Cave Story Doukutsu Monogatari) is a freeware videogame released in 2004 for PC, designed and created over five years by Daisuke Amaya, art-name Pixel. The game is a traditional action-adventure game, reminiscent of the Castlevania and Metroid games. It has been fan-translated to English by Aeon Genesis.



Authors

Original Windows version written by Pixel.
SDL/Linux port by Peter Mackay and Simon Parzer.
Endian fixes by Peter gordon aka Xeron.
AmigaOS 4.0 packaging and management by Johan Samuelsson aka Spot.

AmigaOS 4.0 / Linux specific notes

The AmigaOS 4.0 and Linux port lacks the prefs program. Therefor you can't
edit some options, which is fine mostly however, if you want to run the game in window mode, rename config.dat to something else.
If you want to write a prefs app for AmigaOS 4.0 or Linux, check out the
description of the prefs formats found in the doc dir.



Gameplay

Initially, the player may only run and jump, but a variety of weapons and items may be acquired throughout the game. Most items are plot-oriented, having no impact upon normal gameplay, although a few, such as the Booster (a type of jet pack) and the Life Pot, are useful. Weapons include various beam weapons, a machine gun and a bubble gun, and can be obtained from treasure chests or traded for at various locations in the game. Though there are 9 different weapons, the trading system limits the player to a maximum of 5. Most weapons can be upgraded by collecting weapon energy dropped by enemies, and will lose weapon energy if the player is hit.

Plot Summary

In game world, thousands of years ago before events of the game, there existed a powerful magician named Ballos. As he used his powers to help and guide the people, they trusted him more than their King. The King, jealous, had Ballos imprisoned and tortured. Under the torture, Ballos went insane, and his magic destroyed the kingdom of its own accord. His sister Jenka, also a witch, learned that her brother had gone mad and confined him to an island floating in the sky, as she loved him too much to kill him.
The floating Island was held aloft by its Core, which lived deep inside the island. To defend the Core, Jenka constructed a labyrinth around its entrance and sealed the entrance itself with a large boulder. In the labyrinth she imprisoned the Gaudis, a race of giant insects, both as guardians and so that they would not be able to attack the Mimigas, a race of flower-eating, rabbit like creatures who also lived in the island. Her power exhausted by this, she retired to the desert-like Sand Zone within the Island.

Her daughter Misery, thinking that Ballos' powers should not be wasted, forced him to create an object called the Demon Crown which would channel his powers through its wearer. Unexpectedly, the Crown's curse forced Misery and a giant, box-shaped demon named Balrog to remain in stasis until it gained a wearer, who they would have to serve forever.

Ten years before the game begins, the countries of Earth sent robots to the Island to bring back the Demon Crown. The robots killed indiscriminately, and many of the native Mimiga population were slain. In defense, they searched for Red Flowers. The flower contains two chemical compounds: one to incite massive muscular growth and mutation; and the other a deliriant that causes total loss of the faculties of reason.

Finally, a man from the surface gained possession of the Demon Crown, and the robots were defeated, mostly by the core of the island which was under the crown-bearer's control. The Mimigas, however, were still frenzied from the Red Flowers, and the master of the Crown turned them loose upon the Earth. The game's protagonist Quote, and his companion Curly Brace, were two other robots sent to the island to destroy the Crown. However, during the battle with its wearer they were rendered unconscious and separated.

Shortly before the beginning of the game, a human research party came to the island by helicopter. It consisted of scientist Momorin Sakamoto, her children Sue and Kazuma, Professor Booster, an engineer named Itoh, and a medical doctor
named Fuyahiko Date. The doctor joined the party only for the opportunity of finding the Crown, and the opening sequence of the game shows him finding it along with Misery and Balrog.

Once the Doctor had the crown, he forced Mimigas to cultivate Red Flowers, hoping to turn them into monsters and tell them to attack Earth, which is simply called the Surface in-game. The other members of the research party did not want to cooperate, so he ordered them to be destroyed. Sue Sakamoto and Itoh were turned into Mimigas by Misery before escaping, and Kazuma disappeared. Reluctantly following the Doctor's orders for fear of her life, Momorin Sakamoto was eventually thrown off the edge of the island once the Doctor found the Red Flower seeds. Not having fallen all the way, she hid out in an underground laboratory in the plantations.

Sue stayed at the Mimiga Village, whose inhabitants were being taken one by one by the Doctor. She befriended a Mimiga named Toroko, whose brother Arthur, the leader of the village, had been killed while fighting against the Doctor's minions. The new Mimiga leader, King, disliked Sue, regarding her as an outsider.

As the game begins, Quote awakens near the Mimiga village, without knowledge of any of the previous occurrences.




Story

The protagonist awakens in an underground cavern with no memory of how he came to be there and without weapons of any kind. He stumbles across a village populated by rabbit-like creatures called Mimigas who are being persecuted by an evil Doctor. Two of the Doctor's servants, Misery and Balrog, are looking for a Mimiga named Sue, but mistakenly abduct a Mimiga named Toroko. The player's main quest is to rescue Sue, save the Mimigas from the Doctor's evil grasp, and escape the floating island on which the game is set. There are three different endings for the player.

Reception

Cave Story has been very well-received by critics. 1UP.com described it as "so massive that it rivals modern GBA Castlevania and Metroid games in terms of scope and play time."[2] InsideMacGames ascribed the game's popularity to its "polished feel, engaging storyline, and compelling artwork".[3] In July 2006, "Cave Story" was claimed "the best freeware game ever" by the Swedish game magazine Super PLAY.

(Info taken from Wikipedia /Spot)

Interview with the Pixel.
Cave Story Tribute Site.
Cave Story on Wikipedia.
View a Cave Story Trailer on Youtube here!



And finally
DOWNLOAD the AmigaOS 4.0 version!