Cave Story is a jumping-and-shooting action game. Explore the caves until you reach the ending. You can also save your game and continue from where you left off.
—Author's description of the game
This description is so humble that it borders on parody. Play now, laugh later.
You wake up in a cave. You shoot your way out of the cave, so you can get to a village in another cave. Then you have to go to a different cave, followed by...Well, it's aptly named.Cave Story is a freeware Metroidvania game by Daisuke Amaya, aka Studio Pixel. The game thrusts you into the action with no explanations, forcing you to figure out the plot by yourself as you go. There are robot soldiers, bunny people called Mimigas, and a Mad Scientist with a magic helmet and a Morally Ambiguous Doctorate trying to Take Over the World.This game was created entirely by one man in his spare time. Daisuke Amaya wrote the scenario, drew the artwork and scenery, animated the sprites, designed all of the levels, composed all of the music, and programmed the entire game engine, all by himself over the course of five years.Its breeding ground on the English-speaking Internet is here. There have been many ports. There's a Mac OS X port available here, and a Linux port available here. A port to the original Xbox also exists, as well as a PSP port, here (requires custom firmware).Also, it's on the Wii, DSI Ware, the Apple Mac Store and, as of November 22nd 2011, on Steam as a commercial version with extra features. It's also available for the 3DS as a remake with complete 3D, new content, and more!Daisuke has confirmed that a sequel is very, very likely.
Accidental Pervert: The hero after finding his partner's panties, even more 'cause they have no use and just lay there in the inventory, however they unlock the owner of those panties as a playable character in the Plus version.
Even though she is defeated off-screen, the main character didn't fare much better against the same foe on his first attempt.
Adaptation Dye Job: Misery's portrait is no longer green in the 3DS remake, much like her actual sprite.
Aerith and Bob: The more important Mimiga have western names (Jack, King, Arthur, Igor, etc.) except for Toroko, which is Japanese, but any self respecting fan also knows of Chie, Kanpachi, Mahin, Sandaime, and Megane..
Affably Evil: Balrog and Misery, especially in the best ending.
All Myths Are True: You're told that a Mimiga that eats a red flower apparently dies shortly thereafter. What actually happens is worse. Much worse.
Remember the red flowers you see in Arthur's house, in the bottom righthand corner? Guess what probably happened to him. Plus when you get attacked OUT OF FREAKING NOWHERE.
All There in the Manual: The names of many NPCs and enemies are only given in the end credits. The writing on the player character's hat (only mentioned once, by someone who doesn't understand what it says) is revealed in Pixel's artwork from the Beta version of the game. And even then it doesn't seem to have an explanation. And that's all there is—in spite of many clues hinting at a large, interconnected backstory, Pixel has said of everything beyond what's shown in the game: "It is up to the player to decide".
Amnesiac Dissonance: Subverted! Quote and Curly think they're robots from a past war who helped kill off the Mimigas, and their amnesia has shifted their allegiance. However, when Curly's memory returns, she remembers that their mission was to destroy the Crown; and that they didn't kill any Mimigas.
And I Must Scream: The True Final Boss. Ballos. Lost control of his magic powers under torture, had to watch himself kill and destroy everything he loved, entombed inside a floating island for god-knows-how-long...
Another Side, Another Story: The WiiWare version lets you earn Curly Story, in which you play as Curly Brace and instead encounter Mr. Traveler throughout the game.
Anyone Can Die: If you haven't played the game yet, be warned that it's not as cute and innocent as it looks in the first place.
Apocalypse How: Never explicitly spelled out, but the first time berserk mimigas reached the surface, humans built a small army of robot soldiers to go to the island and kill everything there. Crazed mimigas under the control of the Doctor could easily lead to societal collapse, because he is smart and insane enough to wipe out civilization as we know it.
Art Major Biology: As pointed out by the author of a walkthrough, the "Jellyfish Juice," which is presumably made of, well, jellyfishjuice, is oddly kept in jars in treasure chests inside the jellyfish. Wouldn't things be interesting if people kept their blood and internal organs in jars in treasure chests inside of them?
Assassin Outclassin: Balrog clumsily attempts to ambush Mr. Traveler about five times and hilariously fails every time.
Attack Its Weak Point: All of the game's nastiest bosses also happen to only be vulnerable by shooting them in the face/mouth/eyes during a specific part of their attack pattern, always the part where they are spamming a ridiculous number of bullets onto the screen. Always.
Also, Ballos's second and third forms, though they don't disappear at any point.
Badass: Quite a few characters (specifics below), but the most noticeable being King due to the fact that he takes out Balrog, a recurring midboss that's relatively tough against Quote, in a single hit in a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
And even after he dies, he still kicks plenty of ass. If you level up his Blade weapon to level 3, Quote instead throws King's ghost at enemies while he slashes away at everything.
Badass Adorable: "Mr. Traveler" Quote and Curly. Heck, due to the art style, nearly all the badasses are like this, but those two really take the cake.
Monster X could qualify for this trope, once you see its defeated form.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: After Malco is reactivated, he declares you a threat and then is stomped into the ground (literally) by Balrog.
