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  Celeste is a platformer released at the end of January 2018 by Matt Thorson and some of his friends. It's based on a short game, also called Celeste which Thorson made for a game jam using Pico-8. In terms of gameplay Celeste is a tough as nails but very encouraging game centered around a dash you can perform in any of eight directions to brave increasingly more challenging levels. Despite this single mechanic being the lifeblood of the game Celeste stays fresh all the way to the end and beyond. Celeste's narrative follows a girl named Madeline, who heads out to climb (an obviously fictionalized) Mount Celeste to run away from her problems but ultimately is forced to confront them. The story is surprisingly engaging for what kind of game this is and is a welcome change of pace from "Rescue the Princess/Animals/Whatever" or "Fight the bad guy/gal" The game offers an Assist mode to make the game easier for those who have trouble. It allows to slow the game down, increase number of dashes, give yourself infinite stamina and make you invincible in any combination desired. This in no way judges the player or limits their progress. Even achievements can be unlocked with Assist Mode active. To quote the game's description of the mode: "Celeste was designed to be a challenging, but accessible game. We believe that its difficulty is essential to the experience. We recommend playing without Assist Mode your first time. However, we understand that every player is different. If Celeste is inaccessible to you due to its difficulty, we hope that Assist Mode will allow you to still enjoy it."  We will be doing a full run through all of the levels. Collecting the Strawberries, Hearts and B-Sides. We'll also be completing all post game challenges with one exception that would not really benefit the LP (you will see what I mean once we get there). Even if we will be using advanced mechanics sooner than the game teaches them to us I would like you to not discuss them until I've properly explained them in the videos. The same, of course, goes for the game's story. I'll begin to explain things in more detail as soon as chapter 2. Like with all my LPs I would like to encourage you, should you feel like this game is just your jam while watching the LP, to go play it yourself before watching further. It took me less than one minute into videogamedunkey's review of the game to know that I wanna play it and I stopped watching just then.  All videos are uploaded to YouTube and collected in a playlist. Pressing the banner or play button will link you to the normal LP, the Fast Forward symbol will bring you to a speedrun of the level.                       --- Extras: Chapter 3 A GDC talk Matt Thorson held about Celeste a year before the game's release Chapter 7 So you like our dude Theo? His InstaPix is TheoUnderStars. Look him up! If you wanna see something real crazy watch a TAS! Here's Celeste in 25:41.747 In case you want to see the stawberry pie reactions for getting less than 170 strawberries some guy called Git Gud has made a video featuring them all Kotaku have released an interview with Matt Thorson in which he talks about what Celeste's story means to him and how it relates to his own experiences. Feeling the Soundtrack? Here's the Bandcamp page so you can listen to it anytime. The B-side OST can be found here and features more cool tunes. Post Game Interview with Lena Raine, Composer of Celeste. Here's a reddit AMA with the makers of the game. Some interesting stuff. Stats so far: If the stats don't match up it's because I did other stuff in each level not recorded for the LP. Like practicing hard jumps for the speedrun part of the videos and the likes.    
IGgy IGsen fucked around with this message at 21:53 on May 3, 2018 |
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Mar 26, 2018 16:10
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Ultimately, climbing a mountain as a gameplay conceit makes the people you meet along the way very different. Rather than being helpless victims or at best failed versions of your quest to save the land, they can just legitimately be going their own way, like our #photographer #wreckageenthusiast buddy here.
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Mar 26, 2018 21:49
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I know exactly which postgame content you're not doing, and I don't blame you in the slightest. Aside from that awfulness, though, this game is really good and I'm glad somebody's doing an LP so that more people can find out how good it is.
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Mar 26, 2018 21:54
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This is the best game I've played in the last year, easily. It's amazing how good it feels to have a non-antagonistic relationship with a game. Like, this is the anti-Getting Over It (or the anti-I Wanna Be The Guy, or the anti-1001 Spikes, etc.). And speaking as someone who has a tendency to see games as mostly just a collection of mechanics (see also: my username), this game does a great job of showing how plot and presentation can make a material difference in how the player feels about the game.
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Mar 26, 2018 22:04
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I love this game so much. I love that this game has ultra-difficult postgame challenges but goes out of its way to make sure that you don't feel bad if you want/can't complete them. It gives you the freedom to have exactly as much fun with it as you want and respects your decision to approach it how you like. The achievements are the best example of this: you can get them even with assist mode on.
