it's been sitting in my steam library, unplayed, for over a year. hylics 1 had been sitting in my steam library - also unplayed - for about the same time. a lot of weird indie game devs get to eat because of me.
I highly recommend hylics 2 over hylics 1. Hylics 1 was an rpg maker product and it's pretty rough, hylics 2 has it's own engine and is a pretty polished experience in comparison.
I usually don't enjoy earthbound style JRPGs but this one was fun. There are some unavoidable platforming sections, but you don't have to explore the entire area when you enter them. You'll just get a few powerups and items.
Platforming is a decent chunk of it, both inside the sidescrolling section and within the isometric world-exploring parts of the game. You can use a keyboard but I usually use Joy2Key and map something to my controller, makes those sections more accessible.
It's definitely a vehicle for the art style, but I do enjoy the game itself.