M2 On The Difficulties Of Adding New Modes To Ketsui Deathtiny

Cave’s Ketsui Deathtiny: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi is being brought over to PlayStation 4 as part of M2’s M2 Shot Trigger line of shmup releases, and they recently had an interview where they talked about what’s new, as well as the difficulties faced while implementing them. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

Here are the highlights below:

• Ironically, ‘Super Easy Mode’ was really hard to create. M2 had to employ an outside programmer called Iizuka-san, who looked over Ketsui’s code in order to analyze how the game’s ‘danmaku’ waves were set up, and change it into an easier form. It took around 3-4 months total, then another two months to finalize the changes. The reason they went this far to bring in Super Easy mode was because it was Ketsui, by legendary shmup company Cave. They couldn’t allow themselves to half-heart the process.
• M2 revealed that in Super Easy mode, you’ll be able to meet the true final boss, DOOM, no matter what. This makes some of the hidden features of the game more accessible for players.
• Speaking of extra modes, the crew have brought in the ‘IKD 2007 Special’ version of Ketsui, which was only available in limited amounts at a Cave event back then. They asked Ikeda-san for the program data, and brought it into the release. This was also quite troublesome, because some of the features function differently compared to the arcade release.

• Next is Custom Mode, which offers various options to change up the gameplay. For example, M2 have included a custom option to turn on the Ketsui Bomb, which was a bug in the original arcade release that was stamped out in later versions. You can also show your hurtbox, as well as make the point bosses change forms visible on their health bar. The aim was to bring the game closer to Cave’s more recent releases.
• The final new mode is the Bond Develop mode, which is supposed to help players out with practicing segments they aren’t good at. When you die in Arcade Mode, your record will be noted down, and you can find Bond Fragments in Bond Develop mode that are based on your last 25 records. Choosing one will bring you into 5 seconds before you died, and you must survive for ten seconds. By doing so, you earn points that can even be compared against with other players on online leaderboards. That said, you can’t just abuse this by dying early in Arcade Mode, because the harder the stages cleared before dying, the more points you receive. So it creates a feedback loop of getting better at those stages, then doing better in Arcade Mode to get more points in Bond Develop mode.

Ketsui Deathtiny: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi will come to the PlayStation 4 in Japan on November 29, 2018. It has also appeared in arcades and on the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in Japan.