Cave Story



"''Cave Story is a jumping-and-shooting action game.

Explore the caves until you reach the ending.

You can also save your game and continue from where you left off.''"

- Author's description of the game

"This description is so humble that it borders on parody. Play now, laugh later."

- Studio Pixel Fan Page

You wake up in a cave. You shoot your way out of the cave, so you can get to a village in another cave. Then you have to go to a different cave, followed by...

Well, it's aptly named.

Cave Story is a freeware Metroidvania game by Daisuke Amaya, aka Studio Pixel. The game thrusts you into the action with no explanations, forcing you to figure out the plot by yourself as you go. There are robot soldiers, bunny people called Mimigas, and a Mad Scientist with a magic helmet and a Morally Ambiguous Doctorate trying to Take Over the World.

This game was created entirely by one man in his spare time. Daisuke Amaya wrote the scenario, drew the artwork and scenery, animated the sprites, designed all of the levels, composed all of the music, and programmed the entire game engine, all by himself over the course of five years.

Its breeding ground on the English-speaking Internet is here. There have been many ports. There's a Mac OS X port available here, and a Linux port available here. A port to the original Xbox also exists, as well as a PSP port, here (requires custom firmware).

Also, it's on the Wii, D Si Ware, the Apple Mac Store and, as of November 22nd 2011, on Steam as a commercial version with extra features. It's also available for the 3DS as a remake with complete 3D, new content, and more! Recently, another port was confirmed for the 3DS eShop, which presumably features 3D sprites and Cave Story Plus extras, minus the HD graphics and sound.

Daisuke has confirmed that a sequel is very, very likely.

