Cave Story/Headscratchers

Ridiculously Human Robot Characters

• What was the point of draining water out of Curly, again? I mean, you dive right back into water, wouldn't that be a bad thing for her?
  • The Oxygen Tank takes the form of a big air bubble. Presumably, you're hauling Curly in such a way that she is also inside the bubble.
  • Then why didn't Curly do that in the first place? Is she suicidal? Does she enjoy being rescued?
    • She doesn't have a Tow Rope.
    • But why didn't she wait inside that big air bubble until you woke up, instead of passing out right next to you?
    • Try thinking with clarity when your CPU is dented, you're drowning, your boyfriend is about to die, and there's an earthquake going on.
    • Alternatively, the bubble takes a minute or two to warm up when you equip it for the first time
    • But since she already had it equipped on, she could have just walked over to Quote so that he was inside her bubble and waited until he woke up, whereupon the two of them could leave together.
    • Or you can't introduce anything into the bubble while underwater without compromising it.
    • But then how would Quote be able to fire his weapons while in it?
    • Simple, things can leave but they can't enter.
  • Also note that Curly floats away from Quote after the sudden boss fight at the end of the waterway, and yet she's just fine...sort-of...shortly after. Did Quote just need to drag her through the waterway for everything to be fine? Was the draining of water just so she wouldn't be filled with even MORE water by the time she got through? What kind of robot needs a bed to be nice and soft before taking a nap, and why couldn't he just use the perfectly workable table that was nearby?
    • Maybe she wouldn't survive all the spikes and monsters without his help?
    • She wouldn't survive anything. Most people who get the tow rope checked FAQs at least once, so they do everything right from start. If you fight Iron Head without draining her, after a while, you will get a message: "Curly's life functions ceased". So the deal was to keep her from being in water for too long and hope for another air spot to re-drain her again (which the Cthulu guy probably did).
    • Another theory might be that water can only get in when a robot is online, which Curly clearly wasn't. After all, it's not like a robot you turned off would still need to breathe.
    • We also don't know how long Quote was out for before regaining consciousness. It could be that when Curly drifted away, she reached the Plantations reservoir soon enough that her systems could be drained again by Cthulu.
• So, why does a mushroom that cures memory work on a robot?
  • Well, Curly and Quote are Ridiculously-Human Robots. If you feel particularly dirty-minded, it's easy to infer that Quote sleeps with Chaco (the second time you rest in her bed). The real question is, why were two combat robots sent on a commando mission made to be so ridiculously human?
    • I'll just leave these right here (both links are NSFW.)
    • Presumably in the hopes that maybe the mimigas wouldn't recognize them as robots, assume they were killer robots and try to defend themselves? Although clearly from the surface, the only two people in the entire game who recognizes Quote as a robot the first time they meet without being told about him in advance are Professor Booster and Professor Itoh (heck, even Misery takes a while to figure it out, and she'd presumably fought with him the last time).
    • Maybe whoever invented them went a little overboard, and non-Ridiculously-Human Robots that are capable of the same job haven't been invented yet.
    • Robots NOT this ridiculously human might not be able to see the link between stopping the crown bearer and saving a bunch of people that allows them to get around the Three Laws, provided they hold true.
    • Curly and Quote are part of a wave of experimental robots able to sexually reproduce. This is useful because it allows reinforcements to be created on the spot in extremely long campaigns. This would explain a whole lot of things, actually.
    • Furthermore, seduction is a really powerful tool for persuasion.
    • This would also start going into Rule34 territory...
    • The Internet is way ahead of you.
    • They were designed as general purpose special missions (what) units. Ridiculously human qualities were considered a good idea, as it could prove potentially crucial in future situations. Else, they were designed specifically for the game-relevant mission - to destroy the Demon Crown. As this would almost certainly involve assassinating someone immensely magically empowered, a capacity for subterfuge was considered a good idea. Same thing either way, I guess.
    • That or Quote and Curly are "master copies" for the more specialized units to follow. These specializations would most certainly include James Bond-style espionage.
    • Again, attempts to bypass the Three Laws abound.
      • What real proof is there that Quote and Curly have genitals? Just because Quote and Chaco shared a bed doesn't automatically mean they had sex. It means that Chaco had no other place to sleep since Quote was sleeping in her goddamn bed. And considering what a Kleptomaniac Hero Quote is, he might have just nicked Chaco's lipstick.
  • The Mushroom functions via magic rather than Biology and, thus, can affect robots as well (not particularly sensible, but hey, magic rules are more changeable than those of Biology).
  • I would guess they're biorobots, or at least have some organic parts, which would also explain why they drown so easily (breathing is mentioned at some point, I believe) and die unless drained of water and resuscitated. Given that you wake up without any external prompting at the beginning of the game and Curly need time to recover after eating that mushroom, I'll also assume some sort of (really slow) regeneration.
