Many people were surprised when Nintendo announced Pokémon Pokopia in the autumn, an Animal Crossing-like game featuring their beloved pocket monsters. It looks like it will offer a completely different take on classic collecting and allow us to build a cosy world for ourselves, our friends, and our Pokémon.
However, it is not Nintendo and Game Freak themselves who are primarily developing the game, but Koei Tecmo's Omega Force studio, and in an interview with Famitsu, director Takuto Edagawa says that the bar has been set higher than we thought, as it is the developer's largest team ever working on it:
"I can't give you a specific number of people, but this is the largest number of people who have been involved in any title developed by ω-Force (Omega Force) to date."
In the same interview, senior director Shigeru Omori also explains the somewhat unconventional decision to make Ditto the main character:
"We decided from the very beginning of the project that Ditto would be the main character. Pokémon aren't very good at using tools, so we thought Ditto, who can transform into a human, would be perfect. Plus, Ditto can use a lot of moves."
Now we know. We actually got to play Pokémon Pokopia three weeks ago, and you can read our impressions here. The game will be released exclusively for Switch 2 on March 5.