Deathsmiles II X [JP X360, May 27th, 2010 | US X360 GoD, May 17th, 2011]

[fuse]

Not had an e-mail from VGI yet but they've got the normal edition listed as in stock now so I'm guessing it's in the post and will be with me tomorrow. Fingers crossed, anyway

[Elixir]

First day sales

360　Deathsmiles II X LE
9000 copies / 58 percent (of 360 sales)

360　Deathsmiles II X SE
2800 copies / 34 percent (of 360 sales)

...

Wii　Super Mario Galaxy
143200 copies /　28% (of Wii sales)

[Ast-Kot]

WTF Cave and UPS...My copy has some shipment delay due to unknow reasons. NO vulcano's eruptions this week.

New post on Cave's blog about the game's problems. The title update will be released on middle of june

Thanks Cave

[EOJ]

Yep, blog post says they're going to fix a couple bugs (Care Bears boss glitch, and some replays that don't work). They're also going to add some new options to the data reset.

Unfortunately, nothing will be added to Arcade mode.  

I also came across a glitch in Tsukaima race where my character got thrown to the top of the level (outside of it), Super Mario bros style. I could move around up there, but couldn't come back down.

I'd rank the modes from best to worst as Arcade>X-Mode>Arrange. Arcade mode is just fantastic (once you understand how the scoring works). It's so nice to have the arcade game at home, even though it's been slightly altered (aesthetically) in a few parts, and given no port extras.

[EOJ]

Looks like the score saving doesn't work in Arcade mode. I got a few high scores yesterday, but when I booted up the game today, they were wiped (AUTO SAVE was turned on right when I got the game). I got a new score with Lei, and went to the options and selected "FILE SAVE" right after. I thought this might fix the problem. Then turned off the console, and turned it back on. The score was there, yay. But then I did a new run and beat my old score, and it replaced the other score on the top of the ranking, completely erasing it. They better fix this!

[GaijinPunch]

Looks like the score saving doesn't work in Arcade mode.

They're having a contest w/ 5pb to see who can get away w/ the most overlooked bugs.

[EOJ]

Yeah, this is nearly on par with DOJBLEX in terms of bugs and crappy, unintuitive menus. I hate the fact that, in game, you have to press the BACK button to pause, then the START button to select something from the pause menu, then the A button to confirm that selection. What dumbfuck at Cave thought that was a good improvement from their previous ports??

[Elixir]

It feels rather difficult to take your impressions seriously because you have, so far, followed a trend with unfavorable initial impressions over almost every port released. Port comes out, you hate on it, retreat back to PCBs, and eventually warm up to the port again. Has there ever been an instance where this is NOT the case? I'll be glad to merely even play the game.

[necpmf]

I don't seem to remember unfavorable impressions for Futari/Galuda2/Ketsui

But you act as if one can actually "warm up" to lack of score saving/online scoreboards, lack of practice mode, inaccurate graphics, bad menus, etc etc...

[Monouchi]

Let M2 make DFK port. 

[retre]

It feels rather difficult to take your impressions seriously because you have, so far, followed a trend with unfavorable initial impressions over almost every port released. Port comes out, you hate on it, retreat back to PCBs, and eventually warm up to the port again. Has there ever been an instance where this is NOT the case? I'll be glad to merely even play the game.

Actually is difficult take seriously the guy that said:

They are porting an original shooting game, so it might be derived from some eroge or anim since they've already done a whole bunch of similar ports. Probably not Cave material though.

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=879.msg16933#msg16933

I don't seem to remember unfavorable impressions for Futari/Galuda2/Ketsui

But you act as if one can actually "warm up" to lack of score saving/online scoreboards, lack of practice mode, inaccurate graphics, bad menus, etc etc...

+1

[EOJ]

As I stated earlier in this thread after I got the game, the DSII port is actually spot on in terms of gameplay, it's just riddled with bugs and is lacking all the options (training mode, online leaderboards, replays, etc) we've gotten in the other ports.

"Retreat back to PCBs" part made me laugh. I never rebought the PCBs of any of the Cave games released on the X360, after their ports were released.

[cstarflare]

It's like Cave never wants to stop working on Deathsmiles II so they just keep giving themselves reasons to revisit it.

