>Exploration of the island's interior would be more fun, I suspect, had we the equipment to facilitate randomization. Thus, I have duly begun development upon the "Randomizer".
Development of this program will take place in two phases, versions 0.8 and 2.0. My plans call for 0.8 to be usable and to allow for a certain amount of randomization. I'm sure I can complete v2.0, provided I live long enough. It promises to be an even more fun experience.
When I started my Cave Story Randomizer project nearly a full year ago, there were a number of features I wanted to include before releasing the second major version. The roadmap was pretty simple: v0.8 would have the core randomization features, allowing for a fully randomized playthrough from Start Point to defeating Ballos. All the bells and whistles would be left for v2.0 - the original plan called for 3 game modes, 3 objectives, 3 difficulties, and a few other settings. We ended up getting 3 spawn locations (serving as both the game modes and difficulties), 5 objectives, and so much more. We've greatly surpassed my original plans for v2.0, and I couldn't be happier. I hope that everyone else enjoys as much as I do. Please join our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/7zUdPEn) to share your experience with others and get the latest news!
Changelog
This may not be a complete list, but it should have nearly everything that's changed since v0.8C. If you're unsure, or if you run into any issues, shoot me a message on Discord!
TL;DR
- Puppysanity
- New objectives
- New mychars
- New spawn locations
- Sequence break logic
- Randomized item hints
- Various gameplay improvements
Randomizer
- Puppysanity has been added as an option
- You may now choose from 5 different objectives
- Bad Ending (have MALCO build the bomb to free Kazuma, and defeat the Core)
- Normal Ending (build the rocket, and save Sue)
- Best Ending (same as Normal Ending, plus collect the Iron Bond and the Booster 2.0)
- All Bosses (same as Best Ending, plus defeat every boss in the game)
- 100% (same as All Bosses, plus collect every item in the game)
- You may now choose from 3 different spawn locations
- Start Point (classic)
- Arthur's House (often requires 3HP weaponless jaunts through Egg Corridor and Grasstown)
- Camp (gives Dr. Gero a strong weapon, and a 5HP life capsule in the Camp chest, which can be reached without flight in this mode)
- You may now choose from 8 different playable characters, all with unique Mimiga Mask sprites
- Quote
- Curly
- Sue
- Toroko
- King
- Kanpachi
- Misery
- Frog (from Kero Blaster)
- Sequence break logic has been added as an option, with individual toggles for each trick
- Music shuffling has been added as an option, with multiple settings that are explained in more detail within the randomizer itself
- A new method of sharing seeds, called sharecodes, has been implemented, allowing you to easily share a seed including all its settings with other players
Cave Story
- All text now scrolls instantly, and = signs are rendered properly
- A hash code appears on the title screen in order to easily verify you're playing on the same seed as someone (e.g. for races)
- Some of the more flavourful dialog across the game has been returned
- Super Missiles now give you 10 missiles if you collect them before any other Missiles
- A number of small visual bugs have been corrected
- You may now refight the Sisters at will
- Upon defeating Ironhead, a passage from the Reservoir back to the Dark Place is opened
- There are now signs hanging above Labyrinth Shop chests indicating the requirement to open them
- The Mr Little item can now be anywhere in the game, and in the Graveyard he can give you any item
- You can check in with Momorin at the rocket to see if you've met the requirements to beat the game
- The door to Last Cave also warns you if you don't have all the Throne Room requirements
- Game ending cutscenes are now fully automated
- Credits for the randomizer have been added, indicating a count of collected items at the very end
- The Map System, when used from the inventory, displays a count of collected items
- Hints have been added! Blue robots and Cthulhus will tell you a randomized hint about an item location, ranging from very useful to completely useless
- For Bad Ending, one hint is guaranteed to be for the Rusty Key
- For other endings, one hint is guaranteed to be for the ID Card
- When not spawning at the Start Point, one hint is guaranteed to be for Arthur's Key
- There are 8 regular hint locations in the game
- Blue robot in Egg Corridor
- Cthulhu in Cthulhu's Abode
- Cthulhu in West Grasstown
- Cthulhu in East Grasstown
- Two blue robots in Labyrinth I
- Blue robot in Egg Corridor?
- Cthulhu in Plantation
- There are also 2 special hints locations
- MALCO will hint about what item he will make for you
- Mrs. Little will hint about what item her husband will give you when he comes home
Other
- CSE2 is now officially supported, just replace its data folder with the pre-edited Cave Story data folder in your randomizer distribution then randomize as normal
- Daily challenges are being generated and posted in the daily channel in our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/7zUdPEn)