Anatomy of a 1CC #1: Deathsmiles
Oct. 31st, 2024 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yrevalThis is (hopefully) the first of a series in which I play through an arcade game on one credit and do my best to explain how I did it and talk about the game in general.
First up is Deathsmiles, Cave's gothic-themed horizontal shmup from 2007. This was Cave's attempt to appeal to a broader audience - they had been keenly aware for a while that a lot of people will buy any old crap with a cute anime girl on it (and it didn't hurt that their games are, in general, actually pretty good), and in Deathsmiles they paired this approach with more approachable gameplay. The result was a clear success - it became Cave's first shmup to get a worldwide release (a few racing and extreme sports games they did for other publishers in the PS1/Saturn era got international releases), and after they eventually pivoted to mobile games, their flagship product, to this day, is Gothic wa Mahou Otome, a gacha game set in the Deathsmiles universe that has been running since 2015.
When the game's European release finally arrived in early 2011, I picked it up on day 1 (alongside Marvel vs Capcom 3). I had been interested in shmups for some time beforehand, mainly Cho Ren Sha 68K and the demo of the original doujin version of Crimzon Clover, even running high score tournaments for them as side events at my fighting game locals.
As alluded to previously, Deathsmiles is not a particularly difficult game, and before long I was able to perform a basic 1CC. I picked up the other Cave games that were released on Xbox 360 here, and have played shmups on and off since then. Mostly off for the past couple of years... until earlier this week, when I watched Raelcun's Crimzon Clover: World Explosion run while catching up on the recent SGDQ:
I decided that it's about time I started playing these games again, so I put on Deathsmiles to see how long it would take me to be able to 1CC it again. I did it first try, and that run will be the subject of this post.
A few things to note:
- This is intended to be a demonstration of a basic 1CC, with some light scoring - I don't go to the optional EX Stage or activate Death Mode. It's not the bare minimum, but this is very much an any% as opposed to a 100% run. An example of top-level play can be found here.
- As for the controls, this is a three-button game: fire left, fire right, and bomb (it's mostly a side-scrolling shooter, but at times it scrolls upwards, downwards, and to the left. Enemies come from all directions, and so you have the ability to face both left and right). Hold either fire button for a laser. There is also a lock-on shot (press one fire button while holding the other), and a power-up activation (press both fire buttons at the same time).
- Throughout this post, I'll be referring to this detailed strategy guide as well as this glossary of terms from the Shmups Wiki.
- I am playing on the 2022 PC port from City Connection, as part of the Deathsmiles I/II bundle (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1884300/Deathsmiles_III/). There was a previous PC port, but this new version includes reduced input lag and much more accurate slowdown...
- ...wait, slowdown? This is a game from 2007 (and which looks quite a bit older than that) running on a PC I built, at quite considerable expense, about a year and a half ago - why would slowdown be a factor? Well, you have to consider that slowdown is considered by shmup players to be an integral part of the genre, practically a standard gameplay mechanic (to the point where it's generally believed that Cave were deliberately programming slowdown into the game, as the hardware they used was capable of rendering all but the most dense bullet patterns at 60fps), and when a port deviates noticeably from the arcade original in this regard, they are not happy.
Now for the run itself:
0:04 - There are four available characters; from left to right, Casper, Windia, Follett, and Rosa. Rosa has the strongest shot and laser, and is therefore considered the easiest character to 1CC the game with, although she has her drawbacks - she can only lock on to enemies behind her, which makes scoring more difficult, and her movement speed is slower.
0:08 - Unlike most other shmups, progress through the game is non-linear. At first, you can choose any of the three stages from the bottom row, then after clearing that stage, you can select any of the three stages from the top row. you then choose either of the two remaining stages from the bottom row, and so on until all six normal stages have been played. After that, you have the choice of going directly to the final stage, or tackling the fiendishly difficult EX stage. You can also choose which level to play each of the first six stages at, with 1 being the easiest and 3 being the hardest. Levels 1 and 2 are limited to once per row (in Arcade mode, anyway; the home ports include an arrange mode with upgraded graphics and the ability to play at the lower levels the whole way through). Selecting level 3 five times, or entering the EX stage, will activate Death Mode, where enemies will fire yellow cross-shaped revenge bullets upon death, which you can absorb with your option. This is the first of two times I select Level 2.
