• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

Lijik

Member
Have other US backers gotten their rewards yet? Still trying to figure out what's going on with mine. :/

i got mine! They sent me the tracking information when i got in touch with them

Phase 1 is trivial with Sonar 'Splosion to take out the bees.

i never considered this! i just
stayed in the sonar shield until they eventually fucked off

i actually liked the final boss fight more than others, but the second phase should have been cut. its dull and goes on for way too long for what it is (granted thats my complaint for like 80% of the stuff i dont like in this game lmao). Everything else moved at a decent pace i thought.
 
Have you tried contacting Playtonic to ask for tracking details?
i got mine! They sent me the tracking information when i got in touch with them.
Yes.
EPEZKjb.jpg

DSZ8tay.jpg
I don't feel there was anything inaccurate about my post so I won't be modifying it.
 

Lijik

Member
weird response on their part. All i got was a quick "sorry for the inconvience" and a link to the tracking number and it showed up a few days after that.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Yes.

I don't feel there was anything inaccurate about my post so I won't be modifying it.

I apologise if I'm missing something here, however the first e-mail states that the items are "awaiting collection", which can only mean that they were delivered but nobody was present at the address. If you can't access the tracking information on BackerKit, then ask Playtonic to provide the details of where your package was dropped off so you can arrange to have it forwarded on to your current address.

As an aside, I don't detect an aura of smugness in the e-mail myself. It could certainly stand to be a little apologetic given you're a victim of circumstance, but I don't think the intention was to rub your nose in the situation, which is presumably why Playtonic would prefer that you edit your post -- a request that does come across as a wee bit heavy-handed. Merely clarifying that no malice was intended would have been the better approach.
 

Footos22

Member
Got the platinum. Did everything in 21 hours and loved every minute. Nothing felt frustrating or badly designed. Only complaint I have is world 3 looking ugly as shit. I dunno wtf they were thinking there as the actual world was pretty fun to go through.

Can't wait to see how they can improve in a sequel.
 

Rokal

Member
Finished it up tonight.

It was a bit of a rocky road: I still maintain that the PS4 version of the game I was sent a backer key for controls, looks, and feels poor to play. The PC version of the game was another story, and exceeded my hopes for the game when I backed it ~2 years ago. It evoked the things I liked about N64 era Rare platformers: the humor, the art style, the world & objective variety, but fixed a lot of things that have made those games difficult for me to revisit these days such as the camera and muddy visuals on modern HD displays.

That said, it wasn't all perfect. I thought
flight
ruined the game a bit when you got it, and the world designed around that power was my least favorite. I also would have appreciated more world variety, potentially with smaller worlds. By the time you reach your 25th paggie in each world, they feel like they've worn out their welcome a bit. I appreciate their attempt to make the worlds bigger, more believable, and less theme-park like, but I'm not sure it was worth the sacrifices.

Overall, I loved it. I can't wait to see what they do with a sequel, and I hope this game does well for them. I'd back the follow-up without any hesitation if they decided to crowdfund again, which is more than I can say for any of the ~dozen other games I've kickstarted.
 

DylanEno

Member
Got the platinum. Did everything in 21 hours and loved every minute. Nothing felt frustrating or badly designed. Only complaint I have is world 3 looking ugly as shit. I dunno wtf they were thinking there as the actual world was pretty fun to go through.

Can't wait to see how they can improve in a sequel.
Yeah that first world boss was totally well designed and not at all frustrating or a technical shit show whatsoever, the snow plow transformation controlled like a dream, etc.

Nothing felt frustrating or badly designed
Nothing
 
Yeah that first world boss was totally well designed and not at all frustrating or a technical shit show whatsoever, the snow plow transformation controlled like a dream, etc.

Nothing felt frustrating or badly designed
Nothing

I did the snow plow transformation today after seeing so much negativity. I assumed it was the internet being the internet in terms of complaining.

Holy fuck. Just...fuck.
 

Rokal

Member
The snow-plow wasn't too bad for me. You can come to a stop, use the jump button, and turn your vehicle in the air to do minor adjustments and gain a much better level of control.

It was occasionally frustrating, occasionally fun in the chaos of moving quickly for some goals, but mostly a non-issue.

