I'm pretty sure if Zion wasn't a lazy bun (and never done Eden Crest, that nobody asked for) we could be half-way generation 3 at least...
That's what I think when I follow the development from first demo, and I also developed games for me and my friends as a hobby. Let me tell you, sure the begginings it take a lot of time to learn, but after a month or two, you understand your engine so much that the development speed up a lot, and you can make games fast. The art and the music is what always takes me the longest, not even the coding. Zion just straight up buys art so that's not an issue. His music sounds basic, but I guess he put some work into it (if he is really the one making music). The rest is... Well the game is unbalanced, maps are very basic. Writing probably takes some time, but it shouldn't take super long time. Coding should be easy enough after spending so much time in RPGmaker (it's not even a complicated engine). So yeah, why we don't have chapter 5 already? Only because Zion is a lazy bun.
That's what I think when I follow the development from first demo, and I also developed games for me and my friends as a hobby. Let me tell you, sure the begginings it take a lot of time to learn, but after a month or two, you understand your engine so much that the development speed up a lot, and you can make games fast. The art and the music is what always takes me the longest, not even the coding. Zion just straight up buys art so that's not an issue. His music sounds basic, but I guess he put some work into it (if he is really the one making music). The rest is... Well the game is unbalanced, maps are very basic. Writing probably takes some time, but it shouldn't take super long time. Coding should be easy enough after spending so much time in RPGmaker (it's not even a complicated engine). So yeah, why we don't have chapter 5 already? Only because Zion is a lazy bun.