• Why is it that Curly remembers her name, but Quote doesn't?
  • Quote didn't stuff a memory-restoring mushroom down his mechanical throat.
    • Before that, she was obviously not as heavily damaged as Quote since she reactivated much earlier. She might have kept some of her memories.
    • Silent Protagonist, remember? It's never stated that Quote DOESN'T have his memories, iirc.
    • Except that the way the game starts heavily implies it. And it is directly stated in at least the Wii version's manual.
• In most of the game, if Quote goes under water, his oxygen level counts down from 100 to 0 and if it goes to 0 he drowns. But if he's a robot, how come he needs to breathe?
  • Since there is No Waterproofing in the Future, the water gets into his circuits and shorts him out. It's simply the time you have until your systems get too damaged and you shut down to protect yourself. It happens to Curly.
  • Or just pretend Quote is air cooled or needs oxygen for some reason in his advance energy producing unit. Wait, didn't rescue Curly till after I wrote that. The above explains it correctly.
• Who designed robots with such vulnerable memory cicruits? Almost every time they get knocked out, they wake up not remembering who they are. We see it happen THREE times between TWO characters over the course of the story, for heaven's sake.
  • You throw a hard drive hard across the room and see how well it survives.
    • Besides, they're well past their expiry dates.
  • WMG: They're experimental prototypes/cutting edge technology, and their capacity for emotion is related to their memory storage. It's got a few kinks to be worked out/its mechanics are based on human neurology; they're capable of suffering physical-trauma-induced amnesia ... Or, being super-robots, the designers were running out of room/budget/resources, and deemed, since the two are capable of learning, memory safety relatively unimportant.
    • My fanfic-brewed WMG: Their brains were originally based on standard computing technology, but halfway through the production process, they switched to the human-neurology model.
    • Ridiculously-Human Robots.
• As a robot, why does Curly even have panties? Wait, don't answer that.
  • *cough* (NSFW)
  • If you're dressing up Ridiculously-Human Robots, you might as well get a full outfit.
  • It actually serves as amazing personal armor. Her creator stored all of her vital circuits down south, figuring no one would look there. (Insert obligatory Chobits joke here.)
    • And if you've seen it, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin goes about the same route...
  • Why do humans wear panties?
    • Comfort and modesty? They don't HAVE to wear panties, y'know...
      • I believe that was a rhetorical question...
• Why does Curly keep her underwear in a secret passage behind the wall? Seems like sort of an odd placement.
  • In case a perverted robot boy tries to steal them, obviously.
  • Maybe she went exploring the secret passage and accidentally lost her panties during all the fumbling around she did to get out.
    • Read the Omake at the bottom. That's why. (NSFW)
    • And not her over-pants? That would mean that her panties just phased through her trousers. And before someone suggests she lost both, then why would she get back her trousers but not her underwear?
    • Trousers are more important? I mean, it's not even noticeable that you are missing your panties if you are wearing your trousers. Plus, trousers protect you from the elements, terrain, and enemies more (scratches, infections, etc...). Given that Curly is a warrior, I would expect her to be practically-minded. Either that, or when she lost both, she was able to accidentally stumble into her trousers again, but not her panties.
  • Because she lacks a dresser, so the secret passageway is the only place where she can keep underwear away from prying eyes when she's not wearing it.
  • It's actually a closet, but you can't see the door in 2-D and youu have to crawl through the ventilation to get into the closet.
  • Because you are mistaken and it's actually Jenka's panties.
    • You are an evil, evil troper.
    • That just raises further questions!
  • Those puppies are pretty naughty....
    • This is a highly believable answer for anyone who has ever owned puppies and not kept a tight lid on their laundry hamper.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Pixel wanted it to be a Guide Dang It.
• All right, so we've established that Quote and Curly are Ridiculously Human Robots; why does no one refer to them as androids, then?
  • Perhaps their original creators considered them part of the same line as some less human-like robots and thus referred to them as robots as well. Anyone who knows about the project would know that and most of those who don't wouldn't think of the word 'androids' anyway.
  • Why would they? The term "robot" works just fine.
    • I'm someone, you see, who grew up the given that a robot was, well, a robot, but ones that looked human were specifically called androids. But both these explanations make sense.
  • Well, Curly isn't an android - she's a gynoid. But for a practical explanation, the Japanese word for android is really long and technical, and not generally used in normal conversation.
• Why do fan artists always seem to draw Quote and Curly with fleshtone skin? I mean, seeing how there are genuine human characters with normal skin colors, I think it's safe to say that Quote and Curly being stark white is not simply an artistic convention on Pixel's part.
  • I'm going with, nobody really cares. And shippers.
  • I always assumed that the white tone wasn't actually depicting them as stark white, but rather porcelain-like in their skin, both shiny and extremely pale, but still with color, which would get more pronounced as they get dirtier, like if you were trudging through a mess of caves...
