FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CELESTE (no cw or anything just wanted to not take up space)
Assuming you aren't some bizarre romhack player who crawled from the depths of Z-Snes: Play the first 7 chapters, right up to the Summit and credits roll. Grab strawberries if you want; do not even bother with Core or Farewell.
It took me about 14 hours to do 1-7, and then going for crystal hearts and doing Core and Farewell at all brought my playtime up to 30 hours. I would probably hit 35 or 40 before I finish, which is like... too long for a platformer, ever. Show me another platformer that takes that long. Super Meat Boy?
I really wish I hadn't bothered with the bonus stuff; beating the base game was really satisfying and I had some great chats in this mega about it, was cool. Crystal Hearts, Core and Farewell are just a slog though, there's no satisfaction, getting all the hearts and beating Core were both "ugh finally" moments instead of "aw fuck yeah!!!" moments.
That's the way to do it imo, kicking up from ~70 strawberries to 90 felt good. B sides might be fun too? But these optional challenges feel like so much less pressure.
i think farewell is a masterpiece and totally worth it so I can't agree but you do have to be a bit of a sicko to get through it yeag. I think I had more deaths just on farewell than the rest of the game put together. calling it a slog is definitely fair but i found it was worth it and very rewarding personally but I understand bouncing off it.
i mean it's just really hard and I like getting punished by really difficult videogame. I thought it was about as hard as the game could get without straight up being unfair, a difficult balance to strike. also the music and visuals are rly nice. i enjoy the long, challenging rooms where it could take 30 minutes but you finally get every button press right, that reward is worth it for me. as much as it has impeccable trans vibes or whatever I wasn't exactly playing Celeste cause i cared about the story so like 20 odd hours of the hardest platforming in the game as well as being forced to learn some advanced tech was really enjoyable for me. I beat the post game during the early lockdowns and having a very difficult mechanical challenge that takes hours and hours to learn was just exactly what my brain wanted at that time
for sure.
I'm not even much of a mechanically gifted gamer or whatever, but sometimes that kind of stuff does click for me. like I blunder through dark souls with a STR build constantly trading hits with bosses. but playing Celeste and also Sekiro just put my brain in some kind of mode where the raw mechanical challenge was so incredibly satisfying to overcome. it's only a sometimes thing for me but when it hits it's so good. I think it's because at a certain point of practice/flow state or whatever you're basically playing a rhythm game.
I'm a FromSoft enjoyer too, but my reference for "hard game is good" is like Castlevania Bloodlines so Idrk what is wrong with me. I guess it's just the long long stretches, the hard games I like are all neatly segmented I guess.
Base game Celeste is a nice, even comfortable challenge...
I feel like basically every soulsish title barring Sekiro can essentially be overcome by other means than just mechanical prowess, that's what's so good about them. I hate that they have the reputation they do cause they are actually way more approachable than people think. Sekiro though, and the Celeste post-game, can fairly be described as slogs that demand a certain level of mechanical prowess. Normally that's less my thing like I said and I prefer the more open-ended, make-your-own-difficulty setup of the souls games. "Comfortable challenges" like you said, are normally more my jam. I'm far more likely to replay dark souls than Sekiro or Celeste. But occasionally I just get in a masochistic mindset i guess lol and that stuff really clicks for me. I think it can work as a kind of cope for sad brain stuff in a way, I find the distraction provided by committing to those mechanical challenges very all-encompassing which can be comforting in itself.
Maybe that's why Sekiro kinda stonewalled me... I was gettin through it but I was also like Man, this is harder than Metal Gear Rising or Bayonetta, lol.
