User blog:TyrantRex/TyrantRex's Jak and Daxter Log

I've been planning to make this one for a while now, but getting the game was harder than expected. BUT now that I got it let's do this. This are my thoughts on Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy!

Originally I was planning to make a Jak 1 log then a Jak II to compare them, but since it took so long to get this game I ended up playing and finishing Jak II in the mean time. Instead, I'll write a more traditional "review" of Jak II after finishing this. I'll also compare this game to Banjo-Kazooie, which I think anyone who played Banjo and Jak would agree is reasonable.

First Impressions
Holy INSERTDEITYNAMEHERE this game looks absolutely gorgeous! Even without HDMI the game looks amazing, it's so colorful and pleasing to the eye (and when I get to Jak II you'll see why that's a big deal). Even by today's standards this game still looks great. The draw distance is also impressive, anything you see in the background you'll eventually reach later in the game. The music's also good but not exactly memorable like Ratchet & Clank, it's more ambient like.

And then there's of the big unique thing Naughty Dog made for Jak: The complete lack of Loading Screens. It really does work! Transition from level to level is completely seemless, if the music didn't change you wouldn't notice you entered a new level in the first place. And even when you have to ride a boat or take an elevator the screen doesn't fade out or anything so it's still completely seemless. The only exception is when you use a portal and those are there only for fast travel. And considering this game came out in 2001, that makes it even more mind-blowing that Naughty Dog did this THAT early into the PS2's lifespan and on their first game on the console.

If there's one part of the presentation that's aged badly however, it's the character models. They're bad. Period. Especially Daxter, his mouth is huge and his eyes look painted over rather than rendered. It's also rather dissapointing that Jak is a mute character, he also looks cooler in Jak II. Long story short, the presentation is amazing aside from the character models.

Controls and Tutorial
Jak is quite easy to control and he's quite competent in platforming. He has two attacks: Punching and Crash Bandicoot's spin attack (not kidding it's the exact same). One thing that really helps for platforming is that spinning after a double jump essentially gives you a triple jump. My only two issues with the controls are that the punch is basically useless because the Spin attack is far superior and the double jump could be a bit better.

Eco is quite fun to use, you pick up an Eco blob to get a powerup depending on the color for a limited time. For example Blue Eco gives you extra speed and activates mechanisms so often they challenge you to pick up Blue Eco and reach a switch or platform before it wears off. One really dumb design choice though, you have to collect 50 green orbs to restore ONE hit point. No need to explain why that's stupid right?

The tutorial stage is rather short but it's good for showing how the basics work. The tutorial has 4 Power Cells (a.k.a. Power Stars), if you forgot to do one of them you can't leave which I think that's a good way to show the player that you should explore everything because you could forget an objective in the regular levels. There are also a few Precursor Orbs (a.k.a. coins) that you can miss though. There isn't much to the main village, just a few NPCs that give you missions and offer to sell you Power Cells for Precursor orbs.

Sentinel Beach
Now for the main game. The structure is mostly the same as Banjo Kazooie, each level is an open area with several objectives you can clear in any order you want, when you clear them you get a Power Cell/Jiggie/Star, and you need a certain amount of Power Cells to unlock more levels to progress through the game. Each level also has a certain amount of Precursor Orbs/Notes/Coins that you also need to collect. The main difference from Banjo is the notes/orbs; in Banjo you need notes to unlock doors in the main hub, in Jak orbs are only used to buy more Power cells so there's less need to collect them. I think this was a smart idea, one of the main problems with collect-a-thons is that you often have to walk around in circles for an hour looking for that last item you can't find anywhere. By making orbs stricly a currency this problem will only ever happen if you want 100% completion (which I do).

ANYWAYS, this first level's pretty good. The area is quite small so you won't have much trouble finding the Power Cells and there's no bottomless pits. Most Power Cells only require you to find them somewhere on the map. There was also a mission I couldn't complete yet so I guess there's some backtracking  required. Overall this first level is easy to complete and is a good way to get used to the general mechanics in a relatively safe way. I also like how each level has 7 Red boxes, breaking all of them rewards a Power Cell just like how Jinjos work in Banjo.

My favorite mission was the one where you punch a Pelican to make it spit the Power Cell then you have to reach it before the pelican swallows it again which took a few tries but wasn't frustrating.

