Just got Deathsmiles for the 360!!!....

[dave4shmups]

Best game I've played on the 360 to date! I got it new, so it has the beautiful box and face plate!! I have to say that I think it's very easy to get into, compared to some other Cave shmups I've played, like DDPDOJ (although that game is great, too.)

And, at this point in my life, I don't care about any sexual content. The characters are cute, so what?? The game is AWESOME!!

Now I just need to get ESPgaluda II, although that one is almost the price of ZanacXZanac, on Ebay at least. And I can't wait to get on XBL, and play shmups like Omega Five!

[innerpattern]

And, at this point in my life, I don't care about any sexual content. The characters are cute, so what?? The game is AWESOME!!

You go man!!

[apple arcade]

Congratulations!

I'm a huge Cave fan. Once you get into their stuff, it's just well ...wonderful!

[spadgy]

Awesome - enjoy yourself. You be surprised how that game helps you pregess your general abilities too. At the start it seems insane to think of doing everything on level 3, but you'll get there in no time.

And however well you do, be sure to submit to the Deathsmiles high score thread! Just having a score on there to beat will make you play much better!

[Matsunaga]

And I can't wait to get on XBL, and play shmups like Omega Five!

Seriously?

[Skykid]

And I can't wait to get on XBL, and play shmups like Omega Five!

Seriously?

Lol.

Congrats on your Deathsmiles purchase. Not my favourite Cave game, but undeniably great at what it does. There's a wide road of shmupping ahead of you dude.

[PsychoGun]

Deathsmiles is a monumental game, no doubt.

[dave4shmups]

And I can't wait to get on XBL, and play shmups like Omega Five!

Seriously?

Ok, OT, I haven't read any reviews of Omega Five, please point me to some. I don't have a Japanese 360, so I don't know what other Cave shmups, besides ESPgaluda II, I can play, or will be able to play, on my 360 in the future.

[cstle]

Futari is region free.

[Skykid]

ESPgaluda II

This game kicks the living hell out of Deathsmiles. Unfortunately it'll kick the living hell out of you too before you're done with it.

[PsychoGun]

Not a fan of ESP II, mushi futari is way better IMO.

The scoring system in ESP II is just so fucking convoluted for me. It shouldn't feel like I'm trying to do trig equations when I'm playing a shooter.

[xris]

In before lock?
ESpgaluda II BL is awesome.

[apple arcade]

ESPGALUDA II and Mushihimesama Futari (affiliate links) are both region free and awesome games. ESP II's original mode is fairly hard but it has several other modes with different scoring sytems so you're bound to find you like. Futari is all around awesome.

In addition, you can track down north american compies of Raiden Fighters Aces (awesome) and Raiden IV (not so awesome in my opinion)

I'm stuck like you, no mean to play XBLA at the moment, I would deff grab Ikaruga and Triggerheart Exelica if I could though.

[nZero]

Now I just need to get ESPgaluda II, although that one is almost the price of ZanacXZanac, on Ebay at least.

Forget eBay, keep an eye on the trading forum here, there have been a handful of lightly used standard editions going for between $50 and $60 shipped.

Though for that kind of money, if I had a US 360, I'd rather pick up Raiden Fighters Aces and Raiden IV.

[spadgy]

Raiden Fighters Aces and Raiden IV.

Two fine releases.

I adore the latter!

[emphatic]

While ESPGALUDA is hard as nails in Arcade mode, there's always the very fun Omake! mode for some fun, care-free shmupping.

[njiska]

That's actually my problem with Galuda II. I just don't enjoy the arcade mode's scoring or difficulty. Every other mod on the disc (BL, Arrange, Omake) are all good fun. A little on the easy side, but enjoyable none the less.

[Skykid]

That's actually my problem with Galuda II. I just don't enjoy the arcade mode's scoring or difficulty. Every other mod on the disc (BL, Arrange, Omake) are all good fun. A little on the easy side, but enjoyable none the less.

Youse guyz need to break yourselves in proper. The tougher the better. Galuda II (original, arcade) is a thing worth celebrating, a seriously gorgeous shmup from top to bottom that balances risk, reward and payout at every second turn.

Zesshikai ftw.

