COMPLETE: Detective Pikachu

[kjorteo]

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.

Comments

[penguinmayhem]

It's pronounced "Space Fence Llama Jesus" thank you very much nerds.

[swordianmaster]

Excuse you, it's far more "Space Fence Alpaca Izanagi". Pokémon is heavily Shinto-themed instead of Catholic or Abrahamic.

On the plus, there's only two real way to actually pronounce Gyarados if your brain is spelling it correctly for your mouth-parser. "Gya-ra-dos", either with a hard G like golf (the actual pronunciation) or with a soft G like giraffe (a pronunciation for people who enjoy .gifs)

[kjorteo]

On the contrary.

[swordianmaster]

Ah yes. Jyaradus is my favorite pockemn.

(Shitposts aside, you'll notice that all of those pronunciations that know how to pronounce it "pokémon" actually do pronounce it the first way.)

[kjorteo]

By contrast, their Arceus page is like 90% ARK-ee-us and 10% ARSE-ee-us. I don't see a single ar-KAY-us (like "Archaic" but with an -us) so maybe I'm just alone and flat out wrong there.

Edit: And Milotic is all over the Arceus damned place but "melodic" is at least IN there so I feel vindicated.

[davidn]

I know my idea of pronouncing words by looking at them tends to be slightly different (Tharotia) but I got those first two right at first sight so I'm saying that they're yhee-AR-o-does (like the Greek foldover sandwich thing) and ar-SAY-us (like... Mattheus? I don't know)

[kjorteo]

I would be willing to accept either arKAYus or arSAYus--the important things are the emphasis on the second syllable and the e making an ay sound. (Granted, my account name is kjorteo, so I have some bias here.) Others do not seem to agree!

[penguinmayhem]

I, as a british person with a weird accent, always use the former, but that's just me.

Really though, what matters is not how you speak the name of all that is, but how you hold this blessed creation in your heart, to cherish in wonder and in grace.

Or something.

[penguinmayhem]

Meanwhile, above the clouds, Zinnia's poetry recital suggests an extremely unconventional pronunciation of Rayquaza that somehow rhymes with disaster????

That Draconid accent must be real interesting.

_{Or the localization scriptwriter just couldn't think of anything.}

[penguinmayhem]

Counter-argument: Pokémon is absolutely chock full of references to all sorts of religions, myths, cultures and traditions.

Beyond being an extremely prevalent concept of a 'divine creator' that occurs all over the world, however, Arceus specifically is closer to referencing Amenominakanushi, the original Shinto god who created Izanami and Izanagi using a Spear (Pillar). On top of that, Arceus is depicted very specifically referencing the posture of the Egyptian god Apis who, interestingly, often served as an interface between humans and the other gods. Arceus has also been described as having "one thousand arms" with which it "shaped the world", a reference to Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin in China, Kannon in Japan), the bodhisattva of compassion.

On top of that, Arceus' mythology revolves around the concept of a Cosmic Egg which, in itself, is so ubiquitous in many religions of so many regions of the world it's almost uncanny. The crazy space fence is also very much a reference to the Dharma chakra of Hindu origin, which represenst Buddhism and Gautama's teachings in general. The noun dharma and its lingual origins refer to "maintain" and "law" and is derived from dharman or "bearer". Which... yeah Arceus basically is the bearer of the laws of the universe, keeper of order, etc etc.

Wow that got away from me a bit. Sorry.

[kjorteo]

I really need to get back to my SoulSilver run at some point just because I love your Pokemythology insight comments so much.

[penguinmayhem]

I've got my pom-poms ready.

_{Also god damn there's so much to unpack in Alph Ruins}

[divinemusings]

I have the demo of this. I'm not far into it, but it's enough to make me consider buying it. XD I'm also excited for the movie, and so are the kids. It could be really awful, but it's POKEMON IN REAL WORLD so they can take my money.

[kjorteo]

Honestly, if the demo's enough to make you consider it, you'll probably like the full version. The demo is the same game (it just stops around chapter 2 or so) and the earlier chapters are the most obnoxiously overwrought hand-holdy bits anyway. Like, if you can put up with interviewing witnesses and organizing testimony and using your overwrought detective skills to solve the mystery of which way an Aipom ran now, you'll have a great time using them to solve actual crimes later once the plot escalates.

The movie looks incredible, and it's already fascinating to tell just from the trailers alone what plot beats from the game they look to be covering and what bits are new. I'm definitely glad I got this one done in advance of the movie. Now we're ready and I can't wait. :D

[divinemusings]

I'll add it to my game list! :D I still need to get Kingdom Hearts 3 too. We'll see. I got target money and the two are vying for first place for my attention. lol

It's a Pokemon movie, and I know some of those have been very miss more than hit. But at the same time, it's got a good cast attached to it and it seems like there's a lot of attention to detail. I'm going in with: "this is going to be fun. Not best picture, but fun!" I'm also excited that it's PG so I can take both the kids and not have to worry. Makes me think it will indeed be good family fun viewing and not something to take TOO seriously. I like movies like that.

[kjorteo]

Having played the game now, I can say that the two movie trailers I've seen alone convey a fair amount of details in here. Like, I recognize plot beats. There's a blink and you miss it reaction shot of a Ludicolo in the second trailer and oh shit I recognize that Ludicolo. That's... well, Ludicolo, Pokemon aren't exactly imaginitive when it comes to their self-distinguishing names but shh. That's her! And the Charizard bits aren't exactly in the game in that form but there's something vaguely close enough that I could see the giant opening in the narrative where a creative screenwriter could easily work them in, and if my guess is correct and the movie is going where I think they are with them, then I'm seriously going to cry.

Optimistically (this is if it's as good as the trailers make it look to be, which, I'm hopeful!) I think we're probably looking at something like Zootopia: family movie with a serious enough plot and undertones that furries adults can get invested in too, probably some tension in the implied stakes raised (I mean, I was nervous just sneaking around the bad guys' secret labs and such in the game) and the feeling that people could get hurt if the bad guys' plans aren't properly foiled, but without the kind of adult action-movie carnage along the way to the resolution.

[divinemusings]

That's exciting to me. Usually it's the plot where Pokemon movies kind of drag, you know? I'm also more excited to get the game now too. :)

[kjorteo]

Oh, for sure. The game plot starts slow but I was super invested by the time things heated up. It gets tense and even emotional at parts. I can absolutely see there being fertile ground for someone to make a movie off of this and I'm glad the trailers look like they're doing the concept justice so far.

[dorchadas]

The Japanese for Arceus implies it's "Ar-SAY-us," but I have no idea if that actually matters to the English version.

I've only ever played Pokemon in Japanese because I never got into it until Pokemon Go came out, so I didn't realize pronunciation was such a contentious issue.

On a separate topic, one of my friends who isn't a gamer and knows nothing about Pokemon told me unprompted she'd go see Detective Pikachu with me, so I hope it makes all the money and spawns more movies in that style.

[kjorteo]

Well, the trailer alone looks so awesome that I had to drop what I was doing and go play this game just so I could be ready for the movie, since I didn't want to wait any longer than I had to. Being a Pokemon product, it will probably print money no matter what it does, but I'm really rooting for this one.