its mostly for different reasons its not a bad game just a very rushed game feels more like a knee jerk response to the criticisms of jak 2 instead of evolving things u could say this game feels more like dlc for jak 2
@@ProjectRedfoot My big bro was the reason I was a fan too! He bought Jak 3, and played it but then he never touched it for years. That’s when I decided to play it out of boredom. After that we both became hooked and I bought Jak 2 then TPL, and then Jak X. That’s why I say Jak 3 is my favorite because it brought me and my bro into the series. It holds a special place in my heart.
@@Yarharsuperpirate I beat Jak II in hero mode a couple of years ago. That was hell. The on-rails ship-shooting mission was easily the most difficult and took me, I kid you not, around 4 dozen tries.
Jak 3 is most replayable game of the bunch. Jak and daxter is just plain boring/repetitive collecting all the power cells and trying to replay it. Jak 2 is the best game out of the 3 for so many reasons but trying to replay it(hero mode) and finishing it is hard due to the game being the hardest to beat and replay again.
Instead of Erol being the main protagonist they had the perfect opportunity to bring back Gol and Maia since their fate was left ambiguous at the end of TPL and with the plot point of the Precursor Catacombs it would have been the perfect way to bring them in.
That's an ideal for a Jak 4. Devs has stated that they are still alive down in the Precursor Catacombs. They hinted that being down there for years would've caused some warping to their physical bodies. So we probably get something far more than a "Dark" transformation for them as what happened with Jak when he was infused with Dar Eco.
@kidprime6863 That would make a lot of sense, actually. Gol and Maia were shown to have some skills in technology, considering they got a Precursor robot working again in the first game. Maybe them reviving Errol would also be a Dark Warrior 2.0, with Errol's cybernetics stabilizing and giving him his own Dark Eco powers? That way Gol and Maia would have their own counter to Jak.
@@Agent-yw1kj Even so, i would argue that it was much more polished than Banjo Kazooie or other collectathons at the time since the camera in those games is very outdated and i dont like how you have to collect all in one go.
I loved jak 3....1 and 2 were polar opposites and were amazing in their own way, 3 merged the mystical side of 1 into 2, and narratively tied it together. Theyre all perfect to me.
I always thought the Mar reveal was just that the gang didn’t know kid Jack’s real name. But Jak traveling back in time and founding Haven City, while fighting off ancient Metal Heads, sounds intriguing. And yeah, fuck that AshelinxJak scene.
Well, I mean, Damas doesn’t come completely out of nowhere. Prior to the mission’s actual start, Daxter has the bright idea to use the beacon they got as a Mark of their citizenship to Spargus to call for back up. The two never really picked up on how it works however and didn’t realize it was just a beacon sending out a signal to the city. Hence, Damas shows up at that point.
Yeah, I mean it's not like the Wastelanders were just going to show up the moment Jak pressed the button. Plus, I'm sure it took awhile for Damas to get from Spargus to the Palace Ruins in Haven City. All Jak & Daxter had to do was hold out until then.
The plot twist that the Ottsels are the precursors was foreshadowed way back in the first game when Daxter tried to describe what the precursors would have been like in person, it’s not totally for comedic effect though it was surely played off that way
I think some of the weird plot points came from Keira’s voice actor change. Perhaps Anna left and they couldn’t find a replacement in time, so they just cut Keira from the story entirely. But then they decided to put her back in at the last second with Tara as Anna’s replacement. This is why Keira doesn’t say much (or is just there like the first scene when you enter Haven City) and why they chose to have Jak and Ashelin as a romance instead. Not saying it’s true but it’s my theory.
@@greylithwolf Keira and Jak kiss at the end of the game cutscene but it cuts to daxter before they kiss, not sure why they went that route but yeah that's what I can think of at the top of my head
I agree, except when you're forced to use the Dune Hopper for that one mission when you chase down the four Marauder cars. I rage quit at how the Hopper would flip over because of the tiniest desert slope. 😭
I still think they should have continued off the end of three with jak (and friends) going into space with the precursors to help fight the dark makers. Like come on, Jak with space vehicles sounds badass.
My idea was to time travel back before Jak 1 when the sages were using light eco and all sorts of eco but bring all the guns and things they used in jak 3 to the past.
I feel the opposite about 3, I feel it's far more polished than 2. That said I do agree that it does feel off somehow, it feels like a more technically impressive game than 2 but the elements don't make a cohesive whole like they did in 1 and 2. 3 is my favorite but I absolutely see why plenty feel otherwise about it. As a game I find it to offer the most content and with a decent variety, feeling more polished and well put together than 2. However 3's structure and overall design is a lot messier, as J says the pacing is all over the place. I'd call Jak 3 a better game than 2 from a purely gameplay perspective but as a story and an adventure it's kind of a mess. I think Precursor Legacy is so different from 2 and 3 it's very hard to judge it against the sequels so I don't even try.
