Prequel Requirements

Hi,
I feel I would enjoy making a prequel. I have begun no literal work, but have planned extensively into the details of its plot and am worried that I may be overlooking something, as it's in the tidbits where it gets extremely complicated to keep everything coherently bound together. I have been scavenging through others' ideas in this subforum, and am seeing very conflicting theories reading through threads, but I am not sure how grounded they are. Please help clarify! It occurs 10 years before Cave Story, as I'd imagine all prequels do, or would roughly around that time. Here are my assumptions; correct me if I am wrong in any, or if there are important issues I have forgotten.

Required presences:
Miakid (& Misery)
The current owner of the Demon Crown (please see starting assumption #2 at the very bottom of this post). Misery serves him, as she did all Demon Crown bearers, no? The story must reference somewhere Quote & Curly fighting Miakid and getting their butts handed to them. However, we cannot decisively say that their comas and amnesia were caused by this defeat.

Balrog? His interactions and social attitude toward Misery and vice-versa make me feel like he is a more recent Doctor kind of guy. I would like to exclude him entirely.

Quote & Curly
It is not precisely known - whether they were sent from the same corporation / government / agency. They could for all we know have simply synergized with each other in their task to destroy the Demon Crown. But Curly did say "we were sent" (right?), so it's most likely.

Various national robot armies
It is not mentioned if the armies were a unified force or separate competition. Considering the strife and corruption that the Demon Crown seems to emanate from its very being, I'm leaning toward separate factions with violent skirmishes struggling against each other and any other opposition for the Crown. (Go Half-Life independent AI!) Uh, they WERE feuding to specifically take the Crown back to their employers, right? Where is the exact line in Cave Story that tells of this?

Jenka
Supposedly her power has been diminishing with her age if she had supremely powerful magic, or perhaps she permanently consumed it all in the mighty act of sealing away her brother. This inference comes from Cave Story: she could not resist Balrog when he most likely shoved her down and simply took the Storehouse Key, and she certainly wasn't faking her helplessness when she so frantically urged Quote to stop him and the Doctor. Considering the puppies as simple company, she seems to by CS's time have become a regular old woman, notwithstanding her longevity of centuries past.

The island's first humans
I read a lot of talk of forum members wanting to include the Sakamotos into a prequel. It's ten years. Why would they be there, or Prof. Booster? There should be a completely original human cast, no? (See The ambiguous elements #1 about Kazuma.)

The red flowers
The Mimigas consumed them out of desperation from the robots' advancing forces. But there has to be something important here since Misery was alive, yet didn't know about their power (hence, why she offered herself as a guinea pig to the Doctor). In fact, between the two games, it seems that Jenka is the only one who remembers, or even knows at all the details of what exactly happened.

Mimigas
Both enraged and regular - original characters, absolutely none from Cave Story except Zett and possibly Arthur (read my assumption #1 at the very bottom of this post). Possibly Mimiga soldiers just to make use of the sprite?

The Cthulhu
Cave Story revealed no background information on them (they are obviously wearing suits, so they are at least humanoid, if not human), and they cannot be the human survivors of this war due to their unified cynical thought, so I would probably just continue their mysterious, matter-of-fact tone. The translation did say they are the island's native inhabitants, so that'd probably be the safest current interpretation.

The Core
It does not need to be fought against in the game, or if it is, it probably shouldn't be defeated. I still don't understand its significance to the plot of Cave Story exactly; Misery and the Doctor believed that it held the island up, while a forum member thought Jenka created it. Could someone recap?

Misc.
Dr. Gero and Nurse Hasumi - They should be there, right? At any rate the Labyrinth existed back then, of course, which implies Chaba and his shop. Or just Chaba.
Zett - the grandfather at the Plantation as a young'un.
Malco?
The Littles, if the Outer Wall is to be used (or they could be relocated).
Numahachi - go statue carver!
Ma Pignon - or maybe...
Sandaime - farmer? We don't even know what he was. Maybe the last of his species, or at least in that region of the island that Cave Story occurred in. Ooh, just thought of that.

Required Plot Elements:
1. The robot forces... that were sent to retrieve the Demon Crown and remove anything that prevented completion of that mission, NOT to mindlessly kill all discovered entities, as Curly's Story believes. (Am I wrong?) They do not kill aimlessly!! Depending on when the red flowers emerged, it might even be assumed that one innocent Mimiga accidentally ate some and went berserk on the robots, and, after defeating it, they saw more Mimigas and decided to kill any they saw to preempt possible frenzy mutations (what irony). Human defense and confusion of motive subsequently got the humans onto the robots' bad side, most likely.

