Ketsui Death Label

[kozo]

I never posted any thoughts, woopsie.

Music is fantastic and full quality, big plus. Really adds to the "feel" in this game, I think, and I love the buzzer and the announcer in this.

Haven't played with the omake stuff a lot yet.

I like the amount of settings you have, allowing for a fine-tuned experience. I have the music turned up over the sound effects a bit. Chip display options are great. Portability is a huge plus, helps me relax at night too to shoot bullits at bad man on the DS!

Impressive for the hardware. I am with the others, moar plz. Will support with wallet and happy dance. DS = region free to boot.

[Icarus]

Got this this afternoon, and have been playing Death Label and Doom Mode all day. Awesome stuff.
Tiny screen makes it a lot harder than it should be, but whatever.

[BiQ]

Is bombing (proper bombing, not auto-bomb) bad for score?

[jpj]

i only played it one afternoon, but i think it's okay to bomb when there are a *lot* of bullets on screen, and can be beneficial for score. auto-bomb is very bad for your score though. someone else could probably comment a bit more accurately i'm sure...

[Elixir]

What kind of processors are you guys using? Would a faster computer be able to play it at full speed?

Full speed, no. I don't think it matters what kind of computer you have, the game just doesn't feel right. Especially when patterns like DOOM's first blue bullet shower come at you. It's so fast and the jerkyness of the emulator doesn't help. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend playing this on anything that isn't a DS.

I've spent a considerable amount of time on this game, so I think I'll buy it soon. The DVD should help towards Ketsui 360. As for whoever said that it's possible to dodge all bullet patterns in Death Label, I don't think Death Label was made for that. You're given bombs after each boss, which aren't detrimental but actually beneficial to your score, and there just "feels" like some bullet patterns where you're meant to bomb. Example: First boss, blue/red pattern. First boss second tank: Shower of red bullets. The mode feels more like it was designed for strategic bombing.

[Frederik]

i only played it one afternoon, but i think it's okay to bomb when there are a *lot* of bullets on screen, and can be beneficial for score. auto-bomb is very bad for your score though. someone else could probably comment a bit more accurately i'm sure...

I think this depends on whether or not bombs contribute to your stage bonus. A little stage result screen at the end of each boss or maybe mode would have cleared up a lot of things... Because as far as I´ve experienced it, bombing big bullet patterns can make your multiplier go up quite a lot.

[dmauro]

How does bombing help your score? Aren't the red chips bad?

Too bad about the emulator not working. I'm enjoying it a lot on my DS Lite, but it would be kind of cool to try it out in a cab :/

[Frederik]

Example: First boss, blue/red pattern. First boss second tank: Shower of red bullets. The mode feels more like it was designed for strategic bombing.

The sideways travelling patterns the Sphinx boss spews out are extremely hard, too. It would be bad game design if the patterns were TECHNICALLY impossible, but I really have to pass on most of these patterns...

Btw, one thing I really love about this game are the patterns that don´t necessarily try to drown you in bullets, but rather get their difficulty from very tricky directional movement - Evaccaneer, Vinogradov and of course Doom come to mind. I really prefer these braintwisters over the "one million blobs of purple raining down in slow motion" ones.

How does bombing help your score? Aren't the red chips bad?

They make your multiplier go up, so I assumed it´s beneficial. But I don´t know for sure...

[dmauro]

Yeah I just tested it out and they don't help your score, but they do boost your multiplier. I guess I'll be bombing a lot more often now!

[henry dark]

Its all about strategic bombing, yes (DL mode)- learn which patterns look feasible to dodge and save the bombs for the patterns that look impossible.

[Frederik]

In easier modes I usually make sure to use all my bombs since you´ll get a complete refill on the next round anyways.

[8 1/2]

Sorry if this has already been covered, but how do you make the 1up come out in the battleship stage? Is it just destroying all the parts of the big ship before killing it off? Can you use a bomb?

[MrMonkeyMan]

Sorry if this has already been covered, but how do you make the 1up come out in the battleship stage? Is it just destroying all the parts of the big ship before killing it off? Can you use a bomb?

Yup, I'm pretty sure that's exactly it. Feel free to bomb away too.

[Frederik]

Sorry if this has already been covered, but how do you make the 1up come out in the battleship stage? Is it just destroying all the parts of the big ship before killing it off? Can you use a bomb?

Yes. And you can use a bomb, as it doesn´t do any damage to the ship (at least that´s my impression - bombs seem to only cancel bullets but not cause damage to the bosses in this game). There is a "Ask IKD" part that shows a graphic with all the single elements you need to destruct (it´s self-explainatory even if you can´t understand japanese).

Don´t bother with destroying the smaller ships when the big one appears, instead stay closely under it to the right side to make sure that all parts will be destroyed quickly, because you don´t have much time for that. Also, try to get close to it for your options to lock on quicker.