I have uncritical support for this occasional masochistic urge and a distraction/coping mechanism sounds very thematically fitting for Celeste.
yeah, it's not like a Big Thing for me like i'm not constantly seeking out punishing platformers and stuff... but now and again a mechanically punishing game will just grab and hold my attention. It's a weird mindset i get in from time to time i guess lol. Yeah sekiro is very different to the other titles in that mechanical skill/reactions is definitely more of a core thing that's needed to beat (most of) the bosses. Some can still be cheesed in certain ways (and you better believe I used those cheeses when they were available), but it's definitely difficult in a more specific, closed-off, rigid way than its sibling games. understandable that it's not for everyone. and it's the only from game i haven't gone back to replay, hehe. but i did get a lot out of it when i was in that sicko mindset.
I like Sekiro and I am gonna go back to it, sometime. One of the issues I have is I've got a PS4 copy, and FromSoft games have the worst fucking framepacing, which makes parry timing at 30fps really tough. I gotta get on PC and go sicko mode
yeah i found ds3 really challenging on ps4, imagine sekiro is even worse. i recommend you do give it another shot on PC sometime! i definitely bounced off it a couple of times before it clicked for me, i was way too souls-brained going in. i think i even had a patcher installed to run it at 144fps lol
I thought it was about as hard as the game could get without straight up being unfair
There's some people who probably consider something like LXVI (Celeste fan level) to be a fair but fun level. I've seen the same thing said about Hacker's Dream (SMW kaizo hack), but that seems like an absurd claim to me. Gonna agree with gc7 and say that sometimes you should see a challenge like that and seriously evaluate if it's worth banging your head against the proverbial wall.
Farewell is nowhere near comparable to those kinds of things in difficulty, but I think the point still stands. If you get enjoyment out of the mechanical act of platforming and enjoy the physics of a specific platformer, it makes sense to do such challenges since it's not just a matter of "I need to clear this to prove myself" motivating it but rather a legitimate enjoyment of the journey.
Instead of thinking that it's embarrassing to walk away from a challenge and to celebrate being strong enough to make a decision that some pixels aren't worth frustration and walk away and only come back if the journey seems like it would be fun. Not suggesting you are implying otherwise, but just felt like expressing it.
FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CELESTE (no cw or anything just wanted to not take up space)
Assuming you aren't some bizarre romhack player who crawled from the depths of Z-Snes: Play the first 7 chapters, right up to the Summit and credits roll. Grab strawberries if you want; do not even bother with Core or Farewell.
It took me about 14 hours to do 1-7, and then going for crystal hearts and doing Core and Farewell at all brought my playtime up to 30 hours. I would probably hit 35 or 40 before I finish, which is like... too long for a platformer, ever. Show me another platformer that takes that long. Super Meat Boy?
I really wish I hadn't bothered with the bonus stuff; beating the base game was really satisfying and I had some great chats in this mega about it, was cool. Crystal Hearts, Core and Farewell are just a slog though, there's no satisfaction, getting all the hearts and beating Core were both "ugh finally" moments instead of "aw fuck yeah!!!" moments.
Once again,
s stay losing, I should know.
But I will still go back and collect everything at some point, I loved chapters 1-7 too much to not play all the content.
That's the way to do it imo, kicking up from ~70 strawberries to 90 felt good. B sides might be fun too? But these optional challenges feel like so much less pressure.
i think farewell is a masterpiece and totally worth it so I can't agree but you do have to be a bit of a sicko to get through it yeag. I think I had more deaths just on farewell than the rest of the game put together. calling it a slog is definitely fair but i found it was worth it and very rewarding personally but I understand bouncing off it.
Yep, I got just under 2500 on the base game, over 5500 by the time I quit Farewell.
What is good about Farewell? I didn't see much in it so I'm curious.
i mean it's just really hard and I like getting punished by really difficult videogame. I thought it was about as hard as the game could get without straight up being unfair, a difficult balance to strike. also the music and visuals are rly nice. i enjoy the long, challenging rooms where it could take 30 minutes but you finally get every button press right, that reward is worth it for me. as much as it has impeccable trans vibes or whatever I wasn't exactly playing Celeste cause i cared about the story so like 20 odd hours of the hardest platforming in the game as well as being forced to learn some advanced tech was really enjoyable for me. I beat the post game during the early lockdowns and having a very difficult mechanical challenge that takes hours and hours to learn was just exactly what my brain wanted at that time
Different strokes, I see
for sure. I'm not even much of a mechanically gifted gamer or whatever, but sometimes that kind of stuff does click for me. like I blunder through dark souls with a STR build constantly trading hits with bosses. but playing Celeste and also Sekiro just put my brain in some kind of mode where the raw mechanical challenge was so incredibly satisfying to overcome. it's only a sometimes thing for me but when it hits it's so good. I think it's because at a certain point of practice/flow state or whatever you're basically playing a rhythm game.
