In case if you don't know what happened a long time ago, since that situation happened almost three years ago, Autumn and Hidden Variable have posted a statement that they are no longer working with Mike Zaimont following the allegations of sexual harassment. Despite the fiasco, Skullgirls is continuing development because Autumn is the IP holder, not Lab Zero and shifting to BBTAG music is the cherry on top and Annie is still assigned to Justice Sword during the BBTAG music period.
And then, a Season 1 Pass has been announced and it contains not only Annie, but also Umbrella, Black Dahlia and Marie. Since the shift to BBTAG music, it benefitted three characters assigned to BlazBlue themes and one character assigned to an Under Night In-Birth theme in the Season 1 Pass. Justice Sword, Active Angel, Walpurgisnacht and Purity & Strictly are the themes that the Season 1 Pass characters are assigned to.
Back in March 2021, I considered giving listening to BBTAG music a go, so I did while watching Skullgirls Slapfest as a test to see if it's well enough for me to confirm it or not on the character section. After doing so, it has turned out well enough for me to confirm that I'll be officially shifting to BBTAG music. It's because it has a jukebox feature at the entrance and the online lobby and BBTAG has multiple universes.
It reminds me of that episode on Dragon Tales after I brought BBTAG music and it turned out well. I started assigning the characters, stages and canon 1v1s to them and I started out rocky, but later, I made some changes. I wouldn't consider Skullgirls a Marvel game, though it is based on MvC2, knowing that my local movie theater makes me think of Skullgirls since looking at popcorn machines made me think of Peacock, but not much during the day. It works well at night time.
It even turned out well while playing through the Story Mode. The jukebox has non-gameplay BGM and that what makes it so.
My duty is turning out well so far, until I learned what has contradicted listening to BBTAG music and it was the RWBY themes. They aren't substantial enough to justify a theme despite fitting well with the characters and canon solo matches because they don't have an endless cadence other universes have. That's why I will no longer assign characters, stages and canon solo matches to RWBY themes going forward and I have announced that final theme changes are coming too.
BBTAG music is now in full swing after making final theme changes. I haven't did MvC2 mode where I play the theme on the stage I am playing on yet, but I'll cross that bridge once I get there. There are a couple more changes coming to the stage section before it is cemented for real.
Then later, being on the character section is not the only thing I am doing. Seeing Skullgirls continuing development because of Autumn Games holding the IP and shifting to BBTAG music have given me the perfect opportunity to make BBTAG palettes out of characters that are assigned to BBTAG character themes that fit well with them for my Skullgirls X BBTAG Palette Pack as a cherry on top.
It is only meant to have Skullgirls characters who don't have BBTAG palettes in the game and can only have BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena and Under Night In-Birth palettes. Plus, it can also have characters that have palettes of non-BBTAG characters in my wish list for the BBTAG 3.0 Character Pack. However, they will stay banned from my special online casual until it is confirmed. I still plan to give you a before and after comparison for the current chart that takes place before the BBTAG 3.0 period and final theme changes that will take place after the BBTAG 3.0 period, but not until Marie is fully released.
BBTAG 2.0:
BBTAG 3.0:
Since Black Dahlia is officially released and couldn't get her Nine the Phantom palette, she stays up there on two separate packs along with the other Season 1 Pass characters that didn't get their Izayoi and Platinum palettes during development. One for the BBTAG 2.0 period and the other for the BBTAG 3.0 period. But had to be after Annie's Izayoi palette to match with the order of introduction because Izayoi was first introduced before Nine. Also made some boo-boo fixes on Double's Merkava palette that you are gonna see on other WIP projects.
As a result, as Black Dahlia didn't get her Nine palette after looking through all of her palettes, the BlazBlue row is still having four characters, one on each installment of the franchise with Big Band depicting a Calamity Trigger newcomer. Umbrella depicting a Continuum Shift newcomer, Annie depicting a Chrono Phantasma newcomer and Black Dahlia depicting a Central Fiction newcomer.
