Cave Noire

> Gameboy

// 2024-02-06, 2 min read, #gaming #review

I discovered Cave Noire thanks to a post by Selena over on Mastodon who had also just discovered it

https://vmst.io/@SuperSelena64/111767213699413841

I have rolled credits on this game, which happens when you get each quest to level 7, but it appears to keep going after that with increasing quests and difficulties. I'm currently trying to see how far it goes. The achievements on Retro Achievements jump from level IX to level M, which.. M isn't 10 in Roman Numerals so I don't know why those milestones are set that way, and I really hope there isn't a level one thousand.. Perhaps M means "master" as in "master difficulty"?

If you want quick bite sized adventures, this game is it. It's a proper roguelike with no item or character progression between outings. You do make progress in the form of unlocking harder quests, but you always start from zero for each quest – though the "zero" for quest level 7, for example, will give you higher base stats than quest level 1, so that you have a fighting chance.

It's super straightforward, super understandable, and barely even needs the English patch to be honest. There are no special systems you have to keep track of, no management of skill points, or even abilities. Attacks are performed by bumping into enemies (which I've recently learned is called "Bump Combat" lol, and it's almost a whole subgenre of Action and RPG games), and enemies only move or attack after you do. It's a turn based system so you're never rushed to do anything and you can take your time to plan a few moves in advance.

Cave Noire is divided into four different quest types:

Gold – collect X amount of gold and safely exit.

Kill – kill X amount of monsters and safely exit.

Orbs – collect X amount of orbs and safely exit. The trick here is that orbs take up space in your very limited inventory.

Fairies – find keys to free caged fairies and safely exit. Keys take up inventory space until they get used to unlock a cage. You need to find one key for each cage.

You have a total of 8 inventory slots, which isn't a problem early on, but eventually you will need to make some decisions. Weapon and shield upgrades take up inventory. Keys and orbs take up inventory. You can also pick up healing potions and fireball scrolls, each of which get removed on use. Do you really need to be carrying two antidote potions? Or any at all if you're explicitly avoiding monsters? Cave Noire seems really simple on the surface but ends up putting you in scenarios where you have to make difficult decisions, and sometimes there's no singular correct one.

I find myself compelled to keep playing because of how accessible and challenging it is, and it's a perfect game if you wanna sneak in some playtime during small moments at family gatherings or something.

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