Remembering My Favorite Twitch Channels

I just want to relay on what is making me feel so sad enough to hold on to what I will remember, my favorite Twitch streamers. I been watching them for years and stopped following their channels for a while. I'm not talking about the ones I unfollowed and followed. I'm talking about the ones I unfollowed and the ones that are dead. I'll talk about the following streamers below.

Clawmaster:

He was affiliated with Mission Start Podcast, which no longer exists as he is no longer affiliated with them. He had his own weekly online Skullgirls tournament, Monday Night Blockbuster. I watched it for years since my following with his channel. I had to unfollow his channel because it is dead and no longer available. He also streamed an online DBFZ tournament, but didn't turn out to be smooth because of spectating issues. I will remember his channel and cherish memories as it will forever be on our hearts.

Skullgirls Slapfest:

It's an online casual that streams every Tuesday and that's something I've been watching for years. Datagram is the owner of the channel that is known for streaming Skullgirls. They chat about anything and that's what I want to hear. They chat about upcoming things. What makes it exciting is that since Annie came out in her Beta phase on PC, I was rambunctious every time I see her in action back in the first week of March 2021 in a Johnny Test sort of way. Three weeks later, I gave listening to BBTAG music a go as a test. After a few tests, it has turned out well enough for me to confirm it and I was able to get Justice Sword on upon Annie's entrance. I was also able to play Active Angel upon Umbrella's entrance while watching the stream on day one of her Alpha.

I unfollowed their channel and retired from watching it for a while. I hope that I can watch their stream again. But that will not stop there. An online casual of my own I'm running is similar to this, but will be a different approach to restrict us to playing even ratios and as these characters in their BBTAG palettes that represent eligibility to be legal in mine below.

I plan to make another separate Twitch channel that will be streaming only Skullgirls for my own online casual that will be restrict to these characters and even ratios, hence "special online casual."

RonaldoKun:

Of course, you know, he is one of my streamers who streams various games and weekly online tournaments. The one that I watched often is a weekly online Skullgirls tournament that starts every Friday called Skullgalz Showdown. I watched it for years. Not gonna lie, though. He has a knack of maining Parasoul and playing Missions for the Brilliant Executor upon her entrance would be a garnishment. It's a perfect fit so that she would be eligible for her P4A Mitsuru Kirijo palette. I didn't tell Ron on Twitter, now called X, that I got BBTAG music ready for action to play Missions for the Brilliant Executor upon his character's entrance because I was reluctant and couldn't be direct. It's a completely different ballgame that Team Sonic Racing would be the seal of approval to bring some of the mojo back. Others I know, FizzXWizz, Taterade, DizzySenpai, others.

I listened to BBTAG music while watching Skullgalz Showdown and I am intrigued at the way it turned out to be. Playing Justice Sword and Active Angel upon Annie and Umbrella's entrance would be the cherry on top, but I didn't get to play Walpurgisnacht upon Black Dahlia's entrance since I retired from watching it and Purity & Strictly will soon be played once Marie enters Alpha. But ruby_chan participated and he was rocking out the BellaBeoBand team to fuel my endeavor in listening to BBTAG music while watching Skullgalz Showdown with a lot of magic.

I'm going to put this under consideration, which is returning to watching Skullgalz Showdown when Marie is fully released. As soon as Marie's Alpha drops, I'm gonna look through all of her palettes for her targeted Orie palette. If it's not in there or didn't make it, I will put it on my palette pack along with others who don't have BBTAG palettes in the game. That controversial censorship update will not stop me from doing my endeavor.

These are my favorite Twitch channels that I unfollowed until further notice. Doing so made me miss watching and playing some Skullgirls that I am losing my mojo. I can't go full blast on both PC and console until Marie is fully released. But I am going to showcase Annie's Smart Combos and BBTAG-style combos to showcase on how will she perform in BBTAG in the future on console and share it on X. I recorded Tianhuo's Smart Combos, so I got to record her BBTAG-style combos. And then, something has got some of my mojo back.

