Game Review - Cave Story (3DS)

I picked up this game when I was dying without any other newly released games that could pique my interest. Well, this is definitely not a compliment to this game before I start playing it. I found this game as I was browsing the Nintendo eShop. This game cost 1000yen, and something just told me that I should really spend on this game. As usual, it took me a few days to consider before I really slashed out my card to get this game.

To start off, this game had its first version released on 2004, and it has several updates throughout different gaming platforms and a remake. And yes, these updates and remake were spanned across a decade ever since the first release. This retro style, 2D side-scrolling platform action, has proven itself damn worth to play. A big fan of Mega Man (Rockman) or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or even Shovel Knight are all ENCOURAGED to play this game. 

Plot (8/10)
After a few lines of dialogue, the player would find themselves controlling a human-looking male character in a small cave. Later, the player will realise that the human figure they controlling was actually once a killer robot, suffering from memory loss. It was previously tasked to investigate a mysterious floating island (which is exactly the whole game setting), and to kill off rabbit-like creatures called Mimigas. After knowing Mimigas were actually innocent creatures, you found your partner, Curly Brace. She recalled your memories about everything that had happened in this every island. The source of the problem was actually an item called Demon Crown. An ambitious Doctor now possessed this Demon Crown and tried to build a team of mutated Mimigas to rule the surface world. Curly teamed up with you to stop his evil plans.

It would be quite messy trying to understand the whole story of the game. The info given to the player was like here and there, by different people with different perspective and emotions. The story also filled with sad sacrifices, involving poor and innocent characters that were destined to be sent to their graves... A player will only get big picture of the story if they are going to get the True Ending.

EH? True Ending??

Yes, a True Ending. You think only Castlevania Series can have different endings? 

This game has 3 Endings: Bad, Normal and True Endings. To get True Ending, player must follow strictly to certain subtle conditions to get it. And it is definitely not intuitive unless referred to a guide... Since the gameplay time is very short, I recommend new players to go through the Normal Ending first, then replay to get the True Ending. This way can really better understand the whole story. The developer, Daisuke Amaya, insisted his games to have multiple endings. Even his small demo to his latest game, Kero Blaster: Pink Hour and Pink Heaven, both have multiple endings too!

The save point could be found almost every corner of the game, so players could safely plunge themselves to death! I meant to be courageous and continue forth! But to be warned, the last stage (True Ending only) has no save point or whatsoever... So you will have to keep trying! As for me, I thought it was quite frustrating, but I became so addicted to the stage, I would not stop replaying the stage!

Anyway~~~ There is still some little setback about this game...
The bad thing about this game - The cutscenes were not skippable! Despite being not a long conversation kind like Final Fantasy or Golden Sun, it was rather annoying to keep tapping A or B button to skip through every line.

Characters and Weapons (9/10)
Those who have played Golden Sun will have to have a sense of Deja Vu. Because this is main character robot, is completely mute! Not that he has could not speak, just that you are controlling him and you will only answer YES or NO. You would not see him getting any dialogues in the cutscenes at all. 

But there is an extra feature mode, Curly Story. In this mode, the roles of the male robot and Curly the female robot were switched, in which player takes control of Curly instead. And player will notice Curly interacts way much more with other characters than the male robot! Other than the speechless male robot, the other characters all served good purposes in the game and each has their own unique personalities. The only confusing thing I had is keep confused with the Mimigas, Sue and Toroko... (Totally like how Misery mistook them as well!)

A typical RPG genre, levelling up! BUT! Instead of the main characters levelling up, the weapons did the trick instead! The robots must pick up the yellow triangles thingy after defeating an enemies to level up their weapons. The max level for each weapon is only till Level 3, which could be easily obtained. However, the catch is... If player received damage, their weapon level WILL decrease as well! There were also several weapons available in the game, and a player can only carry max up to 5 weapons, he must choose wisely when they are faced with options if they are to switch weapons. The choice they made will affect if they could eventually get the most powerful weapon as well!

Music (9/10)
The soundtrack of this game is mainly done by the programmer, the design, basically everything himself too! Yup, is Daisuke again. Cannot really describe further how talented he is. The music for each stage and area in the island was really well-tailored. From the theme for Mimiga Village, Egg Corridor to the Boss Theme, will leave your mind automatically playing those melodies on loop!

Version Releases
As mentioned earlier, there are many versions released up to now. Mine was 3DS Classic Version. Those who have played this game can see the various types of release on the various platforms, and see what are the features your version has to offer. 

Cave Story Version Differences

Overall Verdict (9/10)
This game definitely got its own story to tell. You can definitely feel the work that has been put in by just a small team or even just Daisuke himself.