Terrible news, folks, it’s time for another episode of “Edwin secretly watches a lot of anime and has bad anime opinions”. Although I don’t know how anybody could reasonably disagree with my affection for The Apothecary Diaries. It’s kind of a Sherlock Holmes story, if Sherlock Holmes were a young female alchemist in a world broadly inspired by Tang Dynasty-era China.

The alchemist, Maomao, works in the Forbidden Palace as a servant, attending to the Emperor’s concubines. In practice, she’s the unofficial resident forensic pathologist, solving court mysteries and dynastic intrigues using her enormous analytical brain and alarming knowledge of hard drugs. When not cracking the case, Maomao spends her days failing to notice that local Hot Watson and palace administrator Jinshi has a massive crush on her. And also, poisoning and burning herself to test out the qualities of various concoctions. Maomao is a bit of a sicko, yes. She’s also now the star of a videogame, The Apothecary Diaries: The False Imperial Brother. Here’s a trailer.

In The False Imperial Brother, Maomao “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,” according to a press release from publisher Koei Tecmo. “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.”

It’s billed as a familiar brew of open-ended clue-gathering and dialogue puzzles. You’ll get to ramble around in the Palace and the city beyond, interviewing people and gathering materials for your dire potions, before settling into a deduction phase in which you make claims and present evidence. The story has been “conceptualized” by manga series author Hyuganatsu, which suggests she hasn’t been involved with the actual dialogue writing – the look and direction are closer to the anime adaptation.

It’s out in early 2027. Anybody here watch the show or read the manga? I’d like to read more about the series’ recreation of Chinese history and the lives of palace concubines. My primary reaction to the game announcement is that I’m worried I’m going to screw up and make Maomao look like a charlatan. Please let there not be branching paths, based on incorrect deductions – I don’t want to experience an Apothecary Diaries plotline in which Maomao keeps getting things wrong.