Evergreen

~ EVERGREEN ~​

Evergreen is a Cave Story prequel mod that I've been working on for a while that I'm finally getting around to making a thread for!
There's a demo out already, and I'm currently working on the next update (though I've learnt my lesson with Festive Quest lol, I won't be stressing myself by setting a release date).

Set towards the end of the war, it follows an amnesiac soldier roped into assisting a scientist find his missing team who were scattered across the island evacuate after their outpost was attacked. But as he explores a war-torn island, searching for the missing researchers, he gets the sense that he's forgetting something important...

...so why can't he remember?

Maybe it never mattered in the first place?

DOWNLOAD DEMO (Doukclub)

13/11/22: updated OP in lieu of a new demo release
22/4/24: updated screenshots and questions tab

Spoiler: Screenshots

Spoiler: Possible Questions

Q: How long is it?
A: The current estimated playtime is roughly 2 like maybe 3 hours depending if you take your time or not, and it's maybe... two thirds finished? Halfway 75% finished? I have no idea!

Q: What's with all the OCs?
A: It started off as a modfest submission featuring a couple old Cave Story OC concepts that I decided to throw into a mod and slap some vague backstory, most of which was half-assed on the spot (including its setting). It then, uh... spiralled into its own thing.

Q: Why does some dialogue seemingly not have a <NOD? I missed what it was going to say!
A: :]

Q: What happened to that weird witch/robot kid?
A: Murasaki has, alas, been demoted to (as of yet unimplemented) secret boss status, as for various reasons their inclusion was getting harder and harder to justify in a serious story. RIP.

Q: My dude you are terrible at naming characters
A: Does it count as being terrible if I give them dumb/obvious names on purpose because I think it's funny

Q: [insert Undertale joke here]
A: die

Q: When is this set?
A: As mentioned above, it's explicitly a prequel - it is set towards the end of the war 10 years prior to the events of Cave Story.

Q: What is the gender of the protagonist?
A: 'He' or 'They' are both acceptable terms of reference.

Q: I found a bug and/or I have feedback!
A: Although I will respond to questions in this thread, I can also be found in the main Cave Story and the CSMC Discord servers, and prefer to be contacted there, especially for bug reports.

Q: Next demo update when?!?
A: Coming Winter 2014

 

Things I should be doing: Working on applications for grad school
Things I want to be doing: Literally Anything Else
Things I'm doing: Playing this shiny new mod I found on cave story dot org

This is the first time I'm doing that thing where you make notes on your thoughts as you play along. Sorry if it's somewhat incoherent:

Spoiler

1. really loving the plant aesthetic, right from the 'loading' screen and splash graphics
2. oh, title theme is 'plant', how apposite
3. why did I immediately die? is this a bug? plot-relevant..?
4. nice, the way the centre spot in the start point is lit up
5. just curious, are you a plant nerd irl??
6. I love text-heavy mods. you did a good job setting the mood and adding to the lore with all the notes and descriptions and stuff
7. the blood on the id card was a nice touch
8. the way the first life capsule was hidden was really clever, the breakable blocks were quite the red herring (I thought you'd have to return with a weapon)
9. woah nice tileset
10. no offence but the mossy caves level design is kinda boring
11. Again, the atmosphere building with all the little details is really well done. You make it very palpable that this place was abandoned in a hurry
12. did the people who left in such a hurry have time to diligently switch off all the sprinklers?
13. I just realized that the brown background tiles (the ones originally used in the power room) are placed in a somewhat random way, rather than methodically tesselated. This gives a nice, organic look
14. There's some message that starts to appear but quickly disappears just before 'this is the worst gun ever'
15. The life capsule in the Outside isn't reachable right now, right?
16. oh darn I should've tried going back to Outer Grasstown's 'no entry' part now that I have this gun...
17. The face portrait for the mimiga wearing brown looks kinda weird. im not sure how it could be improved, but there's something funny about it
18. '...despite there being a serviceable bed nearby' is this a dig at yourself not making a dedicated laying-in-bed sprite?
19. if the teleporter isn't turned on, how does it have blinking lights?
20. 'Akahana', huh...
21. I like the way the researcher's glasses turned transparent as you talk. feels like a nice metaphor for getting to know him better, or something like that
22. no offence but 'Usagi' is kinda a lazy name ngl
23. I just realized there's no shimmering blue rectangle thingy when you teleport. is that intentional?
24. There's a message that immediately disappears (and is hence unreadable) right before 'there's a scuffle' (in the Frigid Caverns)
25. After knocking at the door in Frigid Caverns and returning, 'you've found Brooke?' Was that Brooke? Idk, we were never told so
26. I like how the Safehouse ost changes to Safety, as if we're 'settling in', kinda. Nice touch
27. Arthur's face! changed so drastically! (when knocking at the Outpost)
28. 'Oyaji'? Really?
29. What happens if you don't talk to that mimiga in the Outpost and they don't run off, dropping their key?
30. There's no door there, the oddly festive robot seems to just punch at a background tile. all it accomplishes is giving you the missile launcher as far as I can see?
31. We know the missile launcher has limited ammo and all that, you may want to cut that message from when you get it
32. Waking the robot again restarts the boss fight but the boss itself is nowhere to be seen, what's going on?
33. There's a screen that shows for about a second before you wake up in Claus' house, maybe you should show that for two seconds, it goes before you really get to look at it
34. I honestly don't understand why this person/robot who tried to kill us is now fighting with us, did I not understand the plot?
35. I was worried there'd be a lot of backtracking with the left/right decision with the deleets, but it went around in a circle, thank goodness
36. Wow, I've been playing this in more or less one sitting and I've already forgotten how I got out of the Labyrinth. not sure if just another instance of my terrible memory or if the game was just that engrossing
37. The way Claus just teleports you away feels like lazy writing. They could've shown you a hidden shortcut, or something like that, idk
38. I wanted to read more of the silly conversation :<
39. I just realized, it feels like at some point you kind of dropped the overarching plant-based theme?
40. 'I always knew you were secretly a furry' was like someone materializing in front of me and punching me in the stomach before I have time to react
41. Aww nice ending picture!

