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During Anime Expo 2019, Studio Trigger’s Promare made its international premiere. The movie is the theatrical debut for the studio behind the hugely popular anime Kill la Kill, featuring the same director as the series, Hiroyuki Imaishi.

Promare is set in a world where a mutation has caused hundreds of people to develop pyrokinetic abilities. Labeled as the Burnish, these mutants are discriminated against by normal humans. The movie stars two protagonists: Galo, the newest member of the special firefighting team responsible for suppressing Burnish-created fires and ensuring the threats are subdued so they can be arrested, and Lio, the leader of the terrorist organization fighting for civil rights for the Burnish. Between the two, Promare is told primarily through Galo’s point-of-view, seeing him learn that the Burnish are still human beings and deserving of the same rights as everyone else.

During a group interview at Anime Expo, GameSpot asked Studio Trigger about the reasoning for telling a story mostly through the eyes of an oppressor, albeit an unwitting one. Creative director Hiromi Wakabayashi answered, “The main objective of the film wasn’t to depict an opposition between the minorities, which is the Burnish, and the majority, which is the human race. We thought it would be easier to present the story if we made Galo the actual main protagonist even though he’s on the oppressing side. He’s in the middle ground. He’s not intentionally oppressing. If we were to make Lio the main protagonist, Promare would become a story about the oppressed overcoming their oppressors and that’s not what we were trying to go for. Who Galo is is really hard to depict in real life. A lot of people have strong opinions but don’t act on them.”

“In real life, everybody’s pretty much contradicting themselves,” Promare character designer Shigeto Koyama added. “Activists want to save the earth. They want to try to keep the ozone layer. But they also want air conditioner at the same time. They want to protect the ozone layer, but they don’t want to walk and would rather use their car. A lot of them can be hypocrites. Everybody has some kind of fault in their philosophy, and Promare ends where we don’t know how Galo is going to continue on with his. That’s where the story kind of stops. That’s the same with us. What are [we each] going to do?”

Despite releasing over half a decade after Kill la Kill, Promare possesses many similarities to the 2013 series, including character design, soundtrack, and narrative themes. The origin of these similarities extends beyond both anime sharing the same director though. During the group interview, Studio Trigger revealed that production on the movie began before Kill la Kill even ended, so the ideas behind both were formulated very close together.

The major difference between Kill la Kill and Promare is the latter’s much brighter color palette which utilizes a lot more reds, oranges, and pinks. These colors were used in Promare because the movie uses so much more CG. “We knew that we were going to be incorporating heavy use of CG from the beginning, so we needed to make the designs and the colors as simple as possible,” director Imaishi said during the group interview. Promare manages to blend together traditional 2D and 3D CG animation styles better than many anime have done previously. Imaishi believes “CG will become more and more prevalent in the animation industry” going forward, ultimately normalizing a hybrid style that combines both 2D and 3D.

Promare is scheduled to release publicly in US theaters on September 17. In GameSpot Universe’s Promare review, I wrote, “Promare’s plot does stumble, most notably when it comes to how it builds its world and fleshes out the main cast, but it takes enough cues from what made Kill la Kill such a hit to then go out and tell its own take on why discrimination is bad and why everyone should learn to love their fellow person. Galo’s origin story of becoming a firefighting superhero is framed with over-the-top action pieces, comedy, and well-timed pieces of music, and though he delivers an incredible finishing blow in the epic final battle, it’s his evolving rivalry with Lio that gives the movie its satisfying ending.”

Ebay is holding a sale to compete with Amazon’s Prime Day, and it isn’t being shy about the comparison. The “Ebay Crash Sale” will take place on July 15–and the deals will get even better if Amazon happens to crash during its big sale date.

Ebay states plainly that the sale is named after Amazon’s tech troubles last year, and that additional deals will activate if the competition crashes. The Ebay advertisement promises deals on Apple, Samsung, Garmin, Dyson, and more. The company also promised additional discounts going up daily as part of its “Hot Deals for Hot Days” sale lasting through July 22. You can find the daily discounts on Ebay’s Deals page.

