Detective Pikachu Discussion Thread

[The Outrage]

Recent details from Serebii (as of Friday January 29th)

Following the reveal earlier this week, the official site has updated with new pre-release screenshots and details for Detective Pikachu ~Birth of a New Duo~. We're currently translating details so be sure to check back

Detective Pikachu likes coffee and asks Tim to invite attractive women over for tea, but is weak around them. Detective Pikachu, due to being able to talk, cannot use any moves and isn't very fast.

Mike Baker is head of the Detective Agency. Amanda Blackstone is the office assistant. Amelia Kristi is a new Assistant Director at a TV Station. Meiko Okamoto is a TV Director. Pablo Milan is the owner of the High Hat Cafe.

In the gameplay, you play as Tim as he has interviews with people and gathers evidence with the help of Detective Pikachu. In the gameplay, you walk around Rhyme City. Tim interviews humans while Pikachu interviews Pokémon. While exploring town, you can find spots to investigate. You can look for evidence by using a magnifying glass and moving it around the scene until you find something. If Pikachu notices anything, the bottom screen image of Pikachu will activate. Tap it to speak with Pikachu to get a hint or advice. Finally, there are elements with Quick Time Events where you have to push a button in time to perform an action, such as catching Pikachu after he falls from a tree. If you fail to do so, the following scene changes slightly. It doesn't affect progress, but just changes how things go such as Pikachu hitting Tim's chest rather than being caught. From there, you solve the crimes based on evidence. The example given is to find out where Aipom disappeared to.

Gameplay-wise, it seems to follow a genre similar to (parts of) Ace Attorney, Professor Layton, and Hotel Dusk (a story-driven point-and-click investigation game). I had hoped to get a game like this since Looker was first revealed in Gen IV inb4 Looker is actually Detective Pikachu turned human

I'm just wondering why Pikachu needs a human to interview other humans when it can talk?

Spoiler

Can we not get a thread full of "why Pikachu? why not ______" when the answer is obvious

 

[Silktree]

I'm a bit annoyed about the delayed localization as I'll be tempted to watch a Japanese Let's Play.

 

[The Outrage]

I'm a bit annoyed about the delayed localization as I'll be tempted to watch a Japanese Let's Play.

I'm guessing the game didn't get a lot of resources considering we've all but chalked this one up to being cancelled, but maybe this means that there's a substantive amount to the game? At the very least, they should be able to update with new content/stories.

 

[Silktree]

I'm guessing the game didn't get a lot of resources considering we've all but chalked this one up to being cancelled, but maybe this means that there's a substantive amount to the game? At the very least, they should be able to update with new content/stories.

There should be a substantive amount to all the eventual episodes combined, which will probably warrant a retail release (as is usually the case with big episodic games). The dubbing is probably the reason for the lack of a worldwide release, but they could have planned it better. I hope that we still get the first episode in February.

 

[BabyBichu]

Why not make a US version along

 

[Mitchman]

Ace Pikachu Investigations and Pokemon Picross in the course of two months. I need to lie down, contemplate on life, and wonder where things can go from here. Its brilliant I tell yah.

I also question the lack of Looker, but I'm letting it slide, Pikachu Investigations is something I crave for. Hopefully there is an episodic structure here, and there are at least 4 to match a retail package.

 

[Silktree]

I also question the lack of Looker, but I'm letting it slide,

He might appear eventually, but even if he does, the focus is on Tim and Pikachu.

 

[WallflowerCanyon]

inb4 Looker is actually Detective Pikachu turned human

I'm not gonna lie, this had seriously crossed my mind. I even developed this theory that Looker washing up onshore with amnesia in ORAS was the reverse effect of what happens to the PC in the Mystery Dungeon games. Looker would be the Pikachu that got turned into a human, loosing his memory in the process.

I really hope this gets an American release, this is one side-game that I'd really like to get. Mystery/crime solving is one of my favorite genres in just about anything. And you cannot sit there and tell me that Pikachu is not awesome and cute as hell. Pikachu is love. Pikachu is life.

 

[Kallyle]

Detective Pikachu likes coffee and asks Tim to invite attractive women over for tea, but is weak around them. Detective Pikachu, due to being able to talk, cannot use any moves and isn't very fast.

This paragraph just makes it all the more possible that Detective Pikachu used to be a human. I mean, why would a Pikachu be interested in human women? Also, plenty of talking Pokémon in other media can still use moves (except for Meowth, but he only loses the ability to use Pay Day), so the fact that Detective Pikachu can't is somewhat of an oddity. Maybe this has something to do with the blue Pikachu villain that was said to exist early in this game's development?

I just hope both of these points are touched upon (the nature of Detective Pikachu and the blue Pikachu villain).

 

[Lufenium]

I can't say I have a massive interest in this, but I hope it gets localised. It'd be a shame if it didn't. It looks interesting, and a fresh idea for this franchise.

 

[tyguy723]

CAN THIS PLEASE HAPPEN?!?!!?!?!

There is a legit petition and everything

 

[SammyW27]

Interesting premise...but it doesn't look like much.

Ignore the talking Pikachu and Pokémon and it looks like just another cheap digital mystery game.

And what's all this Danny DeVito nonsense I've heard talk about?

 

[Mitchman]

Objection! From what screenshots and gameplay descriptions tell us, this game is cleary borrowing influence from the Ace Attorney series, which is clearly not a "cheap digital mystery game". The gameplay in that series is very unique, especially in the invedtigations spinoffs, which is the clear basis for this. You should give it a try, you'd be surprised how good it is. And like AA/AAI, the story and characters are gonna make the game, not the gameay, most likely. And we already have a tea addicted womanizing Pikachu as the lead. God knows where they can go from there.

