Celeste’s story was touching, and tied into the mechanics of the game pretty well. The characters, although few, were a perfect balance that I felt reflected different stages and interpretations of mental health. Celeste’s own battle is inspiring and hit some soft spots personally, especially with the theme of having your 2 sides battling, and coming to accept each other, acknowledging that your relationship with that part of it doesn’t have to be perfect, but you should love it (yourself) anyway.
There were so many small details throughout the game that you could easily miss, but those times when I was stuck on a level for however long, it never got too frustrating as it all felt purposeful. There was never a time where I reacted to a death like “that was bs” because it was always my fault; if anything I felt the game was lenient at some points.
I liked that they didn’t make reaching the end a slog. The summit felt like such a great home stretch as you pass by the world that you endured for the past however-many hours, and finally reaching the top meant everything.
And then, there was the postgame…
Don’t get me wrong, it was fun, but Heart of the Mountain really didn’t feel like… anything?
I don’t know, it didn’t feel like it fit a purpose story-wise and it focused a lot on the game mechanic of switching between ice and fire which wasn’t that good, in my opinion.
But Farewell… Farewell was my punishment for questioning the developers.
I probably spent just as much time on the game Chapter 1 -> HotM as I did just on this final dream chapter. This was an incredible addition to the game that turned the difficulty way up and was the developer’s way of saying “try this, fuckers”. In my opinion it was the TRUE final level of the game, and beating it felt like an honour.