Detective Pikachu Review
Credits
Our favorite pokémon moves away from the combats and the role-playing games to get dressed with his magnifying glass and his cap with earflaps and become Detective Pikachu . From the hand of the electric character, we enter into an adventure different from the one we are accustomed to living with these peculiar creatures. The action takes place in a world where humans live with the Pokémon and where they act as pets. Our protagonist, the most famous Pokémon of all , is willing to help the rest of the humans that inhabit that world, defying wrongs and solving mysteries with the help of his cap and the only human character that understands him.
About the Game
Detective Pikachu breaks the schemes of what we are used to seeing when we talk about Pokémon and brings us a research adventure with a classic gameplay scheme that reminds us at times like seen in graphic adventures like Monkey Island or Broken Sword, but far of the charm and quality of these. In fact at first it seems a game made exclusively to start the smallest of the house in this genre, with puzzles of practically nonexistent difficulty and with the excuse of discovering new pokémon in our journey.
Game Plot
Little by little, as the plot progresses, the puzzles are becoming more complex and suitable for a more adult audience, but never come up to pose a real challenge so the game in general leaves that mark of being clearly oriented to a Children public. That despite the fact that we see a Pikachu more adult than ever, with a less shrill voice, who appreciates a good coffee and who even dares to flirt with the girls . In this sense, we have missed that Nintendo takes a step forward and is the sensation of lost opportunity at the time of presenting a more adult and complex adventure, although with attractive characters for all ages.
The game system is well known to all those who have been playing video games for a few years. Using the classic point-and-click that have popularized sagas that are already a legend in this world, our mission is to solve the mysteries that each episode poses us. For this we will have to dedicate ourselves to investigate the objects that we find and question how many characters we cross, humans and pokémon sometimes on several occasions. As already commented, none of the puzzles that we are going to find has a high difficulty , not even for beginners in these conflicts, so what more time takes us to go from one place to another with our research. Here the programmers have used the old trick of placing objects or necessary tracks on opposite ends of the small map to artificially lengthen the life of the puzzle in question and therefore the title. A ruse that we have seen use many times.
Gameplay
Detective Pikachu takes us to Ryme City, where Pikachu will meet Tim Goodman, the character we control directly and who is able to interact and understand the language of Pikachu, who in turn will act as a translator between Tim and the rest of Pokémon that we will leave finding, allowing us to investigate each case that is presented to us. The city is well represented and differs quite a lot from the usual to see in other Pokémon games. We changed the classic town for a city where there are no gyms, coaches or centers where to cure our pets, adopting a more realistic aspect in an environment where humans and pokémon coexist with more naturalness.
Although the real protagonist of the story is Tim and the whole plot falls on him, the presence of Pikachu, a secondary theorist, floods the game with his personality. We are facing one of the best known video game characters in the world, so it is obvious that his claim is evident in the game and if Tim could have been replaced by any other character, the presence of Pikachu is what brings a character distinctive to this adventure .
The sense of humor that the game shows is another of the recreational factors. The games of words, sometimes obvious and again something more worked out, clearly show the affection that has been placed on the location of the title. With an impeccable meaning and adaptation . Although the humor is not the differential pillar, its white tone for all the public adds a sauce to the set that brings freshness to it.
The game tells the personal story of Tim and the search for his father, a private detective, and as we discover more secrets about him, his work and about the city in which we live and the events that shake it, we will become fond of more and more of the character through the nine chapters with which this delivery has . Although the duration is not high (around ten hours) and the re-playability factor is practically zero, it is in total enough for the title to be worthwhile.
Game Mechanics
The mechanics on which it is based is quite simple. Through the conversation with the characters and the exploration of the clues that are spread across the various screens we visit, we unlock more clues that will eventually lead us to the resolution of the case. Sometimes we can pull intuition, and sometimes there is a brief QTE that aims to break the monotony and bring some diversity to the game . Neither in one case nor in another is it possible to give consistency to the game.
On the positive side of the balance we have to say that although the wait has been long since it was released in Japan two years ago, Nintendo has compensated for that time with a game that has much more content than the original that was put on sale in the Japanese country. Note also the amount of Pokémon less known that we will find in our adventure . The mix of characters of the seven generations appeared so far contrasts with the presence of a more mature Pikachu than ever. The personality that oozes our pokémon is another of the pillars on which the game is based.
Graphics and Sound
Both its graphics and its soundtrack are a fundamental part of the title, and in both sections perform their function without frills but with solvency. Perhaps the sound aspect is above the visual, with a combination of soundtrack and voices that sometimes make us forget that we have in our hands a laptop that has been on the market for a whopping seven years.
It gives the feeling that time does not pass through the Nintendo laptop, and although this Pikachu Detective has a certain farewell flavor, the performance of the 3DS game is impeccable.
Game Details
Developer------------------------Creatures.
Publisher----------------------------Nintendo,
The Pokémon Company
Director----------------------Naoki Miyashita
Producer---------------------Hiroyuki Jinnai,
Masamichi Anazawa,
Hirokazu Tanaka,
Takato Utsunomiya,
Eisuke Kasejima,
Hitoshi Yamagami
Programmer------------Katsunori Orimoto,
Jun Kanda,
Tomofusa Shimamura
Artist----------------------------Kenichi Koga,
Ikumi Fujishiro,
Sachiko Nakamichi,
Yasuko Sugiyama
Writer----------------------Tomokazu Ohara,
Haruka Utsui
Composer---------------------Takuto Kitsuta
Platform------------------------Nintendo 3DS
Genre--------------------------------Adventure
Mode-----------------------------Single-player
Conclusion
Detective Pikachu is an adventure that although it is announced for all audiences is clearly aimed at Pokémon fans and the smallest of each house. For the rest of the audience it is a game that is too simple and simple to make it worthwhile to invest time in it. We must admit that it is a pleasure to see the world created for this occasion, with a more realistic city and that makes us feel more immersed in a universe where pokémon coexist with humans, maybe this is an idea to explore in the future with more games of this style, and maybe Nintendo dares to take a step forward and present us later a more adult game, with a more elaborate and less predictable plot and especially with some puzzles that present some challenge.
Happy Gaming!!!!