Death Smiles: Countdown to North America Invasion

[Observer]

one faithful day

"Fateful" is what you're looking for.......

No, faithful. Religious people here. (it's ok, I got the hint, sometimes english fails me... or more like I fail at english)

We can only wait and see who is going to do the localisation.

[AcidBath86]

Wow, I just recently bought the Japanese LE version, haha. It's all good, I'll get the US version too.

[Exarion]

I just hope Atlus does the localization. People will KNOW about the game's difficulty that way, and the localization will be high quality, as well as having the game actually come out on the first release date, unlike play just 4 fun category:vaporware. We can also trust them to remove only what's needed to avoid a huge controversy. Given that Atlus also released DP and DDP in the US, I think they'll be the ones to do the localization.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I just hope its region free so everybody else ontop of NA can buy it, cos i doubt cave will also have a seperate euro release

[Momijitsuki]

Siliconera isn't giving any more info than GaijinPunch gave nearly a month ago.

Old news.

I don't go to your forum, so how was I or anyone else supposed to know?

[EOJ]

I don't go to your forum, so how was I supposed to know?

Fixed to adhere to basic principles of logic!

As for your question, I've sent you the answer via PM, where it belongs. In the future, it would be best to pose such questions via PM as well.

[neojma]

I just hope Atlus does the localization. People will KNOW about the game's difficulty that way, and the localization will be high quality, as well as having the game actually come out on the first release date, unlike play just 4 fun category:vaporware. We can also trust them to remove only what's needed to avoid a huge controversy. Given that Atlus also released DP and DDP in the US, I think they'll be the ones to do the localization.

a) Atlus never released DonPachi and DDP in the US - the Saturn and PSX releases were Japan only, but they were indeed published by Atlus. In fact, Atlus published most of Cave's arcade releases in the 90s - DP, DDP, Esp.Ra.De, and Guwange (Dangun Feveron was the exception, Nihon System was the publisher for that).

b) Deathsmiles is still one of Cave's easier games... especially when, as I fully expect will happen, reviewers credit feed through on Lv.1 before coming to their conclusion that the game is "way too short and too easy".

[StarCreator]

I think I posted it in this thread or in some other thread but you know this will be the official US cover:



It can't be anything else.

No way. It has to be this:



... too soon?

[Observer]

Don't call them... Between Rambo and Charlie's Angels I don't know what to pick! They are SO AWESOME! hehehe.

Or will they do a cover like Illvelo? There should be a contest for this: "Design the westernised Death Smiles Cover".

Odds are they might ask the artist (I mean, the guy that makes the stuff for Cave) to draw a new picture altogether, probably placing the bad guys and the lolis in the most innocuous and least dangerous pose/gesture. It could work...

[Exarion]

I just hope Atlus does the localization. People will KNOW about the game's difficulty that way, and the localization will be high quality, as well as having the game actually come out on the first release date, unlike play just 4 fun category:vaporware. We can also trust them to remove only what's needed to avoid a huge controversy. Given that Atlus also released DP and DDP in the US, I think they'll be the ones to do the localization.

a) Atlus never released DonPachi and DDP in the US - the Saturn and PSX releases were Japan only, but they were indeed published by Atlus. In fact, Atlus published most of Cave's arcade releases in the 90s - DP, DDP, Esp.Ra.De, and Guwange (Dangun Feveron was the exception, Nihon System was the publisher for that).

b) Deathsmiles is still one of Cave's easier games... especially when, as I fully expect will happen, reviewers credit feed through on Lv.1 before coming to their conclusion that the game is "way too short and too easy".

I was refering to the arcade versions, should have been more clear on that. DS is also much harder than Halo, and would fit in with atlus's other releases, such as the shin megami tensei series and demon's souls.

[cj iwakura]

I think I posted it in this thread or in some other thread but you know this will be the official US cover:



It can't be anything else.

No way. It has to be this:



... too soon?

It could be called Hamster Shmup Quest 8, and I'd still buy it.

Anyway, I expect some epic voice work for this in the US, whether hilarious or genuinely good.


Victor also said this:

Wait, what? Aksys is doing Cho Aniki? I mean, there's crazy, and then there's CRAZY

[Momijitsuki]

I don't go to your forum, so how was I supposed to know?

Fixed to adhere to basic principles of logic!

As for your question, I've sent you the answer via PM, where it belongs. In the future, it would be best to pose such questions via PM as well.

Judging from the responses after I posted, I wasn't the only one who was unaware, first of all.

Second, if you really wanted me to join your forum, you should have just said so instead of being all circumferential. :V

[VorpalEdge]

I hope they got NISA as publisher.

