The sequel to Detective Pikachu. The titular great detective duo of Tim Goodman and Detective Pikachu just finished solving the R case, and have been recognized by the mayor of Ryme City for their excellence. Fast forward about 2 years, and Tim and Pikachu have been working as detectives ever since, helping the city with cases while attempting to find Harry Goodman, Tim's father and Pikachu's owner.
Though the endeavor has proven unsuccessful so far, the duo find themselves in the midst of a similar case of Pokémon going berserk— and this time, the reason for the phenomenon is not R. After an award ceremony hosted by the mayor gets interrupted by a Corviknight rampaging in the square, Tim and Pikachu begin another overarching quest to find out what is causing the disturbance. Will this series of incidents finally be the ones to lead Tim and Pikachu to the truth about Harry's disappearance?
This game released on October 6, 2023 on the Nintendo Switch.
Tropes
- And Now for Someone Completely Different:
- Unlike the original, the player can switch perspectives between Tim and Pikachu depending on the situation.
- "Memories of the Bamboo Forest" allows you the opportunity to play as Harry Goodman, detailing how he and Pikachu first met.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Pika Prompts are now completely optional, and have no bearing on 100% Completion. To compensate, there's no longer a menu to replay specific ones after seeing them for the first time.
- Chapters are now divided into multiple sections. This makes replaying a chapter for your favorite parts much less of a chore.
- The game differentiates NPCs you have or haven't talked to. NPCs who have dialogue you haven't seen will have an orange exclamation mark above thier heads, and it will reappear if they have something new to say. This streamlines the gameplay loop significantly, as you're no longer running around aimlessly trying to find the person or Pokémon you missed to continue on.
- Big Bad: Charles Merloch, who arranged the events of the game so he could fuse himself with Deoxys.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: This is what happens to any Pokémon unfortunate enough to end up under the influence of the Control Cubes.
- The Bus Came Back: Keith Norman reappears during Chapter 4, as the main perpetrator who attacked Harry with a Lairon affected by Chemical R.
- The Butler Did It: Subverted. In the game's first case, everyone assumes the culprit to be the butler, Barnes. After the investigation, it's revealed that he's innocent, and the real culprit is Larry.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The Pangoro locked up by the Pokémon Protection Bureau evolved from the Pancham that Pikachu helped protect and nurse back to health when Harry went to the Bamboo Borough in the past.
- Chekhov's News: Inverted. Tim subscribes to the Ryme City paper, and upon starting a new chapter, he'll see articles related to all the sidequests he and Pikachu completed the day before. Notably, the Quiz Professor uses all of her hints for the daily crossword.
- Conviction by Counterfactual Clue: This is the main thing that exonerates Pikachu after he's been arrested. The Pikachu shown in the CCTV that supposedly captured the moment of the crime not only has a Control Cube on his back - which Pikachu didn't get until after being arrested - but is missing the stripes on his back too, as the Pikachu in the photograph is actually a Ditto who can only transform into what it can see.
- Darker and Edgier: One rare fact the prequel barely brought up: during the R Incident, Rachel's mother Emma was killed by a rampaging Pokémon. This was the Cynicism Catalyst for Mayor Myers that sets the plot in motion for Returns. While it was certainly treated as dangerous, it was ambiguous if anyone actually died in the previous game.
- Demoted to Extra: Emilia Christie has become the news anchor that reports on the events at the start of every new chapter.
- Disney Death: Near the end, Detective Pikachu uses up all his strength to stop Deoxys and forces Tim to leave him behind in the exploding lab. Thankfully, the pod manages to let him escape and Harry’s consciousness is returned to his original body.
- Dull Surprise: Like the other Pokémon games from the same period, when outside of cutscenes the human characters only have a single idle facial animation that they use whenever they're not talking, regardless of the emotion they show in their dialogue.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- Tim completely fails at telling apart an Alolan Exeggutor from a normal tree. Though, in his defense, he had never seen an Alolan Exeggutor before.
