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This game is, by nowadays standards, a walking simulator. You walk, talk (choose between emotions to convey) and sometimes interact with objects. The gameplay is a bit janky, most hitboxes were colliding with each other, which was visible but didn't break the immersion for me. But since the main focus of this game is the story, it's not like we really should care. The story is set in the middle of the cold war, with our protagonist being in the middle of the antartica, and reminiscing himself of his time as an academic, talking with his friends, love interest, and director; all while trying to complete his work. The game will make you choose between multiple important options at some point in the story, all of them making the ending more impactful and meaningful. I can only recommand this game to people that like short and story-rich games (even though I would also recommand getting it while it's on sale).
I will begin by saying that if you're a completionnist, you're in for a bad time. Having to find 5 hidden coins in each of the 40 levels + some hidden exits + having to collect as much feathers as possible make the game frustrating. Also, there is some mandatory farming, which doesn't make sense to me in a 2.5d platformer. If you're not a completionnist, you will suffer less, but the game still has flaws. The first game was an homage to Banjo-Kazooie. This one takes inspiration from Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi's Island. The former by the controls, the collectibles in each level, and the overrall difficulty. Some levels are unforgiving, and pretty much every underwater section was frustrating. Also, there was too much "wait for the platforms to allow you to pass" moments for me. The latter by using the "baby Mario" mechanic. Here, when we get hit, Laylee flies around you for a bit beofre disappearing. Two issues with this mechanic. 1/The time during which Laylee flies around you, sometimes longer than needed and other times too short. 2/The "pathfinding". She will often times dodge you, when she is not stuck on ennemies/terrain/out of bounds. Talking about OoB, I managed once to go there, because there was no hitbox on a part of a wall. Some walls/obstacles lacked hitboxes, while a lot of walls and roofs felt like they were traversable (to hide a secret behind) and were not. This makes the game feel unpolished, which is a shame, because so much effort was poured into this game, especially with each level having two versions. Each version being so different from the other than it feels like a brand new level. Other than that, the tonics are a great addition, allowing the player to change their experience. But you have to pay for every one of them. Finally, having each level put into this big and "open" overworld, with hidden collectibles and riddles in it, forces the player to breath between them, sweetening the experience.
Great things in this game : - The animations. Overall they are great and feel pleasant to look at. - The french version. As a french person, I played with the french version on. The acting was awesome (I believe they hired the cartoon official voice actors). Also there are some neat references that made laugh/chuckle. Definetely a must have if you are french. Average things in this game : - The story. As a lot of games, the story starts off great and then becomes boringly long and it feels like the game is dragging you between points to get the average play time to be higher. - The graphics. Honestly the cartoony look in this game is well done. Even though I beleive the graphics are great, it is in the "average" section because someone's reaction to graphics in a video game is subjective and can't be accounted for a great or a bad point (unless it is very bad/glitchy). Bad things in this game : -Pretty much everything else, but I will detail my main issues with the game below. -The gameplay. It is boring and bad. Hitting the ennemies doesn't feel great, the skills feel average if not mediocre or useless, the "powers" are only really useful when doing puzzles, as they are hard to actually use in battle and my biggest complain is the magic potion as it doesn't feel like it makes you powerful at all, which is a shame in my opinion. The shielded ennemies are a pain to fight without using skills (which are limited unless you abuse one skill over and over again, making the gameplay loop boring). - The bugs. The game crashed a few times (but it felt like a lot in my ~9 hours of playing). I sometimes got softlocked as characters got stuck in terrain (which felt like a pain in the bun as the game works with checkpoints, making me restart a puzzle sometimes). Finally the audio lines sometimes not working at all. - The cutscenes. They are long and slow and rendered in the game engine, which led the characters to sometimes get stuck in terrain, making it a pain to look at.