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Doukutsu Monogatari

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Doukutsu Monogatari (洞窟物語, Cave Story in English) is a freeware PC game designed and created by Daisuke Amaya, art-name Pixel. The game is a traditional action-adventure game, reminiscent of the Castlevania and Metroid games. After being fan-translated to English by [Aeon Genesis], the game has received praise from gamers worldwide.

Contents

Overview

The game begins as a complete mystery to the player and plot is dispensed as progress through the game is made.

The player awakens in an underground cavern with no memory of how he came to be there and no weapons of any kind. He stumbles across a village with rabbit-like creatures called Mimigas who are being persecuted by the evil Doctor. Two of the Doctor's lackeys, Misery and Balrog, are looking for a Mimiga called Sue, but by accident they abduct a Mimiga named Toroko. The player's first quest is to rescue Toroko and save the Mimigas from the Doctor's evil grasp.

The game features multiple paths and alternate endings to explore.

Plot

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Thousands of years ago, there was a powerful magician named Ballos, whose powers were far beyond those of mortals. He used his powers to help people, and so the people loved and trusted him more than even their own king. The king, upon discovering this, became jealous and had Ballos imprisoned and tortured. Strained by the torture, Ballos allowed his magic to run wild, annihilating the King in an instant. Ballos was unable to regain control of his magic, and under its compulsion he was forced to murder his wife and children and burn the kingdom to ash, laughing the entire time.

Ballos had a sister named Jenka. Jenka was a witch, and, like Ballos, her magic was very powerful. When she learned that her brother had gone mad, she confined him to an island that floated in the sky. Even though Ballos could not be freed from his magic except through death, Jenka loved her brother 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 anthropomorphic, rabbit-like creatures. She retired to the Sand Zone, a desert-like cave in the island, and began to raise dogs.

Jenka had a daughter named Misery. Misery, who was also a witch, forced Ballos to create the Demon Crown, which would channel his power to the wearer. The Crown, however, cursed Misery so that she would be the slave of the Crown's wearer.

Ten years before the game begins, the countries of Earth sent robots to take the power of the Demon Crown. The robots killed indiscriminately, and many of the Mimigas were slain. To defend themselves, the Mimigas sought out the dangerous Red Flowers. Although the Mimigas rely on flowers for sustenance, Red Flowers have destructive side-effects: They cause massive muscular growth and complete insanity. Finally, a man from the surface gained possession of the Demon Crown. The robots fell silent. The Mimigas, however, were still frenzied from the Red Flowers, and the master of the Crown turned them loose upon the Earth.

Two special robots, a boy named Quote and a girl named Curly Brace, had been sent to the island to assassinate the master of the Crown and destroy it once and for all. They fought him but could not defeat him. They were rendered unconscious, lost their memories, and became lost in the island's network of underground caves.

Shortly before the game begins, a research party of humans came to the island by helicopter. It consisted of research scientist Momorin Sakamoto, her children Sue and Kazuma Sakamoto, Professor Booster, an engineer named Itoh, and a medical doctor named Date Fuyuhiko. The Doctor, who knew about the crown beforehand, joined the party only for the opportunity to find it. After the party landed, he immediately began to search for it. The opening sequence of the game shows the Doctor finding the Crown with Misery and Balrog, the two imprisoned servants of the Crown, floating in the background.

Once the Doctor had the crown, he began a plan to take over the world: he would force the Mimigas to cultivate and ultimately eat the Red Flowers, and use an army of enraged Mimigas to attack the surface (Earth). The other members of the research party did not want to cooperate, so he ordered them to be murdered. Sue Sakamoto and Itoh were turned into Mimigas by Misery before escaping. Kazuma Sakamoto teleported away, but found himself trapped in a room with no exit and a broken teleporter. Momorin Sakamoto reluctanty followed his orders out of fear for her life, but after the Doctor found the Red Flower seeds, he ordered her thrown off the edge of the island. Hiding out in the plantations, she planned in secret for a way to defeat the Doctor from the security of an underground laboratory.

Sue hid in the Mimiga village. The village was at one point very large, but had only six inhabitants after the Doctor began abducting Mimigas for use in his experiments, his army and on the plantations. In the past, Toroko's brother and hero of the Mimigas, Arthur, had slain the previous master of the Demon Crown, but was killed by the Doctor during his rise to power. The new Mimiga leader, King, disliked Sue, and attempted to exchange her for Toroko after Toroko was kidnapped, with disastrous results.

When the game begins, Quote awakens in a cave near the Mimiga village.

Notable characters

Mimigas

Research team

Allies

Enemies

Handheld version

Variant Interactive announced on 27 March 2006 that they were developing a version of Doukutsu Monogatari for the PSP.[link] However, shortly after the announcement, Pixel himself said that he had not given them permission to develop a port,[link] and the status of the project is currently unknown. The lead manager at Variant claims that he is still discussing terms with Pixel.[link][link]

There is, however, a homebrew port of Cave Story in progress for the Game Boy Advance, which has received Pixel's official blessing to go forward.[link]

External links

 

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