[seiatsu]

Btw, one thing I really love about this game are the patterns that don´t necessarily try to drown you in bullets, but rather get their difficulty from very tricky directional movement - Evaccaneer, Vinogradov and of course Doom come to mind. I really prefer these braintwisters over the "one million blobs of purple raining down in slow motion" ones.

Speaking of these types of patterns...although not the most difficult pattern, I really like the last pattern from DOOM...the one with the big red and blue bullets that leave behind a trail of arching smaller bullets. While the pattern is not that difficult compared to some of the others, I find it quite fun/interesting for some reason or another.

[Frederik]

Yeah. Because in Ketsui, many patterns seem very hard at first until you kind of figure them out - the last Doom pattern is one of them. Others, like the very first Evaccaneer pattern, try to confuse you by making a lot of things happen at the same time, making it very hard to concentrate on it, but after a while it just clicks and starts to feel phenomenal.

I´m a bit sick of the usual danmaku patterns, where stuff just keeps on raining down from above in thick dense bullet clouds. In Ketsui, there are often a lot less bullets onscreen, but they are moving in complex layers and in all kinds of directions, not just plain top to bottom. Outsmarting them has a very satisfying feel to it, and the first two rounds of Doom mode are actually surprisingly easy once you really understood what bullets move how. And then I die

In any case, I can see myself playing this game for months to come, simply because it´s one of the most enjoyable shmup experiences I´ve ever had so far, and I´m a very big fan of games that can be played in very small, challenging chunks like this. Ketsui on the handheld always seemed like a personal wet dream to me, and now that it´s finally here I couldn´t be happier

[umi]

Yeah. Because in Ketsui, many patterns seem very hard at first until you kind of figure them out - the last Doom pattern is one of them. Others, like the very first Evaccaneer pattern, try to confuse you by making a lot of things happen at the same time, making it very hard to concentrate on it, but after a while it just clicks and starts to feel phenomenal.

I´m a bit sick of the usual danmaku patterns, where stuff just keeps on raining down from above in thick dense bullet clouds. In Ketsui, there are often a lot less bullets onscreen, but they are moving in complex layers and in all kinds of directions, not just plain top to bottom. Outsmarting them has a very satisfying feel to it, and the first two rounds of Doom mode are actually surprisingly easy once you really understood what bullets move how. And then I die :?

In any case, I can see myself playing this game for months to come, simply because it´s one of the most enjoyable shmup experiences I´ve ever had so far, and I´m a very big fan of games that can be played in very small, challenging chunks like this. Ketsui on the handheld always seemed like a personal wet dream to me, and now that it´s finally here I couldn´t be happier :)

My thoughts exactly! :P

It's probably what Zweihander is thinking too, but of course he'll never admit it... ;)

[henry dark]

Yes, the patterns are incredibly imaginative, if an absolute bitch to dodge (in DL mode I can sometimes get through one of the mental, really dense ones on luck but usually its bomb or die)

[innerpattern]

I´m a bit sick of the usual danmaku patterns, where stuff just keeps on raining down from above in thick dense bullet clouds. In Ketsui, there are often a lot less bullets onscreen, but they are moving in complex layers and in all kinds of directions, not just plain top to bottom. Outsmarting them has a very satisfying feel to it, and the first two rounds of Doom mode are actually surprisingly easy once you really understood what bullets move how. And then I die

Very keen observation and I agree

[LaserGun]

The last pattern on DOOM always manages to hit me, I'm getting better at dodging it now though, I really like the games creative bullet patterns which force you to do more than just tap left and right a few times.

[Tigershark]

Got this yesterday.

First off - the packaging is lovely. Really like the big box and the art work.

Played about 45 minutes "official" time. It's amazing how you progress in this game. What at first seems impossible soon becomes possible. Strategic bombing becomes intuitive. It's very satisfying.

When someone gets around to a translation I'd be very insterested what the conversations are all about.

So far, 7.5/10

TS.

[Frederik]

Urm, so you can´t hurt Doom while a bomb is active? I was wondering why I went to fight Doom in Death Label mode with FIVE lives and it just wouldn´t go down. At first I thought that it simply had ridiculous health in DL mode, but then I noticed the shield around it when you bomb. Bummer

I didn´t even bother to try to beat this mode with less than twenty lives, and half of the time my runs ended too early because the autobomb went off before I could bomb manually. The time actually spent not invincible is ridiculous. I wouldn´t even care so much if I didn´t want to play Extra mode so badly... But from what I´ve heard so far that´s not going to be a cakewalk either so I better brush up my skills

[Kaspal]

Urm, so you can´t hurt Doom while a bomb is active? I was wondering why I went to fight Doom in Death Label mode with FIVE lives and it just wouldn´t go down. At first I thought that it simply had ridiculous health in DL mode, but then I noticed the shield around it when you bomb. Bummer

