Cave Story
Overall:3.4
Narrative: 3.0
Platforming: 3.8
Characters: 2.8
Weapons: 3.8
Aha! I bet you guys didn't think I'd get through Cave Story. Well if that was your suspicion, then you're completely right. Cave Story, while certainly not a horrible game, didn't really do it for me. And unlike some games, where I find myself so engrossed in the plot that I lose track of time, responsibilities and showering, Cave Story was never quite able to really captivate me. But I have reason! Sweet reason that explains where Cave Story really shines and where it falls off. So let's go spelunking through Cave Story (see what I did there).
Narrative
I often treat the title of a video game like the title of a poem, I consider it to be the door that I have to open to get inside the piece. And when I see something titled "Cave Story", I have pretty basic expectations. I expect there to be a cave and some semblance of a story that has to deal with said cave. Luckily Cave Story delivers on both of these targets. There is indeed a Cave and the entire game takes place in it, playing out what seemed to me, an incredibly basic storyline.
What disheartens me the most about Cave Story is how basic, yet confusing the storyline of Cave Story is. You never really understand why you're doing something. The beginning of the game has a lot of mystery, which I concede had me pretty curious, but when almost all of the mystery was lifted by the middle of the game, I just found myself confused and kind of disinterested with the entire premise. The basic plot is that there is an evil scientist, who wants to do something to a tribe of bunnies, but these two other bunnies, who apparently are from somewhere else, wants to stop him. Where I fit into this as a player I have no idea, but it seems everyone is incredibly trusting of me seeing that they send me on quests, which the entire future of their tribe hinges upon. I guess they didn't really have a choice. Also, there is definitely a scenario of imperfect information going on in the game. What I mean by this is that everyone in the game knows I'm someone from the surface and that I'm a soldier. I was also called a robot at one point. Since I have no idea what this means in this universe I don't really know what to make of the significance. There's also some random hooded dude, who seems content with just chilling and being incredibly wise. Perhaps he's just the bard figure being intermittent in the game.
All this imperfect information eventually leads me to the one glaring issue with the game, my character is completely devoid of any personality or purpose. I don't know who my character is, how he's supposed to act or if he represents me or a unique character. This makes it hard for me to become immersed in the game because I'm consistently reminded that I'm just playing for playing's sake. And there's nothing wrong with that, but when one is on a busy schedule a game needs to bring something to the table to compete for my attention. The game didn't even need to develop the character. In fact having this everyman transverse the story would have been fine if I at least had the basic tenets of a purpose. One might argue that the arbitrary tasks assigned to the character would be the purpose or that I should as a person inherently feel compassion and want to help the cause of the bunnies, but I really don't buy into this. Mostly because aside from a few baddies (who I made quick work off), I don't ever see a real present threat. I hate overusing this example, but Chrono Trigger is the perfect example of motivating a character (and by extension a player) to want to complete a game. The beginning of the game is simple, rescue Marle. Then that switches to a visual depiction of the Earth being destroyed that you must prevent. All I ever see from Cave Story is a bunch of secret experiments, which people tell me are pretty bad, but I have no reason to believe that's the case. They're eggs, why didn't they just have one of the eggs crack open, letting out a monster that completely destroyed me, thus setting up motivation for me to want to destroy the monster in another encounter and adding validity to the claims of awfulness that the bunnies have been harping on about.
Gameplay
The gameplay to Cave Story is platformer meets scroll shooter and it's fun. I mean there's just something cathartic about gathering weapons, leveling them up and using them to more efficiently defeat monsters you were initially having trouble with. There are a variety of guns, which are distinct in the way you have to use them in the game. This is a refreshing change from what most shooters do (i.e. increase the damage on the next gun). The platforming itself is actually pretty flat in my opinion. I've never been a huge platform game lover, but I know the difference between intuitive level design and tedious challenges. Mario bros had intuitive level design that allows players to explore new facets of the stages with multiple play throughs. Cave Story is about execution of incredibly tedious jumps and timing mechanisms. This can at times leave me stuck in an area for 20 minutes at a time, attempting the same jump about 20 times. And since I'm not really captivated by the story, I find myself inclined on quitting rather than continuing with this pointless display in tedious timing. If someone enjoys this facet of platforming, then perhaps you should pick up Cave Story, but I'll pass on that funny business.
Cave Story isn't a bad game. It's a game that is paying homage to the old super nintendo games and shows that you can still make a compelling gaming experience without amazing graphics and other perceived triple A necessities. But still, just like many triple A games, Cave story simply doesn't deliver on narrative and with what truly something that has been done so many times gameplay wise, there's really no reason to go out rushing to download this game.