Some of today’s deals include Sea of Thieves for $22, a Halo 5 Guardians controller for $63, and an Apple iPad Air for $620. Many of Ebay’s sale items include free shipping and returns with no membership needed–another distinction it touts with Amazon Prime Day.

“Ebay is primed to deliver exactly what shoppers want during this year’s crash (sale),” said Ebay Americas COO Jay Hanson in a statement. “July has become a massive shopping season, and our summer sales include blockbuster deals that will not disappoint.”

Of course, you can also partake in Amazon Prime Day deals, which will begin on July 15. And other retailers are stepping up their own efforts to compete with Amazon, including a GameStop Summer Sale and Target Deal Days.

Friday: The Boys (Amazon)

When and where: 3:30 PM, Ballroom 20

Official Description: Based on The New York Times bestselling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys is a fun and irreverent take on what happens when superheroes—who are as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians, and as revered as Gods—abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the superpowerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about The Seven and Vought—the multi-billion-dollar conglomerate that manages these superheroes and covers up all of their dirty secrets. The series stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara, and Elisabeth Shue. The Boys is executive produced by Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, and Ori Marmur, as well as Ken Levin and Jason Netter. Panelists include: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara; executive producer Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Jessie T. Usher, Elisabeth Shue, moderated by Aisha Tyler. Premiering July 26 on Amazon Prime Video, the eight-episode Amazon Original series is co-produced by Amazon Prime Video and Sony Pictures Television Studios with Point Grey Pictures, Kripke Enterprises, and Original Film.

What to expect: Footage from the show, possibly lots of swearing.

Tales Of Crestoria

The hotly-anticipated Shenmue III going Epic exclusive has caused a stir amongst PC Kickstarter backers. Developer Ys Net provided an update on the switch, but the studio is still assuaging concerns. Refunds are now being offered to Kickstarter backers who choose to rescind their investment, and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed the company will take responsibility to avoid impacting Shenmue III’s development budget.

Sweeney took to Twitter to deliver the statement, saying in a tweet, “Epic is funding the cost of all Kickstarter refunds resulting from Shenmue III’s move to the Epic Games store.” He notes that this decision is to ensure Ys Net’s development budget remains unaffected by refunds.

In a follow-up tweet, Sweeney said that when any other game goes Epic exclusive after offering rewards on separate PC platforms, “We’ll either coordinate with colleagues at the other stores to ensure key availability in advance, or guarantee refunds at announcement time.” It’s worth noting that Sweeney is talking specifically about crowdfunded projects here.

The options available for Shenmue III Kickstarter backers include a PC physical package, a digital Epic Games Store game key, a PS4 disc, or a PSN code voucher. The PC physical version doesn’t actually contain the game on the disc, though; instead it comes with an Epic Games Store installer and a digital Epic Games Store game key. The Steam version will be made available to those who opt for it but will be delivered “one year later.”

Shenmue III isn’t the only game to become an Epic exclusive. During the PC Gaming Show, where Shenmue III’s Epic Store exclusivity was announced, a handful of games got the exclusive treatment. This includes Cyberpunk 2077, Chivalry II, The Sojourn, Untitled Goose Game, and more. Crowdfunded sci-fi game Outer Wilds also went Epic exclusive, alongside Metro Exodus and The Division 2. Gearbox’s upcoming looter-shooter, Borderlands 3, has also announced an Epic exclusivity deal.

Shenmue III is slated to launch on November 19 for PC and PlayStation 4.

Week 9’s challenges are now live in Fortnite, giving you another chance to level your Battle Pass up and unlock more Season 9 rewards. Each task you clear will reward you with Battle Stars, but if you manage to finish all seven from a given week, you’ll also complete one of this season’s Utopia challenges, which will unlock a special loading screen that leads you to a free item hidden somewhere around the game’s map.

Every odd-numbered Utopia challenge you complete will give you a chance to find a hidden Battle Star, which will level your Battle Pass up by one full tier when collected. Sure enough, that’s the reward that awaits if you complete nine weeks’ worth of Season 9 challenges. But first, you’ll need to find it. Fortunately, this week’s Battle Star is fairly easy to locate.

