Boy... that escalated quickly.

So the post I made a couple days ago about Gagnetar's Half Life 2 mod that involes Estelle Ellis to voicing lines has somehow caught the attention and imagination of the wider gaming press and literally thousands of gamers. Never had a story go viral before. Now that things have calmed down a little, there's a few things that need to be cleared up after seeing some of the comments and questions people had.

News Coverage

A bunch of news outlets and other sources picked up the story about the mod. Here's some of them:

• Polygon Story
• PC Gamer Story
• TechRaptor Story
• Metro.co.uk Story
• GoNintendo Story
• Large Post on Half-Life 2 Reddit

I wanted to thank a lot of them for linking back here to the Krystal Archive and making a special note that the site is safe for work. Thanks to everyone who took the time to check.

The Mod

Right off the bat, the original Tweet that went viral didn't mention that Gagnetar has a Twitter account. That was my mistake. I had forgotten that it was his Twitter account. I corrected that in another tweet.

I didn't make the mod, that was Gagnetar. Neither Gagnetar, nor I, are "rich."

A lot of people complained about the jiggle physics. These had already been toned way down before the story was posted, but one of the original videos was created before that change was implemented.

The model the Krystal rig is based on is by Warfaremachine. These models have had several variations throughout the years. Unfortunately, some of those variations were used in NSFW ways. However, the rig used for this mod is specifically the SFW version I originally commissioned partially for usage in this mod. You can download it yourself and use it for free right now, so long as you don't modify it to be NSFW.

The mod already exists and is available for download right now, just without the altered voice lines and other new features still in development. You can get the V2 Mod here, and Gagnetar's older V1 Mod here. The V1 Mod uses an older version of the rig. In BOTH mods, the rig is SFW. There are no explicit parts. We checked.

The reason why this rig in particular was used instead of one that more closely matches Krystal's appearance in Star Fox Adventures is because only this rig has the facial animation system necessary to sync the lip movements to the voice acting.

All of the voice lines for Half Life 2 are complete. They're partway done with Half Life 2 Episode One now, and they haven't yet started on the lines for Half Life 2 Episode Two.

I doubt Nintendo knows or cares about this mod. In the grand scheme of things, it's relatively minor.

When the mod is ready to be released, it will be hosted here as well as other places, in case one goes down.

Gagnetar made an update video talking about his reaction to all this news and clearing some things up. Check it out! (Small language warning.)

The Krystal Archive

For those of you just learning about this website, welcome! I hope you enjoy your stay. This is the Krystal Archive, a Krystal and Star Fox focused fansite I've been running since 2006. I want to reiterate that the Krystal Archive is designed to be safe for all ages as we celebrate our favorite characters.

I am "Mr. Krystal" or "Mr. K", which is just an alias designed to be boring. The site is about Krystal, not me. I have a day job doing web development. I consider myself a furry fan, but you wouldn't know it by talking to me in real life. As many of you have determined, I am quite a dedicated and focused individual, having run a site on such a specific thing for so long. I didn't plan for this to happen, but here we are.

Again, I am not the mod's creator, that's Gagnetar. I know him as well as Estelle Ellis. If you want more content about Estelle Ellis, I did an interview with her about her time at Rare and her role as Krystal a few years ago. You can listen to the interview on YouTube.

Lastly, yes, Nintendo is aware of this site's existence, and they think it's cool to have fans so dedicated. They have never sent me a cease-and-desist letter. That was an April Fool's joke.