We weren't the only ones to draw the Dragon Quest Builders link when Pokopia was first unveiled last year, and it was with good reason. As it turns out, we have Builders dev Omega Force to thank for the game's speedy development time.
That is according to Pokopia producer Kanako Murata, who, in a new interview with Famitsu (translated by Automaton), confirmed that the team brought in director Takuto Edagawa and art director Marina Ayano to share some Dragon Quest Builders 2 pearls of wisdom.
Edagawa and the Omega Force team apparently got on board after seeing senior director's Shigeru Ohmori's early prototype, which was inspired by his time working on Ruby and Sapphire back in the day. According to Edagawa, this prototype provided such a clear rundown of what Game Freak wanted to achieve with Pokopia, that Omega Force knew it'd be able to contribute to development.
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The game director went on to say that the teams worked closely together for three to four months before development officially started, ironing out any potential gameplay creases and tweaking the central ideas. While he didn't provide any specific dates, Pokopia development apparently wrapped up pretty quickly thanks to this collaborative planning effort, with many of the major hurdles dealt with way in advance.
This is reportedly the biggest team that Omega Force has ever mustered for a game, and while Edagawa and Ayano are new to working on the series, they believe they've made something that can be proudly delivered to Pokémon fans.
From the small amount that we've played so far, we have to agree! "Despite going in with the lowest of the low expectations," Ollie Reynolds wrote in our hands-on preview, "Pokopia was a huge surprise which had me grinning ear to ear". We're excited to see even more when the full game launches on 5th March.