Misery is subject to this a LOT of times, but instead of her being upstaged, she just can't be bothered to fight you. Misery is very resourceful, and loves using resources on-hand to kill you. This includes powering-up Balrog to fight you, provoking a gigantic monster from beneath the sand, and simply throwing you into the Labyrinth, which you spend a third of the game trying to escape. It's cathartic when you finally get to take her on.
Baleful Polymorph: Sue and Itoh, humans whom Misery transformed into Mimiga. Then right before the final boss battle, the Doctor transforms Sue and Misery into monsters to fight alongside him.
Also Misery turning Balrog into Balfrog.
Ballistic Bone: Some skull-type enemies shoot them. As well, you fight the True Final Boss of the game on a floor made of bones. In the first two parts of the fight, he frequently performs a Ground Pound which sends out a shock wave of bones capable of hurting you. In the third part of the fight, he drops flaming skulls on you.
Also averted in the Sand Zone: King arrives too late to save Toroko.
Big Entrance: In Balrog's first appearance, there's an ominous pounding on a door, then he smashes down the door and the wall around it, shouting (depending on the translation) either "Huzzah!" or "Oh yeah!"
Big Ol' Eyebrows: Santa sports them in the high-resolution graphics.
BLAM Level: The outer wall is by far the weirdest place in the game. The gravity is odd, treating the left side of the screen as 'down' for everything except you. The enemies don't seem bizarre at first, but then you encounter the giant cat ghosts that shoot yarn balls at you. And living at the bottom is a group of people that are five inches high.
Bleak Level: Mimiga Village, specifically when you return there after escaping the Labyrinth.
Blind Idiot Translation: Just one line, actually, in an otherwise superb translation. The secret password in the Plantation is Litagano Motscoud. Pretty random, right? Well, actually, in Japanese, it's the reverse of the game's name: "Doukutsu Monogatari" "Do-U-Ku-Tsu-Mo-No-Ga-Ta-Ri" becomes "Ri-Ta-Ga-No-Mo-Tsu-Ku-U-Do". The translator missed the intended meaning and just transliterated it as best he could. The WiiWare version uses "Yrots Evac". It's not really that bad, considering it's not really supposed to mean anything, being a password.
Wind Fortress introduces a new one a mysterious machine that makes Curly clones.
Bonus Feature Failure: Curly mode in the WiiWare version simply changes some dialogue and the places of the main character and Curly, and Sanctuary Time Attack denies you of missiles.
To be fair, Time Attack lets you use both the blade and the Nemesis, which is more than a fair trade in B3.
Weapons have levels. Most defeated enemies drop energy crystals, which can — similarly to experience points — be picked up to level up the currently selected weapon, but if you get hit, the current weapon loses energy and, if no energy is left, is delevelled.
Breather Level: Plantation is rather easy compared to Outer Wall and what's to come. Most of the enemies in this area are rather weak or easily avoidable, save points are plentiful and there are no bosses.
Brutal Bonus Level: Although its official name is "Sacred Grounds" (or "Sanctuary"), a sign hidden near the entrance clearly says "Welcome to Hell!" And the angels turn into demons when they die and drop the illusion entirely when they surround the Bonus Boss.
Wind Fortress is harder.
Bullfight Boss: Balrog is a ridiculously weak version, Monster X quite a threatening one.
The Muscle Doctor as well.
But Thou Must: Subverted. If you save Curly, then go to the mushroom to get his cure for her amnesia, he will say, "But in reality, you don't really want this, right?" Upon answering no, he'll say, "You really want it that bad?" Answer yes, and he says, "Are you sure you want it?" Answer yes, and he says, "But in reality, you don't really want this, right?" Answer no, and he'll finally give the Mushroom badge. It really isn't what you want, although you still have to get it to get what you do want.
Averted during the very first boss fight. Balrog asks if you want to fight him with that "pea shooter of yours". If you say no, he'll leave.
Artwork of the Prinnies has been released for the 3DS version, hinting in their inclusion. Which given Nippon Ichi, this is to be expected.
The protagonist, Quote, and Curly Brace themselves cameo as fully-playable classes (if on opposing teams) in Gang Garrison 2.
Captain Ersatz: Some enemies are shout-outs to classic videogames. For example, Sandcrocs appeared in a Mega Man game, and enemies looking like Basil were found in the Metroid series. Also, the Muscle Doctor looks a lot like the Cyclops summon from Final Fantasy Tactics.
Catch Phrase: Balrog's "Huzzah!", which got changed to a Kool-Aid Man-style "OH YEAH!" in the WiiWare version, and can be either/or in the Cave Story+ version due to a mod that returns the original Fan Translation. In the original Japanese, it's just "Heeyyyy!"
Colony Drop: What Ballos does in his final attempt to kill himself and stop his out of control magic. In the good ending, Curly and Quote kill him and stop the island.
Cool Bike: A rather nifty hoverbike can be found in the Grasslands. At least, until Kazuma takes a crack at riding it...
Cutscenes: Probably the only thing you'll hate about this game is the fact that these are unskippable and you'll have to watch them every time you retry a boss battle. Though at least the Scrolling Text speeds up a bit on subsequent viewings or if you hold down the Jump or Fire button.
There's also the midi versions of all the songs in the Wii version. YMMV on whether they sound better than the final instrumented versions, but according to the composer for the remixes, the final versions sound little like he intended. Also includes some tracks that didn't make it to the final version, such as a version of "Plantation" that uses the main theme in a style more similar to "Plant."
