One of the coolest things about Celeste, a
game about climbing a mountain, is how similar
it is to actually climbing a mountain.
And it is this similarity that will make you
better not only at Celeste, but at every other
video game you ever play.
I grew up rock climbing.
And although this does not make me an expert on the subject, it does mean I know the jargon.
So allow me to explain two climbing concepts.
First is the “beta” of a climb.
This is the information about the route up
the wall.
Sure, you could heave yourself up, but if
you know the beta, you know the most effective path.
You’ve figured out the puzzle.
Second is the “crux:” the hardest part
of the climb.
Sometimes, you’ll have a super easy intro,
and halfway through the route, you get stuck
on a really hard move.
You may be able to complete the intro 20 times
before you can get past the crux once.
You won’t know how hard the rest of the
climb will be until you get past that point.
Celeste’s stages are built off of these
two principles.
Let’s take this dastardly strawberry as
our example.
When you start this stage, you know that, one:
You can’t touch these scary edges.
And two:
The floors with the red tendrils will turn
into the scary edges when you step on them.
With these two pieces of info, you start to
flesh out the beta of the stage, the puzzle
you’re trying to solve.
If you’re skilled, you can walk over, jump
on these two landings, and easily grab the
strawberry, but you won’t be able to get
through the floor you previously walked on.
If you dash over the walkway, you can grab
the strawberry, but then how do you get up
onto the two landings without dying?
These two approaches apply in real-life climbing as well.
I cannot tell you how many beefcakes would
walk into the gym, ask to be put on
the hardest climb, and burn themselves out
just trying to do pull-ups the entire way up.
And it was always hilarious.
This is skill without knowledge.
But some genius who knew how to get up the
wall might lose grip strength halfway.
That’s knowledge without skill.
Eventually, when you combine these two, you
can make it through the crux.
You’ve solved the beta of the stage, and
you’ve got the skill.
But you’re not done yet.
The beauty of Celeste is that when you die,
you only get sent back to the beginning of
that screen, so you try and try and try, and
eventually, you make it through.
Try, die, learn a bit, and get better at those
moves.
Celeste doesn’t teach you how to push buttons
correctly, it teaches you how to solve a problem.
And this makes you a better gamer.
And a better person.
Celeste makes you a better person.
After beating Celeste I played Hollow Knight
and Mega Man 11.
Two games I would have given up on and thrown
into the garbage had I not played Celeste first.
Because while most games make you grind to
improve your character, Celeste makes you
grind to improve yourself.
When you succeed, you keep that skill and
that knowledge.
And just like in real climbing, when you
go back to a route you’ve already completed, you
ask yourself “how did I ever struggle with
this?”
And that’s when you know… you have become
the genius beefcake.
And that is what makes Celeste so amazing.
I mean, that along with all of the incredible soundtrack work.
And the sprite-work.
And the level design in general.
And all of the conversations you have with Theo.
And Badeline, too. Pretty much all of the Badeline stages are amaz...
Everything about this game is so goddamn good.
