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[InfiniteNine]

Finally got this today from Amazon and played for a good 4 hours or so. I'm actually surprised by how much I'm enjoying this game, since I normally don't care for horizontal shooters. So far I've 1CC'd it with Rosa; she seems to be far and away the best character. I messed up my scoring pretty badly on the run where I completed it though, so my highscore is still only 72 millionish with a game over on Jitterbug. Going to try and fix that tomorrow.

Looks like you misspelled Sakura there.

 

[ixix]

To those who feel ashamed, I make up for you indigent and ungrateful ways. I say bring on the lolis and shmups with honor!

My copy came in just a few hours ago. ^_^

I never claimed to feel shame. I claimed to feel mortification.

There is a difference.

 

[dragonlife]

Hey, guys, I have a request: does anyone have video capturing stuff? I want a certain pic from the game but it's almost impossible to find I really want a pic of Follett's familiar, Bobo, when they're at Hades Castle. I want it to show when he talks and we see his name and all that (or if Follett says it, that, too).

Or if anyone already has said pics...let me know Otherwise, I'd really appreciate it!

Anyway: I did level 999 in MBL on all stages. Man, that was fuckin' crazy and AWESOME :lol Thank Cthulu for infinite continues.

 

[To Far Away Times]

I'm curious to see what paths everyone is taking. Here's what I've been using since this path seems to have the best mix of easier stages/boss battles.

C-1 (level 3) > A-2 (level 3) > A-1 (level 2) > C-2 (level 2) > B-1 (level 1) > B-2 (level 1) > Final

Other paths probably give more life items and have higher score potential. What stage order are you guys using?

 

[methos75]

I just want too say I am freaking amazed I how amazing this game looks, I forgot just how good 2D can look when in the right hands, the game is glorious looking. HD 2D for the win, only other 2D game I get this feeling from is BlazBlue. I find it funny thart some reviews like IGN's misguided rant, say this should of been an XBL Arcade game, can they not see how far beyond every Arcade game this looks? And the soundtrack, pure bliss.

 

[danmaku]

I'm curious to see what paths everyone is taking. Here's what I've been using since this path seems to have the best mix of easier stages/boss battles.

C-1 (level 3) > A-2 (level 3) > A-1 (level 2) > C-2 (level 2) > B-1 (level 1) > B-2 (level 1) > Final

Other paths probably give more life items and have higher score potential. What stage order are you guys using?

In my best run so far (about 130 millions, with Windia) I played:

- A-1 (rank 2)
- C-2 (3)
- B-1 (2)
- A-2 (3)
- C-1 (3)
- B-2 (3)

I used rank 2 stages to max out the item counter and then used power up in rank 3 stages. In A-2 and C-1 you can use power up and then recharge the counter to 1000 (or close) pretty easily. Not optimal by any means, though. A better one would be:

- A-1 (2)
- A-2 (3)
- B-1 (3)
- C-2 (3)
- C-1 (3)
- B-2 (2)

but you'd have to nail a couple of instant recharges, and forest stage is hard to milk on rank 3. Too bad you can't download japanese replays, there are a lot of great runs to study.

 

[sixteen-bit]

HD 2D for the win

The 360 upscales this to HD but I think the native resolution is 240p in arcades and 640x480 in high-res 360 mode.

I couldn't imagine how great an HD Cave game would look. Shame about Deathsmiles 2. But then again I guess they don't have the staff for such an undertaking.

 

[Mattlikewhoa]

Do all copies come with the faceplate? I haven't picked up my copy from EB Games yet...

 

[blizzardjesus]

Do all copies come with the faceplate? I haven't picked up my copy from EB Games yet...

For the first printing yes.

 

[sixteen-bit]

http://www.multiplayergames.com/2010/07/01/deathsmiles-shows-rift-between-gamers-and-value/
I don't think this article was posted

Mattlikewhoa, you're in Canada, right? I don't know how that situation is. You guys never got the LE for BlazBle CT either, right?

