This guest article was written by Spiral. For more information on how to submit a guest Dream Smasher article, click here.
To conclude this series of articles on Cave Story in Smash, I’ve come up with two potential assist trophies to be added to Smash, as well as some trophies to represent the Cave Story universe.
Balrog (Assist Trophy)
Reason for inclusion:
Balrog is one of Quote’s primary antagonists throughout the game, showing up four different times as a boss battle (though the first fight is skippable if you don’t want to fight him), and encountering him several other times in the story. As he is one of the most iconic characters on the game, I saw it fitting to add him.
What would he do?
Balrog’s attacks will be based on the attacks he uses during his boss battles. Upon being summoned, a text box will briefly appear saying Balrog’s trademark “Oh yeaaah!!”.
- Attack #1: Balrog will jump and attempt to fly from one side of the stage towards another. When he is above an opponent, he will drop down on top of them, meteor smashing them if they are in the air and burying them if they are in the ground. He’ll create a small shockwave on landing.
- Attack #2: Balrog will fire a few slow-moving energy shots forward. These shots can be reflected or absorbed.
- Attack #3: Balrog will jump and fire several missiles. The missiles can be reflected, and the explosion from the missiles can be absorbed. Balrog does not do damage by jumping during this attack.
Balrog can be attacked, and he will leave sooner the more he is damaged. Balrog will receive no knockback from attacks.
Misery (Assist Trophy)
Reason for Inclusion:
Misery also shows up several times in the story to antagonize Quote, but unlike Balrog, only fights him once in the game. That being said, she is just as important as Balrog is to the story, possibly more so, and makes for a very memorable boss fight in the end. Personally, I think she has enough potential for a whole moveset of her own, but I’ll leave that idea to another time.
What would she do?
Misery’s attacks will be based on the attacks she uses during her boss battle. Upon being summoned from the Assist Trophy, she will hover in the air for a brief moment, then use one of three attacks:
- Attack #1: Misery fires several energy shots in the direction of one player. These orbs can be reflected or absorbed. The shots pass through opponents on hit, but not walls. Each hit does minor damage and knockback. The orbs travel a little less than the full distance of Final Destination.
- Attack #2: Misery summons a large stone block above a random fighter, which falls straight down after it warps in. Deals large damage and knockback, but is slow. Has a meteor effect.
- Attack #3: Misery fires three slow-moving orbs in one direction. If a player is below the orb, it will turn into a lightning bolt and attack that player for moderate damage and knockback. The orbs travel about half the distance of Final Destination.
Misery will teleport to a different location after each attack, and will generally attempt to move away from enemy fighters. Misery can be attacked, and she will leave sooner the more she is damaged. Misery will receive no knockback from attacks.
And finally, we have the trophies. I picked these to give players an idea of what happens in the plot of Cave Story. Some give away certain plot points, but the player would have known that from Quote’s moveset anyway. You’ll have to excuse my lack of editing skills once more, as I don’t know an easy way to make these look like actual trophies.
Trophies
Quote |
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| The mysterious hero from Cave Story joins Smash, with a huge array of eight different weapons! His numerous ranged and melee attacks grow stronger and gain new effects by attacking foes and gaining EXP, but watch out – taking too much damage will cause his levels to go back down. | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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Quote (Alt.) |
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| Many of Quote’s weapons have surprising properties to them. For example, the Snake can travel through walls and cannot be reflected. The Machine Gun, at Level 3, will boost Quote slightly in the air, aiding his recovery. The Bubbline is a difficult weapon to use at Level 1 or 2, but becomes a versatile weapon at Level 3, with both defensive and offensive capabilities. | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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Level + |
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| Quote reaches a new level and supercharges all of his weapons, improving their range, damage, knockback, and speed. His specials that make use of EXP gain new effects, making Quote an opponent to be feared. It doesn’t last too long, so make the most of it while it counts. | |
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Super Smash Bros
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Curly Brace |
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| Curly Brace is a robot, much like Quote, who was sent to the floating island a long time ago. Her memory is also fuzzy, but she remembers more as the plot progresses. She’s fostering a group of young Mimiga called the Colons when she first meets Quote, and attacks him on sight, believing that he’s been sent after the Mimiga. After the misunderstanding is cleared up, Curly aids Quote in the battle against the Doctor. She is known for wielding her Machine Gun, but is willing to trade it for Quote’s Polar Star. | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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King |
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| King is the leader of Mimiga Village. While he is notoriously quick to anger, his dedication to protect his friends shines through. He unfortunately loses his life in an attempt to defeat the Doctor, but leaves Quote with his personal weapon, the Blade. King’s spirit seems to follow Quote and aid him in his battles. | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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Toroko |
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| A young Mimiga living in the Mimiga village, Toroko is a very shy individual. Despite this, she was the only one in the village willing to befriend Sue when she arrived, and went against King’s orders in an attempt to protect her new friend. She gets captured by Misery, who mistakes her for Sue and brings her to the Doctor. | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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Sue |
