Topic: Celeste

[madhair60]

Chapter 4 sucks because it throws four finicky mechanics in at once - clouds, bubbles, wind and moving platforms.

[Shay Chaise]

Despite getting this day one, I've only just completed the hotel. It's a great game, but I think Monster Hunter came out at the same time, I can't remember. Anyway, back into it for a bit this morning and making progress through Chapter 4. I can see how it's quite annoying to some folk but I prefer it to the instant death stuff in the hotel which I didn't find especially fun. This has more of a puzzle element to it now, with all the bubbles and moving blocks (especially). I got stuck in one area for ages before I realised I could move a large block to get out. I've also picked up a shit load of strawbs in this chapter, more than any other so far.

[Shay Chaise]

I must have died a million times by now. I'm truly shit at this kind of game but I am persistent. I'm about halfway through Chapter 7 now and I feel I can finish the main story. The B-sides and strawbs will be beyond me. I don't have the skill for that kind of pixel perfect business but it'll be a satisfying achievement to finish the vanilla game. I wasn't especially into the story in the middle chapters, I didn't like Theo at all early on but it's come together very sweetly. It's not astoundingly profound but it works, it's neatly allegorical and the dialogue seems heartfelt and quite low-key. I do think this is an all-timer for the genre and I can see myself revisiting this in years to come. I love the movement and I can visualise it in my head, almost as practice. There are some screens I got through that I am staggered by. The two bosses I've fought so far were both absolutely brick, too, especially the second. It seemed to go on and on but every section was a beautifully designed little challenge, it was just so tense, though!

I'd say this is in my top ten Switch games.

[brat-sampson]

I'm finding the b-sides slightly addictive now, though still incredibly brutal. I'm really being pushed trying to get through the Stage 3 one. It's a shame you can't just stop on any screen and go do something else, you have to at least make it to a checkpoint before you can return to that spot, and there are a good few hard screens between each one. I've managed to get some more hearts overall though, enough to Do a Thing, which now I'm enjoying the Thing you get to Do. (The Core) as a break. Difficulty ramp seems to be: Main Game, Strawberries, B-Sides... More.

[Shay Chaise]

I've now finished the main game. 7 hours and 1500 deaths! I don't think I have the skill or will to get straight back in to find and attempt the B-sides, though my skills definitely massively improved over the course of the game. I think it's an absolute belter, as good as the hype and if this is your genre, I can see how it's a 10. It's incredibly addictive and even when I died like fifty times or more on one screen (I'm utterly shite), I almost always felt like I could manage it, I just needed to get better. To that end, the story and themes really complement the gameplay - kinda like Dark Souls, really! (Someone had to say it...)

Behind only Isaac, it's my favourite non-Nintendo game on the Switch. Top tier shit.

[brat-sampson]

Congrats! I was actually surprised by how satisfying it felt to finally make it to the top of that mountain, and I think I'd actually cracked 2k deaths when I did (though that includes one drunk session and a fair attempt at a B-side).

[Shay Chaise]

Yeah, when I reached the last push and saw what they were going for, it was so motivating. I loved how they ever so slightly tweaked your expectations. Some of the last checkpoints were absolutely fiendish but had a marvellous flow to them, too. I felt like I really had to calm down to even get a foothold, pun intended, before figuring out the timing and so on. It got very pixelly at times and I've seldom enjoyed something so frustrating. All in all, the hardest bits were the boss fights, I think it was just the added pressure and stress because I did much tougher platforming stuff towards the end. I probably found the hotel the hardest area, though, overall. It might have been the colour palette. It just seemed menacing and hopeless whereas every other area was either beautiful or simply more colourful. I really liked the story, too, and the soundtrack was up there with Cave Story, which is bloody high praise.

[madhair60]

Hotel is rough cos dodging those red and black things (ripped off from Kero Blaster, sadly) is not particularly fun to do.

