3D modeler and animator ManuelDeJorge has is working on a new 3D Krystal rig for a secret client. The model has a fun, cartoony style, at least for now. So far, only the eyelids and mouth seem to be rigged, and there is much left to finish. No news if the client or ManuelDeJorge plans to make the rig public.

Took me a while to post about this. If you hadn't noticed, I'm catching up with older news that happened during my break. It'll all be mixed together with new stuff too, so don't worry.

A new Star Fox remix from Vector U. This one's pretty chill compared to his usual work. It's his first commissioned piece, and will be appearing in the Elements album by GameGrooves. There's an older remix of the SNES Star Fox Corneria Theme, too. You can download both songs for free in the YouTube video descriptions.

The embedded video says "Unavailable". But it's working on YouTube.

SchattenKitsune666 has done it again, literally. In celebration of 1000 subscribers, she's remastered her most popular MikuMikuDance video. This version has particularly good lip-syncing and is just so very cute. ShattenKitsune666 does fantastic work within the limitations of MMD, with customized models and great lighting.

Yes, I'm very late posting this. That's what I get for going on break.

As far as I know, Krystal cosplayer Ayano Harumaki is the first person to have purchased the Krystal figure by BambooKat (previously posted here and here). She took several pictures of it and even imitated the figure's pose. If you're interested in purchasing your own, they can be found on BambooKat's Etsy page.

For those of you unaware, Nintendo has suffered its second asset leak this year. The first one in May contained mostly Pokémon games, 3DS games, and the development documents and files for the Nintendo Wii console. Then, a few days ago, there was a second, much larger leak.

I'm just becoming aware of the nature and extent of this large-scale leak. I'm told it contains a tremendous amount of information and outright source code for N64 games, including Star Fox 64, as well as prototypes and development assets for Star Fox 2, which was in development just prior to the N64. From what people are telling me, numerous unused Star Fox 2 characters and sprites are being discovered. And from Star Fox 64, the source code apparently has the original, full-quality audio clips from all the voice acting. Many hackers and fans are pouring over the data right now, looking for secrets.

This would all be very exciting if the data was discovered in legitimately obtained games, like what is done with Star Fox Adventures. However, this code and data is literally stolen. The situation is changing very quickly, and there can be no doubt that those responsible for the leak will be charged if they haven't been charged already. I suspect that other people who download the leaked files, analyze them, and post confidential content might also be subject to legal risk. As a result, the Krystal Archive will not be covering ongoing news of the leak or the data obtained from it for the time being.

Stay safe, don't break the law. Who knows, maybe Nintendo will officially release their source code for ancient games in the spirit of historical preservation, as they sometimes do with development artwork and design sketches.

Picture by Pexels

Ayano has been slowly getting back into cosplay photoshoots and antics lately. Glad to see her recovered from her downtime a while back. Here she is talking about how much fun she was having with Ring Fit Adventure. There's also a quick video.

In the past few months, UndyingNephalim has shifted priorities back towards his Star Fox fangame project, it seems. Recently, we've gotten an in-universe start menu screen. It features a holographic projection of the Lylat system in the middle of the Great Fox's bridge while the various Star Fox team members do work in the background. All of this is accompanied by a chilled out groove based on Star Fox 64's menu music.

Next up, a recent video showcasing a much more polished heads up display UI for the gameplay. It shows with large bars and text what teammates are saying, health, item status, boost status, and more.

Finally, a video from last month, which shows off the mission briefing and weapons loadout screens, along with some ground mission footage.

With less than 24 hours remaining, Ben Hickling's Star Fox-inspired game has already had more than two times the requested funds pledged on Kickstarter. In fact, the Kickstarter has been a tremendous success already, having met his funding goal in the first 24 hours. I personally funded at the highest level, so look forward to a Krystal-related constellation in the final game.

There's also a new free demo available from Steam that fixes some bugs and adds a second demo level. Check them out, and pledge if you haven't already!

View EX Zodiac on Kickstarter

View EX Zodiac on Steam

Since the very beginning, one of the Holy Grails of the Krystal fandom was the desire to play through Star Fox Adventures as Krystal. It was known for a long time that a certain ActionReplay code could allow Krystal to be playable, but it was very glitchy, only some areas could be accessed without crashing the game, and Krystal couldn't use her Staff. In the last few years, research by BvqR zxi5 showed that getting Krystal to appear and be somewhat usable in other parts of the game was possible with some more heavy-duty code modifications. Unfortunately, his research wasn't widely known, and that's partially my fault because I never got around to posting about his work until years after first finding it. In the meantime, several different people independently started working on exploring Star Fox Adventures' code with the goal of getting Krystal playable. It all came to a head with at least three of these researchers joining the Krystal Archive Discord to collaborate in a shared space. A lot of things have been discovered just in the last few months!

Which brings us to the big news. RenaKunisaki has released his mod:

Star Fox Adventures: Amethyst Edition

In addition to allowing Krystal to be playable throughout the game with minimal issues, it offers lots of little quality of life improvements and options. Here's just some of the features:

• Swap between Fox and Krystal
• Climbing ladders and walls is faster
• Option to jump down from walls
• Ability to fast-forward the game with a 3rd controller
• Much more detailed and complete Sound Test Mode
• Map size and transparency controls
• Ability to do free movement anywhere
• Warp between areas, even some test areas
• Auto-saving option
• Increase or decrease game speed
• Increase or decrease camera field of view
• Reduced menu screen voice acting
• Removed confirmation on the manual save option
• And many more features useful for debugging and further development

RenaKunisaki and the others will continue to develop and improve on this mod. If you want to try it yourself, you'll need to either have a legitimately obtained copy of Star Fox Adventures (version 1.00 only, not the Player's Choice version) to use with an emulator, or a modded GameCube system. From there, it's a relatively simple matter to apply the mod patch to the original game's code using software detailed on RenaKunisaki's site.

I want to put extra emphasis on this last point: Do not illegally download or share game software. Do not ask how to do it or help others do it. There are legitimate methods for making your own copies of your own software, so only use those methods with legitimately obtained software.

A musical arrangement of Krystal's first appearance in Star Fox Adventures (the beginning of the game) and her battle with General Scales' Galleon. Very nice music by VGSymphony. Art by Yalsha.