Amazing news, but on Mihara's latest blog entry:
http://mihara.sub.jp/top/blog/sb203/log/eid1322.html
He says Arika will be including a Ketsui (arcade) superplay DVD with Ketsui DS. Apparently there was a survey of what gamers wanted the most, and the Ketsui DVD was #1 (a soundtrack CD was #2), due to it being sold out and very expensive these days. So Mihara is getting SPS to print up the DVD and will package it with Ketsui DS as a freebie. Not that big of a surprise considering both previous Arika ports came with a superplay DVD as well, but it is sorta weird they're including a superplay of the Arcade game with the DS remix version.
Still no word on WHEN Ketsui DS will be released, but this news seems to solidify the fact that it is coming out.
Awesome news. I dont like Ketsui DS (i dont even have a DS) but im going to buy this only for the superplay dvd. i really hope the scores are over 500mill.
this is great news cant wait to get it :)
This is a new DVD or is it the same as the INH one?
Sounds like it's a new one. I doubt they could get INH to give them their superplay DVD anyway (well they probably could, but it would be ridiculously expensive)
Why INH doesn't print more is beyond me.
Great news! Hopefully this means the packaging will be pretty interesting too, to accomodate the DVD and the game card. Has this been done before on DS? The packaging tends to be fairly homogenous. Plastic clam-shell boxes are so boring.
Also, I would have prefered the OST to the superplay DVD, but oh well.
This should bump up the sales a bit. I'd imagine there's a few people like myself who don't own a DS but will pick up the package. Hopefully a date will be announce at Cave fest :)
SPS=The guys who had a role in PS1 Dodonpachi?
Is the DS region specific? I'd love to pick this up (for giggles).
No, DS is region free (just like the PSP), so anyone can buy this.
Personally, I would have been a bit more happy with the inclusion of a soundtrack CD, as that's something a bit more accessable to people who might not have a Ketsui machine/board handy (thinking for when I go back home). Superplay DVDs are great and all, but usually when I watch one I'm gripped by the impulse to go out and try to duplicate the scoring techniques on my own.
Still, the announcement of a DVD with the package DOES really go a long way to suggest that the release is more of a definite thing than before, which gives me a fair bit of hope.
A nice holiday treat from Mihara in his Christmas blog entry:
http://mihara.sub.jp/top/blog/sb203/mihara.cgi?day=20071225
He says if he can get some stuff in order before the Cave fest on 12/30, he will show the latest version of Ketsui DS in a brand new video at the festival.
Any word on if they'll have the Doom battle playable again for folks in line?
Nope. Mihara only mentioned the video, not a playable version. But who knows.
Bad news, Mihara has cancelled the video for the festival, apparently due to lack of time:
http://mihara.sub.jp/top/blog/sb203/mihara.cgi?day=20071226
So, looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer for another Ketsui DS update.
How will we ever live?
Mihara says he'll likely reveal the newest rev and info about Ketsui DS at next month's Ketsui meet. Also,
info on the bundled superplay DVD will be revealed. For those that don't know, the player is SPS, who holds the WR in both the Tsuujou and Ura loops (he got 517mil
in the Ura loop). :righton:
What Ketsui meet? And where? Invite only? Nihonjin only?
It's the third ketsui meet, at a place called 'Gamer's Lounge'. I don't know much more about it than that.
They seem to have one every 6 months or so.
Mihara's most recent blog post today once again talks about new Ketsui DS info. Here's a summary:
Basically he says progress is steadily trickling in and he is currently in the stage of working on "the parts that will make it a most delicious danmaku", but his main projects are cutting into his time, making it hard to make significant progress.
He is making several difficulty settings for the game. The hardest difficulty will be available to select after you clear it on the default difficulty, while the easiest difficulty will be "clearable for the young women office workers at (our) company".
The fact that the project essentially has "spare time hobby" status really has me concerned with regards to its possible release. Aside from the initial boss rush teaser vid, there's been nothing really 'official' from Arika whatsoever, and all information comes either from Mihara's blog or various Cave events; it's a bit concerning that a project aimed at eventual commercial sale has thus far been completely absent from the usual industry information channels. If it weren't for the fact that it's Mihara (is Arika even officially behind the development at this point?) working on the game, I'd say the whole thing smacks of an overly ambitious homebrew project. I'd love for it to be realized in an eventual release, but every new news tidbit I hear has me more and more convinced it'll eventually just fade away. I'm certainly willing to be pleasantly surprised, though.
Alright, Mihara (http://mihara.sub.jp/top/blog/sb203/mihara.cgi?day=20080218) has posted the latest details about Ketsui Meet 3:
Location: Tokyo Food Theater 5+1, Gamer's Lounge (www.foodtheater.jp)
Time: 7pm-9pm
Fee: Free, but you sorta have to buy some food/drink from the restaurant.;)
Description: A maid will personally download Ketsui DS to your DS. You will be able to enjoy a 1 on 1 fight with Doom. Each time you beat him, the successive loops will get more and more brutal. Mihara will also introduce the new "beginner's mode" to the group. Finally, an amatuer (from the audience) and Ikeda will display the new versus mode by playing against each other. It will be broadcast live on ustream.tv. You will be able to post questions and comments to Ikeda in real time, and he will answer them live.
Sounds interesting. Not sure if anyone here will be able to go. Mihara said the first meet had 150 people, the second one had 70. But he expects more will be able to attend this time.
I wish these people would hit enlightenment and realize how amazingly inconvenient Akihabara is for the gaming population that actually has a social life (other than gaming).
GP, are you going to try and make it? I'm catching a night bus to Nagoya out of Shinjuku around 10:30 or so, so I figure I might as well head into Tokyo early and catch the event if possible. I figure I can make it back from Akihabara in an hour's time.
So is this a boss rush only??!!?
Of course it is.
What did you expect? The full game lol?
Nobody really knows for sure. The downloadable demo featured at the fall Cave Matsuri was just a battle against Doom with a 24-hour limit before the demo expired; it looks like there will be a variation on this at the Ketsui meet Saturday. At the fall event they had a demo rig set up with a more playable version of the game; I didn't get a chance to try it but it looked to be similar to the main Arika promo video, which did indeed feature only boss battles. There's been no official word yet, though, on whether it'll simply be a boss rush title or not; I would hazard to guess no, as 'boss rush' is more of an extra game mode than the theme for a standalone title, but we'll see more on Saturday, I guess.
Quote from: PlasmoOf course it is.
What did you expect? The full game lol?
Nope, but I was certainly hopeful for some fine stage action - even if iit was a severely dumbed down version of the original.
QuoteI would hazard to guess no, as 'boss rush' is more of an extra game mode than the theme for a standalone title, but we'll see more on Saturday, I guess.
I'd guess yes, there's a reason why it's called Death Label.
I don't see what the title really has to do with anything. Looking at it from a marketing standpoint, a simple boss-rush game doesn't have a whole lot of longevity, even if you do spice it up with various difficulties; it's not to say that they WON'T do it, it just doesn't make much sense for a commercial venture. Plus there was the comment Mihara made at the fall Matsuri to the effect of, they were still figuring out how to go about the game and trying to find a way to fit it on a normal DS cart without having to get custom made carts with giant amounts of storage. If they were just sticking to the boss-only formula, I'm not sure what the concern would be about.
I'm not saying it WON'T turn out to be designed around only boss encounters, it's just that we really don't have anything concrete to make that assumption on, especially considering the last anybody's seen of the game was a good five months ago.
Well, there's a new versus link-up mode to be shown at the next meet, which is pretty cool. So it's obvious the game will have other features besides a simple "boss rush".
I just watched the live interview with Ikeda and Mihara on ustream.tv. Of course people asked Ikeda about future ports of Cave games, most people asked for ports to the X360. Ikeda just laughed. After some prodding, he mentioned it's hard to find a company to port his games, as he requires "each frame to be accurate" in the porting process. Then he laughed again and Mihara changed the subject.
While the interview segment is over, you can watch live video of the Ketsui meet here:
http://ustream.tv/channel/arika
It'll be running for the next 1-2 hours.
EDIT: They just showed a new video of Ketsui DS - it showed all of the bosses and midbosses in the game.
*stares at Ibara and Mushi ports*
Did anyone capture anything of the interview and the rest of the fun? I completely forgot this was being broadcast :oops:
I've been taking the possibility of this being released with a pinch of salt, but now I'm pretty hopeful. I just wish I knew vaguely when I might be able to expect to see it for sale!
I found a Japanese blog (http://sazanami.net/#20080223) with some pics and a report of the event.
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r283/blueskied/ketsuids2.jpg)
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r283/blueskied/ketsuids1.jpg)
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r283/blueskied/ketsuids3.jpg)
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r283/blueskied/ketsuids4.jpg)
They talk about the new "Novice mode", which is just a really easy mode for beginners. Also, they describe the new versus mode. As you can see from the first two pics, the versus mode takes place in Stage 5 (so there actually is at least one full stage in the game - it's not all boss fights!). Basically, you play against one other person via wireless hookup, and when you get at least 200 more boxes than your opponent has, you have to hold that difference for 3 seconds. If you do, you win. If not, the battle continues. There is a bar on the bottom of the screen that shows who is winning, or closer to winning, while you play. While it is in stage 5, he says the enemy layout is noticeably different. Also, at the infamous "tate-ana" portion of Stage 5 (the section the ps2 supposedly couldn't handle), Doom pops up! Mihara shut off the game at this point saying "you're not allowed to see what comes next yet!!".
I can hardly contain my excitement for this. Thanks for the pics.
nice one EOJ :cool:
We DO get some stage love - brilliant. :D I'll have to pick this up.
Absolutely awesome. Thanks so much for the link!
Here's an 8min video of the latest build of the game:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2437607
You need a nico vid account to watch it (free to sign up). The vid shows Doom1 to Doom4 (second phase). Doom3 and beyond looks pretty damn hard. At his third phase, all the bullets turn green for some reason.
