Co-founder, director and scenario writer Tetsuya Takahashi explains that the Definitive Edition project was launched approximately at the end of 2017, just after the release of
Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
The plan was to work on it at the company Production Team 1 (which usually works on the Xenoblade franchise) alongside
Torna – The Golden Country and a new game at the same time.
In May 2018, Takahashi-san hosted a presentation about the new game and the Definitive Edition together, and production officially started in August after Torna went gold.
Basically, the studio has worked on three projects at the same time for a while. The team was divided between DE team, new game team, and those involved in both.