- A character in the park mistakes a Sudowoodo for a real tree. Once Tim gets it to move, she wonders how the "tree" got replanted somewhere else so quickly.
- On multiple occasions characters fail to spot the incredibly obvious Control Cubes stuck to Pokémon backs.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: When encountering a gate, Pikachu prepares to take charge because he remembers how he helped get it unlocked in the past... only for Tim to point out that this time it's not actually locked.
- Flowery Elizabethan English: The Pawniard encountered in the first and fourth cases talks this way, using words like "mayhap" and "thee".
- Foreshadowing:
- Every cutscene with Sophia ends with her giving Pikachu longing looks. That's because, just like Tim, she can understand Pikachu's words as she's also one of Harry's children through blood.
- The Pangoro at the PPB makes an offhand comment about meeting Pikachu while they're detained wrongfully. He later shows up in the next chapter, having been the same Pancham that Pikachu defended from a berserk Lairon.
- The Aurora Drop was said to have come down on a meteorite. Fans of the series will realize there's a few Pokemon that are associated with meteors. The Aurora Drop turns out to be the core of a Deoxys.
- Frame-Up: Detective Pikachu and multiple other Pokémon like Inteleon were framed for crimes they did not commit because a Ditto was being brainwashed by a Control Cube, and used Transform to frame all of them.
- Gentle Gorilla: Darmanitan may be dangerous when he's hangry, but other than that he’s really a friendly primate once you get to know him, plus he cares for his friends and made a home for them in the temple. But once he sees those he cares for hurt, he switches into his Zen Mode which is anything but zen.
- A God Am I: Once Charles Merloch plants his mind in the body of Deoxys, the power very quickly goes to his head. While he only ever refers to himself as a Pokémon as opposed to a god, the mentality is still the same.
- Godhood Seeker: Well, "Pokémon-hood Seeker" would be more accurate in this case, but Charles Merloch is one of these, seeking to place his mind in the body of Deoxys.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Pikachu is actually Harry in Pikachu's body, having been confined to it by the original Pikachu pleading Mewtwo to save the dying Harry after the car crash. As dropping Harry's consciousness into Pikachu's body was the only way to keep him alive from succumbing to his wounds, the process causes Pikachu's own conscience to lay dormant while an amnesiac Harry becomes the host. The ending of the prequel revealed that Harry was starting to fully remember who he was, but doing so was slowly killing Pikachu's dormant conscience and there wasn't a clear chance that making Harry go back to his body would keep Pikachu safe, so he asked Mewtwo to make him forget again to keep investigating with Tim a little longer.
- Meta Sequel: Apparently, the Pokémon Detective Pikachu movie does exist in this universe, albeit simply as a movie based around the R case.
- Mind-Control Device: Control Cubes, which cause Pokémon to mentally black out as they're forced to obey human commands.
- Mythology Gag:
- Early on, the Goodmans discuss there being a film made about their investigation into R, although Tim's sister Sophia laments her and their mother being Adapted Out; Tim reminds her that the film industry often takes such liberties.
- Both Darmanitan and Pangoro's assist abilities - smashing rocks and ice and pushing blocks - harken back to the Hidden Machines of Rock Smash and Strength.
- Lucy Stevens' Psyduck from the movie appears as an NPC in Bamboo Borough
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Charles Merloch has the protagonists (and Mayor Myers) where he wants them, coralled by Pokémon under the power of Control Cubes. He succeeds in his plan to implant his consciousness into the body of Deoxys... and the first thing he does is accidentally crush the controller for the cubes under his foot, releasing the other Pokémon from their Mind Control. While it doesn't inconvenience him immediately (he's a Deoxys now, after all) it means the protagonists are free to move about when his attention moves on.
- Also Subverted around the same time. The protagonists find the emergency shutdown proceedure for the fusion machine in Merloch's lab (it's simply to kill the power, which was the solution in the film); when the protagonists try it, it doesn't work, because the fusion has already taken place and the machine isn't required to keep Merloch and Deoxys combined.