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Mar 26, 2018 22:37
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Celeste is the supreme example of a game that is unashamedly difficult while somehow managing to not be mean about it. People love to talk about games like Dark Souls as "hard but fair", but they're still designed to occasionally trip you up with traps and surprises that technically you could have anticipated but are still designed to be missed. Celeste does not do that, ever. There are no platforms that randomly fall or turn into spikes when you step on them. There are no gimmicks introduced without the chance for you to practice them first. In every screen, Celeste gives you all the information right from the get-go, and then leaves everything up to your own skill. When you die, it is your fault and your fault alone. I 100%ed this game with 6,750 deaths and I do not regret a single one of them. Celeste may just be the most perfect platformer ever made, and anyone reading this thread should go out and buy it immediately.
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Mar 26, 2018 23:33
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Huh! I admit, even with all the hype surrounding this game, I never gave it much thought. But you finally got me curious enough to give your video a watch, and I am intrigued. Good LP so far! Gonna sit in on a few more vids then maybe try this for myself.
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Mar 27, 2018 00:06
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I died like 200 times or some absurd amount in the first level and I love this game
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Mar 27, 2018 03:21
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I really really love this game and actually requested a LP in the requests thread. So thanks for doing that.
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Mar 27, 2018 04:46
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I'm glad that everyone in here agrees that this game is good and people should play it. I understand that a lot of people are deterred by games like this, that are either difficult or even simply have a reputation to be so. I've seen people giving up after they died 20 times halfway through the first level because they felt discouraged, thought they did poorly. But then we have someone with approximately 200 deaths in this here thread and they apparently went on. I had about 70 deaths in the first level and didn't feel like it was too hard at any point because I didn't feel punishment for my "failure". I have over 5000 overall deaths on my main file where I've done everything and I don't regret a single one. But really, this just shows that in Celeste it matters less how good you are at it initially, but more that you're not afraid of failure. The game does its best to make it sting as little as possible but I still get that different people handle this kind of stuff differently. But there's this thing I always like to say about Dark Souls, but it applies to this here too, and many other games (and actually things in life in general). "The only way to lose is to give up".
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Mar 27, 2018 16:37
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Well, you all convinced me to buy this and I'm not regretting it so far. You're dying a lot less than I am! I've got really invested in Madeline's story now, and I look forward to seeing it through with the thread.
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Mar 28, 2018 21:26
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Keep doing the speed runs, imo. That's fun to watch. You can move them out into their own videos if you don't want them to distract from the main episode.
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Mar 29, 2018 00:51
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ultrafilter posted:Keep doing the speed runs, imo. That's fun to watch. You can move them out into their own videos if you don't want them to distract from the main episode. I agree. Seeing a 'complete' version of the Chapter followed by a speedrun is a really neat effect. I would say keep them in the videos though, and if people for some reason don't wanna see it, they can just close the video after the chapter clear screen.
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Mar 29, 2018 02:35
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Lazy Bear posted:I agree. Seeing a 'complete' version of the Chapter followed by a speedrun is a really neat effect. I would say keep them in the videos though, and if people for some reason don't wanna see it, they can just close the video after the chapter clear screen. As an alternative, you could do those in a separate video if doing normal run then speedrun is an annoying amount of work for you. Either way, I'd vote to keep them in.
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Mar 29, 2018 16:32
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I would've much preferred a subbed LP for this game, because the music and atmosphere are so amazing, but you have a friendly voice so I'm definitely following this! Also jumping on the speedrun-bandwagon. That stuff is fascinating to watch.
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Mar 29, 2018 17:32
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Aw yes, time to see what a skilled run of the game can do! This game's my favorite of the year so far, and this LP will be a treat to see.
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Mar 29, 2018 18:11
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Irritated Goat posted:As an alternative, you could do those in a separate video if doing normal run then speedrun is an annoying amount of work for you. Either way, I'd vote to keep them in. Or just record separately and splice it in. But yeah, Celeste is a feel good game about improving yourself. I absolutely adored it.
