On October 2, the trailer was revealed for a brand-new RPG title from a nothing short of prolific Japan-based developer team, alongside a planned release date of October 30. The team behind this RPG, Onion Games, has been around since the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) days, with one of their most notable game contributions from that time being the Squaresoft-developed RPG, Super Mario RPG. Other notable games that they collectively worked on are the rather rare 2002 adventure title, Chulip, and the 2021 rerelease of Love-de-Lic’s Moon: Remix RPG Adventure—one of the many inspirations for Toby Fox’s Undertale.

Stray Children holds a very similar bittersweet tone to its predecessor, Moon, with an altogether identical theme. This theme is that of the age-old video game trope where the player is tasked to blindly kill the so-called “monsters” that are presented to them. In other words, Stray Children, like Moon, is an anti-RPG (an RPG that flips common RPG tropes on their head).

Stray Children sees its protagonist sucked into the world of a retro RPG in a parallel to that of Moon. Your character awakens in a land where there are only children, secluded from the “Olders” that reside outside of the walls that confine you. These Olders—monstrous adults who are seemingly being crushed, carrying the burden of their own inadequacies and self-doubt—are depicted as abominations akin to the villainous creatures featured in any old RPG.

Stray Children is a game where combat is one option, but not the only right one, as you are also given the option to talk. By choosing combat, the player is making the active decision of violence. By choosing to talk with the monstrous creatures that the player will approach throughout the game, they just might be able to save the Olders’ lost souls from collapsing under the weight of their grown-up grievances. This concept is well known now thanks to the popularization of the anti-RPG in Toby Fox’s Undertale and Deltarune series; however, this concept is the reason Moon led Toby Fox to create his massively popular series. For this reason, alongside the obvious and on-the-nose use of moon imagery in the game’s marketing, and the team behind Onion Game’s involvement in the creation of the 1997 original, you could consider Stray Children to be a faithful spin-off or continuation of Moon.

Stray Children’s beautifully nostalgic coloring book art style, and the chilling, melancholy storyline paired with the soundtrack teased within this past week’s reveal trailer display just how seasoned the team behind Onion Games is. Any fan of introspective, artistic experiences in the video game medium is sure to be excited by the announcement that Stray Children will be releasing for the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam on October 30.