Keyboard controls any decent?

[Travis.touchdown]

Dear Deathsmiles fans,

I'm currently downloading Deathsmiles. I'm new to the bullet hell genre, and since the Xbox 360 version received mostly positive reviews, with many of them stating that it's relatively accessible to newcomers (for a CAVE title, anyway), I felt inclined to give it a shot (no pun intended).

Now, I do have a controller, but I often play games when I'm on my notebook.
So, are the keyboard controls any decent? According to a Destructoid review they should be, but I'd also like to hear an opinion from fellow Deathsmiles players here.

Thank you.

[NPC_CO8ALT]

Keyboard is pretty decent. If you are new to bullet hell games, its good for small movements when you are locked down with heavy bullets on-screen.

Controllers for me personally have a more "arcade" feel to it and offers more smooth 8-way movement, but both are perfectly viable for this genre, so try both and use what is comfortable to you.

Good Luck!

[Ricky the "No Guard"]

Keyboard controls are good, but I do not recommend using a crappy notebook keyboard. Keyboards only work well with taller keys.

[Pawnstar]

Never tried with the keyboard, I think a couple keys might be missing, such as changing pages of the high score tables.

Pad and stick is the way to go for this game IMO, but 1.1 is built around the x360 controller.

[fireballcarwar]

Keyboard controls are great, very responsive, although I do have a personal preference for them. You can't rebind movement, it is stuck to the arrow keys, which isn't a problem for me but might be to some people.

[Ricky the "No Guard"]

Originally posted by Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend:

Never tried with the keyboard, I think a couple keys might be missing, such as changing pages of the high score tables.

For the local scoreboard, all buttons flip between today and all-time scores, and you use the joystick to get back to the character select screen.

For the online scoreboard, LB/A and RB/S flip between the various modes.

[Travis.touchdown]

Originally posted by NPC #888:

Keyboard is pretty decent. If you are new to bullet hell games, its good for small movements when you are locked down with heavy bullets on-screen.

Controllers for me personally have a more "arcade" feel to it and offers more smooth 8-way movement, but both are perfectly viable for this genre, so try both and use what is comfortable to you.

Good Luck!

Thank you for your reply, and thanks for everyone else's, too!

I briefly got to play the game, and to my mild surprise, the keyboard controls work like a charm!

I only wish CAVE had put a little more effort into the port, so it wouldn't only show controller button prompts on the menus. But that's a very minor complaint, given that the controls are easy to memorize. Plus, I can switch to controller when I'm on my desktop PC anyway.

On a slightly different note: Deathsmiles' art style is positively amazing! Off to check Google now to see who it's done by.

Cheers

[Pawnstar]

The only keyboard prompt you get is when you are about to exit the game lol