Deathsmiles PAL release (DATED: Feb 18th)

[StarCreator]

How much was MBL on the JP marketplace when it came out? 1200? If so the value of this disc is superb; well it's superb anyway, I'm just trying to quantify it.

Yeah I think MBL was 1200 points - I don't recall how much above that MBL 1.1 cost. It's worth noting that, IIRC, the Platinum Hits version of the game included MBL, but not MBL 1.1.

[Kiken]

How much was MBL on the JP marketplace when it came out? 1200? If so the value of this disc is superb; well it's superb anyway, I'm just trying to quantify it.

Yeah I think MBL was 1200 points - I don't recall how much above that MBL 1.1 cost. It's worth noting that, IIRC, the Platinum Hits version of the game included MBL, but not MBL 1.1.

MBL 1.1 was an additional 240 points. And yeah, the Platinum Hits release includes the first DLC package (MBL 360 and MBL Arcade).

[DrTrouserPlank]

How much was MBL on the JP marketplace when it came out? 1200? If so the value of this disc is superb; well it's superb anyway, I'm just trying to quantify it.

Yeah I think MBL was 1200 points - I don't recall how much above that MBL 1.1 cost. It's worth noting that, IIRC, the Platinum Hits version of the game included MBL, but not MBL 1.1.

MBL 1.1 was an additional 240 points. And yeah, the Platinum Hits release includes the first DLC package (MBL 360 and MBL Arcade).

But originally (assuming I had a JP 360) I would have had to import DS, pay for MBL (which included MBL 360 and arcade... 1200 points) and then buy MBL 1.1 for 240 more in order to get the equivalent of what we are getting in the PAL release?. Even if the JP platinum release was a bit cheaper compared to the original release (although not a massive amount from what I can see) I'd still have to spend the extra 240 JP-points to get 1.1MBL...

Yeah this is good value... very good. In fairness it ought to be because it's so late, BUT lateness of localisation hasn't stopped other devs from milking their punters for every penny they have.

Other than the slight cock-up with the soundtrack CD I have nothing but praise for RSG. I also thought that the instruction manual was actually excellent (I assume they have had a hand in making it more of a guide rather than a straight word-for-word copy of the JP manual?) I haven't read every word of it, but it reads as a good introduction to this genre, maybe even a primer to the sort of ethos that shmup fans subscribe to. It even suggests clearing the game in one credit!!...... That's the sort of thinking we need instilled into people who buy this game!

[BPzeBanshee]

The soundtrack's a data CD? So what, are we talking a bunch of MP3s on a disc or something?

Damn, I was looking forward to being able to stick the CD into the 360 and copy the album for the sake of having DS music outside the DS game.

Anyhow, I'm certainly looking forward to getting this game. It's looking more and more like Australia's game distributors are too incompetent to care about releasing it here and apparently GAME does imports so they'll just be importing it themselves and adding an extra price tag to it if I understand correctly. Importing = only option for Aussies. Oh well.

[bcass]

Lossless WAVs, not lossy MP3s.

[BPzeBanshee]

Lossless WAVs, not lossy MP3s.

Good stuff, high-quality FTW. So I can just burn them to an audio CD if I wanted to. Not all hope is lost.
I dont suppose it has any album information on it for putting onto ID3 tags?

[sjewkestheloon]

Had a few hours on it last night and I'm impressed. Not much of a hori player beyond some Megadrive favourites and a little flirtation with Border Down but this games feels significantly different and I love the multi directional sections.

Been mostly messing around in Rank 1 stages so far with a few 2s here and there to see how they compare.

One thing that has me puzzled is that in the strategy guide on our esteemed forum is states that you can only choose a small number of stages at Rank 1 before it forces you to up it to 2 and 3. While playing around last night it seemed that I was able to choose as many stages at Rank 1 as I wanted, at least in 360 mode (not 1.1). Can someone please clarify this and how it differs in the different versions if this is a factor?

I also had one go on MBL and cleared the first 6 stages at low rank with ease only to get destroyed on Ice Palace within seconds due to the suicide bullets hitting before I'd registered what I was supposed to do with them. Looks like it will be a fun game mechanic to learn.

[DrTrouserPlank]

Had a few hours on it last night and I'm impressed. Not much of a hori player beyond some Megadrive favourites and a little flirtation with Border Down but this games feels significantly different and I love the multi directional sections.

