Author Topic: Deathsmiles, DSMBL + Deathsmiles II [PS4, Xbox One & Switch, 12/16/2021] (Read 9968 times)

EOJ · « **on:** September 15, 2019, 03:12:22 AM »

These games were announced for multiplatform release today at TGS. This is the first of several planned multiplatform CAVE releases!

City Connection will be publishing (and presumably developing the ports)

https://twitter.com/claricedisc/status/1173119058285252609

Here's hoping we finally get a really accurate port of DSII!

EDIT: PS4 & Switch named as the platforms.

SuperPang · « **Reply #1 on:** September 15, 2019, 07:33:30 AM »

Quote from: EOJ on September 15, 2019, 03:12:22 AM

Here's hoping we finally get a really accurate port of DSII!

That would indeed be great as it's a fine game but I'd be much happier if M2 were doing it.

EOJ · « **Reply #2 on:** September 26, 2020, 12:44:42 AM »

There was a stream about these ports today. The following modes will be included:

Deathsmiles:
-Arcade
-Ver 1.1
-"Normal"

Deathsmiles Mega Black Label:
-Arcade
-Ver 1.1
-"Normal"

Deathsmiles II:
-Arcade
-IIX
-Arrange

Additionally, they state new functionality will be in these versions. The fact they are including the CAVE-made arrange modes might mean CAVE are more involved in this than we think.

\

https://twitter.com/ttt75752/status/1309712697882152962

EOJ · « **Reply #3 on:** September 26, 2020, 12:49:49 AM »

PS4 named as the platform, to no one's surprise.

EOJ · « **Reply #4 on:** September 26, 2020, 12:56:27 AM »

Switch named as the second platform! Also, all three games will be released as one package in 2021. Official website:

https://city-connection.co.jp/deathsmiles/

"Licensed to, Developed and Published by 2021 CITY CONNECTION CO., LTD."

EOJ · « **Reply #5 on:** September 26, 2020, 04:48:05 PM »

Promo movie:

https://youtu.be/7P9vW3HkFx4

Also announced for Xbox One! Looks like a straight port of the X360 versions, but maybe they'll be kind and refine the slowdown for DSII Arcade.

dan76 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 26, 2020, 11:24:08 PM »

Nice. I haven't played Deathsmiles for years. Hopefully MBL will have better slowdown. It's been a while but wasn't it something like Arcade had accurate stage slowdown but missing some on the bosses and 360 was the opposite? Or have I lost my mind.

Deathsmiles 2 could do with a new lick of paint. The gameplay deserved better.

EOJ · « **Reply #7 on:** September 26, 2020, 11:33:07 PM »

360 MBL is pretty accurate overall, so it's the one I play now. Arcade mode has more slowdown in the stages, but less on the bosses and (especially) the Ice Palace.

I like the look of DSII, I just want a port with the same slowdown as the Arcade Ver. Since it was coded on a Windows PC, basically, it should be the easiest port ever to make 100% accurate, if we could just find a company that cared enough to do it. I remember CAVE said they did the X360 port of the Arcade DSII in about 3-4 days. Just slapped together at the last minute, super buggy and no care taken to tweak the slowdown accuracy. A real shame.

EOJ · « **Reply #8 on:** April 25, 2021, 06:31:19 AM »

Release date was announced today: December 16, 2021

Sandinista · « **Reply #9 on:** April 25, 2021, 09:03:27 AM »

Great , nice Xmas present to myself

EOJ · « **Reply #10 on:** April 25, 2021, 04:37:35 PM »

There was a live stream demo of the Switch version yesterday, showing a few stages in practice mode (including the Canyon stage). The slowdown accuracy was not as good as the X360 port. It looked choppy and sections ran too fast. They have a long time to keep tweaking it, and they did mention it still needed work, so hopefully they can make it better. They did not show DSII at all in the stream, but said they would show it in a future stream.

