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[baconman]

Anybody else been hiking up Matt and Noel's "surprise masterpiece" recently? I've gotten through it on basic terms, but not completionist terms yet.

During my 2-year absence, I got really involved in the PICO-8 community for a bit; and it was there where I first experienced the proof-of-concept that is Celeste. It WAS an instant masterpiece from the get-go. Doesn't confuse depth with complexity, really feels fleshed out and demanding, but possible. Even to date, it's probably the highest-rated PICO-8 title out there. Then I learned they were fleshing it out with the Towerfall engine and I got chills! Even THAT did not prepare me for the masterpiece that resulted of it...

This shit literally rivals Mario and Sonic on quality. I'm not understating that. You owe it to yourself to experience, especially if you loved stuff like Super Meat Boy or VVVVVV. It's like that but EVEN BETTER. Like, "Sonic Mania +1" better.

[ThemsAllTook]

This is now my favorite game, and I don't say that lightly. It's pretty much perfect.

I've been doing a let's play, which results in me going through the game excruciatingly slowly. I'm just starting chapter 6, and haven't touched bonus content much at all, though I've collected every strawberry I've been able to get to so far. Pacing myself like this means I don't eat all of the candy in one big gulp, but I do have to actively dodge spoilers since everyone else goes a lot faster. I'll probably bow out of this thread for a bit until I at least complete the main story.

[baconman]

Well, I'm not gonna spoil it for you, but if this is *already* your favorite game (I think it's mine too, now)... Level 6 is not gonna change that at all. It is easily one of my top 3 "video game experiences" out there.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

Jeez I've been hearing nothing but great things about this game. I'm worried I'm too hyped now.

[Ordnas]

I am currently playing Celeste, and I need to start chapter 6. I admit that at first I did not like so much the game, it was a bit inconsistent in terms of platform level design, where the game shows you critical obstacles of mechanics you never really get before. But more I played, and more I am used to to this inconsistent, and I am enjoying the presentation, the music, the dialogues and the progression of the game, never slow and always fresh in what you see on each chapter.

I strongly disagree on the terms masterpiece, where today it is used improperly, because of the hype of the moment, without analysing too much, expecially comparing with monstrous masterpiece of what Miyamoto-san and company created from years of iterations.

Maybe it is too soon to consider or not consider Celeste a masterpiece, but in my opinion it is hardly to consider so, it is a great game, but with lots of problems: the strawberry collectibles, useless and no point in collecting them, expecially showing to you only on chapter 2 that the strawberry serves only to your ego to show them to your friends, causing you a big WTF after 1 hour of trial and error on chapter 1 trying to collect them; or the not-game breaking bugs but always not-nice crashes that persist on some levels, forcing you to repeat 10-20 minutes of gameplay, or some secondary characters that are a bit-useless to the story but only to be there as a simil-endless runner like the ghost of the mansion, where the resolution of the conflict between Celeste trying to help him and the ghost resolves in static solution at the end of the chapter, not evolving Celeste or the content of the story; or some not very convincing design decision on doing pixel-perfect for many consecutive rooms on the first chapters.

I still believe that one of the protagonist of the success of Celeste is from the Switch, the appeal to play everywhere a platform game retro-style, something that it is consider fresh to most, expecially if you are not a PC gamer or indie enthusiast, forgetting that little diamond of the last year, The End is Nigh of Edmund McMillen, that for the platform mechanics and design was much more solid that Celeste.

I hope to not offend anyone, it is a constructive critic about this great game, that at the moment I feel safe to give it at least an 8/10.

[Josh Bossie]

I like that the game tells you strawberries are worthless. In fact, Celeste does a fantastic job at frequently 'talking' to the player - and in plain english! - about itself and its mechanics. That's a surprisingly rare things in games, and I wish more did it.

I haven't played a game like Jumper since the original Flash games, so playing this was like a revelation to me. The moment I saw the double jump refreshers I felt transported back to 200x when I played Jumper on my dad's laptop

Since then I've cooled on it, but it's a very solid 4 star game, and the most interesting story in a platformer since Braid

[Schoq]

braid had a story?

[s0]

the game tells you strawberries are worthless.

Uhm actually strawberries have many health benefits: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/strawberries#section1

game is fake news

[ViktorTheBoar]

braid had a story?

It had a post mortem on Gamasutra. That's a kind of story.

[Ordnas]

I like that the game tells you strawberries are worthless. In fact, Celeste does a fantastic job at frequently 'talking' to the player - and in plain english! - about itself and its mechanics. That's a surprisingly rare things in games, and I wish more did it.

I haven't played a game like Jumper since the original Flash games, so playing this was like a revelation to me. The moment I saw the double jump refreshers I felt transported back to 200x when I played Jumper on my dad's laptop

Since then I've cooled on it, but it's a very solid 4 star game, and the most interesting story in a platformer since Braid

What I wanted to see nowadays are mechanics and things told to the player not by the usual window to read, but with scenes /cutscenes / minigames / whatever, and anyways I still can't explain what design decision was made to shows a lot of collectibles difficult to get, and then on chapter 2 show a window where there is the explanation of the purpose of the strawberry.

[rj]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

[Tanner]

celeste fucking rules and i will not hear otherwise

[Ordnas]

[ThemsAllTook]

I just finished chapter 8B in my playthrough.

Whoa.

There's even more to this game than I thought.

[Gameimake]

About This Game Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight, hand-crafted platformer from the creators of multiplayer classic TowerFall. A narrative-driven, single-player adventure like mom used to make, with a charming cast of characters.

[Cobralad]

that sounds interesting, tell me more

[Schoq]

my mom used to make the best narrative-driven single-player adventures

[Andrew Salamander]

Though I like this whole genre of super difficult platformer that Super Meat Boy popularized, I've never totally loved it (unless you count VVVVVV.)

Until Celeste.

This game is very good.  Love the story (which hit me personally), love the gameplay, love the audio and visuals, love how it is all combined nicely into a single coherent package.  Love how it was just tough enough to get to the top without being too bad, but there are additional challenges for when I feel like it.

Honestly I feel like it did very well what I'm trying to do with In Retrospect, which is make a touching story that is integrated with gameplay into a unified whole, and make a main quest with a solid difficulty and then some really challenging extra stuff.

[Ordnas]

I also liked the story, which instead some pointed to be intrusive to the gameplay breaking the action, and some plot hole about the main protagonist past. I do not agree because some vagueness is accepted and can be answered by the player imagination.