Update #3 [Fri 3rd Oct, 2025 10:15 BST]: Onion Games has finally decided on a release date for Stray Children's worldwide release.
According to the developer's blog, the game will be released later this month on October 30th, across Nintendo Switch and Steam, and will mark the first time the game has been made available outside of Japan. The game launched in Japan on Nintendo Switch late last year, in December, but since then, international fans have inevitably had to wait a little longer before they can get their hands on the studio's latest.
Just in case you need a reminder of what Stray Children actually is, this is the latest title from a studio that includes developers who previously worked on Super Mario RPG, Chulip, Rule Of Rose, Little King's Story, & Moon, and sees players being pulled into "a never-released and long-forgotten retro RPG", containing a fairytale world where children rule and monstrous adults (called "Olders") have begun attacking children.
You can watch the latest trailer for the game below:
Update #2 [Thu 5th Jun, 2025 09:30 BST]: Onion Games has confirmed that Stray Children will officially launch on the Nintendo Switch in the West later this year.
The RPG was originally released on the Nintendo Switch platform in December of last year, in Japan, with the developer also teasing that an English localization was on the way.
Now it seems the team is confident enough to suggest it will be available before the end of the year. Although, frustratingly, there's still no precise news on when it will drop. In addition to this, the studio has also announced that a Steam version is on the way this year too, with this release listing both Japanese and English among its list of language options.
Here is a description of the game's premise, provided by the developer:
What would you do if all the adults you know suddenly started attacking you? This is the story of children who try to survive and thrive in a world just like this, every day of their lives.
Somewhere, in our world, there’s a secret room, in a secret place, filled top to bottom with ancient technology. When one young boy flips the switch on a curious old console, they’re suddenly whisked away, through the screen, into a very strange somewhere else: a long-since forgotten role-playing game.
Blinking awake in this peculiar new place, they find themselves in a land of children.
Outside this stronghold’s walls lurk The Olders: monstrous adults, carrying the heavy load of their own inadequacies, self-doubt, and all of the grievances that grown-ups gather.
Rumor has it that these creatures are starving for something, and that — out there — no one and nowhere is safe.
Can you survive in this world where half-crazed adults lurk around every corner? It’s here — in this funny, mysterious, and wildly dangerous domain — that your story begins.
You can wishlist the game here.
Update #1 [Thu 1st Feb, 2024 16:30 GMT]: As spotted by Gematsu, Onion Games yesterday announced that its upcoming RPG Stray Children will no longer launch in Winter 2024 in Japan (as originally planned), but will instead launch at an unspecified time later in the year.
The developer has apologized for the inconvenience on social media and asked players to fill out a survey to give their thoughts and opinions on the game's future.
This survey includes questions about the platforms people would be interested in buying the game on, what language preferences they'd prefer at launch, what merchandise they'd like to see, and whether people would support a crowdfunding campaign for the title.
You can fill out the survey here, if you're interested in having your voice heard.
Original Story [Fri 15th Sep, 2023 11:30 BST]: Yesterday's Nintendo Direct had a bunch of incredible announcements for retro gamers, but as is typical the Japanese broadcast also hid some incredible announcements that we didn't get to see outside of Japan.
For instance, the developer Onion Games — which is a company formed by individuals who worked on classic titles like Super Mario RPG, Chulip, Rule Of Rose, Little King's Story, & Moon — announced a promising new RPG, called Stray Children, which is coming to Nintendo Switch this Winter in Japan (as spotted by Gematsu!).
There is no worldwide release date yet, but Onion Games announced on Twitter shortly after the reveal that there are plans to localize the game and publish it outside of the region.
According to the announcement, Stray Children follows a young boy who has been sucked into a TV screen and enters a strange world filled with children.
You can watch the trailer below and check out its English website here. More information is apparently on the way, so we'll keep you posted once more details are announced.