Kenji Ozawa, the co-director of last year's Visions of Mana, has formed a new development team titled Studio Sasanqua following the closure of Ouka Studios. The latter created Visions of Mana — with Square Enix publishing — but the team itself was owned by NetEase. As part of reported efforts to scale back its presence in Japan, the developer was closed shortly after the RPG's release, and it looks like projects from the likes of Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi will not get much of a marketing budget either.

Speaking in an interview with Automaton alongside today's announcement, Ozawa reveals he will serve as CEO and will take responsibility should any of the new developer's future projects fail. For now, Studio Sasanqua will focus on creating "small-scale projects" made in Unreal Engine, with a long-term goal of building up to brand new console and PC games.

The now-shuttered Ouka Studios had something good in Visions of Mana, which we awarded a 7/10 in our Visions of Mana PS5 review. "As a nostalgia-driven retread of the classic Mana adventure, Visions of Mana is rock solid — but it struggles to be anything more than a reminder of how magical those old RPGs could be. If you can look beyond the game's monotonous storytelling and tragically bland characters, the essence of an old-school excursion is here, in the exploration of wonderful environments and in battles against burly boss monsters."

Are you looking forward to seeing what Studio Sasanqua can put together in the future? Let us know in the comments below.

[source automaton-media.com]