Celeste is probably the closest I think a game has ever come to perfection. I genuinely cannot think of a single issue I have with this game. Everything controls so incredibly well, in part due to the "Mario pill" design, where you make the character themselves simple and adjust the levels to follow suit. It works so brilliantly, with each level introducing new elements and getting harder and harder in a way that flows insanely well and has a great difficulty curve. it's difficult, yes, very much so. Probably the hardest game I've ever played, too. But it knows this and designs itself around that. Every death is only a setback to the beginning of the screen, which is at most a few seconds of progress. This turns each screen into a mini challenge in of itself, where you try again and again and again as you slowly get better and better. And then when you finally clear a screen, it still feels like a victory and a clear step towards progress. I think, in the year it took me to beat every level, I only got genuinely frustrated at the game one time. It was one screen in the final level where these spikes move in a way you can't see until you're already falling, which felt a bit cheap and rng based. That is what, one screen? Out of the thousands and thousands and hundreds of hours it took to beat this game. It's just a perfect gameplay loop if you ask me.

And then of course, this game is (in?)famous for being the TransFem Video Game, so much so that the creator themselves came out after making it. But i mean... yeah. It makes total sense. When i first started playing this game, I was in a very weird time in my life. Ironically, the game calling me Madeline was one of the first times I felt "gender euphoria" before I knew it was even a thing. I beat it pretty quick, but grinded for the extra doo-hickeys on and off over the course of the next year or so. All the while, coming to terms with my identity and carving out a new version of myself. Y'know, small potatoes. But the evening I finally beat farewell, watched the ending and saw that trans flat in madeleines room... it felt like it was there for me all along, underscoring my journey without me ever knowing.

There's a lot more to say, about the writing and how charming the characters are, how it's maybe the most down-to-earth and relatable approach to anxiety and mental health I've seen in a piece of media, and how fucking genius-ly those themes are woven into the gameplay, but like. Yeah. You know that. You've played this game. It's celeste.