Madxruler is developing their fan project called SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level. Teased back in 2021, it is a vs. fighting game that has SEGA and Capcom characters clashing each other. It uses the Ikemen GO engine, an expansion to the original MUGEN fighting game engine for PC. Because this is a MUGEN project, there won't be any cease and desist worries as neither Capcom or SEGA didn't bother other creators in the MUGEN community. Now, I am interested in it, even though it's a MUGEN fighting game.

And I have another thing to relay. When I was a little kid, right? When I was a kid, I went to my cousin's house. He had a PS1 and I was playing Crash Bandicoot. The sound of hitting Wumpa Fruit reminds me of the old Nick Jr logo. But there is something about Eldritch Hounds. Learning about the SPL team unlocks greatness that if I miss playing some Skullgirls, it's Crash Bandicoot goodness to think about. Quig was a Hounds player, but he is now a Kings player for Genetics to move to the Warriors roster in preparation for the Road to the SMITE World Championship.

EVO is a week away and the Friday Showcase is gonna have a lot of things on the pipeline, like the gameplay breakdown for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, which was announced yesterday to look dope and has a three-bar meter that is used for slime cancels, EX specials and super abilities that spend all three bars. The trailer didn't showcase the super abilities, but I can assume that they can be cinematic. Arc System Works is gonna be there to announce what do they have in store for us. What I really want from them is the BBTAG 3.0 Character Pack and crossplay. Hidden Variable is setting up their booth and they are gonna showcase Marie at EVO and give us a special announcement afterwards. The Friday Showcase is not the Jump Off, but after all, I do want to see what do companies have in store for me and that's what the New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer episode inspired me to do.

If Madxruler makes it at EVO to showcase SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level during the Friday Showcase, I'll be hyped for it. Maybe that should keep my spirits up after letting them go down from unfollowing channels I missed watching so darn much. If this year's EVO is gonna get the Eldritch Hounds seal of approval, the magic surges.

BBTAG Music to SG Update 4.2

Here we are, guys and welcome to part two of this update. This one not only provides the final changes to the stage section, official name of Marie's stage and what theme it is assigned to and the final changes to the canon solo match section. It also provides other updates I had to make, like the final updates to the legend key and the character section. Also, this one will not have any updates for Skullgirls X BBTAG because I already posted the next standalone update.

Before we get right into the update, I am gonna announce how can I celebrate the announcement of Skullgirls' first Season 1 Pass and the shift to BBTAG music as a cherry on top.

I have no plans to play the RWBY themes independently, but there is one theme that I'm gonna play independently to celebrate that. You guys are familiar with the Persona 4 Arena version of Reach Out to the Truth, right? It has lyrics on it, but it has an endless cadence and this is the only theme that I'll be playing independently to celebrate the announcement of the Season 1 Pass and the shift to BBTAG music once Marie is fully released. That controversial censorship update cannot stop me from doing so. But that will not be until one thing is implemented first, crossplay.

Since 2nd Encore came out on PS4 and PSVita, crossplay between PS3, PS4 and PSVita was available, until Annie and the Season 1 Pass came out, which on that point, the PS4 is no longer crossplaying with older PlayStation consoles. But there is still crossplay between PS3 and PSVita. With all of the awesomeness that is Them's Fightin' Herds, KOF XV and Guilty Gear Strive, it's time that Skullgirls 2nd Encore gets crossplay between Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch once the whole season is done. As a result, the P4A version of Reach Out to the Truth will not be played until crossplay is implemented and that's when crunch time begins.

But this is not the only piece of news that I stated because there is another one.

Skullgirls 2nd Encore is being played at EVO 2023 as a Community Tournament and as a treat, they are hosting their booth there and gonna have a build for Marie's Alpha hosted there, like last year when they have the playable build that has the changes in Black Dahlia's Alpha. It is a couple of weeks away and I'll be seeing how far they did. Judging from her accelerated development, turns out, Marie's Alpha is gonna have almost everything at launch, including her stage. I can't reveal the theme for it yet, so here's a little hint: it is assigned to an Under Night In-Birth theme.

But that's not all. I have a new feature, the random theme rotation. It goes like this. At the beginning of each match, I will be playing the theme for that point character on both sides at random. The stage's theme will also be a part of the random theme rotation as long as it's one of them in my list of limited stages that you will see later. It's what Street Fighter 6 does. I'll be putting this random theme rotation into action in the future.

