Koei Tecmo has announced a new mystery adventure game set in the world of The Apothecary Diaries. Players will take on the role of Maomao in the Imperial Palace, with the familiar characters to meet and locales to explore. The game is currently in development and set to release early 2027 on Nintendo Switch™ 2, Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®5, and PC Steam®.
Trailer:
About the Game:
In The Apothecary Diaries: The False Imperial Brother, players follow Maomao, a pleasure-district apothecary who now works in the rear palace. She finds herself investigating the Five Mysteries and Five Curses, two chains of strange phenomena and conspiracies causing chaos throughout the rear palace, the pleasure district, and streets of the capital. During her investigation, she stumbles upon the would-be-suspect, a masked man calling himself the “imperial younger brother”. As rumours swirl, Maomao is roped into an investigation that will lead her to uncover a shocking secret that could destroy the imperial court.
To conduct their investigation, players will follow Maomao and will be joined by familiar figures such as Jinshi, the influential eunuch of the rear palace, as well as new characters such as Guanyu, a travelling actor whose fame is growing in the capital. To uncover the truth behind the Five Curses and the identity of the “imperial younger brother”, fans will need to explore, gather evidence, and organise the information at their disposal to make deductions, while also gathering apothecary ingredients to concoct medicines to resolve the incident.
During the investigation phase, players will not only be able to explore the scene but also the surrounding city and the rear palace to find clues or interview witnesses. By venturing outside the city, Maomao will be able to gather the ingredients needed to concoct medicines that can serve as evidence or enable her to help her friends. Once the players have gathered enough information and evidence, they will be able to review them in the deduction phase.
During the deduction phase, Maomao will review clues and succinctly summarize the facts to help her unravel the mystery and present her theory. However, simply presenting deductions will not always be enough, and fans will need to be able to present solid proof as the other party argues back. They will need to carefully select their answers by reviewing the information, present the relevant evidence by looking into Maomao’s notebook, or combine information together to convince the other party. The more information players gather, the more evidence they will be able to produce, helping them to solve the case.
