Worst part about Cave Story?

Mar 25, 2019 at 4:58 PM
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famitracks: Like someone made an 8-bit remix of the remastered soundtrack and ignored the fact that organya exists.
They're more based on the org soundtrack actually, unless you've been listening to the unofficial one by Dynamite Man.EXE than the one by RushJet1. I know Cemetary has the bass line from the Wii version and Pulse has the bass line from the 3DS version, but that's really all I can think of that aren't from the originals.
Cave story Wii, not Plus: it is like nicalis forgot that the original soundtrack existed and tried to make an 8-bit version of the remastered soundtrack (I know this would have involved time travel but whatever)
The second half of this makes zero sense at all, but i do agree with the "tried to make an 8 bit version" part. While this has been a meme, and been proven wrong by testing the original MIDIs with it, but they all sounded like they were played in GXSCC, and while some of the songs got pretty close to the theory, it wasn't true.
 
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Mar 25, 2019 at 7:11 PM
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I’ve been listening to the Ridiculon soundtrack and I have to say, I’ve genuinely been enjoying a good portion of it. Sure, Cave Story with electric guitar is an astronomical leap to make in terms of tone and instrumentation, but I think that’s the novelty of it for me. It’s a drastically different take that makes it suitable as an option for a very specific mood.

I haven’t listened to all the tracks yet, however I think there are issues (at least on YouTube) with the mixing. The drum and guitar levels sometimes seem way off, though it’s always uncertain whether this is due to the quality of the video or if it sounds that way in the game itself. The more quiet (no pun intended), emotional tracks I agree weren’t really the best choice for this instrumentation. There are quite a few games that use rock or rock style soundtracks like Mega Man X8 or Iji and those have some really great emotional or evocative tracks because they don’t limit themselves to just electric guitars.

As much as I love electric guitars, they have a very distorted and full sound and that only works well with certain moods and styles of music. Well the same goes for almost any instrument, thus why sticking with one particular instrument or set for a varied amount of remade music tracks limits what sorts of moods can be explored. If the Ridiculon soundtrack expanded its instrumentation to include acoustic guitars, for example, I think even that would have allowed for a more expansive set of timbres to properly capture the moods of the original pieces while still maintaining cohesiveness.

Personally, I’m more in the boat that the remastered is my least favourite version of the soundtrack. By no means is it bad; I simply find it the one that I almost never listen to nor play the game with. It’s just so close to the original in terms of its arrangement that the only reason I would listen to it is if I hated the ORG instruments (which I don’t). The Wii soundtrack is hit or miss, but at least it does interesting things with rearranging the compositions that make me appreciate it more, especially when I’ve listened to the original soundtrack ad nauseum. Maybe it sounded off to me when I first listened to it because of my familiarity with the original, but in the long run, the Wii soundtrack appears to be the one that stands the test of time.
 
Mar 25, 2019 at 8:52 PM
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It was quite enjoyable to play using Ridiculon when I played the massive CS redesign mod by Dubby. If you're going to replay a game that you've played to death, new remixes can help keep your attention focused.
 
Mar 26, 2019 at 4:03 PM
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For my taste, Labyrinth W is one of the few songs I enjoy with the Ridiculon soundtrack.
 
Mar 26, 2019 at 6:43 PM
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here's something that's not part of the soundtrack discussion passing by...
i find pretty much the entirety of the Sand Zone to be really annoying. Dog collecting, backtracking, and the platforming to get to the warehouse. Not to mention all the birds...
Sand Zone is my least favorite level of the game.
 
Mar 26, 2019 at 8:41 PM
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Sand Zone is definitely the worst offender, I'm just appalled that people think Grasstown is worse. At least there are ways to make the bomb quest easier to perform, and it's advisable to get the charcoal and the jellyfish juice early and use the bats at Chako's house to skip the fireplace.
 
Mar 27, 2019 at 1:28 AM
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I wouldn't say it sucks. It does on repeated playthroughs, but on your first playthrough Mimiga Village, the start of the Labyrinth, and First Cave are really good. First Cave has what I consider to be the only good backtracking in the game (since it's so short and the backtracking gives you a safe environment to practice using your gun in) and Mimiga Village gives some interesting story, even if the NPC talking and item hunting gets boring. And early Labyrinth has almost no backtracking, so I don't know why you dislike that.

