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Nearly a year ago, I discovered the strange world of independent gaming. Lost and slightly confused, I stumbled from one website to another in search of original and interesting titles to palliate my craving for gameplay that the mainstream industry could not satisfy. One title kept coming back in blogs, discussion forums and chat rooms: Cave story. Doukutsu Monogatari to be precise. I downloaded it, tried it for a few minutes then tossed it aside with the thought of picking it up later once I finished a few projects gobbling up my free time. Last week, I finally took the game out of the “to play” pile and investigated what all the fuss was about. Here is what I thought of the flagship title of the independent and amateur development movement. Before I start, I would like to note that I will refer to the player as "he" for simplicity sake only; the context applies for both male and female players

The doctor is in.
 

Who needs a million colors when a handful can create a world?

First off, I would to start by stating that I enjoyed the game and that I found the graphics to be extremely well done. One of Cave story’s strong point lies in its simple representation. The graphics are smooth, pure and effective. All characters and elements are displayed as a mass of color baring few blocks of shadows while using only a few colors, four in most cases. Even while using so little colors, the clarity of the image is not diminished. The purification of shapes and details give a cute and innocent feel to the game’s elements. Even the nastiest looking creature can look somewhat huggable. The player’s avatar is always easy to recognize throughout the entire world, which is a hard feat to accomplish due to all the different environments found in the game. This soft feeling we get from looking at the artworks helps to tone down the various weak points of the title, making the game look like a beautiful child dream where nothing is never really threatening but that can still be dangerous. This isn't to say that all the graphics in Cave

Simple character deisgn make the game look smooth and friendly.

Story are perfect. This lack of detail can sometimes lead to some confusion in the field of the tiles. At various occasions, the tiles used to indicate background details end up misleading the player. This usually occurs when these tiles are placed out of their original context. For instance, background tiles used to indicate structure of houses in the mimiga village can cause some confusion when they are placed away from the houses.

In general, the problem does not lie in the color of the tile, since they are darker than front tiles, but rather in their details and color count. Since the tiles in the background have almost as many colors then tiles in front and have the same amount of details, the feeling of depth is reduced and may lead to some questioning about if the tile is walk-able or not, especially when the player cannot easily compare them.  Generally, when elements are close by, they should bare more details than the elements away from the viewer’s eye, following the logic that when you see something up-close, you get to see more details than from afar. In addition, the simplicity of the graphics can also lead to some confusion in terms of character design. All characters, including friends and foes, have been designed in a simple and cute style that fits

the game like a glove. The problem is that enemies and friends all look alike. For instance, the mushroom enemies found in the graveyard of the mimigas village do not look threatening and bare a striking resemblance to the friendly mimigas. Most enemies in the game, apart from the bosses and mini-bosses, all look like characters that could help the player during his journey. At the same time, characters that are here to help, like King or Jack, have nastier looking designs than most enemies, like the grave keeper or the dragons in the egg corridor. This character design direction causes the player to become paranoid and make him shoot every character he sees, just to be sure that they are not enemies. This, of course, breaks the logical continuity of the game. Most characters get shot at but still welcome the player with opened arms. The design logic of the main avatar could have been transported on the rest of the game: the main avatar is unique and no other characters look like him. The mimigas could have been unique, like being the only pure white creatures throughout the world. This way, when the player would have spotted a white creature, he would have know right away that a friendly relationship was about to occur and not some savage shoot-out. Still, despite it’s low resolution, the game has fantastic graphical representation and is, I believe, a reference for other development teams who wish to use a low-color design while making the game extremely clear.

In terms of sound and music, the game offers a great soundtrack and fitting sound effects. The general vibe of the music takes the player back in the early days of gaming when chip-tunes ruled the game world. Every song matched the general ambiance of their context and the sound effects evoke the right reactions: good rhythms in action scenes, slower paced melodies in tragic moments and good use of silence in appropriate time truly enlighten the experience. The only snag I found on this topic can be heard whenever the player finds a health upgrade. Although it is an homage to the classic NES title Metroid, the music played when acquiring the capsule feels more like a rip-off than an original sound effect. That is not to say that it is entirely bad, but it is always better to keep the inspiration subtle and not make a direct link to another game. First, you want the player to forget that he is playing a game so he can immerse himself in your universe. Second, you do not want the player to leave your game and play another one by reminding him how the inspirational work used to be, especially when it is considered a classic in its field.  Besides that little thing, the musical and auditory representation of Cave story is spotless.

The broken helicopter fight.