Cute 'Em Up: The Nemesis fires rubber duckies. It's a wonder they don't heal the enemy.
Damn You, Muscle Memory: In most PC games, pressing the Escape key will pause the game and bring up a save/load/quit menu or somesuch, and pressing Escape again will close the menu and send you back to the game. In Cave Story, pressing Escape brings up the menu — and pressing Escape again quits the program without confirmation.
Also, if you upgrade from the DSi ware version to the 3DS version, the programmers switched the jump and fire button for no apparent reason.
Degraded Boss: Igor. He appears as a regular enemy at the Balcony. He's even more powerful than before, shooting more energy balls at once and having more HP. However he never uses his punch attack, and you have more powerful weapons and more HP.
Pixel Thinks Of Everything: If you beat the game with Mr. Little still in your inventory (i.e. without returning him home), then after the last cutscene he interjects "...Aren't you forgetting something?!"
It is possible to reach the final bosses and beat the game still wearing the Mimiga Mask. The end credits illustrations are even tweaked to reflect this.
If you backtrack to earlier zones or proceed to Final Cave wearing the Mimiga Mask, you won't ever get stuck because you can traverse every zone without using the Booster except for Final Cave (Hidden) and Sacred Grounds.
If you try to take the sprinkler from the Mimiga Village (in order to deliver it to Momorin), you'll get the message "It's fixed firmly to the ground!".
A small one; All of Jenka's puppies have their own names and descriptions in your inventory as you carry them.
Difficulty Spike: And how. Things up to Plantation are relatively easy with save and refill points scattered around. However, Last Cave, if you're going for the best ending, ramps up the difficulty a lot. After a little breather at the Balcony, you'll have to defeat three bosses in a row with no refills in between, unless you find the easter egg after the second one. But wait, there's more! If you want to get the best ending. You'll have to go through the hard Bonus Level Of Hell with no saves (or heal points) onward. And then there are two bosses, the last one which is a Sequential Boss. Aaaah! After that, Monster X doesn't seem that bad after all!
Draco Lich: The eventual fate of some of the dragons in the Egg Corridor.
Dual Boss: The Sisters. And a trio boss, Undead Core, with Misery and Sue
Dummied Out: There's a picture of Sue as a human included among the sprites that show up when a character is speaking. Since Sue doesn't turn back into a human until the end credits, the sprite goes unused.
Dying as Yourself: As if taking down Mimigas under the Red Flower's influence wasn't depressing enough, scripted battles with frenzied Mimigas have them morph into their normal selves right before dying.
Easy Mode Mockery: Picking easy mode will make the player character wear a yellow costume (As opposed to the normal Red), when this costume was first announced many Fans cried out a lot, when they did not realize that there were various difficulty modes for the game.
On the flip side of Hard Mode Badassery, picking Hard mode turns the player character into Male Curly Brace, AKA Beta Blue Quote. This design is similar to the design used in the beta version of Cave Story (Only differences are a lighter blue and Blond Hair with tan skin opposed to black hair and white skin) when the player character was named Curly Brace of said design, however the name Curly Brace was transferred into the final female version of Curly Brace.
Earn Your Happy Ending: The path to the happy ending is far more hazardous than the path to the bittersweet one.
Flunky Boss: Many, many boss battles are of this type. The battle with the Undead Core actually has two levels of this, as one of the flunkies is itself a Mook Maker. This is because, with the weapon level system, the game works better if there is almost always something you can shoot to get power crystals back if you get hurt. Most of the bosses which don't actually summon minions have projectiles which can be shot and drop powerups anyway.
Floating Continent: The cave you wake up in at the beginning of the game is part of an interconnected series of caves inside a floating island — the setting for the adventure.
The game actually does a fairly good job of hiding the fact that the island's floating for quite some time. It's easy to assume that you're in an underground network of caves until the nature of the island is spelled out for you.
Floating in a Bubble: Misery's (and the Doctor's) favoured method of capturing and transporting people.
Foe Tossing Charge: Mimigas (especially the ones mutated by the demon flowers) and Balrog love to do this.
Frickin' Laser Beams: The Spur, and only when it is fired between Level 2 and 3. Firing it when its EXP. bar is maxed out falls into Wave Motion Gun territory.
Game Mod: The original PC freeware version became (somewhat) easy to mod once the tools were developed. Also, Curly Mode in the Wii version is based off a well-known sprite hack for the PC version.
Glass Cannon: King. He defeats Balrog in a single slash, but gets defeated himself with a single attack and bleeds out several minutes later. Considering that Misery's thunder blasted him across the room you'd expect him to be at least very screwed. This is reflected in the weapon you get from him, which contains his soul. At level 3, it is very powerful but any hit will drop it down to level 2.
Curley Brace, to a degree. In actual gameplay, she's quite literally invincible, but her Plot Armor is made of tin foil.
Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: Somewhat exacerbated by the color scheme of the protagonist's head, which, to the untrained eye, may appear as a sideburn, an eye, and a nose, rather than two eyes and part of an antenna, since the character appears in semi-profile.
This is even preserved with the 3D models of the 3DS remake.
Guest Star Party Member: Curly accompanies you like an Attack Drone throughout Labyrinth M. If you save her life and restore her memory, she will rejoin you in Sacred Ground.