I especially like that this game will have several difficulty modes, that will make last the game much longer for me and since I am still a pretty sucky player I am glad that there is a beginner mode to start my progress from. As of now, the Ketsui for the 360 seems to not have any additional stuff in it, so this version is a much nicer package for me. Just ordering it, plopping it in the DS and play as opposed to having to buy a foreign console and a new TV = :righton:
Plus I have always been a handheld fanboy, and the absolutely inexplainable lack of shmups on handhelds made me crave for ANYTHING remotely good - I would have never expected to get one of the most sought-after games from the industries top company on my favourite handheld!
Update on Mihara's blog (3/17 entry):
He says he is working on another new mode for the game, besides the previously announced and exhibited versus and boss rush modes, and that we should definitely look forward to it. He also said SPS has recorded a 500+mil run for the DVD, but he's working on getting an even higher score for the release of the game.
Quote from: EOJwe should definitely look forward to it.
I know I do. Good news. I am dying to see some stage action with proper scoring. Fingers crossed!
they hired me to do the superplay!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj3bGB9KKP0
hehe..
first time i've had to tate my laptop for a youtube vid :lol:
interesting vid
Release date set for October 23rd, according to Sazanami (http://sazanami.net/#20080223).
Serious? :o
Awesome news, I thought this wasn't going to happen.
I can wait that long, no prob. How exciting!
cool! let's hope it's ready for that date! (are you reading this, mihara? :lol:)
Mihara (http://mihara.sub.jp/top/blog/sb203/log/eid178.html) has posted a bunch of new info about upcoming coverage of the release. First, there was an error in the Famitsu article. It said that game was 1 player, when in actuality it is 1~8 players. There is a big multiplayer mode.
Second, there will be further coverage of the game in the following publications out this month:
May 21st - Famitsu DS/Wii
May 21st - Nintendo Dream
May 28th- GeeMaga
May 30th - Famitsu Wave DVD (there will be new video footage).
Finally, the superplay DVD is still planned to be bundled with the game.
oh sweet! I wonder how the MP will work?
I guess I'll have to buy a new DS now after my old one got soaked during a heavy downpour :whyioughtta:
Wow, 8 players on the multiplayer? That sounds pretty crazy. Wonder if it'll use DS Wi-Fi or if it'll be local only. The minute Play-Asia even breathes word of a preorder I'm going to be all over it.
And sorry to hear about your DS--was it the regular or Lite? I've had mine since launch and the things such a tank I always just assumed it'd survive little mishaps like heavy rain. :laugh: Although the Lite's brighter screen is pretty sexy, so if you had the old version before maybe it's a blessing in disguise.
it was a lite. I'm sure if it was just rained on a little it would have been ok but my bag got saturated and so the ds was actually submerged partially in water. Now do I get another DS to play this or just put the proceeds towards the actual ketsui pcb is the real question... :laugh:
both :righton:
Thanks for all the good news :)
Official site with tons of info and screens is now open:
http://www.arika.co.jp/product/ketsui_hp/index.html
Also, it has been revealed there will be two multi player modes - VS mode and Kizuna mode. Kizuna mode will be revealed soon.
There's also another mode called "Oshiete IKD-san", or "Teach me Mr. Ikeda" in English. You get to ask IKD questions about Ketsui, and he gives you answers. They actually digitized him and slapped him in the game for this.:shock:
Also, new trailer is up today (40MB):
http://www.arikaonline.com/download/movie/kdl_20080523.mpg
Ahahah. I think Mihara may be developing an unhealthy obsession with IKD...
This looks so shitty, it's such a waste of time.:/
The "Ohshiete IKD-san" extra looks awesome. :laugh:
So, Play-asia's got it up for preorder now for a very reasonable ~$48 (I thought it might be more with the DVD) if there's anyone else eager to shoot their wad over the game 5 months in advance.
It comes with the DVD, so there is no "sans DVD" bare bones package. Good price, but there's no real hurry to preorder. Maybe at the end of the summer. I'll probably order from ncsx.com as the shipping will be faster.
Oh no, I wasn't implying separate with DVD/without DVD packages, I was just thinking that as the game comes with the superplay DVD, it would be more expensive than the usual import DS titles.
As for the preorder, since in October I won't be able to stroll down to my local Sofmap and casually pick the game up I figure there's no harm I get a copy for sure in case of a small print run or whatnot. Overdoing it a bit? Probably. But such is the price for a man's peace of mind!
A new preview w/ more pics:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20080523/ketsui.htm
Already preordered it (Yeah... five months in advance, but I can?t help myself).
I love what I can see so far, though I am a bit disappointed by the lack of proper stages, but I can see that with the DS limitations that might have been a bit too much. A short but sweet bossrush in three variants is ideal for bursts of handheld bullet barrage joy :D Though I really hope that you can play the multiplayer score attack stage in single player, too - I mean I don?t see myself being able to play that against anybody in the near future, and having the only stage in the game locked away for single player would be a bummer.
But I LOVE that replay save feature :whyioughtta:
Yeah, having at least SOME sort of complete level playable for single-player mode would be nice; the only person I'd be able to multiplay regularly with would be the fiancee (well, wife by the time the game comes out), and while she enjoys ESPgaluda, I'm not sure how she'd take to competing against me for score in Ketsui. Still, the lack of single stages won't keep me away from the game--it'd be nice, is all I'm saying. Besides, I'm sure the "Oshiete, IKD-san!" mode will totally make up for it. I wonder if it's too much to ask that Mihara put in a visual novel-type minigame where you have to woo Ikeda for better scoring tips and whatnot...
In that last batch of screenshots I could see pictures inside the mineshaft; I wonder if the managed to get the tate-ana right for this version? :laugh:
Quote from: gslIn that last batch of screenshots I could see pictures inside the mineshaft; I wonder if the managed to get the tate-ana right for this version? :laugh:
That would be the ultimate mockery :rolleyes:
New Famitsu preview:
http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1215203_1407.html
Mihara's Sublayer has a post from early July saying that the midway ROM for the game was submitted, but that this prototype really only needs about a month more of work. Guess the project is coming together. Hopefully the final product will be good...
Thanks for the heads-up. I tend to get a little nervous when I don?t hear something new about this every few weeks :) So it?s not going to be released EARLIER than announced by any chance? That would be great.
There was a little snippit about it in UK Games magazine GamesTM. Absolutely no new information, but still pretty exciting to see its presence in an English language magazine :D:D:D
ash is very into his shooters at gamestm. i also gave him the heads up on dux, which had a snippet shot in the previous issue ;)
Yeah, I saw the DUX mini write up: Anyone flicking through the magazine would think that 2D shooters were popular or something :laugh:
Anyway, just in case anyone is interested, here is the write up from GamesTM
"KETSUI DEATH LABEL
Format: DS
Publisher: Cave
Developer: Arika
Cave makes its Nintendo debut with a handheld port of its 2002 bullet curtain shooter, Ketsui. We're unsure if the DS can handle an arcade perfect port of the shoot-'em-up, but even if it doesn't, it will have a wealth of extras. The best of which appears to be IKD-san, in which the president of Cave pops up on the bottom screen to give you his own shoot-'em-up pro tips."
Quote from: MX7The best of which appears to be IKD-san, in which the president of Cave pops up on the bottom screen to give you his own shoot-'em-up pro tips."
Maybe he could point out your hitbox with a laserpointer during play.
And yeah, cool to see that appearing in a western gaming magazine!
Two vids of Ketsui DS (newly made available from the ketsui no kai on niconico)...
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/1215483777
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/1215483355
The last one is of IKD playing the game against Mihara I believe.
Can't say I have much confidence in the graphics...look really really jaggy.
Quote from: gslOh no, I wasn't implying separate with DVD/without DVD packages, I was just thinking that as the game comes with the superplay DVD, it would be more expensive than the usual import DS titles.
As for the preorder, since in October I won't be able to stroll down to my local Sofmap and casually pick the game up I figure there's no harm I get a copy for sure in case of a small print run or whatnot. Overdoing it a bit? Probably. But such is the price for a man's peace of mind!
Same here, just had to go ahead and pre-order mine as well even though it's still early. Just be safe!
looks like the second one is AWOL...
And I downloaded the 1st one a while back, but it's good to see again! thanks for sharing!
Main site updated with the final box art on the home page (http://www.arika.co.jp/product/ketsui_hp/index.html), and updates to the game menu (http://www.arika.co.jp/product/ketsui_hp/game/game.html) and other modes (http://www.arika.co.jp/product/ketsui_hp/other/other.html) sections. Nice to see that you can turn the auto-bomb on or off in this game!
Official site updated with new info on the game mode page, as well as a picture of the superplay DVD disc.
http://www.arika.co.jp/product/ketsui_hp/index.html
Awesome. It looks like his score is already 15 million points ahead of the Tiger Schwert replay on the old DVD by the end of the first loop.
I just hope it doesn't turn out it's because of some autofire hack that allows him to stay in that brief moment between lock shot and normal shot for the extra chips it gives.
Quote from: MrMonkeyMan on August 07, 2008, 03:35:35 PMI just hope it doesn't turn out it's because of some autofire hack that allows him to stay in that brief moment between lock shot and normal shot for the extra chips it gives.
You know it probably is. Autohacks seem to be abundant in many games nowadays, not just Cave (Border Down, I'm looking at you!).
QuoteBorder Down, I'm looking at you!
Exprain
And Ketsui's wouldn't work without a hack to the board, not the controller. There's a "sweet spot" just before you kill the large enemies. Has nothing to do w/ the frequency of the fire button.
Quote from: GaijinPunch on August 07, 2008, 11:52:23 PMAnd Ketsui's wouldn't work without a hack to the board, not the controller. There's a "sweet spot" just before you kill the large enemies. Has nothing to do w/ the frequency of the fire button.
It happens right when your shots switch to the lock shots. You can get extra chips from any enemy like this, and it doesn't matter how far away they are as long as the first enemy triggers the 5 chip chain you will get 5 chips from any enemy. I can usually get one extra five chip from the first batch of helicopters in the game. You can only do it in small bursts, but if you could hack the A button to trigger just long enough to start the lock shot and then stop I'm thinking you would be able to get it to work. Just theoretical, and I hope I'm completely wrong.
