Jak and Daxter - How to Build Intrigue 

This trilogy has to be the most underrated Sony property........people are all about Demon's Souls, Bloodborne and Ratchet, which are all awesome, but these games deserve recognition as well.

For me Boggy Swamp made me feel the loneliest. It feels so bleak, especially when you come across the empty docks and the open ocean. It makes you feel like its just you and Daxter and the immersion there always gets me.

I still remember me when I was like 8 years old, playing Jak 2 for the first time, and when Jak just straight up shouts “I’m gonna kill Praxis” I was in complete shock that he could actually talk

I'm so glad there's still Jak fans out there like yourself. This video was excellent. Keep up the good work dude.

I never understood why people hated the fact that Otzels are the precursors, It just fits in the world. And the fact that Mar is said to be Jak and that he and Daxter saved the world is just even cooler.

Great video. I can relate to the connection to Jak. As a kid playing The Precursor Legacy I always liked to emulate Jak's athleticism and sense of exploration. I still do. For me I think my favorite atmospheric part of J&D was Rock Village. Just walking in from high up the mountain and looking down on the decking with the somber music playing is just straight up kino. It's so good you wish it was a real place that you could sit down at and have a drink while appreciating the pretty water and grass. Beautifully combines fantasy and real world elements. I think what makes these games so special is that they really grew up with the player. Not many other games can say they've done that. That and the genius work by Andy Gavin and the world building team really made for a seamless and unique experience that still resonates with players to this day. I have to replay with the music off now!

I think the thing I loved most about jak 1 was the aesthetic. It was vibrant and colorful, diverse and seasonal, and the freedom to just go out and explore, hop, slide, roll, drive etc made it everything to me back then. The graphics hold up to this day, imo. Especially the HD collection. The music was soothing too. Idk it was just a vibe man, a beautiful platform adventure game. Jak 2 is the best though haha

good video! i wanted to state something about jak's development. In jak 1 it showed us jak's childhood innocence making him more cute appearing and seeing his eyes were bigger and more shiny. But when jak 2 starts and they show him get tortured for 2 years. you see the impact and his drastic change. His whole demeanor is different and more mature and angry. At the end of jak 2 you see him saying farewell to his child version. (i think this is a metaphor for saying he became mature and he is no longer a kid). In jak 3 he finds his balance and he becomes the final stage of what a character like him should become. I found it all really intresting as a kid how jak got from a happy outgoing child to a groomy darker and mature person, in only 2 years time. (but what mustve felt like decades cuz of all the torture he went through.)

I agree with you about this. TPL is definitely my favorite, but I still appreciate 2 and 3. I think the reason is that TPL WANTS you to 100% it, while in Jak 2 and 3 it felt like an afterthought. You can’t get everything in one go like you could in TPL and that’s something I really enjoyed.

I love how passionate you are about this game series. Keep doing you, man. Great stuff.

Mars tomb is like my favorite game dungeon ever

Even as a kid, I always wanted to learn more about the world in TPL. It always felt so cool to me to go to places like the jungle temple or snowy mountain and look at the world from high above, seeing all of the locations that I had previously visited. It always gave me this sense of wonder and mystery about the world Jak was in, and being able to see the other levels in the game from far away always made the world feel huge and like you were actually a part of it.

The additional characters, interactions, and social interplay made Jak II more immersive for me.