EOJ · « **Reply #11 on:** August 26, 2021, 03:14:47 AM »

The website was updated today:

https://city-connection.co.jp/deathsmiles/

The DLC is the 5 characters from Gothic wa Mahou Otome. You can play as them in Deathsmiles, Deathsmiles 1.1, DSMBL, and DSMBL 1.1. But not Deathsmiles II. They even added voice overs and new cut scenes for them in-game. I'm pretty surprised. But having 5 new characters to play as should hopefully be a lot of fun and make the games feel new again!

There is also an LE with shop-exclusive goodies. All of them come in a special LE box with the DLC code, and an arranged soundtrack CD. If you buy the regular edition, you'll have to buy the DLC separately.

The LE is called the "Gothic wa Mahou Otome LOVE MAX EDITION".

Also, new promo video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR8YhaEdgyA

dan76 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 26, 2021, 06:37:27 AM »

5 new characters, that's nuts! I just hope the slowdown is good. I was on the fence s has tipped me over.

EOJ · « **Reply #13 on:** September 30, 2021, 05:59:41 AM »

Some pics of the Gothic gals in the port:

https://twitter.com/charlie0816/status/1443392615475339265

EOJ · « **Reply #14 on:** October 22, 2021, 07:45:45 PM »

Famitsu has a new article about the DLC character Ranun in the Deathsmiles port:

https://www.famitsu.com/news/202110/22237120.html

They say she has a fixed-option laser, like Windia and Follett. Her lock shot has a short-range (half the screen), but high fire power.

Funnily enough, if you look at the post above this one you will see the earlier character select screen spelled her name as "Ranan". This has been amended to "Ranun" in the latest build, as shown below.

EOJ · « **Reply #15 on:** October 22, 2021, 07:54:38 PM »

I just noticed Famitsu had an article last week on the DLC story collaboration:

https://www.famitsu.com/news/202110/15235906.html

They show a new picture of the mode select screen with the DLC characters. It looks like you can flip back and forth between the original characters and the DLC characters with the Y button (Switch) or Square button (PS4).

Sandinista · « **Reply #16 on:** November 10, 2021, 03:10:06 PM »

Ordered from strictly limited run games . Their version has the dlc extra characters actually on the disc itself , which i much prefer

Gotta wait till march though $:-\$

EOJ · « **Reply #17 on:** November 26, 2021, 02:48:51 PM »

SPE tried out the Switch port and gives it a thumbs up. He says he was able to use his scoring pattern (with Sakura, in MBL) without a problem.

https://twitter.com/SPE2500/status/1463871544103374853

It's good to see he is testing this out prior to release!

EOJ · « **Reply #18 on:** December 14, 2021, 07:19:36 PM »

This comes out tomorrow in Japan! I am going to buy the digital PS4 version. Anyone else buying it at release?

Sandinista · « **Reply #19 on:** December 15, 2021, 01:50:55 PM »

Quote from: EOJ on December 14, 2021, 07:19:36 PM

This comes out tomorrow in Japan! I am going to buy the digital PS4 version. Anyone else buying it at release?

Yep , just downloading it now

EOJ · « **Reply #20 on:** December 15, 2021, 02:46:37 PM »

I thought it was only available on the JP PS store today, but I checked the American one and it's there too! $39.99, plus $24.99 for the DLC. Downloading now.

Unfortunately the Switch version won't be available outside of japan until the end of the month.

Sandinista · « **Reply #21 on:** December 15, 2021, 03:06:42 PM »

Uk good to go too

EOJ · « **Reply #22 on:** December 15, 2021, 03:27:58 PM »

Ok, I downloaded it and played a few stages in DSMBL and DSII (Arcade mode). Here are some impressions. Just playing with the PS4 dualshock as I don't have an arcade stick for my PS4.

-Very low input lag. Feels the same as the X360 ports in this regard.

