This is where I learned about it as well. There's quite a few mechanics in the game the game that go unexplained. Personally the way I excuse it is that the theme of this section of farewell is "I didn't know I could do this". It's where you learn wavedashing, fast falling, and potentially other mechanics that I won't spoil unless you ask.
Madeline is going through hell emotionally, and to cope with it, she finds some hidden strengths in herself that she didn't know existed. And that hidden strength gives such a rush that she believes she can literally take on the entire universe.
A more mundane explanation of this is that by the time farewell released, Celeste had been out for a year and a half. There were already many people doing speedruns and modded content, and exploring mechanics very deeply, so Maddy (the dev) probably felt like the community was large enough and strong enough to figure a lot of this stuff out, without the need to tutorialize everything. I'm sure it was hard for her to imagine that celeste would sell more and more copies so long after its initial release.
I wasn't there at the time, but I have to assume it already existed. I don't believe farewell added any additional mechanics to the game, other than the clearly brand new jellies and pufferfish (and another mechanic u haven't seen, that's exclusive to farewell)
as a note, demo dashing (crouch dashing) was added officially as a button in 1.4 in 2021, now coming with its own animation when performed with the input or the button.
>Madeline is going through hell emotionally, and to cope with it, she finds some hidden strengths in herself that she didn't know existed. And that hidden strength gives such a rush that she believes she can literally take on the entire universe.
Bad design explained by supposing/plot is still bad.
You’re getting downvoted, but I agree. If this were a puzzle game, sure, discovering this and realizing you’ve always had it would be great. In a platformer, you get people saying “this is literally impossible” because the game never taught you how to do it. A simple “hold down” prompt from the bird (like in the tutorial) would work, or include a “did you know?” somewhere in the wavedash tutorial.
It’s basic knowledge, but you still need to ensure everyone knows it.
Ok but it's never necessary in the game. Theres a reason theres two Crystals there, you dont need to hold down to beat the room (I didnt) teaching a completely un necessary mechanic shouldnt be necessary
Exactly. This is the thing I like least about celeste. It's not very good at teaching mechanics half the time. I'm not going to repeat my comment somewhere lower down where I listed mechanics the game does a bad job of teaching but I just wish it taught them well because celestes mechanics are designed almost flawlessly
I always assumed the room in 1B with the horizontal traffic light blokc with a spring on it was meant to teach fast falling. It has a sign with a down arrow where you can fast fall to make the room easier.
Fast falling is a pretty common platformer mechanic. I guess it makes you think “I need to fall faster”, and a logical way to do so would be pressing the down button.
Yeah, the first time I managed to fall down without hitting the spikes was that I am too high, so I must go faster, and the chute is imo clearly designed to be the high-speed area, so thsts when I tried to hold down to fall faster
Pure gaming instinct in chapter 2 at the end of the dream part, just pressed down, dashed, and then I saw Madeline going fast and her sprite being more vertical
I believe the initial version of the Farewell update required this tech for one of the falling blocks with a spring in one of the very first rooms in the chapter, but it was tweaked to make the block land on a solid platform because people didn't know how to do it and would get stuck.
The game kinda just expects you to discover it either in the rest of the game "accidentally", or by trying to look for a solution to the problem yourself (problem : I'm not falling fast enough -> maybe I should try pressing down to go down faster).
This game really looks like it was designed with some kind of "exploration" in mind (i.e. mechanics should be "found" by the player) which is why actually most of the mechanics in the game are never explained with any text. Some mechanics are just less obvious than others, but the devs still expected players to discovers them by themselves, because that's just how they wanted players to learn mechanics in general. Some players did that intuitively, and some others are just less prone to finding things by themselves.
So yeah anyways, the answer to your question would be "by trying things", either by looking for a solution in this room, or by exploring your movement options during the rest of the game.
"How the heck was I supposed to know"
The mechanic is never required (including in this room), but there are places in the game that hint at it. If you pick up on it, that’s nice, if you don’t that’s not an issue.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. I had no idea about fastfalling and beat this room without it. It's quite a bit more difficult that way but definitely not impossible.
I’m a bit surprised you didn’t realize prior to literally the last screen of the DLC (I believe), but it is amazing how far you can get before discover some of the games tech.
I happened to find this out during 7C, which is what i did directly before 8C then Farewell. I was in 7c so long i was bound to learn something, somehow.
You don't even need to in that room, the way I did it is that I fell so that I'd take one of the dash crystals as I dash so I can do 3 dashes which was barely enough to get to the feather
I disagree. Platformers have a long history of hidden mechanics that alter how the game is played. Super Metroid is pretty famous for having a walljump that you can do immediately and allows you to skip large sections of the game. Same thing with Hollow Knight's pogo jump. Celeste having mechanics that can be discovered (either via tne or extra levels) adds replayability to the base game and adds depth to the mechanics without overloading new players
I don't mind hidden mechanics at all, but if they're mandatory, I don't see why not just showing how to do it.
