Celeste boasts super tight reactive controls that simply feel great. If you are in to challenging 2D platformers in the vein of super meat boy where each level you have to figure out the right series of maneuvers and perform them usually within a pretty tight window with not much room for error then this is one of the best out there. I appreciate and enjoyed the game mechanically speaking but to be honest this game made me pretty irritated at a few points that just seemed overly long and tedious for the high level of difficulty. These games aren't typically my cup of tea so take that with a grain of salt.
The game goes through a sawtooth graph style difficulty curve where most parts are pretty easy to somewhat challenging but there are a few peaks in the game of seriously pinpoint precision, frame-perfect style challenges where you will retry one section dozens of times before completing it and moving on. And some of these sections just seem to go on and on and on with no end in sight. This is either a positive or negative depending on your frame of refence but worth noting.
The art style is simple yet endearing but the dialogue... Oh the dialogue. I'm sure this will get some pushback but the dialogue is twilight fan fiction levels of cringe at times feeling like it was written by an edgy teenager who had a bad week rather than someone actually suffering with anxiety and depression. In it's defense I will admit that I am clearly not the target demographic and imagine the story will probably resonate with teens and early twenty somethings who haven't quite found their footing in life yet.
This isn't to say the story is all bad, it definitely isn't. Looking past cringey Leo and some of the overly simplistic dialogue there is a decent story here. I honestly found Celeste to be more about coming to terms with the things you don't like about yourself and accepting yourself for who you are warts and all than a game "about depression" as some seem to describe it. Though there are certainly parallels that could be made with depression, this didn't seem like the focal point to me. And to be honest, this is a probably a good thing, as actual depression involves your brain not producing the right balance of chemicals and is not something you can just conquer with optimism, determination, and a can-do attitude.
Celeste is an interesting game and somewhat of a contradiction to me. The gameplay is so sophisticated, unapologetic, and challenging yet the story is just milquetoast and inoffensive. It's like the writers were scared to say anything too challenging to the audience so they went with this sunshine and rainbows plot where everything wraps up neatly and perfectly with just a little hard work and dedication. There isn't anything inherently wrong with that type of a story, but to me it is severely at odds with the minute to minute gameplay. I felt like I was playing a Dark Souls game but in the end you save a princess, fall in love, and live happily ever after.
The game goes through a sawtooth graph style difficulty curve where most parts are pretty easy to somewhat challenging but there are a few peaks in the game of seriously pinpoint precision, frame-perfect style challenges where you will retry one section dozens of times before completing it and moving on. And some of these sections just seem to go on and on and on with no end in sight. This is either a positive or negative depending on your frame of refence but worth noting.
The art style is simple yet endearing but the dialogue... Oh the dialogue. I'm sure this will get some pushback but the dialogue is twilight fan fiction levels of cringe at times feeling like it was written by an edgy teenager who had a bad week rather than someone actually suffering with anxiety and depression. In it's defense I will admit that I am clearly not the target demographic and imagine the story will probably resonate with teens and early twenty somethings who haven't quite found their footing in life yet.
This isn't to say the story is all bad, it definitely isn't. Looking past cringey Leo and some of the overly simplistic dialogue there is a decent story here. I honestly found Celeste to be more about coming to terms with the things you don't like about yourself and accepting yourself for who you are warts and all than a game "about depression" as some seem to describe it. Though there are certainly parallels that could be made with depression, this didn't seem like the focal point to me. And to be honest, this is a probably a good thing, as actual depression involves your brain not producing the right balance of chemicals and is not something you can just conquer with optimism, determination, and a can-do attitude.
Celeste is an interesting game and somewhat of a contradiction to me. The gameplay is so sophisticated, unapologetic, and challenging yet the story is just milquetoast and inoffensive. It's like the writers were scared to say anything too challenging to the audience so they went with this sunshine and rainbows plot where everything wraps up neatly and perfectly with just a little hard work and dedication. There isn't anything inherently wrong with that type of a story, but to me it is severely at odds with the minute to minute gameplay. I felt like I was playing a Dark Souls game but in the end you save a princess, fall in love, and live happily ever after.
8 Comments
Hmmm I don't see the word "only" in my statement about depression. Saying something involves something isn't the same as saying it only involves something. The point I was making is that being an awkward or socially anxious teenager who's having a rough time at the moment isn't the same as clinical depression. My point stands.
Yeah, the point was well-made and, IMO, correct.
Thank you kind sir.
@Blowing_Wind I'm curious, do you think real depression can be overcome with optimism and a can-do attitude or are you just being nit-picky about my wording? I'm trying to nail down specifically what you are odds with here. To expand on my previous comment, I was trying to push the idea that if the game was "about depression" it would be a bad representation as real depression (to stick with the games metaphor) doesn't care whether you are at the bottom of the mountain or at the peak, you feel empty regardless. Depression isn't feeling bad when you should feel bad, it's feeling bad regardless of the inputs.
