Cave Story

(Image courtesy of Aeon Genesis)

Cave Story is a single-player platformer game developed by Studio Pixel and translated by Aeon Genesis, which was originally released for the PC, with Wii and DSi ports created and retranslated by Nicalis.

Cave Story follows the actions of a robot named Quote who, after being awoken in what appears to be an underground cave, sets out an adventure. While the game starts with this as its relatively simple premise, its story is more complex than one would think, as it fits the dramatic arc of traditional storytelling.

The exposition of the story begins when Quote discovers a village filled with strange, bunny-like humanoid creatures called Mimigas. It is explained to him that a human girl named Sue who was turned into a Mimiga is being pursued by an evil man known only as the Doctor. His minions kidnap another Mimiga by accident, and when Sue is found, she is imprisoned as punishment for the trouble she caused the village. Quote decides to help her by finding and rescuing her brother, who is somewhere nearby the village.

The rising action starts soon after, when Quote finds Sue's brother Kazuma and their friend, Professor Booster. Through them, Quote is sent on missions in nearby areas, and the background of the story is slowly revealed to him. Quote is revealed to be a combat robot that was sent to these caves, which are in reality within a floating island, to fight the Mimigas. This is because the Mimigas become incredibly aggressive if they ingest a certain red flower, which the Doctor is trying to find in order to create a Mimiga army. Quote confronts the Doctor, but is sent to a maze deep within the island after he defeats the Doctor's minions.

After this point, Quote mainly tries to escape to the higher areas of the island, and this makes up the falling action of the game's story. Eventually, Quote and his allies make their way to the top of the island, where Quote finally gets a chance to battle the Doctor.

The resolution of the game's story can be slightly changed by how the player played the game, with picking certain options and performing certain difficult tasks giving the player a better ending. The player can also chose to leave the island, giving them a bad ending where the Doctor wins. If this is not chosen, Quote defeats the Doctor, and then fights the corrupted core of the island itself, before escaping with his allies. While not as extremely long or twisted as the stories of some games, Cave Story's story is certainly not as basic as its title would suggest.