A Legend of Mana anime series is currently in the works, Square Enix announced Monday.

Legend of Mana – The Teardrop Crystal is being produced by Warner Bros. Japan (production on MADHOUSE’s Mob Psycho 100), Graphinica Inc (Hellsing: The Dawn, Juni Taisen, and Hellsing: Ultimate’s final three episodes) and Yokohama Animation Lab.

Square Enix says the anime will follow the events of Legend of Mana, and released a piece of teaser art along with the announcement. Check it out below.

Graphinica and Yokohama Animation Lab previously worked together on the Legend of Mana remake’s opening cinematic, which you can watch below.

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The anime is planned to air worldwide, but Square Enix has yet to announce which streaming platforms it will land on or a release date.

“When the animation project was first pitched to me, the remastering of ‘Legend of Mana’ was not even in discussion,” Mana series producer Masaru Oyamada. “I initially attended the meeting without deep thoughts, but when Mr. Yawata from Warner Bros. Japan passionately pitched the ‘Legend of Mana’ animation project (with so much love), I realized I need to created the game as soon as I can. So rumor has it, that’s how the HD remaster project began. Fans of the Legend of Mana, please be assured. The people involved in the project still have the love for the series just the same as back then.”

IGN’s Seth Macy gave the Legend of Mana remake a seven out of 10, calling it a “beautiful modern rendering of a PlayStation classic,” while noting it retained a lot of the original’s issues.

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Square Enix also announced that the Trials of Mana remake is releasing on Android and iOS devices on July 15, featuring touch controls and customizable graphics settings.

A new free-to-play action RPG titled “Echoes of Mana” is also coming to mobile devices in 2022. It will feature a new story that brings new and old characters together, along with a multiplayer mode. The trailer shows off what appears to be characters from the Adventures, Trials, and Secrets of Mana games.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/legend of blah-blah for IGN.

With large swathes of the country in lockdown, there’s never been a better time to get some video game escapism on. Obviously, the cheaper the video game, the better. With that in mind, we’ve scoured the Steam sales and various End of Financial Year price blitzes to find you the absolute best deals out there.

Purchase Cheaply for PC

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Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch

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Exciting Offers for XO/XS

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Product Savings for PS4/PS5

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The emulation and fan localization communities are seeing an outpouring of memorials and grief today after the reported death of Near, who was the force behind both the BSNES emulator and the Bahamut Lagoon fan translation.

Also known as Byuu, Near took their own life over the weekend. A friend confirmed the reports circulating social media, but asked for privacy.

Community members took to social media to express their sadness following the tragedy, praising Near’s work and talking about the positive impact they had on their life. Many expressed anger at the online bullying that ultimately pushed Near to take their life, their outrage centered on Kiwi Farms, a forum with a reputation for vicious targeted online harassment.

re: Near/byuu

SNES emulation is challenging like very few other computer architectures. Opcode interpretation is dependent on the state of the processor.

Closest analogy I can do: SNES can change the language it’s speaking at any moment

— slowbeef, i do stuff with betus every wed 9pm (@slowbeef) June 27, 2021

Last night, I was made aware of some incredibly disheartening news. Yesterday we lost Byuu / Near, a legend in the video game archival and emulation scene. If you ever played bsnes/higan/Snes9x, or potentially countless other emulators, he had a hand in their success.

— belthesar (@belthesar) June 27, 2021

In a series of messages published on Twitter, Near talked about the online attacks and doxing that they and their friends suffered from Kiwi Farms, saying, “The internet is not a game. It’s real life. I’m a real person.”

Near was famous for their detailed, perfectionist approach to their work. They were particularly passionate about game preservation, and dedicated the development of BSNES — later renamed Higan — to being as accurate as possible. Their accomplishments include overclocking the virtual SNES processor without any distortion, with spectacular results.

In remembrance of their contributions to the emulation community, Ars Technica republished a piece from Near that delved into the coding of the BSNES and how SNES emulators were able to get “a few pixels from complete perfection.” Back in March, Vice Games published an account of Near’s perfectionist quest to localize Bahamut Lagoon, a cult 16-bit RPG that never made it to North America.

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, which is available 24 hours a day. A list of international suicide hotlines can be found here.

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Kat Bailey is a Senior Editor at IGN

Stuntwoman Dayna Grant has suffered a life-threatening injury on the set of Amazon Prime’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series according to Lord of the Rings fansite TheOneRing.net’s Twitter.

Grant’s family has posted to the New Zealand crowdfunding site GiveALittle.co.nz requesting help from Grant’s community and fans.

