Deathsmiles PAL release (DATED: Feb 18th)

[BPzeBanshee]

Well I'll be getting this game by March hopefully so I can tell you for myself then, but as I recall all the arrange modes had less I thought. I'm probably wrong though.

[StarCreator]

Following established terms, arrange can only refer to 1.1 and MBL 1.1. The 360 modes in Cave's ports up to DFK are pretty much graphical upgrades, with some slight balance tweaks and, inexplicably, different slowdown algorithms.

[DrTrouserPlank]

I take back what I said about this game's difficulty. It's severely inconsistent. Too easy on rank 3. A quite hard once the suicide bullets kick in. Impossible on the gorge and castle on suicide level 2, and the last bosses are well beyond a joke. Makes the final boss in Futari look extremely easy by comparison.

Used about 20 continues with Casper just to see what it was like. Incidentally is there any reason to play as anyone other than Rosa? other than making a very difficult game more difficult with weaker characters.

[FIL]

I've been struggling to play with Casper and Windia. The hi-score table here is nearly all Fossett and Rosa. It's so hard to play for score with Casper and Windia, they just don't have the stopping power of the other 2 even if they're easier to handle.

[Naryoril]

I take back what I said about this game's difficulty. It's severely inconsistent. Too easy on rank 3. A quite hard once the suicide bullets kick in. Impossible on the gorge and castle on suicide level 2, and the last bosses are well beyond a joke. Makes the final boss in Futari look extremely easy by comparison.

Used about 20 continues with Casper just to see what it was like. Incidentally is there any reason to play as anyone other than Rosa? other than making a very difficult game more difficult with weaker characters.

Of course the Futari Boss on Original mode is easier than the Deathsmiles Boss wiht Suicide lvl 2. Have you ever looked at the Futari Boss in Ultra mode? That one is on a completely different level.

And there is a reason not to play Rosa: i don't like her :p I know, most people here will think i'm crazy not to play a character because of that, but... ok, no but, i AM crazy
Additionally i guess you can reach higher scores with a less powerful character, because you can milk large enemies more.
Btw: i decided to focus on Windia

[Drachenherz]

Me too I prefer Windia.

But only because of the crotch-shot of her in the Background-Screens.



Just kidding, actually I prefer Casper, because she's the youngest of the lot...

[Naryoril]

pick someone else than Windia, so we don't have to fight over who gets to play her in 2 player sessions :p
Btw we need to repeat that. Even though you can't really play for score like that, it was fun.
Or... we could train it and then in some local multiplayer session storm the 2 player leaderboard :p

[Drachenherz]

Actually I'm leaning towards Follet. Dunno why, but I like here Speed and if you get up and personal with her Familiar, it does a fair amount of Damage.

And yes, will definitely have to repeat a two player session. it is actually quite fun to play for kicks if not for score.

And Naryoril, don't be too happy about your 40 million score, as soon as I get better I'll obliterate your scores!

[Naryoril]

it's really easy to obliterate
get power up ready and then enter volcano on lvl 3 and then do what we did in the 2 player session
that alone is 20 to 30 mil points
that's why i told you that i got this score more or less by accident (was doing the achievement for "play everything at lvl 3")

[defected78]

RSG have emailed me back saying they are looking into the issue (soundtrack) and should have an answer in 24 hours.

Ill keep you all posted.

[Daigohji]

It arrived today and I'm impressed. I normally prefer verts, but DS has a different feel from other horis I've played. Great visuals (especially in 360 mode), good music throughout, solid gameplay, interesting boss designs, and lots of personality. RSG have put together a great package too. Seriously, six modes, two bonus discs, and a full colour manual that actually has some useful gameplay tips. And all for £18 on release day

I'm not bothered about the OST being a data disc, as on the few occassions I buy a CD these days, I just dump the files into iTunes anyway. The only thing that annoyed me for a minute was that my scores didn't seem to be showing up on the online leaderboards. It turned out I just needed to filter it to "EX:off"

Hats off to RSG for going the extra mile on this release. I'll happily snap up any further Cave games they release to this standard.

[exquisite_torture]

Deathsmiles PAL edition tops UK budget price release chart for w.e 19/02/2011

http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp? ... &ct=110029

[IseeThings]

It arrived today and I'm impressed. I normally prefer verts, but DS has a different feel from other horis I've played. Great visuals (especially in 360 mode), good music throughout, solid gameplay, interesting boss designs, and lots of personality. RSG have put together a great package too. Seriously, six modes, two bonus discs, and a full colour manual that actually has some useful gameplay tips. And all for £18 on release day

I'm not bothered about the OST being a data disc, as on the few occassions I buy a CD these days, I just dump the files into iTunes anyway. The only thing that annoyed me for a minute was that my scores didn't seem to be showing up on the online leaderboards. It turned out I just needed to filter it to "EX:off"

Hats off to RSG for going the extra mile on this release. I'll happily snap up any further Cave games they release to this standard.

Yeah, I'm quite happy with it being a data CD, would have been even better as a DVD with 24-bit FLACs and such (if the original material exists at such quality) but I'm certainly not complaining about it being Wav files on a disc because the first thing I do with all my CDs is rip them to FLAC anyway

[dan76]

Mine arrived today - I've spent most of the evening on MBL and it seems virtually identical to the Japanese release. Arcade mode has marginally more slowdown during the first 6 stages than 360 mode, but 360 mode has more slowdown during the Ice Palace/Canyon and Castle just like the NTSC-J version.

It's been fun to try out MBL 1.1 - though I'm not 100% about the scoring - pretty good though and there's plenty of slowdown in there so I don't think it's running fast.

