The big surprise for the Xbox Developer Direct 2024 showcase this year unfortunately isn’t another shadowdrop. But still, seeing a third-party developer like Square Enix, bringing a whole new game series for the first time to Xbox is still a nice surprise.
Visions Of Mana, the first new mainline entry for the Mana series in more than 15 years, will also be coming to Xbox.
This was something that has previously announced, but having Visions Of Mana featured on the Developer Direct made sure everyone understands how big of a deal this is for Xbox.
The segment on the Developer Direct shows more of the action RPG’s combat. The unnamed protagonist fights against cute (but evil) creatures and can do aerial attacks and aerial dashes.
It’s also the first time we see Pikul, the companion and mount the protagonist can ride on. According to Koichi Ishii (the creature designer and also the creator of the Mana series), Pikul’s design is based on a Yorkshire Terrier hound, a pangolin and Anubis of the Egyptian mythology.
Visions Of Mana is expected to release in summer (Q3) 2024 on the PS4, PS5, PC (Steam, Microsoft Store) and Xbox Series X|S. No mention of it being on Game Pass at launch, however.