Deathsmiles IIX (Xbox 360) - GoD US/Can/Mex, Platinum JP

[spadgy]

I hate to rock the boat but my sealed DLC card came with the standard edition and was loose - not taped in any way. It must be some extra rare version!

I got it from Play-Asia. Maybe the seller just gets a pile of DLC cards and puts them with the copies in whatever way they see fit.

Now to play the bloody thing!

[8 1/2]

Got my copy and played one game at lunch. I played the 360 mode on all level 2 stages, including the extra, and ended up clearing it with 2 lives left with Follet on my first go. Seems like playing all stage 3's really is the only way to go with this game.

The display on my CRT is disapponting. The widescreen bars I can live with, but the HUD is absolutely tiny, making glancing to see how many lives or bombs you have left a chore. The same is true for your hit-box.

The most annoying and confusing visual hiccup is that your entire character can be moved off-screen to the far left or right. At various points I was navigating blind through clouds of bullets. Anyone try this on an HD widescreen set-up yet to confirm if this is true for you as well?

[Fudoh]

Anyone try this on an HD widescreen set-up yet to confirm if this is true for you as well?

it seems that you move your hitbox to the edges of the screens, making half of your character disappear, but not completely out of the screen. That's with 0% overscan, so once you have a little overscan, your character will likely be completely off screen.

[StarCreator]

Can you adjust the size of the display screen to compensate, or do you -have- to play on a display with zero overscan?

[MachineAres 1CC]

First day sales

360　Deathsmiles II X LE
9000 copies / 58 percent (of 360 sales)

360　Deathsmiles II X SE
2800 copies / 34 percent (of 360 sales)

...

Wii　Super Mario Galaxy
143200 copies /　28% (of Wii sales)

Do you have any idea how that stacks up to the debut sales of the first game last year?

Pretty sure it was about the same, if I remember correctly. Unless I'm thinking of all-time sales for DS1, but this seems pretty high for a 360 game in Japan.

Surprised so many opted for the LE when all it came with was an OST.

Probably because the OST is fucking fantastic.

And what a horrible idea to have DS2 next to Super Mario. Its comparing a niche shmup to the most popular garbage franchise on Earth that every little child on the planet plays.

[Vyxx]

And what a horrible idea to have DS2 next to Super Mario. Its comparing a niche shmup to the most popular garbage franchise on Earth that every little child on the planet plays.

Even though DSIIX is garbage?

[ncp]

And what a horrible idea to have DS2 next to Super Mario. Its comparing a niche shmup to the most popular garbage franchise on Earth that every little child on the planet plays.

kill yourself

[chempop]

I'd also like to complain a little about the off screen character movement... it isn't that big of a deal, just a bit sloppy I suppose. The HUD is sorta a pain to read as well, but I don't want to nitpick too much since it isn't truly meant for a Standard Def 4:3 screen, yeah I keep reminding people (myself) of this.

MachineAres 1CC wrote:
And what a horrible idea to have DS2 next to Super Mario. Its comparing a niche shmup to the most popular garbage franchise on Earth that every little child on the planet plays.

Are you sure you aren't thinking of either Halo, GTA, or CoD. Oh I get it, you were assaulted by a foul old plumber as a kid weren't you? Yeah, we understand, I'm also not a fan of getting sodomized by a dirty plunger.

Much prefer sodomized by loli's

[MachineAres 1CC]

Even though DSIIX is garbage?

Its nowhere near as good as the first one, but its not garbage.

kill yourself

Grow up. People have opinions, they don't always match up with yours.

Are you sure you aren't thinking of either Halo, GTA, or CoD.

Those are pretty comparable, but if you're thinking about worldwide, there's a very small percentage of Japanese/Asian people who give a flying fuck about any of those 3 franchises, but everyone still wants to suck Mario's dick out there, and that franchise is 100 times more played out and trite by this point.

And I also noticed the whole going off the screen thing the first time I played through DS2, but after adjusting it in the options to fit my screen, that doesn't happen at all, the hitbox won't even go outside of the screen at all, it cuts off the character's legs, that's about it.

[E. Randy Dupre]

Grow up. People have opinions, they don't always match up with yours.

The irony is delicious.