 

[The Outrage]

Objection! From what screenshots and gameplay descriptions tell us, this game is cleary borrowing influence from the Ace Attorney series, which is clearly not a "cheap digital mystery game". The gameplay in that series is very unique, especially in the invedtigations spinoffs, which is the clear basis for this. You should give it a try, you'd be surprised how good it is. And like AA/AAI, the story and characters are gonna make the game, not the gameay, most likely. And we already have a tea addicted womanizing Pikachu as the lead. God knows where they can go from there.

"borrowing influence from Ace Attorney"

I really wouldn't give Ace Attorney that much credit given that there's only so much deviation one can have from a point-and-click story driven investigation game. It's like saying Hotel Dusk borrows from Ace Attorney.

The human character seems incredibly bland, and I am hoping that's because they're planning to let us customize it.

 

[Silktree]

Tim is not bland, silly. And Hotel Dusk is far better than Ace Attorney Investigations.

Spoiler

Tim is looking for his father, who is Pikachu's previous owner. He has been missing for two months.

 

[Mitchman]

"borrowing influence from Ace Attorney"

I really wouldn't give Ace Attorney that much credit given that there's only so much deviation one can have from a point-and-click story driven investigation game. It's like saying Hotel Dusk borrows from Ace Attorney.

The human character seems incredibly bland, and I am hoping that's because they're planning to let us customize it.

Ace Attorney, no, Ace Attorney Investigations, yes. You search for clues, deduce lines of thought from clues and answers after asking around, and then thread the lines of thought together. Only thing missing is the Accusation/Rebuttal sequence.

Tim is not bland, silly. And Hotel Dusk is far better than Ace Attorney Investigations.

Spoiler

Tim is looking for his father, who is Pikachu's previous owner. He has been missing for two months.

Spoiler: Spoilers

Tim's Dad is stucj in Dective Pikachu's body. Or something. That car crash in the intro is brutal. Also that would be some morbidly dark irony, Dective Pikachu being the dad but not having any memory of his son, while being a lecherous jerk and having the kid bring women over cause he's too "shy".

Holy crap is this a brand of story discussion I never thought I would correlate to Pokemon.

 

[Silktree]

The game is definitely episodic; Serebii's playthrough seems to have lasted 4-5 hours. Tim and Pikachu are stuck in their apartment until the next update.

It's hard to tell what is going on in the story because Serebii obviously doesn't know much Japanese. Finally, a game where reading comprehension matters. Hopefully, these 4-5 hours are interesting enough to justify the price tag.

Hell hath no fury like a Silktree scorned if we have to wait for all episodes before this game gets localized. It's the west where the episodic format has proven to work.

 

[Freesia]

Oh my gosh this is the cutest thing I have ever seen.. *dances* I want to play this!

Also, a narrative of the translation from gamespot:

"Since Detective Pikachu is able to talk, he's incapable of doing any of the Pokemon's signature moves, and also isn't very quick. Basically, he's a bad Pikachu. On top of this, he's weak around attractive women."

I'm dead. xD

 

[Mitchman]

The game is definitely episodic; Serebii's playthrough seems to have lasted 4-5 hours. Tim and Pikachu are stuck in their apartment until the next update.

It's hard to tell what is going on in the story because Serebii obviously doesn't know much Japanese. Finally, a game where reading comprehension matters. Hopefully, these 4-5 hours are interesting enough to justify the price tag.

Hell hath no fury like a Silktree scorned if we have to wait for all episodes before this game gets localized. It's the west where the episodic format has proven to work.

We have no western confirmation of the game or signs of it yet. To be honest, a collection of all the episodes is to be expected, and I prefer it more to digital episodes. They could come too, I guess, but definitely going to prefer a full retail game. As for the length, I am surprised. I was expecting something around 2-3 hours, not 4-5. If the game is about 4 episodes long, nearing 20 total hours of gameplay and cutscenes, then a 40 Euro pricing is totally justified. Its rare to see a visual novel(well, the next closest thing to a visual novel anyway) that lasts that long. Even if its more close to the 16 hour mark its stellar value for money. Some of the main series games don't even last that long if you just focus on the gyms and story.

Edit:There is also a Mewtwo tease in the moon apparently. I wonder if they scrapped the Blue Pikachu for something more. And I seriously want to see how Mega Evolutopn can be fit into this game.

 

[Silktree]

Its rare to see a visual novel(well, the next closest thing to a visual novel anyway) that lasts that long.

Not that rare. 999 lasted around 20 hours and its sequel doubled that. PC visual novels can be very lengthy. Of course, length may be a hindering factor if the pacing is bad.

In terms of detective games, I think that Hotel Dusk and its sequel lasted around 15 hours. I don't know about Ace Attorney or Professor Layton as I have never finished playing them.

Even if its more close to the 16 hour mark its stellar value for money. Some of the main series games don't even last that long if you just focus on the gyms and story.

I agree. Detective Pikachu should provide a more interesting single-player experience than the main series ever did story-wise. If you don't care about competitive battling, then arguably Detective Pikachu is the better offer.

But there are very good adventure games that cost less than $30. Life is Strange's five episodes cost me $17 combined and I'm sure that each episode took me at least 3 hours to finish. Nintendo is pricey in general.