u/Yanagi____Juniper

Hey guys! I made a theory about Ralsei from Deltarune using poorly spliced horrible attempts to beat the Nemesis Challenge which I still can't beat as the background footage. It's named after Ma Pignon and has a major Cave Story tie in. I plan on making a proper actual Cave Story video going over the amount of Cave Story that is present in Undertale and Deltarune, but this particular video is about 75% Deltarune theory and 25% thinly veiled propaganda that I want everybody to go play Cave Story. This has spoilers for Deltarune but the spoiler warning is in the video as well.

Hey guys! For context, I am a massive Deltarune fan and (chapter five spoilers) >!Pink is one of my all time favorite characters and is a reference to Tokyo Mew Mew.!<

I haven’t watched an anime in many years, and the last one I watched was Rin Daughters of Mnemosyne. I love Doctor Stone, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, K-On, Cardcaptor Sakura, Yu-Gi-Oh, and PreCure. Would this be a good show for me given that?

It’s so obvious yall. So flowers have a higher level of consciousness and are between lightners and darkners, right? And it’s because they’re ALIVE but not aware? And Ralsei seems to have these traits too????
He can’t be a flower though, because how does he survive in the dark and show up in every dark world.

It’s so simple.
Ralsei is a mycelium network. Every Ralsei we meet is a mushroom growing in the darkness of the new dark world, that’s how he detects dark presences, because he’s a mycelium network that exists throughout the whole town and sprouts mushrooms where there are dark worlds.

Someone asked me what that does for his character……

A lot! First of all, why is he young Asriel? It’s just the same thing as the flowers, he willfully chose that form, likely because mushrooms of course are the most iconic power up from video games, which Asriel as a kid was a big Mario player.

Then, it also puts his actual power into context. No matter how many mushrooms you kill, the mycelium network is really strong and can keep growing. That’s why Ralsei brags about being so powerful and threatens to kill Flowery.

Additionally, mushrooms are well known for sexual propagation, and let’s not mince words, Ralsei is a horny little bastard! He blushes from Kris standing close to him, he seems into being in a throuple with Kris and Susie, he turns bright red from getting called cute, he gets extremely embarrassed and freezes from the word bosom, he is so horny! And this also makes his abundantly obvious crushes on both Kris and Susie kind of make more sense, because mushrooms are absolutely not monogamous, though of course Ralsei could also just be polyamorous just because so that’s a weak piece of evidence.

But also being the prince of the darkness— the king of the darkness is the mycelium, a life form specialized to grow and conquer dark and moist (which darkness is analogous to water and the town love is currently “moist” on all recruits) areas. The son of the king is a mushroom, Ralsei.

I just don’t think there’s any object Ralsei could be that solves as many mysteries and creates as few problems as him being a mushroom. The only real issue is he says in chapter three “I’m a Darkner” which the flowers are never described as Darkners, but even then cacti seem to just be normal Darkners, so maybe mushrooms are just very powerful Darkners or maybe the mycelium at the core is a powerful Darkner but the mushrooms are just given knowledge from that powerful core.

I really like the aesthetics and style of Touhou and generally enjoy bullet hell games and challenging games quite a lot. I’m wondering where I should start given that all I have is a MacBook and a switch? I have no way to play anything windows and so is there a good starting point at all for me?

How do I avoid replaying Cave Story over and over on loop and never doing anything else?

Heavy gameplay spoilers and light mechanical story spoilers (>!there’s multiple endings!<)

Let me get this out of the way first because I'm sure most people on here are wondering about the versions. There are absolutely advantages to the original version and every individual port of this game, especially that the original is free. However, if you have thirty dollars to spare, or fifteen(?????) if you're playing on Steam, please trust me that this game is worth your time and worth your money and so so so so so good.

This game is better than I possibly ever could have imagined and better than I ever realized it could be. Every single thing about the gameplay and the world and the art and the soundtrack and the writing and the story and the characters just come together in this incredibly harmonious way that doesn't look like much when observing, and maybe on that first time through you'll only see it a bit, but it creeps up on you and eventually you see this game for what it really is and it is really something beautiful. This game may only be (length spoilers if that matters to you) five to ten hours long, but it is actually a long con that tricks you into having a years long relationship with it and then sucks up the entirety of several weeks of your life as you fall deeper and deeper in love with it.