Once you’ve completed enough challenges, you’ll unlock the loading screen pictured below. This one shows off Brite Bomber, wearing her beachwear from the ongoing 14 Days of Summer event, in a skate park. Look closely at the bottom right of the image, however, and you’ll see a drawing of a Battle Star scrawled onto the ramp. That’s the clue that’ll lead you to the item.

The Battle Star is depicted above a car that’s surrounded by velvet ropes, and there happens to be just such a car inside Mega Mall, so that’s where you’ll need to go to collect it. Make your way to the area and the car will be easy to spot; walk in through the main entrance, then go into the room to the left of the fountain. Once you find the car, the Battle Star will appear above it when you approach, just as pictured. Collect it and finish the match to level your Battle Pass up. If you need more help finding it, we’ve marked the Battle Star’s location on the map below; you can also watch us collect it in the video at the top of this guide.

Battle Stars aren’t the only bonus you can collect for completing Utopia challenges. Each even-numbered one you clear will lead you to a free Fortbyte. Those can be picked up by anyone who has a Season 9 Battle Pass, whether or not you’ve actually completed their corresponding mission. However, you’ll only be able to find these free Battle Stars if you’ve finished the requisite challenges; they won’t appear in the game otherwise, so you can’t simply go to the right location and expect to find them if you haven’t done the necessary work.

If you need help completing any of this season’s previous challenges, you can find tips and guides for all the trickier ones in our full Fortnite Season 9 challenges roundup. Mega Mall has been a popular spot as of late; to coincide with the launch of Stranger Things Season 3, portals from the Netflix series have appeared inside Mega Mall recently, after Netflix had teased a potential Fortnite crossover. Meanwhile, the aforementioned 14 Days of Summer event is running until July 16, and it has its own set of challenges to complete and rewards to unlock.

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Have you run out of things to watch on your streaming services? Aside from weekly Netflix releases, services like Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Shudder are putting out new content almost every single day. This week, there are a few selections that may be up your alley.

Over on Amazon, you can look forward to these movies. On Sunday, the 2017 courtroom drama Marshall arrived. It stars Chadwick Boseman as Thurgood Marshall, who was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. The movie follows Marshall’s early career as a lawyer for the NAACP. It was directed by Reginald Hudlin, who had an amazing run as the writer on the Marvel Comics series Black Panther.

Headed to Hulu this Friday is the Casey Affleck mystery drama Gone Baby Gone. Directed by Ben Affleck, the movie is about detectives from Boston who are investigating the kidnapping of a young girl. However, as they get deeper into the crime, things become more and more complicated.

And over on Shudder, AMC’s horror-themed streaming service, you can check out Stake Land and Stake Land II, which both land Monday. Both movies take place in a dystopian future where the government has collapsed and a vampiric plague has swept the nation. The first film follows a hunter and his protégé’s journey to Canada, now called New Eden. The sequel follows the protégé as he finds himself in America’s Badlands.

Below, you’ll find everything arriving on these services for each day of the week.

Sunday, July 7

Amazon

• Marshall (2017)

Hulu

• The Real Housewives of Orange County: Complete Season 13 (Bravo)

Monday, July 8

Shudder

• Stake Land (2010, Jim Mickle)
• Stake Land II a.k.a. The Stakelander (2016, Dan Berk, Robert Olsen)

Tuesday, July 9

Amazon

• Witless Protections (2008)

Wednesday, July 10

Amazon

• Trapped S2

Hulu

• Bring the Funny: Series Premiere (NBC)
• Harlots: Season 3 Premiere (Hulu Original)
• Witness Protection (2008)

Friday, July 12

Amazon

• Gone Baby Gone (2007)
• Comicstaan S2 – Amazon Original series

Hulu

• Hollywood Game Night: Season 6 Premiere (NBC)
• Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Saturday, July 13

Amazon

• Never Grow Old (2019)

Hulu

• Clique: Complete Season 2 (All3 Media)

At Anime Expo 2019, AI: The Somnium Files director and writer Kotaro Uchikoshi sat down with GameSpot to talk about the upcoming mystery-driven adventure game. The title of the game, Uchikoshi explains, is actually a bit of clever wordplay and hints towards the overall theme of the story.