Been mostly messing around in Rank 1 stages so far with a few 2s here and there to see how they compare.

One thing that has me puzzled is that in the strategy guide on our esteemed forum is states that you can only choose a small number of stages at Rank 1 before it forces you to up it to 2 and 3. While playing around last night it seemed that I was able to choose as many stages at Rank 1 as I wanted, at least in 360 mode (not 1.1). Can someone please clarify this and how it differs in the different versions if this is a factor?

I also had one go on MBL and cleared the first 6 stages at low rank with ease only to get destroyed on Ice Palace within seconds due to the suicide bullets hitting before I'd registered what I was supposed to do with them. Looks like it will be a fun game mechanic to learn.

360 mode doesn't limit how many times you can pick rank 1 and 2. Arcade does.

[BuckoA51]

I'm delighted with the PAL version of Deathsmiles (though to be fair I have nothing to compare it to), I doubt I'll ever be able to 1cc it since that final boss is always just kicking my behind. I was surprised at just how much knowing the background story affected how much I enjoyed it too, the DS story is kinda melancholy especially the choice you make at the end.

The extras discs are sort of poor, the soundtrack CD isn't a CD as several have pointed out, but a data disc full of wav's. Not sure who's responsible for that cockup but at least they were wav and not mp3 or something. Actually, everything that's on the two discs would have fit on one. The wallpapers are good though. I think there's a feeling amongst western gamers that shooters are poor value for money "retro" games and Rising Star put the extras discs in to inflate the perceived value. Personally I think the package is excellent value regardless and I suppose I'd rather have poor bonus discs than no bonus discs.

A full widescreen mode without the borders might have been fun to try too (i.e not stretched but entire screen showing game area), but I guess this would have been a lot of work to implement something that probably would not have changed the game very much.

[Zeron]

So has the game in europe received one of those hilariously bad reviews yet?

[exquisite_torture]

I could've done without the extras.

[FIL]

I don't care about the free desktop festoonments, unless the disc has a template for making your own dakimakura on it.

[JDE]

So has the game in europe received one of those hilariously bad reviews yet?

Most reviews have been extremely positive so far actually; the average score seems to be a very respectable 8/10, even on big sites like GameSpot and Eurogamer. And I'm very impressed with the media coverage it's been getting as well: I've seen Deathsmiles adverts on several major sites today, including Anime News Network.

As for the actual game, no real complaints so far, it's a blast. Filling the screen with hundreds of giant glowing items to collect in Fever Mode, while dancing through neon pink waves of doom to survive, is just so much fun.

[cools]

A full widescreen mode without the borders might have been fun to try too (i.e not stretched but entire screen showing game area), but I guess this would have been a lot of work to implement something that probably would not have changed the game very much.

It would change the game massively.

[Weak Boson]

I'm really enjoying this. Been focusing on arcade mode and I feel like a 1CC is close, it's just a matter of learning how to deal with Jitterbug and Tyrannosatan. My only complaint is that the training mode doesn't let you skip to the boss fights, but I assume this was the case in the Japanese version too.

[Skykid]

What pisses me off royally is the Xbox 360 mode looks so much better, but arcade plays so much better. Crap tradeoff.

[sjewkestheloon]

Had a few hours on it last night and I'm impressed. Not much of a hori player beyond some Megadrive favourites and a little flirtation with Border Down but this games feels significantly different and I love the multi directional sections.

Been mostly messing around in Rank 1 stages so far with a few 2s here and there to see how they compare.

One thing that has me puzzled is that in the strategy guide on our esteemed forum is states that you can only choose a small number of stages at Rank 1 before it forces you to up it to 2 and 3. While playing around last night it seemed that I was able to choose as many stages at Rank 1 as I wanted, at least in 360 mode (not 1.1). Can someone please clarify this and how it differs in the different versions if this is a factor?

I also had one go on MBL and cleared the first 6 stages at low rank with ease only to get destroyed on Ice Palace within seconds due to the suicide bullets hitting before I'd registered what I was supposed to do with them. Looks like it will be a fun game mechanic to learn.

360 mode doesn't limit how many times you can pick rank 1 and 2. Arcade does.

Well that sucks. Guess I'll be putting up with shonky graphics on arcade mode from now on then.

[Wonderbanana]

Latest issue of GamesTM has a one page review and gave it 8/10.

