Royal spoilers...

[Black_Lotus]

Thats eff'd up what the game forced us to do to Royal. He had good intentions at the end of the day and we're forced to leave him on the moon to explode. Why did they do that? It sorta makes the MC ominious.

[Phara]

I know what you mean, thought i could smuggle him over with the beam or good positioning. Even if it would be possible you cant get over the big blocks with him... maybe with the laser upgrade to shoot through object... Well there isnt a real "good" ending. Mina still has problems with her mother, Elro is completly crippled and ignored by Robin, Royal was full of himself and through the whole game and every one told him he is useless and garbage. At the end he died with this depressing emotions. Most of the soldiers died (probably Hannibal and Alistair too ). All kids in the tower are wasted, dont know what to do with himselfes or just acting crazy. etc. etc.
Only Robin proved she can do what ever she wants if she believes in herself :P

[Snowskeeper]

The kids in the tower are dead.
The swapper wouldn't have worked; the other panel was broken. Robin would have been stuck, and Royal wouldn't have gone for an escape pod.

Robin may have succeeded in saving the world, but in the process she saw a lot of selfish or misguided people do everything they could to end it. That includes Royal, who died in large part because he threw a fit and attacked the Starworm. Even at the end of the world, he was thinking more about becoming a hero than he was about actually being heroic.

Can't imagine Robin came out of all those horrific revelations unscathed.

[Ghostel]

To be fair if what Elro says is true - Robin was already somewhat traumatized by death of her father which made her talk a lot less.

Also about unlucky characters - Black. Hoo boy does life hate this woman for only doing her job, amrite? Botched transcendence, constant headaches, loosing sence of purpose, having close comrade blow up in your face, then be betrayed by your own forces, die trying to keep following your orders cause there is nothing left to do and go nuts, die, then have a nice experience of what remains from your body be hijacked by blue eyballs and explode.

Srsly all things considered the story should be not called "Iconclasts" it should be called "Trauma Conga Line THE GAME". Just look at the heroes state right before game end.

Robin - Stepford Smiler - Father dies, then everyone who she tries to help instead get in a sence worse and it never ends. By the end it seems like she keeps going, trying to fix the situation not because of determination but just because not doing anything would be even worse and she still doesn't come out of her silent smily shell.
Elro - Father dies, kills an Agent - it bites his in the ass so hard, Wife and daughter dies, home lost sister lost, loses hand, in the end broken both physically and mentally.
Mina - In the end wasn't able to handle the pressure and left Robin. As her sister says "You always run from your problems". She says she goes back home... But if you check she is nowhere to be found.
Royal - got his whole world view crumble before him. Desperatly tried to prove he isn't in the end despaired and was left on the moon by his friend to die.

[<:)]

Originally posted by Ghostel:

Mina - In the end wasn't able to handle the pressure and left Robin. As her sister says "You always run from your problems". She says she goes back home... But if you check she is nowhere to be found.
.

If you watch the end credits Mina does end up returning home. If anything it seems like Robin taught Mina to face her problems head-on.

[x-calibar]

@saving Royal
You probably have to have the double jump float tweak, the roulette tweak activate Slow Time, leap tweak; all on New Game+. Also you'll need all flawless battles and mini-games to unlock the ability to move during the cutscene where the mental attack comes at him. You'll get one perfect frame where the green wrench symbol shows up and you can do a leap jump to intercept the mental attack.

This puts Robin into the nightmare state, and you'll have to complete the four nightmare challenges while on a timer. When you wake up you'll be at the broken door which should be smashed down, but Royal will be knocked out. You'll have to carry him the rest of the way and double jump over the boxes. If you manage to make it to the escape pod in time the game will glitch and an error will appear... "How is this possible?" "I didn't code this... - Konjak"

EDIT: Oh yeah, end game spoilers ahead! Just a warning.

@main characters in the end
... lol but seriously, on the main character's mental states: I think if Robin chooses family in the dream, she'll have a chance to mend Elro's darkness. At the very least he might have a future in the new world.
I didn't know what to expect of Mina's mom, but with Mina and Samba settling down, they'll probably have an important role in the future to come.
Royal will likely be forgotten or remembered harshly by the general public. Killed Mother, brought a likely apocalypse to the world, etc... But, I'm certain Robin will mourn for Royal. She alone should recognize that the Starworm was defeated by the weakpoint he created. That Royal's downfall was because he saved Robin, just as she had saved him.