My love for the first game is similar but completely different to what you've been saying. I think the best way to explain it is an existential feeling of the breakdown of reality, on the characters end, I've always been enamoured by game design and I think part of that can be traced back specifically to my early days playing Jak 1. Both for the feeling of connection to the world and immersion, which is a feeling I barely ever experience mind you, but with how the character would feel about witnessing the cracks in their world. One of the most impactful moments in my life was my introduction to the void, what's outside the player boundaries, not only did I learn games are flat 2D shapes arranged into 3D environments but I also saw what could be explained as a bottomless pit. In the real world if we were to fall we'd die, I personally have a phobia of heights, but the void in games evoke another feeling. The part of my brain which is curious to what could possibly be beyond what I can never see the end of, and how games aren't the same as our reality and is just what designers place inside it, apart from that it's empty space, the only thing real to the characters at any given moment is a thin layer between them and the existential knowledge that their world is just a stage play. I've been playing Jak 1 again in the same kind of way, challenging myself in order to find cool ways it breaks it's own rules and shows the fact it's a game. I do enjoy some of the things you've mentioned too, I also love world-building and the small intricate details that make the world feel alive, Jak gets even more points for being one of the first to instill that feeling (Ratchet 1 was first) so Jak 1 for me would have to be one of the most important for ticking all my boxes, or maybe it's the reason I have these boxes. Whenever I walk on the precursor metal it sounds kind of hollow, which is cool because it's of how long it's lasted, it makes me curious to how it created and to just how durable the metal is. I've always felt that the Blue Sages device that lifts the boulder just concentrates the power of the blue eco, not that the eco powers it, blue eco has always properties that help it move objects, be it magnetise blue, green eco, flies and orbs, but it also seems to make objects levitate, like bridges and platforms. What I think is going on is the machine needs to concentrate the beam because usually it moves precursor metal and eco, so it needs more juice to move something it's not used to moving. Another example is the beam in the final boss, it's concentrated because the workload of opening the silo's is just too much for a normal beam. One cool thing I found in LPC, you know the cell that requires you to activate a button and jump over three platforms above electric water, while jumping up you actually get a glance of the cell above the chamber, I checked there's literally a hole carved into the terrain so you can get a glance of the orb, there's no reason, the cell is in the room after the slide section but it just shows how committed they were to giving the player a feeling of discovery and also how tight LPC is designed. Thank you for reading my TED text, this video was great and really taps into a type of design not being use all too often.

Man I would love to see you make an in-depth video covering the metal heads alone, their origin, their motive, what the gems in their heads are about, and their involvement with the world and the ecosystem

We need to go back in time. I've always wanted to see the Blue and Yellow sages help build and protect Haven. I imagined the Yellow sage having his last stand with his gun was the original inspiration for the Beam Reflexor. Hillbilly ricochets for days!

Man your channel is pure gold, keep up the awesome work. It's unbelievable that I've found someone that's just as passionate as I am about this series (I actually think that you're even more passionate than me since you started a channel about it ahahah)

Awesome analysis. I feel the same way in the sense that I have a personal connection to Jak. Funny story; when I was a little kid, after playing Jak 1 I covered my hands in bandaids, I guess to simulate Jak's hand wraps and told my mom "I'm Jak!". I found it really powerful when you put that section of the game in without music. I've never actually played the game without music, but you can feel the shift in tone without it. Although I love the music, when we take it away, it reminds me of Dark Souls. As cliche as that is, one of the strongest parts of Dark Souls is worldbuilding. In similar ways, they build atmosphere without the music (except in boss fights). What a great thing to consider. Nice vid!

Glad I’m not the only one that still loves Jak and Daxter. I would absolutely love a remaster like the N.Sane Trilogy, especially since I’m a PC gamer nowadays. I got into this series because of the HD Collection, which released when I was in 4th grade. I’m 18 now so it all adds up, but when I mention that everyone calls me a wee baby. Jokes aside, this series has a massive connection with me and if we never get another one or at the very least a remaster I would still be happy because what we got was already so fantastic.

That time travel theory for the end of Jak 3 is something I've never considered before, and I've been a Jak and Daxter fan since I was a kid. I haven't played Jak and Daxter in a while, but this video does remind me of the great world that Naughty Dog built and left behind for us to enjoy.

4:34 I resonate so hard man I remember seeing it in the store and I fell in love with the box art! I honestly bugged my mother for months to buy me the Precursor Legacy. When it came on sale at a local store for $15 she bought it for me and I fell in love!!

Great video work. You mentioned all expect 1 thing. Eco is jak 2 and three. I loved how this eco life energy was naturally taken to other uses like weapons, tech and other in future. All different eco gave always different type of effect. Great video nonetheless

100% the precursor legacy when I was a kid on the ps2, did it on ps3, then again on ps4. Definitely one of my all time favorite games

I remeber as a kid i could never beat these games but i always had fun exploring places and makin my own stories in the world.

Holy shit, same! I've always wanted to be jak since I played those games

Extremely underrated bro

1:13 the style of Kira here is how they should be doing the style of the next game if they are going to release one.

