Barbuta, Mooncat, and Divers Timeline?

[sgt johnson]

I just saw mention of the eggs in Barbuta on the "What old games are these inspired by?" thread and it got my brain back on the questions I'd had after wrapping up everything on Divers, so I figured since I was already on the forum, maybe I'd ask if anyone else has got it all figured out!

It certainly feels as though these three share a stronger/more intended to be canon connection than pretty much any of the other games in the collection (aside from Campanella and others that are clearly intended to be sequels, part of a franchise, etc.), yet of course they also seem to be some of the most cryptic titles as well. Upon finishing Divers, my mind immediately started trying to sort out what the most likely timeline would be, but it feels as though a good number of the events of interest in Divers could hint at it taking place before, after, or even in-between Barbuta and Mooncat.

I've pretty much hit the point where I enjoy thinking about it from time-to-time, but don't imagine I'm in for any kind of epiphany that leads me to a real, surefire answer, so I'd love to hear if anyone's taken a deeper dive (Eh?..Eh?) and think they might have a bead on what the order of events really is!

I assume my post generally avoids any real spoilers, but it might be a good idea to mark any other theories as potential spoilers first, just to ensure new players can still go in to each experience blind, if they want to!

[Ame-kun]

I also picked up on this, but I haven't really figured out anything solid. I know there's a couple of strange cameos between the games: the starting room of barbuta is in Mooncat, and there's a few things in Divers from other games, like I think there's a wrecked Campanella someplace down there. But the storytelling is so sparse between all three games that I don't have anything concrete...

[sgt johnson]

Originally posted by Ame-kun:

I also picked up on this, but I haven't really figured out anything solid. I know there's a couple of strange cameos between the games: the starting room of barbuta is in Mooncat, and there's a few things in Divers from other games, like I think there's a wrecked Campanella someplace down there. But the storytelling is so sparse between all three games that I don't have anything concrete...

I actually don't remember seeing the starting room from Barbuta in Mooncat; that's pretty cool!

On the cameo-front, I always figured the Campanella was firmly in Easter-Egg territory because of just how many titles it pops-up in, but I'd completely forgotten how after watching the ending of Campanella 3, I actually did wonder if the connection between it and Divers might actually be intended to be canon in this case. I still really don't get the ending for Campanella 3.. Feels like a mistake, to me!

The cherry requirement in Divers is actually one of the biggest reasons I considered all of the other connections to be intentionally canon. I won't restate the cherry requirement here to avoid spoilers, but it seemed very odd to me in a way that still felt completely unexplained even after reaching the end.

[⑨ ChocolateMystia]

Originally posted by sgt johnson:

It certainly feels as though these three share a stronger/more intended to be canon connection than pretty much any of the other games

There's a few other games with strong connections [POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD].

Like you mentioned, Barbuta, Mooncat, and Divers seem to be the same universe, since in Divers there's that one place where you can find Barbuta's helmet and a Mooncat corpse, and the Mooncat eggs seem to be the same ones you respawn from in Barbuta, with them even containing Barbuta's gear.

Another large group of games would be the space ones, mainly tied by Onion Delivery. In it, you can find a lot of ads for things like a bug extermination service (Bug Hunter), or gambling on various sports (Quibble Race, Hyper Contender, Overbold, Big Bell Race, potentially but unconfirmed Pingolf). And obviously Overbold is a sequel to Velgress. I think the Campanella also shows up in Onion Delivery, and Pilot is one of the spectators in one of the other listed sport games, which would tie in the 4 Campanella games, as well as Zoldath and Pilot Quest (the 2 games featuring Pilot). There's also a "Visit Zoldath" sign in Onion Delivery. And lastly, a lot of these games seem to feature the same alien races.

Devilition, Grimstone, and Rail Heist are also tied together (Western + demons universe), and there's a pretty big cameo of Rail Heist in Mini & Max, but not sure if that's just a cheeky reference, or if this western universe exists there in some form, like toys or a media franchise.

The other major group of ties, would be in relation to Mini & Max itself. The premise sees Mini's older sister, Amy, locking her in the room, what Amy is doing meanwhile is hosting the party of House Party. Amy is also mentioned in Night Manor (the protagonist argued with Amy during the party and left). Moreover, the events of Night Manor are caused by Moldok Tea, the Moldok being the moldy species you meet in Mini & Max with ambitions to take over the world. Amy has a couple other appearances as well: she's one of the playable characters in Hot Foot (which also features the school's dinosaur mascot from House Party), and she's also a playable character in Hell Fist (the zombies of which could've originated from the Moldok/Night Manor). And lastly, Night Manor has some ants fighting each other in a grave you dig, tying it to Combatants.

There could be more, but it's hard to say if they are real connections or just easter eggs and speculation, like there's a crashed campanella in Golfaria, so we could assume it's in the Pilot universe and it's just one of the planets he crashed on, or it could just be a UFOSOFT easter egg.

[sgt johnson]

Originally posted by ⑨ ChocolateMystia:

Awesome list! It's good to see a player of taste appreciating the many gifts Onion Delivery bestows upon humankind.

I never made the connection between the tea and the Moldoks! That is absolutely amazing. I had kinda overlooked Night Manor upon my first playthrough because I absolutely despise the kind of horror-games that just send you through a quick little story that just end with "you still died!" or "everything is bad!", but when I checked and found that you can actually get a good ending, it definitely made being interested in it a lot easier! Still not exactly my kind of horror (I'm all for the almost oppressively pristine, gothic atmosphere of Resident Evil 1 HD Remaster. So good!), but definitely still a lot there I appreciated!

I actually found it a little upsetting when Fist Hell used the gym from Hot Foot because I loved Hot Foot's mood and didn't particularly enjoy seeing it get washed over by Fist Hell's weird, grim atmosphere. Just not a fan of Fist Hell's art, music, or gameplay, so that probably didn't help my impression, either! The Amy appearances are pretty cool in all those games; making the connection after seeing the Night Manor opening a few times was really cool!

The Moldok tea is absolutely another level of connection; just so awesome. Aside from that one, though, most of the others tend to feel more intended as peripheral references, which is obviously fine, but I guess that's what made the Divers, Barbuta, and Mooncat connection feel so interesting to me. The references in Divers feel important in an unexplained way, especially with the resulting action upon discovering the three hidden images. The fact that finding the three images is a requirement for cherrying the game also makes them feel as though they are connected on a deeper story level than what we get to see in most other references.

I actually never looked at the three secrets as actual items and while it's been a little bit now since I played it, one possibility that pops to mind is that they are etchings into the undersea rock. Again, I've got as little idea about what they are as I do their connection to the story, but it's one thought that popped into my head! XD