I feel like it is a more enjoyable and thought-out game in comparison to 2. Felt like they sucked the life out of the series just to capitalize on GTA.
Love Jak 3, but I agree. Story is main reason for me why going into 3 felt off (like WHO the hell is Veger?). We could go into a long tangent of reasons.
OMG Me too! My brother bought it and I’m so glad he did because I instantly became a fan of this series. Jak 3 holds a special place in my heart for that alone.
The Precursors being ottsel is easily one of the best twists I've ever seen in a video game. It ties the series together in a really satisfying way that gives you this incredible eureka moment that I rarely ever get in games these days. Plus Veger is so hateable that seeing him get what he deserves is so satisfying
Kind of a kick to the nuts though. I get the message, and if the second and third games were more in tone with Precursor Legacy, then I think the twist would’ve had a more positive reception.
@@UnifiedEntity I have a theory that they chose this because Keira’s original voice actor left and they couldn’t find a replacement in time until it was too late. It explains her absence in the story and why in some scenes she just stands there with no lines.
@@RhapsodyHC then just don’t do the scene. I do know why they thought having that kiss wouldn’t piss off fans. It’s like if in Sly 2, Sucker Punch had Sly make out with Neyla.
Looking at this game overall; I feel like the goal they had intended with this one was to make it a perfect middle ground of sorts between the first two games. Like everything in terms of combat and puzzle solving remains the same mechanically from Jak II but than you have shit like herding lizards and chasing rats that are just herding animals like in some of the 1st game's missions, stuff like turret sections, ring races that also feel more so in line with that game, hell, the very first mission in Haven Forest is spreading green eco to some plants infected by dark eco which is what you did in the Precursor Basin in the 1st game. All of that combined with the tone of this game trying to strike the middle ground between being light hearted and being serious in tone and that best sums up what I see in the game; an attempt to appeal to fans of the 1st game and the 2nd game alike.
As a child, I really, really didn't like Jak 2 for going so different from Jak 1's tone and gameplay, so that would explain a lot why I still liked 3 enough to still have fond memories of it today - made for me in particular as a middle-ground between the two.
@@ralpbeez8414 but how is it a middle ground? It's more like a mad max style of game. Lost frontier and Daxter are more like middle grounds between Jak 1 and 2
3 is personally my favorite story wise. The whole Haven City at War bit was great. Honestly Jak 2 is my least favorite out of the trilogy. The difficulty got on my freaking nerves and made me rage quit for weeks until I got interested again. Plus, I played The Precursor Legacy first both at 13 years of age when they were newer titles. So going in blind to Jak 2 and finding out the HUGE difference between the two was jarring at first it took me awhile to be actually okay with it. Like hearing Jak speak blew my mind and how dark the story was. Eventually I grew to love it. Then I accepted it for what it was. Jak 3 holds a special place in my heart. It got me through my freshman year of high school haha. Jak X I just consider as a spin-off but I loved it for what it was. I never played the Last Frontier because by the time it came out I was college aged. So I was too busy to actually play it. Jak 2 though I felt they changed the element because shooters were a big thing at the time. Like Ratchet and Clank it had to adapt or die. I loved the Adventure elements of Jak and Daxter but the genre was dying out because of Shooters. If Jak and Daxter came out today it wouldn't sale well because these kids just don't have the attention span for it. They like games like Cuphead fast paced and all over the place. It's a shame honestly but you either truly have to adapt or die in today's Gaming industry.
Jak 3 was my favorite, had some crazy plot twists and felt like a great mix of the first 2 games styles. Also Light Jak was so much fun to use, I loved slowing time to fight and flying was fun.
Jak 3 has its flaws with balance and storytelling but it's still my favorite in the series. I just find it the most fun to play out of all of them. Going through the nice variety of levels with the absolute banger of a soundtrack playing in the background never seems to get old.
