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What's your favorite NPC spritesheet in Cave Story?

Apr 7, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Moo~
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Jun 27, 2013
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Posting this thread before Jade decides to make a thread about it. Her next thread idea will now have to be one on which Credits bitmap is our favorite.

Cave Story has quite the variety of entities, or NPCs. From the jumpy Critters in the First Cave, in the first few screens of the game, to the hovering Critters of Grasstown, the motion blur of their propeller-like horns forming a ring , to the Puppies of Sand Zone, whom Jenka should really keep contained in a pen, to the very lagomorphic race that are the Mimigas, ruled by their number one that is King. Quite the few of them have the variety of NPCs that are in the game, and some that are not, whether they are leftover from development, or if they're just there for reference.

Which NPC spritesheet is your favorite? Which NPC is your favorite?

Cave Story+ spritesheets (Holiday themed or Challenge mode) are welcome for discussion, but for our sakes, please do not repost them here in the thread, due to copyright reasons. Also because there's going to be that one person who'll ask, bitmaps like ItemImage, PrtAlmond, PrtEggs, PrtFall, PrtHell, PrtLabo, and PrtMaze are allowed, due to the few NPCs that call to those tilesets to load off of.

I'll start:
NpcGuest.bmp has quite the amount of unused sprites, it's hard to tell at what part of the game they would've shown up. Mind you, everything in the game is from after the development reset in 2002, so they come from an age that is even more unknown to us than the Beta.
ca1vmd.png


I swear if I have to write another paragraph just to make myself look smart...
 
Apr 8, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Childless Cat Lady
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For me this is a hard tie between NpcX and NpcMoon

Ik in practice NpcX is really hard to work with because it's just a boss tileset (Some tilesets have overlap in enemy placement with others which is fun if you really need to use critters for some reason)

But I think the metallic structures and dull greys of monster X's tank are what made it such a well-fitting setpiece in the level. It blends in with the environment like a tank should and shows signs of wear and tear, as if it was a discarded war machine that was sent to the labyrinth for Some Reason. It works well with a lot of other tileset / background colors.
The grebling is what pulls it all together though, I think if pixel didn't bother trying to give this depth and "mechanical feeling" even if in practice it's completely nonsensical it just wouldn't feel the same.

NpcMoon has the crocodiles (which I love) and the floaty cat dudes (which I love even more), both are very inspiring enemies to look at when you see them because of their respective animations & sound design. This one's also pretty easy to fill in an environment, CS seems to steer heavily towards blues, greys, and oranges in its level palettes come to think of it. The hoppy guys kinda remind me of kero from cardcaptor sakura but with with big ass ears or something.
It's an extremely important part of an extremely important moment and I think these cuter enemies following up all the "Horrors" seen in the egg corridor make it a really good emotional moment that lets the player unwind in their head.

NpcX.png
NpcMoon.png
 
Apr 10, 2025 at 4:23 AM
Been here way too long...
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So we finally ran out of threads to make huh
jk this is a neat topic actually.

Cave Story has quite the variety of entities, or NPCs. From the jumpy Critters in the First Cave, in the first few screens of the game, to the hovering Critters of Grasstown, the motion blur of their propeller-like horns forming a ring , to the Puppies of Sand Zone, whom Jenka should really keep contained in a pen, to the very lagomorphic race that are the Mimigas, ruled by their number one that is King. Quite the few of them have the variety of NPCs that are in the game, and some that are not, whether they are leftover from development, or if they're just there for reference.
Are you trying to send a hidden message through the italicised words? If so could you please spell it out cuz i am dumdum

It's an extremely important part of an extremely important moment and I think these cuter enemies following up all the "Horrors" seen in the egg corridor make it a really good emotional moment that lets the player unwind in their head.
This is actually a really interesting design point that I'd never noticed or thought about before, so thanks for pointing it out. I wonder how much else there is that I've missed about this game!

Anyways, to answer the question, this may be a lazy answer but I have to agree that NpcGuest is a very intriguing spritesheet what with all the sprites that are unused or used rarely. There's also a wide range of characters and objects in there which is neat to look at.
NpcSym is also another great spritesheet - with all the common objects and effects it portrays that are used all across the game, looking at it just screams 'Cave Story' to me in a way no other spritesheet really does.
1744255183278.png

Favourite npc? Hmm. Does the health refill station count? :D :heartrefill:
Among enemies, I like the green critters. There's something very quintessential about them. The crows are also cool, with the context they appear in they make the gameplay pretty interesting. And jumping over rollings is always fun!
 
Apr 10, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Moo~
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Jun 27, 2013
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Are you trying to send a hidden message through the italicised words?
Context. Kinda wanted to hide a dumb meme in there.

Which NPC is your favorite?
You know tho, I never did answer this part, surprised this thread actually popped off. My favorite NPC may have to be the Rolling. They have a simple enough mechanic, and it can be fun to use in mods, especially when they can collide with slopes, making their mechanic more interesting. :mrgreen:
icqwj5.png
 
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