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The Cave |OT| Choose your own Adventurers

EDarkness

Member
As our first game on Wii U (on any Nintendo platform for that matter), the bulk of our effort had to be spent ensuring that the engine was ported over well and that the game made the transition safely. We were also shipping on more platforms than we've ever shipped on at once before, and there just wasn't the time and bandwidth to support off-TV mode, unfortunately. That mode requires the dev to implement it entirely (as opposed to simply being handled by the hardware), and it just wasn't feasible with the resources we had.

Any idea when the demo will be hitting the US eShop?
 

Pomegranate

Neo Member
I'm stuck :(
I got the Monk's feather. What am I supposed to do now? I think it has something to do with the bridge but nothing is happening.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
Damn, the carnival is full of little puzzles. Stuck on the wheel of misfortune, will have to sleep on it lol.

The carnival is kicking my ASS. Specifically the Guess Your Weight! machine.

I feel like the Cupcake and the Barbell have something to do with the solution, but I haven't figured it out yet...
Will have to think about this one!

EDIT: OH SHIT! Just got it! That busted my balls for a long while!
Haha, the carnival part is pretty cool. Loved the down-on-his-luck magician.
 

Artanisix

Member
The game is AMAAAAAAAZING. I'm loving almost every bit of it. The only part that I thought was "eh" so far was the (non-character specific spoiler, happens after the 2nd character story? on first play through so I think so)
miner and returning his minecarts.

Taking a break right now. The Knight was pretty easy and a lot of fun, the Hillbilly was very challenging and lots of fun, and now I'm on the Twins, which is proving to also be fairly challenging.
 

Viperik

Banned
I'm liking the game so far. Playing really smooth with 360 controller on PC. Animations are top notch and the story seems intriguing enough.
 

Alur

Member
My run through with the Knight/Monk/Time Traveler has been fun so far. I've used everyone's ability to my advantage at least once, and the Knight's area/puzzle (or I'm assuming it was his) was pretty cool.

The only thing I dislike about the game is having to get to the next checkpoint to catch my other characters up. It's a minor nitpick though, and the game is definitely living up to my expectations.
 

Artanisix

Member
I honestly think the humor is spot on. I love it.

I wish the seven characters talked though! Even little quips would add a lot of life to them.
 
Hour and 15 mins in. Love the look and the atmosphere. You can tell a lot of love went into animating every little thing too.

Getting your other dudes caught up though is a slight chore though. Ladders take too long to climb. Just seems like a lot of wasted time in really tedious movement stuff. But that's minor in the grand scheme of things.

I'm mad because I'm pretty sure I missed something and now there is no way for me to go back and get it. Adventurer area spoilers:
All the wall paintings had the lady using the ankh on three lantern things and then I get to the end and there are the three lanterns and I didn't have the ankh with me and no way to get it. That sucked. I noticed and realized what I needed to do which I thought was a feat in and of itself if you weren't paying close attention, and I don't get to do it because I didn't grab the one item and carry it through? That sucks.
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Ok, beat the game with Time Traveler, Monk, and Scientist.

YES, THIS WILL BE SPOILERY! ~ Spoiler tags added by request!

The Cave's snark
was pretty... meh to me, really. I guessed what he was going to say, or how he'd twist his story almost each time. Ooooh, dark and ominious! Sure...

The stories were all pretty dark, but
the fact they ALL seem to be Dark really lessened the impact.
"These people are all really greedy, and commit murder on various degrees!"
Ooo. Ahhh.

There's NO interaction at ALL between the characters. That really is sad, and totally takes the fun out of "Choose you own adventure" to me. One thing I liked about those books, is that I could choose something because of what I figured would happen, but then the character personality would override the situation, and things would turn out in a totally unexpected way. That never happened here. It all felt very linear, and pre-determined. The only strong choice appeared to be "Which of the 7 will you play?"

The ending art was nice, but talk about a lack of "Oomph!"