That's all of the news. Now, on to the update.

As we approach to the point where I lock everything in for the BBTAG 2.0 period and get everything prepared for the before and after comparison for the BBTAG 3.0 period, I'm gonna talk about the icons I removed from the legend key.

The [-] and [...] icons:

They don't meet up with my standards and are intended to get in the way during the before and after comparison and having them on there is not that necessary and is redundant. Now, effective immediately, when a character is revealed, the [-] icon will no longer appear by their name and when they get into development, the [...] icon will no longer appear.

The [X] icon for non-playable characters:

This is one of the icons that is good to make it easy to tell, but unfortunately, it can also get in the way during the before and after comparison. Effective immediately, the not yet playable characters are no longer having the [X] icon.

The star icon for characters in my wish list:

It's also good for wishlisted characters, but it is no longer the case because I am shifting my wish list to the ones that are eligible for their BBTAG palettes going forward.

Colored the text of the BBTAG character theme names in colors that vary by universe of the theme characters are assigned to to make it unique. Despite Marie no longer carrying the [...] icon, she is still in development.

Because the non-playable characters are no longer carrying the [X] icon, threw in a new section of non-playable characters. If one of them is confirmed, they will be moved to the playable characters section. This process is easier than before.

A while back, I told you that during the current period, there are 26 characters carrying the icon. But after coloring the text of the BBTAG character themes and removing the brackets from the icon, I wanted to share this again.

Because of the star icon removed, my wish list of characters I want is now shifted to this list of twelve non-playable characters carrying the icon that represents eliglbility for Skullgirls X BBTAG going forward.

I feel that the removal of icons and leaving the one icon left are gonna make a sound state for the chart in preparation for the Skullgirls X BBTAG 3.0 Before and After. Now, on to the stage section.

Marie's stage is revealed to be Hilgard's Castle and Snow Sisters is the theme to fit perfectly with and there are a couple of theme changes below.

New Meridian Rooftops - MOTOR HEAD -> The Junes Hero
Meridian Area Rapid Transit - VARIABLE HEART -> Sector7

I'm gonna give you an insight on how Snow Sisters is a perfect fit for Hilgard's Castle and why is it assigned to it. Spared from the destruction of No Man's Land, deep in the mountains, away from the ravages of the Grand War, the ruins of Hilgard's Castle bears a gloomy nature Marie once called home. Snow Sisters is the perfect theme for its gloomy and sad cadence to fit well with the stage's gloomy environment.

It is also a perfect theme for Aeon to indicate that she will be eligible for her Vatista palette. I was about to assign it to Princess Amagi-ya, but the environment of Hilgard's Castle is so gloomy that I feel Snow Sisters is the perfect fit. But if they confirmed a variant that bears a sunny and healthy environment, who knows?

I made some changes to this section of limited amount of stages that are assigned to themes that interest me. It now has twelve stages, including the newest one, Hilgard's Castle, now carrying the Snow Sisters name. I'm gonna put that into action once Marie is fully released. I'll be limiting myself to playing on these stages that are assigned to themes that interest me. But to help me decide which of these stages to pick, I plan to create a random wheel that contains these stages, only if I'm on the Player 1 side. In the meantime, I'll do a test, by playing Snow Sisters when I pick Hilgard's Castle.

And here we are. The canon solo match now cemented after a lot of changes and there has couple of interesting ones that I'll go over.

God of War:

If you watched the ending of Eliza's story, Marie went all Godzilla to stop Eliza on her tracks after warning her. That's juicy. There is a challenge where you play as Eliza and your opponent Marie, but in her boss version. And since Marie is being relegated to her playable self, I believe God of War is gonna be played when there is a canon solo match between Eliza and playable Marie. That feels like the part in Godzilla vs. Kong. Great movie, by the way.

END GAZER:

Peacock and Marie have a friendship between them at the Orphanage and this theme would be a perfect fit for this canon solo match since, you know, Xblaze took place 500 years before BlazBlue. The Webtoon adaptation entered its hiatus and it's set to return later this month and that's when Peacock comes in to bring Marie back for the juicy part we'd seen. With the next episode having the juicy part like in Johnny Test and Naruto, END GAZER is gonna fit well with the canon 1v1 match.