Guide Dang It: You will not get the best ending on your first playthrough. Accept this fact and enjoy the game.
In short: go to the Balcony, go to the bookshelf in the Prefab Building, and smack your forehead.
The Spur. Even if you DID reject the various replacements to the Polar Star, by the time you can access the area again, you may have either forgotten or not realized you could get back to that first area again.
The Curly sidequest. Just to get the item that starts it, you have to ignore a very attention grabbing event that gives you an important item early right before a boss battle, and then notice another item in an out-of-the-way place. Still, that looks positively tame compared to then having to stop into a small save cabin with her on your back, attempting to sleep in the bed, reading the book on the shelf after having read the computer screen — this being the only time a bookshelf is anything more than ancillary exposition, so you may not even know it's possible to do that — then either saving or leaving and coming back to let her sleep it off so you can take her with you, with no indication that she actually pulled through; even then, at the end of the waterway, she apparently dies anyway, in a scene that's identical whether you drained her or not. You then have to find the hidden room where she is, remember the then-unreachable room way back at the beginning, realize that you have to accept the offer of something you don't actually want, and then read its description before you leave. It takes a guide or clairvoyance to realize you're still in it after the waterway, and that or a lot of patience to finish the last segment.
Heart Container: Although could be changed to Energy Tank, considering its appearance and the awesome Metroid-style riff that plays when you pick it up.
Heel Face Turn: Balrog, and Misery as well. Balrog reveals that she was the one who sent him to rescue you after you defeat Ballos.
Heroic Albino: Curly Brace and the protagonist. Probably due to their robotic nature. Maintained in the official art, often ignored in fanart.
The Wiiware version Palette Swaps the protagonist if you play a difficulty level other than Original — and in the hardest mode, he's tan-skinned and blond-haired. Huh. Curly is unaffected.
Heroic Mime: From context, it can be induced that the protagonist is speaking, but the player isn't privy to most of his lines.
And in Curly Story mode, in the scene where the two meet, he is STILL a heroic mime, while Curly says what our hero presumably said originally. Except when you force-feed him the Ma Pignon — and even then it's ONE line.
Quote: Curly? It's me! Quote!
Heroic Sacrifice: After the fight with the Core, you drown. Curly gives you her oxygen tank to save you, drowning in your place. You do have a chance to save her, however. It's a remarkably sad moment if you fail to save her, and as you leave the room where she lies the door clangs ominously shut behind, while some of the game's saddest music plays.
He Was Right There All Along: Monster X and the Core are completely inert and harmless until the boss music kicks in.
Holiday Mode: Playing on Christmas or Halloween in the Wii version will change your sprite.
The Holiday Mode for the PC versions is frankly insane. Nearly every asset in the game is altered, including the music, sprites, backgrounds, and enemies.
Humans Are Bastards: "Humans can be terrible creatures indeed..." Just to make it clear it was the jealousy of a king over Ballos that made him go under prison and, according the game, a very, very, cruel torture leading him to insanity and making his magic go crazy, too.
On the other hand, it's also very likely that Ballos wasn't quite as innocent as the legend claimed, either. According to the Wii version, Ballos deliberately let his power grow wild and didn't fear any retribution towards his actions, and it was his own selfishness that resulted in this. He also implies that thanks to his actions, his powers murdered his family.
Ill Kill You: What King vows to the Doctor, just after finding that Toroko has been force-fed red flowers... Also what Ballos says before fighting you.
BallosLong, long have I waited... Waited for the one who would finally subdue my magic's fury. Now, kill me! Or I — shall kill YOU!!
Impossible Item Drop: Monsters of all kind tend to drop experience crystals, floating hearts and missiles.
Inexplicable Treasure Chests: There are treasure chests scattered all over the place, including inside a few monsters. Why they aren't opened already, is up to imagination.
Infant Immortality: The Mimiga children fighting you alongside Curly can't be killed or permanently disabled; shots only stun them for a period of time. Unfortunately, Toroko was out of such luck, sadly foreshadowed by the death of Igor.
It's foreshadowed earlier than that, when you first meet Toroko in the shack. After she freaks out, you have to shoot her to calm her down.
Sue in the fight against the Undead Core. You can knock her down with sustained fire, and knock her out with enough damage, but she gets back up after the fight ends.
Informed Ability: Supposedly, the Demon Crown is a magical artifact so powerful that entire armies have to be used to defeat any given wearer of it. The only powers we see the Doctor using with it in-game are teleportation and, er, floating. Also lasers/fireballs later on, but since he didn't use those until he extracted the Red Crystal, they probably weren't because of the crown.
While he has the credentials, fans' affection for Balrog involves quite a bit of ignoring his misdeeds considering he gloatingly force-fed Toroko the red flowers; possibly the most horrifically palpable part of the game's Sugar Apocalypse. In his defense, he was forced to do it due to a curse, and the Demon Crown may have been inflicting More than Mind Control.
Jump Physics: Really weird ones at that, but they're wonderfully intuitive. You more glide than jump. Which is what prevents some new players that are used to NES-style platformers from even leaving the first cave.
Kaizo Trap: The Heavy Press boss in the final zone will fall through the floor after it's defeated. Better not be in the way when it does. It's fairly obvious if you've met a similar fate from its smaller brethren.