[spadgy]

Got my copy and played one game at lunch. I played the 360 mode on all level 2 stages, including the extra, and ended up clearing it with 2 lives left with Follet on my first go. Seems like playing all stage 3's really is the only way to go with this game.

My experience as well - it does seem a lot easier than the first DS. In fact the game reeks like it's Cave's move towards welcoming in new audiences, and perhaps part of their look to international horizons (despite how parochial to Japan the visual style is). I just worry about if it will be tough enough with everything on level 3 (which I'm yet to try). Playing a couple of levels on 3 and doing EX does make a difference to the final stage, but not a difference as explicit as that seen in the first DS.

But I've enjoyed it so far. What does bewilder me is the bonus score after the clear.

On my second run (no EX) I reached the boss with a pathetic 2XX,XXX,XXX
That gave me a post-boss score of 2,7XX,XXX,XXX (That seems to be a ten-times multiplier).

Since then I've been finishing with 7XX,XXX,XXX, but not getting anywhere near the post-boss score mentioned above.

Are we talking a case 'nothing's more important to score than lives left in stock', or am just typically confused and bewildered?

Arrange mode is even crazier, but a lot of fun. I think I understand the logic of throwing out the option and calling it back, but that whole hot and cold thing totally confuses me.

Oh - and any word on what's on the DLC card yet? I noticed 'DLC composer' in the credits, so is it just the arranged soundtrack as heard in the trailer (despite the Deathsmiles III markings)?

[Fudoh]

Can you adjust the size of the display screen to compensate, or do you -have- to play on a display with zero overscan?

in Arcade mode you your zoom and shift as much as you like while in 360 mode the screen's locked to fullscreen on 16:9 displays.

[dan76]

Can you adjust the size of the display screen to compensate, or do you -have- to play on a display with zero overscan?

in Arcade mode you your zoom and shift as much as you like while in 360 mode the screen's locked to fullscreen on 16:9 displays.

I'm playing on a 4:3 crt and it doesn't seem possible to play arcade mode full screen. You can only zoom up to 150... I tried putting the 360 into 16:9 to stretch the image tall - but it didn't alter the game! Seriously, I hope I'm missing something here because arcade mode is the version I want to play. X-mode is way to easy - got the the final boss, all level 3 on my first credit... ridiculous. Haven't tried arrange yet.

After playing the original DS for the past year these graphics are a real kick to the nuts - awful, really bad... Trizeal anyone? Can't help be unimpressed with the first couple of hours, BUT it's a new Cave game, so hopefully the game will shine with time put in.

[TLB]

And what a horrible idea to have DS2 next to Super Mario. Its comparing a niche shmup to the most popular garbage franchise on Earth that every little child on the planet plays.

Even though DSIIX is garbage?

Out of curiosity, how much experience do you have with the game? Also, how do you think it stacks up to other shooters released recently?

[Kaiser]

Even though DSIIX is garbage?

You must realise that if you didn't play the game, your opinion will not have a base thus won't have any believability and infact, will become invalid. Just saying.

[Trevor spencer]

I want to play this on a 4.3 CRT too , please tell me im going to able to set the screen up correctly

[alastair jack]

Even though DSIIX is garbage?

You must realise that if you didn't play the game, your opinion will not have a base thus won't have any believability and infact, will become invalid. Just saying.

If you don't put your head under a steamroller, your opinion will not have a base and will become invalid because you don't know what its like.

[BulletMagnet]

I want to play this on a 4.3 CRT too , please tell me im going to able to set the screen up correctly

If you play on a CRT the screen will be automatically letterboxed at the top and bottom - if you want anything close to "full-screen" in Arcade mode you'll need a widescreen TV, unfortunately.

[StarCreator]

I want to play this on a 4.3 CRT too , please tell me im going to able to set the screen up correctly

If you play on a CRT the screen will be automatically letterboxed at the top and bottom - if you want anything close to "full-screen" in Arcade mode you'll need a widescreen TV, unfortunately.

Which is pretty stupid, really... we know that the 360 is perfectly capable of filling a 4:3 frame with 4:3 content (see: SF2 HD Remix, which switches back and forth perfectly fine), so this is just pure laziness that it didn't happen here.

