Huzzah! Let's Play Cave Story

I appreciate the holiday breakdown! I've seen in on Wikias but not to this level of detail!

Chapter 13: The Saving of Curly Brace (Part 1)

~THUD~

Banished by Misery, Curly hits rock bottom. Time to climb up to and open those doors again!



No cheating for us this time, though, since we don't have the machine gun. Not that that changes
much, considering how far I managed to make it last time before I got hit.



There's nothing new to show you until we get back to the Labyrinth Shop. Remember how useless
this place was? Well today we'll actually find something interesting here!



You can always turn him down, but if you give him your guns...



Snake? Snake?? Snaaaaaaaaaaaaake!!

It shoots through walls! Built by Chaba in the Labyrinth Shop.

The Snake is the first of the "alternate" weapons you can get in Cave Story and I simply adore it.
True to its description, it really does shoot through walls!



Like so. The Snake shoots square-based projectiles. The lowest level flies straight (and has a
pretty pitiful range), but higher levels take on a sort of wave-beam kind of motion, which
presumably comes from the Fireball side of the family.



Level two increases the damage and range...



...and level three increases them yet further, bringing the damage up to a respectable 8 points
per shot. The machine gun is arguably still the better weapon, since it has comparable damage and
range but a much higher rate of fire. But the Snake is super fun, plus there are a few situations
where you can use it to damage enemies from positions of complete safety. It's definitely worth
trying out at least once. But not for this run! I have other plans for the old Polar Star, so I reload
an older save and bid the Snake a fond adieu.



We stop by the camp to insult our convalescing friend.



Stop insulting your friend and go get him some medicine, Curly, geez.



I mentioned this last time we were here, but I just learned that you can damage boost off a
critter to get up to this passageway, which is super cool. Otherwise, you'd have to come back
later with the Booster in order to pick up...



...the Arms Barrier! This whole section of the game is tougher than it was before, since we don't
have the Machine Gun to rely on. Any advantage we can get to help us with the upcoming Core
fight is worth taking.



Next we head back to the clinic to say hi to Puu Black. Because you know what makes me feel good?



It's bustin. Bustin makes me feel good. FUN FACT: Puu can still damage you while he is disintegrating,
so don't get too close!

We hand the Cure-All over to the physician and chat up our buddy one last time before striking off
deeper into the labyrinth.



Dang, Curly isn't pulling her punches here. See you later, loser!



This moving block trap is another spot that's trickier when you can't fly. You have to jump around
the block as it approaches and failure results in either immediate death or a 10 HP hit from the
spikes to the right. I manage to pull it off on my first try because I am a Super Pro.



I don't usually use the Machine Gun on Weapon X anyway, so this fight is basically unchanged.





But it's not like I'm going to turn down a chance to show off the cat again. It never gets old!



As we step into the next room...



...Booster takes a plunge again.



(Just go gonna save here for absolutely no reason).

So I guess we should go help him, huh?



Eh, he's probably fine.

That's right, we're leaving Booster to die - although to be fair, he'll actually live longer than he
did last time. And why are we leaving him bleeding at the bottom of a hole? Because that's the
first step in saving Curly Brace('s robot friend)!

~WAIT WHAT~

Yup, you read that right. Saving Curly Brace (or her friend) requires executing a long series of
steps that starts with some seemingly pointless cruelty toward an old, injured man. The reasoning
behind this first bit is honestly pretty flimsy, but it will eventually make a kind of sense. Still,
it's a very obtuse way to start the process that eventually gets you to the good ending of the
game. I know I certainly didn't figure this part out by myself! Anyway, now that we've started
down the road to righteousness, let's keep a tally of what was required along the way:

SAVING CURLY BRACE

1. Leave Booster to die

Also note that the jump to cross the gap here is pretty tricky, which is why I saved the game
before attempting it. If you fall down, then there's no way to get back up without talking to
Booster, at which point you've ruined your chances of seeing the good ending. Note that the
high-res graphics in the remake make this jump a little easier than it was in the freeware version.
See that little red dot on the ground? Turns out it's placed at exactly the spot where you
need to start your jump if you don't want to bump your head on the ceiling and fall down into
the pit. Thanks, Nicalis!



Anyway, enough about Booster. We step into the Boulder Chamber to find our friend magically
waiting for us, as usual.

[ED: shrug]

~INEVITABLY~

A short fight ensues, and then...





Balrog makes short work of the rock for us.