- No music to accompany the scenes?
- No attempt to make these final scrolls appear any more significant than the first ones?

The music could have been used so much more effectively to enforce uniqueness. As could the writing or VA work. The way each character carelessly helped the others commit atrocities made it feel like I might as well have been playing personality-less stick figures.

I was impressed by the gameplay of Trenched / Iron Brigade, because it seemed very well developed all around, and the world they made around it was very solid. A great value for the price.

Costume Quest was great, too, because the charm of the children gave additional substance to the comedy and situations. And the gameplay felt like it had some layer of depth to it. I was ready to see it turn into an annual series, upon completing it.

The Cave just felt like it had some nice window dressing, a few good streamlining decisions (inventory for an area confined to what you USE in that area is a great thing), but I felt like I was always waiting for it to elevate past the central "ooo, it's a talking cave!" motif.

The Narrator from Bastion, for example, seemed to have much more thought put behind him. He said things I was thinking, commented on what I'd catch out the corner of my eye, and his dry humor was more original and unexpected. It was like getting to meet a new character. Meeting the Cave was like listening to a 1-trick personality constantly remind me about who he was, over an over again, while on a trip. He never evolved.. he just... talked.

I do take some happiness in knowing that I still have 4 more protagonist to go through the game with. Character stages are the best parts, and you have a good amount to still see! But the fact that one of those playthroughs will be using 2 characters over again, without as much as a moment of "new" character interaction to look forward to, to help refresh the experience? Bah.

Cave is a nice game, sure, but this is one of few times where I feel it could easily have been so, so much more. Functional, not Fantastic.
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Ok, beat the game with Time Traveler, Monk, and Scientist.

YES, THIS WILL BE SPOILERY!

So use spoiler tags? What's your problem, don't you like black things or do you just want everyone to read your stuff anyway?
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
So use spoiler tags? What's your problem, don't you like black things or do you just want everyone to read your stuff anyway?

Well, I avoid talking about direct details, and spoiler what would actually really give away anything. But I figure a discussion about "beating the game" would obviously mean "I speak about things that happen".

I find a wall of black bars to be more annoying than an ovious warning of "you might wanna skip this, if you're worried about (light) spoilers", but hey, if you're worried about it, I'll just wrap it in one big spoiler tag! (Well, ok, a few spoiler tags.)

And yes, I would hope someone would read it, and offer their opinions, but... I don't think I said anything that asked for a hostile comeback. Sorry if something about my warning annoyed you!
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Well, I avoid talking about direct details, and spoiler what would actually really give away anything. But I figure a discussion about "beating the game" would obviously mean "I speak about things that happen".

I find a wall of black bars to be more annoying than an ovious warning of "you might wanna skip this, if you're worried about spoilers", but hey, if you're worried about it, I'll just wrap it in one big spoiler tag!

I would hope someone would read it, and offer their opinions, but... I don't think I said anything that asked for a hostile comeback. Sorry if something about my warning annoyed you!

I'm sorry about the unintended hostility (just woke up and basically on my way to work, if that's any excuse), I just read your post's first sentence until the spoiler warning came up, so I just figured you'd talk about specific puzzles and spoilers a lot, about a few hours after the game launched and everyone rushes to this thread.

Thank you a lot for the nice reply and the tagging! And again, sorry for my jerk reply :)
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
I'm sorry about the unintended hostility (just woke up and basically on my way to work, if that's any excuse), I just read your post's first sentence until the spoiler warning came up, so I just figured you'd talk about specific puzzles and spoilers a lot, about a few hours after the game launched and everyone rushes to this thread.

Thank you a lot for the nice reply and the tagging! And again, sorry for my jerk reply :)

Understandable enough, we don't all know each other on here, so I won't take it personally :) I hope not to have ruined anyone's time with the game in any way, and it's good to err on the side of caution in cases like this, so no problem.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
This is so good. And the cave's lines...

