He's right though. I have seen nothing so far in this thread to indicate that this is going to be any better than Yooka-Laylee. If anything, it looks much worse.
I've played the demo, and it has potential. But there's a lot of things wrong with it. The music is great, really captures the feel of the era, and the kazoo on tranquil treeline is a work of art. But even PTSDcat and Shitbird had good title music. The voice acting is also pretty good. Nothing exceptional but satisfactory.
The character models and animations have absoutely no personality. The fan/concept art such as in >>14194298 >>14194874 do, so the character concepts themselves are solid, but the actual models, animations and environments look bland as all hell. You gotta add some cartoonish exaggeration to their movements. has a little with those dramatic arm swings but it's impossible to actually see in game. In game he runs like a 45 year old man trying to shoo kids off his lawn which is a pretty good metaphor for the genre. Consider swaying the arms wider and having him hunch his back down in a real "linebacker" sorta pose; it would also go perfectly with his letterman jacket. It also doesn't help that his glasses are see-through from the back, making him go from jock to nerd in first person.
Secondly, you gotta work on the eyes. Eyes are the biggest subconscious indicator of "personality" in the human psyche, it's why weebs spend so much time drawing that part over the rest. Even in the case of Anton with his shades, you can do better. Consider making them sharper/pointier/bigger/farther reaching from his head. Consider giving him eyebrows so that he can convey basic eye-based emotions like surprise. You could also make him the silent "actions speak louder than words" kinda guy, but I'd advise against that because his extroverted attire says he's the exact opposite.
Also consider making his jacket a bit brighter, and maybe adding more to his outfit like shoes or straps or something. Could also make his fur a bit brighter/darker so that he's not emulating a beige envelope. Could do something with his tail to get parallel action lines with his snout/tail.
Anton looks really, really boring in every conceivable way is my point. Coolpecker is a bit better but still room for improvement.
The levels themselves aren't much better. I see massive, open areas of just completely wasted space. Remember Dunkey's review of Banjo and why he liked it. Remember why YL's level design failed. I know these are just test levels, but they don't send good messages about your level design philosophy.
Maybe the game's just not far enough along yet, but it's certainly got a long way to go. I almost want to help just so that you faggots don't ruin my Nepalese wind-chime discussion forum by associating it with a massive flop that echoes everything we've complained about for so long.