>>718425692
Chapter 1 was a prototype by solo toby
Chapter 2 was a test to see if he could manage a team
Chapter 3/4/5 were originally meant to be a all-at-once bundle but Toby realized he was fucking horrible at management and his wrist exploded, so he had to spend time reorganizing and hiring a manager. Then it got delayed further because they realized that it was easier for development to have each chapter be a separate .exe that writes to a global save file, so they had to get Gamemaker's enginedevs to add features which allowed for that. Then it got delayed AGAIN because 8-4 was dragging their feet on the JP localization thanks to the earlier development hangups, and then AGAIN because originally they were gonna launch it like two weeks before the Switch 2 and Nintendo wanted them to make it a launch title.
Now Toby has a properly organized team, localizers that aren't slow, an engine with the features he needs, and Nintendo isn't being annoying, so Chapter 5 is supposed to come out next year.