There are parts of the original DVD where the players keep tapping A as you can see the options moving back and forth. They may be attempting to do something like this for a few extra chips, or maybe they're just playing around. Here's a short video showing it off (http://www.mrmonkeyman.com/ketsuithing.avi). Hopefully nobody minds me posting a short clip from the DVD.
I just can't imagine where another 15 million points are coming from in just the first loop.
I think the real reason he does it is to make his shot coverage wider; that part is a bit easier to do as panzer if you do that with the options.
Help me out here: what's the first three digits of the score in the 5th midboss part of that picture? I can make out 17 but I can't tell what the millionths digit is. 2? 8?
He's already nearly 10M-13M (depending on what that digit is) ahead of the INH DVD at that point. Note his chips are about 200 more than the INH run. I don't think this is due to shennanigans, there was some significant 5-chip misses in the first part of the INH stage 5.
However, despite being 200 chips ahead at the midboss, they finish the stage with 54xx, only 20 chips apart.
I think we can rule stage 1 out for any meaningful point gain, and the screen shot seems to support that.
So now we just have to figure out where the hell you'd pick up 10M-13M extra points in 2,3 and 4...
From a programmatic point of view all the jossling of the A button wouldn't change the fact that the window in which the A must be pressed has no relation. Of course, that's how I'd do it... it could be done differently, but I would hope not. I find that thing annoying as it is.
I believe he has 172 million points at the midboss there. It looks like he got 21.3 million from stage 1 and it doesn't look like he got an unusual amount of chips. Hopefully just good strategy and good play.
That's neat about the options though, I never thought about that. Guess I should play as the Panzer Jager a little more
New promo vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcePhK6sjHU
Shows some good footage of the multiplayer mode (the one "stage" in the game, based on stage 5 of Ketsui).
The version of "Darkened" that plays in the first half sounds different. Is it some sort of remix?
Now THAT?S what I call a mouthwatering trailer. These other demo vids were okay, too, but looked a bit, erm, "dry". I really hope you can play that stage 5 in single player, too.
And the "Ask IKD" parts seem to be some sort of tips and hint section. Nice! This makes me more confident that Mihara put a lot of care into the final game. And the framerate looks great, too. I?m pumped!
Impressions of the demo I played:
1. Ship controls well, and button layout is Y: shot, B: laser, A: Bomb. The DS has nice popped up buttons so it's easy to move from one to the other and even to bomb on reaction.
2. The level available was the Doom fight, already seen on nico nico and youtube.
3. There was a semi-auto bomb feature, where when you get hit, you lose all the bombs you had and the game goes into a slow kakusei-esque mode for a little bit. Then it goes back to normal and if you are hit, you will lose a life. In Kakusei mode, all hit boxes you collect are red for some reason.
4. Score is calculated on the bottom screen.
I'm definitely going to pick this game up to have something to play around with on the train, and for the DVD. It controlled well and I think it's got enough loaded in it to justify a purchase. Still, I wish we were getting more stages instead of a boss rush.
There was by the way no way to save the demo since it clears from your cache when you turn off your DS.
Quote from: adverse on August 17, 2008, 09:48:40 AM
There was by the way no way to save the demo since it clears from your cache when you turn off your DS.
Too bad. That would have been :whyioughtta:
Thanks for your impressions!
New video up:
http://www.arika.co.jp/product/ketsui_hp/movie_etc/movie_etc.html#
It shows the full stage 5 (first loop) from the superplay dvd! :o
Ends with 273mil.
That was a pretty generous preview. Looks great! 5800 yen for a new superplay dvd with bonus demo game is a better deal than most.
Quote from: Kaneda on September 03, 2008, 04:59:15 AM
That was a pretty generous preview. Looks great! 5800 yen for a new superplay dvd with bonus demo game is a better deal than most.
Aint that the truth!
The game is more of a curiosity than anything, but as a package I'll be all over it.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=wHURLSLydlU&fmt=6 (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=wHURLSLydlU&fmt=6)
YouTube version posted by Mihara, the link is for the high-def version.
What's that bit about the Type B at the end all about?
It says that within the game itself you'll be able to watch a B-type run from 2-1 to the destruction of Doom, and we should wait for it (they'll probably show a promo vid of this next). Video on a DS kart?
Since you'll be a ble to save replays, it's probably a replay rather than a video file.
The DS version doesn't have full stages (2-1 to Doom). So that won't work.
News from mihara sublayer:
relesed on nikoniko a vid of ketsui that is not included in the DS dvd
http://mihara.sub.jp/top/blog/sb203/log/eid385.html
280millions at the end of the first loop
7000+ 5 boxes at the end of 5? stage
We just linked to that video the other day. Look a few posts above yours. And it is from the DVD that comes with Ketsui DS.
New trailer:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf9IVoetZkk&fmt=6 (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf9IVoetZkk&fmt=6)
Graphics and framerate looks vastly improved compared to the early trailers, I`m really impressed. Mihara really doesn?t fool
around!
Pretty nice, as they show you clips from all the difficulty levels. Looks like the Easy course just has midbosses. You get the real stage bosses on the harder courses. Death Label is the hardest difficulty, but even there, Doom doesn't look nearly as hard as the PCB.
Ah, so that explains why the stage 1 midboss is in this video, as opposed to the real boss in the older trailers. I was already wondering if they switched them or something :laugh: So that sounds to me like all the games bosses are in there, at least. =D
Quote from: EOJ on September 15, 2008, 05:00:35 PM
Doom doesn't look nearly as hard as the PCB.
take into account the crappy controller and he is.
Looks like there will be another chance to play Ketsui DS on October 5th in Akihabara:
http://news.dengeki.com/elem/000/000/108/108532/
Mihara says there will be two cute girls in charge of uploading the game :laugh:
Lol nice. Hope we get to play some stage with background this time.
Been bicycling to Akihabara lately, feels pretty nice (except when it's raining). About 10km round trip!
Quote from: zap on September 30, 2008, 07:47:32 AM
Lol nice. Hope we get to play some stage with background this time.
Been bicycling to Akihabara lately, feels pretty nice (except when it's raining). About 10km round trip!
Sounds like you're feeling better man. Good to hear.
Only new thing in this version of the demo will be the two player mode looks like.
One thing I love about living in Japan is running is all the unexpected surprises. I was in Akihabara today looking for a place to eat and I walked right by the loke test for Ketsui DS. Mihara was there with some model demo'ing the game so I gave it a go. Sucked a lot more than I expected actually, but I still want that DVD and will buy this anyways.
I was there as well, but only for about 15 minutes. I tried it on the screen. They should start massproducing those NintendoDS to TV boxes instead! The game you got from the chick into your own DS was the same as at the Cave festival in August.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2913948973_be6f01333a.jpg)
Quote from: zap on October 05, 2008, 06:50:44 AM
They should start massproducing those NintendoDS to TV boxes instead!
Definately! I guess it would sort of defeat the purpose of being a portable gaming system but it would be cool to play a few DS games on the big screen.
Quote from: Kaneda on October 05, 2008, 06:45:01 AM
Sucked a lot more than I expected actually,
Well that's not good.
Quote
but I still want that DVD and will buy this anyways.
Agreed!
Quote from: zap on October 05, 2008, 06:50:44 AM
I was there as well, but only for about 15 minutes. I tried it on the screen. They should start massproducing those NintendoDS to TV boxes instead! The game you got from the chick into your own DS was the same as at the Cave festival in August.
At first I tried playing from the DS but couldn't see shit, so I was glad that giant screen was there. The shitty d-pad makes this game a lot harder than it really is.
My words exactly (months ago). :righton:
Famitsu review gives Ketsui DS a 7886. Pretty good!
Edit: Read the review, the two 8s liked the fact that the game was customized for the DS, liked the advice corner and the game's new functions. Kizuna mode, whatever that is, seems to be popular. The 6 liked the game but said that the bullets and the multiplier chips tend to get in each others way. Also that having only one course for the game is a little lacking.
Edit 2: Mihara just updated and it looks like the Famitsu review is wrong on the number of courses there are. No surprise. There are at least three: Novice, Normal and Doom and you are rewarded for beating each one with new courses. Some of these courses are Hard Course A through C, Very Hard and Death Label. The Evac reports in the game basically function as achievements that you unlock. Apparently the DVD that comes with the title has the player exceeding 500 mil.
Quote from: Kaneda on October 06, 2008, 04:45:23 AM
Quote from: zap on October 05, 2008, 06:50:44 AM
I was there as well, but only for about 15 minutes. I tried it on the screen. They should start massproducing those NintendoDS to TV boxes instead! The game you got from the chick into your own DS was the same as at the Cave festival in August.
At first I tried playing from the DS but couldn't see shit, so I was glad that giant screen was there. The shitty d-pad makes this game a lot harder than it really is.
That's what I thought at first, but after an hour or so of playing I started to revise my opinion...a bit. It isn't perfect, but its not unplayable or anything. Still doesn't answer the question "why is this on the DS in the first place?" but still, I reckon you could get a fair bit of fun out of it.
New Mihara blog post talking about the superplay DVD:
http://mihara.sub.jp/top/blog/sb203/mihara
Unfortunately, it will only have a 500+mil replay with the A-type ship. A replay of the B-type ship from 2-1->the end will be watchable on the DS cart, but it will be unlocked as you progress through the IKD Quiz game. The B-type player is "Gan", the A-type player is "SPS".
How am I supposed to watch a replay of the arcade game on the DS? :mad: Will it have the screen cut in two as well? They could have easily slapped this on the DVD if they wanted to.
Quote from: EOJ on October 20, 2008, 03:22:39 AM
How am I supposed to watch a replay of the arcade game on the DS? :mad: Will it have the screen cut in two as well? They could have easily slapped this on the DVD if they wanted to.
Actually I think this is a cool decision provided that the replay plays back in tate mode on the DS. This way you can carry a Ketsui superplay wherever you want. Rest it on the arcade cabinet as you rethink a level etc.
Sure you can do that on the PSP by ripping a DVD, compressing the movie and having it display in tate. True, and I've actually done something similar, but most people won't be able to, especially given the sad level of Japanese technical know-how.
They still could have also included it on the DVD for those who don't want to watch a superplay on the crappy little DS screen.