Minor example: contact with Puu Black still damages you after it's defeated.
Killer Rabbit: Mimigas dosed with the red flowers. Literally!
Late Arrival Spoiler: Some sources that refer to Cave Story apparently don't understand that the protagonist's name is supposed to be a spoiler, and therefore throw the name about regardless. If you haven't read it already on this page, it's Quote.
The DSi version tries to avoid this by calling him "Mister Traveler" in the manual. For that matter, all the unspoilered references to him are also that on this page now, or should be at least.
Leitmotif: Balrog, the Doctor and Ballos have them.
Lethal Joke Weapon: The Nemesis. On its lowest power level, it fires devastating bolts at very high speed. But as it gets powered up, it gets weaker! On its highest setting? It shoots rubber duckies. To add insult to injury, to get it you have to trade a powerful weapon that has sentimental value to the player character. On the other hand, it's quite powerful as long as you DON'T power it up. Gets quite tricky when one crystal is enough to take it up a level and you're paying attention to things other than the swarms of little bouncing triangles. Which is all the time.
The Bubbler. It shoots bubbles. But on level three, the Bubbles form a shield, and when they burst, they shoot projectiles that they can be fired all at once, or be spammed as a machine-gun.
Let's Meet the Meat: Ma Pignon doesn't want to be eaten. Thankfully, he's a complete prick about it, so most won't feel too bad about feeding him to Curly.
Let's You and Him Fight: Curly assumes you're there to kill the Mimigas, and attacks you before you have a chance to explain yourself.
Level Map Display: There's a map item that can be acquired early and can be handy as it shows all hidden passages.
Lift of Doom: Two are present in the Labyrinth: the first requires utilization of the hovering Jump Physics to avoid either death by spikes or death by falling platform; the second, arguably simpler lift comes immediately after, and only needs to be tricked into rising without you in its path.
Also present when ascending to the Final Cave, though in a much more deadly fashion: watch out for those Presses!
Like a Badass out of Hell: Inversion. First you fight your way through hell/the sacred grounds, then once you kill Ballos, Balrog performs a double inversion by falling/smashing his way into hell to get to you, then flies you and Curly out of there. Honestly, a Deus ex Machina like that was preferable to another escape sequence after fighting Wizard Satan.
Load-Bearing Boss: The Core. When it is almost completely defeated, the villains swoop in and inform you that it's the only thing keeping the island airborne; they then zombify the Core to save the island. Near the end of the game, when the Doctor possesses the Undead Core, you're forced to destroy it for good, and the island begins falling. Then Ballos inverts this; since Ballos was the one pulling the island down, defeating him saves the island from destruction.
Lost Forever: Aside from the Mutually Exclusive Powerups, there are several items that you only ever get one chance to collect. Most of them (such as the Tow Rope) are necessary only to get the best ending, while others (such as Chaco's lipstick and the Alien Badge) don't do anything and seem to only be there for the sake of 100% Completion. Some of them actually say how they don't do anything.
If you save in the shack that houses the entrance to the Sacred Grounds after taking down the Undead Core, you can no longer return to the overworld.
Low Level Advantage: The Nemesis actually weakens if you level it up. At Level 3, it shoots rubber ducks instead of lightning bolts. The Level 2 Blade can deal more damage than the Level 3 Blade if you spam itin your enemy's face.
Luck-Based Mission: There's a corridor in the Sacred Grounds/Bloodstained Sanctuary, where blocks, both large and small, rain down upon you completely randomly. Regardless of size, they all do ten damage, which can add up pretty quickly. To make matters worse, the corridor is also filled with Goddamned Bats. If you take five damage from the bats and run/use the Booster 2.0 as fast as possible, it's significantly easier.
Magikarp Power: The very first weapon. You have two opportunities to trade or upgrade it into something better; if you refuse both of them, you can get it remodeled into the game's most useful gun ... hey! Why are you kicking yourself all of a sudden?
The Bubbler, which at the first level shoots pathetically weak bubbles at short range. It upgrades to a moderately useful rapid-fire stream of bubbles, and upgrades again into an awesome all-rounder weapon which can hit at long range, shield you from enemies, and charge up for a hail of bullets.
MacGuffin: The Demon Crown (before the game starts), and the red flowers.
Macross Missile Massacre: Balrog uses this in one of the fights with him, and you can get a miniaturized one of your own via the level 3 Missile Launcher.
Malevolent Architecture: Of course. And Chaco's fireplace as a passageway in Grasstown. And why does Santa have a deathtrap in his house?
Meaningful Name: Misery sure loves making others... well, miserable.
Throughout the game, Professor Booster provides you with special jetpacks called... Boosters.
Metroidvania: Definitely influenced by this genre, but it's actually fairly linear with very few sidequests, and contains at least four distinct areas that don't obviously interact other than via teleporter. (Start Cave/Mimiga Village/Labyrinth/Waterway, Egg Corridor/Outer Wall/Plantation/Balcony/Final Cave/Sacred Grounds, Grasstown, and the Sand Zone.)
Missing Secret: In the inventory screen, there are six spaces for weapons, yet the most weapons you can have in the game at one time is five; this could probably be explained by saying that there was supposed to be another weapon originally, but it was Dummied Out.
