The Apothecary Diaries, the anime and manga series following a sharp-minded young apothecary navigating imperial court conspiracies, is expanding into video games. Publisher Koei Tecmo has announced The Apothecary Diaries: The False Imperial Brother, a PC spin-off title that puts protagonist Maomao at the center of a brand new mystery – one involving masked figures, palace curses, and secrets that could shake the imperial court to its foundation.
What Is The Apothecary Diaries?
For those unfamiliar with the source material, The Apothecary Diaries is a manga and anime series set in a fictional world inspired by Tang Dynasty-era China. The story follows Maomao, a young woman with an extensive background in medicine and pharmacology who ends up working as a servant in the Forbidden Palace, attending to the Emperor’s concubines. Despite her modest role, Maomao repeatedly finds herself drawn into court intrigues, using her analytical mind and deep knowledge of poisons and compounds to solve mysteries that baffle everyone around her.
The series has drawn comparisons to Sherlock Holmes stories for its emphasis on deduction and investigation, though Maomao’s methods lean heavily on her pharmaceutical expertise – including, at times, testing substances on herself. Alongside the mysteries, the series follows her relationship with Jinshi, a palace administrator with an obvious interest in Maomao that she appears thoroughly uninterested in acknowledging.
The False Imperial Brother – What We Know About the Game
According to a press release from Koei Tecmo, the game puts Maomao on the trail of two intertwined threads of chaos. 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 that investigation, she crosses paths with a masked man who claims to be the imperial younger brother, pulling her deeper into a conspiracy that, per Koei Tecmo, leads to “a shocking secret that could destroy the imperial court.”
The gameplay is built around open-ended exploration and dialogue-driven investigation. Players will move through the Palace and surrounding city areas, talking to characters and collecting materials – including ingredients for Maomao’s potions – before entering a dedicated deduction phase. In that phase, players make claims and present evidence to work toward solving the case, a structure familiar to fans of mystery and visual novel-style games.
Author Involvement and Creative Direction
The story for The False Imperial Brother has been conceptualized by Hyuganatsu, the manga series author – though the phrasing used in the announcement suggests she was involved at the concept level rather than with the actual dialogue writing. The visual style and overall direction are said to be closer to the anime adaptation of the series rather than the original manga artwork.
That distinction matters for fans who have strong preferences between the two versions of the series, and it signals that Koei Tecmo is leaning into the mainstream appeal the anime has built rather than targeting the existing manga readership specifically. The anime adaptation has helped bring the series to a much wider global audience, so the choice makes sense from a publishing standpoint.
A Growing Franchise Steps Into Games
The Apothecary Diaries joins a growing list of popular anime properties that have found their way into dedicated game adaptations, and this one has a format that suits the source material particularly well. Mystery-driven gameplay with an investigation and deduction structure maps naturally onto a series that is fundamentally about a clever protagonist working through complex problems with limited information.
The setting itself – a richly detailed recreation of ancient court life, complete with political scheming, poison, and social hierarchy – gives the developers plenty of material to work with for world-building and side content beyond the main mystery threads.
Release Window
The Apothecary Diaries: The False Imperial Brother is currently scheduled to launch in early 2027 for PC. Koei Tecmo has not announced additional platforms at this time. An announcement trailer has been released and is available to view now for anyone wanting a first look at the game’s visual style and tone.
With over a year still to go before the early 2027 window, more details on gameplay systems, story content, and potential platform expansion are likely to surface well before release. Fans of the anime and manga series have a new entry point into Maomao’s world to look forward to – provided they are ready to put their own deductive skills to the test.