 

Under Heaven Destruction:

Most fighting games have iconic canon solo matches, like Street Fighter's Ryu vs. Ken, Mortal Kombat's Scorpion vs. Sub-Zero, Guilty Gear's Sol Badguy vs. Ky Kiske, BlazBlue's Ragna vs. Jin, Them's Fightin' Herds' Arizona vs. Velvet and Injustice's Batman vs. Superman. These iconic matches are so iconic that fighting games cherish and Skullgirls is seemingly one of the fighting games to have that and I believe Parasoul vs. Valentine is that iconic match in Skullgirls. I assigned it to Under Heaven Destruction and it's deemed a perfect fit. The gallery has an art that features them facing each other to seal the deal. I played it one time when I was watching Skullgalz Showdown. It's strange, but satisfying since Crash Bandicoot.

And that's it for this update. It has been one heck of a long ride and this system came a long way ever since my inception to BBTAG music back in the fourth Tuesday of March 2021 when I gave it a go while watching Skullgirls Slapfest. It started out rocky and rough, but after revisions, it gets better and better. I am amazed at the way this system turned out well to be world-class and in full swing so far. In hindsight, I should've made sure that they are in a right position before making an announcement.

It given me the opportunity to start that approach in May 2022. The approach is if a character is assigned to a BBTAG character theme that fits perfectly with their personality, they get a marking on my chart. The marking is not just for an assigned BBTAG character theme a perfect fit for a character's personality. It's also for eligibility for Skullgirls X BBTAG when I make BBTAG palettes out of Skullgirls characters that are assigned to a BBTAG character themes that fit perfectly with their personality to promote MvC1 mode and they are eliglble for my special online casual.

When I started the approach, Annie and Umbrella became eligible for their BBTAG palettes since Justice Sword and Active Angel became a perfect fit and making Izayoi and Platinum palettes out of them would be the cherry on top. Then Black Dahlia was announced and her Nine palette was made after finding out that Walpurgisnacht is actually a perfect fit thanks to the elemental bullets of fire, ice and lightning and her wicked personality. And finally, Marie was announced and Purity & Strictly fits well with her so that her Orie palette would be in the works thanks to her maid's outfit and an ability to summon her Stand. All Season 1 Pass characters have been eligible for their BBTAG palettes. It is only a matter of time before a Season 2 Pass is greenlit so that I can expect more eligible characters to be in it.

SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level is using the same approach I am using for its advantage system. If a character is assigned to an advantage that fits perfectly with them, they get a star to represent a main advantage that is perfectly suited for each character. For example, if Sonic is assigned to a Speed advantage, he gets a star to represent an assigned advantage perfect for a character because speed is his forte.

And now, here we are. Everything is now locked in and cemented for the BBTAG 2.0 period after nine updates including the small revisions, with Hilgard's Castle carrying the Snow Sisters name to fit well with its gloomy environment. Even the legend key. There will be no more theme changes until the BBTAG 3.0 Character Pack is confirmed. However, this will not be the final update because going forward, future updates after this will entail the reveal of future characters while some of them will also have updates to Skullgirls X BBTAG if that eligible character is revealed.

It has been a wild ride, man. The RWBY themes were sunset, I started that approach when characters that are assigned to BBTAG character themes that fit well with their personality get eligible for their BBTAG palettes and a ticket to my special online casual and a new feature the random theme rotation was introduced. I am so sad. Well, not sad, but glad that everything is cemented for the BBTAG 2.0 period. That said, the Skullgirls X BBTAG 3.0 Before and After Comparison is in the works and will be released in the coming weeks.

Since all four Season 1 Pass characters are eligible for their BBTAG palettes because Justice Sword, Active Angel, Walpurgisnacht and Purity & Strictly fit perfectly with them, this will be my treat for shifting to BBTAG music. But this one is still WIP because Marie's current portrait is a preview. I really got to know how to add some yellow shading to Umbrella's hair...