-DSII looks weird, somehow worse than the X360 version. The contrast looks too high and the colors look more washed out.
-I was disappointed they still do not allow us to input our initials in DSII, at the high score screen. Still no online replays either. Overall this "port" feels like it is just copy-pasted over from the X360 version.
-Very little slowdown in DSII except when you enter power up mode, it seems like a bit less than the X360 port that was already missing a lot! How they screwed this up is beyond me.
-DSMBL, in contrast, has MORE slowdown than the X360 port in power-up mode. They put back in the bits missing in the X360 port (e.g., the forest boss at rank 999). Some parts actually feel slower than the PCB.

Bad thing about both ports is that in the screen adjust you cannot fill up the screen vertically. They only allow you to move it up a couple notches then it stops (up to 102% in DS/DSMBL). Really weird, but something a patch should fix easily.

I know SPE and other top DS/DSMBL play-tested this port, which explains the better slowdown accuracy there, but it seems no one bothered with the DSII side of it, which is such a bummer because that is my favorite game of the bunch and we already have a half-assed port on the X360. So far, the X360 port is still better than this port of DSII.

EOJ · « **Reply #23 on:** December 15, 2021, 04:29:53 PM »

I tried out two of the DLC characters in DS and DSMBL, and they're fun to play. Definitely makes the games feel fresh again.

Sandinista · « **Reply #24 on:** December 15, 2021, 05:03:18 PM »

Yeah , shame about DS2 .. colours are all wrong , high contrast low brightness ? The blacks are really black , even when there should be some detail within them .

The 360 port was unable to display arcade mode in full screen on a 4:3 crt . Looks like they just ported this across to the ps4

DS1 looks and plays great . This was able to display correctly on the 360 in 4:3 mode..

Cant feel any lag in either game so a bit of good news ..

EOJ · « **Reply #25 on:** December 15, 2021, 06:39:05 PM »

I tried out DS II X mode. Good god. This is horrible. NO SLOWDOWN.

The X360 original has tons of it, but here, zero. Unbelievable.

I played the X360 original right after and the difference was huge. The PS4 version also looks like ass in comparison.

I would buy this for the excellent DS/DSMBL port, but the DSII port (all modes) is straight up trash.

EOJ · « **Reply #26 on:** December 15, 2021, 09:43:10 PM »

I played through most of the stages in DSMBL. I am really, really impressed with the effort they put in to perfect the slowdown. I was so happy to see they added in the slowdown for Jitterbug's first phase, which was absent with most characters in the X360 port.

Also, it is nice to have a smoothing option for Arcade mode (lacking in the JP X360 port). And playing the Ice Palace in Arcade mode with all the slowdown in brought a smile to my face.

Now if they would just let us play the game on a 16:9 monitor without borders, it would be pretty much perfect.

Three other comments:

1)I wish LiveWire put this much effort into their ports, sadly those are inferior to the X360 originals.
2)I wish Deathsmiles II got its own release, because I think they would have spent more time on it that way. Now we are stuck with this garbage and I doubt anyone else will try to accurately port the arcade game. Maybe there will be a miracle and in the future they will patch in the slowdown in Arcade mode, at least.
3)Still no training mode for DSII Arcade mode.

brentsg · « **Reply #27 on:** December 16, 2021, 10:04:28 AM »

Anxious to check out the ports but had to get your take. It is really a shame about DSII and some PS4 issues I’m reading about.

Wish M2 could just handle everything.

EOJ · « **Reply #28 on:** December 16, 2021, 02:38:29 PM »

Two potential pluses for the DSII arcade mode port:

-So far, I haven't encountered the annoying bug (in the X360 version) where one of your shot buttons randomly stops working.
-There was an infrequent crash bug at the end of the game (after you beat the last boss) in the X360 version. Maybe this was fixed too?

I'm also curious to try the Switch version, to see if it's any better. But I'll buy the physical for that, rather than the digital download.

EOJ · « **Reply #29 on:** December 16, 2021, 02:47:32 PM »

Seems like in the Switch port, II-X mode has lots of slowdown (yay!):

https://twitter.com/ratikal/status/1471566814819889153

I wonder how the Xbox port fared in all of this. Anyone buy that one?