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~sfr -- 2021-12-03
I don't like games that are hard for the sake of being hard, or worse, annoying the player. Dark Souls 3, apart from having visuals that make me want to close the game and never play it again, is built with malice and hatred in mind, to provide the player with the most repetitive, random and infuriating gameplay.
the best games are ones that are easy to understand, but difficult to master. games that you want to come back to after learning mechanics later in the game. games which have insanely hard challenges, hidden in plain sight, unnoticed by the newcomer.
Celeste is one of those games.
Celeste is a precision platformer released in 2018, developed by Maddy Thorson and the rest of the team at Extremely Okay Games. it's praised for its extremely tight controls, gameplay that's challenging yet accessible, a compelling story that deals with depression and anxiety in a realistic manner, and an absolutely amazing soundtrack by Lena Raine.
Celeste is my favourite video game of all time, partly because of the aforementioned points, but partly because I played it at the right time, twice -- once when I was dealing with stress and anxiety, and again a bit after realizing I was trans.
I'm almost finished 100%ing it after playing it for the second time, and I was compelled to write this gemlog, to recommend Celeste to literally everyone.
Celeste utilizes only three buttons: jump, climb and dash. all three are explained to you by the end of the prologue, and it's entirely possible to beat the main storyline of the game without even trying to do any more complicated shenanigans.
that's not to say the mechanics are boring -- far from it: each chapter has its own unique mechanic, usually an enemy or object, striking a perfect balance between novelty and familiarity and always making you learn new stuff. no two chapters are alike, and yet you never feel out of your depth.
a fun quirk about the game's physics is that there is no known speed cap. if you're skilled and knowledgeable enough, you can chain jumps and dashes indefinitely, and reach crazy speeds. ultradash, demodash, reverse extended hyperdash, dream hyper, bunnyhops, cornerboost -- while all of this may look like an unintended series of bugs, the developers are fully aware of the speedrun tricks, and they're actually taught to you deep in the game.
even the unintended bugs introduced in later patches, like cornerboosting, were left in the game, because they "looked cool". EXOK, like many other indie game developers, listen to their fanbase and embrace the Celeste speedrunning community -- here's Kevin from PowerUp Audio chatting with speedrunners while watching a TAS at SGDQ:
Celeste All Red Berries, but faster than you've ever seen it
nothing is stopping you from booting up chapter one /right now/, and executing the tricks you would otherwise learn at the end of chapter 7. the developers carefully thought the level design through, and the game rewards you for returning to it with an extra challenge, hidden in plain sight.
you play as Madeline, a girl dealing with anxiety, who one day decided to climb Celeste Mountain. Madeline meets an old lady who warns her that strange things happen in the mountain, only to be ignored.
throughout the climb, Madeline is interrupted by a "part of her", a manifestation of her anxiety and bad thoughts, who tries to convince her she's not a mountain climber.
at the end of chapter 4, Madeline is overwhelmed and gets a panic attack on the lift that stopped working, and Theo, a fellow mountain climber, helps her calm down and regain her consciousness. he says that he learned those tricks from his sister, who deals with the same issues as Madeline, and thinks the two would be great friends.
in chapter 5, Madeline is stuck in a mirror maze looking for Theo, with countless eyes constantly looking at her -- another metaphor for social anxiety.
at first Madeline refuses to believe that monster really is a part of her, failing to understand why she'd act so vindictive against her, but slowly she starts understanding that this "part of her" is just... scared, ignored and out of its depth.
she finds that figuring out a way to live in peace with her anxiety is better for her than trying to get rid of it, and only manages to finish the climb using the combined powers of the whole. the journey along the mountain was effectively a journey inside Madeline's mind, with her coming to terms with her condition by the time she reaches the summit.
the stuff Madeline deals with in the game is directly based off of the experience of Celeste's lead developer, Maddy Thorson. fun fact: Maddy came out as nonbinary in 2019, one year after the game was released. if Madeline is a portrayal of Maddy, and Maddy found out she's trans while making the game, does that mean that Madeline is trans as well? canonically, yes.
Is Madeline Canonically Trans? by Maddy Thorson
I think this game is a natural and realistic portrayal of how it feels to deal with anxiety -- it isn't over-the-top and exaggerated, but it also takes itself seriously and doesn't make a mockery of the subject. it's obvious that Maddy knew what she was talking about.
aside from the 7 main story chapters, there are 18 extra difficult stages, for players who wish to have an additional challenge.
I believe that with enough practice, anyone who's played the A-sides can beat every single one of these levels. Celeste is /hard/, but it's not a rage game at all. I could sink three hours into one room, give up and still feel accomplished.
the music in Celeste, composed by Lena Raine and remixed by various other artists, is absolutely phenomenal. each chapter has its own motif that matches perfectly with the scene, and natually ramps up as things get heated without you even noticing. you know what, I'll actually give an example:
in chapter 3's "Huge Mess" subchapter, you help Mr. Oshiro clean up his hotel. the level is composed of three different paths that can be taken in any order. the subchapter starts off with a quiet piano melody, but more instruments are added as you clean more and more of the clutter, reaching the climax with a full-on fast-paced chase scene with electronic music in the background.
many games have great music, but Celeste is in a league of its own.
you should play this game if:
seriously, it's like 20 bucks on itch, steam and every home console. you won't regret it.