0:34 - When most enemies are killed, they drop items, depending on whether you killed them with the shot, laser, or lock-on, and whether you are powered up. The strategy guide contains a chart showing what attacks are optimal to use on each enemy. There are small Skeleton Rings, which advance your item counter by 1 (when not powered up - I'll cover what happens in power-up mode later), medium-sized Crown Tiaras which are worth 5, and large High Crowns which are with 10. If they hit the ground they split into two items from the level below, so in normal mode you want to collect them quickly.
0:58 - I mistakenly use the lock-on against this cyclops, even though the laser gives the most items against this enemy, and as it costs items to use the lock shot, I end up with fewer items than I had before.
1:49 - The stage A-1 boss, Deathscythe. More or less trivial; for his second form, you don't even need to move as long as you're plaing as Rosa, as she will just melt his life bar by the time his attack even reaches you. There is a third form which appears if you're playing the stage on Level 3, and is somewhat more challenging.
2:10 - When you item counter reaches 1,000, you are able to activate power-up mode. Also, you start earning a bonus, known as the plus value, for every item you collect. Before entering power-up mode, the plus value increases in the same way as the item counter.
2:26 - On to stage C-2 (Volcano). I don't activate power-up mode immediately, because lurking just underneath the platform on the right...
2:37 - ...is an absolute fountain of points. I enter power-up mode and head straight for the falling rocks on the right-hand side - each of them yielding copious amounts of items. In power-up mode, all items advance the plus value by the same amount, small items are spawned whenever your option's shot hits an enemy, and the amount depends on the current plus value, with items incrementing it by 1 initially, and by 20 once it reaches 5,000, all the way up to the maximum of 10,000. This means that you now want to wait for items to hit the ground and split into two, where applicable, as this will increase your score more quickly.
2:47 - By the time that first fountain of rocks leaves the screen, my score has exceeded 2 million (after scoring about 500,000 for the entirety of the first stage), my plus value is over 7,000, and I still have over 80% of my power-up remaining.
2:55 - Just as I reach the second fountain of rocks, the plus value reaches the maximum of 10,000, and is therefore displayed in gold each time I collect an item. The score right now is just under 4 million.
3:08 - By the time the second fountain leaves the screen, 13 seconds later, my score is now 16 million, and I am still just over halfway through my power-up.
3:14 - The third fountain appears; this takes the form of a large rock in the centre of the stage spitting out smaller rocks.
3:20 - Extra life for reaching 20 million points.
3:36 - The power-up runs out with my score at over 30 million. The plus value and item counter are both reset to zero, but I am able to collect a number of large items from rocks I destroyed in power-up mode, and which only appear in fever mode (i.e., you're powered up and the plus value is 10,000). With the help of a well-timed bomb or lock-on shot, it is possible to collect enough large items to immediately re-activate power-up mode - this is known as a recharge.
4:16 - Your life bar decreases by 0.5 on enemy contact in normal mode (you are invincible to this kind of damage in power-up mode) - for some reason, this flame is counted as an enemy.
4:45 - The stage C-2 boss, Bavaria, poses slightly more of a challenge...
5:43 - ...but not that much more that I should have taken a death here, especially with three bombs still in stock. On death, you lose 30% of your item counter - this means it will take a bit longer for me to re-enter power-up mode.
5:46 - Another half-hit, becaues apparently that laser beam counts as an enemy and not a bullet? Not that I'm complaining, though...
6:10 - Off to stage C-1. It gets off to a relatively slow start...
6:34 - ...then as you descend to the train tracks, things begin to pick up somewhat. The train enemies give plenty of items...