[Nick420]

I gotta agree with psychogun. While i do think galuda II is an awesome game. Its just nowhere near as fun as mushi, mostly due to the frustrating factor. The thing that really stresses me out in galuda is having to get right in the enemies faces in order to get enough gems. I always end up coliding with em. This causes me much restartitis to the point where i just get pissed off, switch it off and play some mushi

[supergrafx77]

I agree with Skykid. Esp II's original arcade mode is my favorite. Not so much a fan of BL or the other modes. When I play black label, it seems I'm always skimming bullets and my blue meter is shimmied. The original mode on the contrary, I find it easier NOT to get hit and just find the mechanics of the game more enjoyable. I wish CAVE payed more attention to the original arcade mode than BL since I heard it is somewhat lacking to the PCB counterpart...? Anyways, arcade mode is awesome and good enough for me I assume since I love it so much, probably much more than I realize due to never having played the pcb. Futari is a beautiful game too and actually probably the better port, although I seem to play more EspII, about 60/40.

[Skykid]

I agree with Skykid. Esp II's original arcade mode is my favorite. Not so much a fan of BL or the other modes. When I play black label, it seems I'm always skimming bullets and my blue meter is shimmied. The original mode on the contrary, I find it easier NOT to get hit and just find the mechanics of the game more enjoyable. I wish CAVE payed more attention to the original arcade mode than BL since I heard it is somewhat lacking to the PCB counterpart...? Anyways, arcade mode is awesome and good enough for me I assume since I love it so much, probably much more than I realize due to never having played the pcb. Futari is a beautiful game too and actually probably the better port, although I seem to play more EspII, about 60/40.

Can't comment on the Esp2 port as I've only played the PCB, but of all the Cave ports I have on the 360 (Ketsui, Futari, Deathsmiles 1 & 2) Futari gives me the most trouble. I can't put my finger on it, but while the others feel near perfect, something about the Futari port feels off compared to the PCB, which makes it quite frustrating as I fail a lot more on it. I have no idea what the issue is, I'm playing with a SF4 TE stick and it's okay with everything else, but it feels as though the response time is a fraction out on Futari, which sort of put me off the port entirely.

[emphatic]

I can't put my finger on it, but while the others feel near perfect, something about the Futari port feels off compared to the PCB, which makes it quite frustrating as I fail a lot more on it. I have no idea what the issue is, I'm playing with a SF4 TE stick and it's okay with everything else, but it feels as though the response time is a fraction out on Futari, which sort of put me off the port entirely.

Did you change the lag setting in the Maniac game setting? If you play on a CRT, it should be set to PCB.

[njiska]

That's actually my problem with Galuda II. I just don't enjoy the arcade mode's scoring or difficulty. Every other mod on the disc (BL, Arrange, Omake) are all good fun. A little on the easy side, but enjoyable none the less.

Youse guyz need to break yourselves in proper. The tougher the better. Galuda II (original, arcade) is a thing worth celebrating, a seriously gorgeous shmup from top to bottom that balances risk, reward and payout at every second turn.

Zesshikai ftw.

It's not the raw difficulty that bothers me. I'm fine with tough bullet patterns and love 1.5 Ultra in Mushi Futari, but there's something about Esp2 that just feels off. Maybe it's because I have to focus on managing Gems and Ignots in addition to dealing with the on-screenonslaught that makes it feel so unenjoyable. Honestly I've sunk maybe 6 hours into the game and can't bring myself to do much more.

Can't comment on the Esp2 port as I've only played the PCB, but of all the Cave ports I have on the 360 (Ketsui, Futari, Deathsmiles 1 & 2) Futari gives me the most trouble. I can't put my finger on it, but while the others feel near perfect, something about the Futari port feels off compared to the PCB, which makes it quite frustrating as I fail a lot more on it. I have no idea what the issue is, I'm playing with a SF4 TE stick and it's okay with everything else, but it feels as though the response time is a fraction out on Futari, which sort of put me off the port entirely.

Playing 360 mode things feel off, but Arcade mode on an actual arcade monitor feels nice and tight. You do have to adjust the input lag to +1 as the default +2 is too much.

