Celeste’s DLC chapter is arriving next week

When I wrapped up 2018 with my obligatory round-up article I mentioned that Celeste quickly went from a game I wasn’t really too interested in to one of my favourite games from last year. It adopted the kind of punishing insta-death platforming format I’m usually too inept to enjoy and fine-tuned the pacing so that you were never so far from progress that you gave up on the game. Having great presentation and a charming story was also welcome, of course, but that tight gameplay made it hard to put down. The game already has a decent amount of content as it is; if you’re just interested in seeing the main story you can enjoy the first seven chapters, and then afterwards you can go for the crystal hearts, or even consider the B-sides and C-sides. Even beyond that, there are strawberries to collect and the lure of completing levels faster and with fewer deaths. However, fans are going to have even more content to enjoy when Celeste’s DLC chapter arrives next week.

Celeste’s DLC chapter: the details

What we know so far is the following: Celeste’s DLC chapter will be released on September 9^th for all platforms (although Matt Thorston mentions that the Xbox One version may release a little later.) Players will get to enjoy a new 9^th chapter named “Farewell”, but they must have completed the first eight chapters before they’re able to try it – that is, the initial seven chapters of the main story and the eighth chapter you can open up after fulfilling the necessary conditions. The new chapter won’t have a B-side or a C-side, but there will be “new mechanics and items to discover”. Thorston also mentioned on Twitter that the new chapter was originally going to be gated behind the C-side levels, but now this is no longer the case. It’s an interesting detail that might hint at the difficulty level one can expect from the chapter (although presumably players will still be able to use the Assist Mode if they’re struggling for too long.)

Hopes and expectations

As for me… I’ll admit that I didn’t go back for all of the optional bits and pieces, but I did unlock and complete chapter eight, so hopefully I can dig up an old save file that I have in the cloud or something. I’ve tried to resist snippets of footage and screenshots tweeted by the official accounts but I’m personally hoping for a similarly well-paced level structure, with checkpointing that feels generous enough to keep you hooked, but not so generous that all challenge is removed from the experience. Also I’m kind of hoping that we’ll get some narrative and dialogue to accompany the experience, since the writing in the original game was engaging and sometimes quite humorous. Finally, I’m curious to see how much knowledge of hidden tech will be necessary – will players need to be familiar with speedrun tricks to make impossible manoeuvres, or will the average human be able to make progress?

Celeste’s DLC chapter: coming soon

Summer is quickly becoming a distant memory, and my gaming schedule had been pretty quiet for the past few weeks, so this will at least be something to keep me occupied between now and whatever the next most interesting release is. We’ll hopefully have more coverage of Celeste’s DLC chapter on this site in the future, although that kind of depends on my own competence with the game. Let’s just say that if there’s a suspicious lack of Celeste news on Disposable Media I’ve either thrown up my hands in surrender or I’m still making futile attempts at progress. Let us know your thoughts on the new chapter in the comments below.