6:44 - ...which means I am soon able to power-up. The fact that all items give the same increase in plus value becomes more important, as I can now wait for the items to break apart on the train tracks.
7:38 - mooooo...
7:41 - ...here comes Mary the Giant Cow! She's a bit of a pushover, though.
8:45 - Stage A-2 begins.
9:35 - Extra life for reaching 45 million points - this is the last score-based extend.
9:49 - There are a number of life-up items you can collect, based on what level you play the stage at - this one is only available at level 3. You cannot increase your life beyond what there is space for on your life bar - this item took me from 3.5/5 to 4/5, but had I been at 5/5 I would have only received the 100,000 point bonus.
9:58 - A good, if unplanned, partial recharge here - I exit power-up mode with plenty of large items on the screen, I go to pick them up, and within a few seconds I am already two thirds of the way to the next power up.
10:22 - Jordan is the A-2 boss, and he does not put up much of a fight either.
11:27 - Stage B-1 begins. It's pretty uneventful until I reach the boss.
12:54 - The stage B-1 boss, Whroon. For the fourth pattern (the one with the giant apples), you can just go to the top of the screen and avoid the apples - I forgot about this, and took a death. The final attack is also potentially tricky (although staying at the top of screen helps, as you only have to deal with the vertical apples), but I was able to get through it without dying or bombing this time.
14:00 - Off to B-2, the last regular stage, switching back to level 2 to avoid triggering Death Mode. Despite the reduced difficulty, there's still some decent scoring to be had here.
15:45 - The B-2 boss, Sakura, arrives. Pre-battle dialogue? She might be important to the plot...
16:44 - After the (relatively easy) battle, we get more dialogue.
17:08 - After clearing the first six stages, we see a cutscene where the girls meet Sakura again. We find out what her deal is - the girls are all here because they were in mortal peril at some point, and are missing, presumed dead, in the real world, but instead of actually dying they found themselves in the fantasy realm of Gilverado. It turns out that Sakura's father, Jitterbug, is also here, and in trying to return to the real world, has opened a portal to Hell, allowing demons to terrorise Gilverado. Sakura wants to lead our heroines to Hades Castle to put a stop to this once and for all, but do they want to take a detour to the Gorge on the way?
17:46 - Nah, we're good.
19:05 - A silly mistake leads to me taking a death.
20:04 - Mary is back...
20:09 - ...and she's gone again.
20:23 - I can't actually remember why I bombed here. Finger slipped? Recharge attempt?
23:53 - Another two-thirds recharge - not that it's going to have much impact at this late stage.
24:59 - After some dialogue. the showdown with Jitterbug begins. I use the lock shot to try and speed up this boss battle.
25:10 - This wave of bullets took me by surprise. Under normal circumstances I would have bombed here, but if I don't...
26:13 - ...as soon as Tyrannosatan appears, a large life-up (two extra lives) appears. Even with the death, I am ahead on life compared to before the Jitterbug fight.
26:56 - I mess this attack up a bit and end up having to use two bombs.
27:37 - The plan here was to use the lock-on shot against this, but as Rosa's lock shot isn't very good, I can't get locked on and end up taking a hit.
28:43 - Another death, but with two lives remaining the 1CC is more or less in the bag at this point.
29:06 - Tyrannosatan is defeated.
30:19 - Each character has two endings; one where they return to the real world, and one where they remain in Gilverado.
32:50 - The total score is revealed - 105,979,462. You may have noticed that the score was only about 91 million at the end of the Tyrannosatan fight - where is the rest coming from? There is an end-of-game bonus based on your lives, bombs, and item counter, but following the formula given in the strategy guide (6.5 million per remaining life, 1 million per remaining bomb, and 10,000 per item in the item counter) gives a total of 111,589,462, so I'm not 100% sure on the details.
In closing, it seems like a bit of a cliche to say "if you're looking to get into shmups, there are few better places to start than this", but that's pretty clearly what Cave intended, and, for me, it's what they delivered.
