Testing, testing, one two. Is this thing on?
Okay. This is Deathsmiles, a 2007 arcade shoot-em-up developed by Cave.
In this game, you can choose your own stage order, and you can select difficulty for each stage.
Forest of the Lost (B-1) is a gigantic motherfucker, so I get it out of the way early at Level 1. Free pass, mostly.
In Arcade mode, like the original release, you can't choose the easiest difficulty for every stage, so finding a comfortable route through the game is important.
There are three ways to attack in this game: Shot, a wide attack that lets you move freely, Laser, a more focused attack that slows you down, and Lock Shot, which homes directly to a single target, but drains your item counter.
Some enemies, like these...whatever the fuck they are, drop more valuable items when killed with a certain shot type.
Items build up your item counter in the corner. At 1000 items, more valuable items will start to drop, and a progressive bonus is added to every pickup.
At 1000 items, you can also enter Power-Up Mode, which beefs up your speed and attack power while massively increasing item drops.
There are two extends in this game, at 20 and 45 million, so having a basic grasp on scoring helps a lot. I'll talk a little more about that later.
Anyway, an easy first stage is a good way to get yourself relaxed, and a great place to practice familiar control.
Windia's familiar moves based on her movement, but holding Laser fixes it in place. Get comfortable with keeping it in the right place, it's big damage.
It can also clip through terrain to hit enemies you can't reach, or don't want to expose yourself to.
First boss of the run coming up. They're heavily affected by your stage difficulty, so a Level 1 boss doesn't get much screen time...
Oh hey, it's Wispy Woods.
There's another attack here, but if your familiar's in the right place, you'll never see it at Level 1.
YATTA!~
Next up is Graveyard. My route has room for this stage at Level 1, but I play it at Level 3 anyway because i'm pretty confident and it's great for score.
Get cozy with these green floating eyes, they're a common popcorn enemy and you'll always want to kill them with your standard Shot.
Here's Power-Up. Check out that + value on every item pickup. We want to max that at 10,000 as quickly as possible.
If valuable items hit the ground, they'll split into two less-valuable items, so normally you want to pick them up fast.
But in Power-Up Mode, all we care about is the + value. So more item pickups means more score: doesn't matter what kind they are!
You can get a fountain of items from beefier enemies by hitting with with your Laser. Line up your familiar for BIG PUNTOS.
If you're careful, you can time the ending of your Power-Up with a lot of items on-screen, so that you instantly get 100 again.
If you're looking for those strategies, I'd recommend paying attention to top replays. Let someone else do the routing for you, at least a little.
It's easy to get overwhelmed in this last section. Ignore the birds and focus on the ground enemies, because they'll make your life hell in a second...
This segment is kinda awkward, even if you're dealing with just the eyes, so try and keep everything else dead.
Angery face.
Use your familiar to keep the rocks in check.
Oh fuck it's happening anyway. Okay, uh
this is fine
Don't bother trying to destroy or dodge between the rocks here. Just keep yourself low and lead them downward, then fly over the top at the last second.
If you struggle with this attack, try to move forward whenever you can: it'll give you more room to move backward, and more time to line up with the shots.
This one's pretty tame, just make sure you have your familiar lined up and he should die before the attack finishes.
Level 3 bosses are actual proper bosses. Multiple phases and everything.
OH FUCK A SKELETON
Do your best to clear the hearts here. They move pretty slowly after they settle, but they can make dodging really awkward.
I really dislike this attack, so if any hearts get through I usually just bomb to finish it off.
Okay, time to get our Level 3 out of the way for the bottom half of the map.
You can only select Level 1 and Level 2 once per map half, so you have to do at least two stages on level 3.
Lake Shore has some more easy scoring, and the stage portion is pretty gentle, so I went with this.
Make sure to line up your familiar and nuke down these dragons as they come in, their aimed shots are a pain when things get dense.
These enemies are beefy, slow to fire, and lined up in a neat little row: perfect for scoring!
The extra firepower also helps control their shots.
Back up a little here, and the items will bounce off the track.
And there's the first extend!
The green dragons are even bigger motherfuckers than the red ones. You'll be seeing them again in the final stage.
moooooooooooo
Mary's a little disorienting, mostly because she comes in at the wrong side of the screen, but her attacks are pretty simple.
Work your way backward during this attack, or the next one will catch you by surprise...
Same strategy here as angery head. Move forward whenever you can, and it gives you more room to work.
Kill the boxes, but try to keep your familiar firing at Mary.