This game provides examples of:
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 * Two Point Five D: The 3DS remake.
 * Accidental Pervert: The hero after finding his partner's panties, even more 'cause they have no use and just lay there in the inventory,.
 * Action Girl: Curly Brace. She's never incompetent in combat (in either sense.)
 * Even though she is defeated off-screen, the main character didn't fare much better against the same foe on his first attempt.
 * Adaptation Dye Job: Misery's portrait is no longer green in the 3DS remake, much like her actual sprite.
 * Aerith and Bob: The more important Mimiga have western names (Jack, King, Arthur, Igor, etc.) except for Toroko, which is Japanese, but any self respecting fan also knows of Chie, Kanpachi, Mahin, Sandaime, and Megane..
 * Affably Evil:
 * Almost Dead Guy: The robot in the chamber.
 * All Myths Are True: You're told that a Mimiga that eats a red flower apparently dies shortly thereafter. What actually happens is worse. Much worse.
 * All There in the Manual: The names of many NPCs and enemies are only given in the end credits. The writing on the player character's hat (only mentioned once, by someone who doesn't understand what it says) is revealed in Pixel's artwork from the Beta version of the game. And even then it doesn't seem to have an explanation. And that's all there is--in spite of many clues hinting at a large, interconnected backstory, Pixel has said of everything beyond what's shown in the game: "It is up to the player to decide".
 * Always Check Behind the Chair: Always Check The Map For Passages. In Cave Story 3D this map is handily always shown on the bottom screen after you get it.
 * American Kirby Is Hardcore: Inverted. The Japanese version of Cave Story 3D's artwork is a lot less "hardcore" and more cutsey than the North American version, which came first.
 * Amnesiac Dissonance:
 * Ambidextrous Sprite: Averted with, whose right eye is (almost) always red while his left eye is always white. Malco does fall for this trope, though.
 * And I Must Scream: The True Final Boss.
 * Another Side Another Story: The Wii Ware version lets you earn Curly Story, in which you play as Curly Brace and instead encounter Mr. Traveler throughout the game.
 * Anyone Can Die: If you haven't played the game yet, be warned that it's not as cute and innocent as it looks in the first place.
 * Apocalypse How: Never explicitly spelled out, but
 * Arbitrary Gun Power
 * Arc Words: "The surface," "soldier from the surface," and "killer robots." Justified by the amnesia you have when the game begins.
 * Artifact of Doom: The Demon Crown.
 * Art Major Biology: As pointed out by the author of a walkthrough, the "Jellyfish Juice," which is presumably made of, well, jellyfish juice, is oddly kept in jars in treasure chests inside the jellyfish. Wouldn't things be interesting if people kept their blood and internal organs in jars in treasure chests inside of them?
 * Assassin Outclassin: Balrog clumsily attempts to ambush Mr. Traveler about five times and hilariously fails every time.
 * Asteroids Monster: In the Sand Zone.
 * Attack Its Weak Point: All of the game's nastiest bosses also happen to only be vulnerable by shooting them in the face/mouth/eyes during a specific part of their attack pattern, always the part where they are spamming a ridiculous number of bullets onto the screen. Always.
 * Of course, this is why they're the game's nastiest bosses.
 * Also,, though they don't disappear at any point.
 * Badass: Quite a few characters (specifics below), but the most noticeable being King
 * Back to Back Badasses: Curly gets strapped to your back when raiding the Bonus Level of Hell.
 * Badass Adorable: "Mr. Traveler" and Curly. Heck, due to the art style, nearly all the badasses are like this, but those two really take the cake.
 * Monster X could qualify for this trope, once you see its defeated form.
 * Bait and Switch Boss: After Malco is reactivated, he declares you a threat and then  This is made even more amusing by the fact that the music that normally would indicate a boss fight starts when Malco appears, and then
 * Misery is subject to this a LOT of times, but instead of her being upstaged, she just can't be bothered to fight you. Misery is very resourceful, and loves using resources on-hand to kill you. This includes . It's cathartic when you finally get to take her on.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Curly.
 * Baleful Polymorph: Sue and Itoh, . Then right before the final boss battle, the Doctor transforms into monsters to fight alongside him.
 * Also Misery turning Balrog into Balfrog.
 * Ballistic Bone: Some skull-type enemies shoot them. As well, you fight the True Final Boss of the game on a floor made of bones. In the first two parts of the fight, he frequently performs a Ground Pound which sends out a shock wave of bones capable of hurting you. In the third part of the fight, he drops flaming skulls on you.
 * Battle Couple:  and
 * Battle Cry: Huzzah!
 * Also a Catch Phrase.
 * Which was changed into "Oh yeah!" in the Wiiware version.
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Also
 * Big Entrance: In Balrog's first appearance, there's an ominous pounding on a door, then he smashes down the door and the wall around it, shouting (depending on the translation) either "Huzzah!" or "Oh yeah!"
 * Big Ol Eyebrows: Santa sports them in the high-resolution graphics.
 * BLAM Level: The outer wall is by far the weirdest place in the game. The gravity is odd, treating the left side of the screen as 'down' for everything except you. The enemies don't seem bizarre at first, but then you encounter the giant cat ghosts that shoot yarn balls at you. And living at the bottom is a group of people that are five inches high.
 * Black Bead Eyes
 * Bleak Level: Mimiga Village, specifically when you return there after escaping the Labyrinth.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: Just one line, actually, in an otherwise superb translation. The is Litagano Motscoud. Pretty random, right? Well, actually, in Japanese, it's the reverse of the game's name: "Doukutsu Monogatari" "Do-U-Ku-Tsu-Mo-No-Ga-Ta-Ri" becomes "Ri-Ta-Ga-No-Mo-Tsu-Ku-U-Do". The translator missed the intended meaning and just transliterated it as best he could. The Wii Ware version uses "Yrots Evac". It's not really that bad, considering it's not really supposed to mean anything, being a password.
 * The plus version changed it to yrotS evaC.
 * "It's running!"
 * Blown Across the Room: King
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Balrog. Huzzah!
 * Bonus Boss:
 * At the end of the Bonus Level of Hell.
 * Wind Fortress introduces a new one
 * Bonus Feature Failure: Curly mode in the WiiWare version simply changes some dialogue and the places of the main character and Curly, and Sanctuary Time Attack denies you of missiles.
 * To be fair, Time Attack lets you use both the blade and the Nemesis, which is more than a fair trade in B3.
 * Boss Arena Recovery: Due to how the game's weapon energy system works, most Cave Story bosses are Mook Makers, FlunkyBosses or have item-dropping projectiles to allow you taking the drops.
 * Boss Corridor: The outdoor bridge to Ballos' room.
 * Boss Rush:
 * The endgame has you fight against, without any kind of checkpoint and limited ways to heal yourself (namely, Mook drops and help from a certain purple Mimiga).
 * After the endgame,, you can find the entrance to the Bonus Level of Hell. At the end, you fight two more bosses in a True Final Boss Rush: . The  has one form and will kill you in one hit if you do not get to the side of the room after defeating it.  has three health bars. And before you can even damage the third health bar, you need to attack eight little rock things surrounding him. That makes for a total of five parts to the fight. Oh, and healing? The  infinitely spawns Mooks so you can heal, but said Mooks are Goddamed Butes. Plus, you need to deal with the Rollings. Then, the healing you get in between the two bosses is a Luck Based Mission. Healing during  is a borderline Suicide Mission. Dying will send you back to the nearest used save point, way back at the very entrance. Have fun.