The world 1 boss was also relatively hassle-free. I think the only one I really had any trouble with out of all the bosses in the game was World 4, the Casino boss.
 

DylanEno

Member
I did the snow plow transformation today after seeing so much negativity. I assumed it was the internet being the internet in terms of complaining.

Holy fuck. Just...fuck.
All of the transformations in this game are garbage but the snow plow is truly something special.

The world 1 boss was also relatively hassle-free. I think the only one I really had any trouble with out of all the bosses in the game was World 4, the Casino boss.
At the slightest movement the camera spazzes out worse than any N64 camera angle I've ever witnessed. And when you're rolling up the hill the camera is at an angle that makes it horrible to tell where / when you should be jumping - and considering it's at an incline, it isn't exactly obvious that you need to stop before jumping. If you get hit, you have to roll down and end up hitting every log that's in front of you. I ended up cheesing my way through it tbh and hated every second of it.

The world 4 boss was some bullshit too, but at least David wise had an awesome boss track.
 

Violet_0

Banned
the first world boss was pretty easy, you just need to
stop moving for a moment everytime you jump over a log
. Once I figured that out I didn't have any trouble beating him
 
Is anyone else having trouble on the world 4 boss?
Phase 3
just immediately kills me off and it doesn't help that I only have like 2 health by then.
 

Lynd7

Member
Finished it up tonight.

It was a bit of a rocky road: I still maintain that the PS4 version of the game I was sent a backer key for controls, looks, and feels poor to play. The PC version of the game was another story, and exceeded my hopes for the game when I backed it ~2 years ago. It evoked the things I liked about N64 era Rare platformers: the humor, the art style, the world & objective variety, but fixed a lot of things that have made those games difficult for me to revisit these days such as the camera and muddy visuals on modern HD displays.

That said, it wasn't all perfect. I thought
flight
ruined the game a bit when you got it, and the world designed around that power was my least favorite. I also would have appreciated more world variety, potentially with smaller worlds. By the time you reach your 25th paggie in each world, they feel like they've worn out their welcome a bit. I appreciate their attempt to make the worlds bigger, more believable, and less theme-park like, but I'm not sure it was worth the sacrifices.

Overall, I loved it. I can't wait to see what they do with a sequel, and I hope this game does well for them. I'd back the follow-up without any hesitation if they decided to crowdfund again, which is more than I can say for any of the ~dozen other games I've kickstarted.

I don't understand what's so much worse for PS4, I think it feels fine. Although I haven't played the PC version, the only difference is 60fps right?
 

illusionary

Member
Is anyone else having trouble on the world 4 boss?
Phase 3
just immediately kills me off and it doesn't help that I only have like 2 health by then.

The world 4 boss is widely regarded as a complete pain to beat, so you're not alone.

Phase 3 is where he starts shooting missiles at you, IIRC? The single missiles should be fairly easy to jump over (they'll then circle back and hit the boss); when there's more than one, try shooting back to take out one/two of them before they reach you. If it helps, on phase 2 you can attack the boss when he's coming at you in both directions, not just when he starts in front of you.
 

VandalD

Member
Is anyone else having trouble on the world 4 boss?
Phase 3
just immediately kills me off and it doesn't help that I only have like 2 health by then.
That one gave me a bit of trouble. It's all about memorization. I refuse to believe anyone beat that boss on the first try. Remember that you can shoot a missile every now and then if you need to in phase 2.

I also had that boss freeze my controls as soon as I entered the fight a few times, and by that time I was frustrated enough to alt+f4 out of the game and forget about it for a week.
 
The world 4 boss is widely regarded as a complete pain to beat, so you're not alone.

Phase 3 is where he starts shooting missiles at you, IIRC? The single missiles should be fairly easy to jump over (they'll then circle back and hit the boss); when there's more than one, try shooting back to take out one/two of them before they reach you. If it helps, on phase 2 you can attack the boss when he's coming at you in both directions, not just when he starts in front of you.

That one gave me a bit of trouble. It's all about memorization. I refuse to believe anyone beat that boss on the first try. Remember that you can shoot a missile every now and then if you need to in phase 2.

I also had that boss freeze my controls as soon as I entered the fight a few times, and by that time I was frustrated enough to alt+f4 out of the game and forget about it for a week.