Mood Whiplash: Towards the end of the Sand Zone, things get a little dark.
Most Gamers Are Male: If you sleep in the bed of Chaco, the purple Mimiga, at the right time, you'll get her lipstick and awake to see her sleeping in the same bed too. Note that this happens right after she asks you if you want to "go through" her "fireplace," and recommends that you use "jellyfish juice". Exactly how a robot is implied to have sex with a rabbit is left as an exercise to the reader. Later on, you can acquire your new female partner's panties. They don't actually do anything; they just sit in your inventory for you to look at.
Even worse- the Steam Achievement for getting the lipstick is "Ladies Man"
In the WiiWare version's Curly Story mode, you can still pull off the Chaco's Lipstick easter egg. Yeah. On a similar note, if you do the panties Easter egg, do you think you'll find ... Quote's Jock Strap, maybe? No, you still find the panties, now labeled as "Your Panties". ...Yeap. In the Curly sprite hack for the PC version (which the Wii version's Curly mode is supposedly based off of), Curly's Panties are changed to "Quote's Briefs"
Multiple Endings: Several characters may die or survive depending on your actions, and the results will be reflected in the cut-scene at the standard ending. It's even possible to get a Bad Ending by accepting one character's offer to run away in the middle of the game. Overall, there are three main endings total, with slight variations depending your actions.
One variation is beating the game while still wearing the Mimiga Mask. Misery comments about how ridiculous the character looks, and the end credit illustrations are tweaked to reflect the character wearing the mask.
Mutually Exclusive Powerups: There are three possible upgrades to the Polar Star, your first weapon: the Machine Gun, the Snake, and the Spur. You can only get one of them. Similarly, you can only get the Booster 2.0 if you don't acquire the Booster 0.8.
If you can locate a certain NPC, he'll offer to exchange your King's Sword for his Nemesis gun.
Nice Hat: The protagonist, who miraculously keeps it on throughout the entire game. According to official art, it has "Curly Brace" written on it, although it was made at a time when this was going to be the character's name.
Nintendo Hard: Things are quite bearable until you get to Misery or Last Cave, depending on your booster version in which case it becomes Nintendo Hard. And then there's the Bonus Level Of Hell and Ballos. UGH. Not to mention the aptly named "Hard" mode in which your protagonist becomes a One Hit Point Wonder.
No-Gear Level: Oddly averted. When the protagonist is captured in the Plantation, he gets thrown in jail at one point, but his captors don't bother to take any of his weapons away.
But they didn't need to. He apparently couldn't find a way out before reading the note. If anything, it's THAT they should have taken away.
No Name Given: The protagonist. Also, the Doctor. However, if you restore Curly's memory, you learn your name is Quote. And, later, you find out that the Doctor's name is Fuyuhiko Date.
Non-Standard Game Over: A simple "You were never seen again." if you fall off the Outer Wall. The worst ending can be considered a Non Standard Game Over, since rather than a series of scenes followed by credits, there's one scene, narrated with a "You have died"-like box, followed by nothing.
No Plot? No Problem!: Subverted. The game starts in a typical platform cave with no plot information given, and even the author's description of the game (see quote at the top) seems to be written with the purpose of making people believe it has no actual plot. Then the player encounters more and more actual characters and exposition, until you have a detailed story.
One Bullet at a Time: Most weapons have a certain limit on the maximum amount of shots — three polar star bullets, four Snake shots, two Nemesis bolts or one high-level Spur laser can exist at once. Only one Blade shot can exist at a time, but each blade deals a great amount of damage and (unless on level 3) the shot disappears when hitting an enemy, making it the deadliest weapon at point blank.
One-Hit Kill: The Blade (again), which is strong enough to one-shot most enemies, even at its Level 1 strength.
One Hit Point Wonder: Hard mode removes all Heart Containers from the entire game, forcing you to survive with only 3 HP. Against enemies and bosses that frequently do much more damage per hit.
One-Hit Polykill: A charged-up Spur attack can pass through numerous Mooks, though most bosses stop the shot after one hit. The Fireball can hit two targets, and Blade lvl 2 can hit three targets. The Snake can even pass through terrain!
One-Winged Angel: Happens a hell of a lot, sometimes in multiple phases.
In the Wiiware version, the protagonist's costume is a different color, depending on what difficulty level you're playing. In Easy mode, the red tones in his outfit are now Yellow and in hard mode, they are now Blue, his skin is Tan and is blonde.
The enemies you encounter in First Cave reappear in multiple colors throughout the game.
Paper-Thin Disguise: The Mimiga mask which tricks half of the characters, including Professor Booster. Misery and The Doctor even have special dialogue if you manage to get there without trading the mask back to Sue for your jetpack.
Phrase Catcher: "You're a soldier from the surface, aren't you?"
Physical God: Jenka and Ballos are "far beyond the power of mortals", capable of powerful magical feats and having lived for what seems to be several times longer than normal human lifespans. However, they are never stated to be gods, and Jenka hints that she will eventually have to die if you visit her late in the game.
Point of No Return: There are no true points of no return — you eventually escape the Labyrinth after getting thrown in it, and if you've unlocked the Bonus Level Of Hell, there's a book on the shelf that will ask you if you want to give up on it and offers to "rewind time" so you can get the normal ending.
