Death Smiles: Countdown to North America Invasion

[NR777]

Just picked up my copy, so I figured I'd rip the Arranged Soundtrack disc to my computer and check it out in the few hours I have before hurrying home to fire this bitch up. There are some interesting remixes on offer here...but I'm glad I have the JP OST on my home PC. I much prefer the original tracks.

[dave_wellington]

Could someone post some pictures of the box, and the contents? Will be a week at least until my copy arrives (in New Zealand).

[TaygetaVendetta]

Yeah I dunno why but Rosa's fairy familiar wears a bra but no panties..creeps me the hell out.

Man, I just had an awesome laugh here.
I probably scared my work mates!

Can you believe I never noticed that? And I only play with Rosa!
OMFG, Deathsmiles will never be the same again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Same here. Bizarre.

Anyway my Gamestop had about 8 copies on the shelf, with 2 being my pre-orders. Didn't ask if the others were all claimed or if there were extras. Had the boxes sitting on the shelf covering up other sealed 360 games, so they're not being stored under the counter of shame like Agarest War. Hopefully people see the oddly-shaped box and are interested. The box itself is a lot more sturdy than the Agarest War box, all of them on the shelf looked to be in pristine condition. Dunno how it'd fare by itself in the mail, I guess we'll find out as people get their copies in from Gamestop.com/Amazon. Doubt they'll get as damaged as the Agarest War boxes tho.

Two playthroughs on level1 with Xbox360 mode (honestly not too familiar with the others) and I didn't notice any gameplay differences or flaws compared to the JP version. Only complaint is the font used for characters/familiars names, which is kinda difficult to read for the familiars. Is Rosa's named Tiki? Couldn't make out what it was.

/moreinaneramblingsaboutboxesandshit

[mannerbot]

For people that want to see pictures, here's a post from NeoGAF:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... tcount=183

[ookitarepanda]

Come on, somebody go play on the leaderboards. I just did a really shitty run of 70 mil and I'm number one. Puh-leeeeez. Let's see who the #1 American is!

[KevinDDR]

Just a vaguely interesting note:

The game totally screws up the aspect ratio on an SDTV when your 360 is set to 16:9 mode. I play on a widescreen CRT and I encountered this when I first loaded the game. Talk about wacky! It actually squishes the game vertically and doesn't even zoom to fill the screen in either direction! Anyway, I got around it by putting my TV in 4:3 mode and just using the Zoom X and Zoom Y settings to get it looking correct.

[Lok]

Picked up the game and the guy tells me that I'm the only one to pre-order it at the store and the ones surrounding. Go figure. Only managed to play it for a little since I'll be heading out to the arcade but it was enjoyable from the little I played.

Also, sucks for anyone that got a new 360, least you have a nice looking paper holder.

[vld99]

I don't really mind them not having it today (or tomorrow for that matter), but what pisses me off is that they may end up not getting it at all. It happened with Blazblue last year. The problem? The box has to be translated to French or else they can't sell it. It's not like this is the first time this happens to me, but hey. I also wanted to pick up a copy of The White Ribbon at my local Futureshop on my way there and they didn't get the movie today for pretty much the same reason. Anyways!

Oh dear. I really hope you're wrong but we do have this incredibly stupid law, so it's actually quite probable. Though maybe it's different with pre-orders since they're not actually displayed on shelves? Fingers crossed... Otherwise I guess ordering online would circumvent this ridiculous measure. More delays...

...why did I think pre-ordering "offline" would save some trouble. Thanks for being ass backwards as always, dear Quebec government.

[dieKatze88]

Owners of J-360s and no U-360s, be warned:

http://picasaweb.google.com/10606756558 ... 5676517250

I guess I'll have to import the Japanese version.

[Shuurin]

Amazon looks to be having site troubles, but someone said they're backordered, with a 2-4 week wait time.

I had this problem with Record of Agarest War (was a one week delay before shipping and I preordered it when it was first put up on the site), so I went with Gamestop this time and picked Deathsmiles up today with no issue, seems they had several copies but all are kept in the backroom. Now I'm 2 for 2 with my limited edition boxes not being thrashed. Works great on my Elite.

Okay everyone, I just tested out the copy I picked up and it's official - the US release of DeathSmiles will NOT work on a Japanese console. Its name actually displays as "DeathSmiles NA" when you put it in the disc drive.

A shame this does indeed not load up on a JP console, but I expected that much. Cave doesn't want people with just NTSC-J consoles whom have yet to buy Deathsmiles not paying for their MBL and MBL 1.1 DLC.

[gs68]

Fuck this shit. Pabst Blue GameStop.

[TaygetaVendetta]

A shame this does indeed not load up on a JP console, but I expected that much. Cave doesn't want people with just NTSC-J consoles whom have yet to buy Deathsmiles not paying for their MBL and MBL 1.1 DLC.

I dunno if the reasoning for locking it is that sinister, afterall the Platinum Collection version of Deathsmiles JP is cheap and includes all the DLC, doesn't it?