The devs said that if the Season 1 Pass is sold well, a bonus fifth character would be confirmed and it should sell well because the update for the Nintendo Switch port and the Xbox port that come with the Season 1 Pass dropped. I want the fifth character to be one of the characters eligible for their BBTAG palette.

If I think about my references, on the era when the Season 1 Pass is available on Steam during Annie's Beta, the chance of it selling well is slim. The chance is slightly increased during the era when it's available on Steam and PS4. During the era when the Season 1 Pass is available on Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, the chances of selling well is significantly increased. And on the era when the Season 1 Pass is available in all four digital storefronts when the Xbox port and its players joined the party, the chance is greatly increased.

Exciting times lie ahead for Skullgirls and now that the Xbox port and the Nintendo Switch update are out of the way and complete, devs can now double their efforts on developing Marie, who will be fully released on all four digital storefronts and that's when Purity & Strictly will be played to the true max, along with Justice Sword, Active Angel and Walpurgisnacht. That's when I'm gonna go full blast. But the update for the Japanese PS4 version is still on the docket. May the "true" Skullgirls launch party where it is now completely open to players that own the game on all four digital storefronts begin.

Joe's Segues - 7/17/23

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Joe's Segues. Today, I have a lot of things to talk about.

Before I get started, I wanted to announce that I have turned 29 on my birthday and I am one year away from getting to my 30th year. I couldn't go out to eat because I had a cold and felt so weak and crampy. But now, I am feeling better today, so I should no longer be incapacitated.

With that out of the way, let's dive right in.

First off, I'm gonna talk about the update for Rogue Company and Paladins. A couple of weeks ago, both games have ended support for the Switch version with their current updates. I feel sorry for Switch players that their journey on these games have officially ended. All because both of their Switch ports have technical challenges that prevented developers from continuing support on the platform and making their games the best it can be. But there has been some developments.

On the Rogue Company side of things, a 26th Rogue is coming and her name is Vivi. She is a musician who plays the guitar and thought she would still be in the music business and not just joining Jackal. What egregious thing is that she joins Jackal as her new task. This is a developing story that we are getting a 26th Rogue after a while. They did say that more new Rogues will be introduced without any delays now that the Nintendo Switch port is discontinued to benefit more flexbility and more frequency on how they deliver updates. Vivi's kit remains a mystery. She is coming out soon.

For Paladins, the Anniversary update is in full swing so far. It celebrated how far Paladins have gone for five years since launch with older maps from the past and a fourth ban slot on each team for Ranked. Midnight Masquerade introduced ranked crossplay and Switch is no longer a part of it since the Anniversary update dropped. They shown us a video containing clips of Champion releases in order. There is a small clip of Moji being ticked at something used as a teaser at the end. They haven't shown us teasers of what's next yet, but they should kick in soon. I have a feeling that teasers for the 59th Champion and the next Event Pass are about to kick in soon. We currently got 58 Champions and we are two away from hitting the 60th Champion milestone.

I heard a rumor that since Season 6 entails Pyre vs. Abyss, Paladins is getting a future Champion that has two personalities, one of the Pyre that heals and the other of the Abyss that deals damage, similar to Hel from SMITE. This somewhat applies to the story in Mortal Kombat 11. Though one of the balances I know is the one Kronika desired to be the one for the golden balance of Shinnok's darkness and Cetrion's light. No, that balance is intended to put the realms to endless war between good and evil. They deserved to be in peace.

Once again, I am very sorry for Switch players. But they can still play SMITE and Realm Royale. Both of them and their DLC are still available on the eShop while their in-game purchases on the Nintendo Switch are still available. SMITE's first Year 10 update introduced ranked crossplay and the Switch version is still performing well so far.

So is SMITE esports. One heck of phase out there. The Oni Warriors at their finest in Season X. They've been kicking other teams' butts and unscathed. They haven't gotten a single loss on the Road to Masters so far and I was so amazed by it. It's a perfect run on the road for them. The Warriors' undefeated adventure started after they dethroned the Season 9 World Champs, the Camelot Kings. They are literally the Kings after winning Worlds and they are literally dethroned by the Warriors at the Kickoff Tournament. Holy cow. But at the end, their undefeated adventure was broken at 15 by the Styx Ferrymen, who won Masters and this is to honor Charon, the Ferryman of Styx himself coming to SMITE as a cherry on top. They made them look like dead bugs, as Randy Cross said in NFL Quarterback Club. Stellar stuff.