Thank you for this video, it’s excellent. I guess there is no way of describing the love I have for the trilogy and x, but I think all of us Jak and Dax fans know exactly how we all feel, these games are special to us.

I love J&D so fkn much and I'm so grateful to have found this channel.

Can’t believe I’ve never seen one of your videos before, awesome work. Gonna go binge watch the rest of your stuff now

In my opinion, it was a good direction for Jak II because he was in another time he didnˋt knew, it wouldnˋt be so good to learn so much about the past when you are in the future, they couldˋve tried to focusing on the futuristic world theyˋve created and wanted to show the history of the precursors in sequels

I swear to god everytime i hear Jak related content/descussions always makes me sad seeing how After 2 All jak games cept X were mediocre and the series is now dead and will never make a return, Jak 2 has some of the best story and plot ive ever seen in any game ever, the charaters are great too

Great video. Precursor Legacy was my very first PS2 game.

I think they all feel like adventures tbh

The reason ashlins line at the end 'doesn't make sense' is because she represents the audience based on the information so far. She is as unsure as we are about who 'Mar' is, but willing to entertain the possibilities and it's intentionally vague throughout the game to facilitate this wider potential of implied background events in the lore. same applies to jak entering / not entering the precursor ship. it's supposed to seem like both potentialities occurred / could occur

6:26 I agree there's a lack of interaction for the two best friends and main characters. And the thing is I don't even think the developers needed to dedicate cutscene time to help the problem. The in-game dialogue banter should have been expanded greatly, even into a system. Is there even any of it in the sequel games? Other than the characters like Ashelin and three mercs. In TPL it's just Daxter that speaks and it's very limited, you can also turn it off as game hints. But it's cool! Hearing Jak and Dax commenting on the missions and riffing on enemy chaos jetboarding and stuff would be awesome! The whole in-game dialogue thing is big in a lot of games nowadays, and sometimes it's great.

Jak and Toby were my heros too😭

I love this video so much. I could NEVER figure out why I loved these games so much.

I just bought the collection on ps4 and man this game is even better than I remember. Really stands out among other collectathons. Great content man I'm not sure how you got in my recommended but I love the lore of this story

I love this game to bits even though the game came out the year I was born

14:30 Half life... I actually never considered that Jak did indeed walk into the ship and went with them, but time traveled back as well.

I'm actually play through them all again right now 😄 Great Video though, you're good at what you do.

Love this game series and love this channel

Eu realmente amei o seu canal, é tão bom ver que existem vários fãs assim da série Jak como você, esse vídeo está muito bom! E sim, tem um brasileiro vendo seus vídeos (Well, that's the englis version:) I really loved your channel, it's so good to see how rly exist fans of the Jak series like you, this video is amazing! And yes, you have a brazzilian watching your videos

4:30 "This is somethin' else."

Solid breakdown. Good video.

I also wish there was more for us to see about the precursors. Like I really wish there was another entry in the series like the first one between it and Jak 2. The humble nature of basic farmers discovering and trying to scrap together an understanding for the whole world and the ruins of unimaginably powerful and face-less makers. Beings and purposes so alien that you can't even make sense out of their architecture or the ever-shifting vaguely creature-like anatomy it inhabits, does it depict them or something else? I loved it while that lasted.

The Dark Chronicle clip 😍😍

I loved these games so much as a kid, I wanted more than anything for the story to continue. Ratchet and clank kept going ( Fans of the game well remember the poster of Jak and Daxter in ratchets apartment, in going commando) We even found a precursor egg in the first Uncharted game ( Got me SO amped up for a new Jak and Daxter ) but nooooooo ... They scrapped it... For “The lost of us”. Which I’ll be it was a good game, (not good enough) But I would trade so much for things to have turned out different.

I’m definitely playing through jak 2 and 3 come summer. Need to relive that part of my child hood and tie the loose ends of the story

Man this game rocked

thank you! i totally vibe with this, i love PCL

in all honesty I wanted jak 4 so bad but it wouldn't be the same there'd be no way to make a run off story make sense after jak 3 even if the OG team got behind it,, they kind of wrote the end to jaks story in 3, I've taken so many thoughts on this and what would even be cool to see in a story that would explain a lot of untied knots in the series. what I would love to see now, would be an entirely fresh start from maybe a more peaceful start such as jak and Daxter TPCL. a mild but still threating foe that jak and Daxter face in a new exploration of the world that's home to them. and maybe even something funny at the end where its the otsel precursors playing a trick on jak to test and see if he's still fit to be the hero he is.

