Detective Pikachu is a spin-off game from the Pokemon franchise for the 3DS. In contrast to the mainline series, it is a game that focuses more on the point and click adventure genre and as a result, has a story that’s more detailed. As was common with a lot of 3DS games released late into the handheld’s lifecycle, the game does not feature 3D and can only be played in 2D. However, the graphics are colorful and looks great. You play as Tim Goodman who arrives in Ryme City. There, he meets a Pikachu who can talk. This Pikachu is special in that only Tim can understand him. As the title might suggest, Pikachu wears a detective hat and is a detective. It’s a suitable guise as Pikachu loves investigating. He had lost his memories and is trying to recover them. The pair teams up when some Aipoms nearby causes mayhem. These ties into the city’s current trend of Pokemon causing more disturbances than normal.
While the game was released before the movie, if you have seen the movie then the premise and a lot of the high level plot points will seem familiar. However, their stories diverge quite significantly as it progresses. Ryme City ties together everyday life with Pokemon and this is one aspect that the game does amazingly well. It features Pokemon from various generations, including even Gen 7. It is always a treat to see which one pops up next that you can interact with. The art-styles makes the majority of the Pokemon really cute and the character models gives a lot of detail that even the mainline games don’t. This allows Detective Pikachu to be unique and superior to the mainline games in this area as the integration between reality and Pokemon is more plausible and realistic.
The game is story heavy with a lot of cutscenes. It takes around nine hours to complete the game and most of that will be reading dialogue or watching cutscenes. Gameplay is fairly limited in that there are certain investigative sections where you can move Tim around to check objects of interest and talk to people. As you gain clues, you can piece together the answer to the current question. It takes a lot of inspiration from point and click adventure games but the puzzles are extremely easy and the deductions pretty much spell it out for you. It likes to make the culprit extremely obvious. At times, you do require certain knowledge of Pokemon which can be a struggle for players who are unfamiliar with all generations of Pokemon but it gives you more than enough hints and tips.
To inject some action elements, there are QTEs during certain scenes. Failing a QTE will never give you a game over, you’ll either get another chance or a slightly different cutscene (such as Pikachu getting the short end of the stick). At first, the game feels novel since it is so different to other Pokemon games. While the gameplay is nothing to write home about and at times is even quite bland, it is the little touches to the Pokemon like Pikachu walking slower than Tim or how the Pokemon’s abilities are integrated to the day to day stuff, the funny dialogue, and the charm of Pikachu that carries the game. While there was a slow gradual build up in the story until the big reveal at the climax, the ending leaves one of the biggest mysteries unresolved. It is a disappointing decision in an otherwise well written game with heaps of personality. After you’ve finished the game, there is nothing else that you can do as the game features no sidequests, no collectibles, or any sort of additional content.
Even though the puzzles are easy in general, there is an Easy Mode which will provide you hints if you request for it. It can even give you the correct answers if you feel lazy enough to not bother with thinking. There is a slight annoyance in that it auto-saves when entering or exiting every room. This makes the loading screens a smidge longer than it could be. It doesn’t sound like much but when you are running through multiple rooms, saving every second is overkill. Overall, Detective Pikachu is a fun game if a little bit slow paced. However, the charm of its world, of Pikachu and its story allows you to fully immerse into the game. If you’re a fan of visual novels or want an easy time with a solid Pokemon related story, then this game is a great choice.
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