[supergrafx77]

I'm going to try the lag settings myself later sometime this weekend. I didn't know this was an option...? I'm playing w/ a cab(EII) and a te stick pcb with an ls-32... Do all or most of the CAVE ports have lag options and should they be set to 1 level below normal setting? Also, what do you mean by the pcb setting(Arcade Modes only)????

[njiska]

Do all or most of the CAVE ports have lag options and should they be set to 1 level below normal setting? Also, what do you mean by the pcb setting(Arcade Modes only)????

If i recall correctly only Mushi Futari has an input lag options. Though I could be wrong. The PCB setting is because under the latency section in mushi the options are labeled: +0 (Tearing), +1 (PCB), +2 (Default), etc.

[supergrafx77]

Nice! I'm going to check this out.

[Skykid]

Did you change the lag setting in the Maniac game setting? If you play on a CRT, it should be set to PCB.

No, it's on an LCD

Playing 360 mode things feel off, but Arcade mode on an actual arcade monitor feels nice and tight. You do have to adjust the input lag to +1 as the default +2 is too much.

Ah, so this is a known issue with Mushi's 360 mode?

I thought it was just me - should have known to better trust my instincts.

It's not the raw difficulty that bothers me. I'm fine with tough bullet patterns and love 1.5 Ultra in Mushi Futari, but there's something about Esp2 that just feels off. Maybe it's because I have to focus on managing Gems and Ignots in addition to dealing with the on-screenonslaught that makes it feel so unenjoyable. Honestly I've sunk maybe 6 hours into the game and can't bring myself to do much more.

Like I said, I haven't played the port so can't comment, but Espgaluda II PCB falls into a similar category to DOJ for me, in that it's one raw, evil bastard of a game - but once you overcome the system and start hitting those gems and stringing everything together it's like tripping on videogame ex. Entering, coining, and successfully getting out of zesshikai alive is an almost unsurpassed points buzz (in fact, it might be the most satisfying point collecting mechanic in any Cave game to date) - but takes practice of course.

For me, G2 is a graphical, aural and design mecca of shmups, I just wish I was better at it.

[njiska]

Playing 360 mode things feel off, but Arcade mode on an actual arcade monitor feels nice and tight. You do have to adjust the input lag to +1 as the default +2 is too much.

Ah, so this is a known issue with Mushi's 360 mode?

I thought it was just me - should have known to better trust my instincts.

There's definitely something going on with 360 mode. In fact there are moments where it feel like it's running too fast. Consistently when playing BL Original the game jumps up in speed as the stage mid-boss appears. Almost like when audio and video get out of sync in a buffered file and it plays the video hyper fast to catch up to the audio.

Like I said, I haven't played the port so can't comment, but Espgaluda II PCB falls into a similar category to DOJ for me, in that it's one raw, evil bastard of a game - but once you overcome the system and start hitting those gems and stringing everything together it's like tripping on videogame ex. Entering, coining, and successfully getting out of zesshikai alive is an almost unsurpassed points buzz (in fact, it might be the most satisfying point collecting mechanic in any Cave game to date) - but takes practice of course.

For me, G2 is a graphical, aural and design mecca of shmups, I just wish I was better at it.

I just don't think it's one i'll ever get into. The music is too euro-trashy, the artwork just doesn't have a punch and the game overall requires too much focus. I want to like it, I really do, but I just get frustrated with it. Zesshikai and Zesshikai Over are crazy and enjoyable, but getting into them and managing everything is just too much of a hassle.

[Skykid]

The music is too euro-trashy

Galuda 2's soundtrack is sublime, especially the stage 3 mid-boss drop - that's something special.

the artwork just doesn't have a punch and the game overall requires too much focus. I want to like it, I really do, but I just get frustrated with it. Zesshikai and Zesshikai Over are crazy and enjoyable, but getting into them and managing everything is just too much of a hassle.

Certain levels of shmup take time to click. One day your skills will be so sharp you'll crave something harder, a bit like people who listen to progressively heavier metal until only the death variety will do.
When the day comes that you're actually willing the game to push you harder, almost urging it to pump even more bullets down the screen, Dodonpachi DOJ and Espgaluda II will be waiting for you, and that's when the fun really starts.

The ones that set out to punish you are the ones you'll love most once you conquer them.

[Elixir]

And, at this point in my life, I don't care about any sexual content.

How do you plan on explaining that shit to the nuns?