2/5 ★ – Silabus's review of Celeste.

Final play time 15 Hours 6500 deaths Let me start this by saying 2D platformers are one of my least favourite genre’s. They’ve always seemed like childish distractions with no narrative weight. My earliest gaming memories were of Mario, Sonic, and Megaman. While I would beat 1-1 or green hill, I wouldn’t progress farther than that. I was the kid the gave up in Chemical Plant Zone. When I got my hands on a snes and discovered Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG, Earthbound, Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat and so on, I found “my genres” Years later, I’m a teenager and people are arguing “Are games art?” I think, “of course the games I LIKE are art but...” It’s was a stupid stance, but a necessary one in order to grow. You must first take crooked steps before you walk properly. Have you ever SEEN a toddler? When I was 18, I watched my friend marathon all the Megaman X games in a row. The flow, the flawlessness, the music in time to the combat. This is art no doubt! It’s beautiful, it’s just not for me. Every once in a blue moon I try one though, how can my appreciation for games as a medium grow if I limit myself only to what I like? I have to give things I dislike a chance to hook me from time to time so that I can form more nuanced opinions. Like, Mario is silly but Kirby and Sonic have been on some really wild rides. Even I could see how they’ve married game-play and story flawlessly in some games. If I hadn’t experimented, I wouldn’t have played Return to Dreamland or Sonic Mania! And so I tried Celeste. WARNING from here there will be spoilers and negativity so if you wish to avoid these, stop now. In my online friend group everyone was playing Celeste, it was a platformer with a serious story I’m told. After being inspired by the grave-site at the beginning dedicated to those who perished on the climb, I had to try it. Was it peer-pressure? Was it stubbornness? Can’t say for sure but I knew not only was I going to play this game, I was going to beat it. I was genuinely excited, and with my friends cheering me on, I began my trek up Celeste mountain. The first thing I noticed were the graphics. Pixel graphics are en vogue in the indie space. If I printed a list of new releases and threw a rock at the paper, 50% of the time I’d hit a pixel platformer. (the other 50% I’d hit some lewd shovelware game as is the situation on steam at the moment...) I usually watched my friends play on my phone so I couldn’t properly see much of everything. Seeing the game in person was a bit jarring. The blocks on the pixels were too big? It was especially distracting when it would zoom in for emotional scenes. It really highlighted the squares and jagged edges. Madeline didn’t have a face which meant no emotions. Was this a meta-narrative I’m too dumb to get? We like Mario and Sonic sprites because of the personality of the characters expressed. Shovel Knight gets a pass because it’s a helmet, but I have no such excuse for Madeline. The graphics were just ugly to me. The portrait art and chapter complete art were gorgeous however. I especially loved the animation of Badeline coming out of the frame! The animations were extremely smooth. I noticed small things like Madeline sitting by the fire and warming her hands, holding up saw multiple frames of her head looking up. Pressing dash causing red sparkles behind you but pushing jump and dash at the same time caused more acceleration signified by the white circle behind you. When you’d get low on stamina you’d turn red and sweat. Your hair changed color to show how many dashes you had left. The design language and minimalist UI was fantastic! The music in this game is probably my favorite part of it. Before writing this section, I re-listened to every track from climb A, the initial standouts are chapter 3’s castlevania-y bop, and chapter 7’s uplifting jam! Chapter 1 felt appropriate and is kinda catchy in the way that an initial jingle should be. I’d be able to pick it out if I heard it. Chapter 2’s chase them was dark and was kinda the underrated track in the OST. The Mirror Temple track was mid at best and because I spent a lot of time there, I muted it cause it grated after a while. Chapter 4’s song was forgettable and Chapter 6 was alright. I enjoyed it after 5 but It’s not as good as the others. Overall, pretty dang good OST! The game-play I have no comments. I feel like the analytical among us would have more to say. But I chalk this up to being a me problem. I don’t feel I gradually got better, I feel I threw my face at it enough times to succeed. Success wasn’t met with happiness or excitement, but dread that the level continued. I can’t comment on this thoroughly even tho I rolled the credits. I think that’s a kind of commentary isn’t it? All my complaints just sound like git gud complaints. They coin key thing sucked, I hated the feather’s unwieldiness. The thing meant to relax me caused me the most anxiety. Ironic. Perhaps if I dove deeper into the games extra content I could talk about certain berry locations or spikes but I’m already way out of my wheelhouse as it is. Sorry! The aesthetic is something I disliked. The game was set on a mountain but there were no inclines. All of the inclines happened on the menu’s. One room of spikes looked like another room a spikes. The only variation being in background and song. If you compared this to Castlevania, showing a screenshot to a random person they would probably guess 8 times out of 10 its in a castle. Would anyone guess that Celeste takes place on a mountain? Sometimes it tries by having square rooms in the hotel, or wind outside, but the progression is always either go left, go right, or go up. It feels like they got caught up in making visual and musical assets tie into the story and the mountain is an afterthought with little to no motifs that tie the mountain to the game. I’m not looking for “The Hills Have Eyes” level of foreshadowing and ominousness. But a little would be nice. The mirror temple should be this big climatic arc of the story but it just feels like another level. If the temple was foreshadowed somehow I think it would be huge in accentuating the story. Okay, Let’s get to it, the story. I’m mixed. Some of it, isn’t