Deathsmiles

[spadgy]

Updated. Soon my score will fall to Aliquantic, especially now this game is back in Casino arcade (which is great news!).

[Aliquantic]

Not yet, I'm only at 150m so far but not posting that one until I can beat you It might be tricky, I'm not very good at Deathsmiles and can't recharge very well, and the Castle with Death Mode can get pretty ugly! I did get that goal out of the way though... obligatory video here.

MBL 360:
Aliquantic - 2,072,256,101 - ALL (Ice Cavern) - Follett - 360 PAL

[Aliquantic]

Scratch that, I finally got a good run that didn't collapse on the Castle, died once with full bombs on Tyrranosatan though or else it would have broken 200m, my medium-term target! Sorry Spadgy, and nice Casino hijack guys!

360:
Aliquantic - 195,811,208 - ALL - Follett - 360 PAL

[Illyrian]

Arcade:
Illyrian - 86,000,000 - ALL - Follett - PCB

Actual score was 86 million plus change but I can't remember the exact score as I did it last week at the arcade and didn't take a picture.

[hzt]

hzt - 137,081,156 - ALL - Casper - PCB

Shitty update, I won't bother again until I reach one of my goals (don't hold your breath).

[Aliquantic]

360 PAL:
Aliquantic - 224,940,839 - 4-2 (EX) - Follett

Second credit with the EX stage, only posting it to keep the Casino hijack going and to challenge Dan Too bad most of the score increase comes from lucky recharges on the Castle... And a couple questions for the experts please:

- How do you safespot Jitterbug EX final phase in Deathsmiles? I've tried it a few times but just ended up having to dodge everything... the safespot away shouldn't include any horizontal way, but I can't see it.
- Is the Gorge without Death Mode doomed to be a nearly worthless stage, aside from the areas around the midboss?
- Any tips for surviving Death Mode 3, the final, obvious target? It's pretty painful still for me in training, but not completely impossible, so I guess the key is just practice, practice... or asking for hints on the forum, since an hour after this post I no-missed the Castle up to Jitterbug in practice!

[powersoul]

- How do you safespot Jitterbug EX final phase in Deathsmiles? I've tried it a few times but just ended up having to dodge everything... the safespot away shouldn't include any horizontal way, but I can't see it.

Vertical movement. Look at either the top or bottom of the screen for a gap between the symmetrical waves. Stay at the absolute center of the gap, then SHOT fire and move either up or down, depending on where you are, at him when the bullets start to converge. When I mean converge, I do mean after the nearest bullets seem to flow away from you before coming for you again. Around 4/5 across the vertical range, slow down into LASER and repeat.

- Is the Gorge without Death Mode doomed to be a nearly worthless stage, aside from the areas around the midboss?

IMO, this stage should not be attempted for any reasons other than Death Level 2. The scoring is horrible here without Death Level 2. Assuming you are doing the hardest route in the game (Death Level 3 Hades Castle), Power-Up right at the beginning after the first wave of ravens is a good start. Knowing when to LOCK-SHOT and crown-splitting will help.

At the midboss, by now you will realize staying at the bottom of the screen is a safe zone for the first attack pattern. Position Bobo on the right when the boss is moving to the left. As the boss turns back, after he finishes the first bark, bomb him. If your position is right, the resulting AoE is concentrated on the boss, dealing maximum damage while using LASER. Time it right, he will die just before the bomb animation ends, releasing the suicide bullets that would have been neutralized if you didn't bomb. As he finally explodes into a diarrhea of suicide bullets, enter Power-Up mode and let the crowns split, enabling you to get an instant +10000 multiplier.

The bridges inside the mountain cave should always be LOCK-SHOT, even when out of Power-Up mode. Usually the monsters that spawn closes to the bridges spew maximum crowns with LOCK-SHOT.

Hold off your Power-Up mode when it finally ends somewhere inside the cave. Save it for the bottom of the cave, where hordes of (fortunately) non-collisional Arachs will spawn. Wait for some bullets to be shot at you, then Power-Up while holding down the LOCK-SHOT to clear them all. Of course, watch out for suicide bullets. Note that the Arachs are best dealt with LOCK-SHOT during Power-Up mode for more skulls.

