Detective Pikachu Returns Director Reveals Which Pokemon Should Get a Detective Game (Exclusive)

In Detective Pikachu Returns, players will once again get a chance to solve mysteries with Tim Goodman and the Great Detective Pikachu. ComicBook.com recently had a chance to attend a hands-on preview of the game, and also to speak with director Yasunori Yanagisawa. During the interview, we asked Yanagisawa if there was another Pokemon he'd most like to frame a detective game around. Through a translator, the director revealed that he would pick Pichu, the "baby" form of Pikachu. Yanagisawa's logic seemed to be that, since he modeled Detective Pikachu's personality around that of an older man, having him train a young detective could be fun!

"So maybe Pichu as like an apprentice," said Yanagisawa, laughing.

Old Man Pikachu

The Pikachu that stars in the Detective Pikachu series is quite different from those seen in past Pokemon games, or in the anime. The 3DS game saw Detective Pikachu moving around Ryme City in a lot of unique ways, even stopping for dramatic poses when he found a break in a case. In the original Detective Pikachu, Creatures, Inc. employed motion-capture to create Pikachu's unique movements. Yanagisawa revealed that motion capture was once again employed for Detective Pikachu Returns.

"Motion capture was also used for this game, and in order to get some realistic middle-aged man moves, we had a middle-aged man do the motion capture," said Yanagisawa.

While many fans might not associate Detective Pikachu with an older man, that inspiration played a big role in the character's development. According to Yanagisawa, it wasn't just the character's movements or personality that reflected this inspiration; it also extended to the character's passion for coffee.

"There's probably certain items that are associated with the character of a detective. For this case it just made a lot of sense for Pikachu to just have that old man characteristic of drinking some coffee and just really loving coffee."

Whether or not we'll see the coffee-drinking "old man" Pikachu taking a young Pichu under his wing in a future game remains to be seen, but it could be a fun dynamic!

Deciding Which Pokemon to Include

It remains to be seen what Pokemon will appear in future Detective Pikachu games, but for now, players can look forward to seeing a number of favorites in Detective Pikachu Returns. From our hands-on preview, we already got to see Whimsicott, Ducklett, Raboot, Pawniard, and Growlithe. There are a lot of factors that play into which Pokemon are selected for a spin-off game, but sometimes it's as simple as personal preference.

"There's a lot of Pokemon that are appearing in this game. There are various reasons that they've been selected, but mainly it's seeing the Pokemon's unique characteristics and making sure that it's appropriate for the environment that they're interacting with. For example, seeing Pokemon that are working on something, Pokemon that are playing, for example, if there was a Pokemon that was playing with a soccer ball at the park, there's a certain Pokemon that might be appropriate for that scenario. There's that aspect and there's also the preferences, different preferences in Pokemon on the developer side. If they want to see a particular Pokemon appearing, they'll choose that. As for Growlithe, [I] really like dogs so having Growlithe in this game made sense," said Yanagisawa.

Stay tuned for more from ComicBook.com's interview with Yasunori Yanagisawa in the future!

Do you want to see a Detective Pichu game? Does that seem like an interesting dynamic for a third game? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!