What are your top three favorite Celeste chapters?
Mine are Farewell, Core, and Summit, in that order.
Farewell has a masterful story that’s a great way to tie off the game, has great music, a funny wavedash tutorial, and just looks awesome. Don’t even mention the Pufferfish and Jellyfish, those are easily some of my favorite hazards. They even find an effective way to throw in mechanics from other chapters without it feeling out of place. Despite being the hardest chapter in the game, it snuck its way into becoming my favorite.
Core takes second, which may surprise most of you. A lot of people don’t like the Core because of its weird mechanic of not giving you your dash back when you land. I, however, think it’s a very interesting mechanic. It forces you to conserve your dash, and think “Hmm, where do I have to dash here? Is there a way to conserve dashes?” And it allows for tricks like wavedashing and then switching screens to maybe skip a portion of said screen. Couple that with its hot and cold mechanic (which I absolutely love btw), and you have a great Celeste chapter.
Summit, finally, is third. I absolutely love the summit for one simple reason; it revisits older chapters while giving them an extra added challenge and a fresh coat of paint. It’s cool to see places like Forsaken City and Old Site in a sunset setting. Of course, there’s also the added depth of gameplay that comes with adding a second dash, which opens up so many possibilities for complex level design. Not to mention the conversations that Madeline and Badeline have between altitude points. These two factors combined make it a great Celeste chapter and a perfect way to cap off the game.
For those of you curious, here are the rest of my favorite chapters in order:
- Golden Ridge
- Reflection
- Old Site
- Forsaken City
- Mirror Temple
- Celestial Resort