Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari)

[RT-55J]

THREAD RULE
Do not speak the protagonist's name.
Trifle not with sacred things.

Cave Story was the grand inflection point between the old eastern doujinsoft and western late-freeware eras and the modern "indie" scene.

Cave Story brings the narrative sensibilities of Final Fantasy IV to the adventure-platformer genre.

Cave Story is a videogamer's videogame.

Cave Story is over 20 years old.

There are many ways to play Cave Story these days.

cavestory.org provides a bajillion free download options. This game has been ported to a ridiculous number of platforms, from the Mega Drive to Dreamcast.

There is an "official" release by Nicalis, called Cave Story+, that's on Steam, Switch, etc. It comes with an option for double-res graphics, a couple of badly remixed soundtracks, and a new script. (I don't care for any of this stuff sorry.)

And let's not forget the inexplicable 3DS version:

I look forward to replaying this game sometime soon.