For the boss, I like to start in the bottom middle. Glide up all the way to the top while avoiding the massive energy balls. Note that the LEFT DRAGON is on a slightly lower step than the RIGHT: take advantage of that gap at the top to avoid the frontal bullets shot at you. After that, just simple dodging will get you past the nightmare. Do note the RIGHT DRAGON may also leave a gap above him.

The part where they spit rocks at you, I like to stay at the bottom, of course. As the third wave of light is fired at the bottom lane, watch where the rocks appear. If you see something glowing, the rock is going to spawn there. Get out of the way, and then concentrate, Touhou style, at the bullets coming from above you. When the rocks start to move, hold out as long as you can, then bomb. It's possible to avoid bombing, but come on, you already gotten one from the mid boss.

- Any tips for surviving Death Mode 3, the final, obvious target? It's pretty painful still for me in training, but not completely impossible, so I guess the key is just practice, practice... or asking for hints on the forum, since an hour after this post I no-missed the Castle up to Jitterbug in practice!

Even the best players in Japan messes this stage up sometimes. My best advice is to master all patterns and positions of the enemies in Hades Castle, and try to avoid point-blank range shooting. Suicide bullets in Deathsmiles Vanilla are generated with ANY EXPLOSION (i.e. enemy death, Chandelier Lamps crashing to the ground, Mega Cyclops dropping from the sky) in a certain radius. If your character is far from the explosion, generated suicide bullets will home in your direction, usually from the front, so you will have an easier time to dodge and absorb the suicide bullets. Destroying stuff at point blank range ensures you get raped from all directions, so be prepared to swing your familiar in a frenzy (and also risk getting hit by another bullet)

Also, do note the number of suicide bullets spawned is a heck lot more on Normal mode. In Power-Up mode, you will notice the amount is equivalent to Death Mode Level 2. Also, in Level 3, the suicide bullets travel the fastest, so get ready to be swarmed at every instance.

Mary, if timed right, can be a fast recharge. At approximately 200 on the counter while in Power-Up mode, LASER it, then Lock-Shot to kill it. Time it right, Mary will spawn the high crowns just as you exit Power-Up. Get to 1000 asap, then move to the left side of the screen, because large waves of suicide bullets are coming at you from the bottom and the right of the screen (along with any of those boxes you are shooting down). Decide whether you want to Power-Up here or not.

You will notice the statues at the bottom of the castle. Have your character collide with them (no damage to you), then destroy them. No suicide bullets will be spawned, since you are too close and this game has some mercy on the poor girls =X. The Mega Cyclops' exploding ball attack can be avoided by just staying at the top of the screen. No bullets or suicide bullets will spawn when the ball hits the ground (works for all difficulties of any edition of Deathsmiles)

When you finally clear the Hades Castle and enter the ballroom, give yourself a pat on the back, because the Ballroom is much easier to deal with (just LOCK-SHOT everything here if you want), and you just cleared the toughest point of the game.

As for Jitterbug, as above. If you aren't confident, or just don't care about the final 10m score, simply LOCK-SHOT him as you would have. Tyrannosatan, even at EX + Level 3 mode, still has many cheese tactics, check superplays for those.

All the best to you.

[spadgy]

Updated! Sorry for being so slow - especially when the PCB is back in Casino arcade.

Aliquantic - you're knocking right on the door of Dan76's score in vanilla Deathsmiles huh? (Though I heard a whisper Dan67 might have a new highscore to unveil )

And well done on you new score hzt - not far from mine now!

And finally - welcome to this thread Illyrian!

[dan76]

At last, a new score... that... keeps me in the same place on the scoreboard... Still, it's my third clear with suicide bullets.

dan76 - 261,710,133 - ALL - Follette - PCB


I only managed to get this because I went into the Castle ready to power up straight away. Seriously, with suicide bullets the Castle is like a slap in the face every time it starts. Even though powering up at the very start might not be best for scoring it certainly makes it a bit easier.