[Anesthetize]

Quick gameplay question:

Can you still only pick two stages at rank 1 and two at rank 2? I've only played through once so far, but I could have sworn rank 1 was an option for all of the first 6 stages.

[tearsofash]

Amazon.

If I didn't have $20 preorder credit on this game there, I'd cancel it and get it somewhere else. Should've learned after what happened with Agarest War.

[BulletMagnet]

Quick gameplay question:

Can you still only pick two stages at rank 1 and two at rank 2? I've only played through once so far, but I could have sworn rank 1 was an option for all of the first 6 stages.

On Arcade mode it'll force you to bump up after a stage or two - on 360 mode (and all others, I think) you can stick with Rank 1 the whole way through.

[Cuilan]

I dunno if the reasoning for locking it is that sinister, afterall the Platinum Collection version of Deathsmiles JP is cheap and includes all the DLC, doesn't it?

It has MBL, but doesn't include MBL 1.1 (or the extra items, of course).

[StarCreator]

MBL 1.1 is like absurdly cheap if you already own MBL though, to the point that someone in Japan would still come out ahead if they bought it locally. I don't see why that would be a significant reason for the lockout.

So I guess if I want to play this, I'll actually have to get my VGA adapter out since my launch US 360 doesn't have an HDMI port...

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Amazon.

If I didn't have $20 preorder credit on this game there, I'd cancel it and get it somewhere else. Should've learned after what happened with Agarest War.

It was the same way with Raiden Fighters Aces. Ended up getting delayed by like a month. I said fuck it and just bought it off Gamestop.
Didn't make the same mistake again with Deathsmiles. Preordered and collected at Gamestop without a hassle.

[njiska]

You're in Quebec, you should know not to expect it today. Unless shipments go out really early there's always a day or two delay. Namely because of increased distance and because all the items have to clear through customs.

I don't really mind them not having it today (or tomorrow for that matter), but what pisses me off is that they may end up not getting it at all. It happened with Blazblue last year. The problem? The box has to be translated to French or else they can't sell it. It's not like this is the first time this happens to me, but hey. I also wanted to pick up a copy of The White Ribbon at my local Futureshop on my way there and they didn't get the movie today for pretty much the same reason. Anyways!

Well that's bill 101 for you. Keeping everyone unhappy except the Parti Québécois. I'd just order online and save the hassle.

[MachineAres 1CC]

Thoughts from someone who has had the game since Japan launch in April 2009. The US version:

There's no full voice option.
Having "(NA)" after the title looks tacky.
The achievements are trimmed as fuck, kinda un-fun to get the same ones again.
The text font is pretty ugly.
Translations are stupid. See: this thread.
The arranged soundtrack is still lame as hell. The real OST is so much better.
Faceplate isn't really cut correctly, the space for the disc drive is too big.
The box is cool, and especially since they used it to introduce the new 360 cover art design that will become the standard from now on.
I just have a very "I don't care" feeling about the whole thing. I didn't have that excited "new game" feeling after I bought it, it was just a buy for collector's sake.

[GaijinPunch]

The arranged soundtrack is still lame as hell. The real OST is so much better.

This differs from any other game how?

[gs68]

Esp2 BL soundtrack = bleh
DFK BL soundtrack = kinda awesome (Select, Stage 1-3, TaisaGoldenDisasterThing), kinda shitastic (Stage 4-5, Hibachi, regular bosses).

[StarCreator]

The arranged soundtrack is still lame as hell. The real OST is so much better.

This differs from any other game how?

I really, really like the arrange on DOJBLEX. I can't even stand to listen to the original Stage 4 bgm anymore.

[Kollision]

I really, really like the arrange on DOJBLEX.

Yes, it is really awesome. Especially for stages 4 and 5.

[yyr]

What the hell...

I'm 5th on the leaderboard for Xbox 360 mode, non-extra...

...and I suck!

Then again, it's only out of 51 people. =(

Maybe going with just the limited edition was a bad move this time around... I wonder if that's scaring some people away.

[Sapz]

I really, really like the arrange on DOJBLEX. I can't even stand to listen to the original Stage 4 bgm anymore.

Got to agree with this - the boss BGM is also really great, aside from the Stage 4 and 5 tracks. I thought Ketsui's was good, too; there are a few tracks on the arrange I don't think too much of (i.e. Stage 2), but Stage 5 and the boss BGM are badass.

[Daigoro]

got to play it for the first time this afternoon.

its awesome. i love it.

[evil_ash_xero]

got to play it for the first time this afternoon.

its awesome. i love it.

Which version have you been sinking your teeth into? I liked DS vanilla, then really started to get into the game with 1.1, and then was consumed by MBL.

I think it's a real treat. It's actually quite different than any CAVE shmup released recently(or ever, really), so it's not the same ol' same ol'(even if the same ol' same ol' is usually awesome).

[PsikyoPshumpPshooterP]

status: im gonna achievement whore the fuq outta those lolita and return it to gamefly like the dirty little lolitas that they are...

[NR777]

This game is awesome. I really suck so far...but somehow I'm third on the leaderboards with a crappy 45 million point run. Get playing, people.