After so many months of searching, I finally came across this game at the resale store in town today, and HOLY CRAP IT WAS WORTH IT. I'm certainly not the first on the site to rave about it, nor will I probably be the last, but this is one immensely kick-ass shooting game. The theme is unique and silly, the monsters look great, and the difficulties will really kick you in the teeth if you think you're so hot at bullet hells.
Verdict: F*cking Excellent. I don't quite remember who last raved about it and called it the best sh'mup ever, but that's an accolade that might not be totally undeserved. (I have certain reservations about such an extreme statement, as I've still not tried the other CAVE games on 360, any of the Raiden series, or Akai Katana, all of which I've heard are also fantastic).
Casper is so cute,
god I suck at this type of game. I'm never gonna be able to 100% this bruh....
god I suck at this type of game. I'm never gonna be able to 100% this bruh....
best shmup there will ever be
really fun shmup where I found myself stopping to admire the sprites in-game and pretending I was blind at the character select screen
A love letter to Shmup fans
É um jogo meio confuso mas tem uma gameplay até que divertida. Achei o 3d bem charmoso que nem o dos outros jogos da cave e tem uma trilha sonora ótima que comba muito com a pegada gótica dele.
(é basicamente um Castlevania dos shmups imo)
(é basicamente um Castlevania dos shmups imo)
blue lobster
It's kind of crazy how something as simple as being able to shoot in both directions completely changes the feel of a horizontal shmup like this. Also other than the weird bull boss that looked like one of those pre-rendered models cut down into a sprite from games like Donkey Kong Country or Mortal Kombat, I really enjoyed the aesthetic of this game. It leaned pretty heavily into both Gothic horror and Gothic lolita, which is a pretty cool combination.
One of the weaker CAVE shooters IMO, but at least this one is on Steam as well.
Little on the easy side if you're not pushing for max rank on all levels, and I personally prefer vertical to horizontal shmups. This isn't a bad play just for the 1cc, but doesn't keep me coming back and grinding like other CAVE shooters do.
Little on the easy side if you're not pushing for max rank on all levels, and I personally prefer vertical to horizontal shmups. This isn't a bad play just for the 1cc, but doesn't keep me coming back and grinding like other CAVE shooters do.
i have a feeling if i was turned into a videogame by a witch it would result in this
Cave's most unique game, btw the best horizontal shmup I've ever played
Deathsmiles is a horizontal scrolling shmup by CAVE that allows you to shoot left and right, Fantasy Zone style. It bodes 8 stages, one which you can skip.
The game itself lets you choose which stages you want to go to and the difficulty of each. There are 3 stages on the bottom to start and 3 on the top. You alternate between choosing the top and bottom stages. You can choose from difficulty ranks 1 - 3 for each stage. In Arcade mode, it limits you in how many of each Rank 1 and 2 stage you can choose, but not Rank 3.
There's a hidden mode in the game called Death Mode. When you choose Rank 3 difficulty 5 times, you enter Death Mode Level 1. This introduces suicide bullets, where the enemies will throw bullets at you upon death. You can enter Death Mode Level 2 by going to the Gorge or straight to Hades' Castle (the final stage). The Gorge is an extra super difficult level. If you do beat the Gorge, you can enter Death Mode Level 3 for the final stage.
It's the first time CAVE experimented with 3D models and it looks good, though I really don't care for the loli style anime art. The music is very good. Burning Halloween Town and Hades Castle were my two favorites. I used Rosa, as I liked her playstyle, and she's also just really strong.
For my first 1CC of this one, I just did the Arcade mode with stages going Rank 1-1-2-2-3-3. It took me about 3 hours to clear. However, for all Rank 3, it added an additional 12 hours of game time (minus the Gorge, that would have been a lot more difficult). The game has a super high skill ceiling, and tailorable difficulty, with the arrange mode, Mega Black Label, sporting a Rank 999 difficulty, for those willing to take it on.
For general gameplay, you collect items worth different values until you get to 1000. After that, you can activate hyper mode, and item drops will increase, and give you huge score boosts.
Each stage is meticulously built to have a great sense of flow and there's never any down time at all. The new port is also really good, with low input lag and accurate slowdown. This is a good start for beginners looking to get into shoot 'em ups.
Obligatory five-star rating for a CAVE game. There's very few games by this dev that I don't consider a masterpiece.
The game itself lets you choose which stages you want to go to and the difficulty of each. There are 3 stages on the bottom to start and 3 on the top. You alternate between choosing the top and bottom stages. You can choose from difficulty ranks 1 - 3 for each stage. In Arcade mode, it limits you in how many of each Rank 1 and 2 stage you can choose, but not Rank 3.
There's a hidden mode in the game called Death Mode. When you choose Rank 3 difficulty 5 times, you enter Death Mode Level 1. This introduces suicide bullets, where the enemies will throw bullets at you upon death. You can enter Death Mode Level 2 by going to the Gorge or straight to Hades' Castle (the final stage). The Gorge is an extra super difficult level. If you do beat the Gorge, you can enter Death Mode Level 3 for the final stage.
It's the first time CAVE experimented with 3D models and it looks good, though I really don't care for the loli style anime art. The music is very good. Burning Halloween Town and Hades Castle were my two favorites. I used Rosa, as I liked her playstyle, and she's also just really strong.
For my first 1CC of this one, I just did the Arcade mode with stages going Rank 1-1-2-2-3-3. It took me about 3 hours to clear. However, for all Rank 3, it added an additional 12 hours of game time (minus the Gorge, that would have been a lot more difficult). The game has a super high skill ceiling, and tailorable difficulty, with the arrange mode, Mega Black Label, sporting a Rank 999 difficulty, for those willing to take it on.
For general gameplay, you collect items worth different values until you get to 1000. After that, you can activate hyper mode, and item drops will increase, and give you huge score boosts.
Each stage is meticulously built to have a great sense of flow and there's never any down time at all. The new port is also really good, with low input lag and accurate slowdown. This is a good start for beginners looking to get into shoot 'em ups.
Obligatory five-star rating for a CAVE game. There's very few games by this dev that I don't consider a masterpiece.