Koei Tecmo and Atelier series developer Gust have announced The Apothecary Diaries: The False Imperial Brother, the first-ever console game adaptation for Hyuganatsu’s The Apothecary Diaries franchise. The Apothecary Diaries: The False Imperial Brother will launch in early 2027 for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
The new adventure game will feature an exclusive story with new characters conceptualized by Hyuganatsu, alongside returning favorites like Maomao and Jinshi. Koei Tecmo will reveal more in-depth details about the game at its dedicated Tokyo Game Show 2026 stage event on September 20 featuring voice actors Aoi Yuki (Maomao), Takeo Otsuka (Jinshi) and Yohei Azakami (Guanyu).
Here’s an overview of the game, via Koei Tecmo:
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 rumors 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, Maomao will be joined by familiar figures such as Jinshi, the influential eunuch of the rear palace, as well as new characters including 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 organize the information at their disposal to make deductions, while also gathering apothecary ingredients to concoct the medicines.
During the investigation phase, players will be able to not only 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.
Throughout 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.
The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 is set to run for two cours, with the first cour premiering on October 2 and the second cour premiering in April 2027. Crunchyroll will stream both cours.
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 ran from January 10 to July 4, 2025, and is streaming on Crunchyroll. What’s more, Itsuki Nanao’s The Apothecary Diaries: Xiaolan’s Story manga launched on Manga UP! on March 23.