Tldr: Very fun and polished mod with a lot of promise! Nice levels, and I also love your OCs and their characterization/dialogue! (but you suck at naming im sorry)

 

(but you suck at naming im sorry)

haha yeah, usagi and oyaji are actually some of my oldest ocs, dating back to my first mod - they're definitely terrible names but they're funny to me (or usagi's is, at least) so i never changed them. akahana's initial concept dates back to around that time too, from an unreleased sequel to aforementioned first mod, though his character has changed quite a bit and his name is now just an unfortunate coincidence in-universe.

as for the other stuff (in a rush so i can't respond to it all, apologies):

Spoiler

3. the dying immediately is plot relevant ;]
10. i've had other people mention the level design for mossy cavers is a bit boring, i'll try and spice it up next update i suppose
12. maybe there's a central valve, i could add that actually lol
14. some dialogue missing a <NOD is intentional, that'll happen a few times - eventually it'll be explained
15. nope but you can get it with a level 3 rifle
17. hmm, it could be the angle of the eyes/how the mouth's drawn? if you figure it out let me know
19. the safehouse teleporter? i'll fix that, originally you first entered after it was turned on, i guess i forgot to update the lights
23: that's a bug, whoops
24: i actually don't remember if that's a bug or not, i'll check
25: i'll make that clearer, but yeah
29: you need to startle brooke into running to progress (unless i fucked up the flags again???) since you need the key to unlock the terminal to open the door
30: bug, oops, there should be a door
31: noted
32: also a bug...
33: noted
34: hmm, i can try and make that a little more clearer - the tdlr being she was ordered to throw you in jail (as you've been marked as rogue), but feels comfortable overriding those orders when nobody's around to see it due to seemingly being close with you pre-amnesia, for lack of a better and spoiler-free way to put it
37: noted, thanks, i guess i felt the area had gone on long enough but i can go with a pipe or short passageway or something?
39: not my intention, i'll see what i can do to keep it going through those areas - the next one should be better, at least
40/41: pffft (and thanks!)

thanks for playing it, though, i really appreciate the feedback and i'm glad you enjoyed it overall!

 

...Why did it end?? Why did it end?!

Really interesting so far. Your work is always wonderful Eli. Not sure I can offer much useful feedback though, but here goes...

