Cave Story
Cave Story is a 2004 Metroidvania game for Microsoft Windows. It was developed over five years by Japanese independent developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya in his free time. Cave Story features 2D platform mechanics and is reminiscent of the games Amaya played in his youth, such as Metroid and Castlevania. After its initial self-published release, the game slowly gained popularity on the internet. It received widespread critical acclaim for many polished aspects of its design, such as its compelling characters, setting, story, and gameplay. Cave Story is considered by many as a quintessential indie game because of its one-person development team and influence on the video gaming world.
Independent video game developer Nicalis worked with Amaya to port the game to WiiWare and DSiWare in 2010. An enhanced version, Cave Story+, was released for Steam in November 2011, and the original game was released for the Nintendo 3DS in October 2012 with added content. A 3D remake of the game, titled Cave Story 3D, was developed by Nicalis and published by NIS America for the Nintendo 3DS in November 2011. A port of Cave Story+ for the Nintendo Switch was released in June 2017.
Cave Story revolves around Quote, a robot who wakes up suffering from amnesia and explores in diverse cavernous areas in order to uncover his backstory and escape from the cave. The character gains access to new areas as he powers up his weapons by collecting triangular experience crystals and solves various platforming puzzles. Quote speaks to non-player characters scattered around the game world in order to learn more about the world and its inhabitants.
Gameplay
The player controls the on-screen character directly using a keyboard or gamepad. They progress by navigating platforming challenges and shooting enemies with the equipped weapon. When the player collects multiple weapons, they may be toggled at any time with the press of a button. Defeating enemies may yield yellow triangular crystals, which give experience points to weapons when collected, hearts that partially restore their health, or missile ammunition. Weapons may be improved up to level three, but taking damage causes weapons to lose experience and levels. Health and missile capacity upgrades are scattered throughout the game world. The player also interacts with many non-player characters and objects while playing the game.Plot
Setting
Cave Story takes place within the cavernous interior of a floating island. The island is populated by Mimiga, a race of sentient, rabbit-like creatures. A particular species of red flower that grows in the island causes the normally peaceful Mimiga to fall into a violent frenzy when ingested. The island also conceals an artifact called the Demon Crown, which has vast magical powers. An army of robot soldiers were sent to the floating island on a military expedition, seeking to harness the Demon Crown as a weapon for wars on the surface. These robots slaughtered the Mimiga indiscriminately in their search for the crown, but were defeated when the Mimiga decided to eat the red flowers as a last resort. Shortly before the game begins, Professor Booster, the Sakamoto family, and various assistants formed a scientific party to research the island, but they became stranded when their medical doctor, Fuyuhiko Date, managed to acquire the Crown; he then forced the expedition to search for the red flowers.Story
The player awakens in a cave with no memory of how he came to be there. He finds a village of Mimiga, who are being persecuted by the Doctor. The Doctor's servants Misery and Balrog are looking for Sue Sakamoto, a girl who had been transformed into a Mimiga. Not finding her, they mistakenly abduct another Mimiga named Toroko instead. The player finds Sue in the Egg Corridor, where she discovers the egg of a Sky Dragon, which could allow her to escape the floating island if hatched. Sue attempts to rescue her brother Kazuma, but King, the leader of Mimiga Village, captures her and holds her responsible for Toroko's kidnapping. Sue tasks the player with retrieving Kazuma from Grasstown. After freeing him, they meet Professor Booster, who reveals that the Doctor plans to use the red flowers on Mimigas to create an army to take over the surface world. Booster sends the player to the Sand Zone to destroy the red flowers before the Doctor can find them. While there, the player meets Curly Brace, a female robot who also has no memories of her past, and Jenka, an old witch who is Misery's mother and guardian of the red flowers. Jenka calls the player character a "soldier from the surface", one of many who were sent to the island to slaughter the Mimiga. Balrog manages to steal the key to the warehouse containing the red flowers from Jenka, who urges the player to stop them. Before the player can reach the warehouse, however, the Doctor force-feeds the captured Toroko a red flower and fatally injures King, leaving the player to fight the rabid Toroko, who ultimately dies.Misery banishes the player to the Labyrinth deep inside the island as punishment for interfering with the Doctor's plans. Curly Brace has also been thrown into the Labyrinth and the two cooperate to escape. Balrog helps them to move the boulder blocking the exit, revealing his kind nature. The pair find and defeat the Core, a magical creature whose power keeps the island afloat, but the Doctor steps in to save it before the island collapses. Depending on certain conditions, the player may rescue Curly Brace, who had sacrificed her air tank to save the player character. When the player returns to Mimiga Village, they find that the Doctor has captured the Mimiga. In the now-ruined Egg Corridor, Kazuma offers the player a choice to escape the island with him using a Sky Dragon, leading to an alternate ending in which the Doctor conquers the surface world while Kazuma and the player hide in the mountains. The player may instead choose to confront the Doctor and destroy the island's Core, which would return the Mimiga to normal. The player scales the outer wall of the island to reach the Plantation where the Doctor is using the Mimigas as slave laborers to grow red flowers. The Doctor's servants capture the player and place him in a jail cell with Sue. She is taken away before the player wakes up, but her letter reveals that the Doctor was a member of the research expedition that included Sue's family and Professor Booster, but he betrayed them once he found the Demon Crown. Sue directs the player to find her mother who may have a plan to stop the Doctor.
