Visions of Mana is being developed by NetEase's Ouka Studios, Square Enix publishes new gameplay trailer

Square Enix has been hyping the Mana series fanbase with the brand-new entry Visions of Mana. However, it turns out that the company has external help in the game's development. In a Japanese interview with Automaton, Square Enix's Mana series producer Masaru Oyamada revealed that NetEase's Ouka Studios is working as the development studio behind the new game.

Several members of the studio corroborated the revelation on their own X accounts soon after the interview was published. Ryosuke Yoshida made a tweet in English, and he has also since updated his profile to reveal that he is the director of Visions of Mana. Kenji Ozawa also tweeted in Japanese, although he has yet to specify his exact role in this game.

NetEase has been working with development studios all over the world with titles like Where Winds Meet, Cygnus Enterprises, and Project Mugen. But this reveal marks one of the first projects from their Japan-based studios. Ouka Studios was the first one to be established with Japanese staff members in June 2020, with an objective to produce the group's next-gen console games.

Since then, the Chinese group has been expanding their Japanese portfolio by headhunting prominent people behind famous Japanese game series. A couple of these examples include Toshihiro Nagoshi (ex-Sega - Yakuza / Like a Dragon) and Hiroyuki Kobayashi (ex-Capcom - Dragon's Dogma), who respectively set up Nagoshi Studio and GPTRACK50 under the group in 2022.

As we return to Visions of Mana, Square Enix also today published a new gameplay trailer that features English voiceovers for the first time. The Japanese channel also confirms that the game will also have Japanese voiceovers, but Square Enix has yet to publish a trailer with that option and will provide more details on that in the near future.

Find the new trailer for Visions of Mana right below. The new game will be available worldwide on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store in Summer 2024.