Spoiler

Hmm let's see...
Well I was able to catch a ride with some of the creatures to access places I probably shouldn't? But, it didn't seem to cause any issues. For example: The shiny chest I reached through nefarious means (bouncing on a bat) near the start didn't react when I tried to open it D: (...and much later on, in the icy cave; I could ride a beetle to reach a flower~)

Oh, and I must say, multi-dialogue is a joy in this. I was actually sad when there was less inner-monologue as the action began picking up! Though that sadness was quickly replaced by revelations and curious possibilities. (Learning the time frame, and the setting... It's the prequel I always wanted to make...) I do wonder if there are plenty of consequence ridden choices to be made? Like leaving a certain someone, after taking their security card... That's going to come back and bite me for sure... And when I replayed the Captain's fight I actually thought the amount of kills affected his dialogue... (But it was a skip dialogue~)

Hmm... After retrieving the teleporter part, I was a little let down that his portrait art didn't reflect surprise or relief, upon successful retrieval of what he needed. Guess I can chalk it up to being a hard to read individual...

ah, and I was really gunning for a pacifist path at the start... I had hope! ... At the least it seems like a creative take on Cave Story's option to avoid fighting Balrog? Clever...

...On some reflection on my actions... what kind of pacifist takes a security card from the prisoner and runs off with it D: (Bad ending flag triggered...)

Don't think I noticed any bugs, but was mostly just being absorbed in the adventure. Next time I play it, I'll have to be thorough!
Also I didn't mention the custom art, but it's impressive... Can't stress it enough.

No custom music right? I think it was all Cave Story? Hmm...

...Well, I think I better replay Festive Quest to ease this desire to keep playing!
Thank you so much for the mod!

 

Spoiler

- i'll have to come up with something for that chest if it's technically possible to reach in the current build, lmao - the flower you can get through 'legit' means (lvl 3 rifle, i believe?), though, they'll be a collectable!
- don't worry, there'll be more "inner-monologue" later on, they're just a little distracted right now
- at the start i had some vague aspirations to make endings heavily dependant on morality, gained or lost through choices, but at the moment i think it's too messy; there'll be multiple endings and some choices (ie. the prisoner and their keycard) will affect things, but not to a major degree in terms of progression like i'd initially planned
- while he's certainly grateful you got the teleporter part, he just doesn't show expressions much... i don't know if it'll be pointed out in-game, but there's no real reason, that's just how he is! maybe i'm projecting a little of myself there LMAO
- there are some custom orgs, actually - i believe the only one implemented in the current build is 'red alert' by chugga fan, which plays when you trigger the alarm in the robot base - there's some more in OrgView, though ;]

thanks as well for the feedback and i hope you'll enjoy the next area when it's done!

 

Looks good. Looking forward to this.

 

some WIP teaser screenshots for the next area - an abandoned mine dating back to when humans from the surface first began to explore the island that's long since been overrun by pignons... they seem friendly enough???

Spoiler

 

Very nice, looks like you've put a lot of work into this mod, with the new levels, new designs, and new characters. I have this mod in my queue. Right now I'm playing Plotbomb, then after that I'll play Doukutsu Randamu, and then after that, I'll play this mod. Maybe by then you will have made a release with the content you're teasing in the screenshots.

 

couple more teaser screenshots:

Spoiler

Maybe by then you will have made a release with the content you're teasing in the screenshots.

while the next area's coming along nicely (i have vague plans to release a new demo soon, i hope, though that'll most likely be only posted to discord), it'll be a while before anything's announced here, since i want to save this thread for announcing major updates i consider 100% finished :V

looking forward to your playthrough regardless, though!

 

I have a few days off from work, so I finally freed up the time to play this mod. I really enjoyed this mod a lot.

The art direction in this mod is very impressive. I don't know exactly how much of that was done by raymundo, but either way, the opening screen, the main menu, the new areas, it all feels really fresh, while also still feeling like Cave Story. Very well done on that front. The clouds on the "Outside" area look gorgeous. The levels fit together pretty well for the most part, and the progression feels pretty natural. The scripting, dialogue, and exploration is very polished, and it's very obvious that you have plans for how this is all building to something. You introduced plenty of new characters in this, and you really do a good job of bringing these new characters to life and getting me to care about them.

I really liked the part where I'm infiltrating that robot base. It's interesting how you've made different kinds of robots that serve different functions. I was a bit confused by the motivations of some of those robots though. In one part, there were those 2 robots that hade white skin like the player and Quote and Curly, and one of them asked about defeating Ballos, so I assumed that if they had white skin, then they were sent with the same mission as Quote and Curly. But then the Captain that you fight also has that white skin, but is fighting for the robots that want to kill Mimigas. Maybe I'm missing something. I really feel for that one robot that you helped free. I wasn't able to figure out if there was a way to take that robot with you. I tried talking to it, but it just told me to go, so I left it behind.

