Celeste is a really special and personal game for me, it's a game that I constantly return to for comfort through its gameplay and story. It might seem like a masochistic Super Meat Boy-esque platformer on the surface, but it's much, much deeper than that (note: this is a bit of a personal review for me, at least in this next paragraph).
I'm going to start with Celeste's story, because as much as I love the gameplay, I feel like this is the most noteworthy aspect of the game, and a lot of its elements help to service the story. Celeste is about a girl with anxiety named Madeline who has decided to climb up a tall mountain called Celeste Mountain. The titular mountain has this weird quirk where to climb it, you have to confront your inner demons, and Madeline's inner demon is her own self-image (jokingly referred to as Badeline), one that is far more negative and pessimistic, constantly doubting her ability to climb the mountain and serving as a bit of a roadblock... at least at first. Obviously the metaphor of climbing a mountain and overcoming something like anxiety is pretty on the nose, but the real highlight of the story is the core message of accepting, forgiving, and understanding yourself. Madeline doesn't climb the mountain by defeating her self-image, she does it by teaming up with it and creating balance that couldn't have been struck through that initial conflict. The game also packs in a bunch of other great messages about dealing with anxiety, like a calming game about picturing a golden feather floating in front of your eyes, or the frequent mantra to "just breathe". As a matter of fact, I feel like I take something new from the game every time I play it. It helped me accept that I might have some sort of anxiety, it helped me come to terms with my more pessimistic side, and yes, it even helped with some gender issues (Madeline is trans, by the way). I even used Celeste as a moniker for a while.
Celeste is a brutally hard platformer where you play as Madeline and climb up the big mountain. Each level offers a multitude of difficult rooms that you have to try and make it through a ton of obstacles like spikes, spectral black matter, and pitfalls. The level design is strong throughout and the difficulty curve is phenomenal, with each stage (along with its harder B and C sides) slowly increasing in difficulty and slowly teaching you more and more complex mechanics. This game feels amazing to play, moving around as Madeline is super responsive and each of her few moves (jumping, climbing, and dashing) can chain into each other in interesting ways. When playing Celeste, you will die a lot, but the controls are so tight and the level design so well thought-out that it never seems like the game's fault. But oddly enough, despite the difficulty, I've never felt frustrated by Celeste. Don't get me wrong, this game is really hard, but it makes a lot of great decisions to make the experience as zen as possible. Respawns are quick, and checkpoints are frequent, so dying is really just a momentary setback. The game has this overall calming atmosphere, with tons of encouraging messages, and there's an incredibly comprehensive assist mode so that everyone can see everything this game has to offer even if you're not that great at platformers. And this is where the story comes in, because Madeline's journey wouldn't hit nearly as hard if you weren't also going on that journey yourself. The sheer difficulty of Celeste means that reaching the summit feels just as cathartic, and for a game about anxiety, it makes me really glad that it tried to reduce the player's anxiety while playing it.
Celeste is also jam-packed with content despite only having nine major stages. Each stage is fairly long, and you can quicksave wherever you'd like if you need to take a break. The whole game is filled with collectible strawberries, some of which you need to collect by either not dying or not dashing. Each stage also has two harder variants, a B-side and a C-side. While these variants are brutally difficult, they're just as fair and well-designed as the main campaign. I already mentioned the move chaining, but the cool fact that it's all intended. These B-sides and C-sides actually teach you some of these "hidden" exploits which is just the coolest thing, it's like if you had a Smash Bros Melee event that taught you how to wavedash! The ninth and final stage, Farewell, is an epilogue to the story that was added as DLC, and it's the ultimate final challenge. I don't love the fact that you pretty much need to finish the B and C sides to be prepared for it given its story importance, but it also makes it a great demonstration of just how much you've learned from the start of the game. Celeste also has time trials for all its levels, and returning to early levels with more experience is just insanely satisfying.
And if all that's not enough, Celeste also boasts an incredibly strong presentation. The artstyle is pixelated, but it also uses dynamic lighting to give it a lot of depth. It's definitely one of the most unique and memorable pixel art styles I've seen from an indie game. The color palette is striking and colorful, from the rainbow hues of Farewell to the stunning skyline in Golden Ridge. The UI also looks really nice and clean, I especially like the 3D model of the mountain in the background of the level select. Celeste also has an amazing soundtrack by Lena Raine, probably one of my favorite video game soundtracks period. Each level theme is dynamic, slowly evolving throughout the course of the stage. The music ranges from inspiring to tense to dramatic to triumphant, and nearly all of it is phenomenal. I especially love how piano and synth is used to symbolize Madeline and Badeline, with each instrument taking over depending on who is more in power.
It all builds to The Summit, one of my favorite video game levels ever. At this point in the story, Madeline had fallen to the bottom of the mountain thanks to Badeline and they have just had a massive fight. They decide to team up and climb back up the mountain from square one. What ensues is a victory lap of sorts, as you go back through every prior stage, putting everything you learned to the test but with one big twist. Thanks to Badeline, you get an extra dash, a new decision that completely recontextualizes how you play the game. The music is also phenomenal, bringing back the theme of the first level, changing it depending on which area you're in, and slowly bringing in synth as Badeline starts to warm up to her counterpart. And that final moment, when you make it up to the very top of Celeste Mountain, is one of the most cathartic and memorable moments in video game history. It's an amazing final level and a perfect example of everything I love about this game.
Overall, Celeste is one of my favorite games of all time, it's a nearly perfect experience that synergizes story and gameplay better than nearly any game I've ever seen. The gameplay is tight, the level design is great, the presentation is top-notch, and it's packed with replay value and content. It's a game that personally means a lot to me, and I think it'll probably keep being my comfort game for years to come.
5/5 Stars
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