Game Freak, the developer behind the mainline Pokémon RPGs, is in its sidequest era as it’s releasing another non-Pokémon game this year after August’s action RPG Beast of Reincarnation. This next game, coming out in December in Japan, is very different, and parts of its gameplay will be affected by real-world weather forecasts.
Ame no Chi Hare Onna is a new mobile game jointly developed by Game Freak and Chronogate and directed by Shigeru Ohmori, who has been the director of the mainline Pokémon games since Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and also directed this year’s wonderful life sim Pokémon Pokopia. It stars a magical girl named Hare Onna, who is able to channel the weather into power, and she’s accompanied by Pon Arai, a cute little Tanuki creature who is a Kumorin, or a messenger from the gods who has given her these new abilities. It seems the pair will meet other characters with powers who are also accompanied by precious baby angel animals who have never done anything wrong. So it looks like some of the Pokémon “humans and animals forging partnerships” spirit is present here.
Game Freak didn’t go into much detail about how real-world weather would affect Ame no Chi Hare Onna, but the idea is that every day of play could be different depending on whether it’s raining, sunny, or snowing.
The game will launch on mobile platforms in Japan in December, and there’s no word on an English version yet. For now, you can watch the announcement trailer below:
While Game Freak is working on a few projects outside of the Pokémon universe, all eyes are on next year’s Pokémon Winds and Waves to usher in a new generation for the franchise on Switch 2.
