Celeste, developed by the indie team up of Matt Thorson (Towerfall) and Noel Barry (Skytorn) was recently given a release date for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. I don’t know about you, but the artstyle we got a glimpse of was visually pleasing, and the first nine minutes of gameplay that was recently revealed looks even nicer.
Posted by IGN, the first nine minutes of Celeste features the protagonist Madeline and the start of her adventure. It has very fluid animations that Towerfall is known for, as well as some simply beautiful ambient music and sounds.
Between side-scrolling levels is an overworld map, and the loading screens feature tooltips written as if they’re postcards sent to the protagonist, which again, is just simply pleasant. The gameplay itself looks to be rather difficult but rewarding. Towerfall was known for its quick reset. Up to four players would battle it out, but matches were very quick, and the next match would start almost instantly. This is also the case in Celeste, making dying less of a burden when you can simply keep trying with zero downtime.
Often times, difficult games tend to be less focused on the story and more focused on just gameplay, but Celeste seems to treat story elements as a reward for besting challenges (rather than a given). Madeline is a character with a story, and while the video tells very little it’s pretty clear that there’s plenty to tell.
Celeste is coming to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on January 25, 2018. Check out the first nine minutes of it below: