Celeste deserves a thread

I feel really bad for saying that since it tackles a difficult subject. It was just too young-adult for me. I would’ve appreciated a much subtler metaphor.

Oh! Mr. Oshiro was really fun.

And on that positive note, I’m off to bed.

I’ve never heard of this game until the Game Awards tonight. It won Best Independent game, and apparently it’s been released on every platform. It is a pixel art style game though, which is my kryptonite. But it looked neat.

It is neat! I’ve been playing it for the last couple weeks on Switch, and just finished the main story (though there are tons more harder objectives to go for). Highly recommended!

I got stuck on a part last night. But how the heck do you ask for help? I suppose I could record a short video clip.

But yeah, I thought I’d get stuck in this game because I didn’t have the manual dexterity and timing, but in this case it’s because I have no idea how I would even get from here to there. No clue.

I doubt I’ll remember much, but you could start with what level it’s on. A screenshot could also be enough to jog someone’s memory, you might not need a video clip.

I got stuck a few times and had to look up video walkthroughs. Because each screen is discrete it’s actually pretty quick to scroll through the video and find the room you are stuck on. You’ll still have to actually perform the difficult bits but at least you’ll know what to try.

How did you get past this? I’ve heard good things about this game, but I look at it and don’t think I could stand playing it.

I hardly noticed it, though I don’t mind pixel art in general so YMMV.

That’s a good question. I think it’s because they make really good use of their pixel style. You can see your character’s distinctive hair. And then after you do one jump, her hair turns white, and you can do one more action, but you can’t do the special jump. It’s all very clear, very to-the-point. The art is very clear, and it’s not hurtful to the eyes either.

By contrast, there is a game called Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. Now that is truly hurtful to the eyes. The font is old style 16-bit font, along with 16-bit graphics, everything is so ugly, sound effects are old style horrible sounds. The controls are old school (they suck). It’s probably a great game for someone who can stand that stuff. But it makes for a nice contrast to something like Celeste. Celeste pretends to be old school, but the controls are not old school, they’re really precise. The sound effects are great. And yes, the art style has that pixelated look, but it conveys a lot more than those actual old games used to convey, because it’s way better than old school games used to be.

So… you really don’t have a problem with pixel art. More with general ‘old school’ retro games.

Don’t get me wrong, I would like the game better if it didn’t have pixel art. I was explaining to rob why I didn’t rage-quit upon seeing it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I found it in this walkthrough. Here’s the room I was stuck on.

I was trying to squeeze through the hole that’s not possible to squeeze through, and then I thought that whole upper part was a red herring, and I should just cling to the right side of that center pillar, and then try to jump from there, but it never seemed to work out.

Turns out, I had to fall with the stone!

Yeah this game has some really ingenious level design, there were a few rooms that i spent a lot of time trying what i thought was every possible option only to look it up and realize i was missing something completely obvious!

I finally fired it up because I was going through and uninstalling things I don’t see myself playing soon. I figured now or never. I am not good at this. I got the first 6 or so strawberries easily enough and then it seemed like it turned up the difficulty. I got a couple more strawberries and decided to put it down for now at least.

It’s clever creating the puzzles the player needs to navigate with the small number of moves they have.I’m just not sure I’m up for the challenge. I guess it’s a reminder that maybe I’m only up for the easier platformer games. I did make it through Hollow Knight (not strictly a platformer but it does have some difficult navigation). Celeste seems harder, or maybe my skills have decayed a lot in 2+ years.

It doesn’t help that I don’t like the art style at all, but it is my lack of skill that’s holding me back.

I really liked Celeste, mostly due to how you alternate between solving the room and then executing on them. But that execution does get more and more demanding the further in you go.

For me, I thought it was my lack of skill, but I looked up a couple of spots that I was having trouble with, and I was not doing things correctly. For me, that was even worse. I didn’t sign up for a puzzle game, for god’s sake. Teach me how to do things before expecting me to execute on them. This isn’t Braid, where the learning is the reward.

This is a great point rob. I’m the same way. If I find the look and especially the sounds to be pleasant, I can put up with A LOT more, because I just love being in the world while I’m figuring things out. Since I find the sounds and sights in Celeste actively unpleasant, I think that’s 90% of why I’m not willing to stick with it, even though I’m willing to sit there for hours in a game like Ori.

That’s actually really insightful. I hadn’t put that together in my head until I read your post.

Yeah, I don’t know how many tries it took me to beat that one race sequence in the first Ori, but it was a lot. I needed to beat it because I wanted to see more of the beautiful world, and I really enjoyed the game play. I don’t usually quit games easily when I’m enjoying them a lot. I fought Ornstein and Smough in Dark Souls for hours solo until I beat the bastards. Sure I got frustrated, but it was worth it.

Celeste feels like a more cumbersome version of Super Meat Boy. While SMB was hard, I think the levels were more simple to understand. SMB is no looker, but it didn’t get in the way like it does in Celeste, maybe because the levels are more complicated? Although, I probably didn’t get super far in SMB since I only played for 5 hours.

Celeste is so weird for me.

When it originally came out I played it, beat it, didn’t really try for most of the secrets, really liked it. Didn’t do any of the B- or C-sides.

Then, 6 months later, I picked it up again for whatever reason and got absolutely obsessed with it. Ended up collecting absolutely everything - every strawberry, every secret, even beat every single B-side and eventually C-side. Easily my most satisfying achievement in gaming ever.