I purchased the CELESTE in may 2018 at the US eShop of Nintendo Switch. I was expecting this game before launch. Because I was wondering about a system that allows the player to control the difficulty while playing a game.
This game is a 2D platformer action genre that a heroine have to climb a mystery mountain called the CELESTE very hard.
If I summarize this game, It's a fairly exciting carcinogenic game* that stimulates the desire for challenge.
As I said above, the system that allows to control the difficulty is called the Assist Mode. Assist mode allows players to turn on options that greatly affect gameplay. Options include slowing the game speed, granting yourself invincibility or infinite stamina, and skipping chapter entirely. The option could be turned on at the beginning of the game, or turned on during the stage. However, I could't turn it off after once turned on. When I used this system and cleared the first chapter, I felt somehow using a cheat-key. So, I started with a new game again. With turned off the Assist Mode. Challenge!
I regretted it soon. The developer placed red strawberries all over the stage. Why red strawberry? I wondered why, but what I was most curious was how to get all of strawberries. It was very difficult and seemed to get harder and harder. So I died a lot like crazy. However, I could continue to challenge, for the following reasons.
This game has a lot stages that are connected like a path in a chapter. The stage is a large screen that designed for a level of death. The player moves from the starting point to the next point. However, life is one. Even if the character dies, it starts again at the starting point of the current stage. That is, the system did not return the character to the previous stage that the player has already passed. And, the size of each stage was mostly reasonable. (Of course, there are often large-scale stages.)
Anyway, I was able to keep up with the game even if I died like crazy because of this rule. To be more specific, when I die many times, the solution begins to show up, and the body starts to react. Of course, I was able to feel my fingers were slower than the brain, but even that was gradually growing up to my limit.
In addition, art, music and story were also satisfactory. I liked the art style that only Celeste can see. And, music has attentiveness such as appropriately heightening or alleviating emotion according to the progress of the game. The story is simple, but the message in it was good. I was happy to be able to think about the 2D platformer game while playing this game.
Oh! I am not proud, but I gathered all the strawberries and crystal hearts of the main route. And all the B-side routes were open. It was very satisfying to collect all strawberries and crystal hearts. Now it's time to challenge the B-side.
But now I do not want to die anymore :(
*carcinogenic game: That is, the carcinogenic game is a term that translates the Korean-style metaphor "bal-am game(발암 게임)" into English. And this means that the game is very difficult enough for a player to get cancer.