Jak was always my favourite video game character and Eric Bana's Hulk was always my favourite comic book character

Think it’s time for the jam and daxter makers to do some more

Jak 2 still has a little of that immersive evironment, but Jak 1 had more

You put tears in my eyes.

Loved this

I believe Jak is THE Mar... There are some moments that point to it, but, since it's left so vague, it's left up to debate. But the simple fact that you can imagine a game where Jak goes back in time and creates the city and everything we see in Jak 2 (mainly), is just awesome.... I wish we could have a game like that.... Ahhh......what could have been

This game was a pure master piece .. gaming will never be the same again unfortunately. Remember when you had multiple games with dope storyline and that gaming didn't mean buying 2k21 and the new Cod and play the same game for a 3 years straight lol

Need a petition to make a new one

Awesome video

It's simply amazing how Naughty Dog went from this to the Last of Us Part 2!!!

This was the first game I completed 100% well 101%

Had the same experience. There are so mant details and sound effects so easily looked over. Naughty dog always takes such heart into building their worlds. I loved each of the games Jak 2 has always been my fav. Love the even smaller details of the precursors made me obsessed with playing the first game and second and comparing the dialogue. The first precursor oracle you talk to in the first game kinda alludes to you becoming dark Jak in the future. Just watched it over again and it was the oracle from Rock Village not Sandover. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Qp-W9YjPM-4.html

Dude what a great game, I’ve been wishing for a 4th or remake of the originals.. hopefully one day!

AKCHUALLY... the eco was lifting the boulder, if you jumped into the beam you got fully charged with blue eco.

4:29 How'd that get in there?

oh ym god yes I 100% agree

i feel the same way bro

You say Jak and Daxter really didnt interact in Jak 2 and Jak 3? I disagree.. Jak has always been somewhat quiet and Daxter always acted as Jaks voice. All of the missions were basically Daxter doing all the talking and showing bravado while Jak was still learning to find his voice. Communication was hard for him at first, and it definitely showed when he and Keira were not able to communicate properly and misunderstood eachother during the racing missions. Jak always knew when Daxter would take things too far, and tried to act as a rational voice of reason.. I do wish we would have gotten more development of Jaks relationship with himself though.. and coping with his dark side.

The first game is the best by far

agree com,pletely ive always love jak series and always pissed me off how ikt wasnt as popular has rat with gun with bad story and awesome charaters and gameplay

Lol I played all of jak 1 collected everything deleted the file to do it again , then realized if not make a Jak 4 at least a re mastered jak 1 would be awesome..🙏

Talk about Jack’s and dexter the adventurer talk with the other characters from Jack one including the leader of the rebellion and Keira‘s dad and Keira her self if you make a con book about Jack and asked her to make a complete game we played a separate character in the Jack and Dexter universe of the Jack next to World or Seaside Haven city

Me too bro Jak that boy

They throw away all that build up in the 3rd game with the shitty "precursors are ocelots" joke reveal This was some shit they came up with 2 weeks before animating the cutscene. I hate when writers cant come up with a satisfying answer, so they do a shit joke

I had this in "watch someday" for month, finally sat through. . And you are right, we will be debating The Mar thing for the rest of time. . . . . Although I have a pretty strong stance, supported by unused script ideas, unused voice files, logic, and deduction.

What game is that 5:18?

If you ever need any new background music, I'd love to supply some 😉🤣

Grew up playing these games and still love them! Just replayed through 1 and 2 and playing through 3 now lol but for me at least i think the sequels are more immersive cuz i hated he “wandering around” aspect of the first one...the talking to someone before a mission is way more immersive for myself at least lol

Man naughty dog really screwed up by not continuing this series. They didn’t have to give the game a more realistic aesthetic but keeping the same style like ratchet and clank throughout the years would’ve been perfect. Just better graphics and better worlds.

Jak 4

My question is if they can still sell ratchet and clank games why no Jak?

didnt even mention the lost frontier smh

“There’s never a point where you’re left wondering ‘how did this happen,?’ And the game says ‘because of eco’” *side eyes white eco at the end of the game*