Cave Story

[The Vault Dweller]

...or "The Vault Dweller's Freeware Extravaganza" Part [Cave Story]

If you're reading this as the first installment in my unprecedented new topic posting spree read on. Otherwise skip the next paragraph as it appears in all the new threads and needs to only be read once.

As you may know I disappeared from these forums for quite a long time and given both how often and how long I've been here that is exceptionally rare. In the past I would only do this once or twice and only for a week or two while I would have discovered and played a particularly high-quality game which would forcibly steal my attention. This last absence was different however. I discovered such a higher quantity of high quality games in such a short time that I couldn't tear myself away from playing to go on the internet or at least not enough to contribute even though I would occasionally come to lurk. It is about such games I am making this series of topics. I remind you that all are freeware and hence are open to all of you.

This one in particular is done in the old free-roaming platformer style comparable to Metroid. If you like that sort of game continue reading...otherwise go see some of my other "Extravaganza" threads.

Cave Story. An excellent and free platform adventure game. While it's mostly linear it offers enough non-linearity in the form of side-quests for different weapons and a choice of three endings which prevents it from feeling like a caged game.

Now it's somewhat hard to pinpoint why the game is so enjoyable. No quality in particular stands out...it is simply that everything about the game is well-done and well-rounded thus leaving no particular quality to pick out.

The game offers a wide variety of challenges in both platform perils (jumps mostly) and combat. Combat is somewhat varied with a wide variety of enemies and weapons not all of which can be used in a single playthrough. Each weapon also has three levels and besides power increases can also effect the way the weapon attacks. One strange and unique feature in Cave Story is that while weapons can be leveled to max in less than a minute against normal enemies your level doesn't stay. For each point you lose of health when you get hurt you also lose much more than that in experience and you can actually lose levels in combat. This forces the player to either be very careful of injury to avoid both death and loss of weapon power or to be skilled with all the weapons so they can switch in an emergency where they're favored weapon falls to level 1.

The story and setting are very special. They at first appear non-sensical and bizzare in the way that Japanese games often are (like the first Mario Brothers) however once you've pieced together a few hours of it everything makes sense and feels very natural. All the characters are memorable and usually very animated in a way that transcends what at first glance appears to be simple pixel art.

You awaken not knowing who you are or why your in a cave, but soon discover that you were part of a large military force that was defeated of which you somehow survived. Not only is the war over, but you have no idea what you did or whether any of the old world is still left to make sense of. You begin when you literally stumble into the middle of a town that suffered a lot during the war and unfortunately is now suffering from a problem similar, but different to the last war. That's where you begin learning and also exploring the world.

One thing I think anyone can enjoy and can be demonstrated outside of a game is music. Fortunately Cave Story's music is memorable enough to where I can actually remember quite a few of them. Let me post one as an example though I will admit a huge part of the enjoyment in the music is how it relates and creates atmosphere in the region it's heard.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL3xqOexk6w&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONSUW8yzV0w&feature=related[/youtube]

I do hope you'll give Cave Story a try. I promise you'll enjoy it.

Oh I just happened to find a video with quite a lot of gameplay footage that's well edited. Though unfortunately it shows no dialogue of which there's a large amount in the game. Watch the video for those still unable to decide to play it, but remember it's not all action like in this vid.

I do have to warn you (and this is my one gripe). While two of the three endings can be accessed along the way the third requires you to take a very specific and very illogical course through the game such that you'd probably only know to do it if you read a guide/checked a FAQ/watched a Let's Play. Of course the game is less than five hours and easily fun enough to play twice so it's not much of a complaint.

 

[Eternal]

Yeah I'm looking forward to the Wiiware release of the game, I haven't played it yet on PC but I've considered it numerous times.

 

[The Vault Dweller]

Dude the PC version is free. Don't worry it's not some bootleg copy that's missing stuff. It was made to be freeware.

Both the Wii version and the PSP version I'm sure will have added features to justify having them cost money, but since the game was originally made free it would seem lame to pay for a whole game and just get a few things and not even those made by the original people.

 

[Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude]

Downloaded it, and after having to dig out my gamepad because playing this shit on the keyboard with the default keybinds is horrible; I'm really liking it.

 

[alec]

Fortunately Cave Story's music is memorable enough to where I can actually remember quite a few of them. Let me post one as an example though I will admit a huge part of the enjoyment in the music is how it relates and creates atmosphere in the region it's heard.

That is migraine inducing after a while. I always shut my speakers off when I hear these kind of tunes. Seriously.

What I notice about all these games you've been posting about lately is that they are all terribly hectic and 'busy'. Just looking at the vids gives me sweaty hands.