The SMITE World Championship is returning to the Esports Arena located at Arlington, Texas in January. Tickets have been sold out quickly after a few days. The esports scene is taking a summer break and it will be back for the Summer Soul-stice and the Road to the SWC. But there has been some roster changes. Genetics left Kings to join the Warriors, Quig left the Eldritch Hounds to join the Kings and Awesomejake406 left the Warriors to join a new team. Where would he be now?

Next up, EVO 2023 is around the corner and the registration numbers have been revealed and are in full swing. Street Fighter 6 has over 7,000 entrants and I was blown away by that number. That's a lot of entrants since its released and it's gonna be played last. This year is gonna be a blockbuster. Even Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is one of the games to be played at the Sunday Arena Finals along with Tekken 7, KOF XV and Street Fighter 6 and I have a good feeling that they are going to have posters that say "Free MvC2!" there as a perfect opportunity. Now then, since Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is gonna be played at the Arena Finals, is Capcom gonna announce a compilation of all classic Marvel vs. Capcom games? I hope so.

EVO is upon us and this year is gonna be more hype than last year's. The only thing about this is that Crunchyroll is gonna be a part of it to throw out some anime stuff. The streaming schedule is not yet posted and I am gonna watch some Street Fighter 6 action. Last year didn't have the Jump Off, but I hope it comes back this year.

Now, we are down to my experience with playing classics with PS Plus Premium. There has been some devlopments so far. It has been a year since the PS Plus launched and I am enjoying every last of it. The Premium Tier is the only thing to offer PlayStation classics. I downloaded one the PS1 classics I heard about, which is Herc's Adventures. Nevercake mentioned that at the end of the SMITE Lore video about Hercules. The story entails Persephone and Hades teaming up to threaten Greece. Hercules, Atlanta and Jason are the only three heroes left to save Greece. Learning about their evil has given me the impression that Hades is Persephone's emperor, husband and her equal in evil, like when Sindel is Shao Kahn's empress, wife and his equal in evil. No wonder Outworld had to be rocked.

I wanted a classic game that was developed by a defunct video game company to be added since the new PS Plus launched and Herc's Adventures is one of the games to be added developed by a defunct game developer known as Lucasarts while the hub says Disney Interactive Studios, also a defunct video game company and Disney owning Lucasarts to put the Star Wars franchise under their umbrella makes more sense.

More classics are coming this month and there are first two games of the franchise released on the PS1 that was revived with its Peacock-exclusive TV show coming this month, Twisted Metal. It is a series known for its vehicle combat action and all out destruction. The first two games are coming this month to honor the Peacock-exclusive series. I never played the first one, but I played the second one back when I was younger back in 2004. I was ten years old on that time. 19 years into the present, boom, it is gonna be added to the PS Plus Preimum catalog this week, along with the first game. I saw them play it at Combo Breaker.

And now, we are down to one last topic. It's for the Xbox release of Skullgirls, everyone's favorite fighting game. This one is gonna be developing because I received word that the Xbox release of Skullgirls 2nd Encore and its Season 1 Pass is slated to release July 19th. After July 19th, the ongoing launch party will truly begin, the chances of the Season 1 Pass selling well will be increased and Marie and future patches will be submitted to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo; all three major console companies. It's on the same month when it came out on PS4. It is now available to pre-order. I know I don't have any interests in getting an Xbox, but players of the platform are gonna get their hands on 2nd Encore after eight years since its release on PS4. The biggest milestone is about to cross soon.

The Xbox port of 2nd Encore and the Season 1 Pass coming out July 19th is indeed hopeful, but the release date of the update for the Japanese PS4 version remains a mystery. It is also on the docket. It is proven to be important to me.

The topic regarding the Xbox version of Skullgirls is not the final one because I just finished working on my splash art for the Skullgirls X BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle Palette Pack. It currently has the four characters in their BlazBlue palettes, one on each mainline of the franchise that are not in the game. I didn't put in characters in their Persona 4 Arena and Under Night In-Birth palettes, but I just want to put the ones in their BlazBlue palettes in the palette pack.

