The Magic of Celeste's Farewell DLC transcript

among the many games that i consider myself a fan of celeste ranks pretty high on the list however i realized i can't exactly go parading around as the world's biggest celeste fan if i haven't technically beat the game yet even if i did buy all three vinyl soundtracks and made a faithful recreation of the strawberry pie with the recipe i got from the collector's edition i just recently finished the dlc but boy did beating it take me a while only died a few times ah yes 3514 times in other words a few celeste's chapter 9 is hard it's probably one of the hardest games i've ever completed i can say all that i want about its difficulty but it's kinda hard to put it into words it's the longest chapter in the game by far and my final death count was close to my death count in the rest of the game's a and b sides combined i took multiple hiatuses after getting stuck in certain rooms resulting in very spread out play sessions over the course of a year okay sure it's a hard video game but why am i making an entire video on a free dlc update to an indie game that's been out for over two years now well how about i hit you with my thesis statement there are plenty of ways to tell a story in a video game you can turn dialogue into gameplay choices that affect your relationships with other characters maybe make an important character defining moment into a boss fight add some cool music and congratulations you just made persona 4. you're in about me you're nothing like me i am a shadow the true self but the idea that i want to explore when it comes to celeste's chapter 9 is that every facet of the game from the intricacies of the level design to the visuals difficulty and yes obviously the music is meticulously crafted to elicit the same emotions that madeleine experiences throughout the story celeste reflects its themes of determination and overcoming anxiety by being a puzzle platformer a type of game where the player has to try over and over again while fighting the urge to give up chapter 9 takes these concepts presented in the base game and pushes them further by adding even more complex emotions into the mix because i'm gonna say it oh no oh he's gonna say it video games are art people also spoiler warning before we get started i'm gonna be discussing the story and characters in detail so yeah just letting you know beforehand but please watch this video unless you haven't played celeste and are gonna play it then go play it immediately and come back and watch the video it should only take you like 30 hours or so thanks since we're taking a closer look at celeste through the lens of its story the easiest way to analyze everything will be to go through the chapter chronologically starting with the introduction sometime after the events of the main story madeline visits granny's grave within a dream granny was an important part of madeleine's climb and became her close friend resulting in madeleine being unable to cope with her death she decides to follow the bird that appears throughout the game which she believes to be a part of granny the other part of madeline who i will refer to as battlin since it's both easier and more amusing almost seems like a voice of reason in contrast to madeleine's stubborn defiance battling refuses to help chase the bird and the player loses the double dash mechanic unlocked by madeleine accepting her anxiety in the original game the first gameplay track titled fear of the unknown is hesitant and uneasy reflecting the dreamlike atmosphere madeleine travels deeper within it uses a simple 12-note melody played by a violin an instrument used to represent the bird in the same way madeleine and batalin are represented by the piano and synth respectively this melody that we'll call the farewell motif immediately establishes a huge sense of tension and it weasels its way into a lot of the tracks in farewell's [Music] ost [Music] as madeline chases the bird through this ethereal space the player is presented with levels filled with unfamiliar mechanics and plenty of spikes and electrical hazards maybe the jellyfish and the exploding fish represent something more specific i don't know the next section of the game further complicates things at first the visuals and background lend themselves to the idea that the end is in sight the background elements feel lighter and more colorful and the level design contains more movement sending you flying horizontally or ascending towards your goal however while the main melody starts with a new uplifting tone it tends to shift back and forth with the somber motif of the previous song you know those classic subverting your expectations moments in video games well it's no surprise that indie games continue to be really damn good at them when you attempt to collect the crystal heart that usually signifies the completion of a level which feels deserved as you've already been playing for quite a while at this point madeleine actively refuses to end her journey the dream world itself begins to distort as she continues past the intended finish line then the game says hey dummy if you really want to keep going you better have enough crystal hearts from the rest of the game to prove yourself because you are not ready for what's