Doukutsu Monogatari

Doukutsu Monogatari on Dreamcast is the homebrew NXEngine DC release of Studio Pixel's Cave Story, rather than an official Dreamcast edition published by Nicalis. It is built from NXEngine, an open-source rewrite of Cave Story, adapted for Sega's console by the developer known as histat.

The documented Dreamcast release is version 1.0, dated September 19, 2013. It was made available as a ready-to-burn CDI image as well as a plain-files package, placing it squarely in the Dreamcast's post-commercial homebrew scene.

This version runs the original Cave Story content through the NXEngine implementation. The game remains a side-scrolling action-platform adventure in which the player explores a cave-filled island, talks with its inhabitants, fights enemies, finds equipment, and opens further routes as the story develops.

NXEngine DC was distributed separately from the needed Cave Story game data and background-music files. The project's materials also included audio downloads and an extraction utility, reflecting the port's community-built, source-port approach rather than a retail package.

On a Dreamcast controller, the D-pad is assigned to movement and Start opens the menu, corresponding to the engine's F3 menu command. The project's default configuration leaves the face buttons and triggers unassigned, so a player may need to configure those controls before using them for play.

The port also supports a Dreamcast keyboard. Its documented mappings use the arrow keys for movement, F3 for the menu, Z to jump, X to fire, Q for inventory, W for the map, and A and S to cycle through weapons.

NXEngine DC credits Caitlin Shaw, also known as rogueeve, for the original NXEngine, and uses the Libronin Dreamcast development library. Its Dreamcast-specific code was published as an open-source project, which distinguishes this release from Cave Story's official commercial ports.