Fans of Square Enix’s classic Mana series might be disappointed to hear that the new game, Visions of Mana, won’t have multiplayer at launch. This is a change from past games like Secret of Mana, which focused on playing together. It’s also a huge departure from how games normally come out, if they can have multiplayer, they normally do.
In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Visions of Mana producer Masaru Oyamada shared his strong liking for the multiplayer aspect of the Mana series. While admitting to contemplating multiplayer features for the upcoming title, technical obstacles and reservations about world design and game pacing led to the choice to concentrate on delivering a single-player experience.
Oyamada said he wants to explore adding multiplayer to future Mana games. Technical challenges need to be addressed first. This means multiplayer could return in future Mana games or as DLC for Visions of Mana.
“As things kind of developed further internally, we had discussions on the various things that you can do through a multiplayer mode, but also some challenges a multiplayer mode introduces. By having multiple players playing, that could also affect the overall field design, and also the tempo of the playing experience… I know what that experience is like, and I do want to consider being able to implement features like that in the future… So [once we can address] some of the technical issues, people can experience that element of the Mana series too.”
Masaru Oyamada
This single-player focus might be new for long-time fans, but it’s not completely unexpected. The 2020 remake of Trials of Mana, which was also single-player, had a big impact on the direction of Visions of Mana. Oyamada’s team also views the development of Trials of Mana as laying the groundwork for this new Mana title.
Despite initially not having a multiplayer mode, the producer’s comments suggest that there could be hope for future Mana series games to include cooperative play. However, Visions of Mana’s primary focus is still on creating an engaging single-player story. Still, producer Masaru Oyamada is clearly interested in making it happen for the beloved series.
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