Thanks, managed to beat it with 1 health remaining. The boss wouldn't even be that bad if it would allow you to regain health at moments like the earlier ones.
 

Lijik

Member
i feel like phases 2 and 3 of the world 4 boss arent that bad on their own, its just that you have to get through phase 1 which imo is harder than the other 2 phases once the patterns start ramping up, and can be artificially long because for reasons i never figured out sometimes the boss doesnt give you an opportunity to attack them before starting another wave (also tbh the amount of times you have to hit the boss for that phase is already on the long side for what youre doing).
 
I paid £170 for the Signed Deluxe Boxed PC copy. I received a shrink-wrapped PC copy a few weeks ago, but it's not signed. I haven't opened it yet, as I'm not sure if I want to.

I've sent e-mails and Facebook posts to Playtonic asking if there's been a mixup or if stuff inside it is signed, but I haven't hasd a reply.

Does anybody here know?
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Yeah that first world boss was totally well designed and not at all frustrating or a technical shit show whatsoever, the snow plow transformation controlled like a dream, etc.

I cannot say anything about frustrating, I beat it easily on my first try, though it was my third boss in the game, so my perspective might be skewed in that regard. But technical shit show? The game ran absolutely smooth while beating the boss, I can absolutely not see where this boss is a technical shit show.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
i feel like phases 2 and 3 of the world 4 boss arent that bad on their own, its just that you have to get through phase 1 which imo is harder than the other 2 phases once the patterns start ramping up, and can be artificially long because for reasons i never figured out sometimes the boss doesnt give you an opportunity to attack them before starting another wave (also tbh the amount of times you have to hit the boss for that phase is already on the long side for what youre doing).
I think, if the boss hits you with anything but the final 1-2 attacks in phase 1, the corresponding attack is repeated, otherwise you get a chance of attacking him.
 

illusionary

Member
I paid £170 for the Signed Deluxe Boxed PC copy. I received a shrink-wrapped PC copy a few weeks ago, but it's not signed. I haven't opened it yet, as I'm not sure if I want to.

I've sent e-mails and Facebook posts to Playtonic asking if there's been a mixup or if stuff inside it is signed, but I haven't hasd a reply.

Does anybody here know?
I gather that it's the manual that's signed, rather than the game box.
 

Footos22

Member
Yeah that first world boss was totally well designed and not at all frustrating or a technical shit show whatsoever, the snow plow transformation controlled like a dream, etc.

Nothing felt frustrating or badly designed
Nothing

What was wrong with it. Did that boss on the second try. Can you not jump or something??

My seven year old did it fairly easily too.

Hyperbole up the wazoo.
 

Rokal

Member
I don't understand what's so much worse for PS4, I think it feels fine. Although I haven't played the PC version, the only difference is 60fps right?

That's my understanding. I don't usually let FPS ruin a game for me, but in Yooka Laylee the whole game feels off on PS4. I'd say specifically that my biggest problem was that movement felt sluggish and unresponsive compared to what I expected from a 3D platformer, but the low FPS also had a negative effect on how easy the visuals were to read moment to moment as well.

Team 17 handled the console ports and Playtonic handled the PC port, to my understanding. So if I had to venture to guess why 30 FPS feels so bad in Yooka Laylee, it was because the game was designed and playtested for 60 FPS.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
...When other indie devs are RAVING about how easy it is to port to the Switch yet there being no info is legitimately troubling.

Yooka-Laylee is a bit more demanding than most Indie games and struggled in terms of performance on PS4 / Xbox One already. In addition to that, Playtonic also has to work on integrating orchestrated soundtrack and 64 bit shader, and design a DLC piece for backers.
 

Paltheos

Member
Hit 45 pagies, have enough quills to have unlocked all the special moves.

Complaints seem...overblown. Controls seem fine - A little rough in a few spots but mostly fine. Some camera issues but nothing so terrible as what I've been hearing.

One of the 'unpolished' things I love about this game is how nearly everything is a standable surface. Weaker games would artificially block your path with invisible walls or sloped surfaces, but Yooka-Laylee gives you a ton of freedom in your platforming. I've definitely reached some places I'm not supposed to go by steadfastness and determination.

