Monday, May 2, 2022

Weekly Update 5/2/22

Hello, you awesome people. It has been a while since I made that previous weekly update, but now this weekly update is gonna entail what have been going on the past days.

Now, first off, your friendly neighborhood YouTuber Extraordinaire, Nevercake, is continuing the SMITE Lore series after over three and a half years since the 97th episode entailing Pele came out. The next one entailing the newest Chinese God, Yu Huang, the Jade Emperor came out, so go watch it. He is the leader of the Chinese Pantheon known for using Dao. I tried him out before and I am impressed at the way he's developed. The leader of the Chinese Pantheon was the most requested God that has finally made his way on to the Battleground.

If you're a big fan of Nevercake like I am, I recommend go checking his channel out. He is good at animating videos and playing the ukulele. The best thing about him is that he makes ads for Riot Games that support League of Legends. He plays games with his friends, like Fortnite. Honestly, there has not been a new video on his channel for so long, yet the SMITE Lore series is back and Yu Huang picks up where the series left off. The writing and outline are a bit thinner than before and has Billy in it. That's what the future SMITE Lores will have. They even inspired me to write Skullgirls Lores too.

I even have some of his SMITE Lore videos on my phone to get a glimpse of the Gods' lore. I always loved the "Alright, so... you know how...," "Well, that's where..." and the "UC" lead-ins. And now that SMITE Lore is back on track, I am looking forward to the 99th episode. Two more and the series will hit the 100th episode milestone.

The one video that amazes me is that he and his brother travelled to LA after being invited by Riot Games for that Creator Lab event, where they can make any YouTube video, but they only had 24 hours, which is plenty of time to create a big video. As always, shout outs to Nevercake for his wonderful animations and his gaming sessions with his friends.

And that brings us to the next topic regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci has declared that the US is officially out of the pandemic phase and I am very glad that we are. It is finally now endemic and I don't care if it is. I just wanted the pandemic to end because I can't afford to allow more innocent people die from the virus. It means that people can now return to their normal lives, go back to their loved ones, get back to hosting offline tournaments again, etc. I even heard the WHO is developing an ultimate COVID-19 vaccine that can give us total protection from current and future variants, hence the word "ultimate". As in Smash Ultimate because it has all characters across the Smash Bros. franchise to use the everyone is here approach. Yeah, the pandemic has stymied their normal lives and relegated them to host online tournaments for fighting games that use rollback netcode to defy lag in any stage since late 2019.

Fighting games with delay-based netcode combat lag in some stages, but rollback netcode defies all that lag in any stage. That's the point of fighting games with rollback. You don't have to choose certain stages that defy lag. Even the boring Training Stage in Street Fighter V, which needs a better netcode.

Speaking of defying lag with rollback, we have a next topic. It's for Skullgirls, everyone's favorite fighting game that movie theaters make me think of at night because of their art deco structure, right? Umbrella is officially available on both 2nd Encore and Mobile. For the Mobile side of things, Umbrella won't be available in all standard relics until the next update that makes her fully available in all standard relics. I am saving them until the next update.

Since the early development on Skullgirls, Umbrella was a candidate for the base roster as she entered the very early development phase. Eight characters were established in the base roster, but Umbrella wasn't one of them sadly. Then later, an Indiegogo campaign where they give us five DLC characters and that time when a clone character was given has happened and she is still isn't one of them. But years later since the Japanese voice patch came out, the Season 1 Pass has been announced and Umbrella is finally becoming a playable character.

I am happy at the way she is developed and it was worth the salt. Umbrella is basically easy to learn and she is pretty darn fun to play. So glad she finally became a playable character after many years since the beginning and Active Angel would be the cherry on top, so basically, she had to offer a feel for when I am looking at slushies at my local movie theater.

And now, we are off to waiting for the next character in the Season 1 Pass hitting Alpha soon. It's Black Dahlia, everyone's favorite gun granny, right? Yeah, didn't think so. Black Dahlia is the oldest character in Skullgirls that is required for the canon story mode like Umbrella. With her arm gun, she is set to kill the competition, but her gameplay outline remains a mystery. She has a stage named Deadly Airport and I seem to found a perfect BBTAG theme to assign it to. But can't reveal it until Dahlia's gameplay outline on what will she bring to the table is revealed. If she makes a great Overwatch Hero, that would be cool.

A decade has passed since Skullgirls came out and we let it thrive for a decade and couldn't be brought down like Indivisible. It's because Autumn Games owns the IP, not Lab Zero. If 505 Games owned the IP of Indivisible, the game would've stayed alive so it can get the promised guest characters and other extra stuff, but it was hit hard to a halt and couldn't get back to the line of scrimmage, which is my fancy way of saying stay alive. It's because everyone left Lab Zero because of Mike Z's actions and he should've faced the consequences of his actions and left the studio.

In celebration of Skullgirls' 10th anniversary, they have a LOT of things associated with all things Skullgirls planned for this year and Umbrella's official release on 2nd Encore and Mobile is one of the goals that are already met. We all know that Black Dahlia's introduction, including her Alpha phase is one of them, so hopefully, cross-play is one of them and something even cooler that I want for Skullgirls below.

