Small post today, but I couldn't let the day go by without mentioning it. Wow! It's been a long time!

Due to illness and travel over the holidays, I'm not yet in a position to record a year-in-review podcast like I usually do. I will probably do that early next week. Sorry for all the delays! We're still active and chatting every day on Discord. I have a lot of news to cover and will as soon as I can.

Until then, let me know in the comments what you'd like to see more (or less) of in the coming year.

Select New Game: Hard Mode

Sorry I was a little late. Those of you on the Discord server know that I have been sick as a dog all week, spending most of my days asleep. Don't worry, it seems to be a mild flu that caused a sinus infection, not COVID. And I'm already feeling much better.

I have a lot to post now, a HUGE backlog. Thank you all for your patience. As usual, I want to resolve this year to post here more and get my backlog smaller. I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years, and I hope you have interesting plans of your own for 2021.

One of my biggest surprises this Christmas was when I received a Christmas card in the mail. It was from a close friend of mine in real life who I won't name to respect her privacy (unless she's cool with it). Anyway, she told me she would be sending me a Christmas card, but I never expected what was contained within. Check this out!

I didn't even know she was an artist! She told me since then that she only draws very rarely. What a sweet gift, and a wonderful drawing I just had to share.

Merry Krystmas! This year has been tricky and busy, but I wanted to do something special for you on this special day. It's not much, but it's something that's been needed for a long time.

We've had the voice acting clips of Krystal since the beginning of the Krystal Archive. However, there were some harder-to-extract sound effects like grunts, groans, and breathing sounds still in the game. I've finally pulled them out for your listening pleasure. I'm certainly not the first person to extract these, but to my knowledge this is the first time they've all been available in one place.

• Large Groan
• Groan 1
• Groan 2
• Jump 1
• Jump 2
• Jump 3
• Breathing 1
• Breathing 2
• Hard Strain
• Strain
• Scream
• Ugh 1
• Ugh 2
• Ugh 3
• Ugh 4

Special thanks to Gagnetar and Hugo Peters for assistance with these.

Update: As requested, here's the uncompressed WAVs. I have added this and the others to the Star Fox Adventures Voice Acting page.

The Final Fantasy 7 update to Super Smash Bros Ultimate has officially launched as of December 22nd. It features new fighter Sephiroth and a bunch of other Final Fantasy things like songs, stages, and spirits. One of these is a new Spirit Battle Board, which contains a fight with Shiva, an ice elemental summon character. Given her looks and ice-affinity, in her spirit battle, she is played by a giant Zero Suit Samus and fights on an ice stage full of Freezie items. More importantly to us, Krystal is summoned as an Assist Trophy almost immediately, probably because of her Ice Blast Staff attack.

According to Dinoman96, this is the first Spirit Battle that features Krystal other than her own Spirit Battle. Can't verify that one, but nice to see Krystal popping up in unexpected places. Watch the video to see her in action.

Thanks to Dinoman96 for finding this and memer55 for letting me know. Video by bdcool213.

Forget about Sephiroth, there's a new fighter in town!

We talked about this mod a few months back. ShadowSnake is finally making a dream come true for both himself and all Krystal fans. In what is surely the most comprehensive Krystal mod for any Smash game to date, ShadowSnake's mod features a ton of detail work.

Based on the Dark Pit fighter, ShadowSnake's mod adds a Krystal model, new textures, Krystal's staff weapon, custom end screens, UI updates, a Kirby hat, Assault and Adventures outfits, and multiple color alts. There's even brand new voice acting and sound effects using clips from Assault and Adventures. (I helped!)

ShadowSnake says that this is only version 1, and future updates will further improve things. The goals include custom animations and attacks, more Krystal-like shields, and other stuff. In the meantime, you can download the mod and instructions from GameBanana.

View Mod at GameBanana

Gallery

I have two updates with regard to the Krystal Archive Discord Server.

New Emotes!

First of all, we have new emotes! Custom emotes, in fact. I commissioned 20 different Krystal emotes from artist PanDeSalvado across a wide range of expressions and memes. Thanks to him for his excellent work on these. You can see all the new ones in the image above, which are added to the existing few dozen older ones we have. The codes for the new emotes are:

• :k_angry:
• :k_blush:
• :k_confident:
• :k_cool:
• :k_cry:
• :k_edge:
• :k_facepalm:
• :k_hype:
• :k_investigate:
• :k_laugh:
• :k_sad:
• :k_salute:
• :k_shrug:
• :k_smile:
• :k_smug:
• :k_surprise:
• :k_think:
• :k_unimpressed:
• :k_wat:
• :k_wink:

Why Aren't Invites Working?

