Cave Story is arguably one of the most important indie titles to exist. I first played the game a long time ago, on my 3DS, but I don’t remember too much about my time with the game. It’s just been that long. But I was thinking about the game again recently, so I decided “why not?”, and I started up Cave Story again. I was able to play through the entire game in a single sitting, getting the best ending possible as well. And through that, I really enjoyed playing the game again, and I feel like I fell in love with the game again.
Now before I get into the review proper, I want to add a little fun tidbit before anything else. The timing of when I played Cave Story is rather interesting. With the version of Cave Story I played, I didn’t realize there were seasonal events that could occur. In particular, since I was playing the game close to Halloween, the characters, enemies, and parts of the environment were dressed up in Halloween costumes. I found it really charming, and I thought it’d be fun to mention.
Now getting into the game proper, I really love exploring the world of Cave Story. Particularly, the level design of Cave Story is really good. It’s so good, that even after all these years, I remembered each of the locations you have to go to, and the structure of each level. The platforming also feels great. Even though the character you play as is a robot, Quote is very light, which feels really great when platforming. Quote’s movement gets even better when you get the booster. Since Quote’s movement never changes throughout the game until the Booster, it’s a breath of fresh air actually getting it. Also, it really feels like the Booster is the only thing that Quote needed to make his movement perfect, and I really like that.
Quote’s weapons are probably the best part of the game, and there’s a lot of really fun things seen through them. First off, each weapon has an experience bar tied to them, and you gain experience occasionally when beating enemies. The higher level the weapons get, the stronger they get, but if you take damage, the weapons lose experience. It creates a really good balance so that weapons don’t get too powerful, and to try and incentivize the player to switch between weapons. Though then again, I do feel like there is one objectively best weapon. To the weapons themselves, the actual weapons you get are really good. The Polar Star is your basic gun, then you go another staple, a Missile Launcher, a strong gun with limited ammo. Then there’s some really fun weapons as well. One of my favorite weapons in the game is the bubble, and while it seems bad at first, but gets really good as it goes to Level 2 and 3. The sword is also a really fun weapon, though I could rarely keep level 3 on it. I also find it really cool that some weapons you can can only be obtained by trading them for weapons you already have. It creates choices that the player has to make, thus making their run of the game unique. Though then again, there is arguably a best weapon, and I don’t know why someone wouldn’t go for it.
Now, when it comes to the story and characters of the game, I really love them. There’s a unique charm that’s found with the characters, and even though you’re with the characters for a very little time, they’re all really memorable. Misery and Balrog are some really fun characters especially. When it comes to the story of Cave Story, I didn’t realize how much worldbuilding there was in the game originally. There’s so much that the game just mentions offhand, but never makes a big deal of things. For example, it seems there was a war before, but we never really learn much about it.
The bosses of Cave Story are really fun as well. Aside from one boss, I was able to beat all of the bosses on the first try. But even then, I found a good number of them challenging, and because of that, really fun. There’s a sequence in the game where you have to fight 4 bosses back to back, and it was both tense and really fun. The final boss of the game is the only one that I died on, but it was easily the hardest boss in the entire game. Maybe it was because of the Halloween cosmetics, but the weak point of the second phase felt off.
One of the big things about Cave Story for me is the method in which you get to the true ending. In simplest terms, the way you get the true ending of the game is really complicated. You have to go through a lot of optional steps, alongside making sure you don’t mess up anywhere along the way. I don’t know entirely how I feel on this, on one hand, I really like that you have to put in the effort to get the best possible ending. On the other hand, I wish there was just a bit more direction in how you get to it. Once you get the path to the best possible ending, you’re brought to the hardest part of the game which then immediately leads into the final boss of the game. It’s a noticeable difficulty spike, and yet again I’m kind of conflicted on it. Particularly, part of me wishes there was a save point right before the final boss. Though then again, I really like how you have to go through hell to get the chance to fight the final boss.
I’m glad I finally got around to replaying Cave Story. It’s not that long of a game, which is why I was able to beat it in a single sitting. I loved exploring through the entirety of the game, and fighting the bosses is really fun. The music of the game is another stellar part of the game, and there’s some absolute earworms in it. Cave Story is still probably one of the most important indie titles to exist, and I’m glad I finally got to play the game again.