(Sorry for not answering sooner, for some reason replies from other people's reviews don't show up in my notifications)
I'll admit I confused your review with another, more aggresive one on this page that also justified their opinion with brain chemicals and I didn't recheck the entire review again, sorry 🤦
However I do believe that it's "something you can just conquer with optimism" because people can give themselves purpose by attempting things with blind determination. Yes, sometimes you can't find something to do so and you end feeling empty as you say, but that's no reason to try looking for something else afterwards to tie your vital drives around instead of blaming your own bodily reactions and saying you can't change anything.
The last two months of summer I myself could combat my own "defeatism" (I don't know if that's the right word in english) by attempting intense physical activity like in this game when you look past its metaphorical aspects, defeatism which is one form of depression based on the fact you don't feel motivated into attempting your plans (because I felt I would fail if I wasn't fit enough or that I was extremely manipulative to others like Madeline here) and that causes cyclical emptiness. Going to the gym let me know other people who were very supportive despite my health issues and lack of strenght, and who helped me be less timid, and that's one way I could truly overcome that crappy, lonely feeling I had every holiday since I finished high school. So yes, I believe with the right mindset you can concentrate the significations in your psyche around certain activities that temporarily allow you to find a purpose, but more importantly give yourself the inspiration, like Madeline, to take your first step. I wish that when I become a professional psychologist I can guide people with their own thoughts about themselves, which is what lacanian psychonalysis is based around.
(Also I read this review, I like that you mentioned the fact Madeline needs to accept the worst part of herself before learning to control it, it's something even Freud a century ago talked about but a lot of these narratives forget to talk about: the neurosis is like a tumor, there's something more intricately tied to your web of significations thst can't be entirely removed)
I'll admit I confused your review with another, more aggresive one on this page that also justified their opinion with brain chemicals and I didn't recheck the entire review again, sorry 🤦
However I do believe that it's "something you can just conquer with optimism" because people can give themselves purpose by attempting things with blind determination. Yes, sometimes you can't find something to do so and you end feeling empty as you say, but that's no reason to try looking for something else afterwards to tie your vital drives around instead of blaming your own bodily reactions and saying you can't change anything.
The last two months of summer I myself could combat my own "defeatism" (I don't know if that's the right word in english) by attempting intense physical activity like in this game when you look past its metaphorical aspects, defeatism which is one form of depression based on the fact you don't feel motivated into attempting your plans (because I felt I would fail if I wasn't fit enough or that I was extremely manipulative to others like Madeline here) and that causes cyclical emptiness. Going to the gym let me know other people who were very supportive despite my health issues and lack of strenght, and who helped me be less timid, and that's one way I could truly overcome that crappy, lonely feeling I had every holiday since I finished high school. So yes, I believe with the right mindset you can concentrate the significations in your psyche around certain activities that temporarily allow you to find a purpose, but more importantly give yourself the inspiration, like Madeline, to take your first step. I wish that when I become a professional psychologist I can guide people with their own thoughts about themselves, which is what lacanian psychonalysis is based around.
(Also I read this review, I like that you mentioned the fact Madeline needs to accept the worst part of herself before learning to control it, it's something even Freud a century ago talked about but a lot of these narratives forget to talk about: the neurosis is like a tumor, there's something more intricately tied to your web of significations thst can't be entirely removed)
This was the review I was talking about
https://www.backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/663828/
"It unfortunately doesn’t fly in this day-and-age where advances in neurochemistry disclose complications in the central processing organ that originates these thoughts, and to act like clinical disorders can be powered through via sheer willpower is quite silly." No it's not silly, postfreudian psychoanalysis doesn't need medications to work
https://www.backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/663828/
"It unfortunately doesn’t fly in this day-and-age where advances in neurochemistry disclose complications in the central processing organ that originates these thoughts, and to act like clinical disorders can be powered through via sheer willpower is quite silly." No it's not silly, postfreudian psychoanalysis doesn't need medications to work
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No problem, and I get your point. And just to add, I'm not saying that people with depression should chalk it up to a chemical imbalance and do nothing except take medication. Like you stated there are lots of ways to improve your mental health in natural ways as well, exercise being one of the best from what I have read. And I guess if you read Celeste as not only a metaphor for overcoming obstacles but also a promotion of getting some exercise, and getting out in nature then that would dull my point a bit. I guess to me I just didn't get that the game was promoting physical activity or anything like that. Idk, to me if you are going to try to tackle a complex issue like depression you need to approach with nuance and understanding that it isn't a straightforward process and for the most part it will be a life long battle that will require life style changes and in most cases medication as well. Again, I don't feel like this game is a metaphor for depression so this isn't a critique of the game.
Blowing_Wind
1 year ago