This is one of the spots where I prefer the Nicalis translation.



It is immediately followed by a line that I find to be pretty awkward! Oh well.



We grab the Super Missiles before leaving, which sadly are no longer exhilirating in this translation.

A serious missile upgrade. Fast and deadly.



Let's a go!



First things first, it looks like our buddy still has his Machine Gun.



Go get 'em! He's every bit as indestructible as Curly was last time around.



This spot always gives me a hard time. The simple solution is to fire off a bunch of missiles, but
I'm usually trying to save them up for the Core fight. This time I decided to treat myself.

Farther down we find the teleporter to the Labyrinth shop:



Gotta be careful here, since there's no way to get back up if we fall down. Aside from walking all
the way back, I guess.



I took a lot of damage playing through this section, but the puff ball enemies here make for a
good source of hearts when you're feeling low.



Welcome back to the Dark Place. Curly takes over for the narrator:





Once again we go through the sequence of opening up the doors...



...blasting the stubborn one that gets stuck, and then heading down below to open the big guy.





Hi-res destroyed surface robots: still terrifying.



And it's time to fight the Core again! This fight is significantly harder without the Machine Gun,
mostly because none of the other weapons have comparable range (except for the missiles, but
you'll run out of those pretty quickly). Sometimes I nail this fight pretty quickly, but this time it
took me a few tries.



Noice!



I tried to think of a tasteful joke about keeping your colon safe, but I struck out.



Man, this is a simply overwhelming amount of punctuation.





The Doctor and Misery peace out, leaving us as the room rapidly fills water. Once again, things
look pretty grim, but this time we have a plan.

~WHEN SUDDENLY~

Desperate to find a way out of this mess, Curly searches the room. Suddenly, a sparkle catches
her eye, coming from that robot's claw below her. We head over to investigate it.

There's something wrapped around a broken robot's arm. Will you take it?

Obviously we do, and the mystery item ends up being a tow rope. According to its description,
it's specifically made for towing...robots? Well that sounds like it might be useful.



We'll have to figure out what to do with that later, though, as we're still out of air and, shortly,
consciousness. This time, however, a mysterious message appears on the screen as we go under:



Like his older sister, he had magical powers unlike anyone could imagine...

Well now, that is awfully intriguing! But we won't have much time to ponder it, because...



...somebody just gave us their air tank. Things look bad when we wake up, but go investigate
our friend and we'll find that...



...he's still alive! Won't stay that way for long unless we do something, though.



Say, now there's an idea! As long as you grabbed the tow rope before blacking out (see the
excellent 2017 white paper on this subject by one Dr A. TurtleDoesBite), then you can grab your
friend and take him with you when you go. Let's update the checklist:

SAVING CURLY BRACE

1. Leave Booster to die
2. Pick up the tow rope
3. Strap Curly to your back after the Core fight

The door slams as we leave the Core room, but this time we depart filled with purpose. You
know, instead of crushing despair. It's a nice feeling!



We navigate the Waterway as before, except now we have an unconscious robot strapped to our
back. I was pretty low on health after the Core fight, so I hunted down some of the invisible
hearts scattered throughout the area to get back into shape.



This room is still a roiling maelstrom, but there's not much you can do to affect your path through.
You just have to sit back and go with the flow.



That isn't true here, though! Making the jump here to get to the waterway cabin was optional last
time we played; today it is essential. I've hit the reset button here countless times after missing
my chance to get to that door.



How about taking a break for now?

The computer screen inside helpfully directs us to the bed, where we sit down for a spell.



When we wake up, we've deposited our friend on the bed. Once again, we get a reassuring message
that we still have a chance to help him.

(As a side note, I've read that taking too long in the waterway can spell death for your friend,
but I've never actually seen it happen. Anybody feel like confirming this? I've already overwritten
my save. )

If you check the computer again at this point, you'll get a new message:

That reminds me, I also recorded some findings on that notebook.

A notebook, huh? Let's go check out the bookshelf.



This bit is kind of a mystery to me, in that I have no idea who could have written this bit. Are
we supposed to recognize the character based on the writing? Or maybe it's just some random
person that we never meet? I dunno.



Hot damn!



Frickin' of course we want to drain the water, geez.

SAVING CURLY BRACE

1. Leave Booster to die
2. Pick up the tow rope
3. Strap Curly to your back after the Core fight
4. Don't miss the jump to get to the Waterway cabin
5. Rest in the bed
6. Pump the water out of Curly's body

Our buddy conks out, presumably to reset. Hopefully not all the way back to factory default...



