Detective Pikachu Returns review

Detective Pikachu Returns review With our article, we return to the mysterious adventures of Pikachu. In a world where human and Pokemon species coexist, the adventure continues with a boy searching for his father and a Pikachu whose expert detective abilities are as powerful as his electric attacks.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

How was the Pokemon spin-off, which was first released on the Nintendo 3DS console in 2016 and managed to attract more people’s attention with its movie in which Ryan Reynolds voiced the voice in recent years, is its story good, who does it appeal to, are the events in the movie valid in this world? Let’s answer the questions together.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

Let’s Get Another Coffee for Pikachu

Our story continues where the first game left off. Pikachu is still a better detective and Tim’s father Harry still hasn’t been found. After the first game, we start the game with a pokemon attack while our duo is rewarded by the city authorities for their success. Then, when a jewel robbery, strange behavior of Pokemon and the return of a mysterious Pokemon are added, events become complicated.

If you have watched the movie, you may think that the stories of the first game are quite close to each other, and that the biggest mystery of the game is revealed at the end of the movie. This issue must be bothering not only us but also Tim and Pikachu, they talk about it in the game. Yes, the movie officially exists in the universe of the game and our characters have watched it just like everyone else. Our heroes specifically point out that what happened to Tim’s father as a result of the events was rewritten for the movie, and that the events were not actually like that.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

Throughout the story, we try to solve various cases and continue to search for our father. I really like the Pikachu depicted in this game and they make a good duo with Tim. They were already on good terms after the first game, but as the story progresses, you see that they form an even stronger bond. It is useful to do side missions while continuing the main story to get more information about the characters and access the dialogues.

We cannot see interaction between Pokemon in many games, we usually have the chance to see events from people’s side. The side missions in this game are short and fun because they have lots of interactions with Pokemon. The game already has a gameplay time of 10 – 11 hours, it would be nice to reinforce this with side missions. Of course, the loading screens between the areas you visit may be a bit annoying, depending on the situation.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

Detectives at Work

When we start investigating an incident, Tim talks to people in the area, while Pikachu talks to Pokemon and gathers information. We bring together the information we have collected in the case file and then move on to the part where the duo makes an inference about the subject. Each question we solve opens the door to the next mystery, and we continue until we answer the real question that will solve the case.

The research parts are not very detailed, we get clues by questioning the relevant people and Pokemon and move on to the decision-making part. It’s a system similar to the Phoenix Wright games, but in a simpler version. The dialogues in the part where we decide are nice, but making the wrong choices does not harm us in any way, we already reach very obvious conclusions with the information we collect, and when we choose the wrong one among the results, we say “no, this cannot be possible” and go back to the beginning. The wrong option becomes gray and we do not receive any penalty other than the time we lose in real life.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

We have a new feature in the field of research, we can collaborate with other pokemon! The fact that Pikachu can ask for help from other Pokemon when his abilities are insufficient (he cannot use electricity, by the way) is a feature that will come in handy when we get stuck. To give you the simplest example, we can partner with Growlithe to find the location of someone we have lost track of, and find the relevant person by following the scent. You can have different interactions with different partners such as Darmanitan and Luxray. It’s actually a nice feature, but its use in the game is weaker than I expected.

The rather poor use of the features I just mentioned and the oversimplified gameplay are present throughout the game. In each section, it is always clearly visible what you need to do and why you need to do it. It is also possible that in some sections you cannot reach a result that is right in front of your eyes without making the necessary movements. So, aside from the beautiful looking characters and animations, I felt like I was playing a Visual Novel set in the Pokemon world. It’s like Danganronpa and MDA: Rain Code, but oversimplified to appeal to younger players.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

There are also interactive parts in the game that appear in some sections and cutscenes. These are the simple and fast parts, like pressing the same button over and over and pressing the right button at the right moment. It breaks the monotony, but it doesn’t have a big impact. Again, in some sections, we play stealth parts with Pikachu. Even for someone like me who doesn’t like stealth, the parts were reasonably long and simple. Some of the nice gameplay opportunities the game has have been overlooked in order to keep the game simple.

visuality

Detective Pikachu Returns has better graphics than the first game released for 3DS, which is expected considering the console difference. Character models are better, Pokemon models have been improved to look like they did in the movie, and environmental details have been improved. But if you ask if these are enough, they are not.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

The Pokemon and character models look great, that’s for sure. Rhyme City looks nice, but it’s a little too empty. There isn’t much to explore around, so it’s impossible to get distracted while doing your duty. The city is there and looks nice, but if you examine it in detail (this will happen considering you are a detective), the lack of details is striking. Maybe it doesn’t bother me much when you only do the main story, but there is a lot of space and while I was going back and forth in these empty spaces, it made me think, “Why am I waiting for loading for nothing?”

The game is not bad in terms of sound and music, the music or voice acting I heard did not bother me much. While it is undoubtedly true that it has more voice acting than mainstream Pokemon games, not all dialogue in the game is voiced. The current voice acting is a little better in Japanese, but the English voices are at a level that will not disturb. The music itself is good, but there is no catchy melody.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

The game’s performance on Nintendo Switch is pretty good, it’s not that challenging a game anyway. Even if the loading screens between chapters are not very long, they can sometimes be unsettling when passing more than one screen. The game I played in both handheld and dock mode looks good in both.

Case Solved!

Detective Pikachu Returns, with its “E” rating, is a game that is available for everyone to play, and it definitely does it justice. Thanks to the portability of Nintendo Switch, I often played the game outside and had the chance to experience an enjoyable adventure. I would have liked the game to have more content or more challenging research sections, unfortunately I couldn’t find that.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

Which players is Detective Pikachu Returns good for? I thought about this throughout the game, the game is very fun, but can someone who has only watched the movie enter this game and enjoy it by saying “let’s continue where we left off”? The fact that the film underlines some parts of the game’s story causes scenes that make you say “I already knew that”, but it is not something that happens constantly. You need to completely forget some of what you know.

This game is good for Pokemon lovers, those who have played Detective Pikachu, those who have watched the movie, and younger players who speak English. You see the Pokemon world more closely and get a proper idea of ​​their daily lives. You have fun and have a pleasant time with the dialogues between Pokemons. I do not recommend this game to players who want a more detailed detective game, who want to use the mechanics properly and face a certain penalty system when they fail.

Detective Pikachu Returns review / Switch

Nintendo Store Detective Pikachu Returns, sold with a price tag of 50 dollars, offers you a pleasant adventure of 12 – 14 hours. Although it is a game that I can recommend to younger players, the lack of Turkish among the language options hinders my recommendation.