To be a little more specific, the way this game feels to play is truly unlike anything else. It is a perfect product of its limits, it has such loose and floaty feeling controls at first, until you figure out the frame data on your landing and suddenly you start consistently being able to move backwards after jumping forwards. It feels hard to aim at first, and then you realize this game is secretly a cover shooter and a mini-rpg. The leveling system in this game is taken in large part from Blaster Master, but I feel it is a much better version of the system because every weapon has a different interaction with being damaged. It really gives everything a unique feel, and there are two weapons that actually are better at different levels than the max level, so your playstyle totally changes while using those weapons. The depth of the weapons is actually remarkable, with a total of ten, but really nine, but really eight, but only up to five at a time weapons. All of them have their own uses and nuances and are all very thoroughly explored throughout this brief campaign.

The platforming is simple but really fun and enjoyable. ... AT FIRST. Big gameplay spoilers here but it's okay because it's late in. On an alternate path of the game, you can get this thing called the Booster 2.0 that moves so fast in the air and demands mastery of its exact distances and makes all of the content after it feel so much more spacing based in the fights and so much more precision based in the platforming. There's actually two really excellent precision platforming levels at the end of this route, as well as an incredible boss rush that utilizes the spacing and management and timing mechanics that come with it. Genuinely it manages to combine the cover shooter and the precision platformer so well, and the boss, if fought the intended way, at the end of the final level of this route is exactly how I feel a boss should be done in a precision platformer. All about managing the space and using the mechanics that you use in platforming to aid in your aiming. It's an amazing synergy of disparate halves that is accomplished by very, very few games, and it does it so humbly and quietly without rubbing it in your face.

I won't say anything about the story, but this game has so many memorable and haunting but incredibly understated moments that just keep me coming back. The atmosphere is dense and the world is alive and the characters contain multitudes. I thoroughly enjoyed and continue to enjoy my time in this world. The story is humble and presents itself much the same as the gameplay does, and triumphs in an identical way.

The graphics are charming and the art is good, and the remastered graphics can look truly stunning on boost mode on handheld Switch 2 units. The original graphics style is also available for selection, if that interests you! Both are great and valid ways to experience the game.

The only thing that is in no way humble about this game is the soundtrack. Holy moly. This package gives you 5 entire versions to choose from, and they are as follows:

Organya, the original chiptune soundtrack made by Pixel in an engine also made by Pixel. Highly recommend this plus the classic graphics on a first playthrough. The quality of life features alone are worth the fifteen dollars (and even thirty for me because as we can all see I have played this game too much). The composition on display in these songs is phenomenal. Some highlights include the amazing and playful theme of the Bushlands area, the foreboding and chaotic but ultimately heroic boss theme Eyes of Flame, the Mother 3-esque Mimiga village theme that sends chills through my whole body, and the absolutely brilliant, perfectly composed main theme that plays at the best possible time in the story. I cannot express how great this soundtrack is.

Cave Story+, my personal favorite, leans into the original vibes and the chiptune feel while often pulling back intensity and focusing in really hard on exploring the songs harmonically. The main theme of this soundtrack style might be my favorite song ever featured in a video game, and there seem to be no uploads online. I highly recommend.

Famitracks: Fully NES compatible chiptune! Very nice novelty, definitely great little versions of these songs!

Ridiculon: Kind of epic highly instrumented "YouTube remix" vibe versions of the song, really fun, really enjoyable, don't do this on your first playthrough please!

Remastered: The soundtrack I listened to first, I really enjoy it as well and it captures the intent of the original songs while going for a much more modernized style, but not quite as much in the "epic" direction. Still a very good way to hear the soundtrack and experience the game!!

I have written a lot. One more thing though.

Why Cave Story+ is perfect and the best version:

CHALLENGE MODE!!!!
Oh my God this mode is so good.

In the main game, there are 12 levels, all of which are very fleshed out and amazing for their own reasons. Every single location in this game is so iconic and I love them all very much. They are all a unique kind of fun that uses the systems so well.

So challenge mode..... ADDS EVEN MORE! A substantial amount more, in fact. You have the final level of the game's alternate route, which is one of my favorite levels in any game ever, available right from the menu in this mode, which is really really nice. In addition, you have a boss rush, which this game has excellent bosses so this is of course very fun.

