Disclaimer: I played the Switch version, so maybe the PC version has additional content that was removed from the console version. This game is like The Sims, but you can't build your own room, move the furniture around, or design your own character. All you can do is tell the girl to interact with stuff and watch her. What makes this game unique is that there are 10 chapters that will eventually lead to one of 20 different endings. But if you're expecting an epic branching storyline, you'll be disappointed. The ending you get depends purely on how your 5 stats are spread out by the end of the game, and whether you've collected all the notes necessary for the ending. There are no choices other than what to interact with, no randomness, no events, nothing. Every chapter, you just wander around the room and select objects for the girl to interact with and wait for the day to finish. The 10 different chapters have different notes, and the closer you get to the final chapter, the more stuff you can interact with and the more time you have to do so. In other words, there is no real replayability value. Once you've unlocked your first ending, you've already pretty much seen all this game has to offer. From then on, you're just collecting the notes and stats you need for your next ending, then waiting for the chapters to end. Over time you unlock new outfits for the girl, but you have to get her to change it on ever chapter and playthrough. This game is essentially just repeating the same steps over and over again. As for the endings, they're just short stories describing the girl's new life. The teacher ending is a bit creepy, the bride ending is a bit unexpected, and the homeless one is sad. The rest are fairly standard and not really worth mentioning. At least the artstyle is nice and the girl is pretty. If you're here for a good game, turn back. If you're here for arousal, buy porn instead.
There's little more to be said about this game that hasn't been said already. Great storytelling, great story (though some people might not like it), great gameplay and design. What's not so great is the technical implementation of the game. 1. The game only saves at checkpoints, so you can't simply quit unless you're willing to lose some progress. 2. Collision detection for movements can be too aggressive at times, so you might occasionally die because you got stuck running too close to a bench. Nothing permanent, but in 1999 mode, getting stuck in place for even 1 second can be deadly. 3. Suffers from heavy lags related to texture streaming. I hope you know how to google, unless you're willing to put up with lags every time you turn around. Still, I think the game is worth it.
IMPORTANT: Do not play this game if your PC can't achieve 60 FPS. The lower your framerate is, the slower the game will be. Many challenges are timed and use the real-time clock. Trying to finish a challenge in time is impossible if the character is moving at only 1/3 its normal speed. Review: This game is a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, and the similarities are more than obvious. Unfortunately, it's just not a very good game, especially when compared to its N64 predecessors. While Yooka-Laylee has larger worlds with more stuff to collect, everything is packed so densely together that the game feels lacking in content. And most challenges are so easy, you feel like you're just collecting scrap rather than earning rewards. The worlds are also completely independent, unlike in Banjo-Tooie, where one world could affect another. The game feels repetitive, even though it's not. While most challenges are relatively varied and unique, each world has a Mining Kart challenge and an Arcade Machine. Without them the game would've felt much less repetitive, and I would've given 3 stars instead. The Arcade Machine is the worst offender: While its mini-games are a nice change of pace, you need to finish each game twice (once to finish the mini-game, once more to beat the Highscore) to get all reward. Even if you play well enough to beat the Highscore the first time around, you have to play twice. Yooka-Laylee has awful affordances. What are "affordances", you ask? If the game gives you grenades, which you'll need to destroy cracked stone blocks, then you'll expect to be able to destroy cracked objects with grenades. It's how the game teaches the player what they can or can't do. Yooka-Laylee has cracked glass windows, which can't be destroyed with grenades. It even has a move specifically for destroying glass, which won't work either. And that's just a small example of Yooka-Laylee's awful affordances. And finally: the camera is simply awful...
