So, Pokémon Pokopia is dropping soon, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Especially now that I know it's gonna have those Minecraft-style servers that stick around. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it lives up to the hype when it launches on March 5th.

That said, I think it's nice to see how the project got the attention of Omega Force (you know, that Koei Tecmo studio). Apparently, they were hooked after seeing Game Freak's initial idea for Pokopia. It just goes to show how a cool concept can draw in some serious talent.

It all started way back when Shigeru Ohmori was messing around with grass and plants in Ruby and Sapphire. That sparked the idea of a simulator where players could get creative and build a world for Pokémon to chill in. Fast forward over 20 years, and Ohmori's prototype and video finally convinced Game Freak to take the idea seriously. It's kinda wild how long some ideas take to come to life, right?

Kanako Murata told Famitsu that Koei Tecmo jumped on board after some of their Dragon Quest Builders 2 folks saw Ohmori's stuff. They were so stoked by the vision that they felt like they could really add something special to the game alongside Game Freak. And now, here we are, about to dive into the finished product.

Apparently, the dev team and Game Freak spent about 3-4 months hammering out the details before really getting into development. According to Takuto Edagawa and Marina Ayano, the core issues and cool ideas were sorted out pretty quickly.

There's no exact date given, but it sounds like Pokémon Pokopia was one of those projects where everything just clicked. I'm really hoping it turns out to be the cozy life sim that so many of us are dreaming of.