Ketsui Death Label

MrMonkeyMan · Post by **MrMonkeyMan** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 7:47 pm

If you beat Death Label mode you get Extra mode which is a remixed stage 5. You only get two lives, and no extra lives this time.

It's probably the multiplayer stage, but I can't test that.

It's actually more fun than the rest of the game.

mjclark · Post by **mjclark** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 8:08 pm

Can somebody talk me through this then-in the game config what's "autobomb" and what's "box display"?
And on the scoring screen what do the five different rows of scores represent and how does the multiplier underneath the main score work?

Domino · Post by **Domino** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:02 am

I hate the fact when you get another ship at start of the mode after you get a game over. So if I die and get ten game overs I get ten more ships. Annoying if you ask me.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:16 am

mjclark wrote: Great thanks-if you can tell me what the five rows of scoring and the multiplier mean then I'll even PM you to tell you you're a genius

The 5 rows indicate how much of each cube you´ve earned. The more 5er cubes the better. Not sure on how the multiplier works, though.

powerfuran · Post by **powerfuran** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 7:58 am

Don't know if it has been posted already, however:
the superplay vid with the B type tops at 519,126,834, the player gets rid of Doom with just 1 miss and one bomb. Spectacular.

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 8:52 am

powerfuran wrote:Don't know if it has been posted already, however:
the superplay vid with the B type tops at 519,126,834, the player gets rid of Doom with just 1 miss and one bomb. Spectacular.

So that's the WR vid? Awesome! What's the other type score?

mjclark · Post by **mjclark** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 9:32 am

Frederik wrote:
mjclark wrote: Great thanks-if you can tell me what the five rows of scoring and the multiplier mean then I'll even PM you to tell you you're a genius
The 5 rows indicate how much of each cube you´ve earned. The more 5er cubes the better. Not sure on how the multiplier works, though.

So what IS that multiplier under the main score?...
...and are the multiplayer modes supported yet?
Questions,questions,questions

adversity1 · Post by **adversity1** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:26 am

Ok, so MMM how many lives did you have when you beat Doom in Death Label mode? I've had 7 and 8 going into the fight and fought him down to a single pixel only to lose twice. : / If I could prevent myself from dying once along the route I'd be ok, but Cinderella and the boss before Doom are life eaters.

joeboto · Post by **joeboto** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:52 am

do you face 2 dooms a la ps2 doj death label? that would be reeeal nasty.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:21 pm

henry dark wrote: Anyway, I still don't know why there are no stages, but its a fun game. Hopefully decent sales will encourage companies to look into releasing versions of other shooters into the DS. While not the perfect platform, I do think the DS is capable of making very playable shooters that would be great for quick 5-10 minute bursts here and there on a work break, while waiting for someone in a cafe etc.

Exactly.

And adding to that, playing a little Ketsui session in bed right after waking up is priceless.

Also, I think the fact that everything moves a lot slower here is actually a good thing - it´s kind of a rookie training before getting my hands on the real game. Good for getting used to these more intelligent patterns that come from all sides (Evaccaneer, Dooms "bomb" pattern and such), because that simply doesn´t happen too often in shmups. And adding to that, let´s not forget that the vertical space is a lot smaller giving you less time to predict and react to faster patterns - the pattern that kills me the most in fighting DOOM is the very simple but fast circular pattern, not the slower, more complex ones.

And while it´s a watered-down version, I still can´t help but admire how well the action suits the brilliant music and the graphics. So it might just be a taste of what is to come when the complete game comes out, but until that (and until I can cough up the money for that) I´m really enjoying this bite-sized handheld shooter heaven.

And I may sound like a broken record, but I´m not just playing this because I want Ketsui, but also because I specifially wanted a good handheld shooter. I know that there are some people who think this is the most perverse and decadent concept ever and that nobody should be allowed to enjoy a shmup without an arcade monitor and Seimitsu sticks, but I don´t care and I´m extremely happy with this game right now.

mjclark · Post by **mjclark** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 2:03 pm

OK-nearly there now...but what do the different bullet colours mean?Do they signify different scoring values when bombed (kept thinking the pink ones would be destructible but no!).Is anyone gonna put up an ST for this game?
Blah,blah,blah...