  • If they are human-like enough that it takes people a while to notice they are robots, they are probably not pure white. More likely, Pixel took some creative license and used white to emphasize their paleness/lack-of-life-ness.
    • And then (for Quote at least, if not Curly too) there's the fact that they've been in caves for the last 10+ years. if that didn't make their probably humanesque skin superuberpale, nothing would.
• Where did Curly get that Nemesis in Hell? You still have yours if you picked it up.
  • Hey, you're not the only one who can do sidequests.
    • Just realized something else; did she Take A Shortcut or something to get past all the spikes and shit?
    • Machine Gun.
    • I took the Machine Gun on my first runthrough. The Polar Star is not known for its propulsive capability.
    • Perhaps she FAILED to get past all the spikes, which is how she broke her legs, which is why you need to strap her to your back. Though, come to think of it, she's walking around in the cutscene after the boss even though I'm pretty sure the game explicitly declares her legs broken.
    • Where?
    • They might have been arranged differently before the Undead Core was defeated. Blocks were raining from the ceiling in the next room, after all.
    • And everywhere else the game lets you go after beating the undead core.
    • Maybe she somehow got the Booster 0.8 and managed to get there in one extremely beat up piece?
    • Or was climbing, slipped, fell, and got EXTREMELY lucky?
    • It's possible that Booster still had Booster 0.8 after giving you 2.0, and gave it to Curly to help her.
    • If they ever ran into each other.
    • My personal WMG: Curly Brace is an advanced prototype equipped with a device intended to replicate the Demon Crown's Villain Teleportation. However, since it's based on Villain Teleportation, whoever uses it ends up severely damaged on the other end.
  • My guess is that Cthulhu gave it to her. I mean, he is pretty mysterious. For all we know, he could be the one who made the Nemeses. Heck, maybe Mr. Little got his Nemesis from him as well.
  • Same place she got her machine gun.
    • Unless, of course, she managed to keep a hold on her Machine Gun during the time she and Quote were out of commission.
• Quote is, to all appearances, a little boy. In his sprite, he's significantly shorter than adult characters other than Booster -- and in his Wii sprite, even slightly shorter than Curly. As well, in the official art -- such as Pixel's from the endings -- he distinctly looks younger than the other characters, including Curly, who appears to be in her early-mid teens or so. What possible reason is there to design your robotic soldier and infiltrator to look like a little boy?
  • Perhaps Quote's designers took influence from Dr. Light or Dr. Ochanomizu?
  • 1) To make Quote look like an innocent child, which is very helpful in making potential enemies let their guard down or underestimate the combat robot. 2) With a smaller body, Quote is more resilient to long falls, and can dodge attacks more easily. And 3) Building a child-sized robot costs less materials than building an adult-sized one, making it much cheaper.

Mimiga Related

• And another thing: there were several Mimiga that got turned crazy by the red flowers, and it's never explained why. The first is Igor in Egg Corridor, and you see red flower petals by his bed. The second is a crazed Mimiga in grass town who lives in a house with a broken window and also has red flower petals by his bed. It's stated that the Doctor hadn't found the red flowers by that time, so how did those Mimiga get turned crazy?
  • They ate the red flowers.
    • What? So they ate the red flowers way back during the robot invasion and just sat in their houses all that time?
    • Pretty much. That or it's just that the Doctor had some flowers already. (You got sent to the Sand Zone because the seeds were stored there.)
    • Presumably, they wanted a suicide pill and it didn't turn out like they expected.
    • Backed up by a few Mimiga stating the whole "eat one and your blood will boil and then you die" thing.
    • Igor had enough brains left to talk, it could be that he was a helper that came with the doctor, Sue and the rest in the helicopter, and was transformed first by Misery and then used as experiment by the doctor with the red flowers, check that he has a tie and we don't know the effects of the red flowers on Mimiga transformed humans, just watch Sue later on the undead core battle.
    • Given the presence of red flower petals in the Egg Corridor's watch room, it's likely that Igor was tasked with overseeing the Corridor, and The Doctor attacked and converted him to gain control of the area.
  • These few Tale of the Cave strips fix this bit.
    • • It's simple, really. Igor was tasked to protect the dragon eggs no matter what. As a mere normal Mimiga, he couldn't stand a chance against all the monsters in the area nor the Doctor and his gang. Out of desperation to fulfill his task, Igor willingly consumed Red Flowers to become powerful enough to guard the dragon eggs, unfortunately losing his mind in the process. He still seemed to have retained enough intelligence to keep fulfilling his task, as he fought against Sue and Quote to keep them away from the eggs. The Doctor wasn't involved at all with Igor's transformation, at least not directly.
• And yet another thing, why are there red flowers in the basement of Arthur's House?