2. At least one colony/village, for the humans present on the island (possibly what since became Mimiga Village?).

3. The presence of TEAM 9.
3a. "9" = Therefore, the presence of different teams.

4. The sprawling Labyrinth, with its Core-guardian Gaudis (where was it ever mentioned that Jenka created Gaudis to guard the Core? I read that somewhere).

5. Misery fighting a robot similar in combat competence to Quote (referenced in her talk before she teleports Quote to the Labyrinth) . It is not known whether she defeats it or not, but it certainly frustrated her like Quote did (or if it ever defeated her - not killed!, only like how Quote thrashed her about in the Throne Room).
5a. Misery did not meet Quote or Curly at all in the prequel (or else she should have recognized either).

6. The enraged Mimigas disappearing suddenly. Whether they descend upon the surface, as Jenka mentioned was a rumor, is true or not can be decided creatively.

Questions it must answer:
1. How Miakid was defeated, or, that he was defeated after B.C.S. 10 (Before Cave Story, lol ).

2. What IS Miakid? Is he/it even human? I scoured a whole thread on this, which got nowhere very conclusively. Some say it's an ape, or a Crown-mutated human (I'm not sure I buy that one...). But if this cannot be answered, any prequel maker could just bypass it Pixel-style and leave it to the player's imagination, as he did the first two Crown owners.

3. Where the red flowers came from. (Their power must have been recent in those ten years - that is, they can't have existed beforehand - and secretive if very few people like Jenka knew, and Misery herself didn't know.)

4. Whether teleporters exist yet, at least on the island.

5. Any others that a prequel would absolutely HAVE to answer? It does not need to explain how Quote or Curly ended up where they began in Cave Story as long as their whereabouts by the end of the prequel are logical (and thankfully, too - I frankly find that a very difficult issue to deal with, haha! Along with some other issues...)!

The ambiguous elements, the most annoying section of all:
1. Were then Sky Dragons present, or being created? Was the Egg Corridor even built? Why did Kazuma specialize in Sky Dragon-raising? Where does it say so, actually?

2. For that matter, which of the original sectors were existent/accessible? How many more are there that Cave Story didn't utilize?; that is, how big is the island?

3. Of all fliers, why Sky Dragons to get off the island? (That's more of a Cave Story question, but its answer could have major relevance to a prequel.)
3a. Is there a regular Dragon? (That could be technical evidence that the earth surface below has just as bizarre a species population as the island's.)

4. Do red flowers permanently transform the Mimigas who consume them? It seems to be that way, since Quote was forced to kill Toroko. (First time playing CS, I immediately thought the Balcony enemy was just another red-flowered Mimiga using the same Igor sprite, not Igor again! Just like the leaping Mimiga in Grasstown's deserted shack as well as the Balcony.)

5. The Plantation probably didn't exist since its purpose in Cave Story was just for the cultivation of red flowers, huh? Or maybe back then it was a wildlife region, which the Doctor later recognized as a suitable field for cultivation. Anyways, the Statue Room has to be connected somewhere.

6. What was Omega and the curse on the sunstones? Did the Sand Zone even have a storehouse back then? Is that where Jenka resided 10 years ago? And the Sand Zone Residence? Would it be ideal to even incorporate the Sand Zone into the prequel? Maybe make it significant through different plot elements...

7. The Hermit Gunsmith. Most ambiguous guy in the game. Especially given his philosophical talk after the Spur (which actually inspired me to mod CS), Tetsuzou seems to just be a metaphoric entity, representing Pixel himself. (Is Pixel an old Japanese man, and is Cave Story a representation of the Spur, his finished product? )

My Starting Assumptions
1. I suggest that the only Cave Story-recognized Mimigas who lived ten years ago are the old Mimiga in the Plantation, and possibly a very young Arthur. (Actually, possibly not - I was even thinking of making the grandfather already a starting adolescent.) Their ages must be short; for example, neither King, Jack, nor the Shovel Brigade from Cave Story can possibly exist because they don't know about the red flowers' potential, which they would if they knew just exactly what had happened in the war B.C.S. 10. It seems very few, like Jenka, know exactly what happened.

