![]() ![]() If only the primary story had any consideration for it. This is the tone of history that the game wishes to impart upon you. It is not amusing - it's a mythos of darkness that exists just 30 years before your own. It reeks of death, and corruption and human frailty. Note this, and note it well - Ballos’ story is not a pleasant one. They were both knocked into states of amnesia, only returning to consciousness 10 years later. Luckily, there were two plucky robots there, named Quote and Curly Brace, who were able to save the day. They tried to take down the core that kept the island afloat (and failed), but one of their number did seize the demon crown and prepared to use its power to descend upon the earth. Squads of humans and killer robots descended on the island, slaughtering the innocent mimiga population with complete indiscretion. The most recent expedition led to gruesome slaughter. This leads to many expeditions to the floating island with different parties vying over the crown and its power. This backfired, and she became the slave of whoever currently wore the crown. Later we find out that Misery, Jenka’s daughter, sought to control Ballos’ power by creating an artifact called the Demon’s Crown. Ballos’ family tore itself apart and Ballos himself tore his own family to shreds. This is the tragic background of cave story, and this tragedy does a lot to inform the tone of the game. He deserved death for what he had done, but Jenka could not find it in her heart to kill her own brother. His sorceress sister Jenka, who we later meet in game, raised that chunk of land into a floating island with a device to keep it there, and imprisoned Ballos at the heart of it. ![]() In the process, a huge chunk of land was ripped from the ground. Ballos went insane under the torture, lashing out wildly with his magic, destroying the kingdom, and those he loved the most - his wife and child. He ended up going full Danerys on his brother, deciding that imprisonment and torture was the logical way to resolve this problem. Ballos’ brother, who happened to be king of said nation, grew jealous and resentful. Ballos was a beloved sorcerer of his people, using his magic to help and heal the citizens of his nation. The first story begins where yours ends: Ballos. Cave Story is better thought of as Cave Stories, layered upon one another like the mounds of bones that exist deep in Ballos’ lair. But that slice of narration is only a small piece of a much larger picture. When I played Cave Story for our podcast, I was quick to dismiss its primary story as incoherent nonsense. Too many video-game worlds are lifeless and vapid, existing only to react to the will that the player imposes upon it. It is something that most video-games portray poorly. And, in that present, a plethora of stories play out in tandem, a seamless chain of action and reaction. There are always interwoven strands from the past informing everything in the present. ![]() No one person’s story stands in isolation. This article contains SPOILERS for Cave Story. ![]()
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