Deathsmiles localizer Q&A interview - STGWeekly episode

[Frenetic]

Hi guys,

I am in touch with the person that headed the team which localized Deathsmiles for the US market. Any questions that you'd like me to ask? It's a valuable opportunity and insight to what it is like to work with Cave, etc.

We're shooting for having her on STGWeekly live, and people can ask questions in the chat.

Cheers,
F

[AntiFritz]

Ask her why they stuck "Death Smiles at us all, Lolis smile back" on the back of the box.

[CStarFlare]

Why not Cho Aniki?

[Aleksei]

hmmm....who is your favorite character and have you ever played the game? IDK really, can't think of anything unless I know how much she knows about the game in terms of gameplay.

[Special World]

Ask her why they stuck "Death Smiles at us all, Lolis smile back" on the back of the box.

this sounds like a dumb question but it's also maybe the most important question of them all

[BulletMagnet]

First and foremost I'd like to finally get some clarification on the whole removed slowdown thing (did Cave themselves authorize this as was originally claimed, and who made the decision to reinstate it), though I'm not sure if she would have any firsthand knowledge of that end of things.

I'd also like a more detailed explanation of why Aksys decided to pass on future shooter localizations despite claiming to have been "satisfied" with Deathsmiles' sales figures; did it really lose that much compared to, say, Castle Shikigami III on the Wii? Did Microsoft's rumored minimum-copies-produced limit have anything to do with it?

How was the decision made to give the characters very heavy regional accents in the dialogue text, and did players' reactions to it surprise you?

Aksys likes to use cheeky marketing techniques to get attention (see Agarest), and did the same with Deathsmiles (i.e. the "lolis smile back" thing), but offhand it doesn't seem like it stirred up much controversy in this case; would you dispute that statement, and if not why do you think this was the case? While we're on the topic, will we ever see a release of the BDSM Uber Edition?

I also wouldn't mind hearing the story behind the cosplay models and some of the goofy photos they took at PAX East, if she ws involved in any of that.

[Skykid]

Ask her why they stuck "Death Smiles at us all, Lolis smile back" on the back of the box.

This is my most wanted question by a mile.

Secondly why they fucked up the slowdown.

[chempop]

Ask: Are you aware of the deathsmiles love-pillows? And if so, how would you rate them on a scale of 1-10 (10 being: no amount of detergent can remedy those stains, and 1 being: special place in hell for people who own them).

[bcass]

Secondly why they fucked up the slowdown.

I thought this has already been answered? Wasn't it because they decided to use a different graphics engine for the US release?

[Sinistar's visions]

It would be interesting to find out the rough data used to justify the US release of Deathsmiles which would give insight into the US Shoot em up demographic and overall gaming market and it's flexibility towards niche offerings. Overall marketing strategy used.

Also, CAVE's expectations towards the success or failure of the Deathsmiles release, CAVE's perceptions, goals and or milestone's towards breaking into the US market and talk about future releases which may have not been realized.

Regarding both US CAVE releases being Horizontal shoot em ups, was their any intention or effort...discussion towards bringing a vertical title into the US?

Beyond CAVE's expectations, what was their attitude towards gaining access to the US gaming market and did they express any type of STG zealotry, considering their statement of apology to fans about their failure to bring STG/shmups into the mainstream?

Assuming that AKSYS approached CAVE, what was their initial behavior towards the localization endeavors or long term hopes, if such discussions transpired?

AKSYS Games core motivation in bringing a CAVE title to the West, who was instrumental in getting that ball rolling and what was the core premise driving the efforts?

Was there any discussion on bringing further CAVE titles to the US and what were the obstacles that stalled such an attempt?

Future of Shmups in the US/European market with seemingly burgeoning grass roots efforts from the Shmup communities?

Who wrote the description on the back of the Deathsmiles US Xbox 360 case: "beautifully crafted by the modern masters of shmups. CAVE."?

Any insights in Rising Star Games role in obtaining Akai Katana, was there help from AKSYS to help initiate that relationship?

If AKSYS were to market Deathsmiles again, what would they have done differently?

[Aquas]

Thank you everyone for your questions and interest! You all are pretty much making the episode with the Q's so once again, community effort exceeds! The episode wil go live tomorrow (Sunday 2/23) @ 2pm CST (9pm sweden) on http://twitch.tv/stgweekly

We have a lot of marketing questions which is quite interesting, but less about in-game stuff. But we'll try to talk a little bit more about some nuiances in the localization in-game if possible.

[CStarFlare]

We've heard about Microsoft courting Cave in Japan; what was Microsoft North America's level of enthusiasm for Deathsmiles/STGs in general?

Was there ever discussion about changing gameplay aspects (aside from the slowdown)?

[spadgy]

I guess this is too late but:

I'd be interested in hearing how directly they worked with the game's creators, or if there where layers of middlemen to work through.

Similarly, did the process allow the localiser to have any input in the decision making with regards to the localisation, or were they simply directed by Cave? And how much did Cave approve what they did (I recently did some script editing as part of a game's localisation, and the degree of creative freedom for the loc team was fairly generous; the localiser's perspective on the pros and cons of such freedom might make for an interesting angle; bringing original vision to a new market versus the importance of freely making culturally-relevant changes)?

[Aquas]

I guess this is too late but:

I'd be interested in hearing how directly they worked with the game's creators, or if there where layers of middlemen to work through.

Similarly, did the process allow the localiser to have any input in the decision making with regards to the localisation, or were they simply directed by Cave? And how much did Cave approve what they did (I recently did some script editing as part of a game's localisation, and the degree of creative freedom for the loc team was fairly generous; the localiser's perspective on the pros and cons of such freedom might make for an interesting angle; bringing original vision to a new market versus the importance of freely making culturally-relevant changes)?

I believe all of these questions were answered... WHOA! Episode is up on Youtube already.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Once Cave finally made a game that could suck in the average ios gamer outside of Japan to the genre, they put it out not in English to make sure that plan would fail. The genre mostly seems doomed to be forever niche. The only thing that brought any hope is the Capcom poll.

[spadgy]

Once Cave finally made a game that could suck in the average ios gamer outside of Japan to the genre, they put it out not in English to make sure that plan would fail. The genre mostly seems doomed to be forever niche. The only thing that brought any hope is the Capcom poll.

A shmup as a PS4 launch title? A few truly successful Steam shmups? Dragon Flight one of the world's most profitable mobile games? I'd not pretend we're in a golden era, especially with regard to shmups in the classic form, but there's always hope!

Back on topic, I'll catch the video shortly! Great work by the STG Weekly team for the effort with making specialist shmup coverage consistently quality!

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

You're fooling yourself with those "stats". That PS4 game looked like "we need more games at launch, what can we do quickly?" and steam releases are a doujin shooter with a ribbon on top. It's as dead as it has ever been, but no of course it's not completely dead. There will always be some being made.

[spadgy]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. The Housemarque guys have been making shmups for decades (including their time as Bloodhouse), and SCE have given their releases decent release opportunities for a while now. Though I appreciate I might be a touch optimistic.

Still, at least STGWeekly are still burning the torch for us!

[Frenetic]

This "end" is only the beginning...

Once Cave finally made a game that could suck in the average ios gamer outside of Japan to the genre, they put it out not in English to make sure that plan would fail. The genre mostly seems doomed to be forever niche. The only thing that brought any hope is the Capcom poll.