Checking the computer one last time yields an encouraging message - again, from who? At this
point, I have to assume it's Pixel himself. After all, the first time we played through here there
was a message about his wife having a baby.



Checking in on our friend one last time, we see that he's in the process of rebooting. I guess
we should give him some time alone.

...

Wait a second.



No! It might seem obvious if you think about it, but it's really easy to just leave him on the bed
and go on your merry way. Heck, the game almost pushes you into doing so, because you have to
interact with him multiple times before you get the option to take him along. And it seems natural:
he's tired, give him some time to rest. Except, what happens when he wakes up? He's trapped in
a cabin surrounded on all sides by water, without an air tank to get to the Waterway's exit. So this
is kind of a jerk move on the game's part, making it look like you should leave him behind even
though that actually makes no sense. Lemme just update the list here:

SAVING CURLY BRACE

1. Leave Booster to die
2. Pick up the tow rope
3. Strap Curly to your back after the Core fight
4. Don't miss the jump to get to the Waterway cabin
5. Rest in the bed
6. Pump the water out of Curly's body
7. Don't leave Curly in the cabin!

God, I don't know how many times I've ruined a run by forgetting to do one of the steps in this
chain, but this is the one that really kills me. And our robot friend.



We dive back into the water and make our way to the fight with...



...Ironhead! I didn't get the Alien Medal this time, sue me.



But as we finish dealing with Mr. Fish, we get separated from our robot pal. He starts to drift away
from us as the current brings us back to...



...the Mimiga village. But don't worry, this is how things are supposed to go! We'll catch up with
our buddy again later, but for now we'll be flying solo. That said, there's still plenty of new stuff
coming up, so be sure to tune in next time for more Let's Play Cave Story! Huzzah!

That's there in the original, too:

Aw, nuts to you.

About the best justification I can come up with for phase 1 is this:

"Hey Professor, are you okay?"

"Before I answer that, have you ever heard of Schr�dinger?"

"What?"

"You don't need to worry about me, keep going!"

It's a pretty silly justification.

The Professor is the sort of man who is NOT OKAY with dying without giving someone a Jetpack.

I like BEAT'S reasoning on this one. I mean, it really is (sort of) explained in the game and when the time comes I'll go into it. But man, it's still a hell of a stretch.

That was magical, thank you.

Guys.

Guys.

In the original, he gave you his jetpack. It was a prototype, but it was still a jetpack he had on hand.

Moments after you left, he realized he only had a sprained ankle, and, while it was painful, he could survive. Except... He was trapped in a pit, and, for even a robot, there would be no way to jump out of there unassisted. If he just had his Booster, he'd be fine, but noooooo that damn robot left him there to die. Maybe Quote will come back. Maybe Curly will take a look down there on the way through the underground. Maybe one of those bug dudes will help out. Gah, getting kind of dehydrated down here... Maybe, if that robot would just stop back...

Look, what I'm saying is that the professor died hating you.

= O

: (

I LIKE MY VERSION BETTER.

As do I.

Hey, there's a reason the game doesn't consider you a TRUE HERO if you take that path.

Chapter 14: Gearing Up

Welcome back! When we last left our intrepid heroine, she had been separated from her robo
pal in the waterway and awoke to find herself alone in the Mimiga village.



Like so. We're pretty short on options at this point, so we head to the only place we can: Arthur's house.



No sooner do we step in the door than somebody teleports in: Professor Booster! He ambles over
to us, looking none the worse for wear after falling 50 feet and being left to bleed to death at the
bottom of a pit in the labyrinth. He's even managed to repair his glasses.



In exchange for leaving him to rot, the professor gives us the fully armed and operational Booster
v2.0! Now, you might not think that abandoning an old, injured man would lead to him a) not
dying and b) having the time to upgrade his jetpack for you. And you would not think that because
it makes almost no sense at all! But in fairness, Cave Story actually gives you two clues that
this is how things will play out. First off, there was the broken teleporter at the bottom of the
pit that Booster landed in:

Presumably, Booster had nothing but time on his hands while he was stuck down there and, given
that no-one was coming to rescue him (*cough cough*), he put it to good use by fixing the teleporter.
I could also see making the argument that, having entrusted you with the Booster v0.8 and the fate
of the island, he felt he could pass on peacefully. By ignoring him, you deny him that satisfaction,
which in turn motivates him to get the hell out of dodge - and fix up his jetpack in the process. But
that's still quite a stretch, if you ask me! I don't think Pixel expected anybody to find this secret
the first time they played through the game.