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Mar 29, 2018 18:15
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Well, I'll definitely be watching this. I've heard a lot of good things about this game, but what I'd seen of the gameplay put me off trying it myself - I tend to think of myself as liking platformers, but I never cared much for what I'll call "pure platforming" like this (I tend to go in more for things like Mario and Megaman, or Metroidvanias... hmm, what is it with the letter M; regardless it wasn't until seeing this game and not feeling any urge to play it that I realised for me personally platforming alone probably isn't enough). I never could get into Super Meatboy and the like; that said, I'll give Celeste this, it's definitely got a much more appealing aesthetic, and the story and characters look like they have potential so far. The previous gameplay I'd seen of this was relatively unskilled and made it look far too hard, where you're running the risk here of making it look too easy. I wonder if that'll change my perspective on it. Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this game now.
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Mar 29, 2018 18:24
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Celeste rules. It is a triumph of Videogames. It is an achievement. It is a monument to the notion that there is no genre of design that cannot be mastered to such an extent that you can use it to make people feel something. I love everything about it except the most recent patch, but fortunately I got all 50 hours of speedrunning out of my system before that hit, so I'm only theoretically bitter about that. Celeste went straight to the top of my games of 2018 list and I'm not certain that anything I know to be on the horizon is going to knock it off.
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Mar 29, 2018 19:55
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What happened in the most recent patch?
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Mar 29, 2018 20:01
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:What happened in the most recent patch?
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Mar 29, 2018 20:51
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Previously, the in-game timer would pause while the game was paused, during cutscenes, and while Madeline is respawning (important because the respawn animation is partially skippable and therefore of variable duration). It now doesn't pause, ever. There was an exploit in which you could pause and retry immediately after transitioning between screens; you would be moved forward on the screen a little, to the respawn point, for free in in-game time terms. This is a valid problem, and I think wiping all the times was unavoidable, probably, but I think they kinda threw out the baby with the bathwater on that one.
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Mar 29, 2018 21:22
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All right. Due to multiple people requesting it I decided to add a speedrun for every A-Side chapter. They may not always be as fluid as that of chapter 1 but this should be fun regardless to see some of the levels that take people upwards to an hour on their first runs done in five somewhere between 2 and 10 minutes. I added a graphic with a fast-forward button to the op so people can jump straight to the speedruns of the respective chapters. I'll update the op proper to reflect that at some point too if I feel like it. I was gonna do a speedrun of the full game at the end anyway so I can consider this practice for when that happens. The video for Chapter 2 should probably be up somewhere over the weekend. IGgy IGsen fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Mar 29, 2018 |
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Mar 29, 2018 23:11
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Fantastic game through and through. I could (and did, briefly) get miffed about the way certain elements of the story are presented, but that might be more out of personal bias more than anything. The gameplay is  as hell, if a bit too frustrating for me nowadays once you get to B-Sides (I'm one of those loons that, despite the forgiving presentation, cannot accept the help from Assist mode out of some twisted perverse pride or something).
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Mar 29, 2018 23:31
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One of the things that makes this game nice even for people who don't like hard games is that it doesn't make a big spectacle of your death, and you get to try again immediately. No big red YOU DIED, no dropped exp / item retrieval, no shot of the character kneeling, no having to pick what to do from a menu, no antagonist mocking you. Just pick up and try again. It really helps to manage the frustration of bashing your head against the same screen a dozen times before you figure it out.
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Mar 30, 2018 00:24
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Fudge Handsome posted:One of the things that makes this game nice even for people who don't like hard games is that it doesn't make a big spectacle of your death, and you get to try again immediately. No big red YOU DIED, no dropped exp / item retrieval, no shot of the character kneeling, no having to pick what to do from a menu, no antagonist mocking you. Just pick up and try again. It really helps to manage the frustration of bashing your head against the same screen a dozen times before you figure it out. That helps a great deal. I'd imagine it's also the main reason for comparisons to Super Meat Boy - besides the general idea of a brutally hard platformer - since that also brings you back to the start of the challenge immediately upon you dying. The main difference in my mind is that SMB revels in your deaths - after every level you get a quick replay of all your attempts simultaneously, and later levels reference the sheer amount of deaths you go through to get there - while Celeste is doing all it can to encourage you to push through despite them.
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Mar 30, 2018 18:10
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Iteration time is a major factor in creating tough-but-fair games. The faster you go from failstate back into play, the less punishing those failstates seem. That's why people don't grouse(too hard) about Hotline Miami, because 20 deaths will just run together.
