Highlights
- Detective Pikachu Returns follows a similar gameplay formula as Capcom's Ace Attorney series, involving searching for clues, interviewing suspects, and solving cases.
- While Detective Pikachu Returns may be simpler and more accessible, Ace Attorney games offer a more challenging and independent experience for players.
- Both games provide an engaging detective adventure but cater to different levels of difficulty and player autonomy. Detective Pikachu Returns serves as training wheels for those who are new to the genre.
A brand-new Detective Pikachu game has made its way to the Nintendo Switch five years after the original title's release on the 3DS. Detective Pikachu Returns brings back Tim Goodman and his talking, coffee-loving Pikachu partner for another adventure of solving cases and mysteries around Ryme City. The more players discover the closer they get to an overarching series of crimes by a few textbook bad guys, similar to Pokemon's usual villain teams, and the longer the cases they get become.
While Detective Pikachu Returns may be one of the newest games to follow a formula of looking for clues and interrogating suspects, it is far from the only one. In fact, as the mystery-solving Pokemon game remains rather simplistic for its 'E for everyone' audience, it ends up offering what almost feels like an easy version of Capcom's own Ace Attorney series. The Ace Attorney games also feature a section of gathering evidence and finding clues before Phoenix Wright heads into a courtroom, which means Detective Pikachu Returns fans should make the jump with ease.
Why Detective Pikachu Returns Players Should Follow the Games with Ace Attorney
Not many fans would expect a Pokemon game to be similar to an Ace Attorney game, but upon closer inspection, Detective Pikachu Returns and its predecessor almost seem like a sort of Ace Attorney-like in that they follow many of the game gameplay conventions and patterns. Tim and Detective Pikachu start off their day just like Phoenix and his assistant do, head out to a location and either stumble into a mystery or crime, and end up trying to deduce what happened to solve it.
From there, players need to discover evidence to piece together the full picture. In both games, it involves looking around the location to find the clues they seek and interviewing any passersby and witnesses they happen to come across to take criminals like Yanni Yogi into custody. Once all the clues are put together, they need to be looked at to understand the bigger picture to solve even more puzzles, often leading to even more exploration, to solve the case at hand. The only difference is that Detective Pikachu Returns serves as training wheels comparatively.
Why It's Good Ace Attorney Won't Hold the Hands of Detective Pikachu Returns Players
At first glance, many gamers would likely see Detective Pikachu Returns as a rather basic investigative adventure game for kids rather than all ages, and in many ways, they'd be correct. While the game gives players all the basic details to understand its cases, players are only made to come to these conclusions at the pace that Tim and Pikachu do. This usually means letting them talk the entire thing out, answering one multiple-choice question that's been made obvious, and letting Detective Pikachu and Tim handle it from there.
Capcom's Ace Attorney series is different, however, in that while the characters players view the world through voice their understandings of the evidence, the case, and the story, they allow and encourage fans to figure it out in their own time. Eventually, the Ace Attorney games get to where if players don't understand the case themselves, then they won't be able to present evidence when asked in the courtroom.
Unfortunately, this sadly comes with its own catch, as Ace Attorney is similar to Detective Pikachu Returns with cases being very on-rails, having the evidence needing to be presented in the correct order or else fans will be penalized for even being ahead of the case at large. Still, if players are looking for something more challenging after completing Detective Pikachu Returns, then there are plenty of Ace Attorney games on Switch.
Detective Pikachu Returns is available now for Nintendo Switch.