  • When you inspect the monitor in Arthur's house, it reads "...if I have to, I really will...", and given the fact Arthur died fighting the Red Demon from the Last Cave, it's fairly deducible he either found a safe way to use the flowers for strength like the Doctor, or he ingested them so he could direct himself at the Doctor in a frenzy. Either way, it wasn't enough. Igor talks about serving the master- perhaps he served the previous holder of the crown? Or Arthur, and decided to follow his example?
    • That message had nothing to do with Arthur. It was part of Kazuma's message to Sue, where he mentioned that he would eat roaches for nourishment if he really had to.
  • It's meant to imply that to fight the Red Demon, Arthur used the flowers to put himself in a frenzy, knowing he'd be powerful enough to defeat it in that state even though it would kill him. He chose to kamikaze the monster in order to save his friends and family.
    • Which would be all very well and good if it wasn't explicitly stated in the first fifteen minutes of the game that the Doctor killed Arthur.
    • King: "Toroko's elder brother, Arthur, was a fabulous warrior. But he was killed by one of the Doctor's goons."
    • Toroko: "He [the Doctor] killed him [Arthur].", said just before the first Balrog fight. The above statement is optional, this is the only mandatory reference to it in a normal game play. Though I can see King telling Toroko that the Doctor killed Arthur to make her brother sound less pathetic.
    • Here's Jack's take on the matter: "Toroko's brother Arthur fought against a horrific red monster... The terrible demon of this island that feasts on Mimigas. It's not the Doctor, it's... something else. That demon has lived on this island for ages. It came here to the village, but Arthur single-handedly drove it back. His gallant figure alone shielding our village from harm... I'll never forget it, as long as I live. He may have finally been killed by the Doctor, but he was a true hero." So we know he fought and drove back the Red Demon. We don't know if he used the red flowers to do it, but from Jack's "gallant figure" statement, I would doubt it (the flowers turn you into a bloated frenzied monster). We don't know if he died in order to accomplish this (by battle wounds or by ingesting the flowers and being killed by them), or if he was killed later (Jack says he was "finally" killed, and doesn't tie it to the narrative, so I think it was probably later; it also leads a bit of credence to the demon not immediately coming back to the village and slaughtering the remaining Mimigas). We also know that he was killed by either the Doctor or one of his henchmen, but we don't know which (Jack and Toroko say it was the Doctor; King says it was one of his goons). Since being killed by one of the Doctor's goons can easily be generalized into being killed by the Doctor (i.e. on his orders, kind of like people say Hitler killed 6 million Jews despite not personally shoving them into the gas chambers), I am going to go with King's account of the matter. So here's what I think happened: the Red Demon attacked the village, Arthur drove it back without ingesting the red flowers (he probably kept some as a last resort in case something terrible happened, like another robot invasion). He is later killed by one of the Doctor's servants (I'm guessing Misery, since she is about the only thing in his arsenal stronger than the Red Demon). He is killed before he has a chance to eat the flowers, so they just remain in his basement after his death. Finally, he is buried as a hero in the graveyard.
    • Some enraged Mimigas turn into larger, more frenzied/mean-looking Mimigas instead of fat, bloated Igor types. It could have something to do with dosage. Also, some interpretations of King's red eyes imply that he's the only living Mimiga to have used red flowers and NOT die afterwards, so Arthur might have done so also to fight off the Red Demon when it attacked. Again, possibly a dosage thing.
    • Am I the only one who can't imagine King saying "fabulous"?
    • If you talk to Jack before heading to the Sand Zone, he gives you some more info. Arthur fought off the Red Demon and was later killed by the Doctor.
    • It's possible that Arthur went into a frenzy, managed to fight off the Red Demon, and then was ultimately killed by the Doctor or his goons. Alternatively, Arthur could have simply had the red flowers in reserve as a "trump card", but never used them before his death.
  • Maybe the Doctor force-fed Arthur Red Flowers so he would go crazy and be easier to kill? This assumes that the Doctor had some red flowers initially, but not the seeds to make more grow.
    • If the Doctor had been in a position to force-fed Arthur flowers, chances are, he could have killed him on the spot instead. Besides, as a general rule, the red flowers tend to turn Mimiga into better warriors, making up for the lack of mental ability by a huge increase in raw strength and size.
  • I always assumed Sue stole them from the Doctor during her escape, in an attempt to slow him down.
• Whatever happened to Jack? He just sort of disappeared from the story entirely when the Mimiga Village was emptied.
  • Actually, if you visit Jail No 2 before you are captured (from the other side of the bars, of course), you'll see Jack in there along with Sue and Mahin. But when you're thrown in there, he gets taken away and so does Sue. This probably does not bode well for Jack, though they didn't seem to intend to use the flowers on Sue.
  • He may have been thrown in the Cages around The King's Table, he was just in the back where you couldn't see him
    • Or Jack had been turned into one of the frenzied Mimigas that were guarding the King's Table. The ones you most likely blasted to pieces without a second thought. So in other words, you killed Jack.