What I find fun about the Jak and Daxter trilogy are the different tones that make them distinctive from one another, not unlike the Evil Dead trilogy. The first one is a light-hearted adventure, the second is a darker and edgier dystopian tale, while the third is Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
I may disagree with alot of what you said in this video but I respect your opinion on it. The one thing we can both agree on though, is that the mini-games are annoying and kind of suck at times lol 😆. Also I like being OP, that's what I play games for. You should see some of the mods I install 😏
Jak 3 definitely felt like a "More is better" kind of game in every sense of the word. At first I would say it was my favorite game in the series since it was essentially more Jak 2 with new weapons, an expanded world to explore and just an overall bigger game than it's predecessors. After replaying the game after Jak 2 a couple of years back though, I started seeing a lot of holes in the design that I never noticed beforehand. For instance, I forget who said it but someone else I watched noted that the new weapons introduced in this game seemed to be made with the express purpose of making sure the player didn't have to do much aiming since near every one of them serves as a way to nuke things without having to actually turn and face them. One thing that i've come to appreciate more and more about Jak 2 is how much mileage you get out of the basic 4. It makes the game more tactical in a way and when jumping over to Jak 3 I just felt like they gave you too much with very little improvements to the enemies to make up for it.
I remember watching a video saying Errol could have been much better if he remained Jak's opposite/rival, so instead of becoming of robot from the dark eco crash he should have remained relatively intact but scarred and had a darker form like Dark Jak and so the two opposites clash again.
The Dark Eco is destructive and kills, you're forgetting that and he TRIGGERED AN EXPLOSION, there's no way you're staying intact after that but we see he is mutated, not just wrecked badly.
@@artistanthony1007You're not wrong. They could've just made him a Dark Eco mutant instead of a cyborg. Or maybe both. Why not? The Dark Makers are corrupted Precursors who turned themselves into cyborg mutants, so make him a Dark Maker.
You’re one of the few people to articulate exactly how I feel as well. Despite their differences, Jak 1 and 2 are both masterpieces and I love replaying them 20 years later. Even when I played Jak 3 as a kid in 2004, it felt…less (?) than the first two. Less exciting, more bland? I always replay the first two games but seldom touch the third nowadays. Edit: amazing Herman Melville reference at the end there
I think it's mostly because it lacked challenge. Jak 2 had missions where it was hard af and could take multiple retries, also most enemies could kill you within just a few hits which meant you had to becareful. In 3 though after a few hours of progressing in the story you practically become a God with all the abilities, extra guns, and extra health that you don't really have to sorry about anything other than falling.
@@CerealKiller I honestly don't know what you mean. The gameplay is the most varied of the series. The combat is basic just like jak 2 which really wasn't noticeably more difficult outside of the couple difficulty spikes that everybody used to criticize the game over. And jak 1 is literally one of the easiest games I've ever played and an extremely basic platformer that is mostly bolstered by its charm and advanced animations for the time. Jak 3 had the most to see and do and the most varied gameplay and environments, and toned down the jak edginess slightly from jak 2 where it got a bit embarrassing, while building on that games dark turn of the story in a really interesting way. The vehicles are best and most varied. The game is challenging enough, I don't find any of the sly or ratchet games on ps2 any more challenging and those are the main peers of the jak series from that era to compare it to
3rd installments in a series always have the toughest time, they have to end a story in a way that's satisfying. That's not an easy task for anyone. You could end up with a Rise of Skywalker if you do it poorly. No one wants a Rise of Skywalker.
Okay so honestly i can say one thing: Jak 3 uses dark jak more than jak 2 the advertising mascot for jak 2 is used in jak 3 more than jak 2. The entire series can be analagous for growing up. Jak 1. hopeful optimistic child Jak 2. Dark brooding teen Jak 3. a bit of both growing out of the dark phase. Also i feel as if jak and daxter got more addicted to vehicles as it went on. consider the next game is literally a racing game.
I'd rather Jak 4 (if it does happen) to be "mature adultish". Jak and Daxter head to Kras City, Haven (or the rebuilt New Haven), Spargus, and others to stop Rayn from building an empire now that the Metal Heads have retreated to the mainland wastes and find out she is planning to bring back Gol and Maia in a new Lovecraftian form after stewing in dark eco for centuries
I haven't played Jak 3,I've only played Jak 2 and 1 and I liked Jak 2 more than Jak 1,maybe Jak 3 becomes my favorite like Sly 3 became my favorite in the Sly trilogy.
It is so weird to watch two retrospectives in one day and say almost the opposites about the same game. You thought the story was all over the place, while the other video said that it was the best in the series. I know this doesn't matter because of "opinions are opinions stupid", but nonetheless it intrigues me.
It's a decent game but IMO it was boring mostly because it lacked challenge. Jak basically becomes an overpowered God from all the extra guns, light abilities, extra health from armor etc where it practically breaks the game; most of your deaths will be from falling. Also it lacked the wanted system that Jak 2 had which was a huge highlight of fun from that game. When you shot a guard in 2, the whole city would be chasing after you with guards shooting from the ground and vehicles trying to ram you, but in this one it's completely gone. A huge part of the mayhem in Jak 2 was getting the guards after you
Maybe, but it was also very annoying. The game always punish you when driving in the ground, despite that is the only reliable way of driving without crashing with something. Always when i play this game the guards are constantly chasing me.
it was not disappointing. you youtubers need to stop rewriting history. that game was great and it was the only thing that drew me to a playstation instead of an xbox.