The main attraction though is four additional levels! This is an absolutely huge amount of additional content, and they're all really good and progressively harder and add so much to the game, especially because it keeps track of your time. These six challenge stages add so much to the game, truthfully my only hope for another future update after the one earlier this year is adding a few more challenge stages. They are so well made and so great.

I love precision platformers (will review some eventually) and sadly the main game of Cave Story only has two heavy precision platforming levels, but these four extra ones brings it up to triple that, which is really awesome. Six fleshed out precision platforming levels is absolutely nothing to scoff at in a game this dense and this highly replatable. Don't sleep on just how high quality of a platformer this is.

Cave Story is a magical game. So much of that magic is because it was entirely made by one person, the brilliant Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. But this remake shows the efforts of many people into making the best possible version of this wonderful game. You can still experience it almost exactly as it was originally made, with mostly quality of life improvements, but there's all this extra stuff as well. The core game here is one of the greatest games ever made, and this version is the best version there is.

If a new version of Cave Story gets announced again though, I want that too. This game made me download three other Cave Stories.

Oh and yeah I admit I am like madly in love with Curly Brace and she is perfect and I don't understand how it's possible that I love a character this much.

But also like why in the hey heck does this say "now with Multiple Endings"???? There's always been multiple endings.....

Did you guys all know Cave Story was one of the best games ever made? Who was gonna tell me?

Y’all I had twenty hours on this game. I got it in late 2019 because I was twelve and obsessed with Undertale (and to a lesser extent Deltarune, how the tables have turned) and knew Cave Story was a huge inspiration.

I loved the music, the world, and the characters, as well as really enjoying the systems and gameplay, though at the time not appreciating the design for what it was. The final boss rush was too hard for me, so I did a whole other playthrough as well as getting my friend to briefly play co-op with me, and getting my brother to do the same.

In 2024, I randomly decided to sit down and beat the game. It was a sombre but ultimately happy ending. I walked away satisfied.

About a week ago, I was thinking about how fun Cave Story was and I’m currently in the midst of the worst moment of my intense Deltarune Special Interest. I figured I may as well go back to an old game I really enjoyed, it has been sitting barely justifying its $30 price tag on my Switch for two years.

… yall I have 50 hours on the game now it’s not even funny. Were you going to TELL me there was a true ending that is actually happy and gives you one of the best levels in gaming history and explored the mechanics to their absolute limit and invented precision platforming and has some insane gunslinging Uncharted type gameplay and then one of the best final bosses I’ve ever seen???? Were you going to TELL me there’s six challenge stages that are all also really fun and add massive replayability? What about the hard mode that is actually one of the craziest challenges I’ve ever seen in any game???? And Curly Story is a thing and there’s holiday events and there’s cheat codes and there’s more secrets I somehow managed to not get in two full true ending playthroughs and there’s a remake apparently and it’s just all so overwhelming….

And Brentalfloss my favorite guy for Luigi Mansion 3 rap song and DK Rap where Diddy Kong got the allegations did a BANGER lyrical cover where his vocals are insane????

Guys you don’t understand my life has been changed.

Also I love Curly Brace she is my wife and I would die for her and I always liked her as a kid but I don’t think I realized how INTENSE it was. She is so great. Please put her in smash (sakurai referenced her in kid Icarus so…..)

I have many more thoughts of course. I LOVE this game.

I know this is so weird to say while I’m immediately looking forward to chapter five, which I know will continue to delight me and enforce why this is my favorite game ever made, but I am really interested to know what Toby Fox might be doing next.

My absolute biggest dreams are the following:

1; practically guaranteed but continuing to do music for Temmie’s game series! I want to see it prosper because I love her characters and world so much and find it endlessly charming and compelling.

2; more voice work because he is genuinely very good at it. I think he deserves to sing more because he actually has a voice on him and people don’t realize it.

3; small standalone projects that explore his many unique gameplay ideas in fun and interesting ways with his trademark characters and compelling self contained stories!!! I know it’s somewhat doubtful that Toby would make all that much stuff that is truly self contained but I would absolutely love to see him branch out, even though Deltarune is my favorite game literally ever. This is my favorite option.

