Cave Story

Story

The player character wakes up in a cave without remembering how he got there. He finds a village of mimigas being pursued by the Doctor. The Doctor's servants, Misery and Balrog, are looking for Sue Sakamoto, a girl who has been turned into a mimiga. Not finding her, they accidentally kidnap another Mimiga named Toroko instead. The player finds Sue in the egg corridor, where she discovers the eggs of a sky dragon that she could use to escape from the floating island when she hatches. Sue tries to rescue her brother Kazuma, but King, the leader of the Mimiga village, captures her and holds her responsible for kidnapping Toroko. Sue tasks the player with freeing Kazuma from Grasstown. After freeing him, they meet Professor Booster, who reveals that the Doctor plans to use the red flowers on Mimigas to create an army to take over the surface world. Booster sends the player to the sand zone to destroy the red flowers before the Doctor can find them. There, the player meets Curly Brace, a female robot who also has no memories of her past, and Jenka, an old witch who is Misery's mother and guardian of the red flowers. Jenka calls the player character a "soldier from the surface", one of many sent to the island to slaughter the Mimigas. Misery takes the player to the labyrinth deep inside the island as punishment for thwarting the Doctor's plans. Curly Brace has also been thrown into the maze and they work together to escape. Balrog helps them push away the boulder blocking the exit, revealing his friendly nature. The two find and defeat the Core, a magical creature whose power keeps the island afloat. The Doctor intervenes to save them before the island collapses. Under certain conditions, the player can save Curly Brace, who had sacrificed her air tank to save the player character. When he returns to the Mimiga village, he finds that the Doctor has captured the Mimigas. In the egg corridor, Kazuma offers to help the player escape the island using a sky dragon, leading to an alternate ending where the Doctor conquers the surface world while Kazuma and the player hide in the mountains. The player can instead choose to confront the Doctor and destroy the core of the island, which would return the Mimigas to normal. The player climbs the outer wall of the island and reaches the plantation, where the Doctor uses the Mimigas as slave laborers to grow red flowers. The Doctor's servants capture him and put him in a prison cell with Sue. She is taken away before the player wakes up, but her letter reveals that the Doctor was a member of the research expedition that included Sue's family and Professor Booster, but he betrayed them when he found the Demon Crown. Sue instructs the player to find her mother, who may have a plan to stop the Doctor. If the player has saved Curly Brace before, he can find an item that will restore her memories. She remembers that the player character's name is Quote and that they were not the killer robots that slaughtered the Mimigas in the past. Instead, they were sent to destroy the Demon Crown so that its power would not fall into the wrong hands. Quote finds Sue's mother Momorin, who is building a rocket that can be used to get to the top of the island where the Doctor lives. After helping her finish the rocket, Quote confronts Misery and the Doctor. The Doctor has turned the essence of the red flowers into a crystal that allows him to survive even after Quote destroys his body. The Doctor's spirit possesses the core of the island, but Quote manages to destroy that as well, so the island begins to fall to Earth. Under certain conditions, the player can enter a bonus phase called Bloodstained Sanctuary, where the creator of the Demon's Crown, Ballos, is held captive. Ballos, the brother of Jenka, was a powerful sorcerer who went insane after being tortured. The misery forced Ballos to create the Demon Crown, but she and Balrog were cursed to serve the one who possessed it. With the help of Curly Brace, Quote defeats Ballos and stops the source of the negative energy that caused the island's downfall, saving its inhabitants. Balrog saves them before they are crushed by Ballos' collapsing prison - he had been sent by Misery as thanks for breaking her curse. Quote, Curly Brace and Balrog leave the island to live out their days in peace.