DunDunDunpachi
Patient MembeR
2018 was packed with exceptional titles, but Ketsui Deathtiny is probably the most important release that scarcely a dozen people gave a shit about.
It's important because as far as retail releases are concerned, Ketsui Deathtiny is now the best entry-point into the shmup genre due to the tools it offers the uninitiated. Not only did M2 ShotTriggers include a host of 'gadgets' that display the inner workings of game, they also included a training tool called'Bond Develop Mode'.
Bond Develop is what makes Deathtiny so important.
Let me sidetrack into Guilty Gear to demonstrate my point:
When you examine forum posts like these on NeoGAF, or if you read various reviews from gaming outlets or Amazon, or if you pay attention to the FGC itself, the praise for Guilty Gear Xrd’s training mode was hard to miss. One might argue that the excellent training tools helped make Xrd the best-selling Guilty Gear title in the franchise and one of the best-sellingpoverty anime fighters of all time.
Friendliness toward newcomers is a problem in many skill-based, competitive genres. It is an open topic in the fighting game community -- full of passionate opinions on both ends -- about how a company should balance the desires of experienced players against the needs of potential new customers. Fighting games are hard to "get into", and so when a developer extends a hand to bring in newcomers, it's healthy for the genre as a whole. When developers aren't reaching out to the community and to newcomers, the genre can stagnate.
The shmup community faces the same problem: how can you entice new players to try shmups when the existing fanbase will loudly decry any perceived "casualization" of their genre?
Guilty Gear Xrd's training mode succeeded because it didn't dumb down any of the details. Rather, it gave players a suite of tools to learn the mechanics of the game. Whether you were a seasoned fighting game player or a newcomer, Xrd offered you a path to improve yourself.
Shmups are terrible at enticing new players. Often, a shmup will lack any kind of training mode. The handful of shmups that do include a training mode will usually only offer a sparse selection of customization options. A stage select is usually the best that can be hoped for.
Ketsui Deathtiny goes far above the low standards of its peers.
During a playthrough of Arcade mode, you will die. When you die, Ketsui Deathtiny quietly takes a "snapshot", tucking it away in the Bond Develop menu. Each snapshot begins 5 seconds before you died, and you must survive for 10 seconds. The game rewinds a few times, forcing you to complete the section a few times in a row. Players can have up to 25 Bond Develop Mode "snapshots" in their queue.
Bonus points are awarded to players who complete these Bond Develop challenges. The point value of each challenge depends on when you died in the overall run. For obvious reasons, practicing snippets from Stage 1 will not grant as many bonus points as snippets from Stage 4.
Why does this mundane little detail matter? Because it closely mirrors how top shmup players practice these games. When training for a 1-credit-clear (and especially when practicing a high-scoring route), players will make heavy use of save-states and training modes to minimize wasted time.
When you start a run, making an early mistake and then playing out the whole credit is very wasteful in most cases. Instead, you should practice the specific boss, level, or snippet that is giving you a hard time. As explained above, the majority of shmups do not offer these tools, so players either go without the option or they must resort to emulators that offer the tools they need.
One of the most seminal works in the shmup community -- The Full Extent of the Jam -- advocates for exactly this sort of practice technique. Grinding on a section for hours, or days, or weeks is sometimes necessary (depending on how hardcore you are) to achieve your goals in a shmup. It is not unusual for top shmup players to play their game of choice for years, so having access to good tools becomes very important if you're hoping to fast-track your own skill development.
Bond Develop Mode is a game-ification of the old practice of using savestates to learn difficult sections. Players who would otherwise never stumble across this technique now have it included in the game (and it doesn't hurt that Ketsui is one of the best shmups out there).
If you're unsure about the 5-chip distance between your ship and an enemy, there's a gadget for that. If you aren't sure where your ship's hitbox is, a visual indicator can be enabled. For a genre that tends to hide its esoterica, it is wonderful to see these details on full display.
Sadly, I think most people will ignore Deathtiny because shmups aren't everyone's cup of tea. But if you have any interest in learning the shmup genre, I highly recommend it on the merits of the 'gadgets' and the Bond Develop Mode.