My copy just shipped from play-asia. I got EMS shipping, so it should be here by Friday. Looking forward to (if only for the DVD).
Got my shipping confirmation today as well, though I skimped a bit on shipping so it might be a few more days. I'm actually NOT looking forward to the DVD especially considering they seem to have cut some corners with what could have been a decent superplay set. Then again, I was for the soundtrack idea from the start, as especially with having moved home I'd find the soundtrack more useful than a superplay for a game I'm thousands of miles away from. But, no matter; it's a bonus either way.
Haven't looked forward to a DS game this much since Space Invaders Extreme.
If you want to sell the superplay seperately drop me a pm. I don't want to buy a DS game just to watch a superplay which is like 40mill points better than the already exxisting one. (I'll probably buy the set anyway someday...)
Finishing point total for the super play is 512,010,888 just FYI.
Quote from: Plasmo on October 22, 2008, 08:40:34 AM
If you want to sell the superplay seperately drop me a pm.
I'll see how I like it and let you know. It may be incentive for me to save up for the board itself.
Quote from: Plasmo on October 22, 2008, 08:40:34 AM
If you want to sell the superplay seperately drop me a pm. I don't want to buy a DS game just to watch a superplay which is like 40mill points better than the already exxisting one. (I'll probably buy the set anyway someday...)
That was my thinking but I finally CAVE'd in and bought it. Now I need a damn DS though.....
(horrible pun sry) :laugh:
Oshiete IKD mode is pretty funny. I need some of these pictures of him for avatars. The brooding Gouki Satsu Hadou one is just too good.
My impressions of the game so far:
Fun!
The game has the standard Ketsui mechanic where the closer you get to an enemy, the higher the value of the multiplier chip you receive. So basically you want to be as close to bosses as possible to maximize the multiplier, which then is calculated against the point value of the boss and its parts.
One thing that is definitely new is that you will collect multiplier chips even when you bomb. The closer bullets are to you when you bomb, the higher your multiplier will climb. Since your three bombs refresh for each boss, it is critical to both use these and use them intelligently. If you no-miss a boss, your bomb count goes up to four meaning more chips.
There are four colors of chips:
Green chips you get from popcorn enemies.
Beige chips you get from bosses/laser enemies.
Red chips you get when bombing.
Blue chips you get when using shot.
The EVAC reports as described elsewhere are like achievements, and you get them for really random stuff like changing the sound settings but also important stuff like high scores, destroying all the parts on a boss etc. As they unlock, panels are taken away on pictures of the bosses. Each time you get a picture unlocked new features open up. And you can ask IKDsan more stuff. There are 113 panels with one big one on the last page, which could be the replay? Or something else. Hopefully the replay is relatively simple to get.
Playing through the courses themselves is fun, and there's no reason to get discouraged given that the game keeps increasing your life count so that you can get through them all. Good players however will not lose many lives, maximize their bomb usage and get quite high scores.
(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/SuperPangster/CIMG3683.jpg) :righton:
Lol, talk about rubbing it in ;)
(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/SuperPangster/CIMG3687.jpg) :laugh:
I was playing this all last night (incredibly fast shipping from play-asia for some reason). Damn this is good fun. I just wish I could read all the IKD unlocks.
If you want to see how the SuperPlay video in the DS will be displayed check ura...
rtw
Mihara made a good ketsui's autobomb,if you have 1,2,3 or even fours bombs in stock,"if you autobomb",all your stock fall to zero.
It could have been a good feature for DDP DFK.
Japanese wiki page for the game is up with tons of info:
http://wikiwiki.jp/ketui/?%A5%B1%A5%C4%A5%A4%A5%C7%A5%B9%A5%EC%A1%BC%A5%D9%A5%EB
My copy should be here in about an hour, and I'll fiddle around with it for a bit.
I've played this for about an hour, and it's quite fun (once you get used to the controls). As a DS game, I'm very satisfied with it. The superplay DVD is top notch as well, and the whole package screams love and quality. I like the IKD-san Q&A bits, and the various difficulty levels. The multiplayer mode sounds fun, and I'd like to try that some time.
This is not something I'd play seriously (who would?), but as a fun shmup diversion on the go (or in bed before sleep), you can't get much better than this. Well worth the money.
Quotebut as a fun shmup diversion on the go (or in bed before sleep), you can't get much better than this. Well worth the money
Agreed. I decided to give myself one go at very hard mode before sleep...and 2 hours later turned off the DS. It's addicting!
Very hard and death label are the best mode for having a great time with the game,same patterns as the arcade version at least for very hard,i can't tell for DL since i never get the second loop at ketsui but i presume they are the same too.
One thing i notice,you can unlock death label without clearing very hard mode.
Just woke up this morning and cleared Death Label, to unlock Extra, which is basically a remixed stage 5. Looks like the lives are fixed at 2 as well. Pretty fun challenge!
It's also neat that you see the full Arcade ending and credit roll when you clear Death Label.
Quote from: KOMA
One thing i notice,you can unlock death label without clearing very hard mode.
I don't think I've unlocked any of the modes by actually clearing any of the others (with the exception of Extra; I've yet to get past Jamadhar). It looks to be some sort of time, score, or other mysterious trigger.
I'm really liking the game so far. It's the perfect portable shooter--you've got these little mini stages that take from 5-10 minutes to complete and are still self-contained arcade challenges that you can pick up, blast through, and then put down without getting completely involved in a longer gameplay session.
Playing emulated while I wait for my copy from GP. I noticed as well that you don't have to clear a stage to unlock another one. I'm 0/6 on very hard :P It hasn't given me Death Label yet. I unlocked the awesome run of 2-1 from the superplay videos though.
My first time playing anything like a "new" cave game and I love it. :righton: The patterns are insanely fun and so is the scoring system. Sure it's light on content but I'm having more fun with it then I ever had with a portable shooter. Very happy I just picked up the PCB and can't wait to play it...
For those that don't know, the Ura loop replay movie with the B ship is viewable in the "ask IKD" section, numbers 36-40. I have not unlocked 40 yet (which is 2-5).
36 is 2-1, 37 is 2-2, 38 is 2-3, and 39 is 2-4. These are also the funniest Q&As to read, as they have Arika staff join in (including Mihara!). This alone is worth the price of admission for me.
The B-type replay is a WR score of 519 mil. It's a shame they made it a small vertical box in a yoko screen, instead of just making it tate (and holding the DS book-style). It would have been a lot easier to view.
Quote from: EOJ on October 25, 2008, 07:13:28 PMThese are also the funniest Q&As to read, as they have Arika staff join in (including Mihara!). This alone is worth the price of admission for me.
Thanks, I was wondering who all those guys are.
Nice to see you people enjoying this game as much as I do =D I think for a less than average player like me this is actually a good rookie training for the full Ketsui - some of these patterns are still mindwarping despite being slowed-down. I think Arika did a fantastic job on putting this on the DS while still keeping a good core game feeling intact.
And even though I?ve been listening to the soundtrack for months now, I?m still surprised how much better it feels in-game, with all the lock-on beeping and the meaty gun sounds. I mean, the Amen break D?n`B loop is THE most overused drumloop sample ever, but it somehow still feels fresh here. It just adds to the frenetic atmosphere.
And yeah, going to bed and waking up with some tiny Ketsui goodness is brilliant! Here?s hoping that we?ll get more bite-sized versions of Cave games for the DS in the future.
Quote from: FrederikJurk on October 25, 2008, 07:20:46 PM
Here?s hoping that we?ll get more bite-sized versions of Cave games for the DS in the future.
Agreed. I'd love to have portable boss rush (or whatever) versions of any recent CAVE game. Particularly Mushi Futari. Here's hoping this game has good enough sales to make Mihara consider doing a similar treatment to other games.
I'm actually quite happy that Ketsui DS is just a boss rush/fan service game with some superplay videos. I wouldn't want to play a full game on the tiny DS screen w/ the tiny buttons. Extra mode with the remixed stage 5 is just right if you're craving some "stage" action.
I also have to LOL at the people complaining about how this is just a "boss rush demo", and it "isn't worth the money". Here's what you get for your $48 (that's the price I paid from Play-asia. Anyone can get it at that price after you find a $10 off coupon online. Just google it):
-Lovely box set with a full DS game and a superb superplay DVD that surpasses the score on the previous DVD set that now sells for over $150.
-7 boss rush courses ranging from 3 to 11 stages each.
-Doom mode (this is the perfect pick up and play challenge)
-Extra mode (full stage 5 from the arcade PCB with remixed enemy patterns, and a doom fight at the end).
-Multiplayer mode (play with 2-8 others in stage 5 with a competitive scoring element)
-Ask IKD-san mode - 40 or so comic book-ish exchanges with Ikeda from CAVE, the Ketsui characters, and a few Arika employees (including the guy who made this game, Mihara).
-Training mode
-Great stat tracking and score-tracking features (pretty much everything you could imagine, and then some).
-Replay save and exchange feature.
-A full Ura loop replay w/ the b-type ship (w/ a WR score) viewable on the DS cart.
-Over 110 challenges to complete to unlock various features and artwork.
Sounds like a great value for my money. I've already logged 4 hours and 29 minutes on my Ketsui DS, and I just got it yesterday afternoon. I was up last night playing it before bed, and played it about an hour this morning right after I woke up (which made my girlfriend laugh a worried laugh). It's seriously addictive, and any game that can do that is awesome in my book.
Quote from: EOJ on October 25, 2008, 09:41:51 PMIt's seriously addictive, and any game that can do that is awesome in my book.
I hear you EOJ. Call me jaded but there are fewer and fewer games these days that offer simple yet challenging and addictive gameplay. Cave and the STG genre in general are sometimes the only things keeping me gaming after 16+ years...and that makes me happy because I love games...worth the $? Yes.
As far as I'm concerned, a portable game must fulfill three criteria:
1: You must be able to play the game in bed
2: You must be able to play the game on a bus
3: You must be able to play the game on the toilet
From what I've played of Ketsui DL, it is perfectly suited to all of these situations. Therefore I consider it a successful handheld game. The boss rush formula works perfectly on this platform.
Totally agreed with EOJ's observations.