(I finished it with under 1000 deaths by a nose :3 998 I think)

[Emotional Support Peacock]

I dr as to think what my final death count will be - I keep finding mysef in a weird trance making the same mistake and dying over and over again.

[brat-sampson]

Helps that the soundtrack's an absolute banger too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDVM9KED46Q

EDIT > Double posting: Take that stage 8! Ok, actually going to take a break now. Or maybe I should try and finish that Stage 3 B-Side...

[Emotional Support Peacock]

I dr as to think what my final death count will be - I keep finding mysef in a weird trance making the same mistake and dying over and over again.

What I meant to say was “I dread to think” in case that wasn’t clear.

[Kelvin]

Finished this today, with 151 of 175 strawberries; enough to unlock the best ending (which requires 150).

Never used assist mode, but it did take me nearly 20 hours and just under 3000 deaths. I've also unlocked a post game level with the crystal hearts I collected, but I haven't played more than a few minutes of that yet.

Overall, I thought the game was absolutely brilliant, but I did think the story and writing took a very significant nosedive once Madeline and "Evil" Madeline teamed up. The entire last level is full of trite, schmaltzy dialogue with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and I think it severely undercuts the theme of everything that went before. What sort of meaningless shite is it to say that depression, anxiety and chronic self doubt make you better as a person? Surely the message should be that in spite of your mental health problems, you can still achieve and overcome seemingly insummountable odds. Not because of them.

I just found that really disappointing, shallow and borderline obnoxious, to be honest - even if I did like the writing before that, and in particular, the characterisation of Madeline.     

Great game, though. Excellent even.     

[Beagle 2]

I did think the story and writing took a very significant nosedive once Madeline and "Evil" Madeline teamed up. The entire last level is full of trite, schmaltzy dialogue with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and I think it severely undercuts the theme of everything that went before. What sort of meaningless shite is it to say that depression, anxiety and chronic self doubt make you better as a person? Surely the message should be that in spite of your mental health problems, you can still achieve and overcome seemingly insummountable odds. 
.     

I'm afraid I just find all this stuff tedious and self-important in indie games. It's a cartoonish jumping game with basic presentation. I wouldn't enjoy it any less if it had the same plot as James Pond. It's a whole lot of addictive fun but the attempts to always hang these things around serious narratives are embarrassing.

[Kelvin]

I'm afraid I just find all this stuff tedious and self-important in indie games. It's a cartoonish jumping game with basic presentation. I wouldn't enjoy it any less if it had the same plot as James Pond. It's a whole lot of addictive fun but the attempts to always hang these things around serious narratives are embarrassing.

I don't entirely agree. I think, in principle, you can combine simplistic game genres with more complex or serious themes, characterisations and plots, albeit ones sculpted to suit the format. I just don't think that Celeste really was as good at story-telling as many reviewers said. I feel like the writer/s lose sight of what they're trying to say in the last third and fall back on empty cliches to craft an upbeat message. Up until the last couple of levels, I really did find it quite affecting.   

[brat-sampson]

Chapter 3 B-Side complete. 1044 deaths. Yes, just on that B-Side. This game is tuned *so* fucking well though, no individual screen ever completely made me want to quit, even if some took a lot of face/wall interaction.

[madhair60]

Done all the A and B sides now, chapters 1-8. Unlocked C-sides, done first two. Think I might be finished with it.

[jimboslice]

I've now finished the main game. 7 hours and 1500 deaths! I don't think I have the skill or will to get straight back in to find and attempt the B-sides, though my skills definitely massively improved over the course of the game. I think it's an absolute belter, as good as the hype and if this is your genre, I can see how it's a 10. It's incredibly addictive and even when I died like fifty times or more on one screen (I'm utterly shite), I almost always felt like I could manage it, I just needed to get better. To that end, the story and themes really complement the gameplay - kinda like Dark Souls, really! (Someone had to say it...)

Behind only Isaac, it's my favourite non-Nintendo game on the Switch. Top tier shit.