And then there is the style: it's all manga. I just can't relate with manga. I can't. It's just too weird for my eyes to believe that twenty-something guys and probably even older than that, can genuinely entertain themselves with such graphics. You've got to be a little weird for that. It doesn't feel right. It just doesn't.

But hey: I'm glad you're having fun, mister Kawashiro Nitori.

 

[The Vault Dweller]

Downloaded it, and after having to dig out my gamepad because playing this shit on the keyboard with the default keybinds is horrible; I'm really liking it.

I had no idea people would go to that length to play it like a console game. However I would bet it's a lot easier that way. Very glad you're enjoying it since it validates all the effort I put into the thread and stuff.

What I notice about all these games you've been posting about lately is that they are all terribly hectic and 'busy'. Just looking at the vids gives me sweaty hands.

You don't want to know what images entered my head when I read that.

 

[Eyenixon]

This is the kind of game where, as Alec said, I simply can't stand the music.

Imitating the 8-bit style is all fine and dandy, but there has to be a realization for many independent developers that the reason those soundtracks were bearable was because TVs from the 80s had shitastic speakers and consoles such as the NES had primitive soundcards, because of that the soundtracks came out low quality, muffled and often slightly distorted.
What does that mean? Simple, the sound runs together, it almost becomes cohesively listenable in the messiness of its crappiness.

This in contrast to the high fidelity stuff in Cave Story that my expensive ass sound card is pumping out with crystal clarity, and my noise canceling high quality headphones are transmitting with tremendous accuracy.
Every beep and boop is one loud, torturous and vile intrusion into my inner ear cavities, at time it's eardrum shatteringly obnoxious.

It doesn't matter the volume, it's just the plain contrast of it, when you're listening to an orchestral soundtrack there are a lot of instruments that flow together, work together and thus produce a melodic sound that doesn't clash, but compare that to the sound of a shrill flute playing the same three notes over and over in a repetitive pattern. It's the only thing you hear, and when the other sounds you hear in the game are decidedly different bleeps and bloops, you're getting all these different channels of insanity.

Pretty technical post about just how annoying this kind of music can be, but really, if I'm missing out because indie developers are so caught up in being "accurate" while totally missing the point, then there's really no reason for me to play if I won't get the whole atmospheric experience that Cave Story apparently is.

EDIT: Oh, and as a direct example of how the low-fi sound phenomena works I was recently playing Warcraft I: Orcs and Humans on one of my old as hell PCs with speakers from the mid-90s (which were decent enough for the time) and I actually enjoyed the soundtrack because it was being played under the right conditions.

If I played it on DOSBox on this PC, I would die from intense bleeding of the ears.

 

[Eternal]

Different people have different tastes in music Eyenixon, there is a huge underground right now for original bit artists many of whom are out there making music using the NES/Gameboy/Snes/Genesis sound boards. The thing is that music from that era of gaming required it be simple, simplicity breeds memorability but if you make it too simple they start to sound all the same so it forced people to be creative in new ways.

Look at the original music for Mario or even the Megaman theme, simple yet memorable. Its a lot harder to remember or hum the music from Halo or most modern games, they become overly complex for the sake of complexity and trying to sound like movies. Look at Call of Duty 4 its music was composed entirely by a guy who has done several orchestra soundtracks for movies, it was amazingly well done and high quality work that really fit the feel of the game. However I challenge you to pick out one song from the game and tell me that you remember where and when you heard it in game.

One of my biggest complaints (besides the gameplay) with the new sonics is that they took a completely different direction for the music from the original genesis ones which had a more techno/electronica feel to them. But now its all generic rock and roll, the sound quality is better but the music sucks.

 

[Eyenixon]

You didn't bother to read my post.
I said the only reason that kind of music was ever listenable was because of the low-fi sound quality that rendered them dulled and thus caused each note to flow together.

The draw of the music is its primitiveness, it doesn't work when you have these intensely clear 8-bit soundtracks because then they're just incredibly obnoxious.
It has nothing to do with the music itself being enjoyable, it's the idea that it's only enjoyable under the right conditions.

 

[alec]

It has nothing to do with the music itself being enjoyable, it's the idea that it's only enjoyable under the right conditions.

QFT

Same here: wasn't a problem back in the old days but nowadays the bleeps are way too bleepy.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

I enjoy both Cave Story and it's sound track. It has solid platform shooter gameplay with a good number of different weapons and good stage design. I find it's music perfectly enjoyable, not as enjoyable as the remix project, but enjoyable for what it is. That said, there is a lot of bad 8-bit music, it's hard to do right like any music but when done wrong it tends to be more painfully noticeable. I tend to agree that it's generally a poor choice to choose that route but to every rule there are exceptions. Games designed to look 8-bit do fine to have matching music and indies making games like that is perfectly understandable. I start having trouble when big developers start making games that way (I'm looking at you Capcom, you're excuse was bs) and when musicians make such music with no plans of applying it to a game. 16-bit is, in my mind, generally as low as you can go and still have acceptable sound quality.

