Celeste’s gameplay absolutely has narrative meaning as well. You are climbing the mountain of depression. Not the most subtle or complicated metaphor, but it’s there and it is effective.
I don’t feel like I’m climbing a mountain, I feel like I’m playing through a gauntlet of single screen platform levels.
Those platform levels almost exclusively take you to higher grounds, unless Madeline is stuck in some place for narrative reasons (e.g., the hotel, and even then she’s trying to exit it through the roof). There are altitude markers. The map is literally a 3D rendering of the mountain with an obvious progression toward the summit.
Both figuratively and literally, you are climbing that mountain.
I get the impression the author is either being deliberately obtuse to prove their point, or has a difficult time engaging critically with media. Creating a strawman fake game about dancing (which only exists in the author’s mind) to criticize for only being about dancing is not substantive critique.
Celeste’s gameplay absolutely has narrative meaning as well. You are climbing the mountain of depression. Not the most subtle or complicated metaphor, but it’s there and it is effective.
I don’t get the author’s point really.
Those platform levels almost exclusively take you to higher grounds, unless Madeline is stuck in some place for narrative reasons (e.g., the hotel, and even then she’s trying to exit it through the roof). There are altitude markers. The map is literally a 3D rendering of the mountain with an obvious progression toward the summit.
Both figuratively and literally, you are climbing that mountain.
I get the impression the author is either being deliberately obtuse to prove their point, or has a difficult time engaging critically with media. Creating a strawman fake game about dancing (which only exists in the author’s mind) to criticize for only being about dancing is not substantive critique.