At the midboss, by now you will realize staying at the bottom of the screen is a safe zone for the first attack pattern. Position Bobo on the right when the boss is moving to the left. As the boss turns back, after he finishes the first bark, bomb him. If your position is right, the resulting AoE is concentrated on the boss, dealing maximum damage while using LASER. Time it right, he will die just before the bomb animation ends, releasing the suicide bullets that would have been neutralized if you didn't bomb. As he finally explodes into a diarrhea of suicide bullets, enter Power-Up mode and let the crowns split, enabling you to get an instant +10000 multiplier.

@Powersoul - just to clarify, in this description of the canyon midboss, are you saying you shouldn't be in power up mode when starting the fight against him? I've always thought there were a ton of points to leech of him.

If I understand you right, a basic strategy for the first part of the canyon is to power-up going up, try and recharge before the dog, do the bomb trick as you describe and power up again. Yes?

[powersoul]

@Powersoul - just to clarify, in this description of the canyon midboss, are you saying you shouldn't be in power up mode when starting the fight against him? I've always thought there were a ton of points to leech of him.

If I understand you right, a basic strategy for the first part of the canyon is to power-up going up, try and recharge before the dog, do the bomb trick as you describe and power up again. Yes?

It really depends. With my play style, I'm usually out of Power Up by the last of the demon trains, so I prefer to hold out the Power Up. It would be really hard to bounce back if you happen to run out of Power Up during the midboss, score-wise. In any case, turning the entire mess of suicide bullets when he finally explodes usually get me back to +10000 in a flash, and the stretch after the boss are good scoring areas with ground to split crowns.

As for your second question, yes. I learnt this method from the Japanese players, except they don't enter Power Up at all after the first six stages.

When to Power Up in the Canyon stage, I'm not too sure actually. I'm currently trying different methods from replays, but since my timings are usually bad (especially Volcano recharge, something I haven't been able to pull off even after playing for four years), I prefer to stick to some of the easy methods.

By the way Dan, those are VERY GOOD scores without EX stages. I only managed 230m back then. However, your final challenge awaits with Death + EX (aka Death Lvl3 Castle).

Spadgy: My score should have been ALX, not ALL on the Vanilla board. ALL would be really too pwnsome

[dan76]

Cheers for the info powersoul. I'd probably feel better about my score but for the replays I have on my NTSC-J version of Deathsmiles. One of them (I think by LES) scores just over 500mil without going through the canyon. He hits 260mil before the Castle... God damn!

Anyhow, I used to dread the suicide bullets but definitely getting used to them now.

[Aliquantic]

Congrats to Dan for the score (can't compete with that right now), and thanks to Powersoul for all the info I haven't touched STGs at all in a while though

[powersoul]

Oh, there's just one last thing (PCB only): Do not attempt to do a Power Up on Death Lvl 3 after Mary explodes into billions of stars in the final level, you will hang the game. I'm quite sure it hangs, since it happened to me back then every time I did that

[CHI]

just for score keeping... and a target i'll aim when i get back into it

CHI - 106,523,359 - ALL - Follett - PCB



PS: i do miss MBL

[Smraedis]

Joining in some with the Casino crew ^^

Smraedis - 150,479,364 - ALL - Follett - 360 (arcade)

[spadgy]

I haven't touched STGs at all in a while though

Me neither. I took a break after STGT'11, and since getting into a couple of non-shmups for the first time in ages, I've quite enjoyed catching up on some games I've been meaning to play for ages.

Anyway - well done all! Good to have more of the Casino Crew on the vanilla table!

[powersoul]

MBL
powersoul - 3,691,055,992 - ALL EX (Ravine, Crystal Temple) - Sakura - 360 NTSC-J

Just a minor bump up from my previous score. A game I played with some inspiration from Tyjet's video. Just can't get used to his map route and generally Sakura's mechanics.

Haven't been playing this for a while, and got this score after coming home from a funeral. Death smiled on me, much?

[CHI]

this should push me a couple of places up

CHI - 120,673,680 - Ex Boss - Follett - PCB



getting the hang of suicide bullets

[BPzeBanshee]

Hey guys, I'm really not happy with the state of the XBLA leaderboard for the PAL release, is there any high scoring videos of Deathsmiles Arcade anywhere where the player goes Rank 3 for all of the stages?