The platform logos on the bottom are on there to represent that the palette pack will be available on these platforms. The PlayStation logo introduced in 2008 makes more sense because 2nd Encore also works on PS5 through backwards compatibility. Same with the Xbox logo because the Xbox One is not the only Xbox console 2nd Encore is releasing on because it is also releasing on the Xbox Series natively. All four platform logos are on there to state that Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch are the current platforms that have the 2nd Encore release along with the Season 1 Pass and Xbox will get it July 19th.

This splash art will be updated when a character that is eligible for a BlazBlue palette to be in the palette pack is announced, but the characters on this art must be smaller to fit more of them.

A small update for my online casual's Discord server splash art is pronounced. I made a decision to do away with the back of the art and threw in the Steam logo on the bottom to represent that my online casual will take place only on Steam, but at the moment because this is before crossplay is implemented.

This one takes place after crossplay is implemented and it's on that time when I can welcome console players to my online casual. But it won't be implemented and we can't request it real hard until the whole season is finished as BellaFeng4Eternity said. Don't worry, Nintendo Switch players will also be a part of it as you are seeing the Nintendo Switch logo because the update for the Nintendo Switch port of 2nd Encore came with the nearly full rewrite of the port's codebase to produce better performance, online multiplayer with more flexibility than before and contain eight-player lobbies so that it can meet up with the developers' standards, knowing Rogue Company and Paladins have discontinued support on the Switch ports of their games and I am very sorry to see that.

Phew, that was a lot that I had to talk about for this set. Xbox players, now is your time to preorder 2nd Encore ahead of its launch in July 19th. Signing out.

SG X BBTAG Update #2

Welcome to Skullgirls X BBTAG Update #2. This one is gonna be big because I'm gonna show you the updates on my projects. Let's dive right into the update.

Here is my new project, my fan-made character select screen for Skullgirls X BBTAG with the current 14 portraits of characters in their BBTAG palettes. It is similar to the one in Skullgirls, with the size selection and the pedestals on top, but it's modernized to have button keys below, with the MK button for back. The portrait of Marie in Orie's colors being above Squigly in Hilda's colors makes more sense because she is the Skullgirl of the story and she will likely stay at the top row and middle column to match the placement of the character select screen in Skullgirls.

The selection doesn't have a random selection to emulate the placement from the early stage of the character select screen from SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level, with the six characters from the base roster in the middle. Along with other projects, I made this through Canva, which is much better, much more flexible and it has much more flexibility than Microsoft Paint.

My above projects are coming along nicely now that I have Marie's Orie palette on them.

My Discord server banner art for my special online casual is also coming along nicely to carry the current 14 Skullgirls characters in their nifty and stylish BBTAG palettes now that Marie in Orie's colors is on it. Also threw in an updated picture of Filia in Labrys' colors.

Now that I have Marie in Orie's colors, all of my projects are coming along nicely, but please be aware that Marie's idle stance is a preview and it will be replaced with a final one once she is released on Mobile. It lacks a flame effect she bears and the final image will have it. That's why until then, I wouldn't want to use this line below.

"Rivals, TV stars, sisters of a kingdom ruled by a noble family, ASG warriors, best friends, Parasite users and Fortunes! The Skullgirls X BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle cast of 14 characters is coming along real nicely!"

I gotta hand it to the devs. They are hard at work on Marie so far. They are posting a behind the scenes look every day at 4 PM here to give us insights on how playable Marie plays differently from her boss version. They pretty much shown almost everything. There is one thing that made me very hyped up.

You know that her maid's outfit seals the deal for Purity & Strictly to fit well with her playable version, right? There is another thing that also does. Marie's relegation to her playable self has given her the power to summon her skeletal Stand, Hilgard to lend her a hand, similar to what Orie does. That's another thing that also seals the deal that Purity & Strictly is a perfect fit for Marie so that she can eligible for an Orie palette and a ticket to my special online casual. And she's gonna be an undead version of Orie, no doubt about it. Can't deny that. If they added boss Marie to the palette editor, I can make an Orie palette out of her boss version too.