Overall:3.4
Narrative: 3.0
Platforming: 3.8
Characters: 2.8
Weapons: 3.8
Aha! I bet you guys didn't think I'd get through Cave Story. Well if that was your suspicion, then you're completely right. Cave Story, while certainly not a horrible game, didn't really do it for me. And unlike some games, where I find myself so engrossed in the plot that I lose track of time, responsibilities and showering, Cave Story was never quite able to really captivate me. But I have reason! Sweet reason that explains where Cave Story really shines and where it falls off. So let's go spelunking through Cave Story (see what I did there).
Narrative
I often treat the title of a video game like the title of a poem, I consider it to be the door that I have to open to get inside the piece. And when I see something titled "Cave Story", I have pretty basic expectations. I expect there to be a cave and some semblance of a story that has to deal with said cave. Luckily Cave Story delivers on both of these targets. There is indeed a Cave and the entire game takes place in it, playing out what seemed to me, an incredibly basic storyline.
What disheartens me the most about Cave Story is how basic, yet confusing the storyline of Cave Story is. You never really understand why you're doing something. The beginning of the game has a lot of mystery, which I concede had me pretty curious, but when almost all of the mystery was lifted by the middle of the game, I just found myself confused and kind of disinterested with the entire premise. The basic plot is that there is an evil scientist, who wants to do something to a tribe of bunnies, but these two other bunnies, who apparently are from somewhere else, wants to stop him. Where I fit into this as a player I have no idea, but it seems everyone is incredibly trusting of me seeing that they send me on quests, which the entire future of their tribe hinges upon. I guess they didn't really have a choice. Also, there is definitely a scenario of imperfect information going on in the game. What I mean by this is that everyone in the game knows I'm someone from the surface and that I'm a soldier. I was also called a robot at one point. Since I have no idea what this means in this universe I don't really know what to make of the significance. There's also some random hooded dude, who seems content with just chilling and being incredibly wise. Perhaps he's just the bard figure being intermittent in the game.
All this imperfect information eventually leads me to the one glaring issue with the game, my character is completely devoid of any personality or purpose. I don't know who my character is, how he's supposed to act or if he represents me or a unique character. This makes it hard for me to become immersed in the game because I'm consistently reminded that I'm just playing for playing's sake. And there's nothing wrong with that, but when one is on a busy schedule a game needs to bring something to the table to compete for my attention. The game didn't even need to develop the character. In fact having this everyman transverse the story would have been fine if I at least had the basic tenets of a purpose. One might argue that the arbitrary tasks assigned to the character would be the purpose or that I should as a person inherently feel compassion and want to help the cause of the bunnies, but I really don't buy into this. Mostly because aside from a few baddies (who I made quick work off), I don't ever see a real present threat. I hate overusing this example, but Chrono Trigger is the perfect example of motivating a character (and by extension a player) to want to complete a game. The beginning of the game is simple, rescue Marle. Then that switches to a visual depiction of the Earth being destroyed that you must prevent. All I ever see from Cave Story is a bunch of secret experiments, which people tell me are pretty bad, but I have no reason to believe that's the case. They're eggs, why didn't they just have one of the eggs crack open, letting out a monster that completely destroyed me, thus setting up motivation for me to want to destroy the monster in another encounter and adding validity to the claims of awfulness that the bunnies have been harping on about.
Gameplay
The gameplay to Cave Story is platformer meets scroll shooter and it's fun. I mean there's just something cathartic about gathering weapons, leveling them up and using them to more efficiently defeat monsters you were initially having trouble with. There are a variety of guns, which are distinct in the way you have to use them in the game. This is a refreshing change from what most shooters do (i.e. increase the damage on the next gun). The platforming itself is actually pretty flat in my opinion. I've never been a huge platform game lover, but I know the difference between intuitive level design and tedious challenges. Mario bros had intuitive level design that allows players to explore new facets of the stages with multiple play throughs. Cave Story is about execution of incredibly tedious jumps and timing mechanisms. This can at times leave me stuck in an area for 20 minutes at a time, attempting the same jump about 20 times. And since I'm not really captivated by the story, I find myself inclined on quitting rather than continuing with this pointless display in tedious timing. If someone enjoys this facet of platforming, then perhaps you should pick up Cave Story, but I'll pass on that funny business.
Cave Story isn't a bad game. It's a game that is paying homage to the old super nintendo games and shows that you can still make a compelling gaming experience without amazing graphics and other perceived triple A necessities. But still, just like many triple A games, Cave story simply doesn't deliver on narrative and with what truly something that has been done so many times gameplay wise, there's really no reason to go out rushing to download this game.
