Celestial Return Reviews
Celestial Return is a worthy successor for Disco Elysium, and it'll be of particular interest if you like Cyberpunk 2077 as well.
Celestial Return is a narrative gamble that blends investigation, cyberpunk, and cosmic horror in a decaying city where every choice matters.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Celestial Haven boasts a striking, hyper-stylized fusion of cyberpunk and cosmic horror, but the atmosphere is strangled by a lack of overall polish and cohesion.
Celestial Return takes the best elements of the Disco-likes, then adds a couple of clever mechanics to carve out an identity of its own.
Celestial Return is a good cyberpunk adventure that doesn’t make it easy for players to fully enjoy it. Main characters Howard and Rose are very interesting, and the cyberpunk city they live in is filled with interesting encounters.
Celestial Return leaves as bitter a taste as the capitalist dystopia it aims to portray. While the art, music, and story are stunning in their own right, they create an immersion-breaking mishmash that, at times, makes no sense. It feels more like the development team wanted to throw everything they found cool into a single title without considering how it would all work together. Nowhere is this clearer than in the gameplay, which, due to design oversights in the addition of more layers, leads to an extreme number of potential softlocks. In shorter games, it is fine, but in a six-hour story-driven RPG, not so much.
I have had a really good time with Celestial Return so far and look forward to playing more. There is a surprisingly complex narrative and socially relevant too. There are lots of shades of grey and not just because of the dystopian cyberpunk setting. Leaning into Howard’s 5 mental traits was interesting, especially when feeling a little gung-ho. I do wish the dice mechanic was more generous, as it often led to hitting a wall in the story. The graphics and audio were great at setting the tone and scenes, especially as there’s plenty to do in the game. I give Celestial Return the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Celestial Return rewards your curiosity with exceptional world-building, memorable atmosphere, and meaningful choices, but inconsistent balancing and frustrating progression keep an otherwise excellent cyberpunk RPG from fully realizing its remarkable potential.
Celestial Return is an ok riff on the melody Disco Elysium perfected.
I’m a bit disappointed in how it comes together, but there are moments that really work. The setting is cool and has a lot of potential. They have a flair that could really work with some tweaking.
Celestial Return is a visually captivating detective RPG elevated by exceptional atmosphere, intelligent storytelling, and meaningful choices, yet restrained by uneven balancing and limited polish. Despite that, it is an ambitious indie experience that earns attention.
Communicating your inspirations in the marketing of your game may cause people to compare your title to the ones you reference. In the case of Celestial Return, it isn’t a matter of copying those who came before, but of wearing the similarities as a badge of honor. While the gameplay and art direction may be inspired by other intellectual properties, Celestial Return takes them and builds on them even further. The way you generate new dice might need some extra balancing, as their use as both a resource for investigations and currency for shops makes you lose them a bit too quickly. But the strong narrative and visual design elevate this game to be its own source of inspiration for future teams to build upon.
Yet, despite the distracting irregularities, Celestial Return finds its footing when it shifts its focus to the political architecture of Netherveil. The narrative leans heavily into the weight of fascism, citizens' complicity in building it, and how the gears of those systems crush individual lives and the aspirations of its people.
Celestial Return establishes itself as a high-quality narrative RPG that elevates the genre through a successful blend of cyberpunk and cosmic horror.
Review in Italian | Read full review