LuckyFox has begun work on a mod for Cave Story+ (from Steam or Epic game stores) which will replace the alternate story mode in Cave Story with Star Fox characters, visuals, and sounds. For those who don't know, in Cave Story+, you could play the game from the perspective of Curly Brace instead of Quote, which is largely the same as the regular mode, except that dialog sequences are a little different. You can see concept art and the work in progress version of the in-game sprite in the image above.

In the mod, Krystal replaces Curly Brace, Fox will replace Quote, the Blade weapon will be replaced with Krystal's Staff, and the Spur weapon will be replaced with a Blaster. LuckyFox is also working to remix some of the game songs to be more Star Fox like while still retaining the Cave Story style. LuckyFox sent a sample remix song of Mimiga Village.

LuckyFox is working on the dialog portraits now, but this is still pretty early in the mod's development. Right now, the modded mode is called "Krystal's Story", but in the end, it will probably be called "Krystal's Path". You can follow LuckyFox at @AizaFoxy on Twitter for news and updates on the mod.

Best of luck on this endeavor, LuckyFox!

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.

Gagnetar is working on updating his Krystal mod for Half Life 2 to include a complete rework of Alyx's lines by the original Krystal voice actress, Estelle Ellis! Even after all this time, she sounds lovely as Krystal. For that extra bit of polish, Gagnetar even took the trouble to rewrite some of the lines to fit better with Krystal as a character in the game world, rather than simply doing a word-for-word recreation.

The mod apparently contains some additional features that Gagnetar wouldn't divulge, "everyone will just have to wait and see." Even I don't know what they are. He's planning to release the mod on Star Fox Adventure's 20th Anniversary, which probably means September 23, 2022.

Check out the example videos where Gagnetar shows off his ongoing work on the game and some commentary on different aspects of the mod as he encounters features in the gameplay.

Wow, this is really cool! It's a reanimated sequence that appears in both Dinosaur Planet and Star Fox Adventures where the LightFoot ambush the player (Krystal in Dinosaur Planet). Using a combination of Star Fox Adventures and Dinosaur Planet models, a custom Krystal model, and voice lines from Dinosaur Planet, Jo Lumaya has recreated what might have been in glorious high resolution!

Unfortunately, I can't embed the video here, so watch it on YouTube.

The releases of new models to The Models Resource continue to march on, with several new (or new to me) Krystal-related 3D models ripped and ready for download. I'm pretty sure one of them is the in-game playable model for Krystal from Dinosaur Planet.

• Dinosaur Planet Krystal Model - Released April 2nd by Models124717
• Dinosaur Planet Krystal's Hands Model - Released April 2nd by Models124717
• Dinosaur Planet Krystal's Staff Model - Released November 6, 2021 by Models124717
• Assault Krystal Model - Released July 6, 2019 by starweed69
• Assault Krystal Head Model - Released a date I couldn't determine, by Models124717

3DWorldFigures has not one, but two Krystal figures available for purchase on the Etsy store. These 3D printed figures are 12-inches tall, fully painted, and come with a little scene/stand to hold each in place. They are each around $140 to $145 dollars, with unpainted versions available for $120. There is an Adventures version and a new Assault version.

Several members of the Krystal Archive Discord have purchased each one of these, and I can report that as of a few days ago, even the newer Assault version had arrived for someone who purchased it. So these are real and available now!

UndyingNephalim has been doing a lot more work on his fangame "Star Fox: Event Horizon" in recent months after publicly taking a break a while back. Every month or so there's some new video or experimental game mode.

Above, we have the most recent video, in which Fox and Krystal take to a hoverbike on the deserts of Sauria to fight off a bunch of SharpClaws and some mysterious scorpion enemies. It's particularly interesting because a land speeder is not at all what the Freespace engine is designed for.

Then, there was a fairly recent video of UndyingNephalim's interpretation of the Sector X incident from Star Fox 64. It does something I think is lacking in a lot of these open space, fly anywhere games: giving you something interesting to fly around. In this case, you arrive at the secret base as it is exploding, giving you new and interesting space "terrain" to fly around as you fight enemies and the boss.

I'm trying to post every day again. Please forgive me for posting stuff you've already seen. I'll try and mix older stuff with newer things. And hey, you might just see something you missed!

For some of you, this will be old news, particularly if you are on the Discord server. But I thought it would be a good idea to sum up some recent changes on this particular cosplay.

Over the past few months, Technicolor Cosplay's Krystal cosplay has been updated in several different areas. The mask was repainted to look more fox-like. The wig was changed and the ears completely redone. The tail is bigger. There's also a new bodysuit that better color matches the fur on the tail and the hair of the wig, though there were some issues with sizing it correctly. Technicolor Cosplay did several photoshoots as well, particularly as Ice Krystal, with the cape, taking full advantage of the snowy Canadian weather this Spring.

Technicolor Cosplay attended FanExpo Vancouver from February 19th through 21st 2022 as Ice Krystal. There was a cosplay contest appearance, lots of photos with other cosplayers, a photo or two with VIPs, a red carpet walk, and the cosplay even made the local news!

As far as upcoming features, Technicolor Cosplay continues to tweak and improve the cosplay. In the plans are a remade Assault jumpsuit with better boots. And something that's very exciting: Dragonscale Armor designed in the same theme as the Adventures armor pieces!

Gallery

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One of the greatest, and most haunting songs in Star Fox Adventures is the one played as Krystal is trapped in a crystal by a mysterious figure. VGSymphony has remade this track using his own instruments. Epic.