izigame.me

-Quick Review-
Lessons learned while playing Celeste:
“If at first you don’t succeed; try, try again.” …and again, and again, and again, etc.
“Just let me try this part of the level one more time, I’ve nearly got it”
“I suddenly have an usual desire for strawberry jam.”
Also, my thumbs are sore.

Celeste is a very difficult precision 2D platformer with great music, great visuals, and a heartwarming story you *WILL* work to complete without toggling on any Assist Mode help.
(But Assist Mode is there for you to use if you want to, but it’s strongly encouraged you do your best first without Assist Mode, completing the game the way it was intended to feels very rewarding… Madeline worked hard to overcome her challenges to climb the mountain, and I worked hard to overcome the 2D platforming challenges. But if you’re frustrated and stuck, it’s better to finish with help, then start and quit due to frustration)
Celeste was developed by the formerly known “Maddy Makes Games Inc.” now rebranded to “Extremely OK Games, Ltd.” and released in 2018.

Review Video:
If you don't like reading, or are curious about watching gameplay check out my video here:
https://youtu.be/fvHRIPS0C1I

-Detailed breakdown review-
Story: You play as Madeline, who is on an adventure on her own trying to escape some past troubles in her life as she applies herself to the task of climbing the Mountain Celeste. But it turns out the mountain has some mystical powers, and her demons quite literally come to life as she climbs to the summit. Along the way she’ll meet Grandma, an “InstaPix” influencer who you can find on Instagram IRL, and a hotel owner.

The story is a nice respite between the tough 2D platforming for the rest of the game, but it’s also heartwarming how the characters interact with each other and I thought it was well written. The characters have their own Bit-tune/Chip-tune voices instead of voice actors, and the character's drawn style was very complimentary to the pixel themed gameplay. Celeste was just destined to hit all the right points for me to absolutely adore it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3304436047

Gameplay: Celeste is a 2d platformer, therefore the controls are pretty straight forward, movement, climbing, jumping, and wall jumping. I first tried playing with a keyboard, which was possible, but not very advisable. Please do yourself a favor and play with a controller or on the Steamdeck, Celeste is hard enough without making it harder with fighting against the keyboard input limits.

Also with cloud saves, I could seamlessly jump between playing on my computer and Steamdeck. Just wanted to make a quick note: Celeste works well on the steam deck from the comfort of my own TV and couch!

As you progress through the game you’ll encounter new ways of moving with either new abilities like a directional dash, or an extra jump when you dash through some special boxes. Each level will have its own theme in appearance, music soundtrack, and gameplay gimmick.

Seeing as Celeste is sometimes painfully difficult, thankfully the developer wasn’t cruel about it. When you die, you near-instantly respawn to try again, and whenever you move to another screen you respawn there, not at the start of the level. If I had to play through the whole level in one life, take me out, coach. I can’t do it. I think I died over a hundred times on each level in Celeste…

Speaking of the difficulty, there are optional secondary objectives in Celeste to collect strawberries. They’re completely optional! The developers tell you so with a pop-up-hint! You could go through the whole game and ignore the strawberries, but for those of you who are looking to push the limits of the 2D platforming and mechanics in Celeste you’ll want to go for the strawberries.
There were some strawberries where I said “there’s no way”, and sometimes I figured out how to get them… but I’d say “I got lucky”. Others were hidden too well, or I couldn’t figure out how to get them, and with other strawberries I took a few attempts and said “No. There’s no way I’m getting that and still finishing this game”.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3304458431

Conclusion: In conclusion, Celeste is great. I really enjoyed smaller, by themselves almost “peripheral” details but added together really created a special gem of a game. Celeste is mostly precision platforming, but it has a heartwarming story, a lovely soundtrack, I love the choice for “voices”, the pixel styled theme will make it continue to look great years from now. Celeste is difficult but totally worth the work to finish, but even if you find it too tough you can toggle on Assist Mode so that makes it more accessible for those that need/want it!