How much of the top down picking is there compared to the platformer sections? I'm less interested in the platformer bits.
I haven't measured it and that ratio would also depend on how long it takes you to solve puzzles in the overworld or how many times you die in the platformer sections, but what I would say is that there's enough time spent in each, that I wouldn't recommend it unless you're interested in both.
It's an interesting design decision btw, because in some ways it's two seperate games, with moveset and abilities being different or behaving differently, when you move between them, which can make it a little jarring and possible make you question, why the design is attempting to make two such radically different elements work in conjunction with each other. I understand why the changes are needed, once you've decided on that type of design. The jumping height for instance needed to be shorter to make the barriers in the overworld believable, but the side effect of that is things like enemies not being as satisfying to jump on (which isn't helped by the perspective either) and a disconnect, because the same characters suddenly behave differently from the other section, they were just in. I could understand it if some would be bothered by stuff like this, but for me it still works, but it took me a little time to work out why.
Part of it is the charm of the characters, the colors and the world. Another and perhaps bigger part has to do with identity. One of the things that seperated Banjo-Kazooie from Mario 64 was the sense of adventure. The plot, setting, characters and objectives, while whimsical and ridiculous, were an important part of the experience. Yooka-Laylee was attempting to mimic that type of game and in moving to a sidescrolling platformer with the sequel, this was something that could have easily been lost, but the overworld sections help ensure that that hasn't happened. It still feels like it has the same DNA and is part of the same lineage of games as Banjo and the original YL, because it maintains a sense of adventure. I really like that, even if it isn't unproblematic from a gameplay cohesion angle and hope the series always integrate that identity, regardless of what genre it moves towards.
Speaking of cohesion there's some smaller things I feel could be done differently or communicated better, like how the colored pick up guys (don't remember what they're called) sometimes have to be touched, but when they're red, jumped on. Smaller stuff like that, but all in all it's an absolutely wonderful game and a must buy for everyone into the genre. For me this isn't about whether it's better or not than Tropical Freeze. It's about celebrating the release of a high quality game in a genre I love dearly.
