Yooka-Laylee |OT| Reptile Rolling in the 90’s

I'm at 83 Pagies and I just bought the game on Tuesday...

I have all but the 5th world unlocked and expanded.

Everything else is fully expanded.

Need to work more on Capital Cashino.

That Kratos minecart is tricky for me.

So is Rextro's arcade game. Though I beat it once at least, not sure how I'm gonna beat his high score.

Excellent game full of nostalgia feels.
 
So, is this super difficult without a controller? I've got an old wireless Xbox 360 controller & adapter around someone that I need to find. Just want to know if it's worth waiting to play until I can find it or just jump right in with keyboard & mouse.
 
The ramp boss was frustrating. I feel that the game is a little too punishing sometimes, leaving little room for error when it comes to platforming.The rolling feels a little loose, too, even when going slow. On the platform before the ramp, there's also a weird camera glitch where the camera keeps changing perspectives if you stand in a specific spot.

I really like the look of the expanded world 1, especially after talking with the giant Cloud. Real pretty.

I wish the flower transformation had more use. All I've found is talking to the flowers and spraying the flower sisters. I think that's lame if that's all that's good for. The characters are so charming and make me smile.



As far as comparison to BK and BT, I think BK and BT's flaws are overlooked relative to this game. BK, for example, had no real bosses outside of Gruntilda, its worlds were too small and you could basically find everything in just a few minutes, and it had the same problem that I think this game has but maybe to an even worse extent: there's not enough platforming. I have to agree, I can't see how you'd be praising BK and BT but don't like this game. It's very similar, almost too much.

Personally, for a sequel or another game in this style, I want a mix of Super Mario 3D World-esque and this more "open" style. Like maybe make a really big world that's actually sort of linear? I dunno. I think sometimes SM3DW /3DLand felt a little too constricted and this style of game feels a little too open, like everything just spills over.

However, I'm enjoying this game a lot. Like I said before, the mixed critical response left me wary but I'm actually very happy so far. Even though I see some of the problems pointed out, I find them to be quite exaggerated. Especially those people pining for BK/BT in relation to this.
 
By the way, the animations are something else. Like wow, the characters are so full of life ! Kinda reminds me of the detail we see in Retro's DK games. The animation is top notch.
 
World 2 is absolute garbage. I was enjoying the game quite a bit until this abomination. I hear the following worlds are much better so obviously I'll continue, but if this wasn't a Banjo spiritual sucessor...
 
Salty Hippo said:
World 2 is absolute garbage. I was enjoying the game quite a bit until this abomination. I hear the following worlds are much better so obviously I'll continue, but if this wasn't a Banjo spiritual sucessor...
Click to expand...

What's wrong with it? I haven't minded it so far, haven't expanded it though.
 
Salty Hippo said:
World 2 is absolute garbage. I was enjoying the game quite a bit until this abomination. I hear the following worlds are much better so obviously I'll continue, but if this wasn't a Banjo spiritual sucessor...
Click to expand...
I don't know which World the Marsh level is, but it's potentially worse. Most bland level I've ever played on a platformer.
 
Blitzrules240 said:
I'm at 83 Pagies and I just bought the game on Tuesday...

I have all but the 5th world unlocked and expanded.

Everything else is fully expanded.

Need to work more on Capital Cashino.

That Kratos minecart is tricky for me.

So is Rextro's arcade game. Though I beat it once at least, not sure how I'm gonna beat his high score.

Excellent game full of nostalgia feels.
Click to expand...
You say everything else is expanded...does that include a Dong?
 
Got to and played through half of world 3 tonight, and my impression of the game is much more positive now. I effing LOVE world 3. This is the world people were pooping on? World 2 is a generic boring winter level and had too many parts I hated (boss, mine cart, dark cave). World 3 is a trope less travelled for platformers and is a lot more fun to traverse with good challenges, a cool boss, and even the Rextro game was ok. So the game for me right now is first world 8/10 second world 5/10 third world 9/10.
 
Lynd7 said:
What's wrong with it? I haven't minded it so far, haven't expanded it though.
Click to expand...

It's generic, empty, slow and has segments with bad design all over the place. Did you do the dark cave? Good lord. The music is the only redeeming quality.

Expanded it beforing even entering for the first time, so I have no idea what changed.
 
It's nice to hear that at least some of the Kartos challenges are actually challenging, because the one in world 1 sure isn't! I beat it first try no problem, which isn't what you expect from a mine-cart level...

But yeah, Rextro Kart aside so far I'm still really loving this game, it's amazing -- the graphics, music, gameplay, level designs, it's all so great! Yes, there are a few ways that the game isn't as big-budget as Rare's N64 3d platformers were - while the graphics are great the game doesn't have stuff like fur shaders that Rare did have on the GC/Xbox and beyond (the choice of chameleon and bat is probably not accidental), a few camera issues though for the most part it's fine, etc -- but that's really minor stuff compared to the strengths.
 
Lynd7 said:
What's wrong with it? I haven't minded it so far, haven't expanded it though.
Click to expand...