[Thunder Force]

I'm going to call this one. After looking at and inferring from a few assorted links and that Siliconera's final clue ("They are keying some “yummy” script in their PCs right now") is a reference to the tone of the recent Cho-Aniki press release. It's Aksys.

[originalz]

I don't go to your forum, so how was I supposed to know?

Fixed to adhere to basic principles of logic!

As for your question, I've sent you the answer via PM, where it belongs. In the future, it would be best to pose such questions via PM as well.

Judging from the responses after I posted, I wasn't the only one who was unaware, first of all.

Second, if you really wanted me to join your forum, you should have just said so instead of being all circumferential. :V

Yeah, I also don't read the other STG forum and it's kind of annoying when people post "info is on this site"! It's not like our community is so huge that we need to split it with other sites, and aren't the userlists of both sites around the same anyway? Seems pointless to have "exclusive" information at certain sites...

[GaijinPunch]

No telling who the publisher is. 5pb-US maybe? The one thing everyone should be fighting about is whether this will affect region-freeness of their future releases. While it seems that region free has little impact on sales (+/- 2-3%?) in the business world that's enough to possibly turn something off. We might now see why ESPGaluda II is going to be region locked.

[MachineAres 1CC]

I'm going to call this one. After looking at and inferring from a few assorted links and that Siliconera's final clue ("They are keying some “yummy” script in their PCs right now") is a reference to the tone of the recent Cho-Aniki press release. It's Aksys.

This ought to be funny if its true, given what horrible sales and distribution a lot of their lesser-known (a.k.a. not Guilty Gear or BlazBlue) games have gotten in the last few years. Seems mighty appropriate to release a shmup in the US if you're used to your games selling like dogshit. Its funny to really consider just what a mess it is, period, trying to release shmups as retail games in the US. In about the last 4 or 5 years, I'm pretty sure there were only 4 shmups brought to the US as retail games, and they all were released as "budget" games and still sold atrociously. A couple friends of mine who worked at GameStop and Best Buy late last year were telling me that the corporates would send emails of what games to take out of stores and send back to the warehouse because they were selling so badly, and Raiden 4 was on both of those stores' lists within a matter of weeks.

I also see lots of people bitching about how they spent so much money on the Japanese version, this is stupid as shit, especially if you're someone who bought it and was playing it almost a year before this US port is supposed to come out. I don't find anything to bitch about when you've had the opportunity to experience something awesome a years before anyone who wanted to "wait" does. I say supposed to, since its funny that just about every shmup or other niche Japanese game that was supposed to be ported to the US for 360 retail has been cancelled in the last few years. Or at least should have been, with the way they were treated. We'll see if this actually makes it out.

[cj iwakura]

My love for Aksys knows no bounds, so this is wonderful news if so.

I don't know how they stay in business, but they treat their games well, so I trust their judgment.

[AraraSPAMWitch]

This ought to be funny if its true, given what horrible sales and distribution a lot of their lesser-known (a.k.a. not Guilty Gear or BlazBlue) games have gotten in the last few years. Seems mighty appropriate to release a shmup in the US if you're used to your games selling like dogshit. Its funny to really consider just what a mess it is, period, trying to release shmups as retail games in the US. In about the last 4 or 5 years, I'm pretty sure there were only 4 shmups brought to the US as retail games, and they all were released as "budget" games and still sold atrociously. A couple friends of mine who worked at GameStop and Best Buy late last year were telling me that the corporates would send emails of what games to take out of stores and send back to the warehouse because they were selling so badly, and Raiden 4 was on both of those stores' lists within a matter of weeks.

It's been a few more than four on consoles, and definitely more if you count PSP, but yeah, it's been a drought. The problem, of course, is the pricing--I think that now gamers are definitely more interested in the shooter genre, thanks to XBLA and its ilk, but the downside is that this has conditioned players to treat the games as disposable minigames. There's really no way to get around this issue outside of organizing a massive reeducation campaign in our public schools to teach the next generation to appreciate the genre, and I think we--and Aksys--will need to be content with a budget release with shit-ass sales.

[Momijitsuki]

No telling who the publisher is. 5pb-US maybe? The one thing everyone should be fighting about is whether this will affect region-freeness of their future releases. While it seems that region free has little impact on sales (+/- 2-3%?) in the business world that's enough to possibly turn something off. We might now see why ESPGaluda II is going to be region locked.

One thing to consider is that localized shmup releases in the US are dirt cheap. I picked up Shiki III at Gamestop for $19.99 just a short while after it came out.

Maybe DeathSmiles will sell better than Mushi Futari did/ESPGaluda II would if it was region-free, since it's likely to be much, much less expensive, giving the reluctant mainstream gamer a little more incentive to try it.