Sounds like this mod might not have a completely linear path, since X-Calibar mentioned something about being able to get past Balrog without fighting him. I didn't try that. It's possible that I've missed some stuff in that case, then.

I find it interesting just how much the narrator guides and influences you throughout the game. Gotta love how the narrator gets increasingly impatient with you if you keep interacting with the same object over and over again. Some lines gave me a good chuckle, such as:

• "There's some interesting, potentially readable books but they aren't ready yet. Sorry."
• "Re-read the conversation?" -> "No" -> "You decide to respect his privacy." lol.
• "Warning for bushfires - but this is Grasstown!" Haha, love it.

Here were some things I noticed that could maybe be changed/fixed:

• When I enter into the Generator Room from the Mossy Caves, and descended to the lower level of the Generator Room to another part of the Mossy Caves, I was a little bit thrown off, because the room in the Mossy Caves that I came out to looked just like the place that I went into. I would suggest adjusting the look or layout of that part of the Mossy Caves to distinguish it from the area that you just came in from.
• When Arthur tells me not to go any further, it seemed weird to me that he stopped me from going up vertically, but did nothing when I went out the door on the left.
• The way the map was laid out made the horizontal movement from the Abandoned Village to the vertical transition to Outer Grasstown seem a bit weird.
• When I was in the waterway at the part where you're supposed to drown, I got killed by a spike right as the screen was fading out, and I ended up dying and retrying. When I did, the screen came out of black, and then faded back out again. Maybe this is the intended behavior, but it felt a bit odd.
• After you wake up in the room where Dr. Akahana and the Mimiga took you in, when you go up to the teleporter, it says it's not on, but it still has the light flashing above on it. Based on your talks with other members who've reviewed this, sounds like you're aware of this and may have fixed it in an un-released version, but still thought I'd point it out.
• When I changed my mind and decided to help Dr. Akahana, and he mentioned the teleporter, my character jumped to the left for some reason. Since I was standing pretty close to the edge, my character jumped off the edge of the platform onto the lower level, which seemed very unnatural. And then when he handed me a weapon, that was really weird, since he was up on a higher platform
• At that Core-like base and there was the sign warned about high voltage below, it would be cool to have some sort of shock death effect when jumping into that pit instead of just never being seen again. You mentioned that some things are placeholder and gonna be changed later, and maybe this is one of them, but just thought I'd point out that this stuck out to me.

Based on the reviews posted by users above, it looks like they were able to get farther than I did. I got to the frigid cavern and knocked on the door, and decided not to lie and tell the person on the other side that I'm their ma. I was told to look for someone wearing orange and wielding a sword, but I couldn't find this person. I looked around the rest of the cavern, looked back through the Mimiga village area (apparently it wasn't Arthur), went up through that upper region of the Mimiga village, and still didn't find this person. Either this is the end of the demo and I misunderstood X-Calibar and Baka's posts, I'm missing something, or, perhaps I triggered some bug based on how I played the game leading up to this point which has made it impossible for me to progress.

One bug I did discover was that I can backtrack to the Abandoned Village again, go through Outer Grasstown again, go to the Outside again, and Misery will stop me once again and teleport me to the Labyrinth once again. And then I was able to go through Waterway once again, drown at the scripted moment again, and I saw the same cutscene as before play out with Dr. Akahana and Arthur recovering the robot and leaving me on the floor next to the bed.

Well, this is a bit late, but I'm glad that I got to play this and give some feedback while we're still some time out from the next release. I'm sure a lot has been added and some things have been changed in the last 3 months, but hopefully this feedback is still helpful in some capacity.

 

Well, this is a bit late, but I'm glad that I got to play this and give some feedback while we're still some time out from the next release. I'm sure a lot has been added and some things have been changed in the last 3 months, but hopefully this feedback is still helpful in some capacity.

thank you for the feedback! still appreciated, even if it's late!