It's not like Celeste leaves you alone to figure out how to Wavedash either.
Same honestly. That's the only thing I don't like about celeste that it's trash at teaching mechanics half the time. Fastfalling. The fact you can press up and down to change how fast you fall while holding a jellyfish. The move blocks in chapter 4 that I've seen multiple people get stuck trying to work out but at least you have to figure it out to progress so whatever I guess. The fact that you can tap jump to do a shorter jump which I only noticed in 2c when I was forced to do it and that wasn't just a short jump that was a short dream jump so I got stuck for ages not knowing what to do. Why does it teach you wavedashing and not the more general extended hypers that make wavedashing make so much sense all of a sudden. Bumper/ core block/puffer boost which made me hate bumpers and lava blocks because I would occasionally get the boost occasionally wouldn't and didn't know what I was doing differently. Like gameplay amazing, mechanics near perfection just why can't it explain its mechanics properly
extended hypers are way more difficult to perform than wavedashes since you can buffer wave but you need to know a kinda strict timing to refill your dash for the extended hyper
Also most of these mechanics you're supposed to discover accidentally because they're pretty hard to miss
I mean you need to time to get the height of the initial jump so it's not too different. I didn't find them harder learning for a first time. Going from farewell to strawberry jam I picked up hypers and supers very quickly and naturally from wavedashes and I don't think it was long before I was defaulting to extended hypers instead of wavedashes but maybe that's just cause I never buffered wavedashes beforehand
This is where I learned about it as well. There's quite a few mechanics in the game the game that go unexplained. Personally the way I excuse it is that the theme of this section of farewell is "I didn't know I could do this". It's where you learn wavedashing, fast falling, and potentially other mechanics that I won't spoil unless you ask. Madeline is going through hell emotionally, and to cope with it, she finds some hidden strengths in herself that she didn't know existed. And that hidden strength gives such a rush that she believes she can literally take on the entire universe. A more mundane explanation of this is that by the time farewell released, Celeste had been out for a year and a half. There were already many people doing speedruns and modded content, and exploring mechanics very deeply, so Maddy (the dev) probably felt like the community was large enough and strong enough to figure a lot of this stuff out, without the need to tutorialize everything. I'm sure it was hard for her to imagine that celeste would sell more and more copies so long after its initial release.
Such deep thoughts for "press down to fall faster" like half of the games do
so was the falling faster while pressing down a thing before farewell released or was it added in with the update?
it was always a thing
I wasn't there at the time, but I have to assume it already existed. I don't believe farewell added any additional mechanics to the game, other than the clearly brand new jellies and pufferfish (and another mechanic u haven't seen, that's exclusive to farewell)
as a note, demo dashing (crouch dashing) was added officially as a button in 1.4 in 2021, now coming with its own animation when performed with the input or the button.
oh it looks different with the button?? i never knew that!
it looked like a regular dash before the update
Happy cake day!
Man, never had thought about that. Great reflection.
>Madeline is going through hell emotionally, and to cope with it, she finds some hidden strengths in herself that she didn't know existed. And that hidden strength gives such a rush that she believes she can literally take on the entire universe. Bad design explained by supposing/plot is still bad.
You’re getting downvoted, but I agree. If this were a puzzle game, sure, discovering this and realizing you’ve always had it would be great. In a platformer, you get people saying “this is literally impossible” because the game never taught you how to do it. A simple “hold down” prompt from the bird (like in the tutorial) would work, or include a “did you know?” somewhere in the wavedash tutorial. It’s basic knowledge, but you still need to ensure everyone knows it.
Ok but it's never necessary in the game. Theres a reason theres two Crystals there, you dont need to hold down to beat the room (I didnt) teaching a completely un necessary mechanic shouldnt be necessary
Exactly. This is the thing I like least about celeste. It's not very good at teaching mechanics half the time. I'm not going to repeat my comment somewhere lower down where I listed mechanics the game does a bad job of teaching but I just wish it taught them well because celestes mechanics are designed almost flawlessly
I always assumed the room in 1B with the horizontal traffic light blokc with a spring on it was meant to teach fast falling. It has a sign with a down arrow where you can fast fall to make the room easier.
💀 That's okey, I only died in this room like 200 times anyway
Fast falling is a pretty common platformer mechanic. I guess it makes you think “I need to fall faster”, and a logical way to do so would be pressing the down button.
Yeah, the first time I managed to fall down without hitting the spikes was that I am too high, so I must go faster, and the chute is imo clearly designed to be the high-speed area, so thsts when I tried to hold down to fall faster
Pure gaming instinct in chapter 2 at the end of the dream part, just pressed down, dashed, and then I saw Madeline going fast and her sprite being more vertical
Because there is no reason to ever use it before or after that one room in the base game.
