Dedicated to those who perished on the climb: Celeste

[FelixSH]

The fast respawning and fluidity of movement is the biggest difference, to me. Mario is way slower and methodical (or ar least the way I play them is), Celeste and games of its type feel like a rhythm-game. Making it through a level, if you are good at it, feels like a dance, when your fingers move through muscle memory, for the most part. The often single-screen levels help too, because, together wirg the lack of enemies and mosr things moving in set patterns, you can plan stuff out, or, if you are good enough, react to new things really fast.

 

[karzac]

Yeah, I was going to mention the fast respawn as well, which is tightly linked with the single screen focus

 

[lincolnic]

The fast respawning and fluidity of movement is the biggest difference, to me. Mario is way slower and methodical (or ar least the way I play them is), Celeste and games of its type feel like a rhythm-game. Making it through a level, if you are good at it, feels like a dance, when your fingers move through muscle memory, for the most part. The often single-screen levels help too, because, together wirg the lack of enemies and mosr things moving in set patterns, you can plan stuff out, or, if you are good enough, react to new things really fast.

If you like this style of play, you should try some SMW kaizo sometime!

 

[FelixSH]

I tried, when you started that thread some time ago. But it felt weird - the things that I was supposed to do in one of these tutorial hacks were incredibly hard, and it just felt off, like I was not supposed to do it this way. Maybe I could get into it, if I tried some more, but it really didn't work for me, at this point.

 

[lincolnic]

I mean, yeah. It's incredibly hard by nature, but just like Celeste it's all about improving your skills with practice and perseverance. It's okay if it's not for you, though! Your description just was very similar to the way I play/think about kaizo hacks.

 

[Ludendorkk]

Celeste is pretty different from Kaizo in that it introduces concepts and helps you learn them before ramping up to hard difficultly while Kaizo usually throws you in the deep end and often relies on techniques that a player wouldn't even know exist without extremely deep preexisting knowledge. They are made for pretty different audiences.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Kaizo isn’t made by a single author, so the level of difficulty varies quite wildly. Hacks like Learn 2 Kaizo exist to teach you the mechanics that you need, I wouldn’t try jumping into even an easy kaizo hack without playing that first to learn the rules. Again, nobody should feel obligated to play stuff like kaizo or the B/C sides, but if you want to challenge yourself they are all super fun.

 

[madhair60]

Possibly hot take? I love Celeste, I think it's brilliant, but that final DLC took it from a 9/10 to an 8. It's just super finicky and not fun. Yes, it's optional. I know.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I can’t disagree! They took a game I considered to be basically perfect and tacked on a long chapter filled with finicky mechanics that aren’t as reliable or fun to engage with as the main game. It’s like the DS port of Chrono Trigger: basically everything you want is there, but the addition of more, less-good stuff makes it feel less special. Complaining about a free expansion is pretty gauche, but it’s also sad that I have to warn new players against playing it.

 

[SilentSnake]

Hi, I wrote this:

How The Celeste Speedrunning Community Became Queer As Hell

With its refined design and story of self-acceptance, Maddy Thorson's acclaimed platformer has resonated with many queer and trans speedrunners

kotaku.com

 

[lincolnic]

Hello yes, this article is extremely good and it deserves a lot of attention.

 

[Ludendorkk]

Hi, I wrote this:

How The Celeste Speedrunning Community Became Queer As Hell

With its refined design and story of self-acceptance, Maddy Thorson's acclaimed platformer has resonated with many queer and trans speedrunners

kotaku.com

Great article.

 

[FelixSH]

I'm watching an LP of Strawberry Jam, a hack made by fans. Looks really well done, on the whole, I'll probably try it myself someday. At least the beginner levels don't seem to demand stuff like wavedashing, that thing you needed in that long DLC level. At least the easier ones don't.

There seem to be also experimental levels. The one I just watched is one that is meant to be played by two players, with the one playing being blindfolded, and the other one guiding him. If you are alone, you can let the game just make everything black, and it giving you instructions on what to do. I kinda appreciate someone trying to do something new, but that sounds pretty awful. Taking away your sight never improved a game, and while it maybe can be done, I have no idea how.

Also, there seem to be people who play Celeste blindfolded? Learning the levels completely by heart, so they can do them that way? At least certain levels seem to be possible. Will never try that, but interesting to know, I thought.

 

[FelixSH]

Played a bit around with Strawberry Jam, it's really good. There is a level that is made up of puzzles (You have a certain amount of dashes, to make these bear-blocks, that start to move when you ram into them, be in the right position, so that you can let yourself just drop through pixel-perfect holes), one level seems to use graphic assets from the Game Gear Sonic game (I think at last, the waterfall in that one reminds me so much of it), and more (at least visually) creative stuff.

And the beginner course is a good bit easier than the DLC level. No wavedashing necessary, I think not even that move where you dash up a wall, and jump away immediately, gaining you more height. It's just really well done levels. Challenging, but very doable for someone who beat the regular game (and maybe the B- and C-sides, but might be overevaluing them). In any case, if you would like some new Celeste levels, give this a try, I think it's really well done. You can find an installation guide on Youtube, it's very easy.

One warning, though: After installing everything (you need Everest, a Mod-organizer thingy), it takes forever to load Celeste. Something like 30 seconds, maybe longer? It's not just me, I found others who had the same problem. But after starting, everything works fine, so it's not a big deal, I think.