COMPLETE: Detective Pikachu

This one came out of nowhere and took an immediate shortcut to the top of the queue mostly because of the announcement of the upcoming movie. This looks amazing and I absolutely want to see it opening weekend, which means I want to have gone through the game by then, which means the game was the only one in my backlog with a time limit and so some plans were swapped around to make this work.

I'm glad it turned out that way. Let's be honest: I probably wasn't going to get around to this one for a while, if ever, without there being some extra pressure like that. I'm glad I did. It's really good!

Tim Goodman is a new arrival at Ryme City, here to search for his missing father. Detective Pikachu is a Meowth-like talking intelligent Pikachu but only Tim can hear him. Together, they fight crime.

(Sara adds: This relationship was of course intensely relateable and made the whole experience a zillion times more endearing for me as well.)

This game plays like an easier Ace Attorney Investigations, sort of? With David Cage QTEs during cutscenes. You can't lose; messing up any of those just goes back and makes you try again until you get it right. (There is an optional missable item toward the end of the game, but all it does is temporarily give Pikachu a different costume in one specific scene.) It has a free demo which starts you out in the tutorial chapter, which is good for assuaging curiosity if you're wondering how this actually plays. However, the tutorial chapter is incredibly hand-holdy, using what feels like unnecessarily elaborate "gather testimony, sort it all out in the case file screen, answer this series of questions to put it all together" mechanics to solve the mystery of whether a wet-paint-covered fleeing suspect could have anything to do with this trail of wet paint splatters leading down this sidestreet, and which way the perp could have gone if you put these clues together. I swear it gets better.

Actually, the gameplay is more or less constant, but the plot escalates to the point that you do (eventually) need your detective notebook to sort it all out, so it works out and the whole thing feels fine later on. The chapters are somewhat episodic, in that you always seem to show up in the middle of some minor case you need to solve wherever you go, but there's a deeper metaplot at play too. ("Okay, now that I've found out who was framing you and got that whole nonsense sorted out, what can you tell me about my dad?") I would describe this game as one that contains entire spectrums. The cases range from the almost insulting tutorial errand (a mischievous Pokemon took a little girl's necklace and ran off, go track it down and get it back) to infiltrating an international drug ring. One unmasked culprit was a tragic case where I genuinely liked this person but they just made a bad decision, and everyone involved on all sides is deeply sorry that it turned out like this. This was followed immediately by another unmasked culprit going full Don Paolo with an evil taunting chase sequence and Schwarzenegger-esque rooftop helicopter Noivern escape attempt, complete with an actual honest-to-God "BWAHAHA."

And... honestly? It works. The best I can say about a game is when my disbelief is properly suspended, and this game's plot absolutely had me buying in once it got going. I know deep down that, when you're trespassing in a secret villain lair looking for clues and talking about how you need to find what you need and get out of here before the bad guys come back, whether you'll actually do so with a clean getaway is a hard-coded plot decision. I also know it'll probably turn out okay either way, because this is a Pokemon game and "and then you were caught and you DIED" is not how stories end anyway (unless it's a Sierra game, but this one isn't.) But it still felt properly tense in there. I felt the nervousness being places I shouldn't, the relief when I got out unseen and the "oh shit" moments when I didn't, the urgency of running around looking for the hidden doomsday device they're going to blow up in fifteen minutes. The entire Fine Park chapter is heart-wrenching. I will probably cry if the movie touches on that at all (which hints I'm picking up from the trailer suggests it probably will.) I came fairly close to crying during that chapter in the game, and the resolution of it in the ending montage successfully got me. I know it's hard to believe from the demo, but this game really does effectively sell its own drama. (Well, at least to me. I know that's a little subjective.)

The closest I can point to any sort of issue with this game (aside from the tutorial) is that, being a voice-acted Pokemon game, you will find at least one or two species that you've apparently been pronouncing wrong your whole life. For me, the ones that got me the worst were Milotic (which I'd always thought was mill-otic as in neurotic, but is apparently milo-tic as in Milo from Milo & Otis has a tick) and Skorupi (which you would think would be SKORoopee, but is apparently skorOOpee. SkorOOpee. SkorOOpee. The 'mon who's hard to get.) I am told the movie makes this problem even worse in a different trailer (which I haven't seen and am content not seeing; taking my friend's word on it) by daring to weigh in on Arceus, who is kind of the gif/jif war of the Pokemon fandom. At least this game didn't have any Gyarados in it anywhere, because God can you imagine.

In conclusion: A+ would solve Poke-crimes some more, especially since it leaves you on kind of an "And the adventure continues" ending with more than a few unanswered questions anyway. Emphatically looking forward to the movie.