Death Smiles Mega Black Label [CAVE 2008]

[markedkiller78]

Looks like there's a sticker on the box

fap fap fap

Don't quite get the "fap fap fap" thing but then I'm not a resident of the UK

rtw

I live in the UK & I have no idea what he means lol. I'm guessig that the sticker is getting him excited though 

[GaijinPunch]

Though I'm not a big fan of games that carry your multiplier over from stage 1 to the end and if you die it gets cut in half (or worse, reset to zero).

Futari BL?

If it whacks off 25% or so, I'm cool.  At least it's not a raw chain like Guwange.

[EOJ]

Futari BL?

Yeah, Original mode is like that in Futari BL. And it's my least favorite mode of the 3.

If it whacks off 25% or so, I'm cool.  At least it's not a raw chain like Guwange.

I've heard it resets to zero, like Guwange.

[EOJ]

RAM's arcade tracking site currently lists DSMBL at 38 arcades in Japan.

[hermosaguy]

So did anyone buy this on release? If not, it might be the first arcade CAVE release in memory that no westerners bought.
I'm hoping someone did, though, so they can post some details.

I am still on the fence about this.  I'm bouncing between the original and the BL and I'm just curious if it would be worth it (as opposed to picking up the original again)

[EOJ]

I'd wait for DSMBL to drop in price by 50% or more, as it definitely will, maybe in as little as 4-6 months. The original Deathsmiles is relatively cheap now, and a great game.

[hermosaguy]

Even with the changes, are those just at the level 999? I mean, in essence is it still the same game aside from those darker palettes and extra level and extra character?  I really feel Mushi BL and Ibara BL are great purchases since they are so different from the originals, but still not too happy about DDPBL, just because it wasn't different than the original (plus I can't make it to the 2nd loop).

[EOJ]

The scoring system is different in DSMBL - the multiplier goes up higher (up to 100,000 instead of 10,000), and only resets if you die. So it sounds like if you can't get through at least the first 6 stages without dying, it'll be harder for you to score well, compared to the previous game. While I haven't played this yet, from the sound of it the original Deathsmiles' scoring system seems much better to me. I'll have to wait for some vids of DSMBL to surface before I can make a real conclusion on this, of course.

I've read rank 999 is pretty brutal. Unless you liked playing Ultra mode in the Mushi games and the second loop of Progear, you probably won't even touch it.

[hermosaguy]

Thanks! Sounds like I'm on the way to saving a bit of money and having a bit more fun with the original.  Now only if that knowledge applied to stocks somehow...

[GaijinPunch]

Why have we seen no freakin' 999 videos yet?

[Kaneda]

Shit's brutal. Gotta give these guys at least a week until they figure out a way to break it.

[EOJ]

The first DSMBL vid shows a terrible bug on the final boss:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4914238

Watch what happens in the Tyrannosatan fight. A bunch of graphic garbage clutters the background. Apparently this happens every time, at least with Sakyura.

[KOMA]

Awfull!They are a fews on jittenburg fight too.
Pcb to repair!

[GaijinPunch]

Yikes.  Mega Black Label 1.5

And I can't get RAM's site to load.

[jpj]

man, that is a killer.  i mean, it doesn't ruin the game or anything (hell, i'm actually accustomed to all the white noise garbage on galuda), but cave seem to be getting really sloppy these days 

[GaijinPunch]

No playable demo at the show: this was on a tight schedule (aka: a rush job).

[EOJ]

Yeah, I'm not sure why they set the date for Oct 10th. Why not wait 2 more weeks, polish it up, and release it right before Halloween?

[adverse]

man, that is a killer.  i mean, it doesn't ruin the game or anything (hell, i'm actually accustomed to all the white noise garbage on galuda), but cave seem to be getting really sloppy these days 

Yeah damn, what is up with their playtesting?  Surely someone would have played all the way through to the end with Sakyura? 

And yeah I agree with EOJ, what the hell was the rush?  Halloween would have made a lot more sense.

[EOJ]

If you watch the bug video to the very end, it shows a scene after the credits and then says "to be continued". Continued in the X360 port, or Deathsmiles 2?
Hopefully the latter.

