Celeste is indeed a good platformer, but for all its snappy handling, it's oddly bogged down by certain set-pieces (for example, the "boss" sequence of the haunted house goes on about 50% longer than it needs to make its point). I don't put it on the same level as more consistent, better-tuned leaders in similar categories, like
Super Meat Boy or
Spelunky.
As for how it stands up to one of the great narrative innovators of all time: it doesn't hold a candle.
Chrono Trigger's mastery of the "basics" of SNES-era JRPG mechanics (combat, non-random encounters, player party choice, multi-techs) is merely scratching the surface. But what people take for granted among all that is the power of the story.
No, the strength of the narrative design is not just that you can beat the game at several points in its time-traveling plot, although that is neat. The strength is that they make the silent protagonist's sacrifice of his own life actually feel powerful (a deliberate commentary on and dismantling of the "silent protagonist as an empty void for the player to fill with themselves" trope). They somehow make a little frog into a stirring valiant hero. They somehow make the
villain's "heroic quest" into a huge emotional plot arc. Magus isn't just a "bad guy" who you eventually learn has his own motivations in some cheap kind of "ah we are all the central characters of our own stories" hackneyed way (that Magus no doubt
inspired)—in fact, he's arguably the story's prime mover. This is all revolutionary in videogame narrative design.
Besides being objectively a well-made video game mechanically, and well-made art, it's also fun to play and has great music. Nice bonuses.
