Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Joe's Monologues. This one is gonna be emotional and interesting as it gonna have interesting topics. I know you're disappointed that you'll have to wait another 20 years for the next total solar eclipse here, but don't be as I go over the topics today, savvy?
Skullgirls:
I have no words to say this. I am so dang speechless as to how astonished I am in this point of time. Between you and me, I am astonished on how everything turned out well. This shows how everything went smoothly. Especially that part when the Nintendo Switch update and the Xbox port entered active development so that players of these systems can join the launch party.
I'm gonna tell you this. Skullgirls first came out on April 10, 2012 and launched with eight base characters that are all female and Marie is the boss character. Later in 2013, it is back as Skullgirls Encore with five new DLC characters and a clone character to expand the roster to 14. And now where it stands, the Season 1 Pass has been announced to expand the roster to 18 and Marie has relegated into her playable self free from the Skull Heart's power.
It has been one heck of a long road. I am so sad... well not sad, but glad... that the Skullgirls 2nd Encore Season 1 Pass is officially complete. The Season 1 Pass is done and dusted. I am very astonished at how far Skullgirls has gone. Especially that part when back in Summer 2020, the former Lab Zero Games employees have left because of Mike Z's actions that created a unsafe environment. I really thought that we won't get to try Annie out, but thankfully, she became so inevitable.
The reason why I am so relieved of that bullcrap I experienced is because Autumn Games owns all of Skullgirls' IP so that we can get Annie and future content regardless of that fiasco. I am so dang proud that my baby girl didn't suffer from all of the heck we encountered a while back. As a treat, I made her a new palette that you'll find out later on.
Now, if I keep track of the history during the Season 1 Pass era, it unfolded like this.
2021:
February 23, 2021 - Annie was announced along with the first Season Pass to have Annie and the three DLC characters.
March 4th, 2021 - The Season 1 Pass arrived on Steam in light of Annie's Beta.
July 8, 2021 - Annie and the Season 1 Pass have been released on PlayStation and on the retail version on Steam.
August 31, 2021 - Umbrella entered Alpha on Steam literally in the last second.
December 16, 2021 - Umbrella entered Early Access on Steam.
2022:
April 14, 2022 - Umbrella is officially released on Steam and PlayStation along with Annie.
June 16, 2022 - Black Dahlia entered Alpha on Steam. Skullgirls 2nd Encore and the Season 1 Pass entered active development as an update for the Nintendo Switch and a new release for the Xbox.
2023:
January 6, 2023 - The update that matches with other platforms and the Season 1 Pass are released on the Nintendo Switch.
March 29, 2023 - Black Dahlia is officially released on Steam, PlayStation and Switch.
July 2023 - The Xbox port and the Season 1 Pass are released to match with other platforms.
October 18, 2023 - Marie entered Alpha on Steam.
December 12, 2023 - Marie entered Early Access on Steam.
2024:
March 26, 2024 - Marie is officially released on all platforms to round out the Season 1 Pass.
It took four years, but the Season 1 Pass is finally rounded out. It has been a long road, man. I shifted to BBTAG music as a cherry on top and making BBTAG palettes out of characters who are assigned to themes that fit well with their personality. Annie got released, no Izayoi palette. Umbrella got released, no Platinum the Trinity palette. Black Dahlia got released, no Nine the Phantom palette. Marie got released, no Orie palette after looking through all of her palettes. That's four out of four.
The only thing about this is that when Marie hits Alpha on Steam, her boss version is renamed to Bloody Marie to distinguish things and all platforms now have it in light of her official release and it will stay that way forever. So I did one of the challenges with Marie to see how it goes. Turns out that Marie can fight her Bloody self in a challenge and on Arcade Mode.
I can play some Skullgirls now that Marie is fully released and I can record my online matches and edit them to play BBTAG music using. But my PS Plus has expired sadly and I wish they can offer free online multiplayer every weekend at least. I wish I can play it on Steam, but I need to buy a gaming laptop for this. I postponed my special online casual for the same reason.
In the meantime, I'll record the clips of playing through character tutorials and edit them to play BBTAG music as a warm up and publish them to YouTube on my gaming channel. But only the ones that are eligible for my currently postponed special online casual.
If you look at the placement of the character select screen that will last during the post Season 1 Pass period on Skullgirls 2nd Encore, Annie, Umbrella and Black Dahlia are located at the bottom of the default selection while Marie is located at the top of the default selection. And for a better view, I selected the size to make the HUD appear on both sides. I am intrigued by this placement I've been looking. It happened first on Marie's Alpha on Steam. And now, it is happening on all platforms in light of her official release. The placement is so complete that Marie is literally the cherry on top since she is the current Skullgirl others have to battle and her Story Mode is a visual novel to entail how she gained control of the Skull Heart.
It is unclear that they are gonna put something on the empty slots Marie is between, but we do know one thing's for sure. Because this placement lasts during the course of the post Season 1 Pass period, the chraracter select screen will be updated to have a new grid with smaller squares to hold portraits of both current and future characters during the period of subsequent Season Passes to follow the footsteps of other fighting games that expanded theirs and that something we can look forward to.
Then there is something coming to Mobile called Guest Stars, which are assist characters that can perform an assist and they take way less development time than full fighters, so they are similar to Mortal Kombat 1's Kameo Fighters, Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax's Assist Fighters and so on. One of the Guest Stars is revealed to be Minette. She is being worked on and because Guest Stars take way less time, she will be finished in no time. The full roster for Guest Stars remains a mystery, so we don't know who are they, besides Minette. While they are Mobile exclusive, they'll always have a chance to be in 2nd Encore for subsequent Season Passes also.