 * The Wiiware version and Cave Story+ has a more traditional Boss Rush as an unlockable.
 * Brutal Bonus Level: Although its official name is "Sacred Grounds" (or "Sanctuary"), a sign hidden near the entrance clearly says "Welcome to Hell!" And the angels turn into demons when they die and drop the illusion entirely when they surround the Bonus Boss.
 * Wind Fortress is harder.
 * Bullfight Boss: Balrog is a ridiculously weak version, Monster X quite a threatening one.
 * The Muscle Doctor as well.
 * But Thou Must: Subverted., he will say, "But in reality, you don't really want this, right?" Upon answering no, he'll say, "You really want it that bad?" Answer yes, and he says, "Are you sure you want it?" Answer yes, and he says, "But in reality, you don't really want this, right?" Answer no, and he'll finally give the Mushroom badge.
 * Averted during the very first boss fight. Balrog asks if you want to fight him with that "pea shooter of yours". If you say no, he'll leave.
 * Also played straight at a couple points.
 * Cameo: Ironhead and Ikachan are characters from an earlier Pixel game.
 * Artwork of the Prinnies has been released for the 3DS version, hinting in their inclusion. Which given Nippon Ichi, this is to be expected.
 * Subverted that they didn't,.
 * The protagonist,, and Curly Brace themselves cameo as fully-playable classes (if on opposing teams) in Gang Garrison 2.
 * Captain Ersatz: Some enemies are shout-outs to classic videogames. For example, Sandcrocs appeared in a Mega Man game, and enemies looking like Basil were found in the Metroid series. Also, the Muscle Doctor looks a lot like the Cyclops summon from Final Fantasy Tactics.
 * Catch Phrase: Balrog's "Huzzah!", which got changed to a Kool-Aid Man-style "OH YEAH!" in the Wii Ware version, and can be either/or in the Cave Story+ version due to a mod that returns the original Fan Translation. In the original Japanese, it's just "Heeyyyy!"
 * Cephalothorax: Critters and Balrog.
 * Chain Reaction Destruction: Bosses are likely to go down with that style.
 * Character Portrait: Every major character has one. Also used if there's more than two NPCs talking.
 * Charged Attack: The Spur.
 * Climax Boss:.
 * Colony Drop:
 * Cool Bike: A rather nifty hoverbike can be found in the Grasslands. At least, until Kazuma takes a crack at riding it...
 * Crosshair Aware: One of the Bonus Boss's attacks.
 * Cutscenes: Probably the only thing you'll hate about this game is the fact that these are unskippable and you'll have to watch them every time you retry a boss battle. Though at least the Scrolling Text speeds up a bit on subsequent viewings or if you hold down the Jump or Fire button.
 * Cutscene Incompetence: "KILLER ROBOT!"
 * How about the player character standing right there, with a weapon in hand, while the first boss punches Sue's lights out?
 * Cut Song: "Wind Fortress", "People of the Root", "Plant (B)", and "Pier Walk". There are also beta versions of at least 10 songs.
 * There's also the midi versions of all the songs in the Wii version. YMMV on whether they sound better than the final instrumented versions, but according to the composer for the remixes, the final versions sound little like he intended. Also includes some tracks that didn't make it to the final version, such as a version of "Plantation" that uses the main theme in a style more similar to "Plant."
 * In later rereleases, Wind Fortress has been readded as a new Challenge area. It's harder than the Sacred Grounds.
 * Cute Em Up: The Nemesis fires rubber duckies. It's a wonder they don't heal the enemy.
 * Damn You Muscle Memory: In most PC games, pressing the Escape key will pause the game and bring up a save/load/quit menu or somesuch, and pressing Escape again will close the menu and send you back to the game. In Cave Story, pressing Escape brings up the menu -- and pressing Escape again quits the program without confirmation.
 * Averted in Cave Story Plus, where you would be prompted to go to the main menu instead of quitting the game (and "No" is highlighted by default).
 * Also, if you upgrade from the D Si ware version to the 3DS version, the programmers switched the jump and fire button for no apparent reason.
 * Dark and Troubled Past:
 * Darkest Hour: The bit between the Iron Head fight and the Outer Wall. All your allies are either dead, kidnapped, injured and lost, or telling you that it's hopeless to keep fighting and that you should run away. The unexplained (and the awesome music accompanying it) certainly reinforces this.
 * Dark Reprise: Compare the tempo and drumline of "Mischevious Robot" to that of "Scorching Back".
 * Dark Skinned Greenhead:, as are all the Sakamotos. The Doctor falls under this one, too.
 * Death Seeker:.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: For Toroko, Curly Brace, and eventually.
 * Degraded Boss: Igor. He appears as a regular enemy at the Balcony. He's even more powerful than before, shooting more energy balls at once and having more HP. However he never uses his punch attack, and you have more powerful weapons and more HP.
 * Desert Skull: Sand Zone is full of bones... including animated ones.
 * Development Gag: In the Wiiware version's Halloween Mode, the zombie sprite of the protagonist looks a lot like the blue-outfitted sprite from the Beta version of the game.
 * Destructible Projectiles: Many projectiles can be shot and drop hearts, energy crystals or ammo, allowing Boss Arena Recovery.
 * Pixel Thinks Of Everything:
 * If you beat the game with Mr. Little still in your inventory (i.e. without returning him home), then after the last cutscene he interjects "...Aren't you forgetting something?!"
 * It is possible to reach the final bosses and beat the game still wearing the Mimiga Mask. The end credits illustrations are even tweaked to reflect this.
 * If you backtrack to earlier zones or proceed to Final Cave wearing the Mimiga Mask, you won't ever get stuck because you can traverse every zone without using the Booster.
 * If you try to take the sprinkler from the Mimiga Village (in order to deliver it to Momorin), you'll get the message "It's fixed firmly to the ground!".
 * A small one; All of Jenka's puppies have their own names and descriptions in your inventory as you carry them.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: It is possible to access the Last Cave without trading back the Mimiga Mask for your Booster jetpack. If you manage to make it through the Last Cave with the Mask instead of your jetpack, Misery will notice it when you fight her, and even the illustrations during the credits sequence will reflect your hero still wearing the mask.
 * Difficulty Spike: Things up to Plantation are relatively easy with save and refill points scattered around. However, Last Cave, especially if you're going for the best ending, ramps up the difficulty a lot. You do get a little breather at the Balcony (with its one save and healing point), before having to fight three bosses in a row with essentially no refills in between. This is not counting the Bonus Level of Hell and four-stage Bonus Boss that await you if you want to actually see the best ending....
 * Disk One Nuke: If you remember at the beginning of the game, you can adquire the Bubbler quite early, and it is really useful all the way up to the endgame where you would obtain it if you didn't pay enough attention.
 * Distressed Damsel: Sue, more than once.
 * Down the Drain: Waterway.
 * Dracolich:
 * Dual Boss: The Sisters. And a trio boss,
 * Dummied Out:
 * There's a picture of  included among the sprites that show up when a character is speaking. Since Sue doesn't  until the end credits, the sprite goes unused.
 * One can also find the Beast Fang hidden under the Heart Container in the plantation area of Mimiga Town.
