I do love my Detective Pikachu tote bag and mug I got with the game... I wish more mystery media had merchandise...
When I first wrote about Detective Pikachu in 2016, I honestly didn't expect it would take so many years for us to finally get the whole story. It was in 2016 when the Japan-exclusive, download-only Meitantei Pikachu ~ Shin Combi Tanjou ("Detective Pikachu ~ Birth of a New Duo") was released on the Nintendo 3DS, which first introduced us to Tim and Pikachu, and brought us the first detective game within the Pokémon franchise. I truly hope I don't have to explain what Pokémon is, but in short: Pokémon is a gigantic media franchise that started with videogames, but also features animated series, theatrical releases and muuuuuuch more. The games are about the titular Pokémon (Pocket Monsters), about 1000 different species of creatures with special powers. People use them for a variety of activities, from pets to using them for Pokémon fights and having them help with work. Pikachu, the best known Pokémon for example, is a yellow mouse species of the Electric type, capable of generating electricity for attacks. Meitantei Pikachu ~ Shin Combi Tanjou ("Detective Pikachu ~ Birth of a New Duo") was the first time a mystery adventure game had been made with Pokémon, but this release was basically only a preview: it was about three chapters long, and stopped just after Tim and Pikachu got their very first lead. It would take another two years before the first full game was released on the 3DS. It turned out the 2016 release was really just the first third of the final product Meitantei Pikachu (Detective Pikachu), a game which I quite enjoyed as a detective game set in the Pokémon world, as it actually did interesting things by combining the concept of Pokémon (creatures with unique powers) with puzzles and a mystery plot. But while the game did provide a full story, the disappearance of Harry was not resolved yet at the end of the game, so we had to wait for a sequel. Which took a long time to come. A live-action film of Detective Pikachu was released in 2019, which did provide a full story, but of course, it didn't follow the game exactly, so I always wanted to see how the story would be resolved in the games. And now it's 2023, and we finally have our answers!
Detective Pikachu Returns is a direct sequel to the 3DS game, with many references to events and characters from the first game. While not absolute necessary, it is recommended to play that one first as the two games do form one single narrative. Going back to my own reviews of the 3DS releases, I would say that this new release is still very similar to the previous release in terms of gameplay. During their hunt for answers, Tim and Pikachu constantly come across problems they have to solve or mysteries that need to be explained, ranging from identifying a thief to finding a way through a hidden temple. After collecting both physical evidence and witness testimony at the scene, Pikachu will lead Tim through some questions to see if they can solve their conundrum (= testing the player). Once the problem is solved, the story progresses, bringing new locales and new challenges for the duo. Rinse and repeat. This was how it worked in the 3DS games, and how it works now. It is not a very challenging game by any means, though that is also because it is clear this is aimed at a younger audience, and it works perfectly fine as a "first mystery adventure game". You usually just find all the necessary evidence and testimony, and then Pikachu will condense that information in usually three or four "hypotheses" based on everything you know. Of course, only one of them will be correct, while the others wrong. A game for an older audience would probably implement a step between that, where the player themselves has to use the evidence first to create a hypothesis, and then have those hypotheses as possible solutions, but again, this is for children, and thus I don't really see a problem with the game condensing this process a bit, as the proposed solutions by Pikachu are still logically based on the evidence you collected, both the correct and false solutions, and at least the questions and their related answers make sense, unlike Detective Conan: The Mirapolis Investigation, which for some reason always had questions that didn't precisely match up with the correct answers, leading to frustrating gameplay. This game adds some moments not found in the first game, where Pikachu teams up with other Pokémon to solve puzzles, like having to shove boxes to clear a way like Sokoban, but these moments don't really add very much in terms of gameplay.
