reflections on the idealized past and the horrifyingly mundane present viewed through the innocent lens of childhood nostalgia and the very concept of "formative media," which is a topic i think about quite often and allude to frequently on my backloggd reviews

as somebody who spent a lot of time playing cave story on my wii as a kid the particular use of that "genre" of "i played this as a kid" that a lot of games seem to fall into (like earthbound, kingdom hearts and cave story) resonated with me in a way i have issues putting words to. "we really liked cave story, huh?" evocative of passions and that childhood sense of wonder slowly being forgotten with adulthood until you kind of forget you were ever once that capable of being genuinely wholly excited about things in that specific way, or at least being honest with yourself about it

and the "cave story sex rpg" thing in and of itself reminds me of that era of newgrounds flash hentai parody games which i myself associate with that period of youthful naivety and the Unknown and the forbidden, kind of a naive and innocent period in the internet and online media as we know it too, but maybe that's just me with my brain having been warped in a weird way by accidentally finding flash porn when i was Way Too Young

it took me longer to think about and write this review than it did to play the game which is saying something. i don't know what exactly but it's saying something. it's not a particularly evocative or transformative experience but for what it is it sure did give me a lot to think about and reflect on and i think it achieves what it sets out to do. it's not for everybody