I very rarely write reviews for games, much less ones that don't just boil down to "haha game bad" or something like that. But having just finished this game to 100% completion, I felt the need to write this, if only to get my thoughts about the game down.

I have known about Celeste for quite a while now, but never really felt much drive to get it. I've played plenty of difficult platformers, and didn't see Celeste as anything new or exciting. I had heard people rave about the game and the themes it explores, but being the cynical bastard that I am, I always assumed that the positive feedback this game got was purely because it tackled themes of mental health, notably depression. I assumed the way they were handled in Celeste to be nothing that hadn't been done in other games to use these themes. But, the game was on sale, so I figured I'd give it a whirl, if only to 100% another game for the sake of doing so.

And my god, was I wrong about this game.

Celeste is an absolute gem of a game- virtually every aspect of it was polished to a gleam. You can truly tell that the team behind Celeste truly cared about this project. The visuals, the gameplay, the plot, the music- all of them are stunning. So much so that they managed to make me fall in love with this game despite going into it with a slight preconceived negativity towards it.

The plot of the game is such a breath of fresh air. You play as Madeline, who has decided to scale Celeste Mountain in order to prove to herself that she can achieve something if she sets her mind to it; struggling with depression, she has found it hard to find the motivation to do things, and has a history of breaking promises to herself, so she sets out for the summit to try and break free of the negativity holding her back. As she progresses up the mountain, the power of the mountain causes her insecurities to be given form in a near mirror image of herself (nicknamed Badeline). As she climbs higher up the mountain, she begins to understand herself and the other part of herself better. Eventually, Madeline realises that instead of trying to leave her insecurities behind, she needs to embrace them; facing her problems will make her stronger, whereas ignoring and running away from them won't. Having confronted Badeline and set aside their differences, the two work together to scale the rest of the mountain, ending at the summit, where the game concludes.

I found the plot of this game to be such a fantastic take on mental health, allowing the player to sympathise with Madeline and want her to overcome her adversity, whilst not making her pitiable by overwhelming with tragic backstories and making her out to be someone with the world turned against her. This is a path that many games that employ these themes travel, and is why I was sceptical of this game before I played it. Instead, Madeline outright acknowledges at the start of Chapter 6 that her personal life is relatively hassle free, not feeling worn down by work, and having a supportive Mother who she contacts if she's feeling overwhelmed. The focus of the game is not to make the player feel sorry for Madeline, but rather to make them empathise with her struggle, and to show how she grows as a person as the game progresses. It also doesn't entirely rely on metaphors to give the moral of the story, which is very refreshing. Other that her having to face her negativity personified in a boss battle-esque segment at the end of Chapter 6, there is no "villain" that Madeline has to fight or any such cliche. Instead, the game is more a documentation of Madeline's journey to scale the mountain, and overcome her demons. The end of the game is her and Badeline truly at peace with each other, having set aside their differences, and scaled the mountain. And I love that.

Characters are another strong suit of this game; there are only really three characters other than Madeline and Badeline. Using such a small cast of characters really allows the developers to explore their characters to a larger extent, particularly Theo, who appears in the largest number of chapters out of them. They also serve as to show how Madeline is changing throughout the story, as the way she addresses them (particularly towards Granny) changes from hostile, sarcastic and cold, to being more charismatic, friendly, and warm. The selfies she takes with Theo also show this, with the first one showing her to be visibly uncomfortable and unenthused; the last one, which she asks him to take for once, has her smiling and is one of the rare instances at this point at which she has smiled.

I could rave about the soundtrack for hours. Lena Raine is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ musical genius. The heavily synth and piano-based music often uses very sparse and relaxed melodic ideas that are paired with simple, yet unconventional harmonies that are explored and expanded upon throughout the game. The music dynamically changes in response to environmental changes also; an example that springs to mind are following Badeline shattering the mirror in Chapter 2, which adds a drum line and synth bass to the already existing echoey synth and piano lines, changing the feeling from floaty and dream-like to feeling more tense and busy. This also seems like it is meant to represent the existence of another character in the chapter as more instruments are introduced. Madeline is represented by the piano within the soundtrack, and the way Lena utilises this is nothing short of inspirational. During the chase at the end of Chapter 2, multiple Badelines begin chasing you, following your movements exactly on a short delay. To represent this in the score, multiple more piano lines are added as more clones begin chasing you. Moments like this truly take Celeste to the next level, and these moments that are easily missed elevate the game even if you don't fully appreciate them or even notice them in the moment.

