The value
- no battles, trainers or Poke Balls in the film's world
Where it comes from
Pokemon Co. Specifically Requested Less Emphasis On Pokemon Battles In Detective Pikachu Nintendo Soup (quoting Polygon interview) · 10 May 2019 Open the original ↗
The line in the source
A lot of the classic elements of a Pokémon story were not really at our disposal. At Ryme City, there are no battles, there are no trainers, there are no Pokeballs.
In English
Screenwriter Samit: the partner had its fiction constrained to a side-world; the constraint came from TPC's concept, not lore.