The second hint toward this comes near the end of the game, when you find Booster's notes in
the prefab building:

And there you have it! Booster just needed time, time enough at last.

As much as I love Cave Story, I definitely can't defend the pretty-darn-obscure sequence of steps
required to obtain the Booster v2.0 (which is, in turn, required to get the good ending). Or at least,
I wouldn't describe it as fair. I do appreciate the fact that basically 100% of players will get the
bad ending the first time around, which will hopefully motivate them to dig deeper into the game to
see if it can be avoided. And there's a certain 80s nostalgia in having really obscure secrets in a
game, which is something we don't get a lot of in the post-internet era. But ditching Booster only to
have him come back in perfect health with a nice present for you is, logically speaking, pretty much
bonkers.

Anyway, with all that ruminating behind us, let's get back to Booster's request.

You know, I've always thought of Sue as being a teenager, maybe 15 years old or so. But this line
is making me wonder if she's maybe a little younger than I had previously thought.

I'm also trying to figure out why Booster put scare ellpises around the word "escape", but all the
jokes I was going to make now seem pretty inappropriate.

Sure thing, gramps. But first, let's take our new toy for a spin!



Where the unfinished Booster sputtered and only grudgingly increased your altitude, version 2.0 is
a comparative powerhouse. The second you tap the jump button, it sends you shooting upwards.
And if flying up isn't your bag, you can also choose to fly...



...to the left!



And to the right!



And even straight down! And yes, there are times when it's nice to be able to fly down.

The upgraded Booster basically has a set amount of fuel that you can use every time you jump,
recharging whenever you touch the ground. That means you can fly in complicated zigzag patterns
and if you think Pixel isn't going to make you do that, you have another thing coming. All told,
it's a really fun way to get around and one that's unlike pretty much every other game out there.
Cave Story isn't really Cave Story until you get your hands on the Booster v2.0 - it's kind of
a shame that you go over half the game without it!

But hey, if you think a cool jetpack is the only piece of gear that we'll be getting today, then
I've got bad really good news for you.



Now that we can fly again, let's take a little trip back through the First Cave to go see...



...the Hermit Gunsmith!



The gunsmith seems pretty mad, but he softens when he sees just how much we've been using
the Polar Star.





Hot diggity! The Spur is nothing less than the single best gun in the game. Or at least, the best
gun that isn't limited by ammo, as super missiles can outpace it in damage and range. Anyway,
this thing rocks, but before I can show it off, Pixel is just going to author-insert for a second:

I certainly hope you do.



So here's the Spur, in all its glory! You might feel a little underwhelmed when you first pull the
trigger, only to see it shoot basically the same shot as a level 3 Polar Star. However, that's just
the beginning. For the true beauty of the Spur is that you don't level it up by feeding it weapon
doritos. Instead, you simply hold down the fire button to charge it up! That's a big deal, because
it means the Spur never loses effectiveness when you take damage. That alone makes it worth
its weight in gold. The fact that the charged up shots are so good is just gravy.



The first level of charge builds almost instantly and gets you a long laser beam that pierces enemies.
It doesn't do a ton of damage, but it has good range and you can fire one off any time you need it.



The second level of charge takes a bit longer, but is still fast enough to have ready at pretty
much any time. It also does significantly more damage, and its combination of quick and deadly
makes it the sweet spot for day-to-day use.



But when time is no object, lay into that fire button for a few seconds and treat yourself to a
level 3 beam. This baby packs a serious punch and travels a huge distance, making it well-suited
for boss battles. Charge up your shot while you wait for an opening and then unleash the full
fury of the Spur!



Upon exiting the Gunsmith's panther-cave, you will find that the First Cave is now conveniently
filled with enemies for you to test the Spur on. Here's a shot of me missing them all.



That's better. I appreciate the thought behind giving you all these targets, but in practice they
aren't lined up for maximum satisfaction.



Except for this one spot by the exit. Phoooom!



Now that we're all kitted out, our next stop will be the Egg Corridor. Which, in case you've
forgotten...



...has seen better days.



We annihilate a very sad baby dragon with a fully charged shot from the Spur.



Sorry guy, but I'm still going to need those missile upgrades later on.