 * Dying As Yourself: As if taking down Mimigas under the Red Flower's influence wasn't depressing enough, scripted battles with frenzied Mimigas (like Igor and ) end with them reverting to their normal selves right before expiring.
 * Easter Egg: An astounding number of them.
 * Easy Mode Mockery: Picking easy mode will make the player character wear a yellow costume (As opposed to the normal Red), when this costume was first announced many Fans cried out a lot, when they did not realize that there were various difficulty modes for the game.
 * On the flip side of Hard Mode Badassery, picking Hard mode turns the player character into Male Curly Brace, AKA Beta Blue . This design is similar to the design used in the beta version of Cave Story (Only differences are a lighter blue and Blond Hair with tan skin opposed to black hair and white skin) when the player character was named Curly Brace of said design, however the name Curly Brace was transferred into the final female version of Curly Brace.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: The path to the happy ending is far more hazardous than the path to the bittersweet one. If you're playing blind, you will not get the good ending on your first try unless you're clairvoyant because of some Guide Dang It moments.
 * Emergency Energy Tank: The Life Pot. You only get one over the whole game so you better make good use of it.
 * Empathic Weapon: The Blade, at its maximum level,.
 * Energy Ball: Well, they can be fired both by you and enemies.
 * Essence Drop: When defeated, enemies drop hearts that refill your health, energy crystals that increase your weapon power, or missile ammunition.
 * Event Flag: Jellies? Never seen 'em before, but now that you mention it, they're right out the door!
 * Evil Albino: Misery.
 * Evolving Weapon: Every weapon (except the Spur) changes slightly as it collects experience points, especially the Blade and the Bubbler.
 * Eyes Always Shut: Kazuma.
 * Sky Dragon as well.
 * Faux Action Girl: Sue. She's convinced that she's a fighter, and claims to never have lost in a fight with her brother (which isn't saying much). In the first (of three) times that you have to rescue her, she grossly overestimates her fighting abilities, and grossly underestimates those of a frenzied Mimiga four times her size. In a fist fight. Then she gets rather pissed if you admit that you rescued her.
 * Fetch Quest: Several, including puppies.
 * Fireballs: You can fire them, too.
 * Fission Mailed: After the fight against the first Load Bearing Boss, the room is flooded, leaving you trapped underwater with your Air Meter ticking down to zero.
 * Flash of Pain
 * Flunky Boss: Many, many boss battles are of this type, primarily because your weapons lose experience points each time you take damage; destroy the flunkies, collect experience crystals, keep your weapons up to level.
 * The battle with the Undead Core actually has two levels of this, as one of the flunkies is itself a Mook Maker. This is because, with the weapon level system, the game works better if there is almost always something you can shoot to get power crystals back if you get hurt. Most of the bosses which don't actually summon minions have projectiles which can be shot and drop powerups anyway.
 * Special mention goes to
 * Floating Continent: The cave you wake up in at the beginning of the game is part of an interconnected series of caves inside a floating island -- the setting for the adventure.
 * The game actually does a fairly good job of hiding the fact that the island's floating for quite some time. It's easy to assume that you're in an underground network of caves until the nature of the island is spelled out for you.
 * Floating in A Bubble: Misery's (and the Doctor's) favoured method of capturing and transporting people.
 * Foe Tossing Charge: Mimigas (especially the ones mutated by the demon flowers) and Balrog love to do this.
 * Frickin Laser Beams: The Spur, and only when it is fired between Level 2 and 3. Firing it with a MAX charge unleashes a blast of Wave Motion Gun proportions.
 * Fungus Humongous: Mimiga Graveyard.
 * Funny Animal: The Mimigas.
 * Furry Fandom: Oddly enough, most of the "art" out there is of Sue or a certain "purple rabbit".
 * Game Mod: The original PC freeware version became (somewhat) easy to mod once the tools were developed. Also, Curly Mode in the Wii version is based off a well-known sprite hack for the PC version.
 * A fan recently recoded the entire engine from scratch and released it open-source, opening up the door for even more advanced mods to be made.
 * Gameplay Ally Immortality: When you tag-team with Curly deep in the Labyrinth, Curly takes no damage whatsoever from enemies or spikes. The same also applies in the Bonus Level of Hell, with Curly strapped to the player's back.
 * Giant Mook: Giant Pingon, Basu (Giant beetle), Large Power critter and Kulala (Giant Jellyfish).
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Pooh Black, Monster X, Ironhead, and Heavy Press. And, to some extent, the entire Bonus Level of Hell including the final boss.
 * Glass Cannon: King. This is reflected in the weapon you get from him, which contains . At level 3, it is very powerful but any hit will immediately drop it back down to level 2.
 * Curly Brace, to a degree. In actual gameplay she is literally invincible, but she has no Plot Armor.
 * Goldfish Poop Gang: Misery and Balrog.
 * Graphics Induced Super Deformed: Somewhat exacerbated by the color scheme of the protagonist's head, which, to the untrained eye, may appear as a sideburn, an eye, and a nose, rather than two eyes and part of an antenna, since the character appears in semi-profile.
 * This is even preserved with the 3D models of the 3DS remake.
 * Great Offscreen War
 * Green Hill Zone: Grasstown.
 * Guest Star Party Member: Curly accompanies you like an Attack Drone throughout Labyrinth M.
 * Guide Dang It: You will not get the best ending on your first playthrough. Accept this fact and enjoy the game.
 * In short: go to the Balcony,, and smack your forehead.
 * The Spur. Even if you DID reject the various replacements to the Polar Star, by the time you can access the area again, you may have either forgotten or not realized you could get back to that first area again.
 * The Curly sidequest. Just to get the item that starts it, you have to ignore a very attention grabbing event that gives you an important item early right before a boss battle, and then notice another item in an out-of-the-way place. Still, that looks positively tame compared to then . It takes a guide or clairvoyance to realize you're still in it after the waterway, and that or a lot of patience to finish the last segment.
 * The Bonus Boss's 2nd Form, for a lot of people.
 * Hate Plague:
 * Hat of Power: The Demon Crown, the source of the Doctor's power.
 * Head Pet: The Fetch Quest to collect Jenka's dogs. "Puppyhat!"
 * Healing Checkpoint: Most save points are accompanied by life refills or beds.
 * Heartbeat Soundtrack: The song "Pulse".
 * Heart Container: Although could be changed to Energy Tank, considering its appearance and the awesome Metroid-style riff that plays when you pick it up.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Heli Critter: Flying Critters.
 * Heroic Albino: Curly Brace and the protagonist. Maintained in the official art, often ignored in fanart.
 * The Wiiware version Palette Swaps the protagonist if you play a difficulty level other than Original -- and in the hardest mode, he's tan-skinned and blond-haired. Huh. Curly is unaffected.
 * Heroic Mime: From context, it can be induced that the protagonist is speaking, but the player isn't privy to most of his lines.
 * And in Curly Story mode, in the scene where the two meet, he is STILL a heroic mime, while Curly says what our hero presumably said originally.
 * Heroic Mime: From context, it can be induced that the protagonist is speaking, but the player isn't privy to most of his lines.
 * And in Curly Story mode, in the scene where the two meet, he is STILL a heroic mime, while Curly says what our hero presumably said originally.