“World-renowned Stuntwoman Dayna Grant recently sustained a head injury while on set filming for an upcoming series/film,” the site reads. Grant exhibited symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injury and after scans was recommended for immediate surgery.

Grant has worked as a stunt performer on projects like Mad Max: Fury Road, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Wonder Woman 1984, and Xena Warrior Princess, where she acted as stunt double for series star Lucy Lawless. Grant is listed on her IMDb page as a stunt performer on the Lord of the Rings television show. The show will be part of Amazon’s Prime Video service. The $1.6 trillion company is reportedly spending $465 million on Lord of the Rings Season 1 alone. Grant’s family and friends are looking to crowd-fund $NZ60,000 for the surgery.

This is the second major injury to occur during production according TheOneRing. Meanwhile, the show has been subject to other controversies as well. Actor Tom Budge left the show earlier this year due to creative differences regarding his character.

Previously, actors Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortensen, who played Frodo Baggins and Aragorn in the Peter Jackson trilogy based on Tolkien’s novels, separately expressed concerns about the show. For Wood, it was simply the matter of Amazon calling the show Lord of the Rings, when it’s set in an entirely different era from the famous stories. Mortensen, on the other hand, worried about the more mature direction for the story, and whether that would lead to a “certain level of arbitrary violence and stuff like that.” Speaking of “stuff like that,” some fans launched a petition earlier this month to keep nudity out of the show entirely, citing the story’s historically family-friendly nature.

Amazon has not yet announced a release date for the show, though Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke has previously expressed hopes for a 2021 premiere on Amazon’s Prime service.

The final trailer for Fear Street Part 1: 1994 has been released. The first part of the three-movie adaptation of RL Stein’s hugely popular young adult horror series hits Netflix this Friday, July 2.

While previous Fear Street trailers intercut scenes from all three films, this one focuses purely on the first instalment. The movie is set in Shadyside, an Ohio town that supposedly carries a centuries-old curse. The town’s teenagers don’t believe in these myths, but when a masked killer starts picking off their friends, they are forced to look into Shadyside’s dark secrets.

The trailer suggests that the movie will be heavily influenced by ’90s slashers such as Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, and after so many ’80s-set horror films and shows, it’ll be fun to watch something inspired by the hugely successful scary movies of the following decade. Check it out below:

The cast of Fear Street Part 1: 1994 includes Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), Kiana Madeira (Trinkets), Olivia Welch (Agent Carter), and teen rapper Benjamin Flores Jr. (aka Lil’ P-Nut). It will be followed Fear Street Part 2: 1978 on July 9 and Fear Street Part 3: 1666 on July 16. All three movies are directed by Leigh Janiak.

Stein’s first Fear Street book, The New Girl, was published in 1989. It was followed by 50 follow-up novels, plus several spin-off series. It stands as one of the best selling young adult book series of all time.

For the first time in the game’s 14-year history, Valve’s hero shooter Team Fortress 2 has managed to surpass 150,000 concurrent players on PC.

According to stats reported by SteamDB and the site’s creator, Pavel Djundik, Team Fortress 2 amassed 151, 253 players on Friday, June 25. This is the all-time peak for Team Fortress 2, which originally launched in 2007. As of this writing, the game currently has a little under 120,000 players currently active, with a 24-hour peak of approximately 140,000 players.

It’s possible that some players were bots, as Valve has been battling them for years. In a June 22 update for Team Fortress 2, Valve outlined tweaks to curb bot activity, particularly around name changing and player emulation. Still, according to Game Rant, players have reported that bots are once again causing trouble.

Over on the game’s subreddit, Team Fortress 2 players have posted photos and videos of bots running amok. Though there is a decrease in activity, players have found whole servers populated by bots.

“Seeing the hell of the TF2 bot crisis, I just want to remind players that each bot you vote to kick, each round you join after being kicked by bots, each day you continue to play even though the bots continue to fight helps TF2,” Redditor fireballcat123 said. “Without you, servers would be dominated by bots and no one could join, killing the game. Just wanted to say that because why not.”

Actor John Lithgow will be revisiting his role as the Trinity Killer in the upcoming Dexter revival season, according to Deadline. It’s also being reported that Lithgow will “only film for about a day or so,” which, if true, indicates the character’s return will not command a sizable amount of screen time.