I didn´t even bother to try to beat this mode with less than twenty lives, and half of the time my runs ended too early because the autobomb went off before I could bomb manually. The time actually spent not invincible is ridiculous. I wouldn´t even care so much if I didn´t want to play Extra mode so badly... But from what I´ve heard so far that´s not going to be a cakewalk either so I better brush up my skills

my thoughts exactly... im dyin to try extra mode, but i just cant get past the 7th boss in Death Label mode... but i am playin with 8 lives sofar, so when i get to 20, i guess ill manage to get to doom hehe.

once again, im INLOVE with this game... and really hope the same team (or someone else, for that matter) delivers some more of this... mushi, galuda, ddp, whatever... i want more!!... meanwhile, i'll try to beat every single mode of this bastard with the highest score possible... i'll be posting in the HS thread soon.

[Frederik]

The problem with the Death Label Doom is that he is crazy hard - and you can´t even practice him in training mode! You´ll only be able to choose the bosses up till Evaccaneer, but no Doom. This time he attacks with these green bullets we´ve seen in the early trailers - and those are VERY hard to see. I can get to Evaccaneer quite consistently with maybe four or five lives, and I´ve been training the more moderate attacks on certain bosses to not waste more bombs than I really have to, but the last attack of the DL Doom is so confusing that I have no idea on how to beat him when I have to bomb all the time. And not being able to practice him other than playing through the whole DL mode before doesn´t help at all.

(Though I guess that he will appear in the later Doom mode - but I don´t think that he´s the fourth but rather the final version as I can hardly imagine an even harder Doom than that)

So now I started to meticulously plan and practice each boss to preserve lives and bombs as effective as possible. So far I got the bomb timing on the first two bosses perfect, and finally got kind of a grasp on Sphinx, but there still is a lot to go. This mode really seems completely built around proper bomb distribution and good timing, and you really need all 20 lives.

So as sadistic as Death Label seems, I think I understand its purpose now - it gives the game a whole new twist. At first I felt very bad about bombing so much, it felt almost like creditfeeding, but I really believe that they programmed it with the 20 lives and bomb refills in mind.

If Extra mode wasn´t tied to clearing Death Label first I don´t think I would have started to actually sit down and deal with it. I mean, it requires a lot of preparation and training, but I bet that when I finally clear it it will feel glorious

[seiatsu]

yeah, i didn't beat DL mode yet either. Kind of not really close to beating it either. I think part of my problem is that I am too anxious to play Extra that I try to rush DL mode

[Frederik]

yeah, i didn't beat DL mode yet either. Kind of not really close to beating it either. I think part of my problem is that I am too anxious to play Extra that I try to rush DL mode

Exactly. So I try to enjoy the challenge DL gives me and stop focussing on the goal of unlocking Extra so much. Who would have guess that this games gives me a lesson in Zen And it might be a good thing to postpone Extra - after a few weeks when the game starts getting old and I finally unlock it it will be great to have a full stage 5 to keeps things fresh. I mean, if I can´t beat Death Label yet, my skills are certainly not ready for such a long stage with yet another Doom fight, this time fixed to only two lives.

[Frederik]

Just watched the DVD for the first time, is the framerate really that horrible or is it just my Mac causing this? (It plays other DVDs perfectly btw) It looks very choppy, most notably when the player uses a bomb (instead of flickering it just looks either blue or orange, as if it would drop every second frame). The overall image quality isn´t that great either, I´ve downloaded a replay some months ago that had a much better quality. I mean, I mostly cared for the DVD to get a nice clear look at the game, not for the actual scoring run itself. Maybe they had a bad capturing device?

And after playing the DS version so much, looking at it in TATE suddenly looks so... weird

[power UP]

The third pattern of DOOM is a bitch, the one where it shoots the shitton of bullets at you at very fast speed.
Very smart though of them to have one layer of bullets out of sync. So you go like -left-left-left-left-left- BOOM- 'fuck shouldn't have moved there'

[joeboto]

you will cry on extra doom. you will.

even with perfect stage run, with 2 lives and 3 bombs in stock, he will beheaded you easily. i had 1 bomb no life left on his last pattern and this time, the gap between bullet is so fucking small.

[gs68]

Urm, so you can´t hurt Doom while a bomb is active? I was wondering why I went to fight Doom in Death Label mode with FIVE lives and it just wouldn´t go down. At first I thought that it simply had ridiculous health in DL mode, but then I noticed the shield around it when you bomb. Bummer

Welcome to Cave shmups, where TLBs are bombproof! =)

Anyways, I came home today, in a depressed/lonely mood, to this arriving in the mail. I'm a Ketsui noob so I don't know too much about the gameplay mechanics yet, but so far, it's beautiful.

I'm liking the number of extra modes so far, and of course, the unusual bullet patterns (which I've kinda experienced before in rRootage). It's starting to look like it's worth my $55 (especially since it's portable).