"Look, I don't want to stereotype here...but has there ever been a set of twins that weren't evil?"
 

Lain

Member
Played a bit and got stuck on the 3 carts part (can't seem to solve one of the carts puzzle).
Game is fun and nice, the voice over is pretty cool, but going up and down ladders and ropes is a bit too slow.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
So is it better than Trine 2? I might get this tomorrow.
That's a null question because the games are nothing alike.

Is it better than Castlevania or Contra or Shank? No, it's a completely different game that also happens to be a sidescroller.

It is good and funny brainteaser if not without its good share of problems.
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
So is it better than Trine 2? I might get this tomorrow.

Trine 2 is more a "gamey" game to me, where as this is more puzzles and dialogue. They're not exactly made to satisfy the same gaming sense at all. Depending on what you like more in your games, this MIGHT be better for you than Trine 2?

For me, Trine's more fleshed out characters, and more open-ended puzzles make it win out easily, but the kinda calm, never-too-challenging nature of this game makes it something of a short and sweet timewaster. Like a book of crossword puzzles or something...

Anyone else here having performance problems with the Wii U version? It's super stuttery for me.

Hard locked first time played, odd "fall through floor" glitches towards the end of the game. Stuttering only really happened when saving, or during times when my control input wasn't too vital (Like falling to a new area, or walking down a long, load-intensive corridor).

Everything else ran well enough in my Co-Op playthrough.
 
Well I finished it a big ago with the hillbilly, knight, and the twins. Loved the humor and the puzzles, while easy for the most part, were still fun to do. Felt like Maniac Maniac a lot and it's nice. to see Ron can still make a good adventure game.
 

nickcv

Member
As our first game on Wii U (on any Nintendo platform for that matter), the bulk of our effort had to be spent ensuring that the engine was ported over well and that the game made the transition safely. We were also shipping on more platforms than we've ever shipped on at once before, and there just wasn't the time and bandwidth to support off-TV mode, unfortunately. That mode requires the dev to implement it entirely (as opposed to simply being handled by the hardware), and it just wasn't feasible with the resources we had.

What do you mean that off-tv requires the dev to implement it entirely?
there's not an available api you can just use for that?

i'm not bashing you guys for not doing it, i understand you had enough to worry about, i'd just like to know how easy it is to implement it and how much effort you think it's needed to use that feature.

are you also thinking about adding that feature later on with an update?

edit: one more question, how is it exactly the language support? Is the spoken dialogue always in english and you just get subtitles for the other languages?
 

Xater

Member
What do you mean that off-tv requires the dev to implement it entirely?
there's not an available api you can just use for that?

i'm not bashing you guys for not doing it, i understand you had enough to worry about, i'd just like to know how easy it is to implement it and how much effort you think it's needed to use that feature.

are you also thinking about adding that feature later on with an update?

edit: one more question, how is it exactly the language support? Is the spoken dialogue always in english and you subtitles for the other languages?

There not being an easy API to use would at least explain why off TV play works great with Mario but looks like crap with Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
 
So, should I get this for the Wii U or PS3? What's your verdict here?

Would have gone for the Wii U version, but no proper offTV-Gamepad support keeps me a little bit away from it.
 

Vert boil

Member
Pro-Tip™

In the Time Traveller's area, if you are stuck it's probably to do with the game. This shouldn't be a problem in Co-op.

When you are pushing the stone to let the water drip you have to be actively holding/pushing the stone when you switch for it to work. You can't just be blocking it from moving.

Spent over an hour trying to figure it out.


Didn't have time to finish my first playthrough last night. Still good good.
 

wouwie

Member
After the reviews, it wasn't so sure about this anymore. I checked out the demo and liked it a lot so i bought it in the end. Can't wait to continue playing tonight which is a good sign. Really enjoying the visuals (looks great and fresh), the music and the gameplay.

