Beat in basically one sitting... 91 / 783 / 4:10:54.928
Pretty amazing. Basically perfect? A cornerstone in both gameplay and quality of life. There's no fat on this thing, every level is good. The story is pretty nice and just a little emotional. Madeline is an icon...
The difficulty curve here is pretty perfect, with just a few unlockables being a tad annoying, but they were always optional. Plus, I could usually tell what I was doing wrong and adapt.
Along with setting a golden standard in quality of life (quick respawns, no lives), I was pretty amazed at how this game visually teaches mechanics. With absolutely no waiting or reading, each idea that the game threw at me could be picked up, and understood basically instantly, and then built upon fluidly. The less you notice this kind of thing, the better it usually is... it wasn't until about the middle of the game when I instinctively reacted to an alteration on a concept that was taught to me earlier in the level, when I realized how masterfully these ideas were communicated. Great stuff.
---EDIT---
After spilling another 20 or something hours into the game and completing every single level, my opinion has either stayed the same or gone higher. While the extra content is extremely challenging, the elation of completing each part makes it worth it. I could genuinely tell I was improving, as when I came back to the base levels I was zipping through them and dying much less often. The bonus little rewards you get for completing everything are fun as well.
It wasn't until I installed CelesteNet that I genuinely starting questioning if this was a 10/10... I'm not sure if I should write about it here or make a separate review, but being able to climb alongside friends or meet other people on the same journey is amazing.
Pretty amazing. Basically perfect? A cornerstone in both gameplay and quality of life. There's no fat on this thing, every level is good. The story is pretty nice and just a little emotional. Madeline is an icon...
The difficulty curve here is pretty perfect, with just a few unlockables being a tad annoying, but they were always optional. Plus, I could usually tell what I was doing wrong and adapt.
Along with setting a golden standard in quality of life (quick respawns, no lives), I was pretty amazed at how this game visually teaches mechanics. With absolutely no waiting or reading, each idea that the game threw at me could be picked up, and understood basically instantly, and then built upon fluidly. The less you notice this kind of thing, the better it usually is... it wasn't until about the middle of the game when I instinctively reacted to an alteration on a concept that was taught to me earlier in the level, when I realized how masterfully these ideas were communicated. Great stuff.
---EDIT---
After spilling another 20 or something hours into the game and completing every single level, my opinion has either stayed the same or gone higher. While the extra content is extremely challenging, the elation of completing each part makes it worth it. I could genuinely tell I was improving, as when I came back to the base levels I was zipping through them and dying much less often. The bonus little rewards you get for completing everything are fun as well.
It wasn't until I installed CelesteNet that I genuinely starting questioning if this was a 10/10... I'm not sure if I should write about it here or make a separate review, but being able to climb alongside friends or meet other people on the same journey is amazing.