With Pokemon being around for over two decades and being somewhat familiar with the franchise with the various Pokemon that people have got to know over that period of time. After some waiting as Nintendo has decided to bring Detective Pikachu over to states for the western audience. So how does this fare in the Pokemon franchise? To be rather fair on it does give an interesting take considering how the usual games are that we’d come to know when it came to any of the Pokemon games that came out over the years. First off I’d say that this was one idea that I thought they wouldn’t try doing with the Pokemon franchise by taking Pikachu and turning him into a sleuth detective solving cases of any kind but here we are with Detective Pikachu.
Playing through the game as each chapter of the game that we’re presented with as each case can take up to a minimum of forty-five minutes to an hour to complete depending on how well you can gather information during each chapter when solving a case when a problem arises. While playing through as you’ll have to interview not only people but the Pokemon as well to gather the necessary information to try cracking the case that you’re currently working on no matter how big or small it may be as every little bit helps to any detective. Although the testimonies are good to get but keeping an eye out for things what great detectives call “evidence” to try proving one’s guilt or innocence. After each information is collected after certain points we have to then piece each of evidence and/or testimony in order to find out what happened to eventually lead to the culprit that had done what they did. Although each of the puzzles that you have to put together the information gathered isn’t always going to be to find out what someone had done there’ll be times that you’ll have to piece together information in before you’re able to advance to the next area of the game before finding any major evidence.
One of my concerns about the game is its length of it even for a 3DS game. As mentioned earlier about each chapter taking up to about an hour or so give or take on how well you can take the information gathered to get through each chapter as some may ask everyone that they can to get the information in case they know anything. A typical gameplay through of the game I’d say is at least somewhere between 10 - 20 hours for the first playthrough. While there isn’t much to offer outside of the main story other than what’s known as "Pika Prompts" in which you can call on Pikachu in between talking with him outside of talking about evidence found or testimony gathered thus far. Each chapter has a set number of Pika Prompts along with having general pika prompts, detective coffee notes and even detective tips in which can help extend the length of the game to some degree. On the other hand, the game does offer up to three different saves altogether.
When it comes to the plot of the game as it may feel like it’s the basic father had gone missing and have to find him but as you progress further into the game as the first couple of chapters of the game feeling as if the story doesn’t get too far in finding out as it isn’t until around the end of the second chapter to playing through the third chapter when the story starts picking up. Playing through as bits and pieces of what went on will come together even for Pikachu himself in terms of trying to remember himself with recurring dreams that he has from time to time throughout the game as if a lot of times the dreams don’t make any sense to him. Even at some point after the midway point of the game is when questions start being raised about what exactly is going on to where we have to continue playing just to find out what’s going to happen next. By the time that you beat the game, it’ll leave you on a bit of a cliffhanger in hopes to maybe someday find out everything.
Overall I feel that Detective Pikachu for the 3DS is a decently solid game for the most part as the length felt on the short side while leaving us with some questions to be answered by the time we reach the end. As mentioned there isn’t much to do other than the story and the Pika Prompts as I mentioned earlier as it comes to not much replayability to it except for if you want to take a shot at playing the game with the Japanese voices if you had already played it using the English voices. All in all the targeted audience it’s aimed at should be able to enjoy it if they’re into the Pokemon franchise but as for the older audience as some may not fully enjoy playing this game.