 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * He Was Right There All Along: Monster X and the Core are completely inert and harmless until the boss music kicks in.
 * Holiday Mode: Playing on Christmas or Halloween in the Wii version will change your sprite.
 * The Holiday Mode for the PC versions is frankly insane. Nearly every asset in the game is altered, including the music, sprites, backgrounds, and enemies.
 * Humans Are Bastards: "Humans can be terrible creatures indeed..."
 * On the other hand, it's also very likely that Ballos wasn't quite as innocent as the legend claimed, either. According to the Wii version,
 * I Cannot Self Terminate:.
 * I'll Kill You: Also what

""Are YOU even listening to ME?""
 * Impossible Item Drop: Monsters of all kind tend to drop experience crystals, floating hearts and missiles.
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Balrog, again.

"Interesting priorities you've got."
 * Incoming Ham: Everytime Balrog appe- HUZZAH!
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests: There are treasure chests scattered all over the place, including inside a few monsters. Why they aren't opened already, is up to imagination.
 * The most sentient creatures on the island, the Mimiga, seem to not have any opposable thumbs (though that may just be the 8-bit graphical style).
 * Infant Immortality: The Mimiga children fighting you alongside Curly can't be killed or permanently disabled; shots only stun them for a period of time..
 * Infinity Plus One Sword: The Spur.
 * Informed Ability: Supposedly, the Demon Crown is a magical artifact so powerful that entire armies have to be used to defeat any given wearer of it. The only powers we see the Doctor using with it in-game are teleportation and, er, floating.
 * Of course, the reason the Crown's so powerful is that it allows one to Mind Control, so it's basically set up for Orcus On His Throne and/or Non Action Big Bad.
 * Interface Spoiler: The number of puppies you bring back is one more than the number that would fit between Jenka and the door.
 * Invincible Minor Minion: Basil and Rolling.
 * It Amused Me: Presumably the reason why Misery.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Balrog, after you defeat him.
 * While he has the credentials, fans' affection for Balrog involves quite a bit of ignoring his misdeeds considering he
 * Jump Physics: Really weird ones at that, but they're wonderfully intuitive. You more glide than jump. Which is what prevents some new players that are used to NES-style platformers from even leaving the first cave.
 * Kaizo Trap: It's fairly obvious if you've met a similar fate from its smaller brethren.
 * Minor example: contact with Puu Black still damages you after it's defeated.
 * Killer Rabbit: Mimigas dosed with the red flowers. Literally!
 * Kill the Cutie:
 * Kill Em All:.
 * King Mook: The Heavy Press.
 * Kleptomaniac Hero: At the beginning with the Polar Star and later with the Bubbler, and later on with.
 * Late Arrival Spoiler: Some sources that refer to Cave Story apparently don't understand that the protagonist's name is supposed to be a spoiler, and therefore throw the name about regardless.
 * The D Si version tries to avoid this by calling him "Mister Traveler" in the manual. For that matter, all the unspoilered references to him are also that on this page now, or should be at least.
 * Leitmotif: Balrog, the Doctor and have them.
 * Lethal Joke Weapon: The Nemesis. On its lowest power level, it fires devastating bolts at very high speed. But as it gets powered up, it gets weaker! On its highest setting? It shoots rubber duckies. To add insult to injury, to get it you have to trade a powerful weapon that has sentimental value to the player character. On the other hand, it's quite powerful as long as you DON'T power it up. Gets quite tricky when one crystal is enough to take it up a level and you're paying attention to things other than the swarms of little bouncing triangles. Which is all the time.
 * The Bubbler. It shoots bubbles, producing four shots at 1 or 2 damage each. Level two: machine gun, a bit slower than the one you get later in game. But on level three, the Bubbles form a shield, and when they burst, they shoot projectiles that can be fired all at once, or be spammed as a machine-gun, all in the direction you're facing. And, when you stop firing and charge the Bubbler long enough, all the bullets floating around you turn slowly fire automatically, machine gun-style, but with different heights and formations of bullets to allow players to hit enemies from lower or higher levels.
 * Let's Meet the Meat: Ma Pignon doesn't want to be eaten. Thankfully, he's a complete prick about it, so most won't feel too bad about
 * Let's You and Him Fight: Curly assumes you're there to kill the Mimigas, and attacks you before you have a chance to explain yourself.
 * Level Map Display: There's a map item that can be acquired early and can be handy as it shows all hidden passages.
 * Lift of Doom: Two are present in the Labyrinth: the first requires utilization of the hovering Jump Physics to avoid either death by spikes or death by falling platform; the second, arguably simpler lift comes immediately after, and only needs to be tricked into rising without you in its path.
 * Also present when ascending to the Final Cave, though in a much more deadly fashion: watch out for those Presses!
 * Like a Badass Out of Hell: Inversion. First you fight your way through hell/the sacred grounds, then once you Balrog
 * Load Bearing Boss: The Core.
 * Lost Forever: Aside from the Mutually Exclusive Powerups, there are several items that you only ever get one chance to collect. Most of them (such as the Tow Rope) are necessary only to get the best ending, while others (such as Chaco's lipstick and the Alien Badge) don't do anything and seem to only be there for the sake of Hundred Percent Completion. Some of them actually say how they don't do anything.
 * Low Level Advantage: The Nemesis actually weakens if you level it up. At Level 3, it shoots rubber ducks instead of lightning bolts. The Level 2 Blade can deal more damage than the Level 3 Blade if you spam it in your enemy's face.
 * Luck Based Mission: There's a corridor in the, where blocks, both large and small, rain down upon you completely randomly. Regardless of size, they all do ten damage, which can add up pretty quickly. To make matters worse, the corridor is also filled with Goddamned Bats. If you take five damage from the bats and run/use the Booster 2.0 as fast as possible, it's significantly easier.
 * Magikarp Power: The very first weapon. You have two opportunities to trade or upgrade it into something better; if you refuse both of them, you can get it remodeled into the game's most useful gun ... hey! Why are you kicking yourself all of a sudden?
 * The Bubbler, which at the first level shoots pathetically weak bubbles at short range. It upgrades to a moderately useful rapid-fire stream of bubbles, and upgrades again into an awesome all-rounder weapon which can hit at long range, shield you from enemies, and charge up for a hail of bullets.
 * The Machine gun, one of the possible trades for the Polar Star, is nothing to get excited about when you first take it (although the damage output is better than the Polar Star, given the continuous fire). When fully upgraded, firing it downwards propels you into the air, and you can use it as a limited form of flight; later on, when you get an upgrade that speeds up your ammo recovery, you can stay airborne almost indefinitely. The downside is that if you get used to moving around like this, doing a run with the Snake or the Spur is so much harder.
 * MacGuffin:, and the red flowers.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: Balrog uses this in one of the fights with him, and you can get a miniaturized one of your own via the level 3 Missile Launcher.
 * Mad Doctor: The Doctor, natch.
 * Malevolent Architecture: Of course. And Chaco's fireplace as a passageway in Grasstown. And why does Santa have a deathtrap in his house?