It weird reading the story in the booklet after playing the Japanese version for almost two years and finding out what's going on - it's surprisingly interesting (if you're a big fan of the game - which I am). So another well done RSG from me, let's hope they get on DFK BL or Akai Katana...

[Tyjet]

I'm wondering if they included the updates that was used for the NA version. (not the slowdowns, but they other stuff.)

[Midey]

I pre-ordered Deathsmiles two weeks ago, but yesterday the seller take a rental for a month.

[spadgy]

I like how the advertising changed the ages of the girls but they're the correct age in game and manual.

The assets and materials for this seem a bit of a Frankenkit. Some stuff seems to come from the American localisation, while some screens associated with the PAL version appear to be Japanese release art.

Whatever, that doesn't really matter - it's great to see this selling well relative to it's obscurity, and its got some of my non-shmuping workmates hooked and playing for score on a credit rather than credit feeding. Maybe the tide of misunderstanding shmups in the PAL territories is turning. Good work RSG!

[FIL]

I was amazed to see this on the shelves of Game and Gamestation on release day. If I'd known I wouldn't have ordered from Amazon.

[dan76]

MBL 1.1 is a lot of fun (or maybe it's just that it's new and I've never played it before).

Anyone got any tips as the scoring seems a bit simple. As far as I can tell you absorb suicide bullets with your option and basically hold shot in power up to get large silver crowns, let 'em break, break and break - and collect. Am I missing something or is that it?

Thought I'd ask here as I couldn't find anything about it in the strategy section.

Also, I was a bit surprised they kept the pic of the girls all frolicking in the bath...

[Tyjet]

Anyone got any tips as the scoring seems a bit simple. As far as I can tell you absorb suicide bullets with your option and basically hold shot in power up to get large silver crowns, let 'em break, break and break - and collect. Am I missing something or is that it?

That's it. Same scoring mechanics as in MBL except: you can power up at 100, absorb suicide bullets and turn them into skulls, overall counter capped at 1,000,000, be able to see Bloody jitter bug without going through lvl999 stages, higher crowns. Not sure about the breakdown, but this is what I am thinking: 1 platinum = 2 gold = 4 hearts = 8 skulls

[dan76]

Cheers Tyjet. It's tough to find room for the crowns to break that many times without picking them up.

I really like the fact you only get 1 bomb - makes you think carefully about the order of stages etc. Also, rank 999 is more approachable in this mode - it' even fun, until you get to the bosses.

[BPzeBanshee]

I spoke with the staff at my local GAME Australia store - they're definitely getting it retail BUT they're only holding as much stock as they need for special delivery pre-orders. So, if you want to get the Normal Edition from their store in person Pre-Order from them because you're not going to see it on a shelf in Australia.

[exquisite_torture]

I'm finding this a bit meh, it doesn't quite live up to the hype that I generated in my own mind.
I'm enjoying Mushihimesama Futari much more. I love horis and verts equally.

[Treasurance]

so did anyone get arrested when trying to buy the game?

[DrTrouserPlank]

so did anyone get arrested when trying to buy the game?

They're not arresting people in the UK on the spot, instead they are tracking the sales and placing people who've bought it on the sex offenders register.

[defected78]

Have recieved feedback from RSG regarding the soundtrack. They are manufacturing corrected versions of the soundtrack which can be sent out in about 3 weeks. Excellent service all round to complete this amazing product. I asked the guy if he was ok with me putting it on here and he said yes.

EMAIL 1
Hi,

I'm very sorry about the problem with the soundtrack CD. I'm trying to get the bottom of what went wrong but that's probably not of interest to you. I'm sure what you really want to know is what we're going to do about it: we are going send you a proper disc to replace it.

Please email me your snail-mail address and we will send you a proper CD Audio disc.

From today, 22 February 2011, please give us three weeks to manufacture and send the discs.

Thank you for your support,

XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX
Digital Communications

EMAIL 2
Hi Sam,

Thank you for your very kind compliments and support - greatly appreciated.

I'm happy for you to let shmups.com users know.

Regards,

Amazing service.

[-SD-]

Found this post on the RSG forum with the direct email address to get your disc sorted:

Please email your snail-mail address to torisu [at] risingstargames.com with "Deathsmiles soundtrack" as the subject and Rising Star Games will send you a proper CD Audio disc.

[wariomona]

I spoke with the staff at my local GAME Australia store - they're definitely getting it retail BUT they're only holding as much stock as they need for special delivery pre-orders. So, if you want to get the Normal Edition from their store in person Pre-Order from them because you're not going to see it on a shelf in Australia.

After reading this I decided to try asking at Game for it. I was really surprised that not only did the woman at the counter know what this game even was, she then went on to tell me how awesome it looks.
but yeah, they still aren't getting any in...
(not that it matters as mine is being sent by mail already. 2-3 week long mail though...)

[BPzeBanshee]

I spoke with the staff at my local GAME Australia store - they're definitely getting it retail BUT they're only holding as much stock as they need for special delivery pre-orders. So, if you want to get the Normal Edition from their store in person Pre-Order from them because you're not going to see it on a shelf in Australia.

After reading this I decided to try asking at Game for it. I was really surprised that not only did the woman at the counter know what this game even was, she then went on to tell me how awesome it looks.
but yeah, they still aren't getting any in...
(not that it matters as mine is being sent by mail already. 2-3 week long mail though...)

By not getting it in do you mean general stock on shelves or not getting it period? I know someone that's pre-ordered off my advice and Id hate to have her be screwed over from misinformation on my end. :S

[emphatic]

Is there yet any word on whether or not this release works on an NTSC-J unit?