• Speaking of Mahin, A. why doesn't the doctor take him along with Jack and Sue initially, and B. why is he left there even after the other Mimiga are taken by the doctor? Was he forgotten?
  • Probably because there was no more room in the cages, so the doctor left him there.
    • He's sitting in a tiny room in the middle of the village surrounded by rock walls except for two small one-square holes. There's not a better hiding spot in the game, really.
    • (The original post was refering to when Mahin was in the jail, by the way, not the village.)
• Why is Chaco's fireplace a passageway through Grasstown? Wouldn't it annoy you if people have to go through your house to get the other half of the town?
  • It's safe to assume that the fans are usually on. Maybe Chaco's fireplace is an "emergency exit" of sorts in case the fans malfunction?
  • This troper got a Scavenger World vibe from the whole island. Perhaps the building was already there and she just set up shop in it, using the hole in the wall, already conveniently linked to a chimney, as a fireplace?
  • When you come out of the other place, you can see that it looks like a broken fence, so the hole must have been used as a vent for the smoke, but after heating, the wet weather of the grass zone must have rusted it. After the fans stopped working, they discovered the hole to cross through Chaco's house.
    • Which she then lights a fire in and repurposes to trap travelers, at least temporarily. Yes, there's Rule 34 on that.
• If the Mimiga built the Execution Chamber, why is there a human skull on it?
  • Because they only executed humans, obviously.
  • The game never confirms one way or the other, but the Mimigas may not have always existed. Since Misery is stated to be able to turn humans into Mimigas, it's possible that slow exposure to Ballos' power did the same thing for generations before anyone came to the island. The excution chamber could have been built by native humans well before they became Mimigas.

Other Characters

• Who was Misery's father? Why is he never mentioned?
  • Maybe the magical witch species is a One-Gender Race? Misery has only one parent.
    • Couldn't be; Ballos is Misery's uncle (Jenka is Misery's mother, and Ballos is Jenka's brother). For a serious answer, it's probably more likely he just wasn't important enough to appear in the story. An average guy whose only contribution was shagging her mom.
    • I second this, and would like to point out that he just might be dead...and killed by Ballos, just for a greater dramatic tension.
    • Or Ballos is her father.
• Is Balrog a toaster, a suitcase, or what exactly?
  • I've taken to calling him "Stupid flying Game Boy," but he honestly looks more like a possessed computer monitor.
    • Which makes him an excellent desktop background.
  • He's a sentient lunchbox. The question is, what's inside?
    • The same thing that's inside every lunchbox in Cave Story: missiles.
  • Magic-Powered-Robot-Lunchbox-Suitcase-Missile-Dog
  • He might be a pinball machine, judging by the shape of his arms.
  • My theory is he's a robot. A very primitive robot as opposed to Quote or Curly, and possibly not made on the Surface, but on the Floating Island by...Ballos before he went insane? This is getting into Wild Mass Guessing territory...
    • I support this, it explains why Balrog got roped in with Misery's curse even though it's never stated he was there to force Ballos into creating the Demon Crown.
  • He's always reminded me of Evil Edna.
  • The game or some other material does mention that Balrog's a demon. He's probably a Magitek demon. Also, the promotional T-shirts by Nicalis show that, among other things, Balrog has robot parts, a partial skeleton, a puppy, and a football inside him.
  • He's a bar of soap. Seriously.
    • This does not upset me. I'm fine with that explanation. And assuming they're related, the Labyrinth ghost's attacks make a certain amount of sense now... Soap bubbles!!!
• What happened to Jenka's powers? I mean, she was powerful enough to seal off/kill Ballos, and yet she gets mugged by Balrog??? Did she pass them on to Misery and, in doing so, lose them herself, or has her old age really reduced her powers that much? Either way, she doesn't make a very good guardian of the red flowers.
  • It's assumed that Ballos was sealed up quite a while before the game takes place, possibly hundreds or even thousands of years; it's likely Jenka's gotten frail in her old age.
    • Actually, she outright states that even a witch like her can grow old and frail and all she can do is rely on you.
  • Another (personal) theory is that she's using all of her power to keep the Island afloat, as a counterbalance to her brother's power, in tandem with the Core. This would leave her physically vulnerable so even a creature like Balrog could smack her around.
  • My own theory is that their magic works like Lord of the Rings magic; that is, whenever you use magic to create or enchant something, the power spent is lost for good. I imagine placing the seal on the Seal Chamber, building the Labyrinth, and creating the Core would leave her rather weak, possibly using up her powers entirely. She probably has enough magic left to keep herself from dying of old age, but not much more than that.
  • Either this is a world where everyone's magic has a definite limit (so every time you use some, you tap into your finite lifetime supply of magic) and she stretched her powers so much when sealing Ballos that they never recovered (kind of like using a muscle to the breaking point), or she has just grown too old to do any of that fancy magic anymore.