bad! When Madeline and myself have word-for-word the same reaction to an event playing out, its pleasantly surprising. The old lady saying “I thought you’d climb it to spite yourself” I felt extremely called out. But where to start. Let’s start with the presentation. Each level is like Story bit, Level, Story bit. The pacing feels all sorts of wrong. To quote Yahtzee “ You need the talky bits at the beginning to give context to the action, you can’t just have a news ticker at the bottom while the action is happening” If the game was trying to be like a Mario or Super Meat Boy, I’d excuse it but the narrative is a big selling point so giving it such little prominence does the game a disservice. This is felt the most in chapter 6 where you get a huge lore dump and exposition. I enjoyed this lore but if this was slowly built over the course of the game instead of dumped in your lap all at once, it would service the story better. Most of the characters are around for one chapter until they all appear at the end. So I don’t really care about them? I legit forgot about the old lady when she reappeared in chapter 6. The main 3 characters are Madeline Badeline and Theo. Theo is a millennial stereotype obsessed with selfies. Am I the only one who thought it was kinda cringe? I feel like a marketing team boomer somewhere came up with him. Madeline who is a little shit sometimes and doesn’t take responsibility also the hero. And Badeline Madelines inner anxiety, given form by the mountain, who is the true hero of the story. This isn’t cutting edge narrative. Dark X has been around since forever but in Celeste, Dark Madeline represents her anxiety, she’s the “pragmatic” one. The mountain symbolizes the struggle and the two are different sides of the same coin. It’s a very cliche metaphor but it gets the job done in setting up the ludo-narrative. My issue is what it does with the premise. I am struggling, Madeline is struggling. We are on the same wave length. Madeline says “man this is hard” yes I agree. Chapter 5, oh my god the level design of that place is the worst. I’m not talking about gameplay back on track. I got to throw Theo on the spikes and on the spring, that was fun. “We are creating the obstacles here!” This was alluded to with Oshiro. Big final showdown with our anxiety. If only it was that easy. Yay, we win. We free Theo. Actually a loss imo but yay! Chapter 6 Lore Dump. Learning about Alex and Theo’s grandpa was cool, it fleshes out his character. I see no reason it couldn’t have been talked about sooner. Madeline drinking and trolling on twitter was funny. I chuckled irl, the devs are showing too much of their hand here. Was the desired reaction for me to laugh? The feather was a cool trick and I liked its use. I didn’t like using it but I liked its use in the story. The “advice” given to Madeline from the cast was pretty cringe and hamfisted “you should talk to her, she’s scared too” it felt like “hey just don’t be sad anymore!” advice. The whole discarded bit that Madeline had to fix in chapter 6 was silly and then the “lets work together!” “can we do it?” “yeah! ;)” red power ranger, blue power ranger reconciliation was real Saturday morning cartoony. And any semblance of seriousness the game had about being a game about mental health went out the window. Chapter 7 Starts and now the Ludo-narrative dissonance kicks in. It’s the hardest level in the game but narratively it should be the easiest. I’m completely in tact with my inner self, the music is upbeat and the level is a bitch to complete. Why? So we reach the top and we have this sit down and melancholy moment. Madeline is sad but happy. I’m relieved the game is finally over. Somewhere in Chapter 5, Madeline and myself stopped being one character and became two different characters. My tenacity made her reach her goal but where she had found a healthy way to deal with her anxiety and felt accomplished. I felt a lot of negativity. I let out a big sigh, said “RIP my weekend. Glad I finished it tho” What happened? Where did the disconnect occur? I couldn’t relate to Madeline at all in the end. This kind of leads to a different point. Do games need to be “fun”? No! I loved Papers Please and it wasn’t fun at all! I enjoyed the stories told and stress of the situations presented. Ok, So Celeste wasn’t fun because it’s not suppose to be because the challenge is suppose to represent mental hurdles. Was it enjoyable in anyway? For me, no. It was a sigh of relief to be done I can delete it and never interact with it again. Maybe people have happy lives and play Celeste for a reality check. Maybe, I’m a miserable fart that likes playing happy chill games like Animal Crossing as an escape from the bleak reality. Maybe people are just naturally good at these games and it’s not as bad as it is for me where it feels like putting my hands on a sander each time I sit down to play. I have no idea, and unlike most games, I struggle to see the appeal. Do I recommend Celeste? YES. Wait whaaaat? You’ve been so negative! Why the recommendation? If you enjoy these types of games, this is probably one of the best ones out there. People who have put in way more time, played way more hours, and are way deeper in this genre champion this game. There must be some reason for it. As to why I personally recommend it? It caused me to re-examine things in my own life. I was really rough on myself throughout my play-through. I tend to never blame the games mechanics or game design choice when I fail, even if it’s deserved. Instead I blame myself and my inner “Badeline” who has no chill. Much like the real Madeline, I was the one stubbornly pushing forward, I was the one thinking of pointless stuff that didn’t matter any more. The game gave me an icky feeling but it wasn’t the games fault. In this way I can relate to Chapter 6 Start Madeline at least. So I guess, the thing I like best about Celeste is the way it made me question certain things about myself. Is the reason I don’t like this game because I’m not very analytical which makes playing it a chore? Is the opposite of analytical, creative? Am I creative? How so? How can games talk about mental health in a way that doesn’t fall completely flat? What do I do to take care of my mental health? WRITE SHITPOSTS ON GG THAT’S WHAT!