 

[matmanx1]

http://www.multiplayergames.com/2010/07/01/deathsmiles-shows-rift-between-gamers-and-value/
I don't think this article was posted

Mattlikewhoa, you're in Canada, right? I don't know how that situation is. You guys never got the LE for BlazBle CT either, right?

That guy has a great point and I completely agree. The value in a good SHMUP is in the getting familiar and good with the scoring system and levels and enemy placement. A good SHMUP will make the gameplay a pleasure so the time spent getting good and familiar with it will be fun and enjoyable and Deathsmiles does that very well. Heck, most all of Cave's games do a good job with this and it's why it's very cool that we finally have a localized version and also why I hope it sells well enough for more of Cave's SHMUPS to be brought over.

It's the same reason we played Contra or Lifeforce a BILLION times back in the 80's. They weren't long games but they were alot of fun and got more satisfying the better you got at them. This is the way of the SHMUP!

 

[Llyranor]

Does the difficulty level affect whether enemies spawn death bullets (those spiky yellow stars or whatever)? My current objective is 1cc difficulty2.

Major difficulty spike on the extra + final stage, geez!

 

[Galactik]

That article is why I stopped going to IGN a long time ago. Bad site with bad people reviewing games in a bad way. I guess the length of the game is still supposed to be tied to the price according to IGN.

I guess that is what you get when you get any chump to review a game.

 

[LiK]

http://www.multiplayergames.com/2010/07/01/deathsmiles-shows-rift-between-gamers-and-value/
I don't think this article was posted

great article, thanks for posting.

 

[Hunahan]

Finally got around to trying this out.

I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it just feels a little bit dull. The action isn't quite intense enough or something.

I don't mean that from a difficulty perspective, I mean it from a minute-to-minute action experience - it's just not holding up for me.

I'm not sure exactly what it is.

Maybe I just need some more time with it.

Not a bad game, just not insanely addictive like some of Cave's best......

And, personally, I agree that owning a game that proclaims "loli's smile back" on the box is a little bit cringe-worthy. Japan's obsession with sexualizing underage girls is just a little too creepy for me to get over.

 

[methos75]

Finally got around to trying this out.

I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it just feels a little bit dull. The action isn't quite intense enough or something.

I don't mean that from a difficulty perspective, I mean it from a minute-to-minute action experience - it's just not holding up for me.

I'm not sure exactly what it is.

Maybe I just need some more time with it.

Not a bad game, just not insanely addictive like some of Cave's best......

And, personally, I agree that owning a game that proclaims "loli's smile back" on the box is a little bit cringe-worthy. Japan's obsession with sexualizing underage girls is just a little too creepy for me to get over.

I was playing this last night when my GF stated yeah she looks 13, AWKWARD>

 

[Hunahan]

I was playing this last night when my GF stated yeah she looks 13, AWKWARD>

Yeah. I mean, to me, it's pretty simple.

"That game looks like it's designed for a 10 year old" is fine.

"That game looks like it's designed for people who want to have sex with a 10 year old" isn't.

With the vast plethora of video games out there to play, it's hard to really explain why you're playing the one with cleavage-popping, ass-exposing children.

I know someone will claim cultural differences or something, but imo, it really doesn't change the facts of the matter that there is an undeniable pedophiliac undertone at play here. And that sucks no matter how you cut it. It's one of the few issues that I really just can't develop a sense of humor or dismissive attitude about.

There's really just no justification or excuse I would be willing to accept as to why we need this in our entertainment. It disappoints me that great companies like CAVE feel the need to either market to the lowest element of our society, or hire a staff that feels the need to expose their unhealthy and illegal urges consistently.

I have no idea which one of those actually inspires them to do it, but either one is gross, and serves to distance anyone with a reasonable, thoughtful perspective from their work.

 

[methos75]

Yeah. I mean, to me, it's pretty simple.

"That game looks like it's designed for a 10 year old" is fine.

"That game looks like it's designed for people who want to have sex with a 10 year old" isn't.

With the vast plethora of video games out there to play, it's hard to really explain why you're playing the one with cleavage-popping, ass-exposing children.

