goal, with the motive being revenge for driving his parents to suicide as a result of their business practices when he was a child.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Early in the game, Amachi suggested that Akira Ayashiro may be related to the protagonist’s accident that resulted in his amnesia. It turns out he knew the whole time Akira, who was Amachi/Kanda’s accomplice in Kiku’s murder, was responsible for it as he tried to kill the protagonist at the cliff which prompted Kanda to save the protagonist personally.
  • At one point, Genshin mentions seeing blood on Kiku’s tombstone before Kanji’s murder along with having found her mirror on the ground. It turns out that the blood was from it being used by Kanda to bludgeon Akira to death after he and Kanda smuggled Kiku’s corpse in order to throw it into the sea which was why her mirror was outside of her grave which then was stuffed by Akira’s corpse before Kanda went to kill Kanji.
  • Following the murder of Azusa whose fingernails were noted to have traces of human skin on them, Amachi has stopped appearing afterwards…until the protagonist is confronted by him in the labyrinth, revealing he was the murderer of the game. Azusa's fingernails had human skin because she cut Kanda's face with them when he strangled her to death.
• The Ghost: Shunsuke Utsugi never appears, despite being your boss and the namesake of the detective agency. In fact, Ayumi alerting the player that he's away on business at the start of the game serves as the character's only mention throughout the story. Utsugi’s on-camera introduction isn’t until the next game.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Played with. The protagonist is identified as the child of the missing Yuri Ayashiro, due to sporting a nasty-looking burn mark on his left shoulder that he received as a baby. Meanwhile, the game's murder culprit, Kyonosuke Kanda, didn't start the game with any scars. He gained them partway through the story after a scuffle with one of his victims.
• Guide Dang It!: At the beginning of Chapter 8, you and Kumada go to visit the cliffs. After some dialogue, you're given the option to travel to the station. What the game doesn't tell you is that you need to speak with Kumada one more time before leaving. If you don't, you'll miss the event flag needed to advance the plot and have to come back to trigger it. Making this worse is that whenever it is unavailable, the travel command usually only comes up when there's nothing left for you to do in the area.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: A variant. Partway through Chapter 11, the protagonist notes that every mystery seems to have been neatly wrapped up, expect for one noteworthy contradiction. Since he didn't even know that he was the Ayashiro heir, there was no way he actually knew about the talisman that Amachi said he supposedly mumbled about while he was unconscious. As soon as he realizes this, Amachi turns up and reveals himself to be Kyonosuke Kanda, who's the culprit for the murders.
• Identity Amnesia: The protagonist begins the game having forgotten his identity. Talking with his friend and co-worker Ayumi helps him remember his name, but every other detail about his life only comes up in bits and pieces as the game progresses.
• Interface Spoiler: The Investigation Notes menu gains an entire new section for "victim(s)", after a murder occurs. Protagonist even notes it may be only the beginning.
• Karma Houdini: The powerful individual who managed to rig a trial to get the protagonist's father, Takao Toyama, imprisoned for what should have been ruled as an act of self-defense, as well as prevented any media coverage of the arson that ultimately killed his mother Yuri, is never even named, let alone confronted and exposed.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: When Azusa Kasuga was struggling against the murderer strangling them to death, one of their shoes fell off in the process.
• Never Suicide: The protagonist, Ayumi and Kumada are all suspicious about Jiro Ayashiro having hung himself, especially there's absolutely no good reason for him to do so. They're correct about this, as they learn he was killed via cyanide-laced tobacco and then hung later to stage the suicide scene.
• No Swastikas: In the original game, the basement area the protagonist has to navigate at the end was in the shape of a Manji. In the remake, it's changed to a different pattern, with this being reflected on the back of the hand mirror.
• On One Condition: The contents of Kiku's will state that in order for anyone to even receive their part of the inheritance, the symbol of the successor, which is in the possession of the missing Yuri Ayashiro, needs to be presented.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The Ayashiro Family's theme is Bach's Invention 13 in A Minor, which many games use to represent wealth.
• The Reveal: Chapter 10, "Resurrected Memories", reveals that the protagonist is the son of Yuri Ayashiro and the “Missing Heir” in the title. He learns his entire backstory from the daughter of the elderly woman who raised him, after which he and Ayumi make the final connections needed in order to solve the case.
• Secret Test of Character: One of the more obtuse moments of the game requires you to do this by pretending to quit the investigation when Zenzou loses hope (by literally choosing "Quit Investigation", option for saving the game). You inspire him to not give up, and the case resumes.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: The only characters who appear in the final chapter outside of the protagonist are Zenzou, the culprit, and Kazuto Ayashiro.
• Shout-Out: In Chapter 7, Kumada decides that he's going to jump into the role of detective along the protagonist, calling himself the "Legendary Detective". As he does so, he daydreams that he's dressed like Kosuke Kindaichi, the detective from the works of Japanese mystery novelist Seishi Yokomizo upon which this game takes its inspiration.
• Tonight, Someone Dies:
  • Chapter Three: The First Murder. Sure enough, shortly after the chapter starts, there's a news report covering the death of Kanji Ayashiro, who was running his family's company, which shifts the focus away from investigating the circumstances of Kiku Ayashiro's sudden passing..
  • Chapter Five: The Second Victim follows suit by starting with the discovery of Jiro Ayashiro's apparent suicide, and the police's attempts to uncover any clues in relation to it.
• Too Dumb to Live: Towards the end of the game, we learn that one of the characters did manage to figure out who the real culprit is before anyone else did, but instead of telling anyone, decided to confront the murderer themselves in order to extort them for money, getting killed in the process.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Both Tokube and Kiku Ayashiro are guilty of this. The former drove the Kanda family to suicide on a selfish whim, leading to the sole surviving member of said family, Kyonosuke, to swear vengeance. Meanwhile, Kiku's well-intentioned attempt to make amends for this horrific slight only served to give Kyonosuke means to carry out his revenge plot.
• Wham Shot: A two-in-one example. When the Ayashiro Family's tomb is finally opened with Genshin's permission, Akira Ayashiro is found to have been stuffed inside, with Kiku's corpse nowhere to be found. Examining this causes the protagonist to finally remember how he fell off Unakami Cliff and lost his memory in the first place: Akira struck him in the head and pushed him off.
• White Sheep: Yuri Ayashiro is the only member of her family that's universally beloved by the locals, for her grace and beauty, even after she eloped with her lover decades ago.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The game was heavily inspired by The Portopia Serial Murder Case and shares many of that game's plot beats:
  • Among the chain of murders is someone getting stabbed, followed by a hanging. However, in The Missing Heir, the presumed causes of death are both Red Herrings, instead being caused by cyanide poisoning.
  • An initial suspect for the crimes is a young man with connections to the Yakuza, whose relation with one of the victims gives him a motive in the form of an inheritance. Unlike the character in Portopia, Akira isn't wholly innocent, as while he didn't orchestrate any of the murders, he was an accomplice to the murder of his great-aunt.
  • The identity of an important character is revealed towards the end of the story by way of a mark on their shoulder.
  • Both titles end on an Unexpected Gameplay Change where you must navigate an underground maze, though The Missing Heir's version is far simpler than the infamously difficult one in Portopia.
  • In the end, the culprit in both games is revealed to be the very first character you met, who had acted as a close confidant while concealing his true identity, even sharing the same motive. That said, they notably differ in that Kanda in The Missing Heir both knew and didn't care that his first victim genuinely regretted the terrible things her family did, while Portopia's Yasu shows remorse when he finally learns this information.