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| Sue seems to be just another Mimiga residing in the Mimiga Village, but there is definitely more to her than she lets on. The others in the village tend to see her as an outsider, and are typically suspicious of what she gets up to. She has an incredibly rowdy personality, which seems to get her in trouble more often than not. When Quote first meets Sue, it seems that she plans on leaving the island by hatching a Flying Dragon egg. | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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Red Flowers |
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| The Mimiga’s diet mainly consist of fish and flowers that they cultivate in their village. The white and yellow ones are safe to eat, but it is extremely dangerous for a Mimiga to eat a red flower. Supposedly they will gain immense strength, but will succumb to an uncontrollable rage and attack anyone they see. The Doctor is after these red flowers, but for what purpose…? | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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Professor Booster |
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| Professor Booster is one of the scientists assigned to the research team that was sent to study the floating island. As his name suggests, he is the inventor of the Booster that Quote uses. He intended it as a means of easily traversing the island, and Quote will need it to help him get past several of the island’s obstacles. Depending on when you encounter him in Cave Story, he will either give you the v0.8 prototype, or the completed v2.0. | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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The Doctor |
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| The enigmatic “Doctor” is the villain of Cave Story. He possesses the Demon Crown, an ancient artifact that endows him with incredible power, as well as control over Balrog and Misery. Possibly having gone mad with power, he seizes the Mimiga and the red flower seeds as a part of some larger scheme he has. Quote traverses the island in an attempt to stop his plans and rescue the Mimiga. | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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Balrog |
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| Balrog is one of the Doctor’s minions, and is required to do his bidding. Don’t be fooled by his casual demeanor, as he is a very strong fighter with quite a few odd abilities. In Smash, he can be summoned from Assist Trophies to crush opponents under him, as well as fire energy shots and… missiles? Just what is he, anyway? | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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Misery |
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| Misery is a powerful witch in service of the Doctor. While she is often seen alongside Balrog, the two don’t seem to get along at all. She can be summoned from Assist Trophies in Smash, and will use a variety of magical attacks to cause chaos on the battlefield. Some of her attacks can be reflected or absorbed, but it’s best to dodge the large rocks she warps in. | |
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[PC] Cave Story (12/2004)
[3DS] Cave Story 3D (11/2011)
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Finally, we’ve reached the end of this series of articles. Thank you for sticking around so long, this was super fun to write, but also super time-consuming. The text file I started writing this on dates back to the end of February, and I’ve been slowly picking at it and improving it ever since. The workload was really surprising, and it really gave me some needed perspective on the amount of work that really goes into making a full character in Smash. Again, thank you so much for reading this. Please let me know what you think in the comments, because it’s probably the easiest place to find me right now. See ya!
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Oh Yeaaah!…For me the Brave Huge Toaster (or Soap Bar…whatever) has the biggest chance to become the Assist Trophy for Quote…in the case that we got him in the game, and they give him an Assist Trophy.
Anyways, Misery would be a terrifying summon, she needs to be as OP as she is in Cave Story.
Writing about the Characters, Stages and trophies may seem easy, but the amount of research and love for the source material is really hard to pull off, so congratulations in this great series, great work.
I really hope to see Quote in an official Smash game (even in an unofficial one), and your ideas give a good taste of what he could become.
Thanks again, this seriously took a lot of work and time to complete, and I’m really glad I got it finished. Nantendo was a big help behind the scenes too, these articles became a lot better thanks to his sound advice (and his great sprites in the first article too! Or else I’d have had to submit everyone to my poor editing skills…). Considering how iconic Balrog is to Cave Story as a whole, he would be more likely than Misery, but Misery is just such an interesting character, that I’d love to see both of them in. And just as a piece of behind-the-scenes trivia, when writing this, I really wanted Balrog to shout “Huzzah!” instead of “Oh yeeaaaah!” when entering, but I decided in the end to go with the official translation. Not that I have a problem with the current one, I just played the fan translation of Cave Story first before I ever played any of the ports.
Read the entire article of this, and it looks great! Although I may not know much about Cave Story, bringing a character from the Indie game other than Shantae and Shovel Knight is an interesting thing for Smash. I’ve seen its gameplay before, and I do think Balrog can be the better candidate as the Assist Trophy. Not just he have so many merciless movesets, but I kinda find that he’s quite iconic in the game. I may not know much about him, but he’s somehow memorable to me.
This was an interesting article you’ve made. Great job!
(And since I’ve made the Jibanyan article, maybe I should think of the Dream Arena and Item for that part too…)
It took a while for me to get to this one, but thanks for commenting! Yeah, Balrog is more likely of an Assist Trophy character than Misery is. As I mentioned, Misery might even be unique enough to be a full character, but that’s probably not who’d people expect as a representative from Cave Story. I think it would be a cool idea to see what sort of stage or items you could incorporate from the Yo-Kai Watch series into Smash, so I’d definitely read those if you’re willing to work on them.