Stand still and look pretty

One of the parts that disappointed me in this game was the lack of emotional involvement of the player within the game’s universe. Although it presents an interesting and tragic storyline, Cave story ruins the emotional side of the story events by locking the player into a mere witness when his help is needed. Every time something in the game happens where emotions of the characters are involved, most of the time when kidnapping and death occurs, the player is imprison in frustration as the game removes the control of the avatar who will remain immobile and speechless throughout the cut scene. During the dialogs between the avatar and the inhabitants of the world, the theme of the feelings and heart of the avatar is recurrent as the characters imply that the hero is a nice individual who actually cares about what happens on the island. But since the player cannot act in time of dire need, this makes the main character look like a cold and heartless monster. Whenever he watches a horrific scene, the main character simply stands there and waits for it all to be over but he does not mind shooting down weak creatures in the levels. Either the hero is a monster who enjoys watching misery or he is a coward that will only fight those who are weaker then him unless he is provoked directly by an opponent. In all cases, this behavior does not follow the intended storyline at all.

Speaking of the storyline, another that I found annoying throughout the game experience was the numerous holes in the story. The general plot lacks details regarding the characters and their universe. Everything seems to exist only to exist; none of them truly feels like they have a purpose outside the game experience. Take the recursive mini-boss Balrog. Through his dialogs,

this character feels like he has an interesting background and personality but he is never truly presented to the player. Balrog look like the kind of evil character that is not truly evil, much more of a thug who has a heart of gold hidden under a layer of coal. On many occasions, we can see that soft side shine through, such as when Balrog ask us to fight or not or when he decides to help us move the boulder in the labyrinth but we are never truly explained why he acts in such manner. Also, the player does not receive any reason why Balrog evolves every time he must battle him. How does he learn new moves after each fight? If he already knows those moves, why does he hold back on the player when he is clearly a threat to his life? All of those questions remain unanswered. Other

characters, such as the mimigas, the robots and the evil doctor could have used a lot more development. There are also elements that are left untouched by the story. For instance, the hermit gunsmith, the old woman with her dogs, the cthulthu folks, Malco the robot, doctor Gero and his nurse are all characters that are left behind by the hero and they are eventually killed by the destruction of the island even though they came to his help. I feel like it would have been better to be told that these characters were sacrificed for the greater good, or have them killed before my eyes than just forgotten by the main character.

Another hole in the story lies in the game’s universe design. When we think of the island where the action unfolds, it is hard to tell exactly how big and complex it is. We get a vague idea of its size but in the end, we only explore a small fraction of it. The game does not need to allow us to go everywhere but it would have been a good idea to show us exactly how big this island is before it blows up. It would have also been quite interesting to know exactly why the island blew up because a skull in a cocoon got fried.  The island is only a part of the game’s universe. Where does it float? Where do the humans come from? How advance is their technology if they can build robots but still use military helicopters that are common today?  Did anyone noticed back in their homeland that a group of scientists had left to investigate a floating island and never came back? Answering these questions in some way during the experience would allow the player to understand the impact of his actions on the rest of the world. Even if the main character’s memory has been erased, the other inhabitants do remember about his kind and could have given hints about the universe. The multiple endings in this game patch up some of the holes one can find, especialy if he hasn't found all the possible endings, but even then, the "bad" endings should hint the player of the situation. Some questions do not need precise answers but the game should supply enough information to the player so he can fill intentional holes by himself. For instance, the game could give nebulous hints on a subject which would lead the player to imagine himself the details, involving the player in the process. It is unfortunately not the case in Cave story.

Skulls, frogs and howls.
 

On +3 missile > +1 mimiga_monster Goto NextScene Skip Emotions

One of the worst weak points in Cave story is the total lack of player immersion. Every time the player makes a move, the game keeps reminding him that this whole world is imaginary. Damage points pictured over the characters, gauges constantly displayed on screen, disk icons placed over doors to indicate save points, invincible enemies while events are not triggered and a rigid storyline are just a handful of examples that break every attempt of the player to loose himself in the virtual world. It is sad to see that the design of the game took this statistic-driven

approach. The game is trying really hard to make us feel emotions toward the characters found throughout the game but this “adding machine” direction completely messed up the emotional side. Sure, this design philosophy opens the door to fierce competitive play but it also replaces the feelings of sympathy to make way to rational thoughts.  The game ends up focusing the player’s mind on such things as how many damage points can be inflicted to an enemy with a missile launcher while making him forget about the fact that the enemy used to be a mimiga who got robbed of his life and free

will to become monster driven by a murderous thirst for blood. This ends up with the player caring only about how much he is going to make the poor mimiga feel pain with his shiny new weapon instead of being saddened by the terrible faith of the creature. It is quite unfortunate because the storyline involves many character sacrifices and each one of them could have enlightened the whole experience. Instead, their deaths only mean that the player can get a new upgrade or reach a new scene. It is not impossible for a game to offer a strong competitive gameplay while keeping the player immerse. For example, the early Megaman series delivered precise gameplay and good immersion given the technical limitations. The first titles, in particularly the second one, made an effort to keep the player focused on the gameplay and not on the statistic values of the player's action. Even if the game included statistic play, such as finding out which weapon dealt more damage to which boss, the general experience felt natural.  It's a shame that a modern title like Cave story, who flagrantly inspires itself from games from this era, has failed to at least capture the same emotional content.

