Stray Children brings Onion Games’ bittersweet weirdness to Switch and PC this Halloween

Onion Games is back with Stray Children on October 30-here’s why that matters

This one grabbed me instantly. Onion Games-the studio that resurrected moon: Remix RPG Adventure and whose team has roots in cult favorites like Chulip and Little King’s Story-has set an October 30, 2025 worldwide English release for Stray Children on Nintendo Switch and Steam. They’re calling it a “Bittersweet Fairytale RPG,” and if you know Onion’s lineage (the Love-de-Lic school of strange, empathetic game design), that description tracks. The hook: a curious kid gets sucked into a forgotten retro RPG where only Children live, and “Olders” are the monsters—adults warped by anxieties and baggage. It’s Halloween-adjacent timing for a game that sounds equal parts whimsical and existential.

Key takeaways

• Release date is October 30, 2025 on Switch and Steam with a full English-language worldwide launch—no years-long wait like moon had.
• Turn-based battles let you either fight or “use your words as weapons,” aiming to touch hearts and save souls instead of just grinding HP to zero.
• The premise leans meta: a never-released retro RPG as a world, Children vs. “Olders” as a theme—expect Onion’s signature empathy-over-violence slant.
• The big question is depth: will the talk mechanics be more than a morality toggle, and how readable will the systems be for newcomers?

Breaking down the announcement

Stray Children’s setup is pure Onion Games: a small, surreal story that pokes at big feelings. A boy flips on a dusty console and is pulled into a “long-forgotten retro RPG,” waking in a land where kids hunker down behind walls while monstrous “Olders” loom outside. The Olders aren’t evil by default—they’re adults burdened by inadequacy, self-doubt, and life’s accumulated junk. That’s classic Onion, reframing enemies as people with pain worth understanding. The studio says battles are turn-based, but you can choose to fight or to use words to “land a crushing blow with a well-worded whisper.” You’ll “dodge the barrage of their bottled-up emotions” and dig into secrets, with the possibility of saving an Older’s soul if you reach them.

That “dodge the barrage” line makes me think we might see Undertale-style micro-dodging inside a turn-based framework, though the specifics aren’t detailed yet. Onion’s prior games often subvert genre expectations—moon made you love monsters instead of slaying them; Dandy Dungeon turned job-hunting into roguelike comedy; Black Bird wrapped a shmup in a melancholy operetta—so I’d be surprised if Stray Children was just a reskinned JRPG with a talk command. The tone is described as funny, mysterious, and dangerous—bittersweet is the keyword here.

The real story: Love-de-Lic DNA meets modern indie expectations

What sets this apart isn’t the date—it’s the pedigree. Director Yoshiro Kimura and character designer Kazuyuki Kurashima carry that Love-de-Lic lineage that influenced a generation of oddball RPG-likes. If you enjoyed moon, Chulip, or Little King’s Story, you know the vibe: low-fi charm, idiosyncratic systems, and stories that value compassion over conquest. Onion’s recent catalog (Dandy Dungeon, Black Bird, Mon Amour, Million Onion Hotel) shows they still go where big studios won’t. The promise of a day-one English release is also a big deal: moon’s path to the West was glacial; Stray Children arriving globally on Switch and PC from the jump opens it up to the Undertale/OMORI/EarthBound crowd who crave character-driven weirdness with teeth.

Musically, the studio cites Thelonious Monkees alumni on composition—expect playful melancholy rather than bombast. If the writing lands, this could be the kind of RPG that lingers because it makes you feel seen, not because it drowns you in systems. And that’s both the appeal and the risk: Onion games often prioritize mood and meaning over traditional progression. If you want min-max builds and 80-hour dungeon crawls, this likely isn’t that. If you want a short-to-mid-length journey that weaponizes kindness and wit, put it on your radar.

What gamers need to know (and what I’m watching)

– Platforms and date are locked: Switch and Steam on October 30, 2025. No word on price yet. The eShop page is still being finalized, so storefront details may roll out closer to launch.

– Combat philosophy matters here. “Use your words” could mean meaningful, multi-step persuasion with unique outcomes, or it could be a simple pacify button. I want branching consequences, character-specific tells, and conversations that evolve as you learn an Older’s hangups—more Shin Megami Tensei negotiation depth, less binary mercy.

– Accessibility and readability will make or break the experience. moon sometimes asked players to decipher opaque routines; that charm can curdle into frustration if feedback is vague. If Stray Children is about reading emotions, the UI and tutorials need to respect your time without sanding off the mystery.

– Performance shouldn’t be a huge concern given Onion’s typically lightweight presentation, and their past Switch releases have been stable. The bigger question is localization. Onion’s English work on moon captured tone beautifully; if they match that here, the writing could sing. If it feels stilted, the entire premise (words as weapons) takes a hit.

Questions I’m bringing to review

• How systemic is “talking” in combat—are there keywords, timing, or emotion-reading mechanics that expand over time?
• Do choices ripple through the world of Children and Olders, or are encounters mostly self-contained vignettes?
• Is the “forgotten retro RPG” frame more than a vibe—are there meta-layer puzzles, save file tricks, or rules that reflect old-school design?
• How does the game pace its bittersweet tone—does humor undercut or enhance the heavier themes about growing up?

TL;DR

Stray Children sounds like classic Onion Games: strange, sincere, and anti-grind. If “use your words” is a real system and not a switch you flip, this could be the next cult RPG we won’t shut up about. Circle October 30 if you crave an RPG that cares more about mending hearts than min-maxing stats.