Forbidden Jungle
This level was okay I guess, but the area was also small and by extensio, short. One thing I liked is that it has the first mini boss, the boss was very easy. Also turns out that one of the missions in this level activates a blue Eco vent needed to fully complete Sentinel Beach. There was also this annoying fishing mini game that you need to complete to get access to Misty Island, in a way it does make sense because that way you'll visit at least one level before going to the third level.

If there's something I certainly noticed, while Banjo has an upbeat charming tone with energetic music, Jak has a more relaxing tone with ambient music most of the time. Honestly, I like this.

Misty Island and Fire Canyon
This one was a significant improvement form Forbidden Jungle. For one thing the level does have some bottomless pits, more enemies, and the entire area is basically a big platforming section which is good. Glad to see some actual increase in difficulty considering the first two levels were so easy. It's also the first time you get to use Red Eco, it gives you extra strength but that's kinda pointless since most enemies already die in one hit. Another cool touch is that you go back to the Dark Eco pit that turned Daxter into an ottsel, I HAD to jump into itto see what happens; you just die. Bleh.

The most noteworthy thing about this level was the section where you ride a zoomer over water. I had a brief PTSD moment when I saw thing considering how WONDERFUL those freaking things control in Jak 2, but to my surprise the zoomer handles MUCH better in this game. That does bring a question though, why do the cars control so bad in Jak 2 if they controlled just fine in the prequel?

Speaking of the Zoomer, the first mayor goal is to obtain enough Power Cells so you can ride the Zoomer over a volcanic path so you can reach the next village. Basically, you have to get to the other side of the canyon while avoding obstacles and grabbing cooler ballons so you don't overheat and explode. I thought this would be annoying, and I did die many times, but (again) surprisingly it was fun and never frustrating. Also MAYOR Crash 3 flashback here, specifically the Jet Ski levels.

Precursor Basin
Huh, I did not expect a level to be explored entirely with the Zoomer. At first glance that might sound annoying and tedious, but like I said before the Zoomer controls WAY better than in Jak 2, and let's be serious if you can beat the racing missions in Jak 2 you can beat this level with no problem.

The ONLY missions that gave me a bit of trouble was the one where you chase moles into their tunnel because the AI's behavior is very random but it still was quick enough that I didn't mind that much. Another thing, there are two missions that can't be played until you talk to an NPC at the village, a weird choice but not a big deal.

Also, I really liked the scenery of this level, it's a lost of abandoned ruins in a large grass field.

Lost Precursor City
This is hands down the best level so far. For starters it's the best setting, an underwater city similar to an aquarium, has the best soundtrack no doubt, for once enemies can't just be punched right away, and it's the first level to have a few puzzles (easy puzzles but still). But more importantly, the entire level is a group of chambers each with platforming challenges, easily the most amount of platforming in any of the levels so far. Jak's moveset works well with platforming so makes sense that the level with more platforming would be better.

The platforming itself is also well done and not overly punishing. There are two slide sections which were okay and I liked how one of the chambers raises from the water to both give you the Power Cell and reach a small island with precursor orbs on the village. There was also a section where a pit of Dark Eco starts raising and you have to ecape before getting drowned by it, basically an alteration of the chase sequences from Crash.

Very good level, very good. Oh, and I happened to get all the Power Cells and Orbs on my first visit.

Boggy Swamp
Yet another fantastic level, though I'm not sure if better than Lost Precursor City. This level introduces Yellow Eco, which allows Jak to shoot projectile attacks so of course the it is the main gimmick of the level. What I really liked though is that the level relies a lot on using Yellow Eco followed by Blue Eco to collect out of reach stuff in quick succession and I think it was done well. There was also a brief section where you ride a bird-like creature that was born in Sentinel Beach, kinda similar to the Babyrex from Crash 3 which was nice.

The most noteworthy thing of this level is how linear the level design is, there's plenty of small branching paths but they're all short and go back to the one main path for you to follow to do each objective. And you know what? I liked that. The linear design meant there was way more platforming challenges and overall it reminded a lot of a Crash Bandicoot level, albeit longer and not as corridor like. Come to think of it, why do people immediately demonize linear level design?

There was a dumb turret minigame but it was short lived and I beat it in one try so nothing to complain there.