I didn't think it was bad, but I didn't think it was all that great either. He did have some points that some story elements felt off compared to II. Bringing back certain characters, then having them disappear for some time, then randomly popping up out of nowhere, I think the devs could have put more time in the oven but I can understand the founders wanted to hurry up and leave the company.
Just finished Jak 2, so very interested to see if I agree with you when I replay 3! I've only played it once when I was 9, so I have fond memories for now.
For me, Jak 3 is the most replayable of the series. Because the actual difficulty curve is alot more fair. While Jak 2 had difficulty spikes all over the place in seemingly random places. While Jak 3 is far more consistant in its curve even with how broken the beam reflexer is
Jak 1 is the best. I think the magic was lost in the sequels, which i still loved, but as I reflect... there was just something so perfect about the world of the first game that I think "grungifying" ultimately destroyed.
Agreed. I didn’t get into Jak 2 as a kid as was way too big a shift for me. I wish Jak 2 was a sequel like the sequels were in Crash and Spyro (same gameplay and world base but just building on it). Respect the fact that a lot of people love the sequels though maybe I wasn’t old enough for them when they came out.
Yeah Jak 3 felt very dissapointing back in 2004, particularly considering I got 1 christmas gift and this game was it. I had a lot of hype going into Jak 3 and then it never really felt as impactful as jak II. Which is odd becuse a lot of things were improved, but Jak II just had this wow factor. I felt like a total badass. Jak 3 I got way more weapons and vehicles and always felt like.....just a person wandering aimlessly. I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out I was a huge fan of high difficulty action platforming. Jak 3 had less platforming, less difficulty and the story was amazing, it felt like some huge pre planned "bigger than you" story and the new story was just...bet up a councilmn for being mean to you, find out some dude is randomly your dad and the big villain is a C tier villain form the last game.
When Jak 3 eventually gets decompiled, I hope by that point the modding community will have made tons of platforming levels. In my opinion because of how fluid Jak's moveset is, the platforming in these games have always been the best in 3d platformers.
Yea, jak 3 was kinda mid tbh it had memorable moments but it had such an identity crisis that half of them didn't even materialize properly. Im hyped for that jak x review man, don't forget to talk about the osts on that, those songs on it are LEGENDARY.
Undeniably the best of the trilogy. Fixes all the problems from 2 and gives you a ton more toys. The desert fantasy punk aesthetic is also a fantastic touch.
Jak 3 isn't bad but MAN did it feel very disappointing to Jak 2, very rushed and sloppy story, horrible weapon and difficulty balancing, and so many stupid driving and gimmicky missions that felt like they just expanded on the worst parts of 2 and made that most of the game.
every shadow has a light source also the hillarious thing is the sequel to this one isn't the lost frontier it's the car game jak combat racing which has ratchet as a playable character.
Jak 3 is actually my favorite of the series, mostly for the quality of life improvements you mentioned. I especially like the refinements they made to traversal. No longer are you forced to go through massive congestion to get to the next mission, and I love the buggies (the race near the beginning of the game was dull, but at least there's only one). However, I will agree aspects of the plot were messy. I find it odd how the game seems to completely abandon Keira to make Ashelin Jak's love interest (who, in turn, appears to have forgotten about Torn), and the council being too powerful for Ashelin to stop is completely disproven when she dissolves them on a whim later on.
I like the theory that Jak is actually the grandson of the orignial Mar. That there was Mar who created Haven City, then he had a son, Damos, (which would make sense that Damos would be able to become King of the city as well), and then he named his son Mar after his legendary father, whom we know as Jak.
Listening to your analysis it was wild how all your criticism sounds like my complaints with Crash 3 (too many mini games, not enough dope Crash platforming, Crash is too powerful) Yet I’ve never thought that about Jak 3. I guess I like the mini games better in Jak 3? And I never had a problem with the difficulty of Jak 2; I felt OP as shit in that game too once I got the standard blaster. So being more OP just meant I got to do more things in the sequel if I felt like it. Jak 2 for sure had the cleanest story that do be right 😎💯
Jak and daxter and the precursor legacy was my childhood. I remember playing this game everyday restarting the whole thing every time I beat it. The snowy mountain is my favorite area.
For a long time Jak 3 was my favorite of the series, but when I look back I do notice some of the cracks in the design. The game is still one of my favorites and I always enjoy revisiting it, about as much as Jak 2, but nowadays my favorite for the series goes to X. Really fantastic, that one.