4; Soulslike-ish UTDR game with punishing checkpoints and nuanced equipment builds and just crazy insanely hard bosses. I know this one would never happen but that would probably be my dream game ever actually

I know this was mostly a yap but I’d love both thoughts on my progressively more terrible ideas as well as other people’s wishes! Of course it’s hard to even think about that right now when chapter five is so close.

Title. I made a post a bit ago on here about my debacle with being a trans girl prom king but apparently Pink News saw fit to write an article about me that was seen by TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE and drops my hometown and full name and stepmom’s Facebook and one of my friend’s full name as well. What do I do about this. It’s mostly just funny to me, hence the flair, and the article is totally fine other than that they assumed my identity was “trans femme” when I’m actually a trans girl but it’s still a bit of a breach of privacy for the other people in my life. I personally am fine with my full name being all over the internet, I don’t care that much about that, but it’s those other people, specifically our other prom queen, who I am concerned for.

Stephen Sondheim is just very known for taking simple pieces and elaborating on them and iterating on them and having complex layers to them such that his work is poured over obsessively for years. Animal Well resembles this a lot to me, especially in that Sondheim made puzzles and always wanted to develop a puzzle video game himself, though he never got to.

About a month ago, I had my senior prom. I was voted prom king. Of course I lightly campaigned but I wasn’t attached to the title too much since I’m a woman. It was cool though. I got a crown. I had them play something stupid by Frank Sinatra and kissed my girlfriend while slow dancing (she also won prom queen at her school because she is very cool). Obviously I’m slightly worried after this event because, if you couldn’t guess by me being in the men category, I go to an extremely white and conservative school. It’s in a Georgia town with fewer than 10,000 residents and there’s a broadway play based on my school in which the staff and students rejected the idea of a feminist club, just to give you a frame of reference.

Now imagine my surprise when the backlash to an innocent photo posted of my school’s two prom queens was posted on Facebook originated not from anyone from my school but actually entirely from adults. There was a PREACHER who posted about it and said some of the most hateful things anybody ever said and then actually had to edit his post because people with good sense were flaming him. Dozens of posts were made, people were talking about it all over, and some particularly crazy people are still discussing it to this day. There was a post made by a local “satire” newspaper with an ai generated image that claimed my school accidentally invented a new double prom queen thing which would have been sick actually.

I made a reel that commented on how people were so quick to be outraged at the school when the school actually did nothing and then I bodied haters for several days before getting bored. By the way I had opening weekend for a show the next weekend.

On Monday at school, a grown ass man showed up with a sign that said “gay-trans is not okay” which would have rhymed if he’d swapped gay and trans but whatever. He was escorted off the premises. People yelled “THERES THE PROM KING” at me in the halls for weeks. It’s funny because yes I did in fact win an elected position given to me by the student body fair and square. This is a true fact. Thank you for telling me. It isn’t a good insult.

The student body loves me despite my differing political and personal views than most of them. This is why I was voted. Some people seem to think it was as a joke, but I actually personally know enough people who voted for me to completely dwarf the other candidates and am directly aware of their intentions. No joke was made. They wanted two queens and they got two queens.

Prom was whatever.
I was asked after my reel if I wanted to be interviewed for the channel two news. Initially I was super enthusiastic but ultimately my other queen convinced me to turn it down. It was the right choice.

So much happened. This is only a tiny bit. There was also an overwhelming lack of support from admin and the local newspaper and school announcements printed nothing about prom. Recently, the yearbook deadnamed me only on the prom page and showed a picture of the court where I was obscured and didn’t show the queens.

Tell me if this is an experience I share with anybody else. I will say for some additional contextual oddities, I also was the literary state runner up for my regulation for boy’s solo and I’m STAR student and I’m a two time Allstate chorus and once Allstate theatre person and I’m a lead in every musical. So I was by no means an unknown and my successes were many— I was in the local paper and all over the announcements for practically everything I did, but apparently this was too far.

Also I looked really hot. My girlfriend did my makeup and hair and she is genuinely a pro because she’s a nonbinary butch lesbian and you know how they are. My dress was inexpensive but flattering and my mom helped make it awesome sauce. She’s both supportive and unsupportive but it’s a story for another time.

It has been stated that the events in Kirby Air Riders have been planned up to a year out. I think a really cool and climactic final event would be a Legendary Machine Air Rid event, followed by an update to paddocks to let us have an unbalanced goofy ruleset where we can use legendary machines in races. This would be the most fun for me