Edit: The garbled SFX playing through whole lines is a Banjo-Kazooie thing. You are very free to not like it. I love it. All my friends who watched me playing loved it (except the ones who are not BK fans).
 
I gather that it's the manual that's signed, rather than the game box.

That's incredibly disappointing, and stupid. People tend to put signed games on display. Hard to do that with a manual, and even if you do, it doesn't look anywhere near as good.

I have signed copies of a bunch of games, including the three Banjo console games. I wanted to put Yooka-Laylee next to them.

The reward said a signed copy of the PC game. That's misleading.
 

prudislav

Member
Hello and welcome to the first ever post-game-release Playtonic community update!

But first... we've got some spit ‘n' polish to deploy.
In the days since launch – and as we work with speed towards the Nintendo Switch – the dev team has been frogmarched back down into the development mines to uncover our next big game update, which will add significant improvements and introduce some of the most requested features.

That means stuff like the optional ability to skip dialogue faster, bypass cutscenes or reduce those pesky gibberish voices, which should please the speedrunners among us. We'll also be adding a sprinkling of design polish throughout the adventure and by popular request, changes to how the camera operates
ezgif-2-a407e7405f.gif


You can expect a more detailed breakdown of the game update in the coming weeks, as we continue to tinker around with the coding furnace. Until then, here's a bit more of what we've been up to...
http://www.playtonicgames.com/spit-n-polish/
 
Just had an email regarding a new update coming for the game to address the camera issues and the option to skip the dialogue text, amongst other things! Woop!

EDIT: Beaten to a pulp
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
"We’ll also be adding a sprinkling of design polish throughout the adventure"

Hopefully that means a PS4 Pro patch!!! Either way, the update tidbits sound great so far, and i look forward to hearing all the full details!
 

wrowa

Member
Yes.

I don't feel there was anything inaccurate about my post so I won't be modifying it.

Honestly, you probably should. When reading the second mail, I was honestly shocked they'd request such a thing - asking someone to edit a forum post is just all kinds of wrong. Well, 99% of the time at least.

Then I saw the post they are referring to and, come on. You are making a pretty serious accusation there - Playtonic treating you badly because you are Polish - which you are basing on... a completely professionally written email. That's a bit much, honestly.
 

Sponge

Banned
I appreciate Playtonic for all the stuff they're adding into the game with this update. A restart option for minigames and pause music make me happy. Anyone who compared this game to MN9 really isn't being fair. Playtonic is actually listening to criticism and didn't just run off with people's money.
 

ced

Member
So looks like they're adding an option to disable the camera auto follow? I'll start this again when that releases.
 

BlackAlbatross

Neo Member
Fuck the final boss

I was happy to finally fight a "normal" boss after the vehicle based world 4 and 5 bosses and their horrible controls, but this is just bad.

The first part is a joke, you just have to activate invincibility and wait for the bees to disappear, very funny.

The second part would be decent... if it wasn't so fucking LONG. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I jump and shoot him between his throws, but it takes so many hits, it feels like this part is longer than the rest of the fight combined. Also, aiming while jumping is awful, I often miss when I'm close to him and he always hits me right after.
I always lose like half my energy in this phase.

The third part is good. Sure, it isn't very original, but is the part I enjoy the most.
Except for the fact that there is a bug happening now and then, where Yooka doesn't automatically move during the cutscenes every 2 hits, so the boss hits him when he takes off and I lose a butterfly DURING THE CUTSCENE.

And now I'm stuck at the stingers part. I guess I'll need to find all the power extenders, since I always run out and get hit when I'm on the floor waiting for it to recharge (somehow I managed to find only 3/6 of them, despite the fact that I got like 97% of pagies and quills).

Are there many more phases after this? It surely is a pretty long fight, and having no butterflies to munch doesn't help.
 

Rokal

Member
Fuck the final boss

The first part is a joke, you just have to activate invincibility and wait for the bees to disappear, very funny.