One thing that has disappointed me is the dearth of shops (even in Nipponbashi) which are carrying the game. I got the only copy at one shop and the other shops don't even have it on display. Sold out? I know it sold out on Amazon, but on the street? Unlikely. Wonder what the deal is.
Quote from: MX7 on October 26, 2008, 09:25:15 AM
As far as I'm concerned, a portable game must fulfill three criteria:
1: You must be able to play the game in bed
2: You must be able to play the game on a bus
3: You must be able to play the game on the toilet
From what I've played of Ketsui DL, it is perfectly suited to all of these situations. Therefore I consider it a successful handheld game. The boss rush formula works perfectly on this platform.
Amen. Gaming on the toilet is golden.
I?m still surprised on how well this turned out, considering the hardware limitations - everything seems so fine-tuned to the platform, especially the controls.
Quote from: EOJI also have to LOL at the people complaining about how this is just a "boss rush demo", and it "isn't worth the money". Here's what you get for your $48 (that's the price I paid from Play-asia. Anyone can get it at that price after you find a $10 off coupon online. Just google it):
Christ, I'm getting so sick of that one obnoxious guy on shmups who can't get it through his head that A) we know it's not the full game and B) we like it anyways.
I agree with all the comments on this being a great portable version of the game, though. As I said before, it's structured so that you're not investing a large amount of time into the levels--it's great for that 5-minute go on the toilet, before bed, before work, etc. The unlocks are also pretty fun--not that you get anything terribly interesting in the EVAC Report section, but it's neat to see what you did on your last run that opened up the latest set of panels. I've yet to unlock Extra mode and I'm not sure if I'll ever beat Doom Mode, but I don't mind, as there's always the challenge of getting just a LITTLE further. If anything, this makes honing one's skills easier than in the arcade, as instead of replaying three levels to get to that boss you've yet to beat, you can go straight there either through the short level set or through training mode.
I don't consider this game a compromise in the least--what would have been a compromise was if they would have tried to fit the full game on the DS, which would have resulted in so many cut corners and nerd rage. This is Ketsui distilled--not the full game, but more than enough to be fun on the go.
Can't wait until my copy actually gets here this coming week so I can toss this dodgy R4 and actually watch the DVD. Speak of the superplay, that is my one disappointment with the game: the fact that the superplays on the game are presented in Super-Tinyvision.
Quote from: gsl on October 26, 2008, 05:23:00 PM
Speak of the superplay, that is my one disappointment with the game: the fact that the superplays on the game are presented in Super-Tinyvision.
Yeah, it makes them more or less worthless for me. Quite a shame really.
Another thing I don't like is the lives increasing and maxing to 20. I would have preferred they just started out at 7 or 8 and didn't increase. This would allow you to beat any of the modes, but would make very hard and death label more of a real challenge. It would also make playing for score easier.
Judging by how hard Death Label mode is and how many bosses it has, I think I?ll just keep suiciding until I max out on lives and THEN try to beat it (or should I say, bomb until I run out of bombs and then run out of lives) to unlock the Extra mode. Then I can practice Death Label mode when I feel like it :rolleyes: So in that case I?m actually thankful for the life increase.
By the way, how long is the Extra stage? Is is comparable to the PCB stage in length and enemy-wise? And I guess scoring in that mode will be more similar to the PCB version, right? I?m glad this mode has fixed lives so scoring actually makes sense there (same as in DOOM mode). And here having a regular shot will finally make sense as it can be safely ignored in the other modes, which is a bit sad.
And I agree on the ridiculously small in-game superplay. It?s way too tiny to actually make out details (quite important when you watch such a video, right?), but takes up a big chunk of the overall game cartridge, making it more expensive in production (I guess). I would have prefered a superplay of the actual game itself, which would have been a lot smaller in file size (preprogrammed replay data, so to say) and would actually give insights to the game at hand - especially in the harder modes and DOOM.
Quote from: FrederikJurk on October 26, 2008, 06:43:09 PM
Judging by how hard Death Label mode is and how many bosses it has, I think I?ll just keep suiciding until I max out on lives and THEN try to beat it (or should I say, bomb until I run out of bombs and then run out of lives) to unlock the Extra mode. Then I can practice Death Label mode when I feel like it :rolleyes: So in that case I?m actually thankful for the life increase.
Yeah, but I beat Death Label in a couple hours thanks to the increasing lives (I think I had 17 when I beat it). Not a very satisfying achievement. It would improve the longevity of the game if the challenge was a bit stiffer. Just about anyone can beat Death Label with the max 20 lives if you manage your bombs properly. But if the max lives were cut down to 1/2 or 1/3 of that, it would take much longer, and not everyone would be able to do it. This would pattern better with the difficulty of the Ketsui PCB.
Quote from: FrederikJurk on October 26, 2008, 06:43:09 PMBy the way, how long is the Extra stage? Is is comparable to the PCB stage in length and enemy-wise? And I guess scoring in that mode will be more similar to the PCB version, right? I?m glad this mode has fixed lives so scoring actually makes sense there (same as in DOOM mode). And here having a regular shot will finally make sense as it can be safely ignored in the other modes, which is a bit sad.
It's most of stage 5. You go up to and through the reverse scrolling section. After that you face doom in the reverse scrolling section, only this time it scrolls properly.
Have you guys gotten a staff roll yet? Mihara says it's somewhere in the game but it's secret.
Looks like Mihara's going to be hosting a score competition on his blog next week too.
A couple things people probably have noticed: at the ship select screen if you hit left or right you can select the color of your craft.
Also, if you laser normal enemies on the ship stage, they count like destroyed part (i.e. multiplier x their value), but for each one you destroy the multiplier goes down.
There's a staff roll at the end of Death Label, but it's the arcade staff roll. Are you talking about the DS version credits? I haven't seen those yet. Maybe at the end of Doom or Extra.
Quote from: adverse on October 26, 2008, 09:33:27 PMAlso, if you laser normal enemies on the ship stage, they count like destroyed part (i.e. multiplier x their value), but for each one you destroy the multiplier goes down.
This is true for everything in the game, even finishing off bosses will lower your multiplier.
Finally beat Death Label. Not quite as easy as EOJ says :laugh:
Extra mode is fun though.
And this game really is a complete package. Kudos to Mihara!
Ooh, list of achievements here if you wanna spoil it:
http://wikiwiki.jp/ketui/?%A5%B1%A5%C4%A5%A4%A5%C7%A5%B9%A5%EC%A1%BC%A5%D9%A5%EB
I posted that link a few days ago in this thread.
Sorry about that.
Two random easter eggs: hold A when you select "special" from the menu to see a new monster.
When fighting Cinderella in any mode, her 1st form can be skipped by pressing L and R apparently. (Apparently a programming glitch)
Quote from: gsl on October 26, 2008, 05:23:00 PM
Quote from: EOJI also have to LOL at the people complaining about how this is just a "boss rush demo", and it "isn't worth the money". Here's what you get for your $48 (that's the price I paid from Play-asia. Anyone can get it at that price after you find a $10 off coupon online. Just google it):
Christ, I'm getting so sick of that one obnoxious guy on shmups who can't get it through his head that A) we know it's not the full game and B) we like it anyways.
That guy's a fucking zero. Trying to get a rise out of people on the internet over something like that just screams "my life sucks".
This game is great. I've been playing it a ton since I got it yesterday and will continue to do so at work when I have free time (which is often). Well done, Mihara. The Ask-IKD thing with all of the animated segments starring IKD and Mihara is a little gay though. I appreciate the effort though and hope he does something similar for Mushi Futari.
Quote from: EOJ on October 26, 2008, 07:26:24 PM
Yeah, but I beat Death Label in a couple hours thanks to the increasing lives (I think I had 17 when I beat it). Not a very satisfying achievement. It would improve the longevity of the game if the challenge was a bit stiffer. Just about anyone can beat Death Label with the max 20 lives if you manage your bombs properly. But if the max lives were cut down to 1/2 or 1/3 of that, it would take much longer, and not everyone would be able to do it. This would pattern better with the difficulty of the Ketsui PCB.
I agree, but in my case I just want to unlock the Extra mode as quickly as possible and tackle the Death Label mode when I?m skilled enough for it. That?s the problems with unlockable content in general: Sometimes you don?t really WANT to go through the content that unlocks the next one. That?s why I?m glad I don?t have to come up with the pro skills to unlock a complete stage, even if it?s the same mechanism that breaks most of the rest of the game a bit.
Also, I didn?t really look into the scoring enough, but in what way does the life increase actually affect the scoring? I?m guessing with the "lifes remaining" bonus, but is suiciding for three new bombs to milk big bullet patterns for red boxes really worth it? In any case it?s a bit frustrating since I really like the scoring with it?s close combat reward and tactical bullet bombing...
Quote from: MrMonkeyMan on October 26, 2008, 08:19:13 PM
Quote from: FrederikJurk on October 26, 2008, 06:43:09 PMBy the way, how long is the Extra stage? Is is comparable to the PCB stage in length and enemy-wise? And I guess scoring in that mode will be more similar to the PCB version, right? I?m glad this mode has fixed lives so scoring actually makes sense there (same as in DOOM mode). And here having a regular shot will finally make sense as it can be safely ignored in the other modes, which is a bit sad.
It's most of stage 5. You go up to and through the reverse scrolling section. After that you face doom in the reverse scrolling section, only this time it scrolls properly.
Wow, nice! I can?t unlock it yet because I?m still waiting for my actual copy to arrive, and the copy I (*cough cough*)
lent from my uncle who works at Arika keeps crashing in Death Label mode after a couple of bosses. Which isn?t so bad actually because it still gives me something to look forward to ;)
Quote from: adverse on October 26, 2008, 09:33:27 PM
at the ship select screen if you hit left or right you can select the color of your craft.
Haha, awesome. I know it doesn?t actually have any impact on the game, but I?m always very entertained by little details like that. =D
Quote from: FrederikJurk on October 27, 2008, 09:26:53 AMAlso, I didn?t really look into the scoring enough, but in what way does the life increase actually affect the scoring? I?m guessing with the "lifes remaining" bonus, but is suiciding for three new bombs to milk big bullet patterns for red boxes really worth it? In any case it?s a bit frustrating since I really like the scoring with it?s close combat reward and tactical bullet bombing...