 * Meaningful Name: Misery sure loves making others... well, miserable.
 * Throughout the game, Professor Booster provides you with special jetpacks called... Boosters.
 * Metroidvania: Definitely influenced by this genre, but it's actually fairly linear with very few sidequests, and contains at least four distinct areas that don't obviously interact other than via teleporter. (Start Cave/Mimiga Village/Labyrinth/Waterway, Egg Corridor/Outer Wall/Plantation/Balcony/Final Cave/Sacred Grounds, Grasstown, and the Sand Zone.)
 * Mismatched Eyes: Ballos.
 * Missing Secret: In the inventory screen, there are six spaces for weapons, yet the most weapons you can have in the game at one time is five; this could probably be explained by saying that there was supposed to be another weapon originally, but it was Dummied Out.
 * Mood Whiplash: Towards the end of the Sand Zone, things get a little dark.
 * Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: The Doctor. Clearly, the Hippocratic Oath means nothing to him.
 * Most Gamers Are Male:
 * If you sleep in the bed of Chaco, at the right time, you'll get her lipstick and awake to see her sleeping in the same bed too. Note that this happens right after she asks you if you want to "go through" her "fireplace," and recommends that you use "jellyfish juice". Exactly how a robot is implied to have sex with a rabbit is left as an exercise to the reader. Even worse- the Steam Achievement for getting the lipstick is "Ladies Man".
 * Later on, you can acquire . They don't actually do anything; they just sit in your inventory for you to look at.
 * In the WiiWare version's Curly Story mode, you can still pull off the Chaco's Lipstick easter egg. Yeah. On a similar note, if you do the panties Easter egg, do you think you'll find ... Jock Strap, maybe? No, you still find the panties, now labeled as "Your Panties". ...Yeap. In the Curly sprite hack for the PC version (which the Wii version's Curly mode is supposedly based off of), Curly's Panties are changed to ""
 * Multiple Endings: Several characters may die or survive depending on your actions, and the results will be reflected in the cut-scene at the standard ending. It's even possible to get a Bad Ending by Overall, there are three main endings total, with slight variations depending your actions.
 * One variation is beating the game while still wearing the Mimiga Mask. Misery comments about how ridiculous the character looks, and the end credit illustrations are tweaked to reflect the character wearing the mask.
 * Mutually Exclusive Powerups: There are three possible upgrades to the Polar Star, your first weapon: the Machine Gun, the Snake, and the Spur. You can only get one of them. Similarly, you can only get the Booster 2.0 if you don't acquire the Booster 0.8.
 * If you can locate a certain NPC, he'll offer to exchange your King's Sword for his Nemesis gun.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Misery, Balrog, and Cthulhu Mythos. The former two are an Affably Evil Quirky Miniboss Squad, and the latter ... are a race of harmless, friendly NPCs.
 * Nice Hat: The protagonist, who miraculously keeps it on throughout the entire game. According to official art, it has
 * Nice Job Breaking It Hero: After defeating near the middle of the game, the protagonist discovers that its main purpose was
 * Nintendo Hard: Things are quite bearable until you get to in which case it becomes Nintendo Hard. And then there's  Not to mention the aptly named "Hard" mode in which your protagonist becomes a One Hit Point Wonder.
 * No Gear Level: Oddly averted. When the protagonist is captured in the Plantation, he gets thrown in jail at one point, but his captors don't bother to take any of his weapons away.
 * But they didn't need to. He apparently couldn't find a way out before reading the note. If anything, it's THAT they should have taken away.
 * No Name Given: The protagonist. Also, the Doctor.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: A simple "You were never seen again." if you fall off the Outer Wall. The worst ending can be considered a Nonstandard Game Over, since rather than a series of scenes followed by credits, there's one scene, narrated with a "You have died"-like box, followed by nothing.
 * Noob Cave: First Cave.
 * No Plot No Problem: Subverted. The game starts in a typical platform cave with no plot information given, and even the author's description of the game (see quote at the top) seems to be written with the purpose of making people believe it has no actual plot. Then the player encounters more and more actual characters and exposition, until you have a detailed story.
 * Offscreen Teleportation: Common in this game, especially with Curly.
 * Oh Crap: The dying robot tells you and Curly: "Current forces insufficient. Retreat! RETREAT!" Then the door slams shut, and the boss wakes up.
 * One Bullet At a Time: Most weapons have a certain limit on the maximum amount of shots -- three polar star bullets, four Snake shots, two Nemesis bolts or one high-level Spur laser can exist at once. Only one Blade shot can exist at a time, but each blade deals a great amount of damage and (unless on level 3) the shot disappears when hitting an enemy, making it the deadliest weapon at point blank.
 * One Hit Kill: The Blade (again), which is strong enough to one-shot most enemies, even at its Level 1 strength.
 * One Hit Point Wonder: Hard mode removes all Heart Containers from the entire game, forcing you to survive with only 3 HP. Against enemies and bosses that frequently do much more damage per hit.
 * One Hit Polykill: A charged-up Spur attack can pass through numerous Mooks, though most bosses stop the shot after one hit. The Fireball can hit two targets, and Blade lvl 2 can hit three targets. The Snake can even pass through terrain!
 * One Winged Angel: Happens a hell of a lot, sometimes in multiple phases.
 * Optional Sexual Encounter: See Most Gamers Are Male. However, the game doesn't specifically state it was sexual.
 * Oxygen Meter: Present whenever you go underwater, because you're not a waterproof robot.
 * Palette Swap: Pooh Black, a recolored form of Balrog's earlier existence in the game's beta as Puu.
 * In the Wiiware version, the protagonist's costume is a different color, depending on what difficulty level you're playing. In Easy mode, the red tones in his outfit are now Yellow and in hard mode, they are now Blue, his skin is Tan and is blonde.
 * The enemies you encounter in First Cave reappear in multiple colors throughout the game.
 * Paper Thin Disguise: The Mimiga mask which tricks half of the characters, including Professor Booster. Misery and The Doctor even have special dialogue if you manage to get there without trading the mask back to Sue for your jetpack.
 * Path of Most Resistance: If you don't have this in mind, you probably won't get the Good Ending.
 * People Puppets:
 * Phrase Catcher: "You're a soldier from the surface, aren't you?"
 * Physical God: Jenka and Ballos are "far beyond the power of mortals", capable of powerful magical feats and having lived for what seems to be several times longer than normal human lifespans. However, they are never stated to be gods, and Jenka hints that she will eventually have to die if you visit her late in the game.
 * Point of No Return: There's only one true point of no return; you eventually escape the Labyrinth after getting thrown in it, and if you've unlocked the Bonus Level of Hell, there's a book on the shelf that will ask you if you want to give up on it and offers to "rewind time" so you can get the normal ending. However, if you save in the shack containing the Bonus Level of Hell, you can never return to the caves, as rewinding time only brings you back to the moment where you just defeated the Final Boss
 * Power Incontinence: The Doctor . And of course
 * Powers of Two Minus One: Occur in a few places (for example, dying on one of the instant death spikes deals 127 damage).
 * The Professor: Booster.
 * Platform Hell: The Last Cave. Good luck landing on that single safe spot between dozens of deadly spikes.
