What are the exp things and hearts that pop out of destroyed creatures?

Are they like gibs? And Quote absorbs or eats them to power up? Or maybe they are some kind of potential energy in all things, like a quickly evaporating essence? I mean monsters can also drop missiles after getting the launcher, which literally wouldn't make sense, unless he identifies specific raw materials and converts them into ammo...? And seeing things like missiles are actually just how Quote perceives what the mass/energy can be used for him.

Quote can even shoot a few seemingly empty places in the game and turn them into resources... Some kind of reaction taking place?
Well, even if you chalk everything up to being a gameplay element, and completely remove all drops from the game, still makes you wonder what the world looks like to other non-robotic characters.

Is Quote stunning enemies as he goes along (Toroko+Ending Gaudi in hospital)? Killing? (Frenzied Toroko) Blowing them to bits? Vaporizing them? We do know there is a graveyard in the game, so most creatures probably don't naturally vaporize and disappear.
The more I think about it, the more I think Quote mostly stuns enemies as he goes. Though that still begs the question, "what are the exp things and hearts that pop out," if they are not dead? Does Quote absorb energy from disabled/unconscious creatures?

And on the note of how the world looks to others, how do King and Sue travel through dangerous areas? Do they attack Quote but not them? Are the enemies imaginary and Quote is fighting ghosts? (Well, we know that Curly actually shoots at enemies too during that one cooperative segment) Maybe Quote just travels mostly directly to and from areas, instead of taking any detours that might avoid enemies? (2D directions only lol)...
Makes you wonder what an omni-directional platforming Cave Story would look like.

 

i gave this topic a bit of thought and here's what i came up with:
quote's robot operating system has a reward system that siphons energy (similar to adrenaline, perhaps?) into his weapons as he hits enemies and does not get hit in return. would probably explain the black wind dropping the weapon levels of his by simply draining energy out of them. no idea why he would have to collect it, unless he needs to bathe in the blood of his enemies for the effect to take place. as for missiles, i'd go with your theory with quote just going for salvage, or stupid critters eating missiles from stockpiles, though that would not work with every enemy in the game
as for the empty places, i'd just chalk it up to destroying walls with wall chicken resources inside. not sure how to explain hearts aside from, once again, salvageable parts that quote can use/absorb for some instant recovery. seeing as quote and curly are very advanced robots, resembling humans in many ways (as least according to some of the in-game characters), this isn't really that far-fetched... is it?
quote's perception viewing useful resources as missiles/hearts makes absolute sense to them, i'd actually add not seeing gibs as an additional perk of that system, reducing clutter that does not matter. i suppose human bodies and robot wreckage would be still visible to him? at least for some time?
king has means of defense - the blade - and when quote receives it i think he would not need it anymore. as for sue, i'd say she knows how to travel around inconspicuously and sneakily make her way from one place to another. or use teleporters and technology if possible. but i absolutely think that there are other paths and tunnels that quote simply does not use or doesn't know about. as well as some monsters acknowledging mimigas as native species and ignoring them.
that's all i could think about for now. it's a pretty interesting theory, though, i always just treated hearts, xp and ammo as game necessities and paid no attention to them : P

 

Ah yes, the old trope of trying to find some sort of practical explanation for every last little game mechanic.

In some other games, it's strongly implied that other enemies you fight were "carrying" certain weapons and items, and that when you defeat them, you get to take the loot. Perhaps a similar principle applies here, where any being with a certain level of intelligence has its own inventory of resources that it has amassed. And so, naturally, if you kill that enemy, you get to take everything they had (man, that sounds morbid).

Missile upgrades fit well into this theory. In fact, when you fight Balrog in the Boulder Chamber, he suddenly has these missiles that he fires at you that he didn't have before. And when you defeat him in that battle, and he jumps away, a chest falls down containing the missile upgrade. I don't think that's a coincidence. I think Balrog dropped the missile upgrade as a result of you defeating him.

As for power crystal and health upgrades, there must be some mechanism at play that enables the energy or life force from these monsters to be translated into consumable energy for Quote. How much of that conversion is happening on each end, though, is up for interpretation. In some fictional universes, monsters or other types of creatures are talked about as being made of magic or having some sort of life force that can be stolen from them if they are killed. Or, if you want to go to the more mundane but nonetheless technologically advanced route, there's the fact that any living organism is producing energy in its own way, and that Quote's advanced technology has the ability to transform that energy from that recently living organism into a form that can either heal him or power up his weapons.


As for the topic of how people travel through dangerous areas, that's an interesting question. I think some of these areas are just as dangerous to the other characters as they are to Quote, it's just not always very apparent. Professor Booster even says outright that the Sand Zone is exceedingly dangerous, and asks Quote to go there under the belief that anyone else among the party at Arthur's house would likely die out there. The main noteworthy non-robot and non-magician who traversed out there is King, and clearly he's someone with some level of combat capability. Plus, Quote may very well have helped clear the way for King to traverse the Sand Zone more quickly. There's a lot that could have happened while Quote was bringing Jenka's dogs home. As for Booster visiting Jenka in the credit sequence in the good ending, there's a multitude of different factors that could have led to his ability to traverse the Sand Zone at that time, including things being more peaceful after Ballos was defeated, extra time in between for Booster to invent something that made it easier for him to get around and avoid danger, or maybe other parties (such as Misery?) helping him get around.

Curly definitely would have fared okay going through the Labyrinth by herself, even if her shortcut to the Boulder Chamber wasn't without any challenges.

The only reason Kazuma and Booster were able to get from Grasstown back to the Mimiga Village so quickly was because of that pink vehicle that flew at an illegal speed and may very well have plowed through any bats, critters, or jellyfish that were so unlucky as to be in the way. Santa mentioned that he got attacked by monsters as he was out drawing water, which made him drop his key in that grass in that frantic moment, so clearly the in-game characters acknowledge Grasstown as a dangerous place. Sue talked about going to Grasstown to get Kazuma, but you obviously went in her place since she was caged. If she actually attempted to go to Grasstown herself, there's no telling what would have happened.

As for Sue in the Egg Corridor, I think that Hina may be onto something about certain monsters recognizing Mimigas as native creatures, but going into attack mode when seeing something unfamiliar like a robot. I also like the theory about Sue being able to travel around places inconspicuously, the Egg Corridor seems like the ideal place for these kinds of maneuvers.

It is very interesting indeed to theorize about the world of Cave Story outside of the bounds of a 2D game engine.

 

I don't have time to read this.

 

Since you bumped this thread, I decided to re-read my post from 3 1/2 weeks ago, and I realized that I made a typo, so I edited my post to fix the typo. Thanks for indirectly alerting me to my typo so that people browsing this thread in the future won't see that grammatical mistake I made, where I accidentally left out the "are" in "as dangerous to the other characters as they are to Quote".