  • If any of this applies to Jenka, what about Ballos? He's only slightly younger than her, and that doesn't say much when you're hundreds to thousands of years old. In all that time, he seems to be as powerful as ever despite having created countless demons and using all of his might 24/7 to make the island crash. Maybe his haywire power has granted him an infinite supply of magic? Ballos also seems very inhuman, almost demon-like, unlike the more natural looking Jenka and Misery. It could be that his power mutated him so far that he doesn't age at all anymore.
• How did Sue's mom and Itoh get through the Final Cave?
  • I can only assume that after you left, they had time to improve the rocket until it could just plow through to the top...or something. I don't think Kazuma gave them a lift...maybe Jenka's dog found them and relayed a request for help to her?
  • Since it was obviously mobile enough to move out of the Hideout, maybe they moved it outside and just went around the Outer Wall.
  • Or, once Quote went on his massive rampage shooting pretty much everything, it wasn't that dangerous any more, and a couple of people could easily walk through it.
• What's up with Balrog? Why is he bound to the crown like Misery? Misery was Jenka's daughter, but where did Balrog come from?
  • I have a personal theory about this. Perhaps Misery knew/created Balrog during her childhood, and he was bound to her. Thus, when she became bound to the Demon Crown, Balrog followed suit by association. The reason he's able to have a happily ever after with Quote and Curly in the end is most likely because, after being set free herself, Misery let Balrog go.
    • Maybe Ballos himself created Balrog? I mean, Ballos, Balrog...They both have the ability to jump through ceilings and Balrog has those orange stripes...Ok, that's not much evidence, but still. Makes sense to me.
    • One piece of fanon I saw floating about said that Ballos--out of what kindness he had left in his heart--created him as a companion for Misery; someone to keep her company for all those years she would be bound to the crown's power.
• What did Misery plan for the Demon Crown to do, anyway? As far as I can tell, its power is limited to commanding Balrog and Misery, and I don't think she would have gotten Ballos to make such a limited item, especially one so unstable that she got cursed as well. Or is it shown to have some other power that I forgot about?
  • Presumably, the Demon Crown grants its user some control over the victims of the Red Flowers (the Doctor even refers to them as "Demon Flowers"), hence why the Doctor trusts the Rabils to guard his sanctuary and why he's able to retain his own mind for a time after using the Red Crystal. Additionally, the Doctor can teleport at will; while Misery already has that power, the Demon Crown probably enhances its users magic powers to some degree (so the totally mundane Doctor can teleport, and the already-powerful Misery would likely have become something terrifying to behold).
  • Much in the way that the core is suggested to channel Ballos's/Jenka's power, you could infer that the Demon Crown is an outlet for Ballos's power. 'Misery forced Ballos to forge the crown.' The man/witch-being whose sole desire is relief from his god-level magic abilities wouldn't want anything but that.
  • The demon crown could be put on par with the One Ring.
• Why are the Gaudis (the roach-like creatures) that are inside the shop intelligent and relatively friendly, while the ones outside it act like random monsters?
  • The first one you see when you go into the shop remarks that he's starving for Mimiga flesh, and that Quote smells a bit like Mimiga. That, and you've probably blown quite a few of them to hell by then. The ones inside are probably just have a better instinct for self-preservation.
    • And they're in a shop, safe and sound, as opposed to the ones outside who are the wild Shoot-First-Ask-Later types.
• If Jenka was so worried about another Demon Crown wearer using the red flowers to start another Frenzied Mimiga invasion, why didn't she DESTROY the horrible things instead of just locking them away and hoping Balrog doesn't come calling?
  • Because the Mimigas might need them again. I think it was implied that if they hadn't taken them the first time round, they'd have been wiped out.
    • Not just implied, outright stated. Jenka's storing them because, even with their drawbacks, they're too useful not to keep around.
• If all the mushrooms, as shown in the credits, are "Pignons", then why can't you take one of the regular ones instead of one specific purple one that's about 200 times tougher?
  • Because, apparently, there is a difference between a Pignon and (a) Ma Pignon.
• When Quote confronts Misery at the end of the game for her boss battle, why doesn't she just teleport him back into the Labyrinth and out of her hair? Then, when she confronts him in the Undead Core room, she again fails to simply teleport him away like she has done before. I thought that at this point she may be unable to because of her injuries from the battle she just lost, but then she teleports Sue into the room...
  • Wasn't she only able to teleport him to the Labyrinth because he was knocked out by Balrog? I haven't played the game in a while, but I think that's how it went... of course, that just raises the question of why she didn't just kill him when she had the chance in the first place.
  • That is true; the only time Misery teleported Quote is the one time Balrog incapacitated him, so the theory that she can't 'port him when he's running around is pretty reasonable. My personal theory about why she never just killed him is that Misery didn't like the Doctor and didn't want to serve him anymore. Upon meeting a robot who wanted to kill the Doctor and seemed capable of actually pulling it off, Misery helped the robot in the only way she could: by deliberately half-assing all her attempts to kill Quote.
