Shmup Club October 2022 - Deathsmiles

[MetalFRO]

Spooky season is upon us! The Shmup Club celebrates with spooky games, and this year we're going with a heavy hitter, CAVE's classic Deathsmiles! From designer Tsuneki Ikeda, in collaboration with artist "Joker" Junya Inoue, CAVE decided to veer away from the normal vertically scrolling danmaku shooters that had become its main focus, and create an experience that could be more approachable. Diverging from both the heavy military theme of games like DoDonPachi and Ketsui, as well as the more colorful fantasy worlds of Mushihimesama, Ibara, and Espgaluda, this game saw CAVE exploring more of a gothic horror kind of look and feel. It also gave players more control of the horizontal space by allowing them to shoot both left and right, allowing for more freedom in strategic play. Deathsmiles also introduced a variable difficulty based on the path you take through the game.

Windia is a girl who had just moved to London, when suddenly she was whisked away in a flash of light as she was on her way to school. Transported to the magical world of Gilverado, she is taken in by Count Dior, and trained to realize her magical powers. Then she can join the other lost girls in defending the world of Gilverado against an invading horde of monsters. What horrors await Windia and the others as they work to free the land from this evil? Join the RF Generation Shmup Club in October 2022 as we find out, when we play the CAVE classic Deathsmiles!

Participants:
MetalFRO
Addicted
Redd McKnight
FauxMacho
Christapp76
Corkman
MightySquirrel (via Discord)
Oops! All Vibes! (via Discord)
BlurSTG

[ReddMcKnight]

I'm in! High Score time!

[MetalFRO]

I'm in! High Score time!

Awesome, welcome aboard!

[FauxMacho]

I don't know much about Deathsmiles but happy to check it out. Ordered a copy today.

[Christapp76]

Cave, so count me in on this one

Chris tapp76 👍


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MetalFRO]

I don't know much about Deathsmiles but happy to check it out. Ordered a copy today.

Excellent!

Cave, so count me in on this one

Chris tapp76 👍


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome, welcome!

[BlurSTG]

This was my best score so far, 155,457,467! Been playing MBL Normal with Sakura all Level 3. Been so close to getting the clear, but damn is Hades Castle brutal with all the revenge bullets  

[BlurSTG]

New high score! Still no clear. 

[MetalFRO]

@BlurSTG - you're on fire with this game! I haven't managed to get anywhere near that kind of score in MBL. Hats off!

I did manage to clear Normal, though not on a full Level 3, but a mix of 2 and 3. Either way, a clear is a clear! It's not my highest score (I'll post that later), but I'm still pleased overall with how it went:


Anyone have final thoughts on the game to wrap up the month?

[FauxMacho]

Interesting game. I got a clear on November 1st, I tried real hard to get it on Halloween but just needed one more day. My route was C-1, A-2, B-1, B-2, A-1, C-2, with the two B stages at level 2 and the rest at level 3, for a PB of 83,454,150 with Windia in the 'Original' version of the PS4 release. SO many variables to define the game I actually played.

For the first half of the month I hadn't watched anyone else play and was just learning the game on my own. I definitely did not pick up on the proper strategy of using and timing of the Power Up mode. It's an interesting balance in that playing for score got me into a better rhythm to play the game and improve.

I'd love to come back to this to try the other modes sometime. People playing Mega Black Label were really racking up the scores.

I played this all with a PS5 controller and a d-pad is not the best input method for the micro movements needed to dodge during the bullet hell patterns. I managed, but it's finally time to get a full sized arcade stick.