[KOMA]

Does this bug have been recenced to all pcb?Any other echo on 2 chan about this?

[EOJ]

A few videos of the game with Windia, at rank 3:

Graveyard:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4927738

Ice Palace:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4926883

The good news is the plus value only reduces by 30% if you die, rather than resetting to zero. So this is the same as Futari's Original mode.

Another thing I noticed in the videos is your counter increases if you are close to a boss, just with your shot. This is a feature ripped right out of Futari Black Label.

[GaijinPunch]

When do the bad guys start spitting out big crowns?

[adverse]

A few videos of the game with Windia, at rank 3:

Graveyard:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4927738

Ice Palace:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4926883

The good news is the plus value only reduces by 30% if you die, rather than resetting to zero. So this is the same as Futari's Original mode.

Another thing I noticed in the videos is your counter increases if you are close to a boss, just with your shot. This is a feature ripped right out of Futari Black Label.

Interesting that the player lets all the crowns break into skulls even when not in power mode.  Looks like skulls are now worth 3 each, so that explains it.

[adverse]

If you watch the bug video to the very end, it shows a scene after the credits and then says "to be continued". Continued in the X360 port, or Deathsmiles 2?
Hopefully the latter.

I believe that image may be the true last boss.

[KOMA]

Ice Palace looks fantastic!Hurry for a price dropped.

[EOJ]

Some things I've noticed from the recent rank 999 vids on niconico:

1)rank 999 looks hard, but nowhere near as hard as Futari Ultra.
2)The bullet patterns in rank 999 are fairly blah. Just a lot of stars thrown at you to absorb.
3)If you power up between 500-999 on the counter, it starts counting down from 500. This is why it is still beneficial to powerup when it maxes at 1000.
4)The Canyon and the Castle stages are exactly the same as in Deathsmiles at full rank 3, even if you do full rank 999 up until then.
5)The whole "bomb to recharge" element is more or less irrelevant in this version, since you don't need to recharge before the bosses (you can recharge ON them just by shooting them at close range) and the plus value does not reset between power-up sessions. That is one of the key elements of Deathsmiles, and I quite like it.
6)I don't like the darker background colors as much as the original Deathsmiles color scheme.

[hermosaguy]

Thanks for the info EOJ, looks like vanilla version DS it is!

[adverse]

Someone want to make a hi-score thread?  Or will I have to do it?  >

[EOJ]

You can do it if you want. Just make sure to make separate rankings for each of the 5 characters (no need to split them up into "canyon" and "non-canyon" route rankings - I'm not sure Arcadia will be tracking those with this game).

[Gwyrgyn]

2)The bullet patterns in rank 999 are fairly blah. Just a lot of stars thrown at you to absorb.
3)If you power up between 500-999 on the counter, it starts counting down from 500. This is why it is still beneficial to powerup when it maxes at 1000.
4)The Canyon and the Castle stages are exactly the same as in Deathsmiles at full rank 3, even if you do full rank 999 up until then.
5)The whole "bomb to recharge" element is more or less irrelevant in this version, since you don't need to recharge before the bosses (you can recharge ON them just by shooting them at close range) and the plus value does not reset between power-up sessions. That is one of the key elements of Deathsmiles, and I quite like it.

The boss bullet patterns look fine to me. Stage patterns are kind of blahish but I didn't think they were anything interesting in the original either, but the throwing tons of stars at you does seem kind of tedious though. Do the star bullets still increase your meter(s) at all in this version? I can't honestly tell from the videos. As far as difficulty being the same in the last levels... the impression I got was that Rank 999 just meant that your rank is always at max (ie, what your rank eventually got to on those last stages playing on all Level 3), so I guess that's not a huge deal. I think the point of it was to give you something more to do on early levels which were pretty easy before even on Level 3.

I saw someone doing the 'bomb to recharge' in Mega Black but he was probably just doing that out of habit. Definitely seems like they flibbled around with the formula though which I don't know how I feel about. Not sure which one sounds better at this point, I was kind of thinking of getting Megablack but maybe I'll wait it out at this point.

Edit: No the star bullets don't seem to build meter but they are worth some points.