Which game inspired Pokémon Pokopia’s sandbox development partnership with Omega Force?

Dragon Quest Builders 2 helped inspire Pokémon Pokopia’s development partnership with Omega Force.

Game Freak partnered with Koei Tecmo’s Omega Force because of Omega Force’s experience with sandbox games. The specific example cited in connection with that choice is Dragon Quest Builders 2, a construction-focused game involving exploration, resource gathering, and settlement creation.

Pokopia shares some broad ideas with other creative games, and critics have compared it with Minecraft, Viva Piñata, and Animal Crossing. However, those comparisons describe similarities in gameplay or presentation. They are not the specific development reference used to explain why Omega Force was selected.

The partnership allowed Pokopia to combine Pokémon’s characters and world with systems built around crafting, construction, and habitat management. Shigeru Ohmori’s original concept focused on letting players create their own Pokémon habitats.