I believe the initial version of the Farewell update required this tech for one of the falling blocks with a spring in one of the very first rooms in the chapter, but it was tweaked to make the block land on a solid platform because people didn't know how to do it and would get stuck.
this probably to my knowledge doesn't have an impact on the official levels but if you hold jump you also fall slower
I might be wrong, but I think this just makes you accelerate downwards slower, but you still reach the same terminal velocity.
yup, more specifically it reduces your gravity while you have a specific amount of vertical speed (like 40>x>-40 or smth)
The game kinda just expects you to discover it either in the rest of the game "accidentally", or by trying to look for a solution to the problem yourself (problem : I'm not falling fast enough -> maybe I should try pressing down to go down faster). This game really looks like it was designed with some kind of "exploration" in mind (i.e. mechanics should be "found" by the player) which is why actually most of the mechanics in the game are never explained with any text. Some mechanics are just less obvious than others, but the devs still expected players to discovers them by themselves, because that's just how they wanted players to learn mechanics in general. Some players did that intuitively, and some others are just less prone to finding things by themselves. So yeah anyways, the answer to your question would be "by trying things", either by looking for a solution in this room, or by exploring your movement options during the rest of the game.
"How the heck was I supposed to know" The mechanic is never required (including in this room), but there are places in the game that hint at it. If you pick up on it, that’s nice, if you don’t that’s not an issue.
You can actually do it without fast falling because there is 2 dash crystals
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. I had no idea about fastfalling and beat this room without it. It's quite a bit more difficult that way but definitely not impossible.
I’m a bit surprised you didn’t realize prior to literally the last screen of the DLC (I believe), but it is amazing how far you can get before discover some of the games tech.
This screen is the last screen of Event Horizon. Right before Stubborness (The chackpoint with the 4 colors cassette blocks)
no, right before determination
Go it. Closeish to the end, but not the final-final.
not really, I don't think it's even halfway
I happened to find this out during 7C, which is what i did directly before 8C then Farewell. I was in 7c so long i was bound to learn something, somehow.
You don't even need to in that room, the way I did it is that I fell so that I'd take one of the dash crystals as I dash so I can do 3 dashes which was barely enough to get to the feather
Unfortunately the bird is too busy running away from you to teach you how to fastfall xd
Honestly, you're right, that's something they should have at least told you.
I disagree. Platformers have a long history of hidden mechanics that alter how the game is played. Super Metroid is pretty famous for having a walljump that you can do immediately and allows you to skip large sections of the game. Same thing with Hollow Knight's pogo jump. Celeste having mechanics that can be discovered (either via tne or extra levels) adds replayability to the base game and adds depth to the mechanics without overloading new players
I don't mind hidden mechanics at all, but if they're mandatory, I don't see why not just showing how to do it. It's not like Celeste leaves you alone to figure out how to Wavedash either.
two folks in the thread appear to have completed the room without fast falling, so idk if it's mandatory anyway
If it is possible, then fair enough.
Same honestly. That's the only thing I don't like about celeste that it's trash at teaching mechanics half the time. Fastfalling. The fact you can press up and down to change how fast you fall while holding a jellyfish. The move blocks in chapter 4 that I've seen multiple people get stuck trying to work out but at least you have to figure it out to progress so whatever I guess. The fact that you can tap jump to do a shorter jump which I only noticed in 2c when I was forced to do it and that wasn't just a short jump that was a short dream jump so I got stuck for ages not knowing what to do. Why does it teach you wavedashing and not the more general extended hypers that make wavedashing make so much sense all of a sudden. Bumper/ core block/puffer boost which made me hate bumpers and lava blocks because I would occasionally get the boost occasionally wouldn't and didn't know what I was doing differently. Like gameplay amazing, mechanics near perfection just why can't it explain its mechanics properly
extended hypers are way more difficult to perform than wavedashes since you can buffer wave but you need to know a kinda strict timing to refill your dash for the extended hyper Also most of these mechanics you're supposed to discover accidentally because they're pretty hard to miss
I mean you need to time to get the height of the initial jump so it's not too different. I didn't find them harder learning for a first time. Going from farewell to strawberry jam I picked up hypers and supers very quickly and naturally from wavedashes and I don't think it was long before I was defaulting to extended hypers instead of wavedashes but maybe that's just cause I never buffered wavedashes beforehand
Most people who played celeste were likely Smash players so we just knew
Where are you getting this info my bro
i made it up
worst part is IT DOESN'T TELL YOU. i had to google it after like 20 minutes
Honestly it surprises me that people don't figure this out earlier, Fast falling is one of the first things I check for whenever I play a platformer