Yooka-Laylee is Out

[Breegullbeak]

Originally Posted by Banjokun

Soon you will be in the same group who are calling this the new Mighty No 9.

Mighty No. 9 this is not. This is a much better game, but it's still got a lot of issues. I've only played the first of them so far, but I really don't like Rextro's arcade.

[qwertykins76]

One irk.

Banjo-Kazooie was not a 3D platformer. It was an adventure game that had 3D platforming in it. But that was never the priority. Yooka-Laylee is a 3D platformer, and has all the hallmarks of one.

Think about it. . . how many moving platforms did you come across in Banjo-Kazooie? Not a ton. In fact I can probably name all of them right now: the engine room, the magic carpets in Gobi's Valley, Clanker's body, and a single leaf in Bubblegloop Swamp. That's it. Yooka meanwhile is absolutely riddled with moving platforms, as well as buttons and switches, which results in the whole thing feeling inorganic and like a tech demo at times.

Playtonic seems to be slightly out of touch as to why we liked their games. Just running around and collecting trinkets...isn't fun. It was never fun. It's a chore. (Well, it's fun to me, but I'm weird.) In order for it to actually BE fun and enjoyable, you need to provide the player with incentive.

Notes in Banjo-Kazooie were rarely ever hidden, in fact they went out of their way to place them in the middle of paths to line walkways. That's because, while Banjo IS a collectathon, the collectables were only ever there in the first place to serve as an excuse for the player to explore the environment. Yooka assumes that collecting items is fun in itself, when it isn't. You don't want to boot up Banjo-Kazooie just to play janitor, you do it because you want to run around these colorful worlds and have fun. Collectables ought to be an afterthought.

Quills are sometimes like Notes, and sometimes not. Sometimes they're laid out right in front of you, as they should be, and sometimes not. It's difficult to feel like collecting Quills is any fun when not only are there 200 of the damn things, but you also occasionally turn a corner or go down a path and after 10 seconds, your only reward at the end of it is a single Quill. Again, some of us are weird and enjoy the challenge, but why would any normal person find that FUN?

Not only that, (Oh yeah I haven't actually played the game yet, by the way,) but the hitbox on Quills certainly does not look to be very big. Even when they ARE laid out in a line, I see people miss Quills constantly, and have to turn around just to pick up the ones they missed. That's horrible. Never at any point should you have to STOP what you're doing, just to turn around and come back. Nor should the game ever instill a fear in the player that they might not progress unless they pause their exploring to carefully pick up every little thing they see. It's stressful.

But the worst that I've seen, is that they hide Quills. Why would you ever make Quills difficult to find, when there are 200 of them and the levels are huge, so that when you inevitably have 199 of them, you'll have to scour the entire map for one? Why are Quills hidden behind corners and under ramps? Why oh why are they placed down slides, where it's easy to miss one and then have to climb all the way back up just slide back down and possibly miss them again?


The game isn't bad from what I've seen, I'm sure I'll love the heck out of it. But I'm just saying Yooka-Laylee is the result of what happens when you create a modern Banjo successor WITHOUT the guiding hand of Gregg Mayles. You miss a step.

Also; WHERE ARE THE WARP PADS?! Y'know, I once played Tooie without using Warp Pads for fun... but what sick, depraved human being thought they could build Tooie-sized worlds with no Warp Pads?!?

Edit: Maybe more than one irk. It's only because I love you.

[Zy0n7]

You are right on pretty much everything. I played cashino world today and it was awful, very tedious, lots of ramps after a climb with missable quills on the slide...

The worlds aren't designed to be cool and interesting like mad monster mansion or rusty bucket bay were, all 5 of them are just a giant empty space that they filled with random stuff tossed around until the 25 pagie quota was filled. I was excited when I entered the 3rd world and saw it was halloween-esque theme but was quickly let down to find it was just green space with rocks and thorns separating sectors. Second world looks beautiful, but has bad design too (the isometric inside of the castle is ok), and 5th world looks like the third but with a galaxy skin and flying instead of using the helicopter. For what is worth the 1st world seems to be the one with more thought put into it's layout, and it's a very bland world tbh, jungle themes never do it for me.