Detective Pikachu is unique in the sense we get Pikachu as a partner, who can communicate with other Pokémon. Mystery-wise, you can just think of Pokémon as intelligent animals with specific powers, or perhaps even as yokai and this opens up possibilities for interesting mysteries. In a "normal" detective story, you can't really have people ask random animals whether they saw the culprit pass by, or whether they themselves were part of a criminal plot, but in this game, it is possible. Pokémon all have unique special powers, which allow for unique mystery plots a we have Pokémon who can fly, turn invisible, can see through walls and all of that, but at the same time, for basically all people who know Pokémon, this still results in a fair play detective story, as this is all shared knowledge: we all know Pikachu can use electric attacks, we all know Gengar is a ghost. It's not secret I love mystery fiction with supernatural/magical elements in them, and Detective Pikachu is really no different from that, heck, I'd say it even feels fairer to a lot of people, because players know the world of Pokémon and their position in the fictional society very well.
That is also why however I was a bit disappointed this game had so many chapters that focused less on providing such mystery plots. The second and fourth chapter don't really have a clear main mystery, and are also set in locations further away from society, resulting in not very interesting plots mystery-wise, and the way Pokémon are involved with them. The second chapter in particular is a bit more puzzle-focused, where you are just exploring a ruin, and constantly solving minor puzzles to clear the way so you can move deeper in. In the original 3DS game too, the best parts were those where Pokémon were used in human crimes, set in very human-filled locations, and that's the same case here, only it's a minority of the cases in Detective Pikachu Returns that deal with that. The first case is probably the case that adhers to this preferred model the most, dealing with a jewel theft from a large mansion, with Tim and Pikachu having to deal with both human and Pokémon suspects, and investigate who'd have the opportunity and means to pull off the crime. A later chapter involves a gigantic wave of Pokémon causing trouble in Ryme City, leading to them being detained by the Pokémon Protection Bureau, the police-equivalent for Pokémon. These Pokémon however claim they are innocent of the crimes they are accused of, and Tim and Pikachu work slowly to verify their alibis and try to figure out whether someone is setting these Pokémon up and why. These plots are the most fun, as you see a lot more of how Pokémon are integrated in human society and how their powers could be used for crimes, or for solving crimes, which is something you sometimes see depicted in the anime, but less so in other Pokémon games (which focus for example more on trainer battles, or collecting Pokémon etc.). But I have to say, on the whole, I do think the 3DS game was better in terms of balance, as Detective Pikachu Returns just dedicates less time of its playtime to these mystery plots, as the more story-drived episodes are more about solving minor obstacles on Tim and Pikachu's way, rather than about solving things like impossible crimes.
It's also a missed opportunity the side quest mechanic wasn't used more extensively. You can now help other people and Pokémon who have their own problems while you're working on a case, but besides them mostly being (cute) fetch quests, each chapter usually confines you to a certain location (with several sublocations), and you don't really get to revisit locations from previous chapters. Which I don't really understand, as many locations are actually interconnected, so making the game a bit more "open-world"-esque would really not have changed much, but for example, you can enter certain streets in the first chapter, but which are closed off in the third chapter. Just keeping everything open would have made for a more lively setting, and also allowed for more interesting side-quests spanning chapters, or for example still offer minor human-crime mysteries even if the chapter's main focus is on a human-lite setting.
Story-wise, the game does finally provide a conclusion to the quest of Tim and Pikachu looking for Harry, so in that sense, I'd definitely still recommend this game to anyone who played the 3DS game. People who have seen the live-action film will probably recognize a lot of the cues in Detective Pikachu Returns, and it seems likely the producers of that film already had access to a rough outline of the events of this game, but still, the games are their own world, and I still had fun playing the game. Also, the game is cute. Really cute. I took soooo many screenshots of this game, just of Pikachu babbling, making funny comments or simply walking around.
Detective Pikachu Returns is undeniably a very simple mystery adventure game, but I don't ever think it ever aspired to be anything but that, and while I do think the 3DS game was the better mystery game overall, I did have fun playing this game and finally finding out what happened to Harry together with Tim and Pikachu. While I can't deny I would have wanted to see more of the human-Pokémon society-focused crimes in this game as they are by far the best moments of the series, I did enjoy my time in Ryme City again. It would be fun to see another Detective Pikachu game that would explore the potential of these supernatural-themed mysteries more, and perhaps aimed at a slightly older audience, but I can only hope! For now, I'm just glad we finally have closure after seven years!
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