Perhaps this is the second experiment in CAVE's case-- which will bring them more profit in the long run? Either way it's going to be hard to sell an arcade game from a company known to make intimidating games to the modern mainstream gamer... especially one where you play as young girls in frilly dresses. I'll never understand.

On a separate note, I'm worried that whoever publishes it is going to have all of the dialogue English-dubbed. Poorly.

[MachineAres 1CC]

It's been a few more than four on consoles, and definitely more if you count PSP, but yeah, it's been a drought. The problem, of course, is the pricing--I think that now gamers are definitely more interested in the shooter genre, thanks to XBLA and its ilk, but the downside is that this has conditioned players to treat the games as disposable minigames. There's really no way to get around this issue outside of organizing a massive reeducation campaign in our public schools to teach the next generation to appreciate the genre, and I think we--and Aksys--will need to be content with a budget release with shit-ass sales.

There really aren't many on PSP, if you keep in mind we're only talking about US releases here. The only US released shmup I can think of on PSP is Gradius Collection. Most people don't consider Every Extend Extra or Space Invaders Extreme as shmups. And I highly doubt XBLA has much to do with making people think shmups are cool again, there's honestly not a huge amount of them on there, it just seems that way because there's so few on every other modern system. I do agree that people see shmups as pretty "disposable" but that's fairly obvious.

[AraraSPAMWitch]

There really aren't many on PSP, if you keep in mind we're only talking about US releases here. The only US released shmup I can think of on PSP is Gradius Collection. Most people don't consider Every Extend Extra or Space Invaders Extreme as shmups. And I highly doubt XBLA has much to do with making people think shmups are cool again, there's honestly not a huge amount of them on there, it just seems that way because there's so few on every other modern system. I do agree that people see shmups as pretty "disposable" but that's fairly obvious.

There's also a Strikers game for the PSP in the US. I was thinking Parodius was released here, too, but I now think that's a crackheaded idea. But about XBLA, it brought "quick and easy-to-learn" mechanics back to a large audience, and arena shooters have enjoyed an odd spurt of popularity. I'll agree that it has not made scrolling shooters massively popular, but I've noticed that some of my own 360-owning friends who wouldn't give a rat's dick about anything that wasn't a 60-hour J-RPG or grimdark FPS now seem to enjoy messing around with shooters. Sadly, the term is "messing around," not "playing," so I'm going to bust my ass to convince people this game is worth it, because there's an audience out there for this--the problem is convincing people it's, you know, a real game.

[Phellan Wolf]

Let's wait and see how the localization of the game turns out.
Also to appeal more gamers, it would be great that the US version includes both DLC, I mean Mega Black Label and Mega Black Label 1.1. That could help a little bit in sales, not much but at least it will appeal more people to the game since it will include more content that the japanese version.

[Van_Artic]

if it's Aksys, it will be PAL compatible for sure

[Rebel Ninja]

if it's Aksys, it will be PAL compatible for sure

I don't think so to be honest. BlazBlue was region locked and when I emailed them asking about the region coding of "Record of Agarest War" they said it would be locked for PAL regions.

[Exarion]

Though somewhat unrelated, shmups are not doing well in terms of reviews, which WILL make it much harder to sell deathsmiles.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... 4?q=raiden
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... s?q=raiden
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... 0shikigami
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... ers%201945
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... collection


Unless we want this game to fail, we're going to have to be the ones to do all the marketing.

[Kiken]

Let's wait and see how the localization of the game turns out.
Also to appeal more gamers, it would be great that the US version includes both DLC, I mean Mega Black Label and Mega Black Label 1.1. That could help a little bit in sales, not much but at least it will appeal more people to the game since it will include more content that the japanese version.

If the US localization includes the DLC on the disc, then the game will most certainly be region locked to prevent reverse importing from Japan.

[Lynx Winters]

Shmups haven't done well in reviews in years, this is nothing new. Word of mouth is pretty much the only good press the genre has got in a long time. Deathsmiles will get the exact same review every other game has because this isn't really a genre for most people anymore. Reviewers don't write for the intended audience, they write for the general gaming audience because that's who buys their magazines and sees the ads intended for them. There is no point to worrying about what reviews will say. We know what the reviews will say. You're probably going to buy it anyway.

[originalz]

I don't see why they would include the MBL expansion on the disc. For most casual gamers, they won't care about it. For the hardcore gamers that do, they'll just buy it. They'd be losing money by putting it all together, especially if it's sold at a low price to begin with.

[MachineAres 1CC]

I don't see why they would include the MBL expansion on the disc. For most casual gamers, they won't care about it. For the hardcore gamers that do, they'll just buy it. They'd be losing money by putting it all together, especially if it's sold at a low price to begin with.

This.