Pokémon Detective – Viridian City Noire
The website Serebii.net had some interesting news for us Occidentals this week. According to an episode of a Japanese TV show called The Professionals (which I assume is like The Deadliest Catch but with stock options) focused on The Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekaz Ishihara, one of the new Pokémon games in development for the 3DS is a Pokémon detective game. Your partner is Pikachu, and the game will apparently pit you against an evil, talking, blue Pikachu. Additionally, the game is said to feature facial recognition and motion-capture technology.
Do I really have to say more? This is brilliant. I’ve been waiting for another detective game using mo-cap since L.A. Noir and to see it appear on the 3DS as part of the Pokémon franchise is great idea. Think about it. Detective stories work best when the audience has some applicable knowledge that they can use to figure out what is going on, and if you have ever played just one Pokémon game, you undoubtedly have a small part of your brain devoted storing all sorts of “useful” poké-trivia.
The Clefairy dame had obviously drugged me, but nothing would stop me from solving the case of the Parsimonius Primeape!
Picture the following scenario. A trainer’s prize Machamp was seriously injured prior to a championship match. Witnesses say that it was attacked by an Onyx, which initially leads you to the trainer’s rival who is famous for using rock-types. But the rival’s alibi seems solid. Then you notice that witnesses also say that the Onyx easily over-powered the Machamp… but that doesn’t make sense because fighting-types are strong against rock! A few scenes later, you and your steely-eyed Pikachu bust the bookie and his psi-beam toting Ditto who were trying to rig the fight.
But that is just the beginning. There are all sorts of interesting things that could could be included. Using the camera to take incriminating Pokémon Snap photographs! Bust Team Plasma’s latest scheme! Kadabra’s robbing banks! Gloom organized drug rings! Charmander assisted arson! Voltorb suicide murders!
Ok, probably not those. But this mix of subjects could produce some interesting results. The game is not slated to be released until 2015, so it’s possible, nay probable, that even the few details we know about it will change. Still, a man can dream…
