Introduction

Celeste is a platformer released at the end of January 2018 by Matt Thorson and some of his friends. It's based on a short game, also called Celeste which Thorson made for a game jam using Pico-8.

In terms of gameplay Celeste is a tough as nails but very encouraging game centered around a dash you can perform in any of eight directions to brave increasingly more challenging levels. Despite this single mechanic being the lifeblood of the game Celeste stays fresh all the way to the end and beyond.

Celeste's narrative follows a girl named Madeline, who heads out to climb (an obviously fictionalized) Mount Celeste to run away from her problems but ultimately is forced to confront them. The story is surprisingly engaging for what kind of game this is and is a welcome change of pace from "Rescue the Princess/Animals/Whatever" or "Fight the bad guy/gal"

The game offers an Assist mode to make the game easier for those who have trouble. It allows to slow the game down, increase number of dashes, give yourself infinite stamina and make you invincible in any combination desired. This in no way judges the player or limits their progress. Even achievements can be unlocked with Assist Mode active.

To quote the game's description of the mode:
"Celeste was designed to be a challenging, but accessible game. We believe that its difficulty is essential to the experience. We recommend playing without Assist Mode your first time. However, we understand that every player is different. If Celeste is inaccessible to you due to its difficulty, we hope that Assist Mode will allow you to still enjoy it."



We will be doing a full run through all of the levels. Collecting the Strawberries, Hearts and B-Sides. We'll also be completing all post game challenges with one exception that would not really benefit the LP (you will see what I mean once we get there). Even if we will be using advanced mechanics sooner than the game teaches them to us I would like you to not discuss them until I've properly explained them in the videos. The same, of course, goes for the game's story. I'll begin to explain things in more detail as soon as chapter 2.

Like with all my LPs I would like to encourage you, should you feel like this game is just your jam while watching the LP, to go play it yourself before watching further. It took me less than one minute into videogamedunkey's review of the game to know that I wanna play it and I stopped watching just then.


All videos are uploaded to YouTube and collected in a playlist.

Pressing the banner or play button will link you to the normal LP, the Fast Forward symbol will bring you to a speedrun of the level.




---
Extras:

Chapter 3
A GDC talk Matt Thorson held about Celeste a year before the game's release

Chapter 7
So you like our dude Theo? His InstaPix is TheoUnderStars. Look him up!

If you wanna see something real crazy watch a TAS! Here's Celeste in 25:41.747

In case you want to see the stawberry pie reactions for getting less than 170 strawberries some guy called Git Gud has made a video featuring them all

Kotaku have released an interview with Matt Thorson in which he talks about what Celeste's story means to him and how it relates to his own experiences.

Feeling the Soundtrack? Here's the Bandcamp page so you can listen to it anytime.
The B-side OST can be found here and features more cool tunes.

Post Game
Interview with Lena Raine, Composer of Celeste.

Here's a reddit AMA with the makers of the game. Some interesting stuff.


Stats so far:
If the stats don't match up it's because I did other stuff in each level not recorded for the LP. Like practicing hard jumps for the speedrun part of the videos and the likes.