Visions of Mana director Ryosuke Yoshida has announced that he left the NetEase-owned Ouka Studios at the end of October and has since taken up a position at Square Enix.
Yoshida's formal departure follows a report from earlier this year that NetEase was cutting all but a handful of jobs at the development studio soon after Visions' release.
In a post shared to Yoshida's Twitter, the director stated that he is "grateful to the development team and NetEase for their support", describing the whole Visions process as "a very good experience". He starts his position at Square Enix — Visions' publisher — this month, where he promises to do his best "to make a game that many people can enjoy".
As you will likely be aware, Visions of Mana never made its way over to Switch after launching on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series, and PC earlier this year. The series itself has a history with Nintendo consoles, of course, and so does Yoshida — a former Capcom employee who worked on Monster Hunter Generations and Resident Evil 5, amongst others.
Here's hoping that the new role at Square Enix means we'll see more of Yoshida's work on Nintendo consoles in the future.
Do you want to see another Mana game on Switch? Let us know in the comments.
[source x.com]
Comments 14
Visions of Mana is great. I hope that it will soon be released on a Nintendo console. I am also hoping that Yoshida-San can continue to make good games, which respect the IP.
Looking forward to seeing what Yoshida-san will make at Square Enix!
Despite the unfortunate situation at NetEase I hope we'll eventually see someone port Visions of Mana to Switch's successor to give the game a second chance other than of course me being personally interested in it!
NeatEase has always sounded to me like a fake search engine name a character in a movie would use.
Should have been on Switch It dropped off the charts so fast.
Can't see how it couldn't have run in some form!
For me, as it was born there, the Mana series will always be a Nintendo console thing. Most of the lore, themes, and basic concepts originate on the GB/Snes games.
@Mana_Knight Why? It'd be better on Switch 2, the Switch would be super downgraded and a blurry mess if it ran VOM.
Good that Square has decided to retain talent.
Here's to hoping a new Mana game, as I did enjoy Secret of Mana.
I suspect NetEase might release the game for Switch 2 whenever that comes out, as it should be an easy port to make and would bring in not only more players to the series, but also more income for this game. It definitely deserves the extra exposure.
Hopefully, Ryosuke Yoshida moving to Square Enix means that a sequel will be led by him and developed in-house, seeing as they own the IP.
Visions of Mana was outsourced, however. And it turned out surprisingly well despite the fact. It's a stellar game, I recommend it to anyone into JRPGs. It has deeper than expected gameplay which plays really well and looks so, so beautiful in motion. I often stop and stare at parts of the scenery.
Nice, there may still be a chance that this game will make it to Switch or maybe Switch 2. Don't let the game die yet Square Enix.
@mikegamer If the dev is lazy that is, if the dev actually work hard to optimize the game it would ran just fine on Switch.
Hopefully the next Mana game won't suck like Visions did.
As someone who absolutely loved playing Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu III in its full 3-player co-op glory, I've regretfully written off the series as a whole after its failed to interest me since. (I liked Legends of Mana for PS1 well enough, though)
So I'm honestly a little surprised to see people in the comments here giving it praise. I've got big love for the original entries, so I'd be glad to jump back in to the franchise.
Sounds like Visions of Mana may have underperformed. I wonder if a single character at a time (possibly switchable on the fly) Mana game would sell better. It would definitely appeal more to me.
I’m playing it on PS5, and the art direction of this game is out of this world! Best looking environments I’ve ever seen, hands down. Not as much the way things are rendered, but more how every landscape creates awesome vistas with clearly defined silhouettes from every given angle. It’s almost like magic.
I wonder how much of that was also the director’s merit.
Edit: had no idea it wasn’t on Switch but that doesn’t surprise me. That would take so many concessions. I do hope it’s coming to Switch 2 because this is the kind of game Nintendo fans will love.
@Serpenterror it'll still be blurry. No thanks.
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