I can see myself completing everything but I'll probably never replay this again.
Wonder what the dlc will be though. Hopefully not more rextro arcades.

[The Banjonator]

I hope playtonic aren't discouraged by the mixed opinions of this game. I really want them to continue making 3D platformers

[Minjo]

So I played this and decided to check the forum and post my thoughts on the game because why not

I finished the game today (not 100%, I kinda skipped the last world entirely but have collected 112 pagies at least, will go back to that one) I’d say I had fun overall and they did deliver on their kickstarter promise but there are some important issues, and it’s not even just the camera.

Good things:
+Some actually good 3D platforming. As a previous poster said this game has more actual platforming sections than BT ever had for example. YK’s movesets are more ready for this purpose than BK’s ever were. Sadly some of this can just be trivialized once you get the move to fly anywhere, but that’s optional at least.
+Remarking the previous point, I think yooka and laylee had a very good moveset. If there’s a sequel I’d like the shooting move to be improved a bit though.
+Overworld was awesome. I enjoyed exploring it. Again this seemed like an improvement from BT.
+Has the BK charm going on, not every character was particularly memorable but a few of them are and that’s good. Capital B, Quack and Trowzer are my favorite.
+New jinjos and their ways to obtain them.
+Buy moves in any order you want. (I honestly believe all moves should be buyable from the start, but whatever, this works)
+I enjoyed actually getting stuck in some of the game’s puzzles, particularly the icymetric palace was memorable for these.
+I also enjoyed the approach they took with the casino world and don’t see what’s so bad about it, I actually find it easier to find my way around it than in other levels as you can clearly see its landmarks. You can fly/roll in peace to wherever you want to go.

Neutral:
+The music. I feel like it was just “okay”.

Bad things:
+The biggest problem by far is how they approached the level design. The worlds are huge but their layouts are terribily confusing. World 1 is especially guilty of this as you can barely identify where you are placed or where you haven’t gone yet unless you see quills around. I can draw mental images of the layouts of worlds of previous games (exception being glitter gulch mine as it is also missing landmarks) but I cannot do this for one, and I personally don’t believe this is just because im more familiar with those games. So in a way the worlds in this game feel like glitter gulch mines.
+Extending previous point, by having bigger worlds they filled them with more collectibles, in this case 25 pagies per world. However by having this bigger number it seemed like they couldn’t come up with enough good ideas at one point and added some filler challenges. Speaking speficically about the “go through hoops within time limit” ones, they’re overused; this is just a reminder of nuts and bolts in a bad way.
+Performance issues. The camera (especially bad in world 1 boss and I don’t think I need to detail why that boss sucked). Glitches all over. I’ve gone through closed doors, lagged during play and minigames, actually crashed the game during a minigame (try shooting too many bullets in the kart minigame) and at one point the game didn’t load a single wall or floor in casino level. The good news is this can be patched but right now this is how it is. Played the PS4 version btw, not sure how it is in other platforms.
+Some poor/outdated choices in pagie missions. Biggest example: World 2 has five snowmen who need a hat each. To collect hats you need the world’s transformation, getting the hats is already a challenge itself as you need to deal with the transformation’s weird controls in some platforming sections, don’t fall on water or your transformation is undone. You cannot return hats while transformed so you need to turn back into yooka back and forth. Oh, and you cannot return any hat to a specific snowman, they each require one in specific. Worst of all, leave the world and all of the hats will be reset. This kind of thing was not ok back in BK/BT days and is definitely not ok now. A similar thing happens in world 1, if you leave the pigs will reset and you have to start all over.
+Rextro’s minigames are just frustrating and not fun, I’m sorry, but I think I even prefer the ones from DK64. I didn’t particularly enjoy the minecart sections either, I think the camera should have zoomed out more.

