5/5 ★ – seppaqueas's review of Celeste.

I love Madeline. I wish I could leave it at that as a review to sum up my experience playing this game, a nuance in those three words tells all the more to what I feel for this game. But I shall elaborate further. I first got hooked by this game for its music, thoroughly in love with its charm and beauty I listened to the soundtrack long before I thought to ever play the game. When I finally played the game, meeting Madeline and cast, I am ever so glad I took up the challenge to climb the mountain with her. The game offers a beautiful story of characters through the hardship of personal issues they struggle, on a climb toward to peak of Celeste Mountain, none more so than main character, Madeline. Its a charming, sorrowful and powerful story told beautifully through the world it presents and the conversations between characters. The game is voiced with little squeaks for each character like games of an earlier era, and it works so brilliantly. The voices squeak perfectly to hit the right emotions for the dialogue and the portraits are a great touch to further express their feelings. And being written so honest and real, it hits hard many times and feels very personal. I will not lie, it did stir plenty of personal emotions to the welling of tears, and I could only love the game even more. As for the gameplay, it is presented as a challenge tied inextricably with Madeline's as she climbs to the top of Celeste Mountain. Each chapter introduces new mechanics to learn in order to overcome the puzzles presented, keeping the gameplay from growing stale. Toward the end, all those lessons learned shall come together in the final stretch toward the peak, feeling all the more satisfying as you progress. The game isn't a ruthlessly hard challenge. It is generous with its checkpoints as not to punish too much for a slip-ups, restarts are super quick, and it also offers an assist mode to tweak how best suits you to overcome the challenges ahead, a great feature to allow those who wish to enjoy such a great story without too much frustration. On the flip side to that there are extra hidden collectables in numerous hard to reach places to challenge the most veteran of platformers. Celest is a superbly paced game in story and gameplay, with a lot of struggle and heart at its core. I wish I had played it sooner! And I will continue to listen to the soundtrack with a greater appreciation, remembering the journey I shared with Madeline.