Your bonus at the end of each stage will be where the majority of you points will come from. With 19 lives your end bonus is your multiplier x 9500 points. There is no enemy that is worth that many points in the game. Black Draft is worth 5300 points when you destroy him, the first health segment of Trafalgar is worth 6200 points, and Doom is worth 5000 points.
Also, people might not realize this, but the bosses from Ketsui are barely worth any points and you really don't want to be destroying them, or any parts of them with your lock shot. The midbosses are where the points are at.
I grabbed these numbers from the art book that came with the insanity DVD, but it doesn't appear they've changed for this game.
Quote from: adverse
When fighting Cinderella in any mode, her 1st form can be skipped by pressing L and R apparently. (Apparently a programming glitch)
Anyone have any tips on how to avoid the bullets when the "orange ball" is sent to the top of the screen and you get a lot of shots downwards and at the same time a shower of red balls starts coming up from below ?
rtw
Move up the screen, and lock on to the orange ball. You only need to dodge the bullets from the orange ball, just make sure to stay above the other bullets.
Bonus info for rtw: As soon as you destroy the ball this form will end, which is much quicker than keeping the shots locked on the boss itself.
It?s nice that you can also save Training mode replays (I somehow automatically assumed that I wouldn?t). I catch myself quite often doing overly
risky or cool looking things "for the camera" :rolleyes: It?s also a much more valuable feature than I originally thought - watching yourself play again can
really highlight things a lot better than during the heat of the actual run.
One thing that is a bit sad, though, is that the first boss (from the PCB version) dies so quickly that it never gets to release its nice swirly patterns. I saw this purely by accident while fooling around a bit. Maybe that would be nice for a no-shooting clear ;)
Just got my copy today from GP (thanks!) and I have been playing on and off all afternoon. Fantastic game. I have come close to beating very hard a few times with 8 and then 9 lives, but have to do some work tonight to beat it.
MMM: when you say the bosses don't give you much, do you just use your shot, rather than lock shot and milk them for as many chips as possible?
Quote from: drboom on October 27, 2008, 05:58:15 PMMMM: when you say the bosses don't give you much, do you just use your shot, rather than lock shot and milk them for as many chips as possible?
You can use your lock shot on them for the 5 chips, but when you deal that last blow you should switch to the normal shot. This applies to every section of their life bar.
Bosses are only worth 500-900 points so it's not worth the drop in your multiplier. Midbosses are all worth at least 2000 points.
Quote from: FrederikJurk on October 27, 2008, 09:26:53 AM
I agree, but in my case I just want to unlock the Extra mode as quickly as possible and tackle the Death Label mode when I?m skilled enough for it. That?s the problems with unlockable content in general: Sometimes you don?t really WANT to go through the content that unlocks the next one. That?s why I?m glad I don?t have to come up with the pro skills to unlock a complete stage, even if it?s the same mechanism that breaks most of the rest of the game a bit.
Yeah I sympathize with you here. I imagine there is some time constraint or other condition that may allow you to unlock extra mode for those who can't clear death label. Still, although death label is really hard, it
should be doable given that you can skip over Cinderella's first form. I was often wasting a life or two and a couple bombs on that alone.
GaijinPunch, what is your impression of how this game is selling? According to Mihara it sold out on Amazon and is sold out in all but one shop in Akihabara. Haven't seen it promoted much around Nipponbashi, but that could be because it sold out.
btw, I'm glad to see that the answer to 'where do the extra points in the first loop come from?' question is just 'everywhere'
I like how Yurik Steele keeps referring to Ikeda as 'aniki' in the IKD-san section.
Quote from: MrMonkeyMan on October 27, 2008, 06:40:51 PM
Quote from: drboom on October 27, 2008, 05:58:15 PMMMM: when you say the bosses don't give you much, do you just use your shot, rather than lock shot and milk them for as many chips as possible?
You can use your lock shot on them for the 5 chips, but when you deal that last blow you should switch to the normal shot. This applies to every section of their life bar.
Bosses are only worth 500-900 points so it's not worth the drop in your multiplier. Midbosses are all worth at least 2000 points.
Heh, that?s interesting and something I would never have figured out myself. I wish the score calculation was a bit more transparent, adding a small end-game score table perhaps. Now it seems the shot actually serves a purpose on the regular courses ;)
Quote from: adverse on October 27, 2008, 09:42:57 PM
GaijinPunch, what is your impression of how this game is selling? According to Mihara it sold out on Amazon and is sold out in all but one shop in Akihabara. Haven't seen it promoted much around Nipponbashi, but that could be because it sold out.
:righton:
Quote from: MrMonkeyMan on October 27, 2008, 03:53:32 PM
Move up the screen, and lock on to the orange ball. You only need to dodge the bullets from the orange ball, just make sure to stay above the other bullets.
Thank you MrMonkeyMan & FredrikJurk for your tips :D I'm getting the hang of it now, only need to decide on how to best dodge the blue pattern.
rtw
Quote from: adverse on October 27, 2008, 09:42:57 PM
According to Mihara it sold out on Amazon and is sold out in all but one shop in Akihabara. Haven't seen it promoted much around Nipponbashi, but that could be because it sold out.
Good news.
I get the feeling Cave/Arika/.5pb are finally waking up to the export demand lately as well. Talk of console localization for the first time, no doubt impressive Play Asia figures for Ketsui DL and various merch. Import shops got their Ketsui's in pretty quickly too.
I bought my copy in Akiba but the first store I checked was sold out. The store I got it at had several and the store next to it had some as well, but I suppose they could've sold by the end of the weekend. At any rate, I hope the game does well.
So Death Label mode is pretty impossible. I shed most of my lives on Sphinx and Jamadhar, where the only way to easily deplete the boss' life bar is by destroying every single gun on the bosses themselves, which put up a good fight of sudden and mostly undodgeable attacks. Particularly bullshit are the ones that require you to squeeze inbetween a wall of large pink bullets, hoping your ship is in that mysterious part of the bullet that, for some reason doesn't register as a hit. Cinderella Amber (the orange "option") and Blackdraft (the small enemies that explode in a shower of pink shots) are especially frustrating as they present several high-speed patterns that you're forced to react to in within a tiny portion of the screen in a fraction of a second. To get anywhere, you basically have to bomb-spam through most of the impossible parts and hope your shield (which seems to vary the time it stays effective; either that or I'm *always* unlucky enough to be sitting on top of a bullet when it goes off) holds through some of the less impossible parts.
If I'm somehow completely missing some vital bit of strategy I'd love to know. Training mode would have been nice with some kind of slowdown option to allow you to learn how to navigate some of the worse patterns.
Yeah, I'm having some trouble with DL mode too. The good news is very hard mode is a breeze after playing DL mode a while.
Death Label is pretty goddamn hard. I actually saved my replay clearing it so if I had a way to upload it I would...
But here's how to beat Sphinx with one life: Start on the left leg, lock on. The pink bullet lines will come down, jump from larger gap to larger gap as much as you can. After about three dodges you should destroy the left leg. Right leg, pound away on and dodge the extremely close range bullets. Then go for the upper right section. In my case I just hammered it with lock on until it exploded, cancelling some of the homing bullets. Do the same for the left. Use bombs on the homing red triangle bullet swarms unless you're sure you can dodge them. Once you've beaten the first form, get to the bottom of the screen for the really tight blue triangle bullet pattern, dodge in the gaps. Then use regular shot to dodge away from the quick bullet fans that will come down from the top. Lock onto the head and get to the far right to bomb through the blue bullet explosion and dodge as much as of the second batch as you can. You won't be able to dodge all of it but there should be a little hole to dodge through. Be careful though because as soon as the second wave ends the triangle pattern begins again really quick.
Two questions this early very snowy morning :D
Is "doom mode" always two loops with 3 ships, or is there a way to increase ship count ?
How do you unlock "death label" mode :-[
rtw
In Doom mode you always start with 3 lives, there's no way to increase that. However, you do get one extra life after every doom you beat. There are 5 dooms.
For Death Label, I think you just have to get to a certain stage in one of the hard or very hard courses. I don't know really, it just unlocked for me after about an hour or so with the game.
Haven't played this much since the weekend, and I don't foresee myself playing it much in the future due to it giving me nasty eyestrain headaches and sore hands.
I didn't play enough to max out the lives in any of the modes.
Quote from: EOJ on October 29, 2008, 05:03:16 AM
In Doom mode you always start with 3 lives, there's no way to increase that. However, you do get one extra life after every doom you beat. There are 5 dooms.
For Death Label, I think you just have to get to a certain stage in one of the hard or very hard courses. I don't know really, it just unlocked for me after about an hour or so with the game.
Thank you EOJ! So I assume the death label will appear inbetween "very hard" and "doom mode" ?
I can't play too much either, I have long fingers and holding the NDS for large amounts of time gives me sore hands.
One thing though, this game makes me love my Ketsui PCB even more :D
rtw
Have you cleared or maxed out the lives on Very Hard yet? I seem to remember something like that unlocking Death Label on my card. A lot of this game is still a mystery to me :laugh:
I'm really enjoying Death Label at the moment. I love the fact that all the patterns can be dodged with some (a lot) of practice. I think this is the real jewl in the crown for me, as far as my Ketsui Death Label experience has gone so far =D
Regarding unlocks, I think I actually had Doom Mode open before Very Hard or Death Label; I still don't have lives maxed out on Very Hard so I don't think that does it either. I'm not sure it's a time-based unlock, either, as I think I had Doom Mode unlocked fairly quickly; possibly before even Hard C (though I'm not certain).
Also, Evaccaneer on Death Label mode is a bitch. I had all three lives remaining handed to me before I even took down the first part of its life bar. On training mode I pumped my number of ships up to 20 and beat it with 8 remaining, which certainly isn't going to be of any help during the real fight. I do like how training mode allows you to practice bosses you've reached instead of only ones you've beat.
Blackdraft and Jamadhar's final form are still kicking my ass, and there are several patters in the game which I insist are essentially un-dodgeable as I can find no way through them aside from bombing. Will be neat if people can somehow start posting replays and show how it's supposedly done.
