Detective Pikachu Returns

All of this just works. ― Todd Howard

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Detective Pikachu Returns
Detective Pikachu actually returns, with more puzzle elements, and he can now ride on other Pokémon
Genre(s): Puzzle Platform(s): Nintendo Switch Release: October 6, 2023 Engine: Unity Developer(s): Creatures Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Pokemon Predecessor: Detective Pikachu

Detective Pikachu Returns is a puzzle game developed by Creatures, and it was released on the Nintendo Switch on October 6, 2023.

It is a sequel to Detective Pikachu.

Why It's The Bolt Of Brilliance

1. The story of the game is pretty good for the most part, in fact it shares various elements to the film of the same name such as Tim Goodman actually finding his father at the end.
   • Additionally there's a chapter that focuses more on Harry Goodman's backstory.
2. There are more mechanics than it's predecessor, such as the riding Pokémon mechanic in which Detective Pikachu can ride on other Pokémon for other abilities.
   • Growlithe's scent ability can allow Detective Pikachu to find various Pokémon and objects in a mission.
   • Darmanitan can be used to break through walls that allow you to access other parts of the area in a mission.
   • Luxray's see-through ability can be used for looking for hidden objects, and for stealth segments in a mission.
3. The voice acting is still very good, in which most of the actors are very emotional in certain scenes.
4. Some characters from the predecessor reappear here, such as Frank Holiday.
5. The animated cutscenes are pretty well done, in which most of them have intense moments in them.
6. Great soundtrack like in the predecessor.
7. Good Ending: Tim Goodman finally gets to find his father, after all these years of trying to find him.
8. It's nice to see Detective Pikachu and Tim Goodman again after their previous adventure from the predecessor.

Bad Qualities

1. Much like it's predecessor, 80% of the cutscenes in the game are mostly textboxes which is pretty lazy.
   • It's predecessor could be excused due to the 3DS hardware and file sizes, considering a fair amount of the games on the 3DS had to bit-crush the audio for the file size of the 3DS cartridge. But here, they could have easily added voice acting to the textboxes considering how the Nintendo Switch can support full on audio cutscenes and is much more powerful than the 3DS.
   • Speaking of the cutscenes, most of the cutscenes are cut up into segments even if the cutscene is in the same area, in fact it fades out just to fade back in at the same area instead of using camera angles (In which can be shown in the final battle's cutscene where Mewtwo appears), and the lip-syncing is off for most of the cutscenes, in which most of the time the character's mouth is not moving even if they are supposed to say something.
2. While the graphics are somewhat better than it's predecessor, it looks very outdated for 2023 standards as it looks like a Xbox 360 title rather than a Nintendo Switch game.
   • The character's facial expressions tend to be very bland in-game, as most of the time they will have a neutral expression while talking even though the emotion portrait is showing a completely different expression entirely. Especially in the cutscenes, in which right after they talk, they will revert to their neutral expression even if they are expressing other feelings.
     • The same could be said for the Pokémon themselves, many of which do not use facial morphs (For the ones that don't use mouth textures) in order to make other expressions (Such as Growlithe), Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has shown to use facial morphs for the mouths so the Pokémon can smile or frown.

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