The Apothecary Diaries: The False Imperial Brother will launch in early 2027 for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. Koei Tecmo and Gust, working with TOHO Games, are turning Maomao’s world into a mystery solving adventure built around investigation, deduction, medicine crafting, and court intrigue.
Maomao returns as the apothecary from the pleasure district who has begun working as a maidservant in the rear palace. The new case starts with rumors of the “Five Mysteries,” a chain of strange events unsettling the court. A faceless eunuch, a storehouse that wails every night, and garments suddenly turning deep red are among the incidents disrupting palace life.
When Jinshi asks her to investigate, Maomao has to rely on observation, medicinal knowledge, and careful reasoning to collect evidence and connect details that do not immediately fit together. The story later expands beyond the rear palace, as similar incidents appear across the capital and become known among affected citizens as the “Five Curses.”
The gameplay follows a clear investigative loop: explore locations, question witnesses, gather ingredients, craft medicine, organize clues in a notebook, and decide which information to present to people involved in each case. Wrong answers reduce trust, and repeated mistakes can lead Maomao into a dead end, giving deductions practical weight instead of turning them into simple dialogue choices.
The apothecary side also plays into crafting minigames, where ingredient quality and variety influence both difficulty and the effectiveness of the final remedy. Players who want to follow the project directly can visit the official website for The Apothecary Diaries: The False Imperial Brother, which collects the first details on the game and its characters.
The larger mystery centers on a masked man claiming to be the emperor’s younger brother. The capital sees him as a vigilante prince correcting the court’s wrongs, but Jinshi insists the man cannot be who he says he is. Behind that impersonation, the case points toward a truth buried decades earlier.
