The recently established Tiny Wonder Studio has revealed that they are developing KoROBO, a spiritual successor to Chibi-Robo. The main deal here is that it's being developed by former employees of Skip Ltd., the developer of Chibi-Robo.
Although KoROBO seems to be in its early stages of development, it already has a striking resemblance to Chibi-Robo, including several technical and visual elements that bear a striking resemblance to the much-maligned GameCube classic. It's funny since it fits with the plot, which describes the protagonist as "some knockoff model, not the coolest and latest in tiny household robo tech."
Even though it seems like there is still a lot of work to be done, the developer intends to use Kickstarter and Campfire to raise money for KoROBO . However, there are many reasons to be positive since Skip personnel is present. And not just any Skip personnel, but high profile Skip staff like Keita Eto, a well-known member, and co-founder Kenichi Nishi, who was once a Love-de-Lic graduate. Hirofumi Taniguchi has even been enlisted to compose the game's soundtrack. He's one of my favorite composers, although Chibi-Robo wasn't even close to his finest work.
Chibi-Robo is one of my all-time favorite games. The fact that the direct sequel for the Nintendo DS, Okaeri Chibi-Robo, was never localized for North America, really got under my skin. Even worse, Skip Ltd. was shut down in March of last year. Previous to that, there wasn't much of a similarity between Chibi-Robo Photo Finder and Chibi-Robo Zip Lash and Chibi-Robo games. With their separation from Nintendo, maybe the devs can produce a game that is closer to the original.
It's a difficult moment to be a Love-de-Lic fan since both Skip and Vanpool have closed. I will be watching KoROBO with hope.
Although KoROBO's release schedule is unknown, PC and "modern consoles" are intended platforms for it.