MrMonkeyMan · Post by **MrMonkeyMan** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:28 pm

adversity1 wrote:Ok, so MMM how many lives did you have when you beat Doom in Death Label mode? I've had 7 and 8 going into the fight and fought him down to a single pixel only to lose twice. : / If I could prevent myself from dying once along the route I'd be ok, but Cinderella and the boss before Doom are life eaters.

Hmm, 5 maybe? Be aggressive!

Hey, I made a thread!?

By the way, Doom is at the end of Extra mode and he will destroy you.

Oh, and does anyone know how many Dooms there are in Doom mode? EDIT: Nevermind, the Japanese wiki thing says there are 5 Dooms.

Domino · Post by **Domino** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:35 pm

Man Death Label mode is giving me the run for my money. Even if getting the extra lives it's still a bitch. This game is worth the $58.

Ataru · Post by **Ataru** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:00 pm

so, humor the guy stuck on Very Hard even with 15 lives...

When is it advantageous to use the regular shot?

I've been using Type A almost exclusively, what's the pro's / con's of the two ship types? Something subtle I haven't noticed?

Tigershark · Post by **Tigershark** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:42 pm

So what are people paying for this? Videogameimports has a first run with DVD for £39.99.

Guardians Knight · Post by **Guardians Knight** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:40 pm

see gaijin punch's thread in the trade section mate, i think its up for like $56 altho then you got shipping too, still should work out a little cheaper than 40 quid tho

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 8:06 pm

I got mine for £25 inc P&P, but I preordered it several months in advance, when the $ was weaker against the £.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:19 pm

Ataru wrote: I've been using Type A almost exclusively, what's the pro's / con's of the two ship types? Something subtle I haven't noticed?

Type B is a little faster, I remember that in the PCB version has differences on how fast the options lock onto targets. Don´t know if this applies here, too, and even if it did it certainly wouldn´t be as important as in the PCB version. I use the B ship more often because of the slightly higher speed, but A is fun too. But since I almost never have to use the regular shot it doesn´t even make that much of a difference. You COULD use the shot for these segments where you have to need more speed an have to let go of the lockshot, but in most cases I don´t shoot at all during these times.

innerpattern · Post by **innerpattern** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:27 pm

i've only used the regular shot for popcorn enemies thus far

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:02 pm

hah 5 dooms oh man

henry dark · Post by **henry dark** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:43 am

Ataru wrote:
When is it advantageous to use the regular shot?

Theres a question in the 'ask Ike' bit that goes "isnt the regular shot a bit pointless?" and he says "no cos you can go at full speed and it has a wider range"

So yeah, its pointless. Moving slow is essential in this game and bosses take up most of the screen anyway. The only place is even remotely useful is shooting the few popcorn enemies that appear in the game.

Kaiser · Post by **Kaiser** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:54 am

I'm very happy with this game, awesome fun! So far i got to Death Label mode (beat very hard mode, fought doom with 8 lives while starting with 13, lucky, my final score was 329,259,370 with type-b), it will take a few days for me to master death label mode sure, it's giving me helluva run for my skill (got to 6th boss there on first try, wow what a hell)

adversity1 · Post by **adversity1** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:59 am

Twiddle wrote:hah 5 dooms oh man

Yeah I just saw this on the Wiki. Uh...could someone that manages this feat report back to us on how exactly it's possible? Still can't beat the third Doom lol...

kid aphex · Post by **kid aphex** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:18 am

MX7 wrote:I got mine for £25 inc P&P, but I preordered it several months in advance, when the $ was weaker against the £.