 * Psycho Serum: The "red flowers", which turn the delicate Mimigas into hulking homicidal monsters.
 * Public Domain Soundtrack: Jenka's theme is a Finnish dance called "Letkajenkka"
 * Rainbow Speak: ·Interpuncts· are used to highlight item names in dialogue.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Misery and Jenka.
 * Red Eyes Take Warning: Misery, Crazed Mimigas,
 * Recoil Boost: Machine gun at level 3.
 * Recurring Boss: Balrog.
 * Remixed Level: The "Egg Corridor (?)". Yes, the question mark is part of its name.
 * Also, if you managed to save curly brace and get the booster 2.0, you'll have to go through a tougher, remixed version of the final cave.
 * Respawning Enemies: Whenever you move between "rooms", the enemies will respawn. A couple of areas, such as the Egg Corridor, will also periodically throw flying enemies at you.
 * Restart At Level One: Happens, twice, on the path to One Hundred Percent Completion: "You feel a black wind blow through you. All weapons dropped to Level 1!" Though you're almost guaranteed to have at least one weapon -- the Spur, the Nemesis, or the Blade -- that still deals out good damage at Level 1. Arguably, the de-leveling in Sacred Grounds is an equalizer, so that your chance of success isn't affected by how well you fared in the preceding boss fight.
 * Retraux: 16-bit graphics and a TurboGrafx 16-esque sound driver for a computer game released in 2004. One of the few games to be unintentionally Retraux -- development actually began in 1999, but the sheer length of development (and all by one person) took the game from "slightly out-of-date" to "retro SNES throwback".
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Mimigas.
 * Ridiculously Human Robots: The robots can drown (which does get an in-game justification), regain their memories by eating a mushroom, and, well... read Most Gamers Are Male, above.
 * There's an "Air" counter underwater, and at one point you're informed "you can breathe" indicating a working and essential respiratory system. The robots can also receive medical care and medicine.
 * Robot Girl: Curly Brace, natch.
 * Rushmore Refacement: Those statues of the Demon Crown wearers can be revisited right before the fight with the True Final Boss -- shooting them turns them into statues of you, King, Toroko, and Curly Brace. And you get powerups for doing so.
 * Scarf of Asskicking: You wear one.
 * Scary Shiny Glasses: The Doctor
 * Scenery Porn: The 3DS version contains wonderfully detailed backgrounds.
 * Scenery Gorn:
 * Schmuck Bait: A sign placed next to some Spikes of Doom clearly warns "One touch means instant death!" Unfortunately, the swathes of spikes littered throughout the rest of the game do not have a similar warning -- neither are they so easy to avoid. Of course, when you first see this, just about ANYTHING kills you instantly.
 * Schrodingers Gun: There's a number of plausible explanations for why your decision to talk to Professor Booster determines whether he lives or dies. For example, if you talk to him, you can take his invention, the Booster v0.8, from him so you can use it. Using it is the only way to get out of the pit he (and now you) have fallen into, and you can't take him with you when you use the Booster v0.8 to escape. However, your decision to talk with Booster also determines whether a tow rope in the very securely locked room adjacent is loose or stuck
 * Sprite Polygon Mix: Classic Mode in the 3DS version does this, retaining the original character, enemy and item sprites, but uses 3D backgrounds.
 * Screen Shake: The whole game after defeating the.
 * Screw This I'm Outta Here: Two-thirds through, one of your allies gains a means of escape, and encourages you to run away with him, rather than staying to fight. You can take him up on this offer; however, doing so gets you the worst ending.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can:
 * Sequel Hook: The original game ends rather neatly, but it's never fully explained just what the island is, or why the surface tried to attack it. And in the latest remake (released after Pixel began talking about a potential sequel),.
 * The surface was trying to get ahold of the Demon Crown, according to Curly.
 * Sequential Boss: The Doctor, who is the second of a three-part Boss Rush. Also, the True Final Boss.
 * Send in The Clones:
 * Senseless Sacrifice: 's death cannot prevent anything anymore.
 * Shield Bearing Mook: The Gravekeeper is invulnerable from the front unless he's preparing to attack or has just attacked.
 * Same deal with the small sword-wielding 'Bute' enemies in the Bonus Level of Hell
 * Shout Out:
 * The "found a heart container" jingle is quite similar to the Metroid one. The Jellies may also be a Metroid reference. Also, the first weapon you get is a laser gun whose range, damage, and shot types can be upgraded, followed by missiles.
 * You get a Fireball weapon, which is a fireball of infinite supply which bounces up and down as it moves forward.
 * 's Pre Ass Kicking One Liner "Kill me... or I shall KILL YOU!" presumably references a very similar line in Final Fantasy Tactics.
 * See the Crowning Moment of Funny page.
 * Getting the Super Missile Launcher in the Steam version nets you the achievement "Super, thanks for asking!"
 * While we're still talking about Steam achievements, the acquirement for getting the Alien Medal is called "Here's Johnny!"
 * The 3D diorama before you boot up the 3DS version looks like something out of Three D Dot Game Heroes.
 * Jenka's theme is actually The Jimmy Hart Version of an OLD finnish song, Letkajenkka
 * Skippable Boss: The very first boss, as well as "The Sisters." Although the first one is more ironic:
 * The Sisters are not so obvious, however.
 * If you're fast enough, you can actually  and still skip The Sisters by escaping the room in time. It is eventually demonstrated in this Speed Run.
 * Spam Attack: The Bubbler's Level 3 shot allows you to do this if you hold down the fire button for a few seconds first.
 * In the boss battle with the Doctor, his second form has an attack which shoots out a huge amount of red bats.
 * Spikes of Doom: With varying lethality from Grasstown point on. Last Cave and are filled with them.
 * The normal spikes simply cause a lot of damage. The ones that look like laser spikes, on the other hand...
 * Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: The Presses, especially later on in the.
 * Speed Run: The Nikumaru Counter, specifically used to time any attempts at the Bonus Level of Hell. World record time is about 2:17 for those of you who are curious.
 * Wind Fortress also has the ability to do this.
 * Stalactite Spite: Revisited Egg Corridor. Stalactites hurt enemies too though.
 * Stationary Boss: Heavy Press and, though in the latter's room everything you can step on either moves or damages you.
 * Stealth Pun: To craft a bomb, you need to get coal. You find the coal in the fireplace of a Mimiga named.
 * Stupidity Is the Only Option: Halfway through the game, you will witness Dr. Booster falling into a chasm. Major spoilers ahead:.
 * Sugar Apocalypse: Once you reach the end of the, it becomes obvious fairly quickly that this one's not completely sweet and cuddly.
 * Super Not Drowning Skills: Initially the Traveler sinks like a rock and has roughly 15 seconds to surface before drowning. Once, you can stay underwater indefinitely.
 * Superweapon Surprise: The red flowers' effect. They're so secret, Mimigas no longer know the truth about them.
 * Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded if you talk to the caged mimiga child during the fight with the doctor.
 * Super Not Drowning Skills: Initially the Traveler sinks like a rock and has roughly 15 seconds to surface before drowning. Once, you can stay underwater indefinitely.
 * Superweapon Surprise: The red flowers' effect. They're so secret, Mimigas no longer know the truth about them.
 * Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded if you talk to the caged mimiga child during the fight with the doctor.

