During an Ask the Developer interview, producer Akira Otani revealed that Nintendo had tried for years to come up with a new path for the Mario & Luigi series following the release of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, but nearly gave up after failing to come up with anything. Eventually, the idea of working with Acquire was brought up, and after several discussions with Haruyuki Ohashi (who would go on to direct Brothership), Otani realized the company would be a good fit for bringing the series to 3D. As part of this, it was briefly considered to give the game an HD-2D art style similar to that seen in Octopath Traveler, but this was dropped in favor of keeping the game's visuals in line with the game's cover art.