Power Incontinence: The Doctor after his first form is defeated. And of course Ballos, who became this by being tortured by an unnamed king.
Powers of Two Minus One: Occur in a few places (for example, dying on one of the instant death spikes deals 127 damage).
Remixed Level: The "Egg Corridor (?)". Yes, the question mark is part of its name.
Respawning Enemies: Whenever you move between "rooms", the enemies will respawn. A couple of areas, such as the Egg Corridor, will also periodically throw flying enemies at you.
Restart at Level One: Happens, twice, on the path to 100% Completion: "You feel a black wind blow through you. All weapons dropped to Level 1!" Though you're almost guaranteed to have at least one weapon — the Spur, the Nemesis, or the Blade — that still deals out good damage at Level 1. Arguably, the de-leveling in Sacred Grounds is an equalizer, so that your chance of success isn't affected by how well you fared in the preceding boss fight.
Retraux: 16-bit graphics and a TurboGrafx 16-esque sound driver for a computer game released in 2004. One of the few games to be unintentionally retraux — development actually began in 1999, but the sheer length of development (and all by one person) took the game from "slightly out-of-date" to "retro SNES throwback".
There's an "Air" counter underwater, and at one point you're informed "you can breathe" indicating a working and essential respiratory system. The robots can also receive medical care and medicine.
Rushmore Refacement: Those statues of the Demon Crown wearers can be revisited right before the fight with the True Final Boss — shooting them turns them into statues of you, King, Toroko, and Curly Brace. And you get powerups for doing so.
Scenery Porn: The 3DS version contains wonderfully detailed backgrounds.
Scenery Gorn: The Egg Corridor after it gets damaged.
Schmuck Bait: A sign placed next to some Spikes of Doom clearly warns "One touch means instant death!" Unfortunately, the swathes of spikes littered throughout the rest of the game do not have a similar warning — neither are they so easy to avoid. Of course, when you first see this, just about ANYTHING kills you instantly.
Schrödinger's Gun: There's a number of plausible explanations for why your decision to talk to Professor Booster determines whether he lives or dies. For example, if you talk to him, you can take his invention, the Booster v0.8, from him so you can use it. Using it is the only way to get out of the pit he (and now you) have fallen into, and you can't take him with you when you use the Booster v0.8 to escape. However, your decision to talk with Booster also determines whether a tow rope in the very securely locked room adjacent is loose or stuck which affects whether you can get the good ending or not. Possibly the only genuine Plot Hole in the entire game.
Sprite Polygon Mix: Classic Mode in the 3DS version does this, retaining the original character, enemy and item sprites, but uses 3D backgrounds.
Screen Shake: The whole game after defeating the Undead Core.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Two-thirds through, one of your allies gains a means of escape, and encourages you to run away with him, rather than staying to fight. You can take him up on this offer; however, doing so gets you the worst ending.
Sequel Hook: The original game ends rather neatly, but it's never fully explained just what the island is, or why the surface tried to attack it. And in the latest remake (released after Pixel began talking about a potential sequel), it's revealed in a possibly canon sequence that someone or something was making Curly clones in the Wind Fortress.
The surface was trying to get ahold of the Demon Crown, according to Curly.
The "found a heart container" jingle is quite similar to the Metroid one. The Jellies may also be a Metroid reference. Also, you the first weapon you get is a laser gun, followed by missiles.
While we're still talking about Steam achievements, the acquirement for getting the Alien Medal is called "Here's Johnny!"
The 3D diorama before you boot up the 3DS version looks like something out of 3D Dot Game Heroes.
Skippable Boss: The very first boss, as well as "The Sisters." Although the first one is more ironic: Balrog actually asks you if you're going to fight him, and just leaves if you say no...
The Sisters are not so obvious, however. And skipping them involves skipping a missile expansion, which, given the ease of the boss fight, is completely worth getting.
Spam Attack: The Bubbler's Level 3 shot allows you to do this if you hold down the fire button for a few seconds first.
In the boss battle with the Doctor, his second form has an attack which shoots out a huge amount of red bats.
Spikes of Doom: With varying lethality from Grasstown point on. Last Cave and Sacred Grounds are filled with them.
The normal spikes simply cause a lot of damage. The ones that look like laser spikes, on the other hand...
Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: The Presses, especially later on in the Plantation, both versions of the Last Cave, and a few in the Sacred Grounds.
Speedrun: The Nikumaru Counter, specifically used to time any attempts at the Bonus Level Of Hell. World record time is about 2:17 for those of you who are curious.
Wind Fortress also has the ability to do this.
Stalactite Spite: Revisited Egg Corridor. Stalactites hurt enemies too though.
Stationary Boss: Heavy Press and Ballos' last form, though in the latter's room everything you can step on either moves or damages you.
Stealth Pun: To craft a bomb, you need to get coal. You find the coal in the fireplace of a Mimiga named Santa.
Sugar Apocalypse: Once you reach the end of the Sand Zone, it becomes obvious fairly quickly that this one's not completely sweet and cuddly.
Superweapon Surprise: The red flowers' effect. They're so secret, Mimigas no longer know the truth about them.
Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded if you talk to the caged mimiga child during the fight with the doctor.
Interesting priorities you've got.
Tears of Blood: The zombie dragons in the wrecked Egg Corridor.