Move backward as slowly as you can,. Before you hit the back of the screen, switch to Shot and slip under one set of boxes. Then burn the rest.
I barely missed it here, moved a little too quickly when backing up.
YATTA!~
Some enemies in certain stages drop items. Depending on your stage order and rank, those items can change.
Level 2 Swamp Wastes, if you do it as your 4th or 6th stage, gives you the opportunity for a Life Up item!
Look for the "Deathsmiles Product Introduction" if you want full details for your own route.
This stage's big feature are these weird..totem...carving...head things. They're awkward to kill head-on, so stay out of their line of fire or position your familiar to kill them safely.
Or you could be a meathead like me, and cancel their bullets into point items.
Anyway, the opening section is pretty straightforward. Just keep an eye on the background.
Lasering this guy for BIG PUNTOS...
This section can get awkward, so just take it slow and relax. The eyes shoot aimed bullets: make small, consistent movements and you'll always be safe.
For the Life Up item, kill the car! It's in an awkward place, so sitting on top of it with your familiar aimed downward can be the easiest way.
Just be wary of the enemies from the left here, or you'll lose the life as soon as you pick it up.
Have some lore.
SAKURA: Begone, thot!
There's not much to say about the first attack. The big disc bullets have a much smaller hitbox than you'd think.
For this, destroy the lasers and keep yourself as close to Sakura's level as you can. She's draining health anyway, so don't worry too much about firing at her.
This sound is obnoxious.
sploosh
More lore.
Only one stage left in each category. I need to hold a Power-Up for Volcano, so I put my weakest scoring stage right before it.
The boats are a big target for scoring if you're in Power-Up.
The melody here is very Cave. Familiar instrumentation, familiar chords.
The blue hooded fuckers here are super aggressive, and their shot pattern is kind of obnoxious. Kill them quick, but don't line up directly unless they're done moving...
Beware of the descending eyes here. Pick one side of the screen, don't stand in the center.
Awkward dodge. You probably want to go up instead of down.
Leaving grounded enemies alive to fire is usually a mistake. Make sure to keep your familiar position in mind to nuke them down fast.
BEWARE OF FAST BLUE FUCKERS
Deathsmiles is a great game to play for the holiday spirit.
Wandering Reaper is a joke, but I still die to him occasionally so what the fuck ever.
Keep Laser trained on him to delete the pumpkins he throws out.
Now sit in the middle of the screen, and when he spawns, move up.
Just make sure you're shooting his hand instead of the pumpkins, and you shouldn't have to dodge anything here.
YATTA!~
All right, here's the real fucker. There's a medium Life Up in Volcano if you play it 4th or 6th, but it needs to be Level 3.
Level 3 Volcano also has huge scoring potential, so I use it to hit the second extend before the final stage.
See these rocks? In Power-Up, they all drop items.
I'm going to wait a little while, though...
No place is safe for very long here. Enemies constantly flood in from offscreen: shoot them down before they cause problems.
For these sections, I usually play it safe and kill all the enemies before dropping down.
The rocks can hurt you here, but not for long...
Here's the Life Up. Make a detour to grab it, then Power Up to safely get back in position...
Welcome to BIG PUNTOS.
Sitting right here lets you easily hit rocks from both sides, generating massive amounts of bonus.
Direct contact from enemies won't hurt you in Power-Up, so the popcorn enemies here and the small rocks aren't a problem.
The big rocks will still fuck you up, though. Tread carefully.
Bingo, second extend. This is as much of a safety net as you can get.
Watch the left side here, a second enemy jumps in.
Okay. Here's the fucked part. You're only safe from the lava flumes if you're above a platform.
Rush down here and kill the totems, then pull your familiar under you.
Four bullets will clip through this platform for no reason at all. Keep a fair distance.
From the safety of a platform, you can use your familiar to finish the totem-carving fuckheads and move down.
Here's a fucking dragon.
Windia's shot struggles with the rocks here, and her familiar doesn't fire quickly enough to clear them...
Other characters can deal with this a little differently, but if you can't clear the rocks, you get two sets of hazards to dodge.
If you have to make a choice, take a rock hit instead of a bullet: it only takes away half a life bar.
Fire at the lava pillars to make space for yourself.
If your damage has been good so far, you'll skip this attack.
This next attack is an absolute motherfucker, and I usually just bomb.
Sakura's back with more lore.
Note Follett's complete lack of dialogue.
You can go to Canyon before the final stage if you want, but Canyon is a very, very bad place. Score runs and masochists only.