Really, I think going back through Egg Corridor after finding Sue is the least justified backtracking in the game, since it's not even a fetch-quest. Pixel could have had Quote go back to Mimiga Village on his own and just have the Sue Gets Captured cutscene. Speaking of Egg Corridor, I feel the layout of that place is really boring. Sure, you have the Basil, which is a nice idea done pretty well, but it's literally a nearly flat 300 tile stretch with some enemies, some of which fly through even that basic terrain.

My actual "worst thing" that I don't think anybody else mentioned is unskippable cutscenes, especially ones right before bosses. They're boring on repeated playthroughs, and really annoying if you're not so good at the game and you die to the bosses.

oops, forgot to mention that early labyrinth was also fine.
Anyway, Another thing that sucks would be the Normal Missile Launcher, even at level 3, it sucks. The damage output is too weak for early bosses, and it takes ammo. But even then I guess I can understand why it's so weak, later bosses have similar health to early ones. But still, I would prefer not using it until you get the super upgrade.
THEN it's useful.
Aside from that, having to go through 2/3 of the game with the Polar Star just to get the Spur also sucks, but it's the best weapon in the game so it's a bit rewarding.
 
Mar 27, 2019 at 2:02 AM
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curly mode is like a really bad self insert fanfiction
 
Mar 27, 2019 at 4:31 PM
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Mar 27, 2019 at 11:55 PM
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in my opinion, i REALLY hate the CS+ soundtrack. i prefer to stick with original/famitracks.


also the new textures are just... ok in my opinion? i don't think they're good or bad, to be honest.
 
Mar 28, 2019 at 12:34 AM
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in my opinion, i REALLY hate the CS+ soundtrack. i prefer to stick with original/famitracks.


also the new textures are just... ok in my opinion? i don't think they're good or bad, to be honest.
if you like famitracks ost, you should check out Dynamiteman.EXE's ost. it's actually made with famitracker and uses vrc6. Plus it just sounds better in general
2x mode is disappointing, the only improvements are the characters, guns and HUD. everything else was scaled with a filter
 
Mar 28, 2019 at 12:37 AM
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if you like famitracks ost, you should check out Dynamiteman.EXE's ost. it's actually made with famitracker and uses vrc6. Plus it just sounds better in general
2x mode is disappointing, the only improvements are the characters, guns and HUD. everything else was scaled with a filter
i agree on that last part, but thanks for the suggestion!
edit: i meant suggestion as in suggesting the music lol
 
Apr 5, 2019 at 8:02 PM
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Apr 6, 2019 at 3:51 PM
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significant design flaws in cave story:
1) jellyfish juice
2) puppies
3) very precise and unforgiving jump in labyrinth B (this is less offensive because at least you get a save point to reset with)
4) very precise and unforgiving jump to the waterway house
5) "Leave her here?"

#1, #2, and #4 are addressed in the Switch release which is nice

side note: don't shit on Ridiculon OST it has objectively the best and most fitting version of Tyrant
 
Apr 6, 2019 at 10:45 PM
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side note: don't shit on Ridiculon OST it has objectively the best and most fitting version of Tyrant
I couldn't even make out what the song was until the main melody came in
same thing for some of the other ridiculon tracks
Moonsong's lead sounds like bloody murder
even final battle, which sounds like it would be good for a genre like this, sounds disappointing
sounds way too calm for a final battle, same could be said for running hell as a stage
they even couldn't get eyes of flame right. Listen to the ridiculon version, then listen to DM Dokuro's version
Dokuro's eyes of flame sounds much more rock-heavy than ridiculon's music, which is the kind of quality I expected from the Ridiculon ost.
 
Apr 8, 2019 at 12:54 AM
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Wait, Ridiculon also did the CS+ OST? I know they did the Binding of isaac: rebirth OST, but I didn't know that.
 
Apr 9, 2019 at 12:14 AM
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My worst part isnt the "ignore booster" jump. its the jump to get into the waterway cabin. you get pushed onto a ledge and have not even half a second to register that you finally fit through the small gap and then hold jump to make it across. The worst part, though, is that unlike the booster jump, the nearest save point is all the way back in the Dark Place, meaning if you screw up your one chance to make the jump (the current immediately pulls you down if you miss), you have to replay the entire waterway up to that point.

sorry for the rant
 
Apr 9, 2019 at 10:19 PM
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Apr 14, 2019 at 9:02 PM
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Toroko's death and no way to save her.
 
Apr 14, 2019 at 11:21 PM
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Toroko's death and no way to save her.
Don't forget King. And if you're taking the bad ending, professor Booster, Curly, Momorin and practically everyone else in the game aside from Quote and Kazuma can be added to that death list.
 
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