I know someone will claim cultural differences or something, but imo, it really doesn't change the facts of the matter that there is an undeniable pedophiliac undertone at play here. And that sucks no matter how you cut it. It's one of the few issues that I really just can't develop a sense of humor or dismissive attitude about.

There's really just no justification or excuse I would be willing to accept as to why we need this in our entertainment. It disappoints me that great companies like CAVE feel the need to either market to the lowest element of our society, or hire a staff that feels the need to expose their unhealthy and illegal urges consistently.

I have no idea which one of those actually inspires them to do it, but either one is gross, and serves to distance anyone with a reasonable, thoughtful perspective from their work.

Lucky for me, my GF knows I am a weird type of gamer and would rather play strange Japanese stuff like Deathsmiles over crap like COD, so she just grins and bears it.

 

[GitarooMan]

Yeah. I mean, to me, it's pretty simple.

"That game looks like it's designed for a 10 year old" is fine.

"That game looks like it's designed for people who want to have sex with a 10 year old" isn't.

With the vast plethora of video games out there to play, it's hard to really explain why you're playing the one with cleavage-popping, ass-exposing children.

I know someone will claim cultural differences or something, but imo, it really doesn't change the facts of the matter that there is an undeniable pedophiliac undertone at play here. And that sucks no matter how you cut it. It's one of the few issues that I really just can't develop a sense of humor or dismissive attitude about.

There's really just no justification or excuse I would be willing to accept as to why we need this in our entertainment. It disappoints me that great companies like CAVE feel the need to either market to the lowest element of our society, or hire a staff that feels the need to expose their unhealthy and illegal urges consistently.

I have no idea which one of those actually inspires them to do it, but either one is gross, and serves to distance anyone with a reasonable, thoughtful perspective from their work.

Yeah, I basically agree with everything here, I wish they would just make Raiden-style plain old spaceship/jet shooters or something, the loli stuff is super off-putting.

 

[Tain]

Does the difficulty level affect whether enemies spawn death bullets (those spiky yellow stars or whatever)? My current objective is 1cc difficulty2.

Major difficulty spike on the extra + final stage, geez!

If you're playing vanilla arcade, they only start appearing when you play Rank 3 five times in one session.

Honestly, for all of the people going for early 1ccs, I'd just go ahead and do Arcade mode. The 360 modes are more lax on the rank rules (they let you choose rank 1 and rank 2 as many times as you want), and the original arcade rules make the most sense for a smooth difficulty curve.

Such a shame you can't just play arcade mode with high res visuals, though. I'd imagine most are going to resist it for that reason alone. :/

 

[InfiniteNine]

Just because you guys look at the characters you control with dirty eyes doesn't mean everyone else does. I think DS looks extremely tame compared to a lot of other games I've seen, so maybe I just have a higher standard of "this shit is sick" than you. I've never seen anything wrong with the game when I played it in the arcade or after I bought it. Although Aksys seems to try and mislead people with risque advertising now though, so maybe that's where it's coming from. I don't know since I can't even use the US version of the game and I can't see the changes made.

 

[iconoclast]

I'm curious to see what paths everyone is taking. Here's what I've been using since this path seems to have the best mix of easier stages/boss battles.

C-1 (level 3) > A-2 (level 3) > A-1 (level 2) > C-2 (level 2) > B-1 (level 1) > B-2 (level 1) > Final

Other paths probably give more life items and have higher score potential. What stage order are you guys using?

I usually do:

A-1 (sometimes rank 2, sometimes 3 - I don't notice a big difference aside from an extra 600,000 points)
A-2 (3)
B-1 (2 - I can't beat the final phase on rank 3 without bombing yet :| )
B-2 (3)
C-1 (2)
C-2 (3)

Very creative, I know! :lol I haven't looked up any optimal paths or anything, but I get the feeling that doing C-1 right before C-2 isn't the best idea. I don't think I've even tried C-1 on rank 3 either.

Does the difficulty level affect whether enemies spawn death bullets (those spiky yellow stars or whatever)? My current objective is 1cc difficulty2.

Major difficulty spike on the extra + final stage, geez!

