Krystal Replaces Alyx in New Half Life 2 Mod
Falemirous, the guy who's been really helping with the Miiverse Project, has made a really awesome Krystal mod for Half Life 2! The mod replaces Alyx, the secondary companion character, with Krystal. As a result, you will have the pleasure of Krystal guiding you through part of the game's tutorial, and you will see her in other places throughout the rest of the game. Though the rig is a bit unorthodox, it's hard to argue with the results. It features facial animation, a physically active tail, and various "jiggle bones" to make for a very dynamic character. The EMP tool is replaced by Krystal's Staff. Depending on which version you get, Krystal can either fire a blaster or a mini gatling gun. Both the guns and the Staff use sound effects from their respective games.
The mod is compatible with Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, and Synergy (a free multiplayer Half-Life 2 mod). You can download either the blaster or gatling gun versions from the new Falemirous Half Life 2 Alyx Mod page.
Miiverse Download Complete!
I have just finished downloading all the remaining posts and replies, as well as all associated resources, for every Krystal-related thing we could find on Miiverse, just hours before its final shutdown.
How much did we get? The final tally is a bit hard to explain. First, there were Krystal related posts. There were somewhere around 2470 of them, with the vast majority of those being images of some kind. Then, there were 96 Krystal-related reply pages we grabbed. Some of those Krystal-related replies were on non-Krystal posts, so the total post count is actually 2483. Combined with the reply pages, we grabbed a total of about 2580 pages! The combined resources, images, and html data clocks in at just under 400MB.
In the coming weeks I will be taking a closer look at the content I've downloaded. I'll clean it up, do some filtering, and create good listings for them. We'll also try to find all the Krystal-related replies that we didn't specifically mention above. To be sure, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Krystal-related replies in addition. Once that's all done, I will host what I have for all to see. We'll also have some special versions of everything, such as a gallery of purely Krystal artwork, without the context surrounding it.
I want to take a moment to express my most sincere gratitude to Falemirous. Without his efforts, we might not have gotten about half of the content we did. Please thank him for his help. Also, thanks to GoldenFox51 for sending us a huge bunch of last minute posts to go through. It is thanks to his efforts that we broke the 2500 page barrier.
Now, I need a rest. I've been working on this on and off, all day, and it's been hectic. But we did it guys! The Miiverse Download Project is complete. Next stop, the Miiverse Hosting Project.
PS: Just wanted to let you guys know, the gigantic Miiverse Thank You collage (Miiverse Link), which you can see in the image above, features a Krystal picture from CommanderD. Congrats to him on getting some recognition in addition to his many hundreds of Krystal posts on Miiverse. If you have the full resolution image (over 10MB), you'll see his artwork in the red box area highlighted in the image above. Here's the original Miiverse page where it was posted, though it will only be visible for a couple hours more.
Goodbye to Miiverse
This is pretty much it! The Miiverse is shutting its doors forever tomorrow evening. Backing up the Krystal posts on there has consumed my weekend, which is why I didn't post the last two days. I want to let you know that, as of this evening, we have downloaded over 2000 Krystal-related posts and replies!
I'm finishing up some testing related things, making sure my downloads are working and complete. Those of you who are still trying to send me Krystal posts, we're waiting on them (you know who you are). Sometime late afternoon, we will try to download the last remaining Krystal posts we are able to find, then it's lights out for the Miiverse.
Once I get a chance to check, cleanup, and organize the content, the Krystal Archive will be hosting a backup of all these posts. None of the links will work, but the pages, images, and replies will all look pretty much exactly the way they always did (plus some improvements).
Though it won't be visible for much longer, here's the source of the image above. The art is by CommanderD, a reader of the site and big Krystal fan on the Miiverse.
See you, Space Cowboy...
Krystal Figurine Arrived
Remember how I won that auction a while back for a Krystal figurine by Golab08? It took a while to get here all the way from Poland. But it's here! I've actually had it for a couple weeks, but never had a chance to post about it. It's pretty cool to look at up close. At about 5 inches tall, it's got just enough room for some detail work on the tattoos, armor, and eyes. Golab08 did a fine job with this hand-painted sculpture.
Star Fox Assault Cutscene: Sargasso Mission Complete [4K]
This week's Star Fox Assault cutscene is another from the Sargasso level. After Star Fox defeats Star Wolf, Panther gives in to Krystal and reveals Pigma's location. This video is 4K, or rather, 5K because of the 4:3 aspect ratio.
In these type of in-game cutscenes, there's no difference between the Japanese and English visuals, save for the on-screen text. But I've included the Japanese version anyway.
Krystal Arwing Commission by Hollulu
I'm very happy to finally show you this most excellent Krystal commission from Hollulu (Monica "Holly" Grover). Her cute, yet realistic style is one of my favorites, to say nothing of her lighting and shading abilities. Just wonderful!
She sent me several sketches during the commission project to get ideas for what to go forward with. You can see those sketches below. We ended up going with a combination of the inside-the-Arwing Option C, with a slightly less serious expression found in other sketches.
As I usually do with my Krystal commissions, I want you guys to have the full resolution. So here it is. You can download the full size image, an astounding 5700 by 3900 pixels! Also, there's a tiny hidden surprise somewhere in the image that can only be found by looking at the full size image. Post in the comments if you can find it.
Please visit Hollulu's gallery for other great artwork. If you'd like to leave her a comment about this Krystal commission, visit the Krystal Commission page in her gallery.
Radroachmeat’s Krystal Facepaint
In the spirit of Halloween, here's radroadmeat's Krystal facepaint, part of her 31 days of Halloween project from 2015. The idea is that she paints up her face as a different character every day of the month in October. She did Krystal here, as you can see, on October 9th, 2015. I really like the fur texturing she did. Somehow I missed this when it happened two years ago, but I'm rectifying that now. Happy Halloween!
“Good Job, Fox” Animation
Here's a short little picture story about an overworked Fox McCloud. Everyone comes to support Fox. Everyone.
Video by 梨月みの (S_mino930). Have a look at all the images.
PS: Sorry this was posted so late. I'm feeling a bit like Fox right now.
Nightmare Nights This Weekend
Once again, I will be attending Nightmare Nights, a brony convention in Dallas, TX. It's the very last year the convention will take place, and they're pulling out all the stops. So am I. I'll be cosplaying the whole time!
It will last all weekend, and I'm about to head there now. As a result, I won't be posting or responding much. Don't worry, though. Regular posts will resume Monday, including some really cool stuff. Thanks for your patience.
Official European Nintendo Website Does a Barrel Roll
When a you try to access a page that doesn't exist on a website, servers send back a 404 error. Optionally, they can send back a page explaining the situation, and many sites use this space to be creative. In fact, the Krystal Archive 404 page does just that!
Anyway, Reddit user NicoDarunia discovered that the official European Nintendo website features a Peppy Hare-themed 404 page, complete with a button that makes the website do a barrel roll.
Try it yourself: Go to the official Krystal Smash Bros Announcement page.