"Analysis complete
 * Tears of Blood:
 * That Makes Me Feel Angry: Misery's "Heavens, that felt good!" while nobody is around.
 * Teleport Spam: When you fight, he'll frequently send a double-helix energy ray at you, and by the time you jump over it to get to him, he just teleports again. Yay.
 * This Was His True Form: The defeat of Monster X. Blink and you might miss it.
 * Theme Naming: {{spoiler|"Curly Brace" and "Quote" are (computer programmers' terms for) the { and " symbols, respectively. Also note that on a keyboard, the curly brace key is directly on top of the quote key}}. Curly's adopted Mimiga children have the last name Colon (unless you have a certain translation; see Engrish above).
 * Also, the leader of the Mimigas is named King and the second-in-command is named Jack, as in the cards.
 * The two guardians of the Mimiga Village were King, and the now-deceased Arthur.
 * The angel enemies in Sacred Ground appear to be named for flat-topped hills: Bute (one letter off from Butte) and Mesa.
 * Jenka and Ballos have names taken from dance styles.
 * The Password Is Always Swordfish: Averted, partially by accident; see the Blind Idiot Translation example above.
 * There Was a Door: But it was just too small for Balrog, so he has to bust through the wall, door included. Likely why his catch phrase got changed to a Kool-Aid-Man-style "OH YEAH!" in the Wiiware release.
 * The Voiceless: Your main character has virtually no dialogue of his own. Even when you're playing the game as Curly.
 * In the Wii Ware version,
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The only way the protagonist uses the Blade.
 * Tin Can Robot: Malco
 * Tomato Surprise: Kind of. is revealed to be a Ridiculously Human Robot one-third into the game. The surprise of this revelation depends entirely on whether you noticed the robot ears on his sprite before this point -- they are small and easy to miss. At least one of the NPCs didn't notice them either.
 * Another one that's mentioned in passing, and later becomes important. Being a game called "Cave Story", you wouldn't expect
 * Too Awesome to Use: The Life Jar, to the point you'll forget you have it when you really, really need it. You'll want to save it 'till the anyway. Played with because thankfully, you can go back and get another any time you use it up if you're able to backtrack.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Misery in the final fight.
 * Took a Shortcut: No matter where you go, Curly Brace will get there ahead of you. However, the shortcuts appear rather tough on her, since she's usually heavily injured by the time you get there.
 * Tragic Monster: Every speaking villain but the Doctor, but especially and.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: The recent video interview for the Wiiware version has the game playing in the background, showing off several areas. This includes Sacred Grounds. IGN's one-paragraph description of the game spoils the player character's name, which you only learn on the path to One Hundred Percent Completion:.
 * True Companions:, but only if you get One Hundred Percent Completion.
 * True Final Boss:
 * Tube Travel: Which helps you get out of Plantation's reservoir faster (possibly in case you fall in without the jetpack equipped).
 * Turns Red: Virtually all bosses unveil new attacks at lower HP. The elephant-like Behemoths from the Egg Corridor also turn red and stampede if they take enough damage, though this is rarely seen because they're not hard to defeat in the first place.
 * Underground Monkey: Mainly with the Critters and Bats.
 * Unexpected Shmup Level: Well, more like an Unexpected Shmup Boss when fighting.
 * Unique Enemy: Chinfish, The Door, Gravekeeper, and Giant Pignon.
 * Villain Override:
 * Villain Teleportation
 * Vent Physics: Most notable in Grasstown, but fans can be found elsewhere too.
 * Wake Up Call Boss: Speaking of the Vent Physics, anyone who hasn't mastered them is very likely to get their butt kicked by several times on their first playthrough. Other factors play a part, but it's usually the fans that screw one up.
 * Walk Don't Swim: The robotic protagonist and Curly Brace both sink like a rock in water.
 * Wall Master: Sand Crocs! And of course that infamous killer door! The moving, crushing eye blocks known as Presses count as well.
 * The Walls Are Closing In: The walls of Ballos' chamber close in when the hero and Curly Brace defeat him for good.
 * Wasted Song: "White", a scrapped theme for King which can only be unlocked by beating in three minutes. "Toroko's Theme" as well, but not to as great an extent.
 * Wave Motion Gun: The Spur, if you fire it when its EXP. bar is at maximum, will release a large white beam that will pierce through and completely reduce any non-boss monster in the game into its component atoms. There is no better example of There Is No Kill Like Overkill in this game than this alone.
 * What the Hell Player: If you agreed to leave with Kazuma on a Sky Dragon, The narration says that you and Kazuma don't care. In the Wii Ware and DSi versions, however, the new translation softens the blow by saying nothing about the player character's emotional state, instead stating -- in narrative -- that what happened "doesn't matter", which could be interpreted several ways.
 * If you want to experience the raw fury of the Nemesis, it's not that difficult...
 * With This Herring: You are You begin the game unarmed and with three hit points and no weapons. Presumably something bad happened to you beforehand..
 * If you want to experience the raw fury of the Nemesis, it's not that difficult...
 * With This Herring: You are You begin the game unarmed and with three hit points and no weapons. Presumably something bad happened to you beforehand..

Current forces insufficient

Retreat

RETREAT!!"


 * Woobie Destroyer of Worlds:
 * You Bastard:
 * When you defeat most bosses, a block of text comes up on the screen comes up saying "You defeated [insert boss name]!" When you defeat, it's followed by a period. Played even more straight in the 3ds version, where it's followed by an ellipse.
 * The text the game displays in the worst ending also has shades of this.
 * You Gotta Have Green Hair: It seems to be a Sakamoto family trait. The Doctor has green hair as well.
 * Misery has blue hair, except for her dialogue portrait, where her hair is green. The Wiiware version has her hair consistently blue.
 * You Have Failed Me: Misery ultimately decides she's had enough of Balrog.
 * X Marks the Hero: Sue.
 * And King... However,
 * Zigzag Paper Tassel: On the boulder that blocks the entrance to Labyrinth M.
 * Zigzag Paper Tassel: On the boulder that blocks the entrance to Labyrinth M.