Use the AoE Sonar ability to get rid of bees and stagger the boss. Much faster/easier

The second part would be decent... if it wasn't so fucking LONG. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I jump and shoot him between his throws, but it takes so many hits, it feels like this part is longer than the rest of the fight combined. Also, aiming while jumping is awful, I often miss when I'm close to him and he always hits me right after.
I always lose like half my energy in this phase.
Keep some distance to avoid getting hit by bombs and (imo) make aiming easier. I would usually be pretty far away from him in the room, following him along with hover jumps, and could hit him a couple times before closing half of the distance gap. The section will go faster if you are hitting him a couple times each opportunity rather than once.


And now I'm stuck at the stingers part. I guess I'll need to find all the power extenders, since I always run out and get hit when I'm on the floor waiting for it to recharge (somehow I managed to find only 3/6 of them, despite the fact that I got like 97% of pagies and quills).

Use the "quick recharge" tonic for this fight. It's the best one in the game anyway. You should have enough time to recharge before the rockets will hit you. If you timed it poorly and you don't, use the shield move to immunity yourself through the rocket hits and let your recharge start anew.

Are there many more phases after this? It surely is a pretty long fight, and having no butterflies to munch doesn't help
.

Nope!

Good luck
 

bumpkin

Member
... and as we work with speed towards the Nintendo Switch ...
I really hope this doesn't mean they have yet to start working on the Switch version. As someone who backed the game for the Wii U and changed to Switch, their radio silence regarding its progress is very frustrating.
 

fernoca

Member
Yes.

I don't feel there was anything inaccurate about my post so I won't be modifying it.
The part about:
Have any US backers gotten their items? Asked Playtonic/Backerkit for some shipping/tracking info and ended up being told I was on my own. The smugness of the email made me cry some. Might have something to do with the fact that I have an obviously Polish name and they're English. I used to love these guys and their games... :/ Now my feelings are genuinely hurt. I guess I want my package now so I have something to look at whenever I want to feel shitty.
Is quite inaccurate actually.
 
The part about:

Is quite inaccurate actually.
Yeah, I'm not seeing anything offensive in those mails. What does you having a Polish name have to do with anything they wrote? Hmmmm.

Btw, I finished the game 100% and collected everything I missed last week.

9/10.

Enjoyed just about everything. Good job, Playtonic!
 

Teggy

Member
Was glad to see that update this morning. Crossing my fingers that my dizziness level will subside with the camera changes.
 

BlackAlbatross

Neo Member
Use the AoE Sonar ability to get rid of bees and stagger the boss. Much faster/easier
Thanks for the tip, I always kinda forget about that ability, so I didn't even think about using it.

Keep some distance to avoid getting hit by bombs and (imo) make aiming easier. I would usually be pretty far away from him in the room, following him along with hover jumps, and could hit him a couple times before closing half of the distance gap. The section will go faster if you are hitting him a couple times each opportunity rather than once.
I'll try from the distance, but my aim is so bad that sometimes I don't even hit him once when I'm very close, let alone twice from afar, lol.
 

ultrazilla

Gold Member
I know the Switch supports Unity but I highly suspect that they're having tech issues with the game performance wise.

Playtonic only commenting today that the Switch version is still being worked on, etc.

They should be able to hit a locked 30fps for the game but who knows.
 

DonMigs85

Member
I know the Switch supports Unity but I highly suspect that they're having tech issues with the game performance wise.

Playtonic only commenting today that the Switch version is still being worked on, etc.

They should be able to hit a locked 30fps for the game but who knows.
Wonder how well the PC version runs on something like a GT 730 at 720p. I think that's fairly close to Tegra X1 GPU performance levels.
 
The current camera makes me sick (a combination of distance from characters, height, speed, getting stuck on environment), so reading about how they're going to tweak it sounds like music to my ears.

Edit: playing on PS4, dunno how it is on other platforms. And yes, I've tried changing the settings.

Edit 2: also I dunno if it's just my PS4, but loading screen freezes for seconds at a time when first loading into the game or changing worlds.
 
The Icy-metric Palace has been, up to this point, the best of the game by far. It is a fresh idea (you get it?), with a clever design of the maze and some great challenges and puzzles. And it is an obvious tribute to the Ultimate era of Rareware, which is neat.

The expansions of the worlds I've seen have certainly surprised me, since I enjoyed the ancient tower of world 1 a lot too. We'll see how the next ones compare to this.
 
Top Bottom