Is Quote slow, or is everybody else in CS just really fast?

You may not understand my question, but my point is that there are at least 4 instances where one character gets from point A to point B before Quote does.

1: Sue somehow beats Quote back to Mimiga Village. And considering she had the time to contact Kazuma and then get trapped in a cage due to King, Quote must've been really slow.
2: King beats Quote to the SZ Warehouse.
3: Curly beats him to the Boulder Chamber, despite the fact that we clearly saw her laying in bed before we left. Now, the mod Iron Bond explains this with the teleporter but at the end of the day, it's still a mod.
4: Sue beats Quote again to the edge of the island.
5: Probably doesn't count, but Curly beats him once more to Hell. How she even accomplished this when she didn't have anything like the Booster 2.0 is beyond me.

For the Mimiga instances, you could use the excuse that they're just naturally fast due to their rabbit-like body. But that still leaves the matter of Curly, so.....

 

1: Sue somehow beats Quote back to Mimiga Village. And considering she had the time to contact Kazuma and then get trapped in a cage due to King, Quote must've been really slow.

3: Curly beats him to the Boulder Chamber, despite the fact that we clearly saw her laying in bed before we left. Now, the mod Iron Bond explains this with the teleporter but at the end of the day, it's still a mod.

To be very fair cave story, and an huge amount of other games for that matter, frequently do this because it's too much effort to actually be able to see a character move from point A to B, plus the player would have to wait if they beat said character to it.

 

Whoa, slow down with the new threads. You might want to discuss all the oddities in the Cave Story Discord servers. Or read through the Theories section in here, maybe there are answers.

Anyways, Quote isn't exactly slow.
Case 1: Sue left the Egg Room 00 first. She also has no weapons, so she doesn't have to spend time fighting enemies (though how exactly she went through Egg Corridor without a weapon is a different question).
Case 2: King only had to go through the Sand Zone to reach the Warehouse. He didn't have to help Quote in getting puppies back to Jenka, or check Curly.
Case 3: Actually a good point. I'll otherwise take the Iron Bond's explanation, though.
Case 4: Again, she went there first. Though, apparently, Sue is actually very fast, since she can outrun Quote with Booster 2.0.
Case 5: Curly has 320 HP (in her bossfight) and has a Lvl3 Machine Gun and infinite jump (in Labyrinth). Better question is why she couldn't go through Hell by herself.

 

inb4 this thread gets sent to the SPOT again

3: Curly beats him to the Boulder Chamber, despite the fact that we clearly saw her laying in bed before we left.

Ever tried going back in the Clinic immediately after giving Curly the Cure-All? Curly is already gone. Either she knows how to teleport, or she has Za Warudo on her side to freeze time for 5 seconds and move ahead of Quote.

 

This is entirely for game design purposes.

I'm pretty sure no indie developer, be it me or Pixel or GIR or anyone else would take the time to program an npc that takes their jolly time to walk over. It's bad for gameplay reasons and bad because it just takes too much time to code.
Escort missions probably wouldn't work well in Cave Story's playstyle anyways.

 

be it me or Pixel or GIR or anyone else would take the time to program an npc that takes their jolly time to walk over. It's bad for gameplay reasons and bad because it just takes too much time to code

Which is why CarrotLord made fun of the concept in A Lost Land.

 

be it me or Pixel or GIR or anyone else would take the time to program an npc that takes their jolly time to walk over. It's bad for gameplay reasons and bad because it just takes too much time to code.

I mean, they kind of did it anyway with Curly fighting with Quote in the Labyrinth, so it's not like that sort of thing is new to them.

 

I mean, they kind of did it anyway with Quote fighting with Curly in the Labyrinth, so it's not like that sort of thing is new to them.

To be very honest the Curly ai is written a little poorly and besides, having Sue walk through enemies and such like it's nothing doesn't really look that great.

 

The curly AI is, like the lack of NPCs in other instances, for story and gameplay reasons.
The Labyrinth would be much more difficult and much less memorable without Curly fighting alongside the player, even if it's written worse than a SAO fanfic on wattpad, it's still got the charm necissary to help make the experience more 'full' per se. Plus in this instance it's the NPC following the player, not the player following the NPC (Like it would be if the player had to take sue back through the egg corridor)

 

Honestly, Sue impatiently asking why Quote's taking so long to leave the Egg Corridor seems pretty convincing to me that he is actually slow, in-universe.

 

Honestly, Sue impatiently asking why Quote's taking so long to leave the Egg Corridor seems pretty convincing to me that he is actually slow, in-universe.

Wait, when did she ask that?

 

Wait, when did she ask that?

