Topic: NL Game Club Session 2: Cave Story

Yeah, so I got the normal ending but none of the extra modes opened up (Boss Rush, Curly mode, etc). What gives?!!

Also, I did the exact same thing as BleachFan. Without a save copy feature I'm going to have to save my file to an SD card.

Beat the final bosses with the Mimiga Mask again and watched the credits just for the heck of it.
_{actually, i did it in anticipation of 3d}

SPOILER PARTY AT MY PLACE
FINALLY beat Ballos. And I have to say, it's actually really easy once you can calm down and actually put some thought into what you're doing. Pixel slyly bombards the screen with commotion the whole fight, but the boss is actually quite simple.

Here's some tips for Ballos, for those who are still having trouble.

1. If you have the Snake, really take your time in the third area of the Sanctuary. You can blast certain enemies out of the way before you're supposed to encounter them since it can shoot through walls, and you can use all the pickups to start leveling up your Missile Launcher--extremely important. Once you get comfortable with the area, I was able to get past the entire Sanctuary and not use my life pot until Ballos' third form. Oh and don't forget to grab that 24-pack of missiles in the room before Iron Press. Handy.
2. Obviously, head to the upper right room before you head into the room with Ballos in it. Those statues contain powerups, so you should try and get your Missile Launcher up to level 3 if you haven't already.
3. Use the Nemesis on Ballos' first form. There's no triangles to worry about here, and since Curly has her Nemesis as well you can do double damage to him when he's above you to take him out in no time.
4. Obviously for his second form you're going to want to perch yourself onto one of his eyes, but never stay on it for too long, or you'll get impaled by the spikes on the side of the room. A lot. When he starts getting close to one side of the room boost over his head to the other eye and work on that one. Don't bother using your Nemesis, since power-up triangles are constantly falling from the sky (since Curly's always blasting the opposite direction as you, she's picking off tons of enemies. Hence all the pickups).
4. Play it safe on this one. The Snake and Nemesis are probably your best bets, and even if your Nemesis accidentally gets leveled up to 2 or 3, you can still do damage to those floating eyes when Ballos is above you (because Curly's Nemesis never gets leveled up). When he's rolling on the ground, try not to get distracted by all the mayhem around you. Concentrate on the placement of the eyes, and position yourself in between them so they don't hit you as he rolls across the ground. Missiles are effective here, but you're going to want at least 15 or so for the final form.

5. This one seems impossible if you don't know what you're doing. I was stuck on it for a couple weeks. The trick is using your level 3 missile launcher. Once those platforms start rotating around Ballos, stay on the ground. Little spikes come up but let 'em hit you. As soon as you get hit by the spikes you'll be invincible for a few seconds, so use this opportunity to boost up to Ballos' eye (like you did for his second form). Then take out your level 3 missile launcher and massacre that fire button. All in all, it should only take you like 3 seconds for him to bite the dust.

SPOILERS

So, I beat the Doctor and Misery and the Core thing. I saw the credits, so I guess I beat the game? None of the options on the main menu were unlocked, so I guess I need to beat it on Hard, or play through it again and do something different? I haven't been reading the spoilers in this thread, but from what I've seen, there's a whole bunch of stuff that's still left to do. Do I have to start the game over to get anything more? I'm on Original, BTW.

END SPOILERS

I'm guessing I'm behind most of you, since I've been busy with other games. But today I got to the part where I'm collecting puppies.

Did you save Curly? Fully resuscitate her? Give her the Ma Pignon? Get her to give you the Iron Bond? If not, you just got the Normal ending, where you don't fight Ballos. You may have to back-track quite some way if you want to get the Best ending.

Are you guys talking about the WiiWare version? I have the DSiWare and there's only ONE mode (?????) on the menu when I start the game. I assume I got the normal ending. I think Curly is dead in my game as she's lying on around in what I can remember to be is a flooded cave... So that means I can't backtrack and get the things needed to save her or something?

No komic, you have to start from the beginning again if you want to get the best ending.

Spoilery question
You get something good if you complete the Sanctuary in under six minutes with the 290 timer amirite?

Yeah. Under 6 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes and 3 minutes, you get a different title screen theme for each achievement. Sue, Curly, King are three of them, can't remember the fourth. No-one knows about under 2 minutes though - guess no-one's got as speedy fingers as that.

also a spoilery question
Is the last area called Sanctuary or Sacred Grounds? I feel like I've heard it being called both but I haven't paid attention to the game hard enough to find out xD
Or is it one of those things that got changed in the official translation from the fan translation?

Well it was originally called Hell. I couldn't tell you how the discrepancies started to spring up but they all mean the same thing: the last, hidden area of the game leading to Ballos.

@Raylax "Blood-Stained Sanctuary" is the official name. "Hell" is an official nickname.

@Phobos I think I remember a YouTube speed-run that was like 1:40.

LAST POST 3 DAYS AGO?? Unacceptable.

I beat Cave Story and got the best ending, so I've been spending the rest of my time this month delving into some of Pixel's other works. Some really interesting, understated stuff in his catalog. If you're interested, all of his non-Cave Story games are available here. They're on the official Cave Story site so don't worry about them wrecking your computer

The most notable is Ikachan, a wonderful little underwater RPG-Platformer that, I feel, hasn't gotten the respect it deserves. It's far more simplistic than Cave Story in every regard, but its simplicity is intentional, and adds to the charm. You could beat the whole game in an hour, but it's joyous experience that I'm already itching to relive. I believe Nicalis has said they're porting it to DSiWare, and if they can work out some of its flaws and and expand upon it a bit, I think it could be another classic.

The other must-play Pixel game is Guxt, an old school shmup with a killer (but fair) difficulty and tons of style. If you're diggin' Cave Story's distinctive visuals and its hardcore challenge, definitely give this one a shot.

He's made some fun (and thoroughly bizarre) little time-wasters as well. Glasses is my favorite of these; essentially you play as a little Asian fellow with an enormous head, and you try to catch your glasses from the sky as they fall. The better you're able to line them up on your face, the higher score you get (and there's some bonus levels if you get three perfect scores in a row). Shine Shine Galaxy (Die Die Galaxy) is another weird one; its a little shmup that has you blasting at malicious flying cat heads with limited ammo. Really, really weird stuff. But fun!

I highly recommend that everyone here at least check out Ikachan and Guxt. They take all of 12 seconds to download and they're outstanding in their own right.

Also, there's some interesting Cave Story mods that fans have created, if you're wanting to scratch that Cave Story itch. Some of them are pretty cool. But more on that later

I am saving Ikachan and Guxt for their DSiWare incarnations if Nicalis ever ports them.

In the meantime, I have more than enough Nicalis goodness to tide me over with NightSky (free demo in link). Not to mention Pixel wrote the story for the game.

I has no moneyz but I downloaded the dome for the game and boy did it make me a happy guy now usally I would buy it once I get the courage to gold diggin in other people's wallets (my parents XD) but I'll wait untill its installment on the 3DS (yeah I'm THAT kind of gamer) but anyway it was definetly alot of fun and I could easily see it sapping many hours out of my summer

You do know that you could download it for free, right?

Oh, thanks for the reminder on NightSky! I've been meaning to check that one out

If I'm not wrong, I've missed both the good and bad ending now, so I guess I'm going for the normal one. Currently exploring the Plantation.

If you're at Plantation you're at least headed for the normal ending. Bad ending avoided