[NzzpNzzp]

Well that sucks. Guess I'll be putting up with shonky graphics on arcade mode from now on then.

You can't just play 360 mode and limit the amount of times you pick low levels?

[exquisite_torture]

Latest issue of GamesTM has a one page review and gave it 8/10.

What did they give Contra Uprising and Rush n' Attack?

[defected78]

Do you think RSG plans to correct the music CD's and offer replacements.

Since it has a compact disc digital audio logo I think they should.

Ill ask them unless somebody else has already.

[BPzeBanshee]

Do you think RSG plans to correct the music CD's and offer replacements.

Since it has a compact disc digital audio logo I think they should.

Ill ask them unless somebody else has already.

That'd be a good idea actually.

In all fairness it's not hard to make a music CD yourself out of what they've got and a spare CD-R, though really the company shouldnt've screwed up in this manner.

[defected78]

I sent the below message to them. I dont think it seems too angry. Thing is they should try to get things like this right so that people will trust them for future releases. They have done an amazing job getting the slowdown put in but the cd pressing takes the gloss of this release because as it stands it contains a defective product. I think out of general principal it should be remedied.

Hi, My copy of the excellent Deathsmiles has an audio cd with the Compact Disk Digital Audio logo but it doesnt play in my cd player. Please can I arrange to send this into you to get a replacement that will work. This is an otherwise excellent release and a great follow up to Deadly Premonition. Hope this sells well and that you pick up other cave titles like Dodonpachi Ressurection. The iphone port is localised to english to it would seem to me at least to be the next logical release. Cheers Sam

[BPzeBanshee]

That seems fine. Keep us posted.

There's a few people complaining withing Rising Star Game's forums too, so I imagine RSG will figure out within the next few days if they haven't already: "Oh shit, we've buggered the OST disc".

[sjewkestheloon]

Well that sucks. Guess I'll be putting up with shonky graphics on arcade mode from now on then.

You can't just play 360 mode and limit the amount of times you pick low levels?

To be honest I've just turned smoothing on on Arcade mode and it's made it a hell of a lot better. I'll be sticking to Arcade I think. The bosses are great in this game, and I love the extra forms of the bosses on the higher ranks.

It make much better sense playing the first sets of stages on higher difficulty levels as I'm sure that'll make the transition from those to chapter 4 much smoother. The first time I reached that after six stages at rank 1 I was owned so quickly it was beyond funny.

Just got my first extend too, a great moment in any new shmup.

I'm loving the scoring system in this game. There seem to be a lot of little tricks to scoring high dotted all over the place and scoring reasonably doesn't seem to be tied so much to superhuman feats of perfection like some of the other Cave games.

[Wonderbanana]

Latest issue of GamesTM has a one page review and gave it 8/10.

What did they give Contra Uprising and Rush n' Attack?

8 for Hard Corps and 4 for RnA.

[Naryoril]

What pisses me off royally is the Xbox 360 mode looks so much better, but arcade plays so much better. Crap tradeoff.

i haven't tried the arcade mode yet. what do you mean by it plays better? more slowdown?

[DrTrouserPlank]

What pisses me off royally is the Xbox 360 mode looks so much better, but arcade plays so much better. Crap tradeoff.

i haven't tried the arcade mode yet. what do you mean by it plays better? more slowdown?

I certainly think that there is an extra bit of slowdown in arcade mode, and whilst at some points in 360 mode the slowdown is still there; in arcade mode it's even more pronounced.

[BPzeBanshee]

What pisses me off royally is the Xbox 360 mode looks so much better, but arcade plays so much better. Crap tradeoff.

i haven't tried the arcade mode yet. what do you mean by it plays better? more slowdown?

I certainly think that there is an extra bit of slowdown in arcade mode, and whilst at some points in 360 mode the slowdown is still there; in arcade mode it's even more pronounced.

If I'm remember correctly someone said before the Arrange Modes had less slowdown in general.

[DrTrouserPlank]

i haven't tried the arcade mode yet. what do you mean by it plays better? more slowdown?

I certainly think that there is an extra bit of slowdown in arcade mode, and whilst at some points in 360 mode the slowdown is still there; in arcade mode it's even more pronounced.

If I'm remember correctly someone said before the Arrange Modes had less slowdown in general.

Surely arrange only refers to 1.1?