Which famous Pokémon game inspired Shigeru Ohmori’s original concept for Pokémon Pokopia’s habitats?

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire inspired Shigeru Ohmori’s original concept for Pokémon Pokopia’s habitats.

Ohmori worked as a map designer on Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, and that early experience influenced his thinking about how players might create their own Pokémon environments. He later conceived Pokopia as a spin-off built around cultivating habitats rather than simply traveling through a fixed map.

This connection is about design inspiration, not the story's setting. Pokopia takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Kanto, while Ruby and Sapphire are associated with the Hoenn region. The two games therefore contribute different things: Ruby and Sapphire influenced the development idea, whereas Kanto provides the fictional setting.

Ohmori was also the concept and senior director of Pokopia. His background helped connect the game's habitat-building premise with earlier Pokémon map-design work.