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

[emphatic]

New blog post, Google says news on arrange mode(s?) along with a snippet on Guwange. Will keep my eyes peeled for a proper translation here. 

[charlienash87]

Stick:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003BIELRQ/liveod3-22/ref=nosim/

I can't believe this loli fest gets a stick and espgaluda2 didn't. I'd much rather jerk around a stick with some gender changing fairies than be a pedophile.

Well at least we can be sure that there will be a DFK stick along with the port. there's way to many loli's (and robo-loli's at that) to pass up making a perverted stick for...

[moozooh]

High resolution will largely alleviate the "problem", though it won't fix the actual design decisions (which are indeed lame and rushed).

Good thing we don't care about design, right?

[purpbullets]

yeah, stage 4 boss looked legit.

but i did see some lame-ness.

[neomoe]

LE is available for preorder on NCSX for $119.90...

like Play Asia, a little more than I was expecting 

[GaijinPunch]

High resolution will largely alleviate the "problem", though it won't fix the actual design decisions (which are indeed lame and rushed).

Won't it just make it look worse?

[moozooh]

Not really, because there seems to be no originally-2D content except fonts and bullet sprites (which can both be redrawn from vector originals until desired fidelity). In other words, with 3D content an increase in resolution always makes things go better: sharper and less aliased.

I believe it also saves them work with redrawing multilayer backgrounds, which is probably part of the reason they're already done with the port.

[GaijinPunch]

In other words, with 3D content an increase in resolution always makes things go better: sharper and less aliased.

That is simply not true.  While they will look sharper, it doesn't mean the poly count is raised, and even if it is, the bitmaps were most likely created with 480p in mind.   I've seen a few games get the "high res" treatment and while the antialiasing is night and day, the high resolution underscores some nasty shit.  PSO being a prime example.

[moozooh]

But? since when are bitmaps 3D content?

3D content is not initially raster graphics so you can scale it without quality loss and then rasterize. Even if a 3D model itself is unchanged (the polygon count remains the same), there is still less aliasing if resolution is upped, so it will look better either way.

Obviously this won't work with bitmaps. However it won't hurt textures on 3D models either because those are scaled and filtered regardless of resolution (powerful hardware like Xbox 360 can theoretically apply better filters than those used on the original PCB at nearly no performance cost ? for instance, 16x anisotropy ? in which case it will also look better, and the effect will be more noticeable on higher resolution).

I have no idea where bitmaps in DS2 are, though, except static images in cutscenes. Personally I couldn't care less about how those look.

[dmauro]

It's a matter of taste. I imagine for something like this, I'll prefer it with a higher resolution, but old 3D (Saturn is a good example) looks better to me in the original resolution even if I have the option to run in a higher resolution through emulation.

[Ast-Kot]

According to the new cave's blog post the 360 version will include 4 mode:

-DS II X
-DS II X Arrange
-DS II Arcade
-DS II Omake Mode (Tsukaima race)

They also said that all modes are enclosed on physical support and won't require a dlc.

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

[moozooh]

Yeah, they showed a snippet of the Omake mode gameplay in the recent PV. Looks like an interesting little diversion from shmupping, haha.

Is there any information on the differences between the X and X Arcade modes? Is "just X" the expanded version with additional levels/characters and "X Arcade" a supposedly 1:1 port?

[EOJ]

It's actually not "X" arcade mode. Asada lists it as "Deathsmiles II Arcade mode". So it should be a 1:1 port of ver 4.0 of the arcade game.

I was really hoping they'd put all 4 versions of the Arcade game in there, or at least version 2.0 in addition to 4.0. Maybe it'll make it to the final disc!

[StarCreator]

I was really hoping they'd put all 4 versions of the Arcade game in there, or at least version 2.0 in addition to 4.0. Maybe it'll make it to the final disc!

Or it'll be the 1200 MS point DLC mode that every CAVE-produced 360 port besides Espgaluda II has.

[EOJ]

Asada says the DSIIX port won't have any DLC, just like Espgaluda II. Maybe they're done with the whole DLC thing.

[moozooh]

Although it doesn't seem very effective from marketing standpoint, I as a consumer am very glad if they're really done with it.

[Lunchbox]

I'm starting to get very impatient for this port. Just hope I don't HAVE to move the 360 from the CRT to the LCD...

[GaijinPunch]

Obviously this won't work with bitmaps. However it won't hurt textures on 3D models either because those are scaled and filtered regardless of resolution (powerful hardware like Xbox 360 can theoretically apply better filters than those used on the original PCB at nearly no performance cost ? for instance, 16x anisotropy ? in which case it will also look better, and the effect will be more noticeable on higher resolution).

I have no idea where bitmaps in DS2 are, though, except static images in cutscenes. Personally I couldn't care less about how those look.

I was referring to the textures of the polygons.  Whether they will look worse or not is up in the air.  I can't imagine them being created at a higher resolution than the PCB required (although it's possible they can be accomodated for HD).  Obviously I'm not going to judge until I see it in action, but I'm a firm believer in "you can't polish a turd" and visually, DSII is a gigantic turd.  That Reindeer in 1080p is not going to look good, no matter what they do (sans complete remake).

[emphatic]

That Reindeer in 1080p is not going to look good, no matter what they do (sans complete remake).

I find Satan Claus cringe-worthy on top of that sleigh. And not in a good way.

[EOJ]

Looks like the SE art has been finalized, and it's different from what was previously given:



That's the art from the Arcade flier, with Rosa and Follett added in the background. 100x better than the previous SE art, and the LE art too, IMO.

I got this from amazon.co.jp's listing for the game, by the way.

[Monouchi]

Agreed. that SE art is fantastic.  
Thanks for posting EOJ

[emphatic]

That is indeed a huge improvement. There's a new blog post up, Google translation leads me to believe there'll by additional characters in the port?

[Kiken]

At the end of the most recent @Insuta they revealed that Hikari "Scrub" Yamaguchi will do a Play X Play of Death Smiles II X next week.  She and Rolling Uchizawa got some cool Cave swag: a signed character sketch and a DS2 mug.

[Ast-Kot]

New images of the games was published on Cave's Blog: http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

The last images is the arrange mode

The said, don't worry if there are some lines or graphics problems on the published images, the program staff are currently in the middle of development.

[EOJ]

Arrange has a couple new meters on the screen, the one on the bottom looks like a rank meter (Heaven <--> Hell). Based on this Yagawa is probably making the Arrange mode again. If so, that's pretty awesome.

[Ast-Kot]

The 3d's graphics looks good.Especially, the shadows of the enemies reflecting on the ground I think that they are very accurate, despite the programmers are still fixxing up the stage's graphic.

[bucklemyshoe]

i like the birdcage art better.

can't wait to play this.

[skykid]

i like the birdcage art better.

That's for the first game tho.

[dmauro]

He's probably referring to this:

It is pretty good, but I like the final art too.

[HVL]

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2010/04/post-2df4.html

New video stuff available on the blog. Still downloading.