2. Some say that Miakid was not the owner yet, and that his taking of the Crown should be incorporated INTO the prequel, as does cavestory.org's timeline. I disagree with this, because not only can I not find official evidence in the translation, but I want to make the introducing plot element of the prequel BE that Miakid was the one who broadcasts the Demon Crown to the surface and challenges everyone to try to take it from him, which is what gets the corporations riled up all at roughly the same time! Is that possible or did I miss something in the game?

Wow, my eyes hurt.

 

Quite a few of the things you said about Jenka... I'm fairly sure aren't true. Her powers are, as far as I know, as powerful in her old age as they were previously. I think you're right that she did a lot for the island but I'm pretty sure she didn't "create the Gaudis." That wouldn't even make any sense. I see no evidence, or even logic to support it. Of course, I can't argue it for the same reason.

If you've gotten the best ending and spoked with her dog, and gotten the life pot and all, you'd know that those puppies were far from simple company. They were some smart little ones, don'cha know. They were probably more like old friends or allies than pets.

As for the Sakamotos, I think they could probably be on the island if you wanted to write the script in a way that would include them, and explain their early appearance on the island. Of course, Sue would have to be a baby, and Kazuma would have to have a personality and appearance more like the Sue we know. Also, Kazuma was not an expert at raising dragons. If he even knew about it, he would have to have been on the island for the ten years. In the Egg Corridor, Sue needed him because he could crack the password.

Whenever the robots and humans came to the island, the mimigas ate the red flowers to protect themselves. If Igor and company were still under the effects of the red flowers, we can assume they were permanent.

What exactly do you mean "Of all fliers" talking about the Sky Dragons? They're the only flying monsters that were/could be tamed, or could support their weight, or even keep flying long enough!

I'm pretty sure the robot Misery was talking about fighting was either Curly, when she was transported to the Labyrinth directly before Quote, or Quote himself when he found them to destroy the crown, pre-CS. On top of this, Miakid's death is assumed to be from the injuries he recieved from Quote and Curly on their mission, even though they weren't fatal. On that note, their comas and amnesia were caused by this defeat.

The "Robot Forces" were, in fact, ordered to destroy anything in their path. About "Team Nine," I would assume that since they were, y'know, a robot army that they would be organized like a military. I'm pretty sure everyone knows this. However, observing Quote and Curly and their different orders, some countries could have given their robots slightly different orders. Not to mention that, like I said, they were from different countries around the world. They would all have to be built differently and organized differently.

You wanted a human settlement on the island that would become the Mimiga Village? What're you on, man? The Mimigas were sentient before the humans got there.

Observing Igor, you would notice that the Egg Corridor belonged to his "master." Now, this could be anyone, but assuming that the Mimigas and the humans probably didn't get along too well, or just weren't yet acquainted, that they had technology before the humans got there. Since there was a teleporter and computer in Grasstown Structure D, and the structure itself had been there long enough to have its door rusted shut, we could only assume that the Mimigas built it all. This is arguable, unfortunately.

Dude? Balrog? Didn't you even see the opening cutscene? Or read any of Jenka's cutscenes? "A new master?" Any of that? He's already there in his bubble when Date gets the crown. BALROG WAS ALREADY THERE.

Red flowers: Misery wanted to test them to make sure it was them.

If you noticed, I read from the bottom up.


THIS CONCLUDES MY CONTRADICTORY RANT.

--------------------------

Edit: I had to think about this, but, when you said you looked at other threads and were telling what other people had suggested... Are you sure that's what you were doing, and you weren't just making this stuff up as you were going along? I haven't heard any of this stuff, and in a lot of cases, it doesn't sound like you knew what you were talking about.

In other news, I miss how we used to race in the theories section... I MISS DEBATING. SADFACE.

 

Balrog
He was around before the doctor. The title screen is evidence enough. Though he probably came into things around Miakid's time considering that he is most likely a robot.

Various national robot armies
It is believed that the robots were sent to retrieve the crown for various world governments and were led by Maikid. That is until Miakid stole the crown for himself. No-one was happy with that, especially not those government types that wanted the crown for themselves.

The island's first humans
There were humans on the island long before the war. Most likely explorers or researchers. Most died out during the war because they stood up for the Mimigas. I agree though. The Sakamotos would not belong in a prequel unless it contained The Doctor's rise to power.
Much of the technology, research areas, teleporters, etc. were most likely built by the Humans.

The red flowers
Well that inspired Miakid's experiments and the Doctor's Mimiga army plan. Jenka was the only one to say any details.

The Cthulhu
Human survivors from the war most likely.

