Square Enix's recent livestream celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Mana series contained news about the series' future. The producer of the Mana series announced that its next major entry is in development.
The different games in the Mana series are of varying quality, but the basic elements of the core games boil down to action-RPGs with captivating stories and visuals. The long-running series saw its first outing on the Game Boy as a spinoff of Final Fantasy, but was completely separated into its own set of stories and has been supported as a standalone franchise for three decades.
Square Enix recently hosted a livestream commemorating the Mana series' 30th anniversary, and toward the end announced a new entry is in the works. The stream is in Japanese, but RPG Site translated the announcement for English-speaking audiences. While series producer Masaru Oyamada confirms a new game is in development, he cautions viewers to, "Please wait a little longer for the announcement." Oyamada says as much as the team would like to "make a cool video announcement with a bang," it is too early to show the game to the general public.
Square Enix also announced that the high-selling Trials of Mana will be released on mobile devices. The effort to make the game available on more platforms should be appreciated by fans, and another completely original Mana mobile RPG was also announced, Echoes of Mana, which will be free-to-play and feature characters from across the series.
With Legend of Mana's recent release on Nintendo Switch and the Secret of Mana remake before it, Square is evidently shifting some of its focus to the Mana series, even if recent releases' quality have been somewhat inconsistent. The shift is likely due to the commercial success of Trials of Mana. Little information is available concerning the next Mana game, but Oyamada's statement suggests it will be a new mainline entry in the series, and it may be a while before the game releases.
Square Enix is taking on many large development and publishing projects at once, with Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 still in the works and plans to make Outriders into a major IP following its successful release earlier this year. All of these concurrent projects and more show that there will be no shortage of games from the popular developer.
A new Mana game is currently in development.
Source: RPG Site