{"id":56227,"date":"2026-01-28T12:53:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56227"},"modified":"2026-01-28T16:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:33:12","slug":"aquaplus-will-bring-the-utawarerumono-series-to-a-close-and-focus-on-developing-new-ips-after-latest-installment-coo-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/aquaplus-will-bring-the-utawarerumono-series-to-a-close-and-focus-on-developing-new-ips-after-latest-installment-coo-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Aquaplus\u00a0will\u00a0bring\u00a0the Utawarerumono\u00a0series\u00a0to a close\u00a0and\u00a0focus on developing new IPs\u00a0after latest installment, COO says\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Aquaplus&nbsp;will release the turn-based JRPG&nbsp;<strong>Utawarerumono: Shiro e no&nbsp;Michishirube<\/strong>&nbsp;on May 28&nbsp;in Japan for PC, PS5 and Switch 2.&nbsp;As the fifth mainline entry following the original&nbsp;Utawarerumono&nbsp;trilogy and 2022\u2019s Monochrome Mobius, this title has been described as the series\u2019 finale. Talking to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.famitsu.com\/article\/202601\/63880\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Famitsu<\/a>,&nbsp;Aquaplus&nbsp;COO,&nbsp;composer&nbsp;and producer Naoya Shimokawa&nbsp;recently&nbsp;shed some light on what this means for the franchise.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked whether Shiro e no\u00a0Michishirube\u00a0will simply be a conclusion to\u00a0Utawarerumono\u2019s\u00a0story\u00a0arc,\u00a0or a\u00a0complete end of the series, Shimokawa commented, \u201cWith this title, Suga (Aquaplus\u00a0scenario\u00a0writer Munemitsu\u00a0Suga) will have told all the stories he wanted to tell, so it will truly be the last installment.\u201d\u00a0He confirms that aside from\u00a0Utawarerumono: Lost Frag (the series\u2019 ongoing Japan-only mobile RPG),\u00a0Aquaplus\u00a0has no other\u00a0Utawarerumono-related projects in\u00a0development\u00a0behind the scenes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1589\" height=\"890\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1589px) 100vw, 1589px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56227-003.jpg\" alt=\"Utawarerumono: Shiro e no Michishirube\" class=\"wp-image-56233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56227-003.jpg 1589w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56227-003-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56227-003-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56227-003-1536x860.jpg 1536w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know&nbsp;what might happen to&nbsp;Utawarerumono&nbsp;in the distant future,&nbsp;but for now, we intend to bring&nbsp;things to a&nbsp;close, and&nbsp;focus our efforts on Jasmine and the development of new IPs going forward.&#8221;&nbsp;First announced in 2011, Jasmine is an upcoming&nbsp;visual novel by&nbsp;Aquaplus&nbsp;that&nbsp;was&nbsp;cancelled in 2015, only to be revived&nbsp;almost a&nbsp;decade later, in 2024.&nbsp;Not much is known about the&nbsp;game&nbsp;so far, but the development team includes novelist Yuichi&nbsp;Suzumoto&nbsp;(who wrote for&nbsp;Clannad&nbsp;and Air), and&nbsp;character designer Hisashi Kawata, who is credited on To Heart, White Album, and several&nbsp;Utawarerumono&nbsp;titles.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"994\" height=\"560\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 994px) 100vw, 994px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56227-002.jpg\" alt=\"Jasmine's first teaser visual from first announcement in 2011\" class=\"wp-image-56231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56227-002.jpg 994w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56227-002-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56227-002-768x433.jpg 768w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jasmine&#8217;s first teaser visual from 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Going back to Shiro e no&nbsp;Michishirube,&nbsp;Shimokawa&nbsp;doesn\u2019t&nbsp;reveal much&nbsp;about the series finale, but he feels confident that it will be a very satisfying conclusion for&nbsp;Utawarerumono&nbsp;fans, \u201cpacked with information people are likely very curious about.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Utawarerumono: Shiro e no&nbsp;Michishirube&nbsp;launches May 28 in Japan for PC&nbsp;(Steam), PS5 and Switch 2.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aquaplus COO explains why Utawarerumono will be ending with the release of series finale Shiro e no Michishirube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":56229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-56227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56227"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56241,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227\/revisions\/56241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}