The Core
Ballos seeks to destroy his prison by driving it to the ground, hoping to kill or free himself in the process. It is the core that stops him from doing so. The island floats naturally without the use of the core.
In any case the Core most likely struck out against Quote and Curly because it was attacked by robot soldiers during the war. But there should be nothing to suggest that any protagonist would fight the Core in a prequel.

Zett
It's only ten friggin' years ago.

Malco
He would be there. He was most likely built or used by the Human inhabitants before the war.

Numahachi
Probably carving away at Miakid.

Gaudi
The Gaudi were meant to guard the core, though I doubt that Jenka created them.

Misery not meeting Quote
Quote and Curly play a minor role in Cave Story's backstory.

Miakid's death
Lots of people wanted him dead. Who knows.

Do teleporters exist yet?
Yes.

Plantation
Who says that the Mimigas (or the Humans from back then) didn't use it for farming? They had a much larger population before.

The Hermit Gunsmith and Pixel?
Pixel is approximately 30 years old. So no, not an old man. Pixel actually uses a cat to represent himself ingame (no, not Monster-X).

Ages of Mimigas and memories of war
Most of the survivors of the war were either too young or too old. This suggests that the young and the elderly were kept out of harms way, and every adult Mimiga that participated in the war either died or "were never seen again".

Miakid taking the crown
As for not finding evidence of Miakid taking the crown, look harder. Especially in what Curly says when her memories are recovered.

"I remember now.
Your name's Quote!
You and I...
Right...
Back then, a huge
number of robots were
sent to this island
from countries on the
Earth's surface.
Their target was the
awesome power kept
within this island...
The =Demon Crown=.
But you and I, we were
different.
The two of us were sent
in order to destroy that
power.
When we got here,
the island was in
a shambles.
The robots had torn it
all to pieces...
And countless Mimigas
had been slaughtered...
It was...terrible...
Finally, one man got
the =Demon Crown= in
his possession.
The robots' work was
done, and the island
fell silent.
But that was just the
beginning of the tragedy.
With the crown in hand,
the man turned the
Mimigas into killers
and began his assault
on the Earth.
I tried to stop him.
You were there too.
.....
That's...as far as I
can remember.
I'm pretty sure we
were able to wound him.
But we seemed far out
of our league...
Do you remember anything?"

Sorry guys.. I just had to.

 

One MAN got the crown? This could easily be evidence for Keron's idea of Miakid being a Crown-influenced mutation.

Maybe it was some powerful EPIC ARTIFACT OR SOME SHIT and the Goddess of the island made only for... Like, good people... Or something. Miakid didn't have what it took, since he took it for himself out of greed, and therefore TURNED INTO SOME DEMON SHIT and was DOOMED TO DIE. This would not effect the Doctor during CS because he hadn't really had it for too long.

Or... Y'know, maybe it was just the vibes made him... Not wash himself...

Or he could just be some other thing, and we don't know.

 

I knew this would've gotten a post like Jacob's. Posts like that do nothing but come off as obnoxious.

I must have missed talking to the dog. I reached the best ending over three years ago, so I probably just don't remember, then. So what were the puppies exactly, and why did Jenka let Balrog get the key if she is still magical? The foreseeing puppy must have predicted Quote's success over the whole ordeal, then.

I didn't have total confidence in what I was suggesting, but I feel I let what I search through influence a lot of my genuine recollection. Search - that is, through ridiculously old threads (almost all in this theories section), and miraigamer.net/cavestory as well. For example, the Characters page says the Doctor test-fed Igor red flowers, and that Kazuma's specialty "is raising sky dragons" (speaking of which, thanks for that clarification). That page's got to be fixed, then!

"Of all fliers"... well, good point there - I was thinking about another helicopter or some sort of other aircraft. Not sure where I was going with that now that you bring up the objection! It just seemed like a really strange getaway method.

Well, sentient or not, I read something about the buildings appearing more catered to humans than Mimigas, and that the Mimigas are really just bipedal rabbits who otherwise still resided in fields and burrows, and who renamed Mimiga Village for its secret location. (Until the Doctor found it, anyway.) But then that's arguable with the rusted-in Grasstown structure, too. In any case, about the Mimiga ages, wouldn't the young or elderly have at least caught word and updates of the red flowers or enraged Mimigas?

Misery's reference to a past robot - if it was Quote pre-CS, wouldn't she have remembered? And Curly's battlefield competence was not comparable to Quote's, so I doubt that Misery was referencing her - I read on the forum a whole theory about why she decided to sacrifice herself and her Air-tank to a robot she hardly knew - and when Quote meets her in the Labyrinth, she says something like "I thought you'd do better, but I guess we were both thrown down here." Though actually that last quote supports the idea that Misery was referring to Curly.

