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[Corpus]

2002: Eternal Daughter
2004: Cave Story

2008: Iji

No, Iji doesn't fit into that timeline.
ED and Cave Story were both highly-polished games with great graphics that had been in development for years. Iji is a game that was in development for years and WOULD be highly-polished if the graphics weren't total arse.

(I do think Iji is awesome, though.)

[Dragonmaw]

I think the Iji graphics are up to personal taste.  They remind me a lot of Flashback  and Out of This World, which makes me happy, so I like them.

[muku]

We've had that discussion before. Some people find them nice, some don't, but whatever you think about Iji's graphics, they definitely aren't "total arse". That blows it way out of proportion.

[deadeye]

How about "somewhat resembling arse."

Yeah, Iji doesn't hold a candle to ED or CS in the graphics department.  Honestly I haven't bothered trying Iji yet because the graphics kind of turn me off in a deviantart sort of way.  Bad art I can tolerate.  Iji just has that almost-good-but-just-not-quite-there look that makes me kinda sad inside.

I think different palette would go a long way towards curing that.

[muku]

Honestly I haven't bothered trying Iji yet because the graphics kind of turn me off in a deviantart sort of way.

Do yourself a favor and play it. One, it's an excellent game, and two, I find the graphics work better in motion than on screenshots.

[Akhel]

I like Cave Story so much because it is so damn polished and fun. It is easy to see that it was made with love. Plus Sacred Grounds is incredibly well designed!

[Valter]

2002: Eternal Daughter
2004: Cave Story

2008: Iji

I can agree with this. Iji was fuckin' rad. The others bring up a good point, though: liking Iji is sort of up to personal taste, whereas Cave Story (I don't know about Eternal Daughter) is pretty much universally worshiped.

The other people pretty much nailed it, Architekt. Cave Story was nearly the best of its time. Back then, it was pretty much two games: La Mulana and Cave Story. I played La Mulana after hearing a reference to DeceasedCrab and watching a few of his videos. In fact, I played Cave Story afterwords because it had been DeceasedCrab's second playthrough. He was pretty much my introduction to indie gaming. As La Mulana was the first Indie game I played through, it holds a special place in my heart as favorite. I suppose Cave Story is close behind it, though.

Once last thing: Cave Story captured a somewhat anime style. It targeted a demographic that is very good at hyping things up. It's a very easy game to make fan art and such with, which might explain its extra hype.

[neon]

i don't know, i certainly didn't play a lot of cave story - i mean, what i did play was quite good, and felt and looked nice to me, but it seems to always be painted as THE indie video game.  it's not THE indie video game.  i mean, out of tigsource alone we have crazy shit coming out like Fez, Cafe, Ciellus(z), etc etc.  so, i think as time goes on it'll be stupid if we continue to paint it as such a great thing when i honestly think tigsource can surpass it in every area.  i mean, this is one of the first (?) and greatest indie game developer communities ever, and i think out of these forums, with time, will arise a whole host of stuff that will put cave story to shame.

[Fifth]

The only real problem I have with Cave Story (other than the irritating hype surrounding it, which is not the game's fault) is one of the issues Melly mentioned, that the best ending and other stuff is hidden in a pretty ridiculous way with no clues. The game is, ironically, spoiled unless you play it knowing certain spoilers.

I disagree with this.

The hints are subtle, but they're there.  If you think it through, you do get to a conclusion, and figure out how to change things.  And once you do... once you get even just that hint that things have changed, it's such a wonderful experience.

Incidentally, I think the story (and it being so entwined with the game itself) really did wonders for Cave Story, especially for the fact that you don't have to be satisfied with how it ends; all the regrets that the normal ending leaves you with just adds so much more reason - and reward - for going back through and changing things for the better.

[Gnarf]

I'm not very fond of that when missing little hints have you starting the game over from the beginning in order to get it right. When I played it, at first it seemed I could always go back and revisit areas and I got the impression that if I missed out on some little hidden thing I could go back and get it later. And then suddenly it turned out that I was wrong and that I had made important decisions that were fundamental to the story without even knowing that I was making decisions. Communication is sometimes nice.

As a little aside I've always considered the multiple endings thing in JRPGs and such to be mostly content padding and not very interesting.

Good game though. Cute story and atmosphere, nice and enjoyable core game mechanics, lots of cute things that look cute. I like cute. Opening a chest and finding a puppy that you can carry on your head or something is very awesome.

[moi]

What?  Alternative ending? Cave story? What?

[PenguinHat]

What?  Alternative ending? Cave story? What?

There's a few. At one point you can run away from the end game, and if you jump through some hoops you can change things a fair bit and get access to an extremely hard extra bit for a hidden ending. The hints are a bit vague, and to get the best ending you have to not pick something up. However, at the time it appears that you have no choice but to get the item in question.

You can get it by (spoilers)not picking up the jetpack, which will allow you to pick up a rope when you are in the core. Once you have the rope, you should be able to work out the rest. Just don't skip the little house. I did that once, saved, and then had to start again from the beginning.

[Valter]

What?  Alternative ending? Cave story? What?

I really hope you're kidding.

[GregWS]

Once last thing: Cave Story captured a somewhat anime style. It targeted a demographic that is very good at hyping things up. It's a very easy game to make fan art and such with, which might explain its extra hype.

Yes, that's exactly what I was getting at when referencing the "Japanese Style" of the game.  That crowd loves to hype, so that helps to explain why people are still hyped about it.

What?  Alternative ending? Cave story? What?

I really hope you're kidding.

So I guess we'll both be playing through it again?

[ChevyRay]

Yeah, I think that Cave Story and Eternal Daughter are just as much personal taste as Iji was. While you can complain about Daniel's style of graphics for Iji, it's still real easy to complain about the stiff, MMF feel of Eternal Daughter, or the really lame, typical cutesy story of Cave Story. I think Iji's writing roasted Cave Story's, and I think its gameplay was more fleshed out than ED's.

Still, comparing them all really is just a wasteful blunder anyhow. They're each individual games, all worth playing for their own reasons. If you miss out on what any one of them has to offer, then you're the one missing out

[Lucaz]

Cave Story secrets are, to me at least, too hard to find. I mean, I still haven't seen any clue or anything about why you should leave Prof. Booster alone when you see him falling. Also, the thing I really disliked is how unrelated things alter each other. I mean, why talking to Prof. Booster makes the Tow Rope disappear?.

Anyway the game rocks. It wasn't so big for me as it might have been for other people, but I played it a couple of months ago, just once. Also, I think Iji is on the same level, and actually I think I like a bit more. It's more my kind of game.

[Bree]

I think what impresses me most about this game is not just how well-made it is, but the fact that it was made by one man. According to Pixel himself, he worked on it after work for about five years. Five bloody years, on one freeware game. That is an incredible amount of dedication, and I greatly respect the man for it.

Also, I still haven't beaten it the first time. WHY MUST I BE SO TERRIBLE AT WHAT I LOVE?!

[Corpus]

My only issue with Cave Story is that it's too hard for me to even get half way through.

I really suck at.. most games.

[GregWS]

I think what impresses me most about this game is not just how well-made it is, but the fact that it was made by one man. According to Pixel himself, he worked on it after work for about five years. Five bloody years, on one freeware game.

See, that's what we call the Japanese Work Ethic, and I think it may contribute to the whole mass-suicide problem they seem to have over there.

[Valter]

Uh, guys. Iji wasn't made just by Ultimortal, but he did almost all the work on it, and it was something like a 5-7 year project. It's not just Japanese that have that work ethic.