It was two years ago that I played Detective Pikachu in its original form.
The game was only available in Japan, and there wasn’t even a physical release for
it there.
But it was an odd beast of a game where it took Pokémon’s lovable mascot and turned
him into a gruff-talking detective with a penchant for coffee and women.
It shouldn’t have worked, but despite the language barrier, I fell in love with the
game.
There was this endearing quality to the simplicity of the gameplay and its style in general.
But it wasn’t actually finished.
This was just part 1 of an episodic story.
With the release of Detective Pikachu worldwide, that is no longer the case.
This is now a complete story.
So the question now becomes, is it still as charming as my first encounter?
Detective Pikachu tells the story of Tim Goodman, who has come to Ryme City in search of his
missing father.
He soon crosses paths with Detective Pikachu and Tim quickly learns that this is the same
Pikachu that belonged to his father.
Somehow during an accident, the Pikachu had learned to talk, but there was no one who
could understand him, until he met Tim.
Now the two must work together to locate Tim’s father and, in the process, learn what’s
causing Pokémon across the city to go berserk.
The game is completely different from any other Pokémon release before and is best
described as a simplified version of an old PC adventure title.
Or even something similar to the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney series.
It is extremely linear and dependent on the story that it tells to pull the player along
from scene to scene.
And fortunately, while the story is simple, there are enough twists and turns that I stayed
engaged throughout its surprisingly lengthy playtime.
Each one of the 9 chapters that make up Detective Pikachu featured new characters, new locations,
and new scenarios that kept me invested.
You’ll never encounter anything more complex than a Saturday morning cartoon, but that’s
part of the charm of the game.
It’s fun to see Tim and Pikachu interact with all these people and Pokémon.
While Tim himself isn’t all that interesting, he’s a good kid with a strong sense of justice
that I’ve seen plenty of times before, Detective Pikachu really does steal the show.
One would think that it’d be strange to have a deeper-voiced Pikachu featured as the
main character, but I adjusted quickly...other than when he actually said Pikachu.
But he’s a confident smart-aleck that likes to play pranks and has a love for coffee and
flirting with women despite the fact that they can’t understand him.
I couldn’t help but enjoy seeing what he did next.
While there’s a decent supporting cast, this is Pikachu’s game and the developers
know it.
After all, there’s over 150 Pika Prompts that simply serve as a way to get Pikachu’s
opinions on events, interacting with other Pokémon, or just saying what’s on his mind.
But again, it works.
It all helped me connect with this weird Pikachu.
Which is good because the gameplay is pretty basic on its own.
As detectives, Tim and Pikachu must scour each location to gather testimony from witnesses,
discover clues, and then put them together to solve the case.
Testimony can come from humans or Pokémon as Pikachu acts as a liaison for Tim, allowing
them to discover clues that might have been missed by people.
Clues are marked with a magnifying glass and are gathered over time.
Not all of them will be used, but the game will let you know when you’ve found everything
pertinent to the mystery.
When it comes time to solve each problem, Pikachu will guide you through every step,
allowing the player to fill in the gaps with the information they’ve discovered.
That’s the majority of the gameplay beyond some simple puzzles.
And there are some quicktime events for action sequences, but none of them are that tricky.
In fact, you can really fail any of this.
Pikachu will simply correct you for a wrong answer, allowing you to try again, and if
you mess up an action sequence, you just get another try after showing the results of the
failure.
Oftentimes, I figured out the answer before the game but had to wait until I was properly
prompted.
This could cause some frustration in older gamers, but this honestly makes a great starting
game for most kids.
They’ll gradually solve each mystery, and there’s even a easy mode if they’re still
having trouble.
Really though, by the end of the second chapter, you’ll have seen most of what Detective
Pikachu has to offer.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing though as the same could be said of other adventure
titles.
The core gameplay may not change, but the scenarios do.
It could be a basic mystery, using the materials around you to solve a problem, or even navigating
a maze.
The locations were never the same, but some of the longer cases could involve a lot of
backtracking which felt tedious after a while.
Fortunately, Detective Pikachu has its presentation to fall back on.
This game is simply gorgeous on the 3DS.
The system may be starting to show its age, but the character designs, locations, and
detail on Pikachu himself truly stands out.
Yeah, these might not be the biggest places to explore, but the detail on every inch of
them is incredibly impressive.
The characters are animated in a more American style that separates it from other Pokémon
properties and just seeing the Pokémon interact in a more natural setting is cool for a Pokémon
fan.
And Pikachu’s emotions come through every time, especially in the Pika Prompts, which
frankly are there to show off this tech.
The music and voice acting are also top-notch.
The music is mostly subdued throughout the game, but it does have some standout moments
that are more high energy than I ever expected.
And there’s not a bad voice actor in the bunch.
The Pokémon cries sound authentic to the show while each human nails their roles.
And again, especially Pikachu.
It really adds to the whole adventure and there’s an even an option for Japanese audio
with subtitles.
Detective Pikachu may not be the most complex game out there.
But it is so charming and genuinely fun seeing Tim and Pikachu solve each case.
This is a great starting point for young kids or even those who don’t know Pokémon that
well as the game provides the necessary basics.
The gameplay might not be the most engaging and there’s not much replay value after
you finish the story, but if you have any interest, I would absolutely recommend the
game.
I like it a lot and would love to see even more Detective Pikachu in the future.
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