- The Nose Knows: Growlithe has quite a nose when it comes to smell.
- Pokémon Speak: Zigzagged. While most Pokémon say their names most of the time, some Pokémon avert this trope, like Growlithe, who communicates by barking and yipping.
- Power-Up Mount: This game sees Pikachu often joining forces with other Pokémon to make use of their abilities. Riding a Growlithe lets them sniff around for unique scents, riding inside Darmanitan's afro allows them to punch through rocks and ice, riding a Luxray allows them to see through walls, and riding a Pangoro allows them to push heavy materials.
- Put on a Bus: Other than Inspector Holiday, Brad, and Pablo, nearly all the other established characters from the prequel don't get to return. Emilia Christie becomes Demoted to Extra by only appearing through GNN's news at the start of every chapter, but she's never spoken to.
- Putting the Band Back Together: In the final chapter, Pikachu goes to ask Growlithe, Darmanitan, Luxray, and Pangoro to help in infiltrating the Pokémon Unity Lab, complete with a slow Team Power Walk for good measure.
- Ret-Canon: Harry's consciousness being put inside Pikachu after the car crash was also something done by the Pokémon Detective Pikachu movie.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Aurora Drop, a gemstone that fell from space, contains the core of Deoxys.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Like in the previous game, Pikachu is capable of translating for Tim since he can speak with other Pokémon. This is further shown when he is either alone with Pokémon, or getting help from a Pokémon helper.
- Stealth-Based Mission: Some segments of the game involve Pikachu having to sneak past others, such as an angry Galarian Darmanitan or police guards. If he's caught, he has to repeat the floor.
- Super-Strength: Darmanitan and Pangoro both lend their impressive builds to the cases, pushing or destroying blocks for Tim and Pikachu.
- Surfer Dude: The Cramorant in the jewel case talks like this, overuse of the word "dude" included.
- Take Over the World: This is heavily implied to be Charles Merloch's end goal, considering that after planting his mind in Deoxys' body, he attempts to leave the lab behind in order to "enjoy the outside world." Fortunately, Mewtwo shows up in time to fight Merloch and give Tim and Pikachu time to undo his scheme.
- Talking Animal: Pikachu plays with this trope by being able to talk, but only to Tim. And, as it turns out, Sophia as well.
- Tastes Like Friendship: This is the case of one Darmanitan who was just hangry, but thanks to Tim and Pikachu, they feed it a Slowpoke tail, thus causing the hungry Darmanitan to calm down.
- Time Skip: The story takes two years after the original.
- Two Beings, One Body: Mewtwo saved Harry Goodman in the past by transferring his consciousness into Pikachu's body while Harry's own body was preserved in psychic stasis. This also turns out to be Charles Merloch's goal: merging his mind into the body of Deoxys.
- Unexplained Recovery: At the very end of the game, Mewtwo defeats Merloch-in-Deoxys, and the last that's seen of him is his Deoxys body plunging into the pit beneath his lab while his human body remains mindless and strapped to the fusion machine's chair. After an enormous explosion which Harry and Pikachu only just survive, that seems to be the end of it; only during the credits montage Merloch is seen back in his human body in a police cell with no explanation given. While it's easy to assume that Mewtwo had something to do with it, that's never actually spelled out. His body is seen in the pod when Harry and Pikachu escape, though this is easy to miss, and it's unclear how his mind was separated from Deoxys.
- Unwitting Pawn: Mayor Howard Myers founded the Unitas organization to make sure nothing like the 'R' Incident would ever happen again. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that Charles Merloch was using him for his own purposes.
- X-Ray Vision: Living up to its Pokèdex entry, Luxray has the ability to see through walls.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Come the final chapter, Growlithe, Luxray, Darmanitan, and Pangoro stay behind to hold off Unitas from capturing Tim, Pikachu, and Rachel.