Maybe he *was* a bad guy. Raised to be the Royalty of everything wrong with the current system. But, he gave it all up for Robin. Whatever the reasoning was... some form of love, revenge, friendship, trust... He had her back more than once. And together they foolishly wrought havoc as a team.

Who saved Robin from being executed in the desert at the expense of a train of important supplies?
Who helped Robin escape from the Tower prison and guided her? (Her cell had an exit? Shining butterflies appeared to guide her?)
And debatebly, why did the Silver Watchman show up at the perfect time to save her?
And then Royal showed up to eliminate the Silver Watchman soon as they found the first camera outside the tower? (Pretty sure that was the first camera I remember seeing in that area. He must have had a way to watch the cameras...? Otherwise he could have brought down the roof on Robin instead of the Silver Watchman... But who knows off screen plans except Konjak.)
Who fought Mother and prevented her from using the rocket to escape? (What would have happened if an army of soldiers and her personal guard had gotten involved instead...?)
Who created the weakpoint on Him?

Royal is a royal mess, but... if anyone will mourn his passing, surely Robin will visit those flowers...

@Op - Your question, why did Robin leave Royal at that time?

There's a few possibilities... But, I think it's ultimately up to the player's own Robin. Who you think she is... Yes, perhaps your Robin would never leave him behind... but...

Maybe Konjak forced the issue to demonstrate Robin is only human. That when faced with a situation of pure chaos... Air is being sucked out into space, debris is flying around, the place is actually exploding around her... and she can't reach the person she's trying everything to save. There's no time to think. He doesn't budge... You will die if you stay. You just have to let go.

At the very least, when she returns home, you see that it *has* affected her. So that choice wasn't so much ominous, but out of necessity... and now regret...

It might be up to the player's interpretation of events, but I think Royal's loss spurred Robin into action. She leaps into a hole with no way out probably and faces the Starworm fearlessly, (and foolishly...) like he did...

[Of course there are other ways to look at it though.]

[Snowskeeper]

Robin had no way to save him. If she had, she would have. The sensor was damaged past the point where it could be repaired in a timely manner. She couldn't have dragged the flapping one along while simultaneously dragging Royal, against the strong winds that were pulling at you. If she'd tried to Swap Royal over to the other side of the gate, they would have both been stuck, because the sensor on the other side of the door is broken in a much more permanent way.

(Royal's downfall was that he couldn't believe he really wasn't the center of the universe; he couldn't get rid of the idea that he was somehow bigger than everything around him, up to and including the Starworm. He died because he thought he could kill a god using that god's own weapon. It was pure luck that this opened up a weakpoint that Robin could exploit later.)

[Nova225]

Originally posted by Snowskeeper:

The kids in the tower are dead.

Did you finish the game? They were all fine when I beat one. Except for one getting slapped around. You can also visit the area before the end game and talk to all of them.

[Snowskeeper]

Originally posted by Nova225:

Originally posted by Snowskeeper:

The kids in the tower are dead.

Did you finish the game? They were all fine when I beat one. Except for one getting slapped around. You can also visit the area before the end game and talk to all of them.

Did you look around at all after crashing in the rocket?

[Vodoka]

Originally posted by x-calibar:

@saving Royal
You probably have to have the double jump float tweak, the roulette tweak activate Slow Time, leap tweak; all on New Game+. Also you'll need all flawless battles and mini-games to unlock the ability to move during the cutscene where the mental attack comes at him. You'll get one perfect frame where the green wrench symbol shows up and you can do a leap jump to intercept the mental attack.

This puts Robin into the nightmare state, and you'll have to complete the four nightmare challenges while on a timer. When you wake up you'll be at the broken door which should be smashed down, but Royal will be knocked out. You'll have to carry him the rest of the way and double jump over the boxes. If you manage to make it to the escape pod in time the game will glitch and an error will appear... "How is this possible?" "I didn't code this... - Konjak"

I can't tell if this is a joke, but if it is not, the requirements listed are way too time consuming to easily test out. Can you actually prove that this can be done?
If this is real, I do need to commend Konjak for making it so obscure that most players wouldn't realize that it can be done but again, this'd be way too specific, going well beyond what you need to do to save Curly in Cave Story, and that segment where game tries to trick you to leave her behind.