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Mar 30, 2018 19:52
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Lazy Bear posted:Iteration time is a major factor in creating tough-but-fair games. The faster you go from failstate back into play, the less punishing those failstates seem. That's why people don't grouse(too hard) about Hotline Miami, because 20 deaths will just run together. Iteration time and also room length. I don't want to have to repeat the first 15 seconds of a room over and over again because the last 5 seconds are really hard. Super Meat Boy got pretty bad about that. Fortunately most rooms in Celeste either pose little threat of killing you or are short. The postgame starts having rooms that break that rule more, but not to the extent that I remember Super Meat Boy doing so.
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Mar 30, 2018 20:25
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I really like the music. Will be following along.
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Mar 30, 2018 20:36
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IGgy, I'm stoked to hear you plan to speed-run the entire game. That was awesome to watch, and I look forward to seeing the rest of it.
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Mar 30, 2018 23:59
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Tenebrais posted:That helps a great deal. I'd imagine it's also the main reason for comparisons to Super Meat Boy - besides the general idea of a brutally hard platformer - since that also brings you back to the start of the challenge immediately upon you dying. The main difference in my mind is that SMB revels in your deaths - after every level you get a quick replay of all your attempts simultaneously, and later levels reference the sheer amount of deaths you go through to get there - while Celeste is doing all it can to encourage you to push through despite them. To be fair though, it would be fun to complete a room and see the various Madelines charge forward in a suicidal death line just like Meat Boy. There's just something really viscerally satisfying about watching that after every level.
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Mar 31, 2018 00:38
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Ramos posted:To be fair though, it would be fun to complete a room and see the various Madelines charge forward in a suicidal death line just like Meat Boy. There's just something really viscerally satisfying about watching that after every level. It would be awesome, it just wouldn't fit in with the theme so well.
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Mar 31, 2018 01:16
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Maybe as a B-side thing. "Okay, you came back for the hard thing, here ya go". But yeah, I like how .... oddly relaxed for a hard platformer this game looks, heh.
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Mar 31, 2018 02:05
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Tenebrais posted:It would be awesome, it just wouldn't fit in with the theme so well.  Watching all your deaths is pretty funny at times, but there's still the air of the game going "  look at all the different ways you died!" Celeste wants you to keep trying instead of mocking you.
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Mar 31, 2018 03:39
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I had a dream about this game once despite knowing next to nothing about it (well, the girl climbing an icy mountain at least). I'm not sure if that's supposed to mean anything, but I'll follow this LP anyway. The idea of the hard platformer where you may lose hundreds of lives but they end up being worth it when you complete a stage almost reminds me of the DKCR games in a sense. I probably lost so many lives on some of the levels but I didn't feel discouraged about it.
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Mar 31, 2018 05:41
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It's chapter 2! And it has my favorite gimmick. Banner and play button start the video normally, the fast forward button skips straight to the speedrun portion of the video. If you're interested in the lead designer talking about the level design of the game I recommend checking out his GDC talk from last year, before the game had come out. It's really interesting and covers mostly the first two chapters plus a bit earlier, work-in-progress chapter 3. Funnily, Matt's talk tries to show multiple approaches to challenges in the exact same spot I did!
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Mar 31, 2018 12:34
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This is probably my favourite chapter too. The dream-blocks gimmick is tremendous fun; the aesthetics around them make them so much more than just an extended dash. It's a shame it's so short. It's also what really got me hooked on the story. The dialogue tells you so much about why Madeline is here and why she needs to do this, and it really made me want to finish the game for her sake. And I didn't expect coming into the game that Madeline's struggle with her demons would be quite so literal. And Theo is such a #millenial. Haha. The memorial at the start of the level is a nice touch too. Have you ever tried reading something in a dream?
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Mar 31, 2018 14:57
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Someone else pointed this out in the Youtube comments too, but the squash and stretch to animations in the game is really expressive and brings a lot of life to the movement. Also Ghost Madeline's frame-break is nifty. Also, Theo is such a hipster that his textbox is plaid. Jeez.
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Mar 31, 2018 17:10
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I personally think its a bit odd that in these dreams we have all of these floating space blocks and magical realism, then after waking we can still dash in mid air and collect flying strawberries. I'll see if this comes together a bit more later on.
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Mar 31, 2018 17:15
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Part Of Madeline leaning out of the portrait box is a fun touch.
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Mar 31, 2018 17:44
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