Suicide bullets only spawn when you do the EX stage before the final stage. Or when you go into Death Mode by playing only on rank 3.

 

[danmaku]

Yeah. I mean, to me, it's pretty simple.

"That game looks like it's designed for a 10 year old" is fine.

"That game looks like it's designed for people who want to have sex with a 10 year old" isn't.

With the vast plethora of video games out there to play, it's hard to really explain why you're playing the one with cleavage-popping, ass-exposing children.

I know someone will claim cultural differences or something, but imo, it really doesn't change the facts of the matter that there is an undeniable pedophiliac undertone at play here. And that sucks no matter how you cut it. It's one of the few issues that I really just can't develop a sense of humor or dismissive attitude about.

There's really just no justification or excuse I would be willing to accept as to why we need this in our entertainment. It disappoints me that great companies like CAVE feel the need to either market to the lowest element of our society, or hire a staff that feels the need to expose their unhealthy and illegal urges consistently.

I have no idea which one of those actually inspires them to do it, but either one is gross, and serves to distance anyone with a reasonable, thoughtful perspective from their work.

Cave isn't a "great" company, their arcade team is a very small staff that makes game for a very small public, mainly otakus. They don't have much of a choice if they want to stay alive. Besides, they did games like Mushihime Sama or Muchi Muchi Pork, so it's more likely they are trying to cater to every possible sexual fetish.

To answer your question, do they really need to do this? maybe not, but that's the safest way to go.

 

[Tain]

What was the last hardass-looking arcade shooter to be released? Raiden IV in '07. That's a pity, but G.Rev's got STRANIA coming up.

It would be great for Cave to release something without the cutesy characters again, if only to show that it can be profitable. They're working in a pretty small field, sure, but it looks like they're the financial kings of that small field, and they're pretty comfortable there.

 

[conman]

Just because you guys look at the characters you control with dirty eyes doesn't mean everyone else does.

It's not about "how you look at them." Either you ignore it or you get off on it. But it's undeniably there.

Regardless, really enjoying the game aspects. Almost have a 1cc going. Usually end up losing it in the last section of the final castle level (for no good reason other than nerves).

 

[InfiniteNine]

It's not about "how you look at them." Either you ignore it or you get off on it. But it's undeniably there.

Regardless, really enjoying the game aspects. Almost have a 1cc going. Usually end up losing it in the last section of the final castle level (for no good reason other than nerves).

I honestly didn't notice anything. I guess I'm less of a pervert than I thought I was. :lol

 

[dragonlife]

As for the whole style of the game...I love it! I mean, yeah, I was all "WTF" when I saw how old these girls were, but, I don't really mind.

What was the last hardass-looking arcade shooter to be released?

Cho Aniki 0! Now there's a game I'd love to play.

Also, I looked up Deathsmiles II. I don't like the graphics ;_; Maybe I just have to play it to appreciate it.

 

[InfiniteNine]

Cho Aniki 0!

Manly games for manly men!

 

[dragonlife]

Yes, where even the logo is phallic in nature :lol

 

[Tain]

Not arcade.

 

[Yes Boss!]

Why the loli talk for tgis game? It is irrelevent...awesome Cave game is awesome. And Aksys picked it up so thet coukd exploit that angle. Awesome!

 

[Kandrick]

I was playing this last night when my GF stated yeah she looks 13, AWKWARD>

Who cares ? just enjoy the game

 

[Tain]

There's loli talk because it's part of the game. That the rest of the game is awesome isn't a good reason to ignore the parts I don't like!

 

[InfiniteNine]

There's loli talk because it's part of the game. That the rest of the game is awesome isn't a good reason to ignore the parts I don't like!

I like that I'm a little girl destroying Tyrannosatan though! Shit's hilarious.

 

[mjemirzian]

Not arcade.

If it's not on a PCB attached to an arcade cabinet, it's not a real game.

 

[luka]

I don't get it, are people complaining that you play as little girls or that they're being sexualized in some way? Because...they're not. At all. I don't see a single ounce of actual fanservice in this game.