next after collecting 15 hearts and passing the gate you boot up an old computer and are given an adorable presentation on wave dashing a common mechanic used among speed runners that the developers decided to implement in the dlc a big aspect of celeste's level design has always been including different ways to approach each room speed run routes were specifically implemented in the base game for more experienced players but i think it's super cool that advanced tactics were actually introduced and required here further acknowledging and appreciating the speed running community the next section of chapter nine is the moment where the game really shifts as the story presents a barrage of mixed emotions in her defiant state madeline thinks batelin and the bird are working against her and that she is completely alone in wanting to somehow save granny lightning strikes the background goes dark and the music becomes strangely triumphant as madeleine's determination spirals out of control these are the sections where i had to step away multiple times each room is claustrophobic frustrating or filled with a complicated puzzle that i definitely didn't have to occasionally look up the solution to online these emotions ignoring the looking up answers online part reflect madeleine's mental state in the story during this segment she's gone past the point where this dream was supposed to end and is pushing herself through a nightmare mechanics from previous chapters are re-implemented as spikes surround just about every obstacle ready to punish even the slightest mistake these sections are where i remember a lot of my deaths happening there's even a tinge of anger in madeleine's denial reflected by the music getting a little too aggressive or even me getting a little too aggressive because the levels were clearly designed to take a lot of trial and error you usually can't see the entire room which leaves you with two options just slam your face into spikes with no plan until you make it or take a look through the binoculars and go oh yeah definitely now i can see the entire level time to slam my face into spikes with no plan until i make it after clearing rooms for what feels like an eternity battling eventually approaches madeleine and tells her again to give up she fears getting lost and knows it's all a dream madeline calls the other part of her selfish with the wobbly text and continues on while the atmospheric and mysterious track final defiance plays the triumphant instrumentation of the previous segment is gone and there's very little going on at all there's no melody or motif playing in this song and tension continues to build as each room is almost entirely made of the rhythm-shifting blocks used to unlock b-sides there's almost nothing left for madeleine to hold on to both figuratively and literally platforming is slowed down to a methodical halt as everything has to be timed to the changing blocks a black hole swirls in the background amidst cracked hearts and fallen buildings the developers really went hey you got that saturation slider working yet yeah just crank everything down even the sprites that's fine okay looking good i just find it amazing that a 2d pixel platformer can convey so much emotion and change the tone and feeling through these design elements alone the way the physical act of playing the levels can make you feel in relation to the story is a testament to why i love celeste for example i love playing through the early chapters launching around an abandoned city and through fun little rainbow space blocks is a great time but you drop me in the dark mirror temple of chapter five and i'll be like uh excuse me if i see that tentacle-eyed menace one more time i swear to god as madeline reconciles with batalin with the farewell motif and madeleine's theme playing in the background of course an acceptance of granny's death and a determination to save the bird before leaving the dream caused the final sections of the chapter to open up the levels themselves can take a breather no longer are you trapped within madeleine's mind as she refuses to accept the loss of a loved one the tension and sadness in the music fades away and the titular song farewell begins to play building upon itself as you progress through the final rooms the track uses the farewell motif i mentioned earlier but in this context it sounds determined not afraid [Music] the rooms themselves feel faster and more free as you triumphantly propel yourself through open spaces they're hard but they're not as frustrating anymore you're not worried about madeleine or granny or the bird you have a clear goal you aren't crammed in a dark room with spikes on every corner battling returns to assist you with her orb launches from chapter 7 and the bird just launches you at like mach 20s pretty awesome at this point i want to take a quick moment to look at how the music is actually melded into the game farewell is a track that clocks in at over 8 minutes but celeste takes a different amount of time to clear for each player and the game doesn't just repeat the music from the beginning with its exact run time the songs have so many variants that some aren't even included in the soundtrack version they're built to naturally evolve alongside level progression