As a special bonus, if Indivisible stayed alive when 505 Games owns the IP or when Mike Z left Lab Zero Games, Ajna would've made a great character for Skullgirls with conciliation as a cherry top so that I can make an Es palette out of her and put it on my projects. But that would never happen because everyone left Lab Zero Games and Indivisible is gonna remain unfinished forever. All of the money the backers have spent to make the game happen and all of the hard work on the guest characters and the two remaining characters from the developers have all went down the drain. All because of one man.
The palette editor has Marie's temporary NMO Arena banner you are gonna see when Marie hits Alpha if you click her sigil before it goes away. I left it on there in different shades of purple as a temporary placeholder up on this collection of characters in their BBTAG palettes and it will be replaced once Marie is added. Again, I'm keeping the Ceremika thing because of her forte of punching and grabbing. These are the characters that will be legal in my special online casual called Skullgirls X BBTAG.
Because it is gonna take place on the Steam version, the Beta version can also be played on. I am doing a PC streaming test to see how smooth my Steam games run. It's working towards becoming a content creator. A G-rated one who never swears at all.
My Discord server banner art for my special online casual has an update. It has NMO Arena tinted in blue in the background just for show and that's one of the stages I strongly recommend playing on, updated the picture of Cerebella in Mika's colors to her new one, which I found better than the other one and threw in Marie's purple temporary NMO Arena banner on there for craps and giggles as a temporary placeholder to show you the spot where Marie in Orie's colors will be located at.
NMO Arena is my most favorite stage because of the banners that show what characters are we playing as. The best part about my special online casual is that I will get to experience players running duos and trios that involve the Renoir sisters, TV stars, Parasite head users and other interesting things and canon solo matches that involve these characters.
I had to color Marie's banner purple because she is assigned to an Under Night In-Birth theme that is a perfect fit for her. Soon, my Discord server banner art will be coming along nicely to show everyone how fly the 14 Skullgirls characters look in their BBTAG palettes once I have Marie in Orie's colors on there to replace her banner in different shades of purple. With all of the awesomeness that is SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level developed by Madxruler, all four Season 1 Pass characters being legal makes it 14.
Forgot to mention that there is a delicious surprise Beowulf, Parasoul, Annie, Umbrella and Cerebella on the left side in palettes of Kanji, Mitsuru, Izayoi, Platinum and Mika are holding on the play... 👀
I know I am being off topic, but you guys heard of SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level, right? It is officially in the works, but it's a fan game by Madxruler. I guess I am interested in that. This reminds me. Madxruler has videos of them performing Sonic's random combos. They have inspired me to do the same, by performing Annie and Tianhuo's random BBTAG-style combos and Smart Combos to showcase on how will they perform well in BBTAG. But it's gonna be on console because it is easier to record gameplay clips on console than on PC.
The shift to BBTAG music came with this number one benefit; creating BBTAG Trinities, trios that have one teammate assigned on each universe's theme. Here's a couple of examples of them.
Team Bella-Beo-Band - Big Band, Beowulf and Cerebella in Tager, Kanji and Mika colors. Since Beowulf first came out, SwingBeatz, ruby_chan and others started running this BBTAG Trinity to give matches a lot of magic and this is the team that we'll probably see often in my special online casual if we are doing 3v3 battles during that day's casual. I recommend NMO Arena for a ton of magic. I know Beowulf already has his Kanji Tatsumi palette in 2nd Encore, not in Mobile yet, but if Cerebella and Big Band's Mika and Tager palettes are in the game, I bet that several players that run the Bella-Beo-Band team I know would make a Mika, Kanji and Tager version of it.
Team Living Weapon - Cerebella, Parasoul and Umbrella in Platinum, Mitsuru and Mika colors. The Skullgirls story involves the use of Living Weapons. This is the only BBTAG Trinity that can seal the deal to contain these characters wielding their Living Weapons and running this will make them the most awesome player on the block.
Team Thigh High - Annie, Filia and Cerebella in Izayoi, Labrys and Mika colors. This BBTAG Trinity having these characters wearing thigh high boots is kind of a meme just so players that run this would be hungry for them just because Mary J. Blige was rocking out them thigh high boots at Super Bowl LVI. Except that Annie's thighs are colored maroon during the process of making an Izayoi palette out of her.
