Ketsui DS (w/ superplay DVD)

[gsl]

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.

[Kaneda]

Doom Mode is available at the start of the game, it isn`t unlocked.

[gsl]

Well then, that would explain why I thought I had it fairly early on.    Sometimes I worry about my memory...

[FrederikJurk]

  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).

[Kaneda]

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.

[gsl]

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. 

[rtw]

Unlocked Death Label last night, after I got EVACCANEER in Very Hard it became unlocked.

rtw

[FrederikJurk]

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.

[bitkid]

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.

[Icarus]

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).

[FrederikJurk]

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).

[Icarus]

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

[FrederikJurk]

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... 

[Icarus]

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.

[FrederikJurk]

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 

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. 

[seiatsu]

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.

[FrederikJurk]

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.

[EOJ]

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?

[gsl]

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. 

[FrederikJurk]

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?

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

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 

[FrederikJurk]

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 

[gsl]

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.

[seiatsu]

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?

[gsl]

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?

[zakk]

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.

[gsl]

Ah, I rarely played Type-B.  I liked the spread shot on A more, as it made survival a bit easier at times.

[EOJ]

Total sales after the first week are now 8,305. Doing pretty good!

[FrederikJurk]

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. 

[rtw]

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

[zakk]

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.

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