    • Misery comes to the realization (back in the Sand Zone perhaps? I forget where) that trying to keep Quote away just doesn't work, and the Balcony is when she decides to stop trying and just fight. Also yeah, mini-rebellion against the Doctor in the only way she can. As for the bit about Sue (and that whole scene in general), look here ^{[dead link]} .

General Cave Story

• "Cave Story is a freeware Metroidvania game..." No, it's not. Why the hell do people keep calling it "Metroidvania"? Cave Story is only one step above Mario on the scale of linearity. There is no sequence breaking, all exploration is done in a progressive, linear fashion, and the only area you revisit is the Egg Corridor. But unlike a Metroidvania game, where you would use a new weapon or item to access a new section of the revisited area, the revisited Egg Corridor gets a completely new layout, new enemies, new hazards, new music, it's an entirely new level. There's no Metroidvania in here at all. It's missing EVERY Metroidvania element except the navigation via platforming.
  • Highly Interconnected Areas, check. Focus on exploring, shaky. Sequence Breaking? Possible, but breaks the game in the one case I know about. Non-Linearity? See Sequence Breaking. Power-ups? Always given to you exactly when you need them, or even beforehand.
  • You know, sequence breaking was never intended by Nintendo OR Konami when they made the namesake games.
• Okay, when you destroy the possessed "engine" (the Core) for the floating island, it starts to collapse. This I understand. But why does the collapse stop when you go into the Bonus Dungeon and kill Ballos, the source of power that the Core was channeling?
  • Maybe Ballos, without the Core holding him in check, was the reason for the collapse?
    • The way I look at it, there is a floating island, possibly like how pumice floats in water or The Edge series, isolated for so long that it evolved all its own fauna, or those were created by sorcerors. When Ballos went insane, his sister trapped him there, since it was the only place unreachable by normal humans then. However, though most of his powers were sealed but he could make himself incredibly heavy, so the core was added to cancel out his powers.
    • So, when you destroyed both the Crown and the Core, his powers started going wild again. So instead of the island falling due to a lack of a power source, it was actually being torn down by Ballos? That actually makes sense.
    • Especially since he wanted to die. He probably thought that crushing his own immortal body with the island itself would do the trick.
  • He used his dying magic breath to save the island, as thanks for putting him out of his misery.
    • ...And then uses a wall to try and kill you again?
  • Also, I thought the Core didn't have anything to do with Ballos - the island was already floating when he got there, per the narration in Sacred Ground.
    • According to the Gaudis, Jenka created the Labyrinth to protect the Core. It's possible that she created the Core itself as well.
    • Ballos mentioned that his power had run wild. Perhaps it never stopped, and that it has been dragging the island down for the duration of his sealing, with a combination of the Core and Jenka's power countering it. With the Core gone, only Jenka's (impressive, but no match for Ballos') power remains to keep the island up. Once Ballos is dead and his power dead with him, Jenka's power is probably more than enough to keep the island afloat.
• After you destroy the undead core and start escaping, what happens to all those Mimigas that were in the cages. Sure, the cages are open, but what happens to them after they escape? Do they die because the island hits the ground? For that matter, does the island stop falling after you defeat Ballos? I forget.
  • I believe that they were all loaded into the helicopter that the dog and Sue's mom are using to escape, because in the closing credits for the normal ending, the helicopter flies past the dragon that caught the player. Besides, how else would they have gotten out of the cages?
    • Not only that but I believe the Hell Ending is the true canon ending and as such, either way the Mimigas would have survived safely.
• The island still seems to be intact after falling, even in the normal ending where you don't stop it. The closing credits show Jenka, her dogs, the two green doctors from the labyrinth (and some cockroaches, but that's no surprise), Balrog, and, if he's still alive, professor Booster, all alive and well, despite not having gotten off. And all the places are still intact. So why was it so important to get off? Was only the part near the top affected by the crash enough to be dangerous? Wouldn't the bottom logically be hit far harder, being the part it lands on?
  • While we're at it, where in the blazes do those falling stones come from, when you're on the top of the island?
    • Hmm. How about... various rocks and debris falling off the island at the sides and bottom that, once in the vacuum created by the island falling, get sucked downwards?
    • Yes, but you're on top of the island ... Perhaps you mean they get sucked upwards?
    • I meant that the debris falling off the bottom and side wouldn't fall as quickly as the island does, and that once over the island itself, it would then fall more quickly. Which doesn't make a great deal of sense...
    • If you consider that a falling island would pull a lot of the air above it down with it, it makes a bit more sense.
    • As the island falls, it pushes the air below it down, and leaves a vacuum above it. Any dislodged chunks of the island would be caught in the stream of air rushing to fill the vacuum, and fall towards the top of the island.
    • Actually, the simplest explanation is that the tower that Quote just came out of is collapsing, due to the Core/Doctor exploding and damaging it structurally.