Spoiler: responses

- ray's mostly worked on tileset decoration (stuff like the plants in the mossy area), i'm glad people seem to be liking the art in general though, i've put a lot of effort into it!
- those two robots who talk about ballos are cameos from someone... i should probably make that more obvious in-game, they're entirely unrelated to evergreen's plot
- margin (the robot you free) won't come with you, though if you open the prison they'll leave after a map reload - what you choose to do will have an impact further down the line
- writing the narrator's one of my favourite parts of working on this mod, so i'm glad people are enjoying that too!
- noted, i need to rework the mossy caves section a bit in general...
- in the camp, further up is where the rest of the mimiga are, that's his main priority - the only thing out the door to the left is an abandoned reservoir, so he doesn't care
- hmm, noted
- that's a bug, whoops! i may or may not have fixed it in the current version, i'll double check after work
- also a bug, i think??
- that is also a bug that i've fixed, yep
- huh, i also think that's a bug...
- ahh... that sign is actually a bit of a joke reference to this song (warning: not exactly... outright nsfw, but close to it). idk how well it comes across, lol
- i believe that's something i've fixed in the unreleased version, but have you tried talking to arthur again? he's the one you're meant to find, and the only thing i can think of is that if you haven't already triggered his 'friendly' dialogue (changing the bgm to safety), you had to speak to him to get him to go to the frigid caverns
- that's a bug i'm SURE i've fixed as well... i've had a lot of trouble with that particular map and H/V triggers lol, to the point where i considered locking it off. will double check though, ty

 

- i believe that's something i've fixed in the unreleased version, but have you tried talking to arthur again? he's the one you're meant to find, and the only thing i can think of is that if you haven't already triggered his 'friendly' dialogue (changing the bgm to safety), you had to speak to him to get him to go to the frigid caverns

I talked to Arthur and triggered the "friendly" dialogue that made the music change to "Safety," if that's what you're talking about. My sequence of events was that I went to the frigid cavern, told the person on the other side that I'm not their ma, then came back to the camp and talked to Arthur and triggered the dialogue, and he just stays there. When I try talking to him again, he just says "You're not the first robot I've met who's friendly to us... I suppose there's some comfort in knowing that not all of you want to destroy us and our homes." He says that line over and over, and nothing else happens.

 

I talked to Arthur and triggered the "friendly" dialogue that made the music change to "Safety," if that's what you're talking about. My sequence of events was that I went to the frigid cavern, told the person on the other side that I'm not their ma, then came back to the camp and talked to Arthur and triggered the dialogue, and he just stays there. When I try talking to him again, he just says "You're not the first robot I've met who's friendly to us... I suppose there's some comfort in knowing that not all of you want to destroy us and our homes." He says that line over and over, and nothing else happens.

that's really weird, sounds like the flag didn't set right or something? i think i've added a failsafe, but i'll have to double check that...
if you want, i can upload a profile with it set, since there's a decent chunk left after that point

 

if you want, i can upload a profile with it set, since there's a decent chunk left after that point

That would be great, I'd love to see what's next in the demo.

Also, you mentioned that the two robots with white skin in the "Core" area are cameos from something else. What exactly are they from? Someone else's mod/fanart/fanfiction?

 

That would be great, I'd love to see what's next in the demo.

Also, you mentioned that the two robots with white skin in the "Core" area are cameos from something else. What exactly are they from? Someone else's mod/fanart/fanfiction?

here you are - if it doesn't work, for the sake of not spamming this thread, just DM me here or on discord (i'm in the forums server)

as for the robots in the grasstown base - the two who talk about ballos are from a (as of yet unprogressed beyond the ideas stage) prequel fangame idea, the person asked if his characters could cameo since they're both prequels and i said sure, lol.

 

as for the robots in the grasstown base - the two who talk about ballos are from a (as of yet unprogressed beyond the ideas stage) prequel fangame idea, the person asked if his characters could cameo since they're both prequels and i said sure, lol.

Ah, very interesting. Nice to see some crossover happening between CS fan content creators.

All right, so I've progressed further. The first thing I noticed is that after I defeated that robot that was a resprite of Igor, it went back to its resting position, and I was able to activate that robot again. When I did, it triggered the same event as before, and the bossfight music played again with the health bar, but the robot disappeared, so I just continued onward with the boss fight music playing and the health bar there.

I really liked the design of the garden outside of Claus' house. It blended the waterway and plantation tiles really well, and was just very pleasing to look at. My only wish is that there was more of an opportunity to be a plant nerd again with the flowers in the garden like you were at the beginning of the mod.

I really liked the whole waterway area. The way the pipes were used was really fun and had a fresh feel to it despite re-using a tileset from the original game. And having to fight that Mimiga in an enraged form made me sad... It had an orange shirt and I picket up a sword from it, so that must have been the little Mimiga's ma. This is sad.

After I got back to Claus' house, and I left the captain on the bed, I went over to the fire, and despite the fact that she was still asleep, when I interacted with the fire, I got the captain talking to me and saying things like "Wish I could draw things like that..." and "Impressive glare. Truly, I'm shaking in my boots."