Doom Mode is available at the start of the game, it isn`t unlocked.
Well then, that would explain why I thought I had it fairly early on. :laugh: Sometimes I worry about my memory...
Quote from: gsl on October 29, 2008, 08:49:43 PM
I do like how training mode allows you to practice bosses you've reached instead of only ones you've beat.
Otherwise it would just be cruel. If I can beat them, I don?t need to train them (aside from practicing to beat them without a massive loss of bombs
and lives, obviously).
I go to Doom in Extra mode with 3 bombs in stock and he chewed through me in about 4 seconds. That shit was absurd. I was going to work on getting all of the Evac Reports but seeing as how the last one is to clear all the modes, forget that.
Goddammit. I wondered why it was taking my copy so long to arrive from Play-Asia when I decided to double-check the shipping addresses on my account. Turns out I hadn't changed my address back from my parents' place when I returned from Japan, so it's probably been sitting on their kitchen table for a few days. :-\
Unlocked Death Label last night, after I got EVACCANEER in Very Hard it became unlocked.
rtw
Quote from: adverse on October 28, 2008, 09:03:13 PM
Death Label is pretty goddamn hard. I actually saved my replay clearing it so if I had a way to upload it I would...
But here's how to beat Sphinx with one life: Start on the left leg, lock on. The pink bullet lines will come down, jump from larger gap to larger gap as much as you can. After about three dodges you should destroy the left leg. Right leg, pound away on and dodge the extremely close range bullets. Then go for the upper right section. In my case I just hammered it with lock on until it exploded, cancelling some of the homing bullets. Do the same for the left. Use bombs on the homing red triangle bullet swarms unless you're sure you can dodge them. Once you've beaten the first form, get to the bottom of the screen for the really tight blue triangle bullet pattern, dodge in the gaps. Then use regular shot to dodge away from the quick bullet fans that will come down from the top. Lock onto the head and get to the far right to bomb through the blue bullet explosion and dodge as much as of the second batch as you can. You won't be able to dodge all of it but there should be a little hole to dodge through. Be careful though because as soon as the second wave ends the triangle pattern begins again really quick.
Thanks a lot. I started working my way through the first few bosses to really meticulously memorize when to bomb and when to dodge. So far I?ve got a "works every time" strategy for the first three bosses (not saying much, yeah, but every little bit of consistency helps here). It?s really all about saving for fighting DOOM, and then get raped. And man, when I realized that you can?t hurt the final form of DOOM when a bomb is active :'( If it wasn?t for this I would have beaten it already, but this really puts a monkey wrench in my strategy.
I just got this game. Its so cool. Really makes me appreciate how insanely difficult the real Ketsui probably is. My scores are shite right now since this is my first exposure to the game.
It is somewhat perplexing why they implemented free extra lives just for playing. Hopefully the Ketsui port for X360 will be even more stellar.
Holy shit, Extra Mode is hardcore. Can barely crawl to the end of the first section at the moment (before the vertical tunnel in the arcade game).
Quote from: Icarus on November 01, 2008, 11:36:46 AM
Holy shit, Extra Mode is hardcore. Can barely crawl to the end of the first section at the moment (before the vertical tunnel in the arcade game).
And if you think about the fact that you can?t creditfeed here at all... And actually, this is what makes the game much more fascinating to me: That some parts are actually inaccessible if I don?t brush up my skills enough. Knowing that I really have to get off my ass and try to improve because there is no other way to unlock Extra is feeling very different from the usual shmup where you know that you could see all the games stages by pumping in credits if you really wanted to (well, aside from second loops and true last bosses anyway).
The only thing that irks me about Extra is the random generation - most smallfry and some of the medium sized enemies are randomly placed, while larger enemies change movement direction on occasion - which really throws off any kind of pattern development. I suppose it's one way of keeping the challenge in this mode, but it is a massive pain in the ass.
And apparently there's the hardest version of Doom at the end, too. :/
Death Label Mode is immense fun, though. I can no-miss my way up to Cinderella Amber and on occasion no-miss past it. Black Draft always takes a life or two off me, however.
For a bit of fun, I've recorded my current Extra record replay of 58.2mil with Type-B, using the video mode on my digital camera.
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/other/ketsui-ds_extra_58.2mil_typeB_icr.avi
Yeah, it's crap. :p
Quote from: Icarus on November 01, 2008, 11:17:24 PM
For a bit of fun, I've recorded my current Extra record replay of 58.2mil with Type-B, using the video mode on my digital camera.
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/other/ketsui-ds_extra_58.2mil_typeB_icr.avi
Yeah, it's crap. :p
Nice! And yeah, looks brutally hard. But also seems like a lot of fun.
Say, could you do me (and maybe all the others who struggle with DL like me) a favor and record a little Death Label replay like that? If you?re not skipping Cinderellas first form, that is, it seems to mess up the rest of the replay :-\ For instance, I have NO idea how to manage Jamadhars first form at all, I just keep on bombing through it and as a result of that lose two or three lives on that boss alone. Same goes for Trafalgars big circular bullet spam - I know there must be a certain logic behind it, but I couldn?t figure it out yet. I don?t really care if you manage to beat Death Label mode in that replay - I just BADLY need some strategies for the middle bosses.
So yeah, if you could do that... :-*
I'll try and do something later tonight (busy designing graffiti tags for a project at the moment). At the moment I've got 870mil+ ALL for Death Label with some okayish, workable tactics - working on breaking 1bil.
There are a few tips for Death Label Mode - first, use all your bombs! All my tactics involve bombing specific patterns out of the way. Second, when you bomb, make use of your invincibility to cover bullet origin points for a few seconds, or by aggressively attacking patterns, keeping the screen clear of bullets (try it on Trafalgar's first form during the swirly pattern). Third, some bosses have destroyable parts that can either neutralise all bullets on screen, or cut the amount of attacks thrown at you (think Garegga) - Jamadhar's first form being a good example, if you lock onto the left side first before it comes on screen, then lead the bullets along the edge, you should destroy that side within a second, saving space for dodging. Finally, the hitbox is actually really tiny in this game, as it is in most Cave. Make good use of it.
Quote from: Icarus on November 02, 2008, 10:26:55 AM
I'll try and do something later tonight (busy designing graffiti tags for a project at the moment). At the moment I've got 870mil+ ALL for Death Label with some okayish, workable tactics - working on breaking 1bil.
Cool, I?m in no hurry, thanks in advance =D
And thanks for the other tips. One tactic I discovered for Bullfrog is that I lock onto the left "arm", leaning a bit to the right, so that after the propeller explodes the bit connecting it to the main body explodes very shortly after, cancelling his very first attack and instantly switching to the second form. So by this I have enough bombs to pretty much kill him with only very little vulnerability time. So I?m already bomb-whoring intensively, the problem is that there are certain patterns I think I can do, but quite often I still screw up and the autobomb goes off, robbing me of the much-needed remaining bombs, so I guess I?ll only try to dodge when I?m absolute positive that I can pull it off properly. :-[
Icarus: Yes, I'd be interested in seeing a DL replay too (i think i wrote this already here or at shmups). Take your time, however. I try to employ most of the tactics that you mentioned already and still don't make it through =p
FrederikJurk: I used to run into issues with autobomb too. Then I turned off autobomb for a while. Doing so, forced me to be "looser" with my bombing. After I started getting used to bombing more, I turned autobomb back on. I still try to hold on to bombs just out of habit from playing other games but, this helped me break the mindset a bit.
Here?s a little trick I discovered while fighting Cinderella:
After the part where this drone attacks you from above while the boss stays underneath you, the boss moves up again but you can still stay above it. You will completely avoid these nasty red needles. After that the "trap" pattern should start. Bomb and quickly move under the "LOCK" part when the two thick bullet streams start, then quickly move up again. The complete pattern will miss you. If you stay above the boss all the time, though, these two thick streams will aim at you and trap you on the top of the screen; but once you directed it downwards with the bomb trick it will stay down. After that, another red needle attack should follow, during which you should release another bomb and quickly get down since the spread patterns will come after that.
I don?t know about you guys, but it helped me a lot ;)
Also, I switched the contrast from DS Lite (which I have) to DS, and while the backgrounds look a bit nastier from being so dark, the bullets are a LOT brighter and thus easier to see.
According to vgchartz.com Ketsui DS sold 5,509 copies in its first 2 days. That's almost 1000 more than Raiden IV has sold to date (4,880). Looks like it could be a 10,000+ seller. Not bad for a game Mihara made in his spare time, eh?
So I got to Doom on Death Label mode, and he chewed me up pretty fast. That shit's brutal.
I found that I was able to get a lot father than I did before by turning Auto Bomb back on. I still bomb to clear the really tough patterns, but as long as I keep one in stock, it makes a huge difference in the number of lives I've lost on some levels.
Quote from: EOJ on November 03, 2008, 08:40:06 PM
According to vgchartz.com Ketsui DS sold 5,509 copies in its first 2 days. That's almost 1000 more than Raiden IV has sold to date (4,880). Looks like it could be a 10,000+ seller. Not bad for a game Mihara made in his spare time, eh?
I guess this means more future shmup conversions for the DS, then?
Quote from: gsl on November 03, 2008, 10:56:07 PM
I found that I was able to get a lot father than I did before by turning Auto Bomb back on. I still bomb to clear the really tough patterns, but as long as I keep one in stock, it makes a huge difference in the number of lives I've lost on some levels.
Here?s a DL mode clear MrMonkeyMan posted on shmups.com:
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/video/niconico/sm5140270 (http://d.hatena.ne.jp/video/niconico/sm5140270)
Autobombing is just the natural thing for this game. I find it relieving to see that the key to beating this mode lies in the right balance between dodging the doable stuff and indeed lots and lots of bombing, and not esoteric dpad-magic. And Doom really just can be beaten with enough lives in stock and squeezing just a couple more shots between dying and dying again ;)
YESSSSSS. Finally cleared Death Label mode! I got to Doom with 6 lives in stock thanks to handling Evaccaneer a lot better this time (he used to set me back from 10 to 4 lives most of the time). Extra mode is indeed very hard, having a full stage is a very weird feeling, same goes for actually having to use the shot more often and switching between two speeds. It?s a bit annoying that there are only full auto buttons in this game - the classical tapping/holding would have been better than having to switch between two buttons.