How can the Cthulhu simply be human survivors if they have the same personality? They must be telepathic natives. (I don't really buy the one Cthulhu + holograms idea.)

I completely forgot that Balrog was waiting for the next possessor! You think he's a robot too? Who can be transformed into a giant frog?

Thanks for the recap on Curly's memory. It doesn't say though that the robots were working together, or that Miakid was even a part of them We don't even know if he/it was human in the first place (assuming the surface has a normal population). But then, given that wording, the robots' work was to have someone put on the crown?

 

Well, it was a serious post asking for serious commentary. I mean, I've seen plenty of people say "tl;dr," sure, but most at least skim and also give some small input along with it.

 

Sorry for not reading all of everyone's posts yet, but my impression of the core attack was it was attacked as a last resort with most of the remaining robots. This is why they are the only killer robots left.

 

Thecrown, I'd have to say that any that weren't killed by the island's forces were probably teleported to the labyrinth. Maybe they just found their way down there.

Someone could also have realized that the core was holding the island up, and therefore sent robots to take it out.

 

Someone could also have realized that the core was holding the island up, and therefore sent robots to take it out.

Exactly what I said?

I hadn't considered they were trapped there.

 

I see now - sorry, Jacob. It was a pretty disorganized post, as I was really just spilling out whatever thoughts came to mind right on the spot.

So I just beat the game on the best ending. I found Ballos' puppy you (Fire1052) were referencing and now remember more, but I still found no evidence that Jenka's magical strength is still strong, as I originally inferred by her helplessness against Balrog taking her key. The only explanation I can see is if it's her power that is levitating the land mass.

 

She could also be suppressing Ballos's power.

The core acts as a counter against Ballos's downward pull, so Jenka might be sustaining the core so that Ballos can't smash the island into the ground and begin his murderous rampage.

 

Yeah, I remember we argued that for pages and pages.

 

One MAN got the crown? This could easily be evidence for Keron's idea of Miakid being a Crown-influenced mutation.

Miakid looks like a heavily armored Human to me. Though this is quite logical considering that he is military.

This would not effect the Doctor during CS because he hadn't really had it for too long.

Miakid didn't have it for too long either.

For example, the Characters page says the Doctor test-fed Igor red flowers, and that Kazuma's specialty "is raising sky dragons" (speaking of which, thanks for that clarification). That page's got to be fixed, then!

Gah! How did I miss that?!

It is now fixed.

 

Ah, you manage the website (or at least can modify it)? Maybe these pre-CS tidbits could be added to the Timeline on the site too, which seems a bit vague in some spots.

 

Miakid looks like a heavily armored Human to me. Though this is quite logical considering that he is military.

I thought Miakid was the other guy. Nate cleared that up a little while back.

 

1. Were then Sky Dragons present, or being created? Was the Egg Corridor even built? Why did Kazuma specialize in Sky Dragon-raising? Where does it say so, actually?

Sky Dragons being created? I don't think they were created, I think they were just bred.

 

Earlier you said the robot's goal was to get someone to be 'crowned'. Assuming this is so, this means Miakid, taken with power, must have turned against the military once he got what he wanted.

That would be an epic cutscene.

 

Earlier you said the robot's goal was to get someone to be 'crowned'. Assuming this is so, this means Miakid, taken with power, must have turned against the military once he got what he wanted.

That would be an epic cutscene.

The robots goal was to bring the crown to the governments. Quote and Curly's goal was to destroy the crown. But yes, Miakid would have turned against the military. By the end lots of Humans (government types and Human survivors of the war), Mimigas (used in Miakids experiments), and robots (Quote, Curly, and the Soldier robots) would have wanted him dead. Someone got their wish in the end.

 

Quick question. What Platform do you plan to use to make this game with, and how's it coming along? I'm sure we're not the only people who've wanted to make a prequel, but I've recently gave it some thought, as well, and I want to know how thoroughly the project has been taken.

 

No offense buddy, but there really is no plan to make one.

Please, read the previous posts, it helps.

And by that I mean it's a discussion about what one would need to make a prequel, so feel free to add your thoughts.

Oh, and the language would most likely be C++, but that's just my guess, considering it's very versatile.

And welcome to Mirai Gamer Forums, ya have the most original name I've seen yet!