Visions of Mana preview - Mana versus mechanics
If there’s anything that Xbox fans didn’t expect at January’s DEVELOPER_DIRECT, it was the appearance of a new speaker in the company’s hype-laden slideshow, especially not from a long-dormant RPG franchise.
It’s been fifteen years, but as series producer Masaru Oyamada told us in the shock reveal, the Mana series is ready for its return to the spotlight, and for the first time on Xbox. Sometime after the Final Fantasy Adventure days, it can be easy to forget how big a deal this truly is. Now could be the best time for Mana to return - the franchise’s dormancy has led it into an era where high fantasy rules the roost, with Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 proving that players will heavily invest in magical worlds, and with all of the whimsy in the world, Visions of Mana has the opportunity to make the most of its environment here.
Final Fantasy mainline titles and spin-offs are rife, and now, we get to step back into a bright and exciting world for a welcoming adventure to the Mana Tree all over again - and as GGRecon found, long-time fans are likely to latch on in moments, even if it won’t talk around newbies quite so easily.