The games $58 bucks at playasia; plus you can find a 5-10$ off coupon pretty easy. Plus they're having some sort of sale---though I don't know if its discounted prices apply to this game in particular.

elvis · Post by **elvis** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 11:41 am

Loving this game. With work and kids I only get a few minutes a day to game lately anyway. My gamesroom sits sadly dormant at the moment, but the DS is getting daily play again.

Living in a country where arcades are non-existent, I've never had the pleasure of playing Ketsui. After playing this I can't help but feel I'm missing out on something grand.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:13 pm

elvis wrote:Loving this game. With work and kids I only get a few minutes a day to game lately anyway. My gamesroom sits sadly dormant at the moment, but the DS is getting daily play again.

Living in a country where arcades are non-existent, I've never had the pleasure of playing Ketsui. After playing this I can't help but feel I'm missing out on something grand.

I agree on everything. That´s what I love about portable gaming in general: That you can fire it up for five minutes and enjoy it. I work at home a lot and KDL is perfect for short breaks and doesn´t drag me in so much that the break is suddenly two hours long (Yes, YOU, Castlevania!). This "quick fix" gaming is perfect for the adult lifestyle, for people who can´t play for five hours each night anymore (I mean I could, but I really shouldn´t).

(By the way, one way why I love my DS way more than my PSP is the almost total lack of loading times. If you just want to play a couple of minutes while doing a bathroom break it gets very annoying when your game is loading half of the time. This is what I really dislike about disc-based games.)

And yeah, even in it´s smaller form it still has a very epic feeling about it - I too never played the original, but even in this incarnation it feels ridiculously fun and engaging. You know a company really knows what they are doing when they can downgrade an arcade game to a weak handheld platform, cut away big parts and still produce a game that retains the character of the original. Let´s remember that this could as well have turned out to be a total stinker!

This and Bangai-O Spirits really showed how great handheld gaming can be. For years it really broke my heart that no game had proved the potential portable gaming has (some folks outright detest it as whole, and you ALWAYS hear people saying "Why didn´t this get a REAL console port?"), and these two games proved that bite-sized arcade action and handheld consoles it a match made in heaven.

adversity1 wrote:
Twiddle wrote:hah 5 dooms oh man
Yeah I just saw this on the Wiki. Uh...could someone that manages this feat report back to us on how exactly it's possible? Still can't beat the third Doom lol...

I got to the third form maybe two or three times. At first it seems almost impossible, but what really helps is that each form has basically the same patterns, only with more bullets each time. Once you´ve understood how to dodge the "six rockets" pattern or the final swirly one it´s still not an easy business, but at least you´ve got the basics down

And that´s what I think is so clever about the DOOM mode (and the game in general) - it doesn´t really CHANGE the patterns, but reduces them to their essence in the first few modes and builds up on that until it reaches arcade difficulty. They might as well have done completely different patterns for each mode, but that it has this nice "evolution" in it is what makes this game so intelligent IMHO. And again, I think this is the perfect Ketsui rookie training (Death Label aside).

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:59 pm

Death Label Very Hard mode replay up on nico.
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/video/niconico/sm5061988

henry dark · Post by **henry dark** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:35 pm

is there a way through death label mode that doesnt involve mad panic bombing? Those patterns are insane!

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 4:24 pm

henry dark wrote:is there a way through death label mode that doesnt involve mad panic bombing? Those patterns are insane!

I think this is the mode where the limits of the small screen shows. The decreased vertical space is very deadly, you have even less time to react than on a tate screen. What I do on this Ernie and Bert boss (or whatever it´s called, the two tanks coming from the left) is that I lock on and then move all the way to the left to have at least SOME time to react (at this point it feels more like a hori shmups cause I have to dodge bullets coming from the right). This is the only time I´m glad to have the life increase because if I had to beat this mode on only two lifes to access the Extra stage I would NEVER be able to see it

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 4:27 pm

Haha I reached the third DOOM. I don't even want to begin to think about what the fifth one is like. The small screen really does make this awkward to play on, although it isn't entirely impossible I'm pretty sure that having a bigger screen with a larger field of vision would help tremendously.