Right when you teleport back to Mimiga Village, there's a small cutscene where Sue is waiting for Quote, but before you get there, she gets taken by King and Jack to be thrown in the cage.

 

The world is 3D, but Quote's pathfinding chooses the straightest path every time.
Also his vision isn't the sharpest. Canonically sees things in 320x240 large pixels, 50 FPS. Very good night vision, but misses hidden paths.
Oh and a good example of there being more in the world than shown: In Grasstown/Bushlands, Quote completely disregards the non-hostile jellyfish (doesn't even see them) until Chako tells him it is an objective he must fulfill. Suddenly they are everywhere.

Also, I think ever since Quote shot the Ballos eye-door at the start, the creatures of the island have been specifically targeting him.
While Sue and King can avoid the dangers, Quote finds himself haunted by every bat and creature.

Or maybe it has to do with him being related to killer robots/scout robots where he has previously marked targets of interest, which is why he can target so many creatures that don't seem to cause other NPCs issues.

And/or perhaps, the islands creatures respond violently to the loud sounds of exploding rockets, blasting a machinegun, and the general mayhem of a gun toting robot.

As for specific situations:

1: Sue somehow beats Quote back to Mimiga Village. And considering she had the time to contact Kazuma and then get trapped in a cage due to King, Quote must've been really slow.
2: King beats Quote to the SZ Warehouse.
3: Curly beats him to the Boulder Chamber, despite the fact that we clearly saw her laying in bed before we left. Now, the mod Iron Bond explains this with the teleporter but at the end of the day, it's still a mod.
4: Sue beats Quote again to the edge of the island.
5: Probably doesn't count, but Curly beats him once more to Hell. How she even accomplished this when she didn't have anything like the Booster 2.0 is beyond me.

1) I'd suspect there is a safer, faster path that avoids jumping over gaps and the death trap below. Also, might utilize the path cleared by Quote earlier.
2) I'd suspect King passes by when Quote returns the last puppy to Jenka. Also, probably avoids danger/utilizes the path cleared by Quote.
3) I'd suspect there is a faster path, that avoids fighting the gigantic Monster X. The fact she disappears immediately, might indicate there is a backdoor to the clinic.
4) ... Quote could take his time to explore the empty cages, to make sure everyone escaped. Then ends up being just a little slower than Sue as by the second the balcony is falling apart and in more dangerous shape. (Think of the hero who is just a little slow in movies when the place is falling apart.) Or maybe someone is specifically trying to stop Quote with random rocks...
5) It's a mystery how she ends up there. Perhaps there is another path. Or perhaps Misery/Jenka/Dog/Cthulhu/Narrator voice/The Rocket helped her reach that place. Perhaps the spike hell wasn't there at first, until the Core was defeated, breaking the dam on Ballos' negative energy and causing the place to become quite lethal. Maybe she wasn't completely healed yet from drowning?

Up to the player's imagination to choose the possibility they find best...

 

1: Sue somehow beats Quote back to Mimiga Village. And considering she had the time to contact Kazuma and then get trapped in a cage due to King, Quote must've been really slow.
2: King beats Quote to the SZ Warehouse.
3: Curly beats him to the Boulder Chamber, despite the fact that we clearly saw her laying in bed before we left. Now, the mod Iron Bond explains this with the teleporter but at the end of the day, it's still a mod.
4: Sue beats Quote again to the edge of the island.
5: Probably doesn't count, but Curly beats him once more to Hell. How she even accomplished this when she didn't have anything like the Booster 2.0 is beyond me.

1. This might be the silliest way to put it, but maybe he was trying to figure out the password for Egg 00 himself. And checking on the wind that was coming from the right side of the room. And maybe Sue is just... really fast. I also like the idea of Quote clearing the path for her.
2. King has a sword that can one-shot most enemies in the sand zone. Quote doesn't.
3. This is probably the only one I can't figure out a possible explanation for. In the mod "Iron Bond" there is a backdoor from the clinic, so that's the only somewhat logical explanation I can think of.
4. Again, Sue might just be really fast (faster than Booster 2.0 speed though?).
5. My theory is that a little while after Quote entered the Last Cave, Curly recovered fully and just... went on the same path using Quote's rocket (which returns to its original position once it reaches the top). She didn't have to deal with the Doctor, Misery, or the Undead Core, so pretty much the only thing she had to put up with was the last cave. The door to the prefab building opens once you defeat the undead core. She might have gotten there right in that moment, and went inside the building, possibly falling into the passage way (by accident or curiosity?). Curly's canon HP (320) is way more than 127, so she probably fell into some death spikes and regular spikes until she reached the door where she passed out (note that she doesn't have neither the booster, nor the machine gun).