A while back, I thought of something even cooler to be implemented to Skullgirls, which is the cinematic Them's Fightin' Herds-style lv. 5 supers that burn all five levels of your Dramatic Tension gauge, allowing each character to unleash their true and maximum potential. Hence maximum potential. And they have a curtain call post cinematic that plays when you kill the only character left in their team and during match point on solo matches with it, like you're doing the big finale to end the show with a huge bang. Now, Skullgirls' gameplay mimics the show, right? Each show needs a big finale to end the show with a bang and make the crowd go wild. They are Blockbuster Finales and that's what the cinematic lv. 5 supers are gonna be called. But they can be used anytime. They won't work if it hits an assist character and during the Marie boss fight.

Even the name of Annie's Blockbuster Finale dubbed "Galactic Judgment" sounds promising and outrageous. I was gonna go with Galactic Onslaught or Cosmic Judgment, but I think Galactic Judgment makes more sense because you know, like how one warrior casts judgment from above in outer space and calls upon the stars to shoot a huge beam towards Earth? Just to defy gravity and go to town.

I want them to be in Skullgirls because you know that Them's Fightin' Herds is getting the cinematic lv. 3 supers and I heard they are in the final stages of development too? Well, I thought of something cooler like the Blockbuster Finales and wouldn't that be awesome? I'll even think of one for the future characters. I am aware that they could potentially slow down the game and some people might have a problem with using them over and over, but rest assured that they are gonna be awesome as heck if they can only be used to KO the only character left on their team and while on match point during 1v1s to score an Astral Finish.

And since this year marks the 10th year of Skullgirls, they gotta reveal that fourth and final cherry on top Season 1 Pass character soon and they are eager to do so. Luckily, Combo Breaker is returning this year and is around the corner, so I hope they reveal that fourth Season 1 Pass character there too. If not, then since Skullgirls is announced as one of the mainstage games at EVO 2022 for the first time since the pre-release phase played back in EVO 2011 as a side tournament anyway, they'll reveal it there.

Since my inception to BBTAG music, I've been on the MvC1 format where I play themes upon the character's entrance for over a year and writing Skullgirls Lores on how a BBTAG character theme fits well with a Skullgirls character. Plus, it turned out well enough for me to confirm it and Walpurgisnacht will soon be played upon Black Dahlia's entrance once she enters Alpha as I did with playing Active Angel upon Umbrella's entrance while in her Alpha phase while watching Skullgirls Slapfest. Same goes for the fourth yet-to-be-announced character in the Season 1 Pass that is most likely not assigned to a BlazBlue theme and to be revealed at EVO. But that's not all what I've been doing to celebrate and promote the ongoing launch party.

This piece of news today is the result of what I've been working on behind the scenes to also celebrate the ongoing Skullgirls launch party and its 10th Anniversary you will see below.


How did the characters get their nifty palettes of familiar characters that are not yet in the game? What do the blue, yellow and purple rows mean? Why a few characters are missing? These are good questions. If you look at the hints in the update about RWBY themes and the previous post, here are the characters in their BBTAG palettes. I am working on an idea of a palette pack that is only for the Skullgirls characters that don't have BBTAG character palettes based on their character themes fitting well with their personality in the game.

The palette pack I'm working on is the Skullgirls X BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle Palette Pack. Or the Skullgirls X BBTAG Palette Pack for short. I made them through the SGM Palette Editor where you can make any palette out of any Skullgirls character you want and share it to anyone, including the developers to put it in the game since I heard they have no shortage of palette ideas.

As you can see here in the 3x7 collage above, there are three colors; one on each row. The blue slots on the top row is for the BlazBlue palettes. The yellow slots on the middle row is for the Persona 4 Arena palettes. And the purple slots on the bottom row is for the Under Night In-Birth palettes. This graphic even emulates the character select screen in BBTAG, but minus the RWBY and the EX characters.

Currently, it has Big Band, Umbrella and Annie in their Iron Tager, Platinum the Trinity and Izayoi palettes on the top row for BlazBlue palettes, Peacock, Parasoul and Filia in their Teddie, Mitsuru Kirijo (P4A version to clarify) and Labrys palettes on the middle row for Persona 4 Arena palettes and Double, Squigly and Cerebella in their Merkava, Hilda and Mika palettes on the bottom row for Under Night In-Birth palettes. That's currently nine of them in total, including Umbrella, the newest character to be on there since her Platinum palette is not in the game after looking through all of her palettes following her full release.

Just look at how nifty, stylish and fly they totally look in their BBTAG character palettes. I even pulled a Nevercake when developing this. This idea of my palette pack is no doubt more than nifty enough to commend MvC1 mode. Their BBTAG voice packs won't be included in this pack due to copyright concerns. Their Drive attacks, Personas and EXS aren't included. However, this pack is still incomplete, so more characters to come. And since Walpurgisnacht actually a perfect fit for Black Dahlia, her Nine the Phantom palette is in the works to be up on there if she doesn't get it during development.