AI: The Somnium Files sees you play as detective Kaname Date who has an artificial eye that houses his AI companion, Aiba. Date’s eye gives him several abilities, such as X-ray vision, and Aiba provides assistance for more technical challenges. During difficult investigations, Date can use a machine called the Psync Device through Aiba, allowing them to enter the memories or dreams of suspects or witnesses. The visual representation of people’s minds is called their somnium, and solving the mental locks in the space allow Date and Aiba to travel deeper into a person’s subconscious and extract vital information. AI: The Somnium Files’ story begins with Date and Aiba trying to figure out the identity of someone who’s been gouging out people’s eyes.

The “AI” in AI: The Somnium Files is actually Japanese, making it pronounced like “eye.” In Japanese, Uchikoshi explains, “ai” means “love.” Thus AI: The Somnium Files is simultaneously in reference to the game’s themes of finding life in artificial intelligence, the importance of the human eye, figuring out one’s self (like “I”), and defining what love is. Though the game touches on all of these, it’s that last one that Uchikoshi is focusing on in this game.

“There are many different aspects of love,” Uchikoshi said. “There’s family love, two strangers loving each other, there’s love between partners, there’s love between friends, and amongst all these different types of love there are twists as well.” In AI: The Somnium Files, there are several different types of relationships that will evolve and change. Date and Aiba are partners, for example, but Date is also a sort of adoptive father to the daughter of one of his best friends. Iris, a YouTube star who’s one of the victims that loses an eye, is idolized by one of her fans, Ota, and cared for by her lonely, single mother Hitomi.

“Love is a big theme for me,” Uchikoshi joked, “because when I go home my wife treats me like dirt and makes me lick her toes, and wash the bathroom, and she makes me do everything, treats me like trash. I feel like I’m a little kid at an orphanage that just wants to be in a family that shows me love, and that’s why that ai, love, is one of the important themes for this game.”

Uchikoshi hopes players come to their own conclusions when it comes to defining the truth behind love. As such, AI: The Somnium Files has several different endings. “There is no wrong answer, the choices that you make will become the story’s reality, its truth,” he said. “What happens is, you make a choice, and it will steer you towards a certain ending, but if you make a different choice it can suddenly steer you in a completely different direction. But each of those endings is right and true, and none of it is technically wrong.” When it comes to good and bad endings, Uchikoshi clarified that it will be up to the player to define what they believe to be morally right and wrong. What someone may think is a good ending could be perceived as a bad one by someone else. Uchikoshi did not want to divulge how many endings there are in AI: The Somnium Files, but he did confirm that each one does “go in different directions.”

The choices in the story will all occur when you’re invading a character’s somnium and trying to piece together exactly what happened. When in someone’s somnium, you have exactly six minutes to solve as many mental blocks as you can, discover new evidence, and come to your own conclusion. Each action you take will cost you, so you’ll need to deduce how to overcome mental blocks as quickly as you can. You won’t fail the game if you can’t find enough evidence to make any conclusions within the six-minute time limit though, as failing to discover something will simply reset you back to the start of the somnium.

AI: The Somnium Files is scheduled to come to PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch on September 17. If you’re looking for more info on the game, we interviewed both Uchikoshi and A-set (the virtual YouTube idol featured in AI: The Somnium Files) at GDC 2019.

After having many years of success in Japan, the Granblue Fantasy game series is finally making its way to the west with the release of Granblue Fantasy Versus, a fighting game based within the world of the RPG franchise. Granblue Fantasy takes place in a kingdom of magic, following the adventures of The Captain whose encounter with the mysterious Lyria leads to their two souls being merged. The two set out for the island of Estalucia in order to escape the Erste Empire that wants to imprison Lyria and abuse her powerful abilities. On their quest, they are joined by The Captain’s friend Vyrn, a lizard-like creature who’s adamant he’s a dragon, and Katalina Alize, a former Erste Empire lieutenant who betrayed her country after learning what it wanted with Lyria.