Ironically for it being a game, the gameplay is the part I probably have the least to say about, other than "yeah, it's good". It controls well, and I do love the fact that every chapter introduces new mechanics, that are only used during that chapter and during the climb to the summit where you put everything you have learned together. I'm also a big fan of the devs adding an Assist Mode, which makes the game easier. Whilst I didn't use it myself, I love the fact that people who may struggle with Celeste's gameplay, being as hard as it is, aren't prevented from enjoying the game or its story, and think things like this should be more prevalent in games, as hard doesn't equate to fun for a lot of people. Replay value is also heavily thought through, giving the player alternate versions of stages to play for nothing other than access to harder stages and achievements.

Do be warned though. The game is VERY hard. Especially in Chapter 9 and the B-Sides and C-Sides.

Speaking of Chapter 9, this chapter was my only gripe with the game. It felt very detached from the game (it was free DLC), was ridiculously hard, and went on WAY too long. it took me 5 1/2 hours to finish the chapter, with 1999 deaths on Chapter 9 alone. That was over a quarter of my overall death toll across all stages, B and C Sides included. As usual, it looked, sounded, and played well, but the length and difficulty of the stage really made me want to give up, even as soon as 1 hour into it. If you do play it, I would recommend skipping stages with Assist Mode. Honestly, it's not worth the struggle with it being as long as it is.

I loved the hidden trans flag at the ending cinematic though, LGBTQ+ representation is important!

Anyway, I've rambled long enough. TL;DR: play this game. It is 100% worth it. I don't recommend trying to 100% it unless you *love* platformers, or maybe hate yourself enough to do it anyway. But the story alone is worth it. The lesson Celeste tells isn't what makes it fantastic. It's the way in which it is told that does.

Chicory; A Colorful Tale is a game unlike any I have played before. It's very much like a colouring book transformed into a game with an incredibly introspective narrative and solid characterisation to boot. Coming from the incredibly talented team behind Celeste, this game was a joy to play through. Note, some of the following paragraphs contain some spoilers, so read on at your own discretion.

Whereas this team's previous game, Celeste, covered themes of mental health and coming to accept every aspect of yourself, both good and ugly, Chicory delves into a rather different aspect of emotional and personal development, though equally poignant; Chicory's themes tie very closely into it's artistic presentation and core gameplay mechanic of painting the world around you- they focus on the struggles of an artist, in the broad sense of artistry and development of a craft. It covers subjects such as impostor syndrome, perfectionism, and the various struggles that come with being either a sage master or fledgling student of a craft. It also demonstrates the relationship that forms between teacher and student, as well as the impact that bond has on both parties.

The gameplay is something incredibly unique, though I mean that in the best sense. The game has you exploring the world of Picnic as a small dog who is canonically named Pizza, though their name is decided based on whatever food you answer the game's intro question of "what is your favourite food?" to. Pizza, the janitor for the current wielder of the brush, Chicory, becomes the new wielder when they take the brush following the loss of colour across Picnic, and upon Chicory's unwillingness to continue on as the current wielder. Using the brush, you travel across Picnic, restoring colour to the land as you go. Each area within the game gives you a colour palette of 4 colours, which you are free to use as you wish. Initially, I felt 4 colours was lackluster variety of colour, and felt like I couldn't paint areas as I would ideally want to. However, the game limits you intentionally to force you to become more creative with how you paint, giving you access to brush strokes that can change the shape of your brush stroke, give you a little motif you can stamp, or allow you to paint textures. Furthermore, the limited colour palette makes every area feel very distinct, as having so few colours allows one area to feel vastly different to another. The game's narrative really pushes that there is no "right" way when it comes to art, and so it not only encourages you, but in some regards makes you take risks with your artwork, and the NPCs throughout the game praise you for it, which is great positive reinforcement both in the game, and as a message to be extrapolated to honing these crafts in real life also. You're free to paint every screen completely, to have every screen use a different design, or even just to paint what you absolutely need to- the game acknowledges all of these and other options as completely valid, and enables you to play the game however *you* want to. And that is fantastic.