 

[InfiniteNine]

That's what I'm saying man.

EDIT: Also forgot that auto-saving causes some achievements not to appear, so maybe turn that off.

 

[iconoclast]

Managed a decent run with Rosa for another 1CC. Got a 113m score, enough to get 3rd place on the leaderboards. Guess there's not a lot of people playing, since that probably wouldn't even got me in the top 300 in the Japanese version. :lol

I tried to do a volcano recharge, but I hit the wrong button for the bomb and wound up getting hit out of my power up mode. /sigh

I don't get it, are people complaining that you play as little girls or that they're being sexualized in some way? Because...they're not. At all. I don't see a single ounce of actual fanservice in this game.

Beat it with Follet and then choose to stay with your friends. :x

But yeah other than that there's nothing to complain about.

 

[Arpharmd B]

Just came here to say. 50 is such a good deal, and I almost want to rebuy it just because I am interested to know the story and what the fuck these girls are saying to each other.

But a+fter paying 100$ for the LE + another 20$ for the DLC, yeahhhhhh... you guys who waited and had faith were rewarded. I had no faith that this would EVER be released in USA.

 

[InfiniteNine]

Just came here to say. 50 is such a good deal, and I almost want to rebuy it just because I am interested to know the story and what the fuck these girls are saying to each other.

But a+fter paying 100$ for the LE + another 20$ for the DLC, yeahhhhhh... you guys who waited and had faith were rewarded. I had no faith that this would EVER be released in USA.

I'm glad I had no faith. I wouldn't have been able to play the US release anyways. Justification +1!

 

[conman]

I don't get it, are people complaining that you play as little girls or that they're being sexualized in some way? Because...they're not. At all.

I'm honestly surprised there's even a question here. I'm not complaining or passing judgment, just expressing my own amused discomfort. Anyhow, I really don't think it's worth derailing the thread into one of these discussions (which have come up often enough in the past, and never get resolved).

I'm enjoying the game. That's enough for me.

 

[luka]

The ease with which folks in this thread toss around the term "loli" without even thinking about what it means says a lot. Not to mention that the majority of folks saying there's nothing "sexual" about these young characters have avatars doing pretty much the same thing.

Ooh, ad hominem. I like it.

 

[conman]

Ooh, ad hominem. I like it.

Yeah, sorry. Edited my post to avoid the personal attacks. Not what I meant to do.

 

[InfiniteNine]

Whatever, shit's awesome and the reason I own a 360 in the first place. Any tips for Jitterbug people? I always get hit and it ruins my attempt at a 1cc.

 

[iconoclast]

Whatever, shit's awesome and the reason I own a 360 in the first place. Any tips for Jitterbug people? I always get hit and it ruins my attempt at a 1cc.

I get hit at least once too. I really need to practice him and Tyrannosatan, I suck at both of them.

 

[RoryDropkick]

My fiancee saw the Deathsmiles wallpaper and game today... and surprisingly thought that the art was cute... I was actually sorta surprised. :lol

 

[matmanx1]

Awesome game is awesome. That's all I'm going to say and keep saying to anyone who asks me about Deathsmiles. Cause really, that's the important part!

 

[To Far Away Times]

Awesome game is awesome. That's all I'm going to say and keep saying to anyone who asks me about Deathsmiles. Cause really, that's the important part!

Yes, Deathsmiles is awesome. I just can't stop playing this game.

 

[luka]

Yes, Deathsmiles is awesome. I just can't stop playing this game.

I don't have a 360 so I've just been playing gradius v and pretending vic viper is a transforming robot loli.

I am envious.

 

[Korigama]

http://www.multiplayergames.com/2010/07/01/deathsmiles-shows-rift-between-gamers-and-value/
I don't think this article was posted

Though I understand the points the author is trying to make here, I'm pretty sure that the reviewer already understands them. The only reason I say this is because Daemon Hatfield was also the one assigned to reviewing Sin & Punishment, where he not only made no issue of the price at any point, but also excused its length by acknowledging that the point of a shooter is to play it over and over again in that very article.

My apologies if bringing this up was off-topic.