[powersoul]

I'm not too sure about the PAL side, but niconico and youtube have quite a number of videos, mostly japanese if you are looking for Rank 3, but they aren't HD, seeing that these uploads are at least 2 or 3 years old by now.

How high is high?

EDIT: Try searching for "デススマイルズ" instead of "Deathsmiles" as the Japanese usually do not put "Deathsmiles" as a tag for their videos, especially on niconico

[BPzeBanshee]

Tried YouTube and only got MBL videos and even then they used Rank 1s and 2s. The PAL leaderboard is much like that too. I'm not really fussy about scoring so long as its around the not-complete-crap range, but surely there must be a video somewhere where the player hasn't taken the cheap option out.

As for niconico, isn't that the website where you need an account? I tried getting an account and couldn't navigate around that place for the life of me (can't read Japanese).

[powersoul]

For starters, you can always refer to your explorer's status bar for the website a link will direct you to. You would be looking for one that gives "https://secure.nicovideo.jp/[b]secure/login_form[/b]" (it's on the top black bar). Recently I noticed they translated (or tried to) the registration site into English, so it shouldn't be a problem to register for an account now.

Alternatively, translate the entire page.

EDIT: WTF?

[nZero]

Hey guys, I'm really not happy with the state of the XBLA leaderboard for the PAL release, is there any high scoring videos of Deathsmiles Arcade anywhere where the player goes Rank 3 for all of the stages?

Kiken had a vid of his 295M EX All Clear for Deathsmiles up but damn if I can find it now.

[Icarus]

EDIT: WTF?

The next evolution of dakimakura. Who needs a pillowcase when you can have the whole bed?

[BPzeBanshee]

Hey guys, I'm really not happy with the state of the XBLA leaderboard for the PAL release, is there any high scoring videos of Deathsmiles Arcade anywhere where the player goes Rank 3 for all of the stages?

Kiken had a vid of his 295M EX All Clear for Deathsmiles up but damn if I can find it now.

I believe I found it thanks to your mention of the name and score:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_PlDaqN ... re=related

I swear there's more lag there than in the PAL release. Or is the additional helpful lag due to the Hyper Mode-like happening at the same time as the suicide bullets?

Thanks for the help though guys, bookmarking it now.

[powersoul]

If the PAL release was as faithful to the pcb as promised, playing it on the arcade mode has more slowdown compared to 360 mode. For best scoring, get a stick and play it on the arcade mode. I lack a stick, and i cant tell you enough how many times a run got screwed because of the controller. Maybe its just me, I prefer stick control.

[BPzeBanshee]

If the PAL release was as faithful to the pcb as promised, playing it on the arcade mode has more slowdown compared to 360 mode. For best scoring, get a stick and play it on the arcade mode. I lack a stick, and i cant tell you enough how many times a run got screwed because of the controller. Maybe its just me, I prefer stick control.

I realise the 360 mode has less lag but that video's running Arcade mode on the Japanese port and I swear it's got more lag when the suicide bullets spit out in some parts of the final stage than Arcade mode on the PAL release I own.

I'm not a terribly big fan of sticks myself and finding one locally's impossible where I live but I do need to get hold of a better gamepad than my failing 360 controller. I'm considering the Razor one that's got everything made differently and the D-Pad looks better made on it.

[powersoul]

I realise the 360 mode has less lag but that video's running Arcade mode on the Japanese port and I swear it's got more lag when the suicide bullets spit out in some parts of the final stage than Arcade mode on the PAL release I own.

In that case, the NTSC-J port stayed faithful to the arcade pcb (refering to arcade mode). but take it as training of visual acuity lol. I tried a Death lvl3 run as Casper, it actually managed to get me on the edge dodging everything at normal speed.

One way to compare lag reduction would be to test it against Jordan boss. Any slowdown deviation is most obvious there.

[BPzeBanshee]

Thanks for the tip, I'll check that out next time I play.

[Stayhigh]

xStayHigh - 204,457,393 - 4-2 boss(EX OFF) - Follett - 360(arc)