Oh wow, I had completely forgotten about the Pokemon detective game!
Serebii said:
Following the reveal in The Professionals 3 years ago, the detective Pikachu game has finally been revealed as Detective Pikachu ~ Birth of a New Combination~. It will be available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in Japan on February 3rd 2016 for 1,500 yen. It'll be cheaper for 1,200 yen from January 27th 2016 to February 29th 2016. It stars a "smug, talking, loveable, detective pikachu".
Edit @ 13:37: This game requires 800MB of space (6,400 blocks) to download and is listed on the official site as "Cinematic Adventure Game", with the official Nintendo site also listing it as a puzzle solving Cinematic Adventure Game. It takes place in Rhyme City and you the human character called Tim Goodman who has come to the city for a currently unknown reason. When he meets with Pikachu, the story begins. It is a 1 Player game and has no online or communication features.
So I guess I'll first look at the trailer:
0:38: A Talking Pikachu?! In addition to forgetting this game exists I also forgot they mentioned the main character Pikachu can talk (though they also said it was blue, I guess maybe someone saw the mesh model of Pikachu and thought that was its actual color?). I do hope they explain that, like is it a case like with Meowth in the anime or is this Pikachu more than it seems (though I'm hoping for no "human turned into Pokemon" thing)?
0:44: Uugh, Pikachu looks kind of doughy in some shots, like I don't think a Pikachu's mouth is meant to open hat big. I guess I could also not be used to seeing a Pokemon's mouth having realistic mouth movements... but the thing is I don't think Pikachu's face was made for that either.
0:47: So it looks like when they say it's a "smug, talking, loveable, detective pikachu" they meant "smug, talking, licentious, detective pikachu". :P Well at least it shows Pikachu will have a personality.
0:52: Oh, in-game graphics, at first I thought this was another augmented reality game. Okay, the human characters look a bit more "realistic" than from the main series but still cartoony. Obviously I'll have to wait and see more before making a definite decision but for right now I'm okay with it. Nothing looks wrong with them, but still Pikachu talking animation...
0:54: Looks like Pikachu is able to talk with other Pokemon, so that looks like it may be a mechanic.
0:56: Does Pikachu have a human female secretary? Pulling out all the detective tropes I see, as if the Sherlock hat isn't enough.
1:06: You guys already have one Pikachu, did you really need the normal Pikachu?
Hmm, I'm sorting getting a Professor Layton vibe from it, though I guess that comes with the territory of it being a fantastical investigation/puzzle adventure. I don't really have anything else to say until someone translates the trailer of a English version comes out.
