And a progress update on the Switch port
Yooka-Laylee is perhaps my biggest video game disappointment this year, but I think Playtonic can and will get the game to a much better place. The team has detailed a hefty content update releasing this month — first on PC, then consoles — that wastes no time addressing players’ niggling complaints.
- Brand new pause menu music
- New optional camera mode with minimal assist
- Pagies have added signposts to Hivory Towers to help guide players to new worlds
- Design tweaks to all arcade games
- Speed improvement to scrolling through Totals Menu
- New option for shorter ‘gibberish’ voice sound FX
- New speech volume option
- New ability to speed through dialogue by holding Y
- Cut-scenes can now be skipped with Y
- New moves section added to pause menu, with image guide
- Camera design improvements throughout game (less scripted cameras, door cams now appear behind player etc)
- Restart option added in the pause menu during arcade games and Kartos challenges
- ‘Sonar-able’ objects now have more clear visual identity
- Laser move no longer requires player to crouch
- Minecart control improvements and new visual effects
- Transformation control improvements
- Improved first-person aiming controls
- New first-person aiming control options added
- Improved flying controls
- When transformed, collecting butterflies now restores energy
- Hunter tonic now tracks the last 30 Quills and Casino Tokens, in addition to the Health and Power Extenders. It will also whistle at the location of the closest rare collectable.
- Health UI is now always visible when low
- Design tweaks in various areas (Black Hole in One, Gloomy Gem Grotto etc)
- New icons added for keyboard/mouse controls
- Improved Rampo boss fight
- Added PC Display Settings to the in-game pause menu
- Performance improvements
- Audio improvements
It’s worth noting that bug fixes are separate from this list and they’ll be “detailed later.”
Of the stuff mentioned here, the big ones for me are the cutscene skip and dialog speed-through, camera reworks, and the restart option for those dang arcade games and Kartos challenges. Also, the laser move — the puzzles related to that gave me trouble for the longest time. Clearly, I wasn’t alone.
Playtonic has also shared a progress update on the Nintendo Switch version of Yooka-Laylee.
“As our first significant game update nears completion, we will soon be entering the Nintendo Switch-specific testing phase,” explained the studio. “And hopefully, if our test team doesn’t break it too badly, we’ll be in a position to deliver you a final release date shortly after.” The aforementioned fixes and tweaks from the PC/PS4/Xbox One update will be available on Switch from “day one.”
Green and Purple Patch [Playtonic Games]