You can, of course, fire the Spur up or down, too. It does a very effective job handling the big
bugs in the Egg Corridor.



The max charge shot is also powerful enough to take out a Press with a single shot...



...which means we can safely take care of them from below.



Remember this big explodey guy? Remember how I said I've never been killed by it?



Well, there's a first time for everything. That's what I get for trying to show off.



I came back and managed to kill it with a level 3 charge shot followed by this level 2. Note that
even the L2 did a whopping 50 damage!



The Sisters fight is a piece of cake with the Spur. I use the L3 shot when I can, but when in doubt
it's almost always better to unleash a L2 than to take the risk of waiting for maximum power.



We make it back to Egg No. 00, which has once again hatched.



Kazuma still wants us to come with him...



...but there's no way I'm going to miss my chance to try our new gear out on the Doctor.



Stepping out of the room, I take a second to look down. Why, that looks like a door!



We make our way down to investigate. Mind the gap.



Wait a second, this house is clearly regular-sized! Oh, uh, it's called that because it belongs to the
Little family. There are two people in here, a little kid who asks who we are, and Mrs. Little, who is
wondering where her husband got off to. We don't have an answer for her right now, so we push on.



Making out way up the Outer Wall is easier than ever, thanks to the Booster v2.0!



Remember this hidden room partway up the wall?



This time, the chest opens for us, yielding the 290 Counter. It comes with an inscription:

This I present to you, the challenger in anticipation of your determination. Show me your best!

Very cryptic! The Counter doesn't do anything just yet, so we move on.



The Spur is very well suited to dealing with the ghost cats, since a level 3 shot has the range to
hit them and does enough damage to take them out in one hit.



Like so! Note that the damage numbers that pop up are limited by the health the enemies have.
According to the Cave Story wiki, the max damage a fully-charged Spur shot can incur is a
staggering 474. That would probably require a big enemy, which the beam could hit multiple
times on the way through. I've certainly never seen it hit nearly that hard, that I can recall.



Once again, we find Itoh cowering outside the Plantation.



Curly's response here is just devastating, I love it so much.



Not yet, we don't!



We step into the Plantation and bring white hot justice to some evil-doing bats. But as we head
down to the lower level, we see somebody familiar...



It's that one guy! Looks like the Waterway spat him out in the lake at the bottom of the Plantation!



There's just one problem: he doesn't remember anything. Talking to him doesn't get us anywhere,
but Cthulhu has some useful information.



Only one way to find out! Looks like we have a new quest: locate and retrieve the special mushroom.
Man, a mushroom like that, I bet it would be very rare, maybe even one-of-a-kind. But where could
we find one? Tune in next time to find out, as we really and truly save Curly Brace('s robot friend)!
Huzzah!

YOU CAN CALL ME

PROFESSOR

MOTHERFUCKER

For as well made as this game is I still have to call bullshit on this jump.

You can make it with either the Machine Gun or either Booster though?

Just because you can make a jump doesn't mean it's not bullshit.

The secret is to just let yourself fall, don't hit the booster until you're already falling. There's an identical jump farther up the wall, but that one has a safety block underneath it that will generally keep you from dying.

Thank you for breathing some life into this thread, BEAT. I haven't forgotten about it! In fact, I've even learned how to make gifs:



But my actual gifs are too big for me to post here so you guys will have to settle for the slightly-compressed versions.

Chapter 15: The Saving of Curly Brace (Part 2)

Oh geez, has it really been two months since the last update? Man, time flies when you're
obessively playing Subnautica.

ANYWAY, when we left off, we had a clear goal before us: find the magic mushroom and use it
to restore our robot pal's memories. Now I happen to have a pretty good idea just where we'd
find something like that, but the quickest way to get there is going to require a little detour.

To jail.



First things first, let's go say hi to Kanpachi. Hi, Kanpachi! Kanpachi is, of course, heading outside
to take a little fishing break.



We follow him down to the watering hole to once again pick up the teleporter room key, which
he has thoughtfully pulled out of the deathspikes for us.



Curly don't need to jump on no stinkin' gunfish.



Trying to teleport back to Arthur's house gets us smooshed by a droll and tossed into the clink...



...where we are once again greeted unceremoniously by Mahin. =I



Once again we read Curly's letter, earning us the password for Momorin's secret hideout. I'm
getting a little sick of transcribing dialogue, but suffice to say that the writing is adequte. We
aren't going to go see Momo quite yet, however.