I'll pick this one up when a patch is confirmed.

[alastair]

I'll pick this one up when a patch is confirmed.

If one is confirmed, it doesn't mean it will come out.

[Elixir]

It feels rather difficult to take your impressions seriously because you have, so far, followed a trend with unfavorable initial impressions over almost every port released. Port comes out, you hate on it, retreat back to PCBs, and eventually warm up to the port again. Has there ever been an instance where this is NOT the case? I'll be glad to merely even play the game.

Actually is difficult take seriously the guy that said:

They are porting an original shooting game, so it might be derived from some eroge or anim since they've already done a whole bunch of similar ports. Probably not Cave material though.

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=879.msg16933#msg16933

What on earth are you talking about? 5pb transition visual novels to the 360 all the time, therefore it's very likely their upcoming shooting game could be related to their other material. I can think of a few difficult things about your sentence, though.

As I stated earlier in this thread after I got the game, the DSII port is actually spot on in terms of gameplay, it's just riddled with bugs and is lacking all the options (training mode, online leaderboards, replays, etc) we've gotten in the other ports.

"Retreat back to PCBs" part made me laugh. I never rebought the PCBs of any of the Cave games released on the X360, after their ports were released.

Cough. So you don't play DS MBL whatsoever, then?

Let M2 make DFK port.

They could very well be doing that right now. Nobody seems to know what M2's really up to.

[EOJ]

Cough.

GP was talking about how I bash the Arrange modes of ports when I first play them. I do have a tendency to do this. But I don't warm up to many of them. Most of them just suck.

The ports of the arcade games, however, are a different issue, and that is what you were addressing.

So you don't play DS MBL whatsoever, then?

I'd answer this if it were the least bit relevant to the discussion. Sorry.
I don't own a DSMBL PCB, in case that's what you were implying.

[Elixir]

It is what I'm addressing, and most of the time your impressions of them seem unfavorable, having people uncertain about their copy which is still in transit. It's relevant because you'd need to go back to PCBs in order to enjoy DS MBL, because you've said multiple times that the port of MBL isn't up to scratch.

Clunky menu complaints for DS II X didn't stop you from praising DOJBLEX, claiming that the game's fine once you get into it. So what makes DS II X's menus so game breakingly different from BLEX?

[EOJ]

Either you're a complete moron, or you're just trolling. Either way, I don't have time for this nonsense. Bye.

[EOJ]

DSII slowdown accuracy report is up:

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=914.0

Short and sweet. 

[twoup]

I'm still excited to be getting this, it should be here next week. I don't think any of those bugs are as bad as the one the original deathsmiles shipped with when the disc still spun despite installation. I watched the Pigeon Blood Jitterbug video earlier though and wtf's going on at the end of it when the player doesn't seem to be able to move. Is that a replay or in-game bug?

[retre]

It feels rather difficult to take your impressions seriously because you have, so far, followed a trend with unfavorable initial impressions over almost every port released. Port comes out, you hate on it, retreat back to PCBs, and eventually warm up to the port again. Has there ever been an instance where this is NOT the case? I'll be glad to merely even play the game.

Actually is difficult take seriously the guy that said:

They are porting an original shooting game, so it might be derived from some eroge or anim since they've already done a whole bunch of similar ports. Probably not Cave material though.

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=879.msg16933#msg16933

What on earth are you talking about? 5pb transition visual novels to the 360 all the time, therefore it's very likely their upcoming shooting game could be related to their other material. I can think of a few difficult things about your sentence, though.

"They are porting an original shooting game"  

So make your own conclusions...

[EOJ]

I'm still excited to be getting this, it should be here next week. I don't think any of those bugs are as bad as the one the original deathsmiles shipped with when the disc still spun despite installation. I watched the Pigeon Blood Jitterbug video earlier though and wtf's going on at the end of it when the player doesn't seem to be able to move. Is that a replay or in-game bug?

Yeah, I noticed that too. Not sure if it's a bug or the guy just stopped playing. He wasn't getting hit by any bullets for a rather long time, even though they seemed to go right through him.