I'm not so sure that you're right Eternal, there is something to be said about not over complicating you're music but I would put forth that it has far more to do with western games developing more and more generic music and using it less specifically than Japanese games. As always there is crappy music but I think that people often forget how much bad music there used to be and that the amount of crap hasn't really gone up but the exposure to it is more recent and thus memorable.

Personally, I think that the composition is generally more important that the sound quality. Poorly composed music sounds bad no matter how good the sound quality, it may be less painful when played with real instruments instead of poorly synthesized instruments, but it's still bad. On the other hand, well composed music will always sound good but will really shine when it has proper sound quality.

Since we're discussing low quality music, I like many of the chosen for it, and because it is fun, here's a VG music test, I got a 92% (23/25) the first time I took it if I remember correctly but I think it may have been changed since then. (I did it again and got 92% again)

 

[The Vault Dweller]

Thank you Uncanny Garlic. Now people will see I love the game, because it's great and not, because I'm just crazy. I was worried that's what was going on. Hopefully people will try it and have an experience they'll never forget.

 

[Eternal]

You didn't bother to read my post.
I said the only reason that kind of music was ever listenable was because of the low-fi sound quality that rendered them dulled and thus caused each note to flow together.

The draw of the music is its primitiveness, it doesn't work when you have these intensely clear 8-bit soundtracks because then they're just incredibly obnoxious.
It has nothing to do with the music itself being enjoyable, it's the idea that it's only enjoyable under the right conditions.

You're right I didn't read your post I just chose your name out of a hat and decided to reply to it.

The quality of the technology used to play it isn't as big an issue for the enjoyability of the music for some people. I think you are being overly elitist about it. I mean I still enjoy listening to vinyl records, but I have a modern stereo system to play it, most of the stuff was recorded to be listened on a low quality speaker (many of them mono) but they still sound great and enjoyable for me on modern high quality systems.

The quality of the composition and choice of sounds is still solid for older 8bit stuff, perhaps the nostalgia factor of hearing it the same exact way you used to hear it is what is more important?

 

[Patton89]

Very enjoyable platformer/shooter, i loved the different guns you get,and the upgrades were important, though the game can be bit crazy at times with the amount of upgrade you lose.
Health upgrades werent optional at all, you HAD to get them , or else you would die quickly in boss battles. Luckily i had collected all of them by the time i hit one of the harder bosses.
Music fits it, i cant imagine game like this having anything else but bleepy 8-bit console type music, but the music could have more variety, it gets pretty repetetive after a while, the sound effects are nice and they fit the game well.
All around, a solid enjoyable platformer.

Bleepy isnt too bleepy. 8-bit isnt too blocky, its 8-bit.

 

[Eyenixon]

You didn't bother to read my post.
I said the only reason that kind of music was ever listenable was because of the low-fi sound quality that rendered them dulled and thus caused each note to flow together.

The draw of the music is its primitiveness, it doesn't work when you have these intensely clear 8-bit soundtracks because then they're just incredibly obnoxious.
It has nothing to do with the music itself being enjoyable, it's the idea that it's only enjoyable under the right conditions.

You're right I didn't read your post I just chose your name out of a hat and decided to reply to it.

The quality of the technology used to play it isn't as big an issue for the enjoyability of the music for some people. I think you are being overly elitist about it. I mean I still enjoy listening to vinyl records, but I have a modern stereo system to play it, most of the stuff was recorded to be listened on a low quality speaker (many of them mono) but they still sound great and enjoyable for me on modern high quality systems.

The quality of the composition and choice of sounds is still solid for older 8bit stuff, perhaps the nostalgia factor of hearing it the same exact way you used to hear it is what is more important?

It has nothing to do with being elitist, Christ, where did you even get that other than deciding you'd make use of a trite internet-assimilated expression.

Vinyl is a bad analogy, simply because that's music composed by human beings that are using their hands or mouths to create the music with physical instruments, 8-bit music is composed from a limited set of notes and sounds all with the same exact quality and noise. Each note sounds like it did before with no variation.

Having it run on an older system solves that because the hardware doesn't play it perfectly so it comes off more as music and not just bleeps as Alec said.
It's being overly technical about it all, but would you rather I just said "It's just not the same." which is at the same time the case and not so.

It's not the same, but not because it's newer and not "made in the spirit of" or whatever, but simply because the quality doesn't work with it. Low-fi hardware causes the sound to run together and thus become a cohesive sound rather than just a collection of bleeps and bloops.