Oh, the familiars can talk. Okay.
Success in the final stage comes down to two good habits.
The first is killing everything before it becomes a problem. Enemies spawn in pairs a lot, and letting them both fire creates really awkward situations.
The second habit is USING YOUR FUCKING BOMBS.
If you played the preceding stages clean, you have more than enough resources to bail yourself out of problem situations.
If you don't feel comfortable with where you are relative to a bullet pattern, bailing out can save you an entire life.
Oh yeah, the green dragons are back. They're the biggest priority during this section because of their bigass aimed wall attack.
This screen is a little tricky, but it's not a bad place to Power-Up if you want to clear things out safer.
Dragons again. This is the other reason why I used Power-Up earlier, these guys are beefy.
The items from Return Of Maria are just the icing on the cake.
Every one of these bridges contains two enemies. Try not to let either of them live, but at the very least, kill one as soon as possible.
The next area has a lot of open space and beefy monsters. Scoring time!
Focus your laser on the chandeliers and the big motherfuckers for plenty of items.
I should be letting these bounce, but I'm panicking.
Power-Up also helps a lot for this next section.
Pay close attention to the "ENEMY" markers during these segments, they'll save you a lot of memorization.
The centaurs here have some really tricky patterns. Kill them before they ruin your day.
This attack isn't as scary as it looks. Just think of the main shots as vertical pillars, and give yourself plenty of time to line up.
Here's some fucked-up music for a fucked-up stage.
The dancers here need to be killed with Laser for bonus items, not Shot like most flying enemies.
The ballroom is symmetrical, with big monsters at either end. Be proactive about clearing the dancers so you can line up early.
You'll want a full item counter for the next boss fight, so play it safe and don't be afraid to bomb. A botched Power-Up in the next section will lose you way more.
The dancer patterns start getting tricky here. Avoid getting caught between two sets. They fire slowly, so the edge of the screen is safer than you think.
Meet Jitterbug. He's not a great parent.
Evil glow, red and black eyes, the full nine yards.
Sakura is dead.
Jitterbug drops a HUGE LIfe Up item if you finish his fight without using a bomb. You're allowed to get hit, though, so if you have enough resources, it's not as hard as it sounds.
There's not much to say about this first attack. Just look for openings and try to make your way towards them.
I hold out as long as I can before activating Power-Up here. Just make sure to activate before taking a hit, or you'll lose items and won't be able to do it afterwards.
These huge waves aren't as scary as they look, as long as you don't trap yourself in the corner. Just wait for the opening, then line yourself up and let the attack pass through you.
There's no reason to hold on to point items at this point, so lock on with Lock Shot and try to finish him off.
Jitterbug moves quickly here, so make sure to keep yourself away from him and give yourself enough time to dodge.
Don't ask.
Wait, I thought we killed him.
Cake ^_^
Wait, why did we even bother fighting this asshole if he was just going to get eaten anyway?
Note: This boss's name is "Tyrannosatan."
Just wanted to let that sink in, on the off-chance you missed it.
At this point, it's a resource management game. With enough life, you can basically bomb through the entire fight.
Just don't die with bombs in stock, and dodge for as long as you can.
Why did I dodge in there, what the fuck
I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this attack.
Anger bomb.
Watch the circles here, not the bullets. You're most likely to die from a bullet spawning on top of you.
I don't know how to follow my own advice.
Lock shot is important in the later phases. Just remember that it'll prioritize the closest target, so you may have to switch to other shot types sometimes.
Note: At this point in the run I am screaming "DIE" at the top of my lungs.
Wait, he's STILL alive?
The fuck is that
God dammit
ANGRY NOW
Winner!
Cool sample looping.
He doesn't even look hurt. Why the fuck did I even have to fight that thing when Jitterbug is immortal anyway?
Nice music.
o/
Does the real world have +10,000 in gold lettering? Didn't think so. This is the objectively better universe.
:)
And Windia never saw her parents again.
And that's the game. Sick.
I'll have a lot more to say about Deathsmiles once I spend some more time with it and get better.
Picking every stage on Level 3 sends the game into "Death Mode," which is about as easy as it sounds...
And I've still got a lot of score routing to do. The Windia high score is somewhere around 600m?
Anyway, long story short, I'll be coming back to Deathsmiles again soon. This was my first real clear of any shmup, and it was a lot of fun!
I'll leave you with the music. Score's after the credits if you wanna see it for real.
-TyroneSama Dec 1, 2017
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