You should be excited to get it, DSII is an awesome game! I wouldn't wait for a patch. The port is perfect in regard to slowdown & gameplay, I hope the patch next month at least fixes the current inability to save scores (scores do save properly in X-Mode, Arrange, and Tsukaima race, however).

To those who've never played it before: you may be underwhelmed when you first play Arcade mode, but GIVE IT TIME. DSII's scoring system is very simple, but also very deep. It's just hard to learn at first and to really "get",  but once you do, it becomes very addictive. Going into power up mode, scoring, and recharging back into power up mode over and over sucking up skulls is even more satisfying in DSII than in DS, IMO. It also has the perfect length of 5 stages, and the difficulty level is just right (not too easy, not too hard).

Also, I recommend starting with Casper when you first start out (Arcade mode).

[lillin]

Despite the shortages that have been mentioned, I'm still very excited to get this, and hopefully it will arrive on monday

But not having the option to enter initials is just something i can't understand

[KEIKO]

Hi there folks . im new to this forum ,but i love my cave shooters ., but i gotta say deathsmiles 2 is possibly the worst cave game ive played i was so disappointed by it . i loved deathsmiles but the follow up is very weak in every respect its bosses are pure junk its allmost like they made this game in their dinner break . is this a sign of things to come from cave ? i severly hope not or was this just a blip to get used to making a full polygonal game ? 

[neomoe]

I got my copy yesterday and have been enjoying it quite a bit.  My only 2 gripes are of course no initials (baffling!) and on the final stage fighting the chess pieces...that's just a bit too silly for me

but other than that, i really like the game.  I've actually been playing the 360 mode more than arcade (mainly because I wanted to see the extra stages).  The carnival stage is great.  Also, I like the music as well.

I honestly haven't put that much time into it yet, but overall definitely a worthy purchase and I think i already enjoy it more than Espgaluda 2

[EOJ]

Secret achievements:

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=918

Normal ones to be added soon.

[EOJ]

SIN got the port today. He is one of the top scorers on the arcade version. His thoughts on the port of DSII (my translation):

"In Arcade mode there are no replays or online rankings. Furthermore there is no training mode. All this made me cry. Anyway, I bought the DSIIX port.

Thinking at long last, I can play Ver 4.0 at home, I fired up Arcade mode. Eh...? Eh...?? What the heck is this port?
A gag from a new programmer? I was amazed at how horrible it is.

To me, this really doesn't faithfully reproduce the arcade game.
The OSD can disappear (never happens in the arcade ver).
Some sound effects in the ending are completely absent.
The slowdown reproduction [isn't totally accurate].

Furthermore, it looks strange on my TV. Just one play and I could tell the slowdown was off, and they just left it like this? What is this?? If you have the free time to make the Tsukaima race game, you should use that [time] to properly port [the arcade game]. If you're not going to treat the original game with care, then I don't need this new [way of making ports]."

From: http://sinmoon.blog.shinobi.jp/Entry/189/

He echoes many of my sentiments, but is harsher on it and on Cave in general. I think he needs to play it more, I don't agree with the slowdown being off (then again, he'd know better than me), at least not to the level of something like the Espgaluda 2 or DSMBL ports.

[lam47]

May I ask the people that do not like the 3D look of the game whether the gameplay, amount of bullets and patterns are enjoyable and distracting enough to overlook the (in my opinion) rather ropey 3D visuals?

[Kiken]

As usual, the glitch reports are coming in. First, a particularly bad glitch on the new Bears boss in Arrange mode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpckNnUHtXw

The guy says he can move, but he does no damage and the boss stops. He does continue to leech point items, and increase his score though. Apparently this just continues on indefinitely, forcing a reset.

I experienced this glitch earlier today.  I guess the guy didn't try running into the boss, because you can commit suicide and enter your score afterward.

[EOJ]

Anyone able to save more than one score in Arcade mode? I can save one (it saves even after power down), but once I get a new score, it erases the previous score (doesn't matter which character - for example, my saved score can be with Lei, but then I do a run with Windia and her score saves but erases the Lei score!). I sent an email to Asada at Cave about this, but want to confirm it's not some problem on my hardware.

I've tried autosave ON and OFF. I've also tried the game installed to the hdd, or played from a disc. All possible combinations produce the same result.