REVIEW: Cave Story+ (2017): The difficulty spike is insane at moments

Let the journey begin.

Cave Story is a game originally developed on the pc by a one man team, Daisuke Amaya. Often glorified for its independent development and retro aesthetic. I never got around to playing it on the pc and instead chose to wait. Luckily for me Cave Story+ was eventually released adding some more extra features to the package.

The game is a metroidvania. So we get lots of exploration and unlockables. You'll need key items to progress and you'll need to search for them. This is standard fare and a favorite of mine.

I've been playing on and off for several months now when I have some spare time which usually doesn't work out the best. I'll often forget the mechanics or what I'm supposed to be doing. This is always troublesome when you boot up the game and have no clue where to go next. Usually I make sure to leave myself at a spot after a boss battle so it's clear where I should progress next.

Give me some time to figure out that question professor.

The game is set firmly in a retro style with pixel graphics. Something I'm used too although I can see this excluding a certain audience straight off the bat. 2D platforming is is mainstay here as expected.

I never got used to the controls if I'm being honest. There is too much drift and specific platforming sections became a real slog with myself battling the controls for ultimate control.

The difficulty is going to be the polarizing point for most people. I'm not adverse to a healthy difficulty level but this one spikes at differing sections often. Many have said that a non-linear curve for difficulty is a sign of bad game design and I have always believed this. There is a challenge, a hard challenge and then there sections purposely made to frustrate the player.

The cute looking things are often the deadliest.

The game has lots of secrets as any good metroidvania should. Multiple endings are also a thing as I figured out I got the bad ending on my playthough. Luckily you can continue off from this point, choose a different response and continue playing.

This is what I ended up doing until I reached the end boss gauntlet. You need to fight four separate bosses in a row with no save points and technically no health. Here's the pro-tip for those at the point I got to. Once you defeat the third boss you need to speak to the purple character, a rabbit or whatever it was twice and you can get a bit of health back.

Then you're off to the "final" boss. I played this section repeatedly for about an hour and finally got this final iteration down to about ¼ of it's health and kept dying. I'm done with it for now. This is an effort in frustration with little to no reward. I don't mind hard games and have finished plenty but this is not good.

Everything is out there to kill you quickly.

Another simple yet unfixed aspect of the game as a whole are the dialog sections. They are completely unskipable. During this boss fight there's a wall of text that is thrown at you on each iteration of the boss. In good game design you allow the player to press a single button to bypass all this nonsense and get on with the battle. No such luck here. You'll need to press that button 10-15 times before the characters stops talking every single time you retry. This really destroys the gameplay flow when you're trying to beat these bosses for the umpteenth time.

Save points are few and far between in general throughout the game. There are so many times I passed a difficult section only to be killed by some cheap gameplay mechanic. This combination with sparse save points appear to be a conscious decision. I wonder if the developer hates the player or not?

I hope you love to explore as I do. There's a lot to see here.

There are many cheap deaths due to unforeseen circumstances. You must memorize that a boulder might fall on you at a certain screen only because it has previously killed you. Cue the unskipable text dump and this adds up to frustrating gameplay.

I suppose a full retro throwback was the idea as all of the gameplay mechanics are something of the past that is rarely found in modern game design. I don't miss them at all as it only further frustrates the player and hampers the experience.

I have many issues with the game but at the same time I can see why it is so highly praised. This is not for everyone and is the pure definition of a game made using design from the past. I feel bad for modern players that pick this up and hit a wall early on in the game. There are many. For myself I knew what to expect to a certain degree, I did not expect this ridiculous boss rush mode that I'm now confronted with.

Propel yourself upwards based on shooting downwards. A fun mechanic indeed.

Apparently this is only the beginning as there's another ending that is the true ending. I'm playing on the normal difficulty and there is a hard one too. Why am I not surprised.

While the game certainly has its flaws it is an interesting one. The mechanics in general are good except for the slippery controls I still experience. This should check all the boxes for a title that I'd enjoy. The difficulty is simply a further nail in its coffin.

The "git gud" mentality is strong with this one as that's the tip you see most people cut and paste around the internet. Punishing gameplay at distinct moments of a game should make people ask if there's something else going on here. There's a challenge and rewarding gameplay to be had if you can stomach certain sections that are too much for most people.

I may come back to finish off this final gauntlet but I feel I won't receive much of a reward in the form of story. Personal reward for defeating it is probably my only motivation at this point as I won't be coming back to play this again.

This section could easily be remedied with a save point before the "final" boss. You can even be sadistic and make the final battle an even tougher one. Instead this feels like a endurance trial and disrespects the players time. An odd choice overall for the developer of this title.

The double-jump mechanic is a requirement as always and you get a form of it here.

I know the influence this game has had on the gaming industry as a whole. I feel as though I would have a different take on it if I played it back in 2004. Maybe I shouldn't have waited so long to play it. Those other indie titles released years later were certainly influenced by it and I enjoyed them at the time. I wonder if my tastes are simply changing over the years?

Update, update. I came back the next day and defeated the gauntlet in my first try. The ending wasn't worth it as I expected but at least I can put this game behind me now.

Thanks for the read 🙂

All media courtesy of Nintendo. Thank you very much.