[evil_ash_xero]

This game is a lot easier than the first one? Good lord.

[Trevor spencer]

I want to play this on a 4.3 CRT too , please tell me im going to able to set the screen up correctly

If you play on a CRT the screen will be automatically letterboxed at the top and bottom - if you want anything close to "full-screen" in Arcade mode you'll need a widescreen TV, unfortunately.

Hmm this is annoying , i dont really fancy playing this on my plasma

[BulletMagnet]

Which is pretty stupid, really... we know that the 360 is perfectly capable of filling a 4:3 frame with 4:3 content (see: SF2 HD Remix, which switches back and forth perfectly fine), so this is just pure laziness that it didn't happen here.

It is a pretty annoying exclusion, especially within a genre which has stuck with the SD 4:3 standard for so long...weird that in the past we were worried about whether ports would only allow us to play tate games letterboxed, from now on will we have to shift that concern to horis?

[Yoshi]

Can anyone translate the achievements or provide a real (not Google Translate or babbelfish) link to them translated?

[MachineAres 1CC]

Hmm this is annoying , i dont really fancy playing this on my plasma

You should, that's what it was designed for. They went to extra lengths to make this play just right on HDTVs in IIX mode.

Can anyone translate the achievements or provide a real (not Google Translate or babbelfish) link to them translated?

Its in the achievements thread. Most of it, anyway. Even the Japanese still don't have about 4 of the secret achievements yet, and unlike American developers, CAVE doesn't leak full achievement lists before games come out. Or ever, for that matter.

[chempop]

I just played through the Extra mode, probably won't ever do that again.

[brentsg]

Does the DLC card have to be redeemed on a Japanese Live account?

[brentsg]

Which is pretty stupid, really... we know that the 360 is perfectly capable of filling a 4:3 frame with 4:3 content (see: SF2 HD Remix, which switches back and forth perfectly fine), so this is just pure laziness that it didn't happen here.

It is a pretty annoying exclusion, especially within a genre which has stuck with the SD 4:3 standard for so long...weird that in the past we were worried about whether ports would only allow us to play tate games letterboxed, from now on will we have to shift that concern to horis?

Well you can increase the screen size to 150/150 in the option menu, but it's still not enough. All Cave needs to do is increase the cap on the 150/150 to something considerably larger and the problem is fixed.

[dmauro]

I want to play this on a 4.3 CRT too , please tell me im going to able to set the screen up correctly

If you play on a CRT the screen will be automatically letterboxed at the top and bottom - if you want anything close to "full-screen" in Arcade mode you'll need a widescreen TV, unfortunately.

Which is pretty stupid, really... we know that the 360 is perfectly capable of filling a 4:3 frame with 4:3 content (see: SF2 HD Remix, which switches back and forth perfectly fine), so this is just pure laziness that it didn't happen here.

Does Cave just hate this game that they didn't care enough to give us a decent port? I was pretty blown away by how slapdash it seems.

Well you can increase the screen size to 150/150 in the option menu, but it's still not enough. All Cave needs to do is increase the cap on the 150/150 to something considerably larger and the problem is fixed.

I tried going 150/150 and then increasing my vwidth and hwidth as much as I could, but I still couldn't quite fill up the screen, and I had to tweak the brightness contrast quite a bit to keep the image from being too dim at that size. Basically arcade mode is worthless on a CRT.

Is X mode much easier than original? I played through with Rosa and had a cake walk for everything up to Satan Claws (all lvl 3) and I don't even know how to play this game and the buttons weren't set up so I couldn't bomb. I scored well over 800 million or so I think. Not that you'd know it was me since I didn't put my initials in

[EPS21]

I just played through the Extra mode, probably won't ever do that again.

Is it worse than the mushi futari arrange? I know some people liked it but I thought it was terrible. If its unanimously bad, then hats off to Cave 1upping themselves in the bad department

[dmauro]

I just played through the Extra mode, probably won't ever do that again.

Is it worse than the mushi futari arrange? I know some people liked it but I thought it was terrible. If its unanimously bad, then hats off to Cave 1upping themselves in the bad department

I think Extra mode is that puzzle mode that they wasted their time on instead of making a proper port. I've only seen a few videos of it, I doubt I'll ever start it up myself.