I'm a FromSoft enjoyer too, but my reference for "hard game is good" is like Castlevania Bloodlines so Idrk what is wrong with me. I guess it's just the long long stretches, the hard games I like are all neatly segmented I guess.
Base game Celeste is a nice, even comfortable challenge...
I feel like basically every soulsish title barring Sekiro can essentially be overcome by other means than just mechanical prowess, that's what's so good about them. I hate that they have the reputation they do cause they are actually way more approachable than people think. Sekiro though, and the Celeste post-game, can fairly be described as slogs that demand a certain level of mechanical prowess. Normally that's less my thing like I said and I prefer the more open-ended, make-your-own-difficulty setup of the souls games. "Comfortable challenges" like you said, are normally more my jam. I'm far more likely to replay dark souls than Sekiro or Celeste. But occasionally I just get in a masochistic mindset i guess lol and that stuff really clicks for me. I think it can work as a kind of cope for sad brain stuff in a way, I find the distraction provided by committing to those mechanical challenges very all-encompassing which can be comforting in itself.
Maybe that's why Sekiro kinda stonewalled me... I was gettin through it but I was also like Man, this is harder than Metal Gear Rising or Bayonetta, lol.
I have uncritical support for this occasional masochistic urge
and a distraction/coping mechanism sounds very thematically fitting for Celeste.
yeah, it's not like a Big Thing for me like i'm not constantly seeking out punishing platformers and stuff... but now and again a mechanically punishing game will just grab and hold my attention. It's a weird mindset i get in from time to time i guess lol. Yeah sekiro is very different to the other titles in that mechanical skill/reactions is definitely more of a core thing that's needed to beat (most of) the bosses. Some can still be cheesed in certain ways (and you better believe I used those cheeses when they were available), but it's definitely difficult in a more specific, closed-off, rigid way than its sibling games. understandable that it's not for everyone. and it's the only from game i haven't gone back to replay, hehe. but i did get a lot out of it when i was in that sicko mindset.
I like Sekiro and I am gonna go back to it, sometime. One of the issues I have is I've got a PS4 copy, and FromSoft games have the worst fucking framepacing, which makes parry timing at 30fps really tough. I gotta get on PC and go sicko mode
yeah i found ds3 really challenging on ps4, imagine sekiro is even worse. i recommend you do give it another shot on PC sometime! i definitely bounced off it a couple of times before it clicked for me, i was way too souls-brained going in. i think i even had a patcher installed to run it at 144fps lol
There's some people who probably consider something like LXVI (Celeste fan level) to be a fair but fun level. I've seen the same thing said about Hacker's Dream (SMW kaizo hack), but that seems like an absurd claim to me. Gonna agree with gc7 and say that sometimes you should see a challenge like that and seriously evaluate if it's worth banging your head against the proverbial wall.
Farewell is nowhere near comparable to those kinds of things in difficulty, but I think the point still stands. If you get enjoyment out of the mechanical act of platforming and enjoy the physics of a specific platformer, it makes sense to do such challenges since it's not just a matter of "I need to clear this to prove myself" motivating it but rather a legitimate enjoyment of the journey.
Instead of thinking that it's embarrassing to walk away from a challenge and to celebrate being strong enough to make a decision that some pixels aren't worth frustration and walk away and only come back if the journey seems like it would be fun. Not suggesting you are implying otherwise, but just felt like expressing it.