I'm really surprised that so far I've played 6 main levels so far and ALL of them have been well done and fun and not tedious. We'll see if the game can keep this up.

Mountain Pass and finally some plot
First major boss in the game. It was an okay boss, the pattern was easy to figure out but it's easy to die if you're not careful. Once again, it relied on using both Blue and Yellow Eco. I thought after the boss I would just go to the next village but turns out there's another Zoomer mini-level. I'm surprised at how much the zoomer gets used in this game but thankfully riding the Zoomer is actually fun.This time the goal is to reach the end where the enemies have a bomb detonator before they do, essentially it's a race. It was fairly challenging since you have to frequently collect Blue Eco to speed up and there are plenty of dynamite barrels on the way so you can't drive recklessly and I welcome a level that's actually challenging.

I thought the third "hub" would be another village but turns out it's a volcanic crater? Weird, you'd think that would be a level. Either way here the villains that I honestly forgot existed show up again and explain their totally evil plot of taking over the world because they're evil like every other old-school platformer villain. Also now I know why Daxter remains an ottsel, because the sage that can fix him is the main antagonist.

Did you know that the Spider cave has spiders?

Spider Caves that have spiders
I must say, there weren't that many spiders in the spider caves that have spiders. Redundant redundancy aside, I did some digging online and apparently the general opinion is that this is one of the more annoying levels in the game and...yeah I can see why people would say that, there are plenty of bottomless pits, vertical platforming where you can fall down and have to climb all the way back up, and a dark room with limited light. But honestly... I didn't find this level annoying at all, in fact, I really liked it.

It thinks it's beyond clear by now that I like when the game throws more platforming sections and this level had lots of them. With Jak's moveset and how effective his double jump spin is I even managed to take a few shortcuts in the construction area that seems to give people trouble. Besides, compared to the stuff they expect you to do in Jak 2 this really wasn't that hard. Challenging yes, but NOWHERE as punishing as Jak 2.

If there's one mission I wasn't a fan of, it was the one where you shoot some enemies in first person mode, I already suck at first person shooting and you have a time limit before having to pickup more Yellow Eco. But that was just a minor nitpick and overall this was a really solid level and a very welcomed increase in difficulty.

Who puts a snowy mountain right next to a volcano?

Snowy Mountain and Lava Tube
Long time ago I was told about a legendary game where there's no frustration or tedium. Could Jak and Daxter be the chosen one (at least for me)? Well, considering how close I'm to finishing the game, it may just be!

A LOT of Snowy Mountain reminded me of the snow levels from Crash 2 for fairly obvious reasons. And if there's one thing people remember Crash 2 for it's the ice physics. And while they aren't that bad here it's clear that Naughty Dog still needed more practice. Luckily Jak can reduce his momentum with the Punch Attack and there aren't that many Ice sections.

Turns out there was a mission in this level I needed to do to be able to fully complete the Spider Cave with Spiders so I guess I should've played this level first. Ooops, oh well it only took like 10 minutes to backtrack. Another thing to point out, there were four Precursor Orbs buried under snow that were impossible to see. HOW was anyone supposed to find them?! I happened to run into them by pure accident so I guess I was lucky there. Oh and also, this level looks asbolutely gorgeous at night and the sountrack was so good.

The Lava Tube was the final Zoomer section, and by far the best one. It's the most challenging one but it makes up for it by having CHECKPOINTS  Take notes Jak II!!! There were also several sections where you use Yellow Eco to destroy obstacles on the way, another thing I found to be a really smart choice was to put all the Precusor Orbs in the first section of the level so you don't have to worry about them in the harder sections.

Alright, the final level's next, I got 95 Power Cells and 1800 Precursor Orbs... next time is the final boss and 100% completion because of course! ...I wish it wasn't though, because that means the game will end soon.

Gol and Maia's Citadel and Final Boss
You know that feeling when you beat a game, and as soon as the credits end you immediately consider starting a new save file? THAT is when you now you really enjoyed a game.

The final level was excellent and surprisingly tough compared to the rest of the game, the final boss was cool albeit kinda easy (only took two tries), the ending was nice, and the 100% completion ending does make Jak 2's opening make sense.

This game... just... I'll post my full thoughts tomorrow.