"Morita originally wanted to produce an alternate history-style role-playing game as far back as 1996, but became sidetracked due to the runaway success of his "Sakura Taisen" series on the Sega Saturn and shelved the project until work began on the Nintendo DS.Despite the large delay in production, Morita remained confident of his original vision, declaring that "I was confident that no matter how long it took, our designs for [Nostalgia] wouldn't lose their luster."