Even if that proves to be the case, regardless, it’s safe to assume Trinity Killer’s presence will be pretty impactful in the next batch of episodes. In the show’s previous run, Lithgow’s character loomed as a revered, feared, and twisted father figure for the titular character’s serial killer trying to make peace with his demons. Deadline is also reporting Lithgow’s filming will take place next week, which means it’s reasonable for further details–including, for example, a longer shoot than initially reported–to come out after the fact.

Filming for the Dexter revival first got underway in Boston back in January. These upcoming 10 episodes, set in upstate New York, are intended to give a proper sendoff to the series. All that’s known is that these episodes will not retcon everything that happened in the series’ previous 2013 finale, which moved forward without showrunner Clyde Phillips’ involvement. Phillips recently said he doesn’t want fans to think of this as Dexter Season 9.

Joining Michael C. Hall (who plays antihero Dexter) and Clancy Brown (who will be playing the new main villain)–also known as Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob–will be Julia Jones (The Mandalorian), Alano Miller (Sylvie’s Love), Johnny Sequoyah (Believe), and Jack Alcott (The Good Lord Bird). Thanks to a new teaser that was released back in April, we know that the Dexter revival will hit Showtime sometime later this year.

Nier Reincarnation has been out in Japan for a while now, but we now know when the game will be playable in several other territories, including North America and Europe. The mobile game will be available for free on iOS and Android devices on July 28, and will offer in-app purchases.

Additionally, the number of pre-registrations that players notch before the game’s release in July will have an impact on all players. The game has already received over 400,000 registrations, but if it reaches 600,000, all players will receive enough gems to complete several summons for free, as well as other valuable materials.

The press release announcing this date also notes that Nier Replicant, the “re-telling” of the original Nier, has sold and shipped more than one million copies combined. Nier Replicant is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. In GameSpot’s Nier Replicant review, critic Michael Higham praised the game’s story as highly moving, though he noted that some aspects of the game seem dated today.

“I’m not going to lie, Nier Replicant made me ugly-cry on several occasions,” he wrote. “Kainé, Emil, and Weiss will win your heart with their earnest and endearing personalities, making their tragic journey with you and tremendous story moments hit hard. Despite some significant gameplay enhancements, the lengths you have to go to see the story all the way through will be a test of your willpower. But for all its antiquated designs retained from the original version, it’s worth the effort in the end. Thus, Nier Replicant is essential for anyone who has love for Automata, and it’s a special experience on its own.”

It’s a new week, and that means Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops Cold War are being refreshed yet again with new playlists and store bundles. Activision ran through all the updates in a blog post, and we’re breaking out the key takeaways here.

New Playlists

In Black Ops Cold War, a new playlist called Collateral Combined Arms 24/7 is coming to the game that offers up the 12v12 mode all-day long so you can play it to your heart’s content.

Another new playlist this week is Throwback Moshpit, which features five Black Ops maps: Nuketown ’84, Raid, Express, Standoff, and Hijacked in 6v6 modes. There is also the Gunfight 3v3 Snipers mode which will become the new featured playlist.

Double XP

Both Black Ops Cold War and Warzone will offer double XP this coming weekend to celebrate the 4th of the July in the US. The double XP event, which applies to both standard progression XP and weapon XP, will run July 2-July 6.

New Zombies Teasers

Activision said players should keep their eyes peeled for teasers for the new Zombies content coming to Black Ops Cold War in the upcoming mid-season update. The headliner is the new Mauer der Toten round-based map, which extends the ongoing Dark Aether story. These teasers will be posted to Treyarch’s social media pages.

New Store Bundles

Activision is giving fans more new content to purchase, including the Hat Trick bundle, which celebrates the ongoing European football tournament. This bundle comes with soccer-themed Operator skins, as well as the “Footballer” SMG and the “On Target” reticle, among other items.

The newest tracer pack, Salah, is also coming this week. It includes the new Liaison skin for Salah, along with the Viperstrike assault rifle and the Sudden Bite tactical rifle. Both emit green tracer fire and have a snake-like design. The Komodo Dragon finishing move is also included with this bundle, and we can only imagine how brutal it might be.

And to celebrate the 4th of July, a new tracer pack called Fireworks is headed to the store. It includes 10 items in all, including the Life Guard skin for Adler that gives him stars and stripes clothing. It also comes with the Firework charm, the Spangled Banner sticker, and the Blasting Star assault rifle.

Call of Duty Mobile

Call of Duty Mobile gets some attention this week, too, as Activision is releasing the Call of Duty Endowment Challenger Pack DLC to help support military veterans. The bundle comes with Epic-rarity items such as The Stripe assault rifle, the Standard Issue pistol, the In Reverence calling card, and the Noble Sacrifice charm.