On the negative side, the game performance is not 100% smooth (some framerate problems) and i wish the characters themselves had some dialogue. That would have given them a bit more personality. Also, getting the characters together is rather time consuming. But no really big issues so far.

Something i wonder though:
in the beginning, after the beast, you end up at a cliff/waterfall scene. When one of my characters drops down, the camera doesn't seem to follow down and i can't select any of my other characters. Seems really weird and i don't know if that is normal?
 

CzarTim

Member
Pro-Tip™

In the Time Traveller's area, if you are stuck it's probably to do with the game. This shouldn't be a problem in Co-op.

When you are pushing the stone to let the water drip you have to be actively holding/pushing the stone when you switch for it to work. You can't just be blocking it from moving.

Spent over an hour trying to figure it out.


Didn't have time to finish my first playthrough last night. Still good good.

Yup. Got super stuck on this part as well.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
I really like the game. PS3 version runs pretty well, framedrops only seem to happen around water. I think I've found one, probably non-platform specific bug.

Right where the demo ends and the full game begins, when you jump into water with one of your characters, screen won't scroll down and zoom onto that character. I had to blindly navigate to where she was supposed to go, and when I did that I couldn't switch back to any other characters anymore. Had to save and quit, then continue, and the game corrected itself.

Before I figured out how to get this to work, I got stuck a few times due to not being able to select any characters after the initial jump into water, so I really had to reload probably three times before the situation sorted itself out.

Btw, love the transition/narration from demo to full game, but this bug soured it.
 

Kurtofan

Member
Help I'm stuck at the beginning
how do I get pass the dragon's bone pit?

I caught him with the machine but I can't jump over the pit.
 

nny

Member
Help I'm stuck at the beginning
how do I get pass the dragon's bone pit?

I caught him with the machine but I can't jump over the pit.

You pick the dragon with the claw and then go through where it was...you can't jump over the pit where you put the hot dog? That's weird, it's just a small jump. Keep trying...
Maybe this will help.
 

Vert boil

Member
Help I'm stuck at the beginning
how do I get pass the dragon's bone pit?

I caught him with the machine but I can't jump over the pit.

That is a bug. Once the machine hoists up the beast you can just jump over the pit and advance.

If you are playing the demo then you're boned. The demo ends just after that so you aren't missing much else.

If you are playing the full game then try going to the menu and save & exit and then load again. If that doesn't sort it and one of the DF guys doesn't have an answer then you'd probably have to start another game.
 

nny

Member
That is a bug. Once the machine hoists up the beast you can just jump over the pit and advance.

If you are playing the demo then you're boned. The demo ends just after that so you aren't missing much else.

If you are playing the full game then try going to the menu and save & exit and then load again. If that doesn't sort it and one of the DF guys doesn't have an answer then you'd probably have to start another game.

Oh, that sucks :/
 

dk_

Member
The PC version runs fine w/o the poor framerate and stuttering the console versions have. Proper version confirmed!
 
So how long does the game take to beat generally? Does it take longer to beat the game depending on the combination of characters you pick?
 

Lima

Member
So how long does the game take to beat generally? Does it take longer to beat the game depending on the combination of characters you pick?

It took me 6 hours to beat it on my first go.

And yeah it depends on the characters you pick.

Easy and fast puzzles:

- The knight
- the monk
- the scientist

The hillbilly is fairly easy but has a rather long puzzle.

The time traveler, the twins and the adventurer have the longest and most complex puzzles in the game. It still entirely depends on how long you are stuck at some of the puzzles.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Tried demo, pressed jump button, was immediately repelled. Game feels like shit to play. :\

Might give it a shot at some point but it definitely didn't make a good first impression.
 

Lima

Member
Tried demo, pressed jump button, was immediately repelled. Game feels like shit to play. :\

Might give it a shot at some point but it definitely didn't make a good first impression.

Yeah the jumping feels too floaty and kinda off.
 
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