The wide shot is of more use in the Arcade/PS2/XB360 ports for a couple of reasons: Ship moves slightly faster It's an absolute necessity in order to maintain chain at certain parts of the game (shooting popcorn enemies off-screen). I still find it to be useful for the second reason. There's a specific method of chaining the first stage where I simply wouldn't be able to do it without the B ship's wide shot. The proper Daioujou is infamous for the fact that top scoring in the game requires absolute anal and exact positioning, as well as use of both the shot and laser types. iOS port is relaxed in that regard, even if it is difficult, so you won't be using the shot anywhere near as much on this. Still has it's uses, but you will be in laser mode most of the time. eev is spot on with hitboxes and conditions for raising the hyper gauge. I'm considering jailbreaking my iPad again so I can install a screen recorder on there and do some gameplay videos. I'm struggling to breach 150mil+ but I know it's definitely doable. I'm not making the most of my hypers to keep the chain going.
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/DoDonPachi+Blissful+Death/review.asp?c=37647. "Chaining kills in Blissful Death is hard and requires endless practice runs. Working the attack and defend meters in Resurrection is dynamic and intuitive. At the end of the day, it's just a lot more fun." Smartphone mode is why resurrection was a success. I know that daifukkatsu was made after DOJ, but I know from a regular iphone consumer point of view a lot of people are going to be disappointed in this and this quote hits it on the head. I like playing for score and things like that, but I really wish they had made a gimmick mode for DOJ as well. DOJ is hard to chain and requires true practice and daifukkatsu, well I could chain whole levels after a few runs on the iphone. DOJ will be one of the first times that I just sit in practice mode to try and be even remotely competitive(55m first ever clear of the game on iphone #85 LOL). In all fairness, I can only beat touhou on easy, get to 1-5 on strikers II, and get to stage 5 on crimzon clover. Yet, I get top 5% scores on every mode for every ship on iphone. What I'm trying to say is that I forget that shmups and the people who play them are a pretty niche hardcore group. If cave is struggling so much, they should look at the success of resurrection and I wouldn't be surprised if the sale on resurrection generates more revenue than this game, once reviews start hitting like this one.
Alright, had a couple more rounds, and while I still can't love it, I really appreciate its sincerity. What I like so far: the icon and the intro screen (hah), the crazy patterns and the difficulty (no 2nd loop for me, though), the music and the overÃll atmosphere (very gloomy, very oppressive). What I don't like: the scoring /chaining mechanism (VERY unfriendly, to say the least), the graphics (I know, it's a ten year old game, but still), plus some minor annoyances (CG seemingly not working, no iPad1 support, the clumsyness of the UI). As I said before, for me the best part is that it reminded me to play DDPR again, which I'm still doing occasionally. Anyway. Can't stop wondering what will be their next. Are they following the quick ports route, or just go back to their finest iOS ports (DDPR, DS). I for one would kill for an Akai Katana port with some Smartphone gimmick. OT, but at this point I love Dariusburst better. Heresy?
Can someone explain to me how health works in this game. I can't tell which is my health meter and when I am going to die.
I wouldn't say it was heresy in the case of Blissful Death. While I do enjoy this and it's arcade counterpart, and i understand they are pretty awesome games, this is by far my least favourite Cave shmup. I am regularly going back to play Futari Black Label and DFK Black Label, even Deathsmiles and Deathsmiles 2X, but I rarely go back to play DOJ. The original is too difficult and too frustrating for me to properly enjoy. This (iOS version) is thankfully an improvement, and much much more fun to me than the original release. Personally I was a little bit puzzled at the release of this and Mushihimesama on iOS. They do seem to be going backwards (literally!), and seem to have done their releases so far in order of difficulty as opposed to chronological. Futari would definitely be the most ideal conversion to make next, but maniac mode scoring would require pretty decent use of shot off and weapon switching. I still struggle to see how Ketsui could play well on an iOS device.
There's no indication of if your going to die? I feel like bullets fly over me all the time and i'm fine, then out of nowhere I splode.
Bug Princess has the easiest scoring hook to learn, and also ramps up the difficulty with Ultra mode. For someone not too familiar with the kind of scoring hook that Cave put in their games, start with this. Follow that up with Deathsmiles, before going into the more complex scoring mechanics of Dodonpachi Resurrection and the slightly convoluted Espgaluda II. Wouldn't recommend Blissful Death scoring for beginners.
it seems like their most successful port is ds, at least from the number of people on gc leaderboards one could say that, also it's the most expensive their title. so maybe they would port ds2 too with smartphone version, however it's not sprite game like original. and porting ddp does not make a lot of sense because ddpr and ddp doj share a lot from it. but futari port would be nice thing to have.
I'd like to see ESP Ra.De if they're going into the oldies. That was actually quite an interesting one! Just managed 3 1CC runs in a row with blissful death... I think I'm topping out my score at 159mil, struggling to get higher.
@Vally entering the second loop should help. esprade is cool, but i think it requires even more weapon switching than ddp series.
It wasn't a weapon switch really. Your B button could be tapped to fire a stream of exploding bullets on an enemy, that you had to destroy with your main shot to get the multiplier. Easy in practice but hard to explain. You could simply have auto shot, and only two buttons - Kakusei/Bomb and B weapon, which when tapped would just fire the shots off like the arcade version. I actually think its quite well suited! I'm debating whether a 2 loop run WOULD help my score - I get 30mil as an end game bonus from lives left, which I wouldn't get in second loop. My best chaining on first stage usually gives me just under 20mil, so I'd have to be able to still perfect the first two stages on second loop in order to match my one loop score. Not sure if that'll happen. >_<
I'd recommend DoDonPachi Resurrection. Though Deathsmiles is my personal favorite, and I love the scoring system in Espgaluda II's Smart Phone mode, DDP Res is just an all-around great game and a great introduction to their shooters. Awesome music, graphics, scoring system -- it's the whole package.
yeah, switching is kind of a wrong term, but still on iphone with auto shoot it would require constant tapping, dunno how it would work. yes and it's probably not easy to finish the first loop on hard and meet one of the requirements. actually it is a bit funny, the game has additional content like ddp which most of the players won't get because it's too difficult to achieve.