If the player saved Curly Brace earlier, they may find an item to restore her memories. Curly remembers that the player character's name is Quote, and that they were not the killer robots who slaughtered Mimigas in the past. Instead, they were sent to destroy the Demon Crown to prevent its power from falling into the wrong hands.
Quote finds Sue's mother, Momorin, who is building a rocket that will allow access to the top of the island where the Doctor resides. After helping her complete the rocket, Quote confronts Misery and the Doctor. The Doctor has purified the essence of the red flowers into a crystal, which allows him to survive even after Quote kills him. The Doctor's spirit possesses the Core of the island, but Quote succeeds in destroying that as well, causing the island to begin falling to Earth. Unless Quote has saved Curly, restored her memories, and acquired the Booster v2.0 from Professor Booster, Sue will lead Quote to jump off the island. The two are rescued by Kazuma and his Sky Dragon, while Momorin, her assistant Itoh, and the captured Mimiga escape on a helicopter, leaving the rest of the island's inhabitants to their fates.
Should Quote complete the aforementioned tasks, they may proceed into the Blood-Stained Sanctuary, a bonus stage where Curly can be found and rescued; it is also here where Ballos — creator of the Demon Crown and Jenka's younger brother — is imprisoned. A powerful wizard who went insane and destroyed his homeland after being tortured by a jealous king, Ballos was sealed deep within the island by his sister. At some point, his niece Misery forced him to create the Demon Crown, but she and Balrog became cursed to serve whoever possessed it. Additionally, it is stated via narration that the Demon Crown will repair itself upon being destroyed, and it will only truly lose its power if Ballos is killed, necessitating that Quote and Curly kill him.
With the help of Curly Brace, Quote defeats Ballos and stops the source of the negative energy that was causing the island to fall, saving its inhabitants. Balrog saves the two before they are crushed by Ballos' collapsing prison; Balrog had been sent by Misery as thanks for breaking her curse. Quote, Curly Brace, and Balrog leave the island to live out their days in peace.
Development
developed Cave Story in his free time over five years. He began the project when he was in college and continued working on it after getting a job as a software developer. He started by writing the title screen music and programming rudimentary character movements. The idea for the cave setting evolved spontaneously when he created a number of enclosed spaces. Amaya admitted this lack of planning caused "problems down the line" because he did not have dedicated map editing and data management tools. Amaya describes the game as having an "old-fashioned feel", reminiscent of the games he played as a child, like Metroid. More importantly, this "retro" design choice allowed him to create a large amount of art on his own, which would have been impossible for a 3D game.At a Game Developers Conference project post-mortem, he emphasized the role of pragmatic design in shaping the game. While designing the main character, "Quote", Amaya drew inspiration from Mario's appearance, giving him a large, expressive face and a high contrast between his white skin and red pants that made him stand out from the dark cave backgrounds. Most other characters feature either light skin or white clothes for the same reason. To make levels memorable, Amaya designed them around a single theme, such as "warmth" for the Egg Corridor, and "arid and oppressive" for the Sand Zone. Instead of a tutorial level, a concept Amaya dislikes, the first level of the game gives the player two paths, one of which is blocked off until retrieving an item from the other path. This setup, inspired by the opening of Metroid, "lets players feel like they've solved problems on their own" and persists throughout the game. In beta versions of the game, all the enemies were shaped like bars of soap, a concept that evolved into the "Balrog" character. There was also a "frog prince" character who could travel through water more easily. Elements of this beta were incorporated into the Nintendo 3DS version of the game.