The Game Awards 2023 offered several buzzy reveals. From the announcements of the new God of War Ragnarök DLC to our first look at the latest entry in the Monster Hunter franchise. However, one “World Premiere” that went a little under the radar was the reveal trailer for Visions of Mana, but this title may actually be our first look at a Nintendo Switch 2 game.
The Visions of Mana trailer showcased at The Game Awards ends with a splash screen that confirms the game will launch in 2024 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Surprisingly, there is no sign of a Nintendo Switch version. Which is odd because the franchise hasn’t skipped Nintendo platforms in the past. The Collection of Mana was released for Switch in 2019, followed by Trails of Mana in 2020 and Legend of Mana in 2021. As you can see, the franchise as a whole has a long history with Nintendo.
Perhaps the Nintendo Switch’s rapidly aging hardware isn't powerful enough to handle this new installment in the Mana series. However, Visions of Mana will be launching on PS4, a console that is more than a decade old, so clearly the developers aren’t taking full advantage of the latest gaming hardware with this project.
According to regular Nintendo-leaker Zippo, the reason that a Switch version of Visions of Mana hasn’t been confirmed yet is actually because the RPG will be one of publisher Square Enix’s very first Nintendo Switch 2 games.
“[Visions of Mana] will be one of Square Enix's first games released for the new system, so that's pretty damn exciting. And that's just the top of the iceberg. Square is planning an extensive support for their next system, with franchises, big and small,” Zippo wrote in their latest blog post.
This would certainly make a lot of sense, as it seems puzzling that Visions of Mana would skip Nintendo platforms altogether given the series’ history (the very first Mana game launched on SNES in 1993). However, while Zippo is a reputable insider, it’s important to take this information as speculation for now. Until we hear word from Nintendo or Square Enix this report shouldn’t be considered a confirmed fact.
Zippo has previously claimed that the Nintendo Switch 2 will launch in the latter half of 2024 — which would likely line up nicely with Visions of Mana’s release date — and in its second year on the market will receive a new Mario Kart game. Again these are just rumors for now, but it’s exciting to think that we may only be a few months away from concrete details about the currently unannounced Nintendo Switch 2.