FOOM! One fully-charged blast from the Polar Star can level a droll. It's by far the best way of
dealing with them (unless you're some kinda commie pacifist who'd rather run away).



We make a quick detour to the top of the Plantation to grab the life capsule. We'll be needing
this later!



We also stop by the other jail to visit my favorite Mimiga. This isn't quite as catchy as "Doctor Dumb
can go screw himself!", but it's still pretty good.



Next stop, Arthur's house!



So! Mysterious mushrooms. Anybody remember seeing one of those? If not, maybe this door in
the Mimiga Village cemetary will ring a bell...



That's right, it's the one and only Ma Pignon! As a one-of-a-kind mushroom herself, she probably
has some knowledge about what could help our friend.

Ma then asks us if we want the Mushroom Badge. We clearly do, but to get it we have to answering
a sphinxian set of questions correctly:





Ma throws in a question that requires a "No" just to keep you on your toes.







One more "No" and we get...



Huzzah! Now we can save our buddy! But hang on a second, let's just check the item description
before we head back...

A mushroom badge obtained from Ma Pignon. It serves no purpose.

Hey! That sassy mushroom slipped us a lemon! Not that you can blame her, though. You see,
the mushroom we need to heal our friend isn't this badge...it's Ma herself.



Talk to Ma Pignon again and she'll cop to the ruse, but she isn't going to hand herself over to
be eaten. Which, like, that's fair, I totally get that. But we've broken an awful lot of eggs so
far to make this omelet, and I'm not above throwing a few mushrooms in there while we're at it.

Boss fight!



Ma Pignon hops around and occasionally charges at us head-first, E.Honda-style. When she hits
the wall, a shower of rocks falls down.



She can also jump off the screen, returning with an army of clones. There's no way to tell which
one is the real deal, but the clones have way less HP, so just keep blasting and it'll sort itself out.



Real talk, this line sucks. This is the second time Nicalis has tossed in a little bit of good old
fashioned sexism for no real reason and personally I find it really chafes. It's hard to say what
Pixel would have done here since Curly Story is basically a legitimized hack of the game, but I
have to hope that his take would have been a little classier.



If nothing else, I feel a little less bad that we'll be feeding this sexist sentient mushroom to
our friend later. Anyhow, it's time to update the checklist!

SAVING CURLY BRACE

1. Leave Booster to die
2. Pick up the tow rope
3. Strap Curly to your back after the Core fight
4. Don't miss the jump to get to the Waterway cabin
5. Rest in the bed
6. Pump the water out of Curly's body
7. Don't leave Curly in the cabin!
8. Get the Mushroom Badge from Ma Pignon
9. Inspect the Mushroom Badge
10. Pacify Ma Pignon

We have one more errand to take care of before we leave the cemetary. In fact, you can see our
objective on the screen right now! Anybody want to guess where Waldo is hiding?



There he is! This guy is literally five pixels tall (ten in Cave Story+), but he's a little easier to
spot in-game since he moves around. Still, it takes a keen eye to spot the one and only Mr. Little!

We strike up a conversation with our tiny friend:







You betcha! Note that if we hadn't spoken to Ms. Little in the Little House, Mister wouldn't have
agreed to come with us.



There are two ways to get back to the Little House from here: through the Egg Corridor or down
the Outer Wall. I prefer the latter, since it's way prettier and has better music and zero sad baby
dragons crying blood. We can now teleport directly to the Plantation, so let's do that!



We cross the Plantation and find ourselves at the top of the wall again. Of course, the fastest way
down is to jump!



Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!



We bring Mr. Little back to his family, but this ain't a charity we're running here. Got something
for me, Little man?





He does indeed! The Nemesis is a totally sweet gun with a unique quirk that we'll explore in just
a second.


Note that if you should have buyer's remorse (or if you just feel more comfortable having the soul
of a dead rabbit on you at all times), then you can talk to him again to switch back to the Blade.

We won't be doing that, however! Let's take our new toy for a spin.



The Nemesis is a right corker, a kind of super-powered Polar Star that shoots fast and far. Each
shot does 8-12 damage depending on where it lands, and that's without upgrading it! Only thing
is, this is as good as it gets. Because unlike other weapons in the game, the Nemesis actually gets
worse with every level - and it only takes a single weapon XP to "upgrade" it. At level 2, the
bullet gets smaller, the range decreases and the damage drops to 6. Accidentally grab another
upgrade and the shot transforms into...a rubber duck that does a piddly 1 damage at short range.

