Detective Pikachu ignores the precedent set by Ash and his iconic Pikachu partner; its protagonist isn’t a trainer, its Pikachu is snarky, and it invites Pokemon from all generations to its city. But by doing so, developer Creatures has crafted an intriguing adventure game that, while not all that challenging, incorporates elements unique to Pokemon that ultimately make for a great whodunit experience.

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“ Case Files feature beautiful illustrations from Tim.

Up Close and Personal with the Detective Pikachu Amiibo 15 IMAGES

“ This Pikachu is as bold as his favorite black coffee.

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“ Cases grow a little more intricate with every chapter.

It’s been two months since Tim Goodman’s father went missing while on a case in Ryme city, and this teen takes it upon himself to find out what happened. Tim runs into Detective Pikachu and realizes he’s the only one who can hear the Pokemon speak. Their special circumstance is a big underlying mystery of Detective Pikachu, and it lends to funny moments between the two early on as they try to hide their conversations. With their bond formed, Pikachu teams up with Tim to find his father.Detective Pikachu has you spending your 12-hour adventure solving many, many cases. To do so, Tim and Pikachu collect testimonies by talking with characters and Pokemon, observing crime scenes, and collecting items. Tim records important details from conversations and item information in his Case Notes, which you can revisit at any time. Once you’ve found enough evidence, Pikachu prompts you to use it to solve the case in the Case File. The Case File shows all relevant evidence you've collected, then you have to choose which evidence proves your final answer. Pikachu always guides Tim through this process, and even if you get it wrong, you can try again.Solving cases is a lot like doing math in grade school. Even if you know the solution several steps before you’ve gathered all your evidence, you still need to show your work before you can turn in your answer. That may sound tedious, but I only had issues finding a specific clue in two of the many multi-part cases I solved. Otherwise, finding information for cases by interacting with others is fun because it sheds more light on the world of Pokemon.Instead of using a Pokedex or other gadgets for their investigations, Pikachu and Tim enlist the help of experts around them, like Milo, a Pokemon Ranger in training, and a news reporter named Emilia. They’re both charming in their own right and provided great information about Pokemon, Ryme City, and how certain jobs work in the Pokemon setting. And since Tim and Pikachu rarely meet Pokemon Trainers, I had the opportunity to learn more about the bonds between people and their Pokemon partners when there isn’t an emphasis on battling. The Pokemon anime and core games do feature these relationships from time to time, but Detective Pikachu offers a far greater variety of them.With Pikachu being… well, a Pikachu, that meant he could talk to Pokemon to not only reveal information about a case from unique perspectives, but also inform me more on Pokemon personalities and behaviors. In one case, I had to appease a snooty Klefki before it’d help me get into a locked room, and in another, I learned how a Pokemon community was ruined when one key Pokemon was taken away. I came out of Detective Pikachu grateful for having learned more about the varying relationships between people and Pokemon beyond just being a Trainer.Pikachu’s personality isn’t overbearing, either. Much of this is thanks to the excellent, mostly-optional Pika Prompts. Tapping Pikachu on the bottom screen means you’ll get some sort of scene, such as him interacting with another Pokemon, practicing his moves, or giving Tim a coffee tip. Pika Prompts can also offer tips for your current case. The scenes are delightful, and I really enjoyed collecting them.I was initially worried that Detective Pikachu’s cases being easy early on would mean a simpler story, but thankfully this adventure doesn’t pull its punches with the severity of the overarching case. I was surprised by the growing intensity of Tim’s case with each passing chapter, though some weird moments did briefly stall my excitement. After a major reveal about Pikachu and Tim’s father, I ended up having to solve two cases while waiting for a character to retrieve a simple video file. The importance of those cases made sense later on, but at the time they felt like a less interesting diversion from the new information I had discovered about Tim’s father.