Personally speaking, the isometric palace you unlock when you expand the world is a cool concept but just about every explicit challenge in it outstays its welcome long before its done. On the path to the tedious ice boss, theres a ring challenge where you need to run the same simple lap like three to four times to proceed.
 
Played for around 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Got to the ice world before stopping in the dark gem cave due to constant deaths.

It feels like a really weird amalgamation between Kazooie and Tooie. The levels are sprawling, perhaps too much for their own good, but they have easily understood areas with objectives for earning quills and pagies. It's nicely forgiving with not punishing you upon death by resetting all of your gathered items, but at the same time doesn't really tell you what you can or can't do through the level design with the same clarity as Kazooie does, meaning you can run around for awhile not knowing what to do, or not knowing that there's nothing to do without more moves or expansions.

I feel like a simple thing that would've helped would be compartmentalized levels- make them less like overworlds and more like gated islands wherein it's easy to understand when you'd gotten everything before an expansion was needed to continue. Also, better landmarks; it's kinda hard to tell where you are at all times.

However, the moment to moment stuff of running, platforming, and engaging with the NPCs is fun. Classic Rare stuff! I probably would've appreciated slightly more weight to Yooka but that's a relatively minor niggle. Otherwise I love the way they control.

No excuse for that damn camera though. Christ.

In short, I understand the scores of 7, but I can't be too mad at it. It'll be nice for casual stints versus the long gauntlets you can put in with Kazooie.
 
Re: World 2, I've only played through most of the first two worlds by now, but
Icymetric Palace
might be my favorite part of the game so far. I really liked how World 2 handled the expansion mechanic compared to World 1. It didn't just add a bunch of new ground to cover, but instead added an area that felt fresh compared to the rest of the world. Nice change of pace.

Gotta say that my biggest issue with World 2 was
controlling the snow plow transformation. Very difficult to turn. Had more success once I started taking it slow and steady but the snowman/hat quest was annoying nonetheless. I lost track of how many times I fell into the water trying to make jumps or cross bridges and had to start all over again.

Still really enjoying the game, though, warts and all.
 
Harbinger of War said:
Re: World 2, I've only played through most of the first two worlds by now, but
Icymetric Palace
might be my favorite part of the game so far. I really liked how World 2 handled the expansion mechanic compared to World 1. It didn't just add a bunch of new ground to cover, but instead added an area that felt fresh compared to the rest of the world. Nice change of pace.

Gotta say that my biggest issue with World 2 was
controlling the snow plow transformation. Very difficult to turn. Had more success once I started taking it slow and steady but the snowman/hat quest was annoying nonetheless. I lost track of how many times I fell into the water trying to make jumps or cross bridges and had to start all over again.

Still really enjoying the game, though, warts and all.
Click to expand...

I agree, the second world's transformation really needs a control tune-up.
 
Man I really hate the way that when you start sliding back down a ramp because you forgot to roll, you're stuck in that sliding animation until you're completely off it, and you can't simply jump off instead.
 
JonnyKong said:
Man I really hate the way that when you start sliding back down a ramp because you forgot to roll, you're stuck in that sliding animation until you're completely off it, and you can't simply jump off instead.
Click to expand...

if you could jump out of a slide you could just jump over and over again to navigate it and it wouldn't be a slide anymore
 
Slopes would be better if you can jump, then start holding R2 in mid-air and still roll up them. Also if there were fewer of them.

Getting into aiming mode would work much better if you didn't need to be at a complete stop to start aiming. When just still animating a slight adjustment in position the press is just ignored.
 
Salty Hippo said:
It's generic, empty, slow and has segments with bad design all over the place. Did you do the dark cave? Good lord. The music is the only redeeming quality.

Expanded it beforing even entering for the first time, so I have no idea what changed.
Click to expand...

Yeah I did the dark cave, I didn't have much trouble with it. Only had a bit of trouble with the curved ice slope towards the end, even then I didn't fail enough to get annoyed.
 
I really like the atmosphere of the ice world. :) I'm in the cave right next to the entrance. It's awesome how you can jump up anywhere even if there's nothing to loot.
 
sleepnaught said:
I don't know which World the Marsh level is, but it's potentially worse. Most bland level I've ever played on a platformer.
Click to expand...

Absolute disagreement, it is my favourite non-Banjo-Kazooie collectathon level ever. Really awesome.

World 2 actually gets better by expanding by the way.
 
orborborb said:
if you could jump out of a slide you could just jump over and over again to navigate it and it wouldn't be a slide anymore
Click to expand...

Nope, because it would be trivial to program mechanics that allow you to jump, but prevent backwards movement if you jump off a ramp.

At the very least, they should have made it so that you can walk a few steps up a ramp before you start sliding, to give you time to start rolling. That's what the Banjo games did.
 
Played for the first time yesterday for about 1hour.

Is not really as bad as people say it is but feels like lack some polish (understandable since is an indie game made by a small team)
 
JonnyKong said:
Man I really hate the way that when you start sliding back down a ramp because you forgot to roll, you're stuck in that sliding animation until you're completely off it, and you can't simply jump off instead.
Click to expand...