with instruments harmonies or huge pacing changes implemented inside seamless loops a singular track can exist in the background for a multi-hour play session without feeling repetitive and truly do its job in elevating your emotional journey through the game but i do want to add that when i was analyzing the game's audio project files in f-mod i found a dialog file called secret character and i'm just i'm so upset i can't believe they did this to me once you arrive at the final room it's easy to take one look through the binoculars as it merges every new mechanic into one final hurrah and go uh-huh yeah okay yep yeah yeah i got it after a hundred or so deaths i was starting to get pretty frustrated again until battlin popped out and said this [Music] this seems like such a small interaction but i think it's one of the most significant aspects of chapter 9. this game is hard but it knows it's hard and that's something i found a certain beauty in if you're a speed running legend who's amazing at celeste you may not have even seen this section of dialogue but the developers knew that almost every player would struggle with the final screen they wanted them to what seems like an impossible task becomes a little bit easier with every attempt as you memorize the layout after enough deaths you might get discouraged with the distance you still have left so they rode in a tiny conversation where it feels as if batelin is talking directly to the player and after reading it my anger disappeared i wasn't rushing to make it to the end anymore and as i listened to farewell on loop for about an hour and a half it really didn't feel like that long the game's lead developer matt thorson has even mentioned that most of celeste's levels are short on purpose with long ones used very sparingly to raise the stakes and make the story more memorable and i gotta say clearing this final section that legitimately takes around two full minutes of precise platforming with no checkpoints definitely solidifies itself as a memorable accomplishment the emotional relief of reconciling with battle in channels madeleine's determination into the player and makes it that much more enjoyable to power through this last challenge [Music] through the lens of my overly analytical english essay symbolism celeste's chapter 9 represents an entire journey in the same way that the rest of the game does some parts of the metaphorical climb that is life are going to be so difficult that sometimes i just gotta put down the metaphorical controller or metaphorical keyboard if you play there instead if i don't make any progress for a while that's okay maybe madeleine's journey wasn't warranted as it often feels like she's pushing forward for the wrong reasons but dealing with loss is hard i can make madeline climb an entire mountain in a couple hours but sometimes it takes 10 hours 3514 retries and a couple punches to the desk to help her say goodbye if i'm being honest i think i would have broken a controller if lena rayne's music wasn't there chapter 9 is a love letter to celeste's community it fully embraces mechanics that speedrunners developed and practiced while slowly teaching them to casual players it doesn't shy away from being rage inducingly hard in certain segments but it also does its best to remind you that it's not impossible you just have to keep trying and it's not just difficult for the sake of being difficult it tweaks its challenge in specific ways and changes almost every aspect of its design to reflect the ideas it attempts to portray the chapter's title farewell is a farewell not only to the granny that madeleine struggles to say goodbye to but also the game as a whole as the story closes and the developers and artists move on to new projects chapter 9 tacked on even more magic to a game that will remain close to my heart forever and i can't thank the creators of celeste enough for the experience they've created i said this in my previous celeste video and i'll say it again to me the magic of celeste is found in its ability to link the struggles of madeleine with those of the player it allows the player to share in madeleine's catharsis as she climbs celeste mountain or explores her own mind and shares ideas to help the player find their own ways to deal with the anxiety they may be facing in their own life what i'm saying is video games are pretty dang cool they're so cool that they basically define my entire life and celeste is one of the best ones i've ever played as the woman and the bird played in one of the game's final cut scenes i realized the main melody was just a new version of the farewell motif it takes a sound that was once tense and fearful and turns it beautiful and bittersweet dammit celeste you and your light motifs you've done it again thank you for watching this video most of my stuff on this channel tends to be more comedy focused but it was nice to express some heavier thoughts again for a change if you have your own thoughts about chapter 9 or celeste as a whole feel free to leave them in the comments and if you'd like to support my channel i have a patreon you can check out here or in the description thanks again for watching and man if you still haven't played celeste by now do you really have an excuse anymore [Music] you