Skullgirls X BBTAG 1.0 Character Pack Wave 4 - Annie, Parasoul and Double in Izayoi, Mitsuru and Merkava colors. One of the players I know runs this team and that's Zolly. They run this BBTAG Trinity in palettes depicting the Legend of Zelda characters since they are named "Legend of Zolly". I actually kind of like Zelda a little bit knowing Tears of the Kingdom is coming out soon. And now that the Season 1 Pass period and onwards have expanded to Nintendo Switch, Zelda fans can run Annie in her Link palette on the Switch version as a treat.
Next up, Skullgirls X BBTAG 1.0 Character Pack Wave 6 - Black Dahlia, Filia and Cerebella in Nine, Labrys and Mika colors, because you want to run this trio comes elemental bullets, a school girl enamored by the glory of the morning sun and punching and grabbing things. Even so, I sadly haven't seen any of the players that run this BBTAG Trinity since I retired from watching Skullgalz Showdown and Skullgirls Slapfest. Hope I can return to watching them in the future...
Team Carnival - Platinum, Teddie and Mika colors. I just realized that it hit me that Cerebella's Mika palette is not the only thing I can completely agree with because I can also completely agree with Umbrella's Platinum palette because of not just her upbeat personality as a child, but also victim trapping bubbles and Peacock's Teddie's palette because of her wild and wacky gadgets in her possession, just because she is all into cartoon violence. These characters are assigned to themes that have that carnival feel and running this BBTAG Trinity is actually kind of interesting to make them a legend.
And of course, you know I am into BBTAG Trinities since I shifted to BBTAG music and planned to run a trio that involves Annie on both console and PC like SonicFox, Dekillsage and other players that do. But I'm gonna run this trio that involves Annie and this one makes a BBTAG Trinity.
Now, this one I can mark as the most interesting. Team Awesome. I don't care if Cerebella is not a TV clown. These characters are awesome and I'm using this BBTAG Trinity as my casual's mascot.
I have a couple more BBTAG Trinities that I want to share, but they require Marie's picture of her Orie palette.
And as a bonus, it even fits well with the most magical matchup I ever watched in Skullgalz Showdown. I heard Cerebella and Annie have charming NMO Arena banners, generic win voice lines that say their own name at the end, unique commands that involve holding down the button to hover while in mid-air and feels for movie theaters at night.
That's why I wanted their Mika and Izayoi palettes to be implemented as a treat.
Anyway, in conclusion, nothing will ever beat BBTAG music. It is much more unprecedented than others since it benefitted the Season 1 Pass having three characters assigned to BlazBlue themes now available on Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch and will soon be available on Xbox and one character assigned to an Under Night In-Birth theme that will be released later this year and that is Marie.
Development on Skullgirls 2nd Encore and the Season 1 Pass for the Xbox is continuing along smoothly without hitting a single hurdle and it's because of the codebase upgrades that make console development easier. So far, most of its major features, such as sharp UI, combat, lobbies and multiplayer have been implemented so far. They can't wait to get it into the Xbox players' hands so that they can join the Season 1 Pass period and onwards and we can get crossplay once the season is done. Turns out, judging on their accelerated development, the Xbox port is definetely gonna come out before Marie does. I don't have an Xbox One or an Xbox Series X/S, but I am glad that Skullgirls is making a grand return to the platform after over seven years since 2nd Encore first came out on PS4 and BBTAG is being ported to the Xbox too.
But the Xbox port isn't the only thing on the docket slated to release before Marie does this year because there is another project on the docket that I neglected to mention for so long, which is the update with the Season 1 Pass for the Japanese PS4 release of 2nd Encore to match with other regions.
Arc System Works forged a license for the Japanese PS4 version of Skullgirls 2nd Encore to implement Japanese voices to all regions. They were on the verge of bringing the update to it, but they must take steps with ArcSys to make progress. But now that ArcSys' license for the game has expired, the Japanese PS4 version of Skullgirls 2nd Encore is transferred back to Hidden Variable and Future Club to benefit making it easier to finally give the Japanese PS4 players the update and the Season 1 Pass they need to match with other PS4 versions. As a treat, the Skullgirls X BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle Palette Pack will also be available on the Japanese PS4 version.