---
Aside from the game on display, do you have any other examples of games where the tutorial or training mode helped you learn the deeper mechanics of the game in question?
It's important because as far as retail releases are concerned, Ketsui Deathtiny is now the best entry-point into the shmup genre due to the tools it offers the uninitiated. Not only did M2 ShotTriggers include a host of 'gadgets' that display the inner workings of game, they also included a training tool called'Bond Develop Mode'.
Bond Develop is what makes Deathtiny so important.
Let me sidetrack into Guilty Gear to demonstrate my point:
When you examine forum posts like these on NeoGAF, or if you read various reviews from gaming outlets or Amazon, or if you pay attention to the FGC itself, the praise for Guilty Gear Xrd’s training mode was hard to miss. One might argue that the excellent training tools helped make Xrd the best-selling Guilty Gear title in the franchise and one of the best-selling
Friendliness toward newcomers is a problem in many skill-based, competitive genres. It is an open topic in the fighting game community -- full of passionate opinions on both ends -- about how a company should balance the desires of experienced players against the needs of potential new customers. Fighting games are hard to "get into", and so when a developer extends a hand to bring in newcomers, it's healthy for the genre as a whole. When developers aren't reaching out to the community and to newcomers, the genre can stagnate.
The shmup community faces the same problem: how can you entice new players to try shmups when the existing fanbase will loudly decry any perceived "casualization" of their genre?
Guilty Gear Xrd's training mode succeeded because it didn't dumb down any of the details. Rather, it gave players a suite of tools to learn the mechanics of the game. Whether you were a seasoned fighting game player or a newcomer, Xrd offered you a path to improve yourself.
Shmups are terrible at enticing new players. Often, a shmup will lack any kind of training mode. The handful of shmups that do include a training mode will usually only offer a sparse selection of customization options. A stage select is usually the best that can be hoped for.
Ketsui Deathtiny goes far above the low standards of its peers.
During a playthrough of Arcade mode, you will die. When you die, Ketsui Deathtiny quietly takes a "snapshot", tucking it away in the Bond Develop menu. Each snapshot begins 5 seconds before you died, and you must survive for 10 seconds. The game rewinds a few times, forcing you to complete the section a few times in a row. Players can have up to 25 Bond Develop Mode "snapshots" in their queue.
Bonus points are awarded to players who complete these Bond Develop challenges. The point value of each challenge depends on when you died in the overall run. For obvious reasons, practicing snippets from Stage 1 will not grant as many bonus points as snippets from Stage 4.
Why does this mundane little detail matter? Because it closely mirrors how top shmup players practice these games. When training for a 1-credit-clear (and especially when practicing a high-scoring route), players will make heavy use of save-states and training modes to minimize wasted time.
When you start a run, making an early mistake and then playing out the whole credit is very wasteful in most cases. Instead, you should practice the specific boss, level, or snippet that is giving you a hard time. As explained above, the majority of shmups do not offer these tools, so players either go without the option or they must resort to emulators that offer the tools they need.
One of the most seminal works in the shmup community -- The Full Extent of the Jam -- advocates for exactly this sort of practice technique. Grinding on a section for hours, or days, or weeks is sometimes necessary (depending on how hardcore you are) to achieve your goals in a shmup. It is not unusual for top shmup players to play their game of choice for years, so having access to good tools becomes very important if you're hoping to fast-track your own skill development.
Bond Develop Mode is a game-ification of the old practice of using savestates to learn difficult sections. Players who would otherwise never stumble across this technique now have it included in the game (and it doesn't hurt that Ketsui is one of the best shmups out there).
If you're unsure about the 5-chip distance between your ship and an enemy, there's a gadget for that. If you aren't sure where your ship's hitbox is, a visual indicator can be enabled. For a genre that tends to hide its esoterica, it is wonderful to see these details on full display.
Sadly, I think most people will ignore Deathtiny because shmups aren't everyone's cup of tea. But if you have any interest in learning the shmup genre, I highly recommend it on the merits of the 'gadgets' and the Bond Develop Mode.
---
Aside from the game on display, do you have any other examples of games where the tutorial or training mode helped you learn the deeper mechanics of the game in question?
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