I was really hoping that there would be some sort of reward for using the stalactite and critter to get onto that platform on the left, right outside of the place where Brooke hides, but sadly there was no reward for me getting up there.

The ending scene was very endearing.

Overall, great work on this mod. It has a lot of good artwork, endearing original characters, and a pretty nice cheeky sense of humor all throughout.

This mod has heart, and I'm excited for the next release.

 

This mod has heart, and I'm excited for the next release.

thank you! i'm hoping that'll be sooner rather than later given i'm close to finishing the new area, but we'll see...

as for the other stuff:

Spoiler

- the robot boss being able to be fought again is a known bug that i (HOPE) i've squashed
- ty, i'll see about adding flavour text for the flowers there, in general i'd like to add a few more plant decoration tiles for that + the frigid caverns tilesets
- :']
- also a known bug that i also hope i've fixed
- noted, i'll see if i can hide something up there - i tend to forget about damage boosting when planning my level designs, it's something i should keep in mind more

 

wow! it's been [checks date of last post] HOW LONG???

anyway i recently released the latest demo! contains a LOT of graphical polish, bugfixes, story tweaks, etc as well as a whole new area to explore; the Pignon Cliffs! total current playtime is estimated at about ~2hrs, possibly more if you take your time... there's quite a few things to check out!

also, as a note - previous saves will not work with this version, due to internal map reordering

here's hoping the next demo won't take over half a year jesus christ

 

All right, I played through this thing another time, and enjoyed it.

Spoiler

Getting into content that I'm pretty sure is new since the last time I played this, the Unknown Space is new. Very interesting visuals, and interesting different tone. That's interesting what you're doing with the progression of getting farther each time into the unknown space. Kind of reminds me of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The first time that I went through that current in the waterway where you're supposed to drown, the camera was really falling behind me as I was going through the current. This was fixed after the first time I died. I'm pretty sure this was caused by the fact that you used an <FOM command with a longer amount of ticks for that cutscene in the unknown space, and then you forgot to reset this to 16 when you fall into the waterway.

The Pigon Cliffs had a neat aura. I liked the unique look and feel, and the music fit well. The way you built a whole village out of pignons was pretty creative, and loosely tied it back to established Cave Story lore had me grinning. It was cool getting to see more of Margin and his(?) rough character, and the way that that other white robot is gradually coming around.

"Jailed For Critter Crimes" - LOL


For a few things that might need to be fixed:
-There's still the oversight where I can position myself such that when it does the <MYB command, it jump to the left and off the edge, so it looks a little silly when Dr. Akahana gives me the weapon, because it suggests that he's throwing it down to me:

-Don't remember if this was in the last version I played, but the soil foreground tiles here really blend in with the background texture. I'd suggest having foreground tiles that don't blend in like that.

-This jump here to get to the treasure chest just seems too punishing. I wasn't able to ever get to it without hurting myself.

-And lastly, I think I found a sequence break. I fought the warriors in Labyrinth III without jumping down the hole in Labyrinth L first. After I defeated them, some attack got sent my way, I was knocked out, and sent to the unknown space again. At first, I thought this was part of the intended sequence, but I was at the same point as before where I was stuck in the water, and drowned, and washed up at Claus' house (except there were two of him then), and so the sequence just seemed broken. So I reloaded my save and went down the hole into the waterway and came back up, but the sequence break still occurred. In order to progress, I had to go all the way back up through the Labyrinth again, and this time, I could access the fan. At first, I thought this was the end of the demo, but I'm glad that I persisted a bit and reached the legit end of the demo.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Stayed consistent with having distinct, new characters in areas that feel fresh but still feel like Cave Story.

 

thanks for playing through again!

Spoiler

- re. camera in the waterway; noted

- thank you, i'm really happy with the pignon area! raymundo composed the music, he did a great job

- margin's genderless (is that ever mentioned? i don't remember...)

- truly the most criminal critter

- noted, i'll fix the MYB

- also noted, i'll lighten those... i (obviously) copy pasted them from the plantation tileset but i don't think i ever edited them to match mimiga village's palette?

- also also noted, i'll shuffle the spikes

- that's... really weird?? you're meant to be sent to the unknown space after the fight in labyrinth III - everything sounds normal up until you said you were at the same point as previously (stuck in the water), you're meant to be able to progress past the water that time - i guess something flag-related broke? it seemed to work fine when i tested it, i'll double check...

edit: i can't seem to recreate the potential sequence break you mentioned, it works fine for me...?