During Anime Expo 2019, Granblue Fantasy creative director Tetsuya Fukuhara sat down with GameSpot to discuss the reasoning for Cygames introducing Granblue Fantasy games to English-speaking countries via a fighting game as opposed to the popular mobile RPG. “We have this assumption that in the western countries, there’s a very solid fanbase for fighting games,” Fukuhara said. He went on to explain that Granblue Fantasy has been around for over five years already, and throwing western players straight into that ongoing RPG narrative might have been too tricky to attract new players.

Versus is designed with a simple, fairly standalone story that introduces the main cast of characters and establishes their relationships with one another. The original Granblue Fantasy game–which is coming to the west after Versus as Granblue Fantasy Mobile–also didn’t seem like the right pick for a debut title given the smaller mobile market in western countries, Fukuhara explained. He said Versus, as a console game, made more sense.

As such, Granblue Fantasy Versus is designed with accessibility in mind. The game is developed by Arc System Works, the same studio behind 2018’s Dragon Ball FighterZ and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, and features a simplified version of those two games’ mechanics. “Dragon Ball FighterZ, BlazeBlue: Cross Tag Battle, and Granblue Fantasy Versus have a shared DNA with how combos activate,” Fukuhara said. “Those mechanics have a good reception within the fighting game community. That said, compared to FighterZ and Cross Tag Battle, we are designing Versus to be even more beginner-friendly and making a lot of the mechanics implemented in those two titles more simple to grasp. Versus has shorter combos, for example, and you’re able to activate special skills with one button,” Fukuhara continued.

“We don’t want Versus to be labeled as just a beginner’s fighting game, though. There is some depth for those seeking a higher level of competition. One feature that contributes to that is a cooldown timer for each skill, so you can’t spam the same special attack continuously. That’s a strategy that isn’t implemented in [FighterZ and Cross Tag Battle]: knowing that if one skill is in cooldown, you’ve limited your opponent’s next action.”

In designing Versus’ characters, the team picked the main fighting game archetypes from other popular franchises first and then tried to fit Granblue Fantasy’s most important characters into these types of fighters. “There are very typical fighting styles that you want to put into the initial roster,” Fukuhara said. “Like characters that grab and throw their opponent. Fast characters. Slashing characters. Characters that are good in mid-distance,” Fukuhara continued.

“We’re not too worried about implementing characters that wield the same weapon because we do have a clear concept for each character. For example, of the characters already announced to be in the game, there are four sword-wielding characters. However, Charlotta has a small figure and wields a huge sword. Lancelot has dual blades and each of them more closely resembles a dagger. Katalina has a rapier. Both in visuals and in the way they fight, there’s a clear distinction.”

With the game’s release approaching, the team is already looking ahead to post-launch content. After working on a mobile game for years, Fukuhara knows the importance of maintaining a player base after a title launch. “The original mobile game is already five years old and we haven’t lost any hype towards future updates,” he said. “We know what our fans love. We are confident that we can continuously give them this same hype for Versus through downloadable content. Not just adding characters, there’s a lot of things we can do. Versus is going to be an esport title as well.”

Despite feeling some pressure in ensuring Versus succeeds, Fukuhara is adamant that the game’s goal is to introduce western audiences to Granblue Fantasy. In that regard, everything special about the RPG has been implemented in some capacity. “The first thing we definitely needed to have in Versus was quality graphics, including detailed backgrounds,” Fukuhara said. “Also the music and the sound system. Those two aspects needed to be of the highest quality.” The aforementioned music is especially good. Some of it, Fukuhara explains, is from the mobile RPG, but new songs have been composed for Versus’ story, including character themes.

“There are also beloved characters from the original franchise,” Fukuhara continued. “There’s pre-battle banter for each character. Aside from that, being able to activate skills is something similar to what is done in the mobile RPG. Having that same feeling of activating skills but within a fighting game format is something that we wanted to do.”

As a final remark, Fukuhara teased, “Also, there’s something very, very important that gives that Granblue Fantasy feel to Versus, but the details will be announced in the future.” Those details, along with the release date for Versus, are expected to be revealed on August 3 during Granblue Fest.

Granblue Fantasy Versus is scheduled to launch on PlayStation 4 in 2019.