I originally don't care about this, but now, I suddenly do because we are eager to play online matches against Japanese PS4 players and they need it so that they can bring their PS4s to offline tournaments in Japan, like in Them's Fightin' Herds that console ports benefitted bringing PS4s to offline tournaments to make set ups easier.
Once both the Xbox port and the update for the Japanese PS4 release of 2nd Encore are released, not only the devs will then double their efforts on the development of Marie so that they can get her completed for her release on 2nd Encore and Mobile sooner. The "true" Skullgirls launch party will be open truly for everyone, the 2nd Encore release with the Season 1 Pass and the Skullgirls X BBTAG Palette Pack will be available on all four digital storefronts of Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch across all regions on that time.
Emphasis on "true" because once the Xbox port and the update for the Japanese PS4 release drop, the launch party will be fully open to welcome those who own Skullgirls and the Season 1 Pass on all four platforms across all regions. That's when the devs can double their efforts on completing Marie to get her out sooner, future updates can be delivered with more flexibility and more smoothness produced by codebase upgrades on all four platforms and a possibility of an announcement of a Season 2 Pass.
It's like in the development of Them's Fightin' Herds that working on console ports demanded more time from engineers and writers is why the Story Mode couldn't be completed last year and Chapter 2 starring Velvet couldn't be released sooner. But now that they are complete, working on the Story Mode is their top priority again, but not the only one because with several combat devs on their team, they can work on the Story Mode chapters and new characters simultineously.
Eleven years passed since Skullgirls first came out on PS3 and 2023 marks a big year for the franchise because Marie is making her playable debut and Purity & Strictly would be a cherry on top and a perfect fit so that she would be legal in my online casual and eligible for an Orie palette, Skullgirls is finally making a grand and triumphant return to the Xbox after almost ten years since its release on the Xbox and seven years since 2nd Encore first released on PS4 as development on the Xbox release is continuing along smoothly and the update and the Season 1 Pass for the Japanese PS4 version are gonna be released so that the Japanese PS4 version can be matched with other PS4 versions. That's three things that are sunrising this year.
And Nintendo Switch players, if you have Skullgirls, be sure to buy the Season 1 Pass. It actually turned out to perform really well because of the codebase upgrades that make console development easier with faster load times and eight-player lobbies BBTAG and other fighting games have unlike the PSVita version. That version sucked crap because of slow load times that depend on what characters you have on your team, six-player lobbies and lack of flexibility. If any of you are asking, I am totally buying the Season 1 Pass on the Switch version so that I can play the new characters on the go on long road trips, but when it is discounted.
I wanted to see where would Marie be on the character select screen when she hits Alpha, but she's definetely gonna be on top of the default selection and on the square where the online timer is located at so that the random selection can still be in the center. That might be a perfect placement. But if the online timer is moved to the top of the character select sign, the BETA watermark could block it, so it's best for it to be moved to the bottom of the portraits. You know, like in BlazBlue: Central Fiction that when Jubei came out, the timer goes at the bottom of the selection as his portrait is located at the original spot where the timer was.
Originally, I said that I want to go full blast on PC and console now that Black Dahlia is fully released and the smoother online multiplayer , but there has been a change of plans. I can no longer think that I'm gonna go full blast on PC and console now that Black Dahlia is released when there is circumstances. Marie is the final character on the docket. Her Alpha and onwards come with the time I play Purity & Strictly while her full release comes with post Season 1 Pass period content, like the Season 1 Pass characters' fully voiced Story Mode and other stuff. When Marie either hits Alpha or when she is fully released, I can go full blast. We'll see. I can't make any promises to be safe.
With that being said, part 2 of the update is coming at you soon and it will contain the following below.
-Update on the stage section
-Update on the canon solo match section
-An announcement regarding celebrating Skullgirls' very first Season 1 Pass and the shift to BBTAG music.
After part two of the update, there will be no more theme changes until the 3.0 Character Pack is confirmed while future updates beyond that will have the reveal of future characters and have standalone updates for Skullgirls X BBTAG going forward.