    • ...Which still violates Newton's Second Law of Motion, but makes far more sense all of the above theories.
    • There's probably killer air resistance, which is slowing the island. Even without air resistance, it isn't neessarily falling at 1 g, either. The fact that your jumps aren't floatier can be chalked up to Gameplay and Story Segregation.
    • Guys, if you look closely at the island, you can see the tower at the left side of the island. Behind the tower is a huge, unexplored mountain. That is where all the rocks come from.
  • All those cut scenes occur while the island is still falling. It isn't until after them you see it fall behind some forest and go "boom". Plus, the island has pyramid/triangles on the bottom, so perhaps that is diverting the brute force of the wind pressure to the edges that boosts the vacuum effect possibility above.
    • The cutscenes showing a slow pan over various places on the island take place before the island collapses, but then there's some shots (such as Sue and Itoh becoming human again, Balrog as a nurse) which take place after it.
    • That's not Balrog, it's the ghost from the labyrinth/Balrog recolor.
    • Pooh Black only appears in the Sacred Grounds ending. If you just jump off the island, Balrog appears.
• Where does the light come from?
  • We can just assume that everyone sees in the dark.
    • But then, what about all the plants? How would they grow with no light? I had always assumed the light was due to magic, similar to how magic keeps the island floating (presumably).
    • Maybe the "plants" are actually fungi or something.
    • Or maybe it's just the Ditzies. (/ obscure Fraggle Rock reference).
    • That doesn't work, because Quote can't see in the secret passage in Curly's house (it appears pitch black to the player, in contrast to everything else).
  • The island is open on the front, like a dollhouse. You'd notice, but the game's played in 2-D.
  • Perhaps a combination of Artificial sources and bioluminescent fungi. The artificial lights could also simulate sunlight, explaining the proper plants.
• What's the big deal about this game anyway? I mean, I played it, and I thought it was a good game, and it's impressive that one guy did everything and all, but I don't see why everyone acts like it's literally the best thing since sliced bread. That's what I think about Iji.
  • It's a commercial-quality game that was made by one guy, has great game play and replay value, very decent plot and dialogue (unusual for games of this genre), a good musical score, is computationally and graphically un-demanding, and was given away for free(!) for the entire internet to play. Seriously, what's not to like? Professional reviewers concur.
  • Also, read this forum post.
  • I think Iji is the best freeware game of all time, but Cave Story is ridiculously close behind it (Iji's brilliant writing gives it a slight edge in my eyes).
    • Agreed. I wouldn't have even heard of Cave Story if Iji wasn't continuously compared to it. I think Iji might have the edge... but Cave Story's so close behind it isn't funny
  • For me too, Iji wins, but again, it's a very small margin of victory.
• In the house in the waterway, who left the notebook with information on repairing water-damaged robots and the notes on the computer? And were those computer notes a chat program?
  • Could have been Ballos. It would fit with the odd relationship technology and magic have in Cave Story, the game with ancient magic robots.
    • That would make a strange sort of sense, considering how Ballos wanted to die.
    • Or his dog. Or Booster.
  • Just remembered: The last note on the computer is the same as Prof Booster's last words (if he dies in the Labyrinth): "I pray for your victory." So if those notes are from Booster, that just raises the further question of how and why did he leave them in an abandoned cottage in the waterway?
    • Wireless internet. Booster appears to have fixed his jetpack, so he may have seen you go into the area which was later flooded. It does beg the question of where he got a computer though...
    • Quote emails the warp room place asking for help on the subject, Booster happened to be there to respond.
    • Yes, but if Quote is emailing or IM-ing Booster via the computer, that implies that Booster wrote the book on the bookcase with instructions for draining water from a drowned robot. How did these notes written by Booster get into that house?
  • Also, who is the person who was born who is mentioned in this area in the logbook? All of the human characters arrived by helicopter. Unless Booster was tracking the Mimiga, that's sort of weird.
    • According to the folks at the fansite forum, that entry is a bit of Fourth Wall breaking, and that is the birth date of Daisuke Amaya's own son.
  • There were similar enough robots to exterminate Mimigas which you find few moments earlier. The instructions could have been for repairing those robots, and worked becouse they were similar enough or even the same model. Cthulhu did mistake Quote for one of them after all. (Which has its own implications...)
• It's kind of random, but somewhere in the middle of the Outer Wall, there's a block with a clock symbol on it. When you investigate, the game says, "a sign?" What's that supposed to mean?
  • Quote is not omniscient, and he can only guess that it is a sign, having probably had never seen the same thing before. It is us, players, who know that it is, indeed, a sign.
  • Isn't that the area of the game that's near the room with the Nikumaru Counter (basically a speedrun counter for the Sacred Ground)? If so, supporting the above point, the clock symbol is probably just a handy tip-off for players that the counter is nearby, rather than anything story-related.