Ketsui / YMMV - TV Tropes

Accidental Aesop: It's unlikely CAVE was intentionally trying to send an environmentalist message and just wanted good material for an Excuse Plot, but the backstory of the ice caps melting and causing untold levels of catastrophe sure seems to carry the message of "take steps to avert Global Warming now or else all of these are going to happen."
Awesome Music:
- Manabu Namiki once again provides an awesome soundtrack, this time with a Drum N Bass style. Special mention goes to "DARKENED", "SCAFFOLD", and especially "NO REMORSE". The fifth stage theme, Day of Judgement, deserves a spot here for trading brutal intensity for beautiful notes.
- The "Ketsuipachi" crossover version of the soundtrack is fantastic as well, and notable as having been arranged by an American composer - Jake Kaufman - for an (at the time) Japan-only release.
- The Deathtiny arrange by Daisuke Matsumoto is basically a reimagining of the soundtrack, with great results. Its version of "DARKENED" features warning sirens/klaxons throughout as you take on EVAC's more dangerous machines, and the "CANAL FLEET - Twilight Armada" arrange is a more electornic spin on the original.
Complacent Gaming Syndrome: The majority of players prefer to use the Tiger Schwert over the Panzer Jager, due to having a wider rapid shot and a faster lock-on time, although there are a niche of players who use the latter. It's not that the Panzer Jager is a Low-Tier Letdown, just a bit more difficult to get good results with it.
Difficulty Spike: The game is already hard enough, but Stage 4 is where the gloves really come off, featuring a number of enemies that not only come in groups but also are more durable, making it more difficult to farm '5' chips off of them. And the difficulty never looks back at that point. Story-wise, it makes sense: the stage is called Defensive Line, i.e. you're on EVAC's doorstep.
Good Bad Bugs:
- The original game has the "Ketsui Bomb", a glitch where the bombs just bounce back and forth across the sides of the screen. Since the bombs never detonate, you basically became permanently invincible. If pulled off in Stage 5 on the Ura Loop, it won't trigger Evaccaneer DOOM's counter-invincibility, allowing you to effortlessly defeat it without having to time it out. The '"Deathtiny'' port patches this out, making it only available as a Custom mode toggle.
- Against Cinderella in Ketsui DS, if you press L and R. You can skip the first part of the boss. Althought it is not recommended to do this trick if you're going to save the replay afterward.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The title translates to "determination". This isn't the only bullet hell game about determination anymore. Even more hilariously, since Undertale does not use any kanji for in-game text, the word for "determination", ketsui, is written in katakana...exactly like this game's title.
- The Panzer Jager requires two pilots (like the Tiger Schwert)...and so does a different kind of "Ja(e)ger".
- Ketsui Arrange is a fan-made Game Mod released in 2012 that, among other things, borrows elements from DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Black Label - more specifically, the player-adjustable rank, including the "Red" system that makes the enemies much more aggressive. Ketsui Deathtiny, released in 2018, features an official Arrange Mode, which features a "DIE-DEATH" buff that kicks the enemy difficulty up just like with DFKBL Red mode.
Ho Yay: The four male protagonists fly in teams of two. This is one of the very few CAVE games to have an all-male cast of protagonists. Hmm...
Most Wonderful Sound: "APPROACH YOUR TARGET AND ATTACK! YOUR MISSION STARTS NOW! ARE YOU READY?"
Nightmare Fuel:
- The game over sound effect, aptly titled "HELLFIRE", is a scream that sounds as if it came straight from Hell itself. However, it does have a point of Nightmare Retardant: Said scream is the infamous Howie scream sound effect.
- The fact that World War III broke out due to a climate catastrophe and a MegaCorp is intentionally keeping it going by selling weapons to all sides of the conflict, just so they can sit on fat wads of cash. And because said corporation maintains its own private military, it can basically just say "no" to any sort of regulation, requiring some drastic measures involving a covert Suicide Mission from the United Nations to stop them. Hell, of all the dark, gloomy plots that CAVE is known for (robot girls, psyche-breaking military training, waging a vengeful war over a dying son, corrupt stock broker whisked into a fantasy world, etc), this one is perhaps the most realistic.
Narm Charm: In "Death Label", The same announcer loudly cries "Bomber!" when you get hit and use up your bombs to avoid dying, but the intonation makes it sound more like "Bummer!" as if it's feeling bad for you.
Older Than They Think: This game is well-known for its "time-limited multiplier" mechanic, where the player executes an action to start the multiplier and then they try to destroy as many enemies as possible before the multiplier wears off and they have to activate it again. However, ESP Ra.De. first did something like this five years ago, only with using a special shot to activate the multiplier rather than point-blanking enemies.
Once Original, Now Common: When the game was first released, it was known for having bullets that seemed to have "organic" movements consisting of accelerating and decelerating, as well as seeming to generate extra bullets. With the rise of many other Bullet Hell games that have more complex bullet behaviors, most notably Touhou Project, these "living" bullets aren't really noteworthy anymore. That said, this does not apply to the game as a whole, as it's still regarded as one of CAVE's finest works by shmup enthusiasts today.
Polished Port: Ketsui Deathtiny, courtesy of M2. Not only is it an Arcade-Perfect Port, it comes with two extra arrange modes, extra BGMs^note, a challenge mode, leaderboards, replays, and save states for players to practice and perfect their skills. It's regarded by many as not only the best port of the game and one of M2's finest ports, but one of the best shmup ports period.
Realism-Induced Horror: CAVE games are known for having relatively dark and fleshed-out plots by Shoot 'Em Up standards, but most of them get their Nightmare Fuel from supernatural and science fiction elements. Ketsui, on the other hand, gets its horror from scenarios that could possibly happen in real life, such as global warming / climate change (and there are more to the side effects of such than just higher temperatures and rising sea levels), nations breaking out into war due to resource scarcity, and weapons corporations lining their pockets by selling weapons to various countries with little or no regulation to stop them, with the story averting United Nations Is a Superpower.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Many players were let down by Death Label, expecting to enjoy Ketsui on the DS only to be met with a boss-focused version of the game with an entirely different scoring system.
Tough Act to Follow: Deathtiny became widely regarded as the pinnacle of M2 ports, which created very high expectations for their subsequent shmup ports. Unfortunately, as a result their next M2STG release, ESP Ra.De. Psi, received criticism for not having as many features (modes and soundtracks in particular) compared to Deathtiny. Similarly, Kyukyoku Tiger Heli has to deal with not only having no arrange modes but not even arranged soundtracks and being very polarizing amongst younger shmup fans due to what they perceive as outdated game design and unfair difficulty, further reinforcing this Deathtiny's status as the gold standard for M2 ports.
Underused Game Mechanic:
- Death Label features only one proper stage, the Extra course, which first needs to be unlocked by completing the Death Label course, a feat unto itself even with 20 lives. Then, the stage itself is a shortened version of Stage 5 that's extremely difficult and pits the player against DOOM at the end.
- Like with the other M2STG releases, Deathtiny makes some of the M2 Gadgets exclusive to horizontal mode (and thus unavailable in vertical), most notably the ones for the Chip Radar, the chip counts, the end-of-stage bonus, and the boss loop phase gauge used for the Stages 2 and 5 midbosses.

YMMV / Ketsui

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