God DAMN that was one of the most abrupt and rushed endings I've ever seen in any media, it's practically on the level of the movie Blood Debts. Look, I know this is a game for kids, but you have the villain sitting there for 20 minutes typing away at a computer while you explain the entire plot of the game to the mayor... run up, kick him in the dick, and restrain him. Holy shit. Why are you letting the scrawny bastard scientist doing evil plans just sit there RIGHT NEXT TO YOU for eons while you explain how his plan is evil! He's actively doing his evil plan! You are right there! Stop him! Do something!
I actually really enjoyed the original, it's a simplistic game but I had fun with it and liked it for what it is. It cruised by on charm and decently clever Pokemon themed storytelling across various interesting setpieces, it was never anything IMPRESSIVE but it was solid comfort food. This genuinely starts out pretty solidly. The first case is a fun little caper and we were pretty sold on the game from that alone, exploring the city was fun and the interactions were pleasant and made the world feel like it had some life in it. We were excited to see what was in store! It then proceeds to fall into very poorly paced linear storytelling that clearly is intended to do nothing more than wrap up the first game and forcefully end this sub-series. God, the chapter focused on "hey, we're gonna tell you what's up with Dad and Pikachu" was so slow and painful to crawl through, the amount of times the game just screams to the characters "this is what happened" and Tim just sits there all "huh. That's weird." without piecing it together for like three hours, god damn it, that was absolutely miserable pacing. It's a shame because, again, this is nothing earth shattering but I found it fun and enjoyable the first go around, would've been easy to just churn a few of these out and I'd have been there for each one! And even here, there are plenty of isolated moments where I was having a good time! But no, let's just focus so much on a poor main plot, write worse, and pace it so painfully slowly that you have trouble holding your interest. What really kept me invested was the little sidequests. They're braindead easy, you just talk to a character, go find another character, and you either solve it there or return to the original character to solve it. There are no puzzles involved but it was fun to connect little story threads and soak in the atmosphere of the world. Look, it's the holiday season, some simplistic pleasant moments based purely on vibes are a good reprieve right now. But whenever the actual plot shows up? It just gets stupid, they'd consistently have potentially smart moments (Electrode is exploding? Get Wooper!) and every single time they'd undercut it by deciding that you aren't allowed to think or react, we're just gonna spell out the solution and have you do it. There are no fail-states. Just go back to the other room and talk to Wooper, you are literally not allowed to do anything else, that's it, why should you solve puzzles in the detective game about figuring out puzzles?
This is so clearly forcefully rushed out, and yet they've been working on it since around 2018. What happened here? This isn't a complicated or demanding game, nor is it long. It has Pokemon money behind it, did they give it nothing for funding? What happened! I'm really just sad about it, because I was genuinely looking forward to this since it was announced, and it severely underwhelmed. There will clearly never be another one because Detective Pikachu is no longer a character and the ending is so abrupt that it basically openly tells you that you will never see these characters again. Fuck you for caring - it's done, it's over, we're not revisiting this, we're the Pokemon company: we don't let projects complete themselves in a satisfying way.
I actually really enjoyed the original, it's a simplistic game but I had fun with it and liked it for what it is. It cruised by on charm and decently clever Pokemon themed storytelling across various interesting setpieces, it was never anything IMPRESSIVE but it was solid comfort food. This genuinely starts out pretty solidly. The first case is a fun little caper and we were pretty sold on the game from that alone, exploring the city was fun and the interactions were pleasant and made the world feel like it had some life in it. We were excited to see what was in store! It then proceeds to fall into very poorly paced linear storytelling that clearly is intended to do nothing more than wrap up the first game and forcefully end this sub-series. God, the chapter focused on "hey, we're gonna tell you what's up with Dad and Pikachu" was so slow and painful to crawl through, the amount of times the game just screams to the characters "this is what happened" and Tim just sits there all "huh. That's weird." without piecing it together for like three hours, god damn it, that was absolutely miserable pacing. It's a shame because, again, this is nothing earth shattering but I found it fun and enjoyable the first go around, would've been easy to just churn a few of these out and I'd have been there for each one! And even here, there are plenty of isolated moments where I was having a good time! But no, let's just focus so much on a poor main plot, write worse, and pace it so painfully slowly that you have trouble holding your interest. What really kept me invested was the little sidequests. They're braindead easy, you just talk to a character, go find another character, and you either solve it there or return to the original character to solve it. There are no puzzles involved but it was fun to connect little story threads and soak in the atmosphere of the world. Look, it's the holiday season, some simplistic pleasant moments based purely on vibes are a good reprieve right now. But whenever the actual plot shows up? It just gets stupid, they'd consistently have potentially smart moments (Electrode is exploding? Get Wooper!) and every single time they'd undercut it by deciding that you aren't allowed to think or react, we're just gonna spell out the solution and have you do it. There are no fail-states. Just go back to the other room and talk to Wooper, you are literally not allowed to do anything else, that's it, why should you solve puzzles in the detective game about figuring out puzzles?
This is so clearly forcefully rushed out, and yet they've been working on it since around 2018. What happened here? This isn't a complicated or demanding game, nor is it long. It has Pokemon money behind it, did they give it nothing for funding? What happened! I'm really just sad about it, because I was genuinely looking forward to this since it was announced, and it severely underwhelmed. There will clearly never be another one because Detective Pikachu is no longer a character and the ending is so abrupt that it basically openly tells you that you will never see these characters again. Fuck you for caring - it's done, it's over, we're not revisiting this, we're the Pokemon company: we don't let projects complete themselves in a satisfying way.