Okay, I think I'm just about ready to submit the article updates to HG101, but I want you guys to take a look first to make sure I didn't mess anything up or leave anything important out (especially since I haven't played the iOS edition myself). Anyway, here are the three new segments I've cooked up: 1) a profile for Tiara, 2) a few paragraphs on the PAL release and the iVersion, and 3) a short mention of the GOD edition of IIX.
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Tiara – Not actually an “angel” at all, Tiara is a Gilverado native…the parasol-packing royal princess of the land, to be precise. Despite coming off as somewhat cold at first blush, she desperately wants to do something to help in the fight against the evil forces invading her domain: unlike the angels, however, she can’t use magic…until she happens to meet a small, porcine creature named Mu, who ends up serving as her in-game attendant. Though her initial “appearance” was on a spinoff Drama CD (in which she searches for a way to gain the same powers as the Angels’), she eventually gained enough popularity for an upgrade to playable status in the portable edition’s “iPhone mode”.
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Around the same time as the aforementioned patch was issued, European publisher Rising Star Games finally delivered a PAL localization of <i>Deathsmiles</i> to fans across the pond. As with the U.S. release all of the Mega Black Label content is included on-disc, though this one’s first-print “Deluxe Edition” instead packs in an original (non-arranged) soundtrack CD and a PC “desktop accessory set” previously available only in Japan; more importantly, the complaints from American shmuppers have been duly noted, as both the embarrassing text dialogue and missing slowdown have been addressed and fixed. The music CD was slightly screwed up, released as a data disc full of .wav files that wouldn’t work in a “traditional” player, though Rising Star did offer to send a replacement to anybody who asked for one: otherwise this edition turned out quite well, and was given a warm reception by both critics and shooter enthusiasts.
Four years after its original appearance
Deathsmiles also earned itself an overdue trip to the iPhone and iPad, the third Cave arcade port to make the transition: as always, you’ll need a pretty recent device for it to work. The standard set of modes, namely a straight-up “Arcade” and an exclusive “iPhone” variation, are here, plus compatibility with both OpenFeint and Game Center and “Practice” settings to fine-tune your skills. Unlike its predecessors there’s no neutral “movement bar” area set aside for your finger to control character movement, so it can be a bit trickier to keep your digits out of the way of the onscreen action, but the “button” layouts for attacks are a bit more user-friendly than they were in the earlier games. Arcade is pretty much what you’d expect (no playable Sakura), with a few changes: the Final and “EX” levels can now be played on easier difficulties, “power up” mode lasts longer, “auto-bomb” is available, and the text translation has been (re-)redone.
iPhone mode is another matter entirely: not only have both the character art (now rendered by mangaka Yukinatsu Mori) and soundtrack (remixed by Takeshi Miyamoto) been given a new coat of paint, but an exclusive solo playable character, Tiara, has taken the place of the original cast. Unlike the others, she can be outfitted with various items to increase her stats (including “defense”, as the traditional three-life setup has been replaced by a health bar): equipment can be obtained either as random drops from defeated enemies (including bosses, who can now be “sealed” via a quick “match-the-pattern” sequence at the end of battle) or by spending the point items you collect at an inter-level shop. Stage layouts and enemy patterns are unchanged (though giving mid-sized enemies visible health meters is nice), save for a new “True Last Boss” at the very end, but higher challenge levels now need to be unlocked: while some players dislike this somewhat “grindy” aspect (especially since you can’t switch to a different character to change things up), others will enjoy the sense of progression, especially since better equipment is a necessity to survive later on.
Imagine that, though…a phone game containing scads of collectible stuff, some of which is essential for progression! Yeah, you probably knew what was coming next: a few weeks after the initial release an update appeared, containing bug fixes, a few new options and other additions, and (dun-dun-
duuuun) a fresh batch of items and perks (extra continues included), some of which can only be bought with real-life money. Several are just bits of Cave fan service (most notably equipable weapons taken from
DoDonPachi,
Guwange, and other Cave titles), but others (most notably the Lucky Charm accessory, which increases the drop rate drastically and is pretty much a necessity if you want a complete item collection) are tougher to go without. While it is possible to finish the game without any of the paid DLC, there’s still an unmistakable whiff of
Farmville in the air, a somewhat depressing development for such a respected arcade presence.
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Even after the relative success overseas of the first <i>Deathsmiles</i>, chances for the sequel going global didn’t look good: the outdated visuals in particular were a tough enough sell even in the friendlier homefront market, so Aksys expressed no interest in following up its localization of the original in the U.S. Cave, however, had other ideas: cutting out the middleman entirely, the company opted for a quick, self-published digital release via the 360’s “Games on Demand” download service (first in the States, and soon after in the rest of North America), retailing for 30 dollars. None of the text has been translated, but all of the menus were in English to begin with, so little is lost to non-Japanese speakers outside of some story details: essentially, the game is pretty much identical to the on-disc version. This is perhaps a bit of a disappointment after the more lavish treatment the first game received, but definitely preferable to no Western release at all: meanwhile, across the Atlantic European fans have been hoping for Rising Star to pick this up, but so far nothing’s been announced.
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As always, any assistance you can offer is appreciated!
If anyone out there could offer some additional details regarding the backstories for Supe and Lei (especially the latter) that'd be equally great, as I KNOW I'm missing something on those...