It's even possible that I was able to make a Hilda palette out of Squigly. It's because I can color her legs black and her dress white and it indicates that Overwhelm Despair is actually a perfect fit for Squigly this whole time since I had to color her legs in her dress black. As a result, a Skullgirls Lore about how Overwhelm Despair is a perfect fit for Squigly is in the works after the one about how Walpurgisnacht is actually a perfect fit for Black Dahlia, so stay tuned for that.

Though this palette pack is only meant for the characters who don't have palettes that depict characters in BBTAG, it can also have characters who don't have palettes that depict the non-BBTAG characters in my wish list of characters I want for the 3.0 Character Pack, excluding the RWBY and the EX characters in the game, so news on that will be posted in the future. Of course, since the palette pack is intended to have palettes for both current and future characters, it will be available mostly on Steam and PlayStation at the moment because they still haven't provided info regarding the Season 1 Pass for the Nintendo Switch version and the Xbox release.

So, that's what I've been working on behind the scenes to celebrate and to promote the never ending Skullgirls launch party and commend MvC1 mode. I am looking forward to the Alpha release of Black Dahlia and that's where I come in to play Walpurgisnacht upon her entrance and look for her Nine palette. And also finding out who is the fourth and final character in the Season 1 Pass at EVO. 

But this palette pack idea is not the only thing I'm working on. I am working on another palette pack idea that is also not yet complete. Here are some hints below.


"He sits on his chair from time to time to get his hype about burgers. His fixation of cooking burgers is the most promising of them all as he embraces his son's arm."


"When she and her Egret soldiers are on a mission to deliver burgers across New Meridian, she shoots and tosses napalm tears made out of ketchup from her umbrella. A ketchup-fueled umbrella is one of the best deals when it comes to serving burgers"


"She may not be a Thunder Girl scout, but she and her remote Parasite as her brother descend from the burger cosmos to quell a various amount of Skullgirls off of the land. With her blade and her condition to prevent her from swearing, she is fierce and brave enough to defy stage fright and traumatization."


"Her hat doesn't have bunny ears, but her Living Weapon in her brother's colors is a family heirloom made to blow bubbles out of ketchup and create rain out of mustard. One of the charming things is when she and her big sister hang out at the Boardwalk."

"Her sassy and bratty attitude didn't stop her from stealing the show in the circus. Her beloved living arms are a huge showstopper to make a girl's best friend proud."

And now, we're down to our third and final topic regarding Mightykeef's EVO 2022 lineup reaction video and the event itself. Have you guys watched it before? If not, then go watch it. It's explosive and it even has a Sony logo on it to represent that EVO is bought by them. It is true that when Pyra and Mythra came out, what Smash fans did was lust over her big breasts. EVO is upon us. Well, except for the Smash players since any of the Smash games isn't going to be at EVO this year since Nintendo isn't gonna continue the legacy. If you don't know what mainstage games will be in this year's lineup in case if you haven't watched the lineup announcement...

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition
Guilty Gear Strive
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate
Tekken 7
The King of Fighters XV
Melty Blood: Type Lumina
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Granblue Fantasy Versus
Skullgirls 2nd Encore

These are the nine games that are confirmed to be in this year's lineup. I was planning to sign up for Skullgirls and train my trio team to have characters that do or don't have palettes that depict BBTAG characters in pulling a Nevercake, but I get nervous and I might lose right off the bat, so I don't think I'll ever be ready to compete in an offline tournament. I'll probably just have to fake it. Mightykeef's video is up on YouTube, so go watch it. It has a Sony logo to represent that Sony bought out EVO, but Smash didn't make it in.

Because of the Sony logo representing that they bought EVO, Nintendo has no interest in working with Sony since they bought out EVO. It might mean that Smash won't be at EVO ever again. We'll see once 2023 comes. The games in this year's lineup will all be played either on the PS4 or PS5. I think they all should be played on the PS5. It has 3D audio and Dolby Surround Pro Logic II, which the 4K and silver screen use and games load faster on the PS5 than on PS4, getting players into the match quicker. I was caught off-guard when my games loaded faster, including SMITE.

This year's EVO is gonna get the Team Sonic Racing and Sonic Colors Ultimate seal of approval thanks to Skullgirls' debut as a mainstage game and its return to Las Vegas since the COVID-19 pandemic and the Johnny Test seal of approval, courtesy of the EVO 2022 lineup reaction skit that had that part where Skullgirls told Smash Ultimate off after Street Fighter V mentioned about a community of gamers fantasizing about fictional women right at the end. The Early Bird registration has ended, so the regular registration is here and ends in June 9th, so sign up before it gets to the Late registration to end July 9th.

Well, that's all I wanted to tell you what's going on over the past days. With EVO 2022 upon us except for the Smash players, it's gonna be bigger than before. As always, have a wonderful day. Signing out.

No comments:

Post a Comment