It's worth cheating a bit to find enough crystal hearts to unlock level 8. It doesn't seem as hard as the B-sides (Although I still haven't completed it).

I really loved this game. Couldn't give a toss about the story bits or the big depression metaphor, but it had a brilliant look and feel, I enjoyed all the mechanics, and found everything fairly intuitive. I'm tempted to go back to Super Meat Boy and have another crack at whatever boss I was stuck on.

[madhair60]

God this game's story is fucking shit

[Fry]

Returning to this after completing the main game a few weeks back in an attempt to get all the b-side cassettes, strawberries and crystal hearts.

A lot of this is very fun, some of the strawberries in particular give the sort of nice mind-bending platforming puzzles I adore. Gotta say though, some of the crystal heart things are really fucking annoying. The ones which were just hidden were OK, although having to start entire levels again to explore because you go through a one-way transition is annoying. What got on my tits are the puzzles that go counter to anything else you do in the game. Like the colour puzzle from stage 6. I finally got the solution to that from a walkthrough and still didn't know what the puzzle was actually asking me to do, I think that's a pretty large failing puzzle-wise. ( In the end I looked it up, it involved going back to stage one, memorising a bunch of the dash patterns related to where some coloured birds were and a flashing monitor, and doing it again, once regular, then mirrored various ways - the only hint to this being some coloured gems on pedestal and a vague etching on the wall. At no other point in the game were you expected to get a solution to a puzzle by going to another level. Seemed cheap.) I wouldn't really mind if this was super obscure extra content, but seeing is it's required to get to the true final level which shows up on the level select screen all greyed out and mocking me with how incomplete I've left the game... it's irritating.

Still though, brilliant platforming game. Love it on the switch. I see lots of people complaining about the switch d-pad but I think it's perfect for this. I've yet to have a flubbed input which wasn't entirely my fault using the d-pad, which is more than I can say for the analogue stick, which is a little too small to be perfectly precise.

God this game's story is fucking shit

Yeah right enough. Playing it next to Golf Story - which is pretty great at not taking itself so ball-achingly seriously and pissing around with genre conventions in a fun way, really shows that up.

[madhair60]

I did all the C-sides and got every (regular!) strawberry. Worship me

[bgmnts]

Played it for five seconds because it was free.

Another shitty looking pixel art side scroller. Fuck off.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Ooh! Stick you! Your Mama too!
And your Daddy!

[Lee Van Cleef]

This got added to Game Pass recently so I've been playing it, agreed with the comments about Chapter 4, too many mechanics at once. I'm still enjoying it though, even the 25 minutes I spent dying near 50 times to get this stupid strawberry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLHdVv4MJbE&t=8m8s

[Kelvin]

Played it for five seconds because it was free.

Another shitty looking pixel art side scroller. Fuck off.

I'm sick of pixel art, too. I started a thread about it last year. However, the game is very good, and well worth persisting with. Purely on a gameplay level, it's close to excellent. 

edit: also it's not a side scroller, apart from a small number of sections. It's mostly individual screens, with a focus on dying until you master each one.

[madhair60]

why would you respond to a post that shit.

[Kelvin]

I see the good in all god's creatures.

[madhair60]

Aw <3

[Thursday]

It's a good game if you're not total dogshit at it like me, but the more I think about it, the portrayal of depression is offensive and if it it was a film a lot more people would be criticising it, not celebrating it

It arguably does two things that people complain about when talking about this, which is suggesting that mental illness can also be like a useful power, and also that you can just get over attacks of depression and anxiety by just believing in yourself enough.

[Kelvin]

I said the same upthread. I thought the story was going to be more about succeeding at something that feels impossible in the midst of depression or self doubt through time and perseverence, but in reality, its just ends up being about more trite ideas like embracing your failures and believing in yourself. I still think the story and depiction of depression/anxiety is pretty good for the first two thirds of the game, though, and the gameplay is much more impressive.

[Blue Jam]

I hate platformers and am absolutely crap at them. What's so special about this one?