(Note that I somehow managed to botch every one of my screen captures showing the level 2 and 3 Nemesis. I am aware that
the situation is completely unacceptable and will do my best to rectify it later.)

The long and short of it is that Nemesis is super useful in boss fights, where you generally aren't
going to be picking up too many weapon doritos, since it doesn't lose power when you get hit. In
this way, it's actually somewhat similar to the Blade, which is also very good at dealing damage at
level 1. Unfortunately, some of the hardest bosses in the game come with a bunch of fodder enemies,
so it isn't uncommon to find yourself shooting wimpy little ducks at them. At which point you either
need to tank two hits to make your gun useful again or else switch to something else for the rest
of the fight. Still, the Nemesis is quite deadly and a lot of fun to use, so I take it more often than not.

With that little diversion behind us, it's time to deliver the goods to our amnesiac friend!
We return to Cthulhu's hidden bedroom in the plantation.






You bet we do!



Curly is a tough-love sort of gal.



A nervous moment passes while we wait to see if it worked...



It did! And holy crap, he's talking!



And with that, we are finally exonerated of all charges related to Mimiga murder! Quote and
Curly were sent to the island alongside the murderous robots, but with a different goal
in mind. The only bunnies they've killed were, uh, the ones in this LP. And in case you're
wondering about the the mysterious "slumbering power", we'll learn alllllll about it later on,
believe you me.

Note that the speaking portrait of Quote does not exist in the original version of the game,
since there was no way to play as Curly, but it is based on a drawing that Pixel did during
development. So if it looks a little out of place, that's because it's taken almost whole cloth
from an ugly teenage version of Cave Story. Also, this is the only time we'll ever see it,
because Quote won't be speaking again!

Curly continues reminiscing:

Not as horrible as your abuse of ellipses.



Don't get excited, he doesn't. But that's OK, we learned an awful lot from Curly's monologue.
We now know that about 10 years ago, somebody found the crown and used it to unleash the
Mimiga on the surface. That's bad! But Curly and Quote took the fight to him and presumably killed
him, leaving the skeleton that you see in the introduction of the game (go back to the first post
of this LP, I'll wait). That's good! Except that then the Doctor found the crown and now here
we are. But at least we have some context now! And we've saved Quote and/or Curly Brace!

BUT. There is one more thing we need to do before we can declare victory. Quote isn't going
anywhere right now, but we need to talk to him one more time before we head off to take care
of the Doctor:



Obtained the Iron Bond.

The Iron what now?



First off, it's a little sad that Curly only trusts one person in the whole world. Second, that cryptic
bit about seeing each other again? Don't worry, it's coming. But more importantly, obtaining
the Iron Bond is the last step in the convoluted chain of events required to save Curly and
open the path to the good ending! Once more for the people in the back:

SAVING CURLY BRACE

1. Leave Booster to die
2. Pick up the tow rope
3. Strap Curly to your back after the Core fight
4. Don't miss the jump to get to the Waterway cabin
5. Rest in the bed
6. Pump the water out of Curly's body
7. Don't leave Curly in the cabin!
8. Get the Mushroom Badge from Ma Pignon
9. Inspect the Mushroom Badge
10. Pacify Ma Pignon
11. Feed Ma Pignon to Curly
12. Keep talking to Curly until you obtain the Iron Bond

Again, if you miss a single one of these steps, you're locked into the regular ending and Curly
dies with the island. And while some of them are obvious, others are pretty dang obtuse
and only available for a brief moment. My hat is off to anyone who managed to figure this
stuff out on their own, I sure didn't. And if you think it's frustrating to screw yourself by leaving
Curly in the Waterway cabin bed, it's even worse to realize too late that you did everything
except obtain the Iron Bond. Just rage-inducing.

But messing up is for other people, because we did it! We dotted every i and crossed every t and
things are going to be fine. Join me next time, when we keep this train a-rolling toward the good
ending of Cave Story, with all the pain that that entails. Huzzah!

...



You said it, Snake Man.

This is all the more puzzling when you consider that Ma Pignon is also female. Maybe it was intended as ageist instead?

Yay another update! Closer and closer to the HELL that I can't wait to read about...

MURDER
T H A T
DOCTOR

I don't know but Kid instead of Girl would definitely have fit that bill a lot better.