Teleport Spam: When you fight the Doctor's first form, he'll frequently send a double-helix energy ray at you, and by the time you jump over it to get to him, he just teleports again. Yay.
Theme Naming: "Curly Brace" and "Quote" are (computer programmers' terms for) the { and " symbols, respectively. Also note that on a keyboard, the curly brace key is directly on top of the quote key. Curly's adopted Mimiga children have the last name Colon (unless you have a certain translation; see Engrish above).
Also, the leader of the Mimigas is named King and the second-in-command is named Jack, as in the cards.
The two guardians of the Mimiga Village were King, and the now-deceased Arthur.
The angel enemies in Sacred Ground appear to be named for flat-topped hills: Bute (one letter off from Butte) and Mesa.
Jenka and Ballos have names taken from dance styles.
There Was a Door: But it was just too small for Balrog, so he has to bust through the wall, door included. Likely why his catch phrase got changed to a Kool-Aid-Man-style "OH YEAH!" in the Wiiware release.
The Voiceless: Your main character has virtually no dialogue of his own. Even when you're playing the game as Curly.
In the WiiWare version, he does talk, but only if you get the mushroom and meet with him in the Plantation.
Tomato Surprise: Kind of. The main character is revealed to be a Ridiculously Human Robot one-third into the game. The surprise of this revelation depends entirely on whether you noticed the robot ears on his sprite before this point — they are small and easy to miss. At least one of the NPCs didn't notice them either.
Another one that's mentioned in passing, and later becomes important. Being a game called "Cave Story", you wouldn't expect the surface to be below you.
Also, one of the chtulu points out "you will lose all your energy soon enough." Hinting at his robot nature early.
Too Awesome to Use: The Life Jar, to the point you'll forget you have it when you really, really need it. You'll want to save it 'till the Bonus Level Of Hell anyway. Played with because thankfully, you can go back and get another any time you use it up if you're able to backtrack.
Too Dumb to Live: Misery in the final fight. Defying and trying to attack the Doctor, even if he is technically dead, is a very bad idea. Unless you're Quote.
Also, the king who imprisoned Ballos. Torturing an immortal person with powers you cannot comprehend? Bad idea.
Took A Shortcut: No matter where you go, Curly Brace will get there ahead of you. However, the shortcuts appear rather tough on her, since she's usually heavily injured by the time you get there.
Trailers Always Spoil: The recent video interview for the Wiiware version has the game playing in the background, showing off several areas. This includes Sacred Grounds. IGN's one-paragraph description of the game spoils the player character's name, which you only learn on the path to 100% Completion: Quote.
Tube Travel: Which helps you get out of Plantation's reservoir faster (possibly in case you fall in without the jetpack equipped).
Turns Red: Virtually all bosses unveil new attacks at lower HP. The elephant-like Behemoths from the Egg Corridor also turn red and stampede if they take enough damage, though this is rarely seen because they're not hard to defeat in the first place.
Vent Physics: Most notable in Grasstown, but fans can be found elsewhere too.
Wake Up Call Boss: Speaking of the Vent Physics, anyone who hasn't mastered them is very likely to get their butt kicked by Balfrog several times on their first playthrough. Other factors play a part, but it's usually the fans that screw one up.
Walk, Don't Swim: The robotic protagonist and Curly Brace both sink like a rock in water.
Wall Master: Sand Crocs! And of course that infamous killer door! The moving, crushing eye blocks (and the presses) count as well.
The Walls Are Closing In: The walls of Ballos' chamber close in when the hero and Curly Brace defeat him for good. They would be crushed if not for Balrog.
Wasted Song: "White", a scrapped theme for King which can only be unlocked by beating Sacred Grounds in three minutes. "Toroko's Theme" as well, but not to as great an extent. *
In the WiiWare version, the roles are reversed — "White" can be heard after clearing the Boss Rush or the Sanctuary Time Attack, while "Toroko's Theme" is only available in the sound test.
Wave Motion Gun: The Spur, if you fire it when its EXP. bar is at maximum, will release a large white beam that will pierce through and completely reduce any non-boss monster in the game into its component atoms. There is no better example of There Is No Kill Like Overkill in this game than this alone.
What the Hell, Player?: If you agreed to leave with Kazuma on a Sky Dragon, The Doctor will destroy the world. The narration says that you and Kazuma don't care. In the WiiWare and DSi versions, however, the new translation softens the blow by saying nothing about the player character's emotional state, instead stating — in narrative — that what happened "doesn't matter", which could be interpreted several ways.
If you want to experience the raw fury of the Nemesis, it's not that difficult... you just have to give up King's blade, showing that his sacrifice and request to avenge him and Tokoro mean absolutely nothing to you, you soulless bastard.
With This Herring: You are an elite combat android sent to destroy an artifact that gives its wearer unthinkable power, on an island populated by rampaging monsters. You begin the game unarmed and with threehit points and no weapons. Presumably something bad happened to you beforehand. Once Curly gets her memory back, it's heavily implied that the previous wielder of the Demon Crown beat the robotic crap out of you; also, other robots are found near the Core and are in really bad shape.
Analysis complete Current forces insufficient Retreat RETREAT!!
If the new Wind Fortress challenge is to be taken as canon; you and Curly aren't even military androids from the surface either, but some androids actually made on the island by an unknown party
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