[ZylpheRenuis]

There might actually be some bunkers in the spacestation that Royal could actually get towards. Especially with his powers. He could easily survived the whole mess.

[Snowskeeper]

Originally posted by SLEVEN:

There might actually be some bunkers in the spacestation that Royal could actually get towards. Especially with his powers. He could easily survived the whole mess.

He wouldn't have tried to. The beam caused him to want to die, and unlike Robin, he had a lot of self-hatred and a lot of reasons to feed into that self-hatred. The chances of him not only recovering in three minutes but repairing the console and making his way to an area unaffected by the subsequent explosion are effectively zero.

He ded.

[x-calibar]

Originally posted by Vodoka:

I can't tell if this is a joke, but if it is not, the requirements listed are way too time consuming to easily test out. Can you actually prove that this can be done?
If this is real, I do need to commend Konjak for making it so obscure that most players wouldn't realize that it can be done but again, this'd be way too specific, going well beyond what you need to do to save Curly in Cave Story, and that segment where game tries to trick you to leave her behind.

Ah, sorry Vodoka. It was a poor joke. (Somebody should verify it though! Maybe Konjak is ever watchful!) ;) As a Cave Story player, I really did want to save Royal, and tried to come up with ideas to try. For example: you receive the Float tweak and Roulette tweak for challenging secrets; but they have no required use. Even the leap jump doesn't give you access to any new areas that I can find. Only the breathless tweak seems to impact your ability to explore an area, and the rest are just for customization (right?). Little bits of treasure for the player to find, but are basically interchangeable.

Though it does make sense to check if you could double jump while carrying Royal. And I am curious if anyone has found a practical purpose for roulette besides the rare time slow down. (I really thought the "insanity schematic" would affect the dream sequence in some way. lol Though nothing quite like fighting the final boss while crawling around... Or in a blind mist!)

Lastly, I've noticed a couple dialogue changes if you perform flawlessly. Like I think you can only access a whole mechanic soldier conversation if you get a flawless on the early crate game. And I saw a single line changed if you avoid ever damaging ChemiCo allies in the gas battle. I haven't replayed others to see if there are more changes... But, it makes me curious.

So to recap, it was a joke, and so far I haven't seen anything change how major events play out. I would however, love for new secrets to be discovered...

[Skid]

I have to generally agree that I didn't like the way leaving Royal behind was handled, ignoring the fact that Robin is a mechanic and could fairly easily bolt the panel back on the wall, (much less just grab it and use the slake of the cable to walk though the door with it).

But the scene itself just felt forced, it would of made more sense if the dialogue Royal was giving on the way over too the door, he said at the door, because he explicitly tells her to leave him behind. Or when the player inevitably leaves him at the door to see if there anything ahead they can use to save him, have him just move up to the door, out of the panels range, thereby locking himself in, given his mental state that doesn't seem unreasonable.

[Snowskeeper]

I have to generally agree that I didn't like the way leaving Royal behind was handled, ignoring the fact that Robin is a mechanic and could fairly easily bolt the panel back on the wall,

With what? The screws were clearly torn loose, and anyway, Robin's wrench is just a little bit too big for work on that scale.

(much less just grab it and use the slake of the cable to walk though the door with it).

She needs two hands to carry Royal already, and the wind is blowing pretty hard.

[x-calibar]

Here's a question for everyone:
When you played that part for the first time, how many people died trying to save Royal? Or did you make the decision to save Robin before the timer ran out?

In my canon game unfortunately, the ending was far too ideal. Finding Mina and Elro fine, stopping the Starworm alone, saving the world and spreading life across the world, stopping the quakes and returning from that place in one piece.

What actually happened was Robin wouldn't leave Royal... There was no grand timer telling her how much time was left... and she worked up until the last moment to find a way to fix this.

Royal didn't stop talking, but between the debris and vaccum created from having the air sucked out meant no words would be heard. In the end, she couldn't fix this final problem. All she could do was to hold on to him in the noiseless chaos before explosions ripped through the empty facility.

Credits play, but there is no music. There is a wrench in the lunar rubble... and a cracked world in the background.

If you wait through the credits, the last scene you see a hand reach out of the rubble as you see a regeneration glow...

Okay, on second thought, let's stick with the real ending.