Those are the main things that come to my mind. When I backed this game I didn’t have any expectations or high hopes for it, I went in blind and I gotta say I’m glad I did back it since I enjoyed it despite its flaws. Sadly, I definitely see where all the reviewers are coming from, I think 7.5/10 is an appropiate score, keep in mind this doesn’t mean it’s “shit” or “mediocre” by any means, despite what people might think when they see a score like that for a modern game. I think anyone who enjoyed BK should definitely give this game a chance and see what they think.

Final note, I hope Playtonic has a good future ahead, though the reception has been mixed I hope they continue to deliver more games since they have some amazing people working there.

that's all bye

[Esteban Colberto]

After reading THAT review Im glad Trump will make you pay for the nukes he drops on you


Now for a delicious moist chocolate cake which i shall wash down with a glass of milk uglglugalaghassdfghjk

[TWIABP]

yeah **** you i mean

[Esteban Colberto]

I don't need your support, and I never have

[qwertykins76]

Yeah YL's cool and all, but where's my Diddy Kong Racing sequel, Playtonic???

If you guys don't do that one next I'll be MAD, and when I'm mad I get ornery and when I'm ornery I get miffed, so you better do it!!

[Derek]

Cashino is shit. You guys will enjoy world 5 a lot, I think.
My favorite levels are 5 and 3, they are just small enough while still providing quite a bit to do. IMO the only truly shit level is Cashino, ice level is alright, the first level is probably objectively the best, but i find nothing wrong with 5 and 3 is my point i guess. I really liked them.

OH and imagine in a hypothetical YL sequel they added splitting up like in tooie?? Playing as solo Laylee??? Take my money!!! and of course they will add playable Trowzer segments.

[JamesDNaux]

After waiting well over a decade for another game like this, I was immensely satisfied once I finally got it. Despite a few minor annoyances, Playtonic did not fail to deliver and I'm hoping for a Tooka-Laylee. No idea why so many people are trashing it.

I give it an 8.5/10, and it's my current GOTY so far.

[Jinjonator]

Game is alright, but I agree with some of the other posts that there are some flaws holding it back. I've only done the first 2 worlds so far, but I've gotta echo the sentiments about the level design. It mostly just feels like a bunch of stuff tossed around a large area. Something that stood out to me quickly in playing is that, unlike BK where each level was built around an interesting centerpiece (or centerpieces), YL doesn't really seem to have that. Even the larger landmarks still just feel kinda... tossed there. (Also this is wildly subjective and maybe vague, but at least in the first 2 worlds I played, it kinda feels like the levels don't have as much "personality" to them as Banjo-Kazooie? It feels more like a scattershot of challenges and platforming, instead of a cohesive world)

Also this is prolly just me, but I really hate it every time I make a bunch of progress through an area in a level, only to find out that I need a move I don't have/can't get yet in order to progress/get the pagie. So now I just feel like I need to hurry and open all the levels asap and get all the moves, cuz it kinda discourages me from exploring too much otherwise (especially since I'll have to remember all the places I went to and couldn't finish, and do all that backtracking).

[Derek]

I understand the gripe with needing new moves to progress through an area and correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that a big part of Banjo-Tooie for most of the game? I'm not saying that it's a good thing, just that YL wasn't the only game with a lot of back tracking.

In my experience people seem upset that they can't go into a level and 100% it in one run, this game was designed so you have to revisit each level at least once. Just play through every level once getting as many pagies and quills as you can, then revisit each level after getting all the moves and finish the job.

[blackhand1001]

Is it just me or is the official soundtrack missing a lot of varients of songs. Especially of Hivory Towers and all the aquatic variants of the levels it seems. I hope they release the whole soundtrack or someone makes a tool to extract the music from the game.

[Andre]

Originally Posted by blackhand1001

Is it just me or is the official soundtrack missing a lot of varients of songs. Especially of Hivory Towers and all the aquatic variants of the levels it seems. I hope they release the whole soundtrack or someone makes a tool to extract the music from the game.

Do you mean the iTunes / Spotify release or the backer version? Not sure if they are different.