Yeah, really wish you could either jump off or go into the rolling animation while sliding.
 
Game definitely needed some more fine tuning in parts. The 2nd word transformation controls like crap so I just skipped that Pagie, the Kartos challenges also all sucked due to poor controls and messed up hitboxes (make it control like Donkey Kong mine cart levels ;p), some challenges could use check points or be made easier like the Dark Cavern in world 2, world 1 boss battle should have had some sort of training earlier to give a clue how to leap properly while rolling (slowing down or stopping to leap). So far haven't seen any blaring issues in World 3 other than the poor Kartos minigame as usual.
 
jrcbandit said:
Game definitely needed some more fine tuning in parts. The 2nd word transformation controls like crap so I just skipped that Pagie, the Kartos challenges also all sucked due to poor controls and messed up hitboxes (make it control like Donkey Kong mine cart levels ;p), some challenges could use check points or be made easier like the Dark Cavern in world 2, world 1 boss battle should have had some sort of training earlier to give a clue how to leap properly while rolling (slowing down or stopping to leap). So far haven't seen any blaring issues in World 3 other than the poor Kartos minigame as usual.
Click to expand...

There's actually a platforming bit just before where it's a slide followed by a log sticking out of the wall and then another slide, you can see that's where they were going for a "tutorial" when it comes to learning how to jump over the logs, but the spacing isn't right so you can just roll over it lol. I feel like they should have had space out the slides more so you could fall in between the log and the slide there. Would have forced people to learn how to jump on the incline. Only reason I knew what to do was because of the giant bomb quick look.
 
What in the fuck was that minecart nonsense.

The hit detection is broken, the jumping is broken, the enemies are broken.

It's like they realized this and made it all about gems instead to "fix" it.

Awful, just awful.
 
Played ~4 hours of this and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Some neat ideas and definintely wears Banjo on its sleeve so in that respect this is exactly what they wanted to kickstart, but something about it being so blatant comes off weirder than I expected.

There's a few tweaks I would love to see with movement, mainly double jumping out of a roll and not being locked into a slide down. Small things that would add a lot since slopes are all over and it isn't always super clear which one needs a roll or not, and the slide down is just awkward.
 
I love the game. I'm very happy I backed this.

I have played a bit more than 10 hours so far and got 66 pagies and 693 quills.
Got all moves, unlocked all worlds and I'm 9 pagies short of expanding the last one (which will be the C
ashino
because I really wanted to have the G
alaxy
expanded first)

I get the camera problems people were reporting but honestly it didn't really come to bite me in the ass and make me lose so I'm ok with it for now.
FWIW, it's a throwback to the N64 days, too :D
 
Played about 2 hours so far. Playing at 4k on PC btw

Game runs great no slowdown, no weird camera issues either. My biggest complaints are some environment graphics are really low quality compared to Yuka and laylee. And some characters are very annoying like trowzer
 
sleepnaught said:
I don't know which World the Marsh level is, but it's potentially worse. Most bland level I've ever played on a platformer.
Click to expand...

It looks awful, but it actually plays really well. Lots of diversity and the camera has less issues due to the more open layout.

I'm really loving this. You can keep your Resident Evils, Niers and Horizons. This is my game of the year so far :)
 
I've played about three hours (at a slow pace; only up to the ice level) and really loving it so far. I was a huge fan of BK, not that keen on BT, and hated DK64. I place this just behind BK. If BK is a 10, I'd give YL an 8, BT a 6, and DK64 a 4. Here's my jumbled, incoherent thoughts.

Yooka and Laylee took some getting used to, and I still don't find them as appealing as BK. But the writing is firstrate, and Trowzer is brilliant (more fun than Bottles). I was a bit wary of the baddie Capital B at first - there's not much done to establish the link with Yooka and Laylee in the beginning, but the whole taking the piss out of corporate BS (I loved that line to Quackers: 'that's why I pay you slightly above minimum wage') is genius.

The tasks are fun and varied, reminding me just why 3D platformers were so fun back in the day, and the visuals and music are of course excellent. I am SO glad they did not voice act this and stuck to the silly gibberish - it's much more charming. My only real issues are:

- The controls are a little imprecise at times - definitely not as tight as BK or your average Nintendo title

- Sometimes new abilities just aren't explained properly, like when Yooka can fire stuff by eating some fruit from a tree - there's no explanation that there's an option to aim by clicking the left stick

- The worlds can be a little bit too big and open, with a number of instances where paths just lead (seemingly) to nowhere

I was one of the Kickstarter backers but my expectations were always very well-contained for this game, and as such, I'd say it's actually turned out considerably better than I thought it would.

Great work, Playtonic!
 
Anyone else notice there's a fairly nasty level of detail reduction/increase when you walk away from/close to things? I know this is a common optimization technique in games and is fair, but it feels particularly noticeable here. More importantly, this is at the maximum settings. Good for helping out slower PCs, but why can't we increase the range for cards that can handle it?
 
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