JOHNNY KUZMANOVSKI

Celeste Narrative:

Madeline begins her journey to climb to the summit of Celeste Mountain. Throughout the journey she is met with all types of challenges; externally and internally. Celeste tackles the idea of mental illness and how it can affect someone in a particular way. How it’s hard to confront, hard to identify, hard to live with and hard to deal with. Celeste offers a narrative through the dialogue system and characters as it showcases the hardships and challenges of mental illness. Initially, the narrative involves many jokes and remarks towards certain characters which reminded me of the Banjo & Kazooie narrative & dialogue. However, as the game progresses; the jokes and remarks are less as Celeste highlights the seriousness of the narrative to represent the seriousness and severity of mental illness.

 

The assist mode in Celeste is ideal for player’s who would like to experience the narrative rather than the platforming challenge. The way that the assist mode has been made allows the player to explore and uncover Celeste in their own way.

 

Celeste Mechanics:

Celeste begins with the introduction of mechanics throughout the prologue level. A very simplified version to emphatically teach the player the core functionality of Celeste. With each new level; Celeste introduces new mechanics and platforms at the beginning of each chapter to depict to the player which platforms and mechanics they will need for the level. Celeste doesn’t just start the player in the deep end and expect the player to complete the level. The level design of Celeste is created uniquely which instantly removes the feeling of repetitiveness and increases the engagement & challenge for the player in Celeste.

 

Celeste always allows the player to view the entire screen; there is nothing that blocks the player’s view of the platforms. User interface elements such as the dialog and pause menu only shows up at certain points of the game that restricts the player to standing still. Celeste has been designed to maximise the player’s view port as the platforming can be quite challenging and tricky as any other UI elements during gameplay would distract the player from the gameplay and result in a poor experience. Celeste does extremely well to showcase to the player when important platforming mechanics have been used up. Such as the dash and stamina of Madeline.

 

For the dash mechanic, Madeline’s hair changes colour from purple to red to blue to show the player visually how many dashes they have left. Purple means they have two dashes, while red has one dash and blue has zero dashes. Visually showing the mechanic with the use of changing her hair colour allows for the gameplay to be clear and less cluttered than what it would be if a UI element was used around the player. Therefore, the choices that the developers have made has impacted the gameplay experience in a positive way as it has allowed the player understand the dash mechanic while also clearing the screen for the gameplay.

 

The same situation applies for the stamina bar when Madeline climbs walls. When Madeline starts to run out of stamina, white specs are used to showcase that soon she will flash red to depict that Madeline’s stamina is out and the player will start to fall down the wall. The use of small colour changes and flashes on the character itself greatly benefits the user experience and gameplay. If an UI element of a stamina bar would have been used, it would have not had the same impact on the engagement and player experience. Through the use of this visual mechanic, the screen is less cluttered and player’s can focus on their character while they platform instead of looking at two different areas on the screen.

 

Celeste Aesthetics:

The journey to Celeste Mountain’s summit consists of different levels, mechanics, platforms and themes. Each chapter has a different theme which involves different mechanics, platforms and art styles. The coherence of themes and art styles allows players to have a memorable and enjoyable experience of the journey to the summit. While the final chapter of reaching the summit is a combined theme from all of the other previous chapters. This final chapter reinforces the idea of a complete and memorable experience of Celeste.

 

The dialog aesthetics were one of the main points that stood out in portraying the aesthetics and styles of Celeste. The icons of the characters during cut-scene dialogues can sometimes change depending on the nature of the cut-scene; this shows the impact of the narrative that the characters in Celeste portray in relation to the narrative. In one cut-scene, “Part of Madeline” moves out of her square designated icon area as the aesthetics of this particular scene reinforce the idea that she’s in control until Madeline can fight back. The overall experience is memorable and enjoyable due to Celeste moving out of its boundaries and using the aesthetic of the dialogue, art and sound to create that engagement for the player.

 

The audio of Celeste; background music, B tracks and C tracks creates an entire atmosphere around Celeste which provides a further level of engagement and memorable experience for the player.

 

Overall:

Celeste is a game that showcases the hardships of mental illness through the narrative and challenging platforms. Celeste provides the player with the basic mechanics and allows the player to experience the narrative for themselves. Combining all of Celeste’s elements truly creates a memorable experience with an appropriate amount of game time for its price. Celeste leaves the player with an idea of mental illness and that something new can be learned from each death.