Run, shoot and don't look back!
 

Something's wrong with the core...

In my opinion, the game possesses two major flaws in the core of its design. First of all, I felt like the controls were rather sloppy. The jumping mechanism in itself is not that bad, but the floating effect in the jumps made controlling the position of the landing tricky. Since many jumping challenges found in the game are very precise, it made the controls feel sluggish. Shooting was easy to master but the lack of character movement, like ducking or running, made it feel slightly incomplete. This also raises the general difficulty of the game since the player knows what to do but the basic functions he can use do not seem to respond exactly as he planned. The controls are not impossible to master but they do require some time investment in order to learn the basics and start enjoying the game. This doesn't mean that the control scheme found in Cave story is bad, it simply means that it could have been tighter, especially since character control is crucial in a action game.

The second flaw lies in the most crucial part of the game: the gameplay. Cave story offers a very shallow and stretched experience.  What the game offers is well crafted and entertaining but it does not deliver much in the long run. In fact, once you’ve played the game for about 20 minutes, you’ve seen pretty much what you’ll have to do for the rest of the game: shoot, jump, collect bouncing Doritos and run through the same level three or four times to get all the items needed to move on to the next cut-scene. Sure, the game offers a bit of gameplay development with the power-ups, such as the jetpack and new weapons, but the strategies and basic gameplay remains the same. The missions the player has to complete are usually elaborated fed-ex missions where the player will have to go through the same level numerous times in order to fetch items that are hidden throughout the play field. The last levels are a lot more interesting gameplay-wise then the entire first half of the game. These levels offer less fetch missions and a lot more exploration and continuous action. The game could have avoided this problem by simply adding a new gameplay mechanic after the first mission, such as the jetpack, and then focus some challenges in early levels around the new power. I feel like it would have made the first part of game feel less like a chore and  it would have added more exploration elements without breaking the evolution of the jet pack, which happens to upgrade relatively quickly compared to the guns. 

When we look at the different goals found in Cave story, we can safely say that this is where the game truly excels. The game successfully includes tons of short-term and mid-term goals that just keep the player glued to his chair. In most cases, the goals are easy to reach, quickly achieved and once finished, another goal is given right away. For example, in the egg corridor section, the player is offered many different routes and at least three mission goals. It also feature secrets and hard to reach power-ups. While exploring this level, the player will face new enemies and even solve one puzzle. The game does a fine job in teasing the player during his voyage, showing the player regions and treasures he could explore if he just could find a way to reach it, such as putting an unreachable door in the mimiga graveyard that can only be reached once the jetpack or a special gun is acquired. The

storyline seldom gives the player a break so there is always something to do. This has for effect to give a fast pace to the game which fits the action theme perfectly. From leveling up weapons to searching the level for power-ups, the game has the beautiful quality of making the player incapable of putting down his controller. Even if Cave story offers plenty of short-term goals, it does not mean that those goals are as interesting as they could be. The mid-term goals are extremely well crafted but the short-term goals become annoying with time. The first one that illustrates this point is the weapon leveling up goal. Usually, an element that must be leveled up becomes a mid-term goal since completing it requires time, but in Cave story, the player will loose weapon experience every time he looses health points. This means that the player receives a lot of negative feedback when failing and has to constantly search for experience points since those he gains are not secure. This strong negative feedback on failing makes the game feel slightly unfair and more difficult than what it really is.

In addition, the long-term goals are lacking in number. Cave story offer only a handful of long-term goals, which lowers the game’s replay value. Besides finishing the game, the player is not given much more to look for. The storyline is rather rigid, meaning that there are no alternate paths to reaching the same ending or much ways to alter them. Even if the game offers three different ways to finish the game, in the end, it is not nearly enough to make the player come back to the game after he has seen them all.  It could have been interesting to see more goals based on exploration. For instance, having the hero save mimigas scattered around the island or save other creatures oppressed by the doctor could have added a lot of replay value. In fact, any other long-term goals besides finishing the game would truly enhance the experience.

Arthur's home, the key location of the game.
 

That's all folks!