They are on the source of getting all of her animations done and most of them are finished. That's when they can confirm that the art is safe enough to get to the clean up and tiedown phase in getting her ready for her Alpha without any glitches and that's what they meant by safe enough.

I got an answer to my question I seek on what will happen to boss Marie if her playable version is announced. Turns out that I can still fight her boss version, even though I have her playable version on my team on Arcade Mode, but not on her story because her Story Mode is gonna be half visual novel on how Marie bears a connection with the Skull Heart. I'm fine with having playable Marie fight boss Marie. But that would be even more interesting if they just replaced her boss version with playable version that plays like her boss version.

Before I close this out, there's a piece of information that I want to share and it's gonna be a sad one. Last week, the devs have released a global update that affects 2nd Encore and Mobile on all platforms. I'll go over the changes they pushed.

Real-World Hate Groups:

This applies to the political hate among Nazis that wear armbands. In this case, the Egret soldiers are no longer wearing their armbands on certain art and in game. Now this is something that I can actually agree with and that it because of Nazis. Though the Renoirs may be crappy, it is a military thing that armbands, flags and symbolism are three things that caused real-world hate groups.

Character Sexualization:

Skullgirls was known for its female characters that show their underwear in some art and that's the example of sex. Now, they removed the censored the art that show the female characters' underwear. This is one of the things that caused controversy. This is a shock after seeing that. But they said that there is sex among younger characters. They censored that so that pedophilia wouldn't be committed.

Depictions of Racism:

If you played Big Band's story, it no longer has an art of white cops taking down a black cop named Ben Birdland and it's no longer available to view in the gallery because of racial violence they had to censor. The voice lines that pertain to racism were also removed. This is another thing that continued controversy.

Removal of the Soviet Announcer pack:

Now, things have taken a turn for the worse when the Soviet announcer pack was removed because it applies to racism. When I said things have taken a turn for the worse, the removal of the announcer pack angered the community.

That update sparked controversy to make players uninstall the game and they can no longer support it until they reverted the changes, so they created a petition to petition them to undo the changes. I'm quite surprised that they had to push out the controversial censorship update before the update for the Japanese PS4 version and the Xbox port drop. But it came out well with more flexibility than before, thanks to the codebase upgrades that make console development much easier going forward. After all, the networking refactors established more smoothness and more flexibility on online multiplayer and on how they deliver updates than before. But the Switch version is apparently lagging behind...

I'm gonna tell you this. It has come to my attention that every controversial update angers the community and they uninstall the game and pledge not to support it until they drop the update that alleviates controversy. The one on Paladins, which is now no longer available on the Nintendo Switch after the Anniversary update dropped recently, was no exception.

The 64th Open Beta update introduced a terrible new card system called Cards Unbound. What makes it controversial is that it is a pay-to-win system that involves grinding to strengthen cards and talents. It is so controversial that it angered the Paladins community real bad that they had to uninstall it and pledge not to support it. That is until the 67th Open Beta update, which removed Cards Unbound to mitigate controversy, have dropped.

But that controversial censorship update cannot stop me from supporting Skullgirls. Even though I don't appreciate them censoring and removing art that depict sex and racism and removing voice lines that contains racism and the Soviet announcer pack, I respect their decision to distance myself from the controversy that I wouldn't be a part of. The show must go on. Especially when I'm listening to BBTAG music. I must focus on waiting for more important things, like the update for the Japanese PS4 version, the Xbox port and Marie. Justice Sword, Active Angel, Walpurgisnacht and Purity & Strictly depend on it.

However, I can't go full blast just yet. Not until Marie is fully released. Even so, the new characters' fully voiced Story Modes will not be available upon Marie's launch because they are getting ready to begin recording sessions for the large returning cast needed to voice the myriad of characters that appear across all 18 Story Modes in 2nd Encore. Once they are doing so, I want some ingame intro dialogues and generic and character-specific voice lines for when their teammate has died and calling their teammates for the assist.

All of my projects are coming along nicely now that I have Marie in Orie's colors on them and they will be coming along nicely even more once I have the final picture.