Man, I?m still exhausted from all the stress. The credit roll music seemed like the sweetest tune ever after that =D
Went through with autobomb last night and found that Evaccaneer is a lot easier with it on. Also, making sure your shots lock onto the main body itself instead of the arms really seems to help in defeating it.
Made it to Doom with about 5 lives in stock, and I actually got him to the last form and fairly low on his life bar at that. I think if I would have had one more life it might have been possible.
Yeah, the only reason I ever turned autobomb off is to remind myself to actually bomb. Over hording bombs is a bad habit of mine from many years of playing stg's where you are usually encouraged to not bomb unless absolutely necessary. Needless to say, once I got familiar with bombing so much in this game, auto went back on (especially since I was at DL mode by that point).
I have a feeling that i will turn autobomb off once I open extra mode though so it feels "normal"
I also have to agree with FrederikJurk with the question of tap and hold for the two different weapons. I've been wondering this since I realized that some patterns require you to take advantage of the faster speed of not being locked on. How does the full game handle this? Two buttons or one?
It's the usual Cave style--shot button that is normal when tapped, lock shot when held, and then a rapid-fire button for shot.
Also, maybe you PCB owners or Japan residents could set this straight for me: I could have sworn in the original game, there is no lock shot slowdown ala Dodonpachi/Mushihimesamas/ESPGaludas/nearly every Cave game. In Death Label, the ship slows down when you're holding the lock shot button. Is this different from the arcade, or is my memory just worse than I imagined?
There's certainly lock shot slowdown for type-B in the arcade. I don't play type-A enough to remember, but I'm sure MMM knows.
Ah, I rarely played Type-B. I liked the spread shot on A more, as it made survival a bit easier at times.
Total sales after the first week are now 8,305. Doing pretty good!
After watching some Futari videos I agree that this would make a great bossrush DS game, too. Death Label really leaves me hungry for more, given that the scoring is kinda broken (I really don?t feel like doing this tapping thing, feels like a pretty severe oversight to me). Seeing how Cave did tons of mobile phone conversions of their games (that not even I want to play, and I?m as tolerant to small screens and weird controls as it gets) and how well this game sells, more Cave DS games really doesn?t seem too far off. :)
In the DS version the bosses have names like Evacaneer, Cinderella etc. Are these names present in the original arcade game or were they created for the DS version ?
rtw
There are no boss names referenced in the arcade; but the book that came with the INH DVD has names for all the bosses and midbosses. They're all in katakana, but from my stumbling around with them it looks like they are the same names as used in Death Label. Someone that actually knows japanese might want to confirm that, though.
Quote from: rtw on November 11, 2008, 02:27:39 AM
In the DS version the bosses have names like Evacaneer, Cinderella etc. Are these names present in the original arcade game or were they created for the DS version ?
rtw
Quote from: zakk on November 11, 2008, 08:32:01 AM
There are no boss names referenced in the arcade; but the book that came with the INH DVD has names for all the bosses and midbosses. They're all in katakana, but from my stumbling around with them it looks like they are the same names as used in Death Label. Someone that actually knows japanese might want to confirm that, though.
They're the same. Also, this (http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/ketsui/index.html).
Just got this and wow.....Extra kicks my ass hard. :laugh: It's fun though and works much better than I thought it would (as many of you have said). So far the only thing I don't care for is how some of the patterns literally appear RIGHT in front of your ship (mostly in Death Label) due to the small screen. That and I wish I could understand the ask Ikeda section.
After playing the DS version I installed Ketsui in my cab last night. All those boss fights have improved my performance in the real game :righton:
Ketsui is truly a fantastic game :D
rtw
Quote from: rtw on November 13, 2008, 03:10:22 AM
After playing the DS version I installed Ketsui in my cab last night. All those boss fights have improved my performance in the real game :righton:
Nice to see that theory confirmed, some folks over at shmups.com heavily disagreed with that. :-*
Quote from: Kiken on November 11, 2008, 09:22:03 AM
Quote from: zakk on November 11, 2008, 08:32:01 AM
There are no boss names referenced in the arcade; but the book that came with the INH DVD has names for all the bosses and midbosses. They're all in katakana, but from my stumbling around with them it looks like they are the same names as used in Death Label. Someone that actually knows japanese might want to confirm that, though.
They're the same. Also, this (http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/ketsui/index.html).
I never thought to look on the official website for the names of the various bosses for the arcade version, or at least I never thought there'd be English names posted. I have an almost dyslexic tendency to misread katakana at times and wondered for the longest time what the hell kind of boss name "Evacnia" was. Sounded like some sort of vampire or something.
This game sold another 1900 copies last week, bring its total as of Nov 8th to 10,209 (according to vgchartz.com). That's double the amount Raiden IV or RFA have sold. Looks like there's more money in DS boss rush games than full arcade ports to home consoles, as far as shmups go these days.
Says a lot about Raiden ports, not so much about CAVE ports IMO.
Well, we'll see. The last CAVE port (Ibara PS2) only sold about 4000 copies.
Hahaha, what? :o
So, I?m not really sure how things work in the porting business, but the way I understand is that Arika bought the rights to Ketsui back then, tried to port it to the PS2, failed to make a perfect recreation and used their license for this game, right? So who do you think would make the first move to make more portable Cave shmups - Arika or Cave? Aside from further boss-rush games, I think a portable Death Smiles would make perfect sense, as it?s more suitable for the screen format, is very accessible and has a theme that will draw many newcomers in for sure. Or maybe even an original game...
Any theories on why this game sells so well? I?m pretty sure it isn?t just the DVD :rolleyes: I used to think that it has something to do with the Ketsui title, but then again, handheld games (and systems) sell like crazy in general these days.
Number of DS owners VS 360 owners?
Yeah, but that doesn?t explain why it sold more than twice as much as the Ibara port.
mebbes cos ketsui was relatively popular in the arcades but ibara was a flop
But are port sales really that directly tied to the games popularity in the arcades? I read somewhere that many players decide whether or not to focus on the game in question after a couple of credits, and Ibara had a very different style from other Cave games, which I imagine might have repelled a lot of Cave fans instantly. However, you only pay once for a port and can play it as long as you want, and I imagine japanese shmup enthusiasts to be at least interested enough in the genre to shell out for the port once to get a closer look at the game at home.
Or maybe I?m totally off here, I don?t know ???
Quote from: EOJ on November 14, 2008, 02:33:35 AMLooks like there's more money in DS boss rush games than full arcade ports to home consoles, as far as shmups go these days.
normally i'd see that as bad, but luckily japanese publishers don't have the best business sense =D
I just noticed that your multiplier gets punished for both auto bombing, and dying. This makes me think that having auto bomb on might not be worth it at all. If you auto bomb and then die your multiplier takes two hits instead of one :(
Anyone know how to trick vinogradov (boat boss) into not shooting? When I get it down to half bar it stops shooting sometimes.
You might have timed it out. If you don't destroy it by a certain point it sails on by and stops firing.
It still has a way to go before leaving the screen when it stops. it does it at different times, and sometimes starts shooting again. when it stops i get to rape it for 5chips, but sometimes get shot point blank. I know it's not the time out. I think it might be the position of the screen. Maybe if you push the screen up or down to a certain degree.
Probably the only thing I don't like about this game is the way you keep getting extra lives. Not so good if you are interested in scoring to have this unwanted variable. Otherwise this is more than I could have hoped for.
Just max out the lifes once for each mode (leave it running as you watch TV or something and start the mode when you?re game over again until you?ve got 19 lives) and you?re fine. After that it really is a non-issue. Still a weird decision to include this but I?m thankful for it in Death Label :rolleyes: I haven?t maxed them out on Novice and Normal since I don?t intend to play these for score since these are the modes where the "shot-tapping" comes in, a technique that?s far too risky on later modes, especially Very Hard and Death Label.
I agree that it?s very confusing at first, leading to such twisted reviews like this. (http://www.snappygamer.com/2008/10/29/stuart-campbell-now-playing-ketsui-death-label-ds/)
Interesting, thanks! I assumed that they maxed out at some point, but wasn't sure.
i found a place to bomb for over 1,100 chips. During evacaneers first phase, his third pattern. 1st pattern being the bounce pink crap off the walls at you, 2nd would be the 4 "half ring" shaped things he shoots directly after the 1st pattern. right before the second pattern, start shooting him point blank and the half ring things miss you along with the next pattern and most of the pattern after that =D. stay there and bomb the hell out of him. if you're on death label with four bombs, you get around 4,000 chips :o.
Is that safe spot in the pcb version? I've never seen it taken advantage of in any replays. I doubt i'm the first one to realize this. it's got to be an intentional safe spot. after all, the object of the game is to be a bad ass and shoot things point blank as much as possible :cool:
So I took a look at the Japanese Wiki for the game to try and figure out why I've got this one damned panel on the EVAC Report that refuses to unlock. It's number 4, which as it turns out requires you to defeat the Seahorse in under 15 seconds. Has anyone cleared this panel, and if so, how? I keep running through training mode trying to do it, but I can't seem to figure out how to clear the boss that fast.
EDIT: Nevermind. It works if you attack the main body and don't bother blowing off the wings.
can someone please explain how to unlock any of the following evac report panels: 20, 60, 96, and 108. I've tried translating them and i still don't understand what the conditions are.
There you go:
http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=477.0
(repost from shmups forum)
hey guys!
New here and 50h of play time on Ketsui DS, i love that game, nice time killer in the metro :) still barely passing the death label though, got an awful 6/143 stat ;p
i also play the cave ps2 port.
Quote from: Plasmo on January 15, 2009, 12:56:36 PM
There you go:
http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=477.0
(repost from shmups forum)
thanks plasmo
Restocked on Amazon, order fast.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B0019JPGCS
Yeah, Mihara made a blog post about how they're giving some leftovers they found for Amazon to sell. It's not a reprint, and he's not sure how many exactly will be there, but it's a one time deal. I'm sure they'll all sell out before they ship on August 1st.