The story is equally fantastic- to summarise as briefly as I can: Pizza, the main character, massively looks up to Chicory, the current wielder. However, Chicory abandons the brush out of frustration brought on by her obsession with needing everything to be perfect and feeling like nothing she does ever ends up like how she envisions it. Pizza takes the brush, and with it the mantle of wielder, upon finding it outside Chicory's room. They begin to paint Luncheon, their home town, as it, as well as Picnic as a whole, has lost all of its colour due to Chicory's resolve to abandon her role as wielder. As they begin to paint more, they end up entering the darkness that is spreading through Picnic to try and purge it. This leads them to face a manifestation of their inner insecurities multiple times- the feeling like they aren't good enough to be a wielder and that they can never live up to the example set by Chicory and previous wielders. Chicory similarly confronts her inner insecurities later down the line, following which she helps Pizza complete the wielder trials to become a true wielder and confront the spreading darkness in Picnic. There's much more to the story than that, but I don't have enough space in this review to go in depth into it, so y'know, go play the game if you haven't already? I can't do the character development and interpersonal relationships of the characters justice in a review anyway, so you're best off experiencing it for yourself.

As for the music, I will shill this soundtrack to the ends of the earth and back, holey moley, it is absolutely stunning. I would be lying if I said I didn't expect it to be, Lena Raine is one of my favourite composers when it comes to games and naturally went in expecting a standout OST. Lena is so incredibly clever in her use of reoccurring motifs and motivic development, often combining themes in various tracks to have some kind of narrative significance. She is exceptionally talented at complementing and mirroring the narrative in her soundtrack and it is a joy to listen to. Compared to her work on Celeste, a game that had a very synth-heavy soundtrack, Chicory's OST is far more acoustic in nature, with her employing other musicians to record various instruments within the soundtrack, rather than it all being done on sound libraries in Ableton. There are still multiple synth-dominant tracks, but they take on increased narrative significance within Chicory, only being used during the self-confrontation sections within the darkness. It's reminiscent of Badeline being symbolised by the synth lines in Celeste, particularly within the fan-favourite track of Resurrections, but it's more jarring to hear within Chicory given the abundance of acoustic instruments, which allows it greater tonal impact when the tracks occur. Lena has made a blog post on the website 'medium' entitled "Composing for Chicory — Motifs & Memories", which I think is absolutely worth a read, as it covers the significance of many of the themes in respect to narrative as well as theory, and gives greater insight into just how much time, effort, and thought went into composing for this title.

One thing I must recommend about playing this game though, is that if you haven't already played it, take it slowly, particularly if you plan on painting the entire map. Painting even one screen can take a long time, and if you try and speedrun through painting every screen, you'll likely burn yourself out very quickly. It's akin to doing an entire colouring book in one sitting. You *could* do it, but why would you? It'll get very repetitive, you won't be performing at your best, and by the time you finish, you'll likely resent having spent so much time on it, nor will you be proud of the work you've done. Short sessions are ideal for this game.

In summary, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, is not only a beautifully unique game, but a game that has an incredibly deep story to tell, with lessons that can be learned from it. The messages within this game don't just have to apply to an art form like painting, they can apply to any hobby you may have, and as a result I feel like this game carries with it a message that can resonate with most anyone. It is fundamentally a brilliant experience from start to finish, catering to all demographics and encouraging everyone to take a few steps out of their comfort zone and take a chance on something unfamiliar. In case this ridiculously long review didn't make it apparent, I wholeheartedly recommend this game. Stellar.