Secondly, some of you may have noticed that previous invite links no longer work. This is intentional. We've had a bit of drama over the last few months that has led to several people leaving. As a result, I have intentionally kept invites to the server locked down to invite only. There are no special requirements to get an invite, you just have to ask for one. This will prevent random people from joining out of the blue and we can ensure new members understand the way the server works at the beginning. Also, only the people who actually care enough to ask to be there will be able to get in. I think that will probably lead to a better overall community.

The critical thing to understand is that the Krystal Archive server is intended for all ages, like the Krystal Archive site itself. By making sure the content is safe for all ages, everyone has equal opportunity to enjoy the community without worrying about age-inappropriate discussion. This isn't an empty platitude; there are actual kids and teenagers who frequent both the site and the Discord server.

Some anger and drama has resulted from the insistence on keeping the language clean and banning discussions of politicized topics. Some people do not feel comfortable if they are NOT allowed to use adult language or discuss politicized topics, which is fine. However, that means that they are not going to have a good time on the server. So when people ask to join, I make sure they read the rules fully and have them understand that the rules will be enforced. Every single rule there has been carefully crafted to try and prevent drama and keep the community safe for all ages.

If you want to join a group of passionate Krystal fans and are also okay with keeping the drama away and the language clean in the server, feel free to reach out for an invite! You can contact me via email at mrkrystal@gmail.com, or send a message to my Discord ID "Mr. Krystal#0525" (the white cyber-horse avatar).

Comments in the Future

Ever since the Discord server went live, most of the commenting done on the site by readers is now being done in Discord. In the coming months, I would like to shift away from the Wordpress system the Krystal Archive currently uses and instead use a static site generator system. This will mean the site will be much faster, but it also means that the commenting system will no longer exist. Previous comments on past stories will be saved, but no future discussion on the site will be possible. Given that it isn't used that much anymore anyway, I don't think this will be a major loss.

A new mod has surfaced for Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that replaces Link with Fox McCloud who has crash-landed on a hostile alien planet. Fox has to survive against waves of enemies over the course of several nights with only a sword for defense. You can download the mod and see instructions in the details of the video.

YumeAislinn has reached 100 followers on Twitch.tv, and so, as promised, she will be modeling Krystal in 3D from scratch live. Today, she'll be starting with a "turn-around" which is just an image to show the proportions, different sides, and design that will eventually be translated into 3D polygons. The process will take a few days. She's live RIGHT NOW, and will be working for a bit each day until it's finished. She'll start with the Adventures outfit and then do the Assault outfit.

Join the stream and watch her work!

ShadowSnake is making good progress on his Krystal mod for Super Smash Bros Ultimate. The mod isn't finished yet. Sound effects, recolors, Assault outfit, effects, and UI still need to be completed. Once these are done, we will certainly let you know!

I asked ShadowSnake for some details about the mod, and here's a bunch of facts:

• Tail fur was added as a set of textures for a fuzzy look.
• The mod is a skin over Dark Pit, with additional tweaks.
• There are attempts being made to change Dark Pit's shields to a barrier and arrows to fire blasts.
• Changes to animations and movesets probably won't be in the first release, if at all.
• The mod will include a classic mode route, victory theme, and UI updates.
• The loincloth and tail both are physically active instead of static.
• Shine effects are applied to the armor/staff.
• She has animated eyes, full face expressions, final smash eyes, and ink/metal maps.
• The new HD textures were painted by VTAL with mesh improvements done by ShadowSnake.
• Someone is being commissioned to make the voice pack and renders for her that will be used for the release.
• This is one of the first mods to feature bone edits to resize dark pit's hands to more fit with Krystal's hand size, this was the biggest hurdle in her development.
• Using this mod will require an unpatched switch and ARCropolis (which is the latest standard in Smash modding, eliminating file size limitations).
• First version release will be within the next couple weeks, but it won't be rushed to make sure all improvements are considered.

ShadowSnake also mentioned the motivation:

This character has been my dream fighter for Smash since before Brawl came out and after seeing her as an Assist in Ultimate, I knew I had to make her playable somehow.

Godspeed, ShadowSnake. Now, here's a bunch of photos of the mod in-game.

Gallery

Hi friends. Just a quick note here to let you know why there haven't been many updates lately. I've encountered a rough spot in real life with multiple things hitting me at once. I'm managing, but it's keeping me very busy and tired. I will probably continue to be busy for the next month or two, so I must apologize in advance. Right now, in the last few days, it has been some of the most stressful. I think that I will have a little more leeway soon, but updates will probably continue to be sparse for the next few months.

Thank you for your continued patience. I still read all my emails, even if I don't have time to reply, and I will still jump into the Discord when I can. The site won't go away. No chance. It'll just be very slow for a while. See you on the other side!