And now, the general balance changes section has just started in the Beta version on Steam. They have the first set of balance changes released on Steam in the Beta version. One of the things that interested me is that Annie getting her upgrades to her Star Power. It's something I can agree with because Star Power upgrades offered her enhanced special moves, Distortion Skills and gives Star Cancel. That's why I wouldn't dare record her character tutorial and edit it to play Justice Sword until the balance patch drops.
That's the Overdrive system exclusive to Annie because you know that BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma introduced the Overdrive system? It's a system that enhances all of the characters' attacks. I am starting to feel like that with Star Power getting an upgrade, I am calling it Star Overdrive to reflect the changes to Star Power. It's hard to believe that I was playing BlazBlue, but with Annie, which is a fact that she is assigned to a BlazBlue theme and making an Izayoi palette would be the cherry on top.
I forgot to mention that the devs are still on the source of updating and replacing all of Valentine's fuschia crosses with pastel pink shurikens. That was supposed to come out in 2022, but it has been pushed back and we haven't gotten a single word about it because they had on multiple projects on their sleeve, like the update and the Season 1 Pass for the Switch, the Xbox port with the Season 1 Pass, Black Dahlia and Marie and the general balance patch. But now that the Season 1 Pass and the process of bringing Switch and Xbox players to the launch party is complete, the process of updating all of Valentine's crosses continues and it shouldn't be that long.
The Skullgirls Championship Series is going strong so far with online and offline events. Combo Breaker is almost upon us and that's where the Skullgirls World Championship will take place at. Now that the Season 1 Pass is completed, Marie will be legal for the remainder of the season and hopefully, the general balance changes should be finalized and released on all platforms before the Skullgirls World Championship at Combo Breaker. The devs will set up their booth there and they are gonna give us a special announcement. I have a feeling that we're gonna get some Minette news. Neglected to mention that if Minette makes her way to 2nd Encore, she will be eligible for my currently postponed online casual as Crystal Forest is perfect for her.
Spyro 4 in Development:
It's official. Spyro 4 is now officially in development. If any of you haven't played Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, be sure to play it as we are getting a new Spyro getting in development. This comes after Crash Team Rumble ceased active development after three Seasons following the part when Toys For Bob spun off to become an indie studio from Activision. This means Spyro 4, Crash Bandicoot 5 and future projects will not be published under the Activision umbrella moving forward.
Since the beginning of the Crash and Spyro games owned by Activision, Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy was developed by Vicarious Visions on the PS4 and Xbox One, now renamed to Blizzard Albany since they moved to Blizzard while Spyro: Reignited Trilogy was developed by Toys for Bob, which also developed the Nintendo Switch version of Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy in a process to develop a direct sequel to the original trilogy. I can see how Universal became awful to them.
Now, we don't know what Spyro 4 will offer. It is early in development, so we don't know if it's gonna be a direct sequel to the original Spyro trilogy by Insomniac Games like Crash Bandicoot 4 is or a reboot. We know one thing for sure. Since I heard Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time became on par with Naughty Dog's original trilogy and fixed plot holes created by previous games, Spyro 4 could also fix plot holes created by previous Spyro games, like Elora not being in Enter the Dragonfly or any other games and so on. The studio has forged a partnership with Microsoft to publish their first independent game. But that doesn't mean their future games will be Xbox exclusives and Spyro 4 could be the first independent game. We don't know for sure. Know the message that says "keep your horns on" on the indie announcement? This term shows that Spyro 4 is officially in development.
What I like to see in Spyro 4 is some canon undertones we experienced in Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM, different breaths from Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, different playable characters, a fresh cast of characters from subsequent games in the original Spyro trilogy, an open world perspective from Sonic Frontiers and Jak and Daxter with portals leading to Speedway levels and Orbs from Spyro 2 to progress through the story, but with different colors varying by element and the fact that the goddesses in subsequent games in the original Spyro trilogy are iconic like Sally and Bunnie from Sonic SatAM. I want it to be a reboot rather than a direct sequel to the original Spyro trilogy.
In response to Spyro 4 getting in development, I made Annie a Bianca palette as a cherry on top. Shared this at the Skullheart forums weirdly enough. I am intrigued by it that Sagan is in his Spyro palette. And since Skullgirls Mobile is getting new palettes every month, including the ones that are never before seen, I can see a chance that this palette could make it on both 2nd Encore and Mobile. This is something I will support in parallel with supporting Bianca to be on Crash Team Rumble as the 4th Spyro character.
An Update on My Career:
The progress on my Wrapper: Offline career is coming along nicely so far. I am working on a special video that celebrates my channel reaching 100 subscribers. I got to make sure that everything goes smoothly first before publishing it on YouTube. There has also been some interesting development so far. I have been coming up with a ton of video ideas inspired by someone over on YouTube. Stay tuned for them.
Dream Logo Combos:
Since my inception to my career on YouTube on separate channels, I wanted to do something creative, like this. I am working on some dream logo combos. That will include the logos of defunct video game companies that I miss experiencing. The first one I am working on is a combo of EA Games, Sierra and Krome Studios (2002). I am using Wondershare Filmora to make them. But I am using the free version that limits to one minute and has a noticeble watermark. I plan to purchase it to break the one minute limit and remove that watermark. Now, when I make dream logo combos, I put the logos of my choice and it is for creative purposes, not to infringe on their copyright. That being said, I will upload them on my main channel on YouTube.
Conclusion:
This has been the first Joe's Monologues of April. Stay hyped for Spyro 4, folks. And also, play some Skullgirls now that Marie is officially released on all platforms to round out the Season 1 Pass.