@3rd Way the problem is hero mode is still easy in jak 3. the guns themselves just break the game and making the enemies a little spongier doesn’t fundamentally change this. the balancing is far too broken for just some stat adjustments to fix, especially compared to jak 2’s fantastic balancing
@@sebastiankulche jak 2’s hero mode isn’t all that difficult ya, enemies just take a little longer to kill (but ya fuck that one turret mission) but that’s not my point. the difficulty is well balanced both on normal mode and hero, it encourages you to play well but it’s not brutal or anything. jak 3 is a joke whether it’s on normal mode or hero mode
@@CerealKiller the enemies are generally tankier, as in they just take more hits to kill, usually just one or two more hits for normal enemies. for example, the infamous turret mission everyone talks about is only so hard in hero mode because it the crimson guards fly in faster than you can kill them due to their increased health. the players health is the same tho Source: I've played a lot of Jak 2
Alot of the reasons J listed is why I always preferred 2 to 3. I will say I do enjoy 3 over the Precursors legacy because I enjoy the setting and characters of the future more. To Jak 3's credit I do think the vehicles handle the best of the entire trilogy. The precursors twist actually was genius in my opinion a nod to the wizard of Oz.
I think it would have been really cool if Gol returned as the Big Bad of the last game of the trilogy. These videos have been very informative and entertaining! Despite only having played the first game in the series, this is still an IP I am very nostalgic towards, and still respect and admire the games after all these years!
How dare you talk so lowly of that metalhead mission, that one is memorable af and basically your only down side is there's no difficulty setting, other then that it's still not disappointing at all. Your title sounds like a massacre happened when it was a papercut. Disliked for false clickbait.
Btw Jak left in the end.. time travel lol.. oh and the part where Pecker says Mar wore this armor in his battle to defend this planet from the Dark Makers Jak was the one who did that so its a full circle effect 🤝🏽
I grew up with all three games at once, and I think Jak 3 was my favorite out of the the three just because of how accessible it was to me. The relatively low difficulty let me enjoy it to the fullest extent, whereas Jak 2 just kicked the shit outta my 8 year old ass and the OG just didn’t have enough stuff in it to excite me. Still probably my favorite, for nostalgia purposes, but I can 100% agree that story was on some crackhead shit.
One thing I wish you mentioned is that even when taking the OP-ness into account and imposing self-challenges and rules, such as banning the Beam Reflexor or only using the four weapons from Jak II, the combat still fails. Enemy placement in TPL and Jak II was intentional, and that intentionality could be felt in every single combat encounter in each game. Naughty Dog knew which strategy you would employ to take them down. In Jak 3 however, enemy placement feels so arbitrary and random (no doubt a consequence of it being developed in only a year) that no encounter felt designed around a specific Eco or specific weapon, which also adds to breaking the balance of the game given how this compounds every other flaw in the action-platforming flow channel.
Jak 3 proves ND had no further goal with combat after Jak 2, they just tacked on more OP weapons without the proper balancing, shooting mechanics, precision and an upgrade system that actively plays an active role in character progression like RaC.
I agree with you mostly but I still recommend avoiding the OP weapons when you replay the game. It's just less brainless gameplay to actually have to aim your guns LOL and they already give you too much health.
you hit the nail on the head there. last time i played jak 3 i put on the self restrictions of only using the base 4 weapons and not using any healing or shield from light jak and well, it was harder, not that much harder and the difficulty was less consistent, but it also wasn’t fun. enemies are just thrown into an area without care, they aren’t animated like at all when they are idle from a distance, and every encounter just feels like a shooting gallery instead of unique situations that you have to approach tactically and use all of your tools on hand. it’s just fucking sad, every level feels so much more hollow and lacks the memorability of jak 2, especially since there isn’t even dynamic combat music anymore, not a single encounter feels intense
Kinda surprised you didn't mention that depending on if you max out your Dark Powers completely by the end of the game, you actually get a different ending, though not sure what that entails cause... I didn't find enough of the things to do that
Wait, so your videos are just complaining about something for half an hour then telling me it's not that bad? wtf is this concept? I'll make sure not you check your your videos "J".
Yeah but what do ya guys expect for a 2004 game? It's not like they can go back and fix Jak3 and all the criticism when they had a dead line rushing to get the hold Jak and daxter trilogy done, and to be honest I kind of like what they did with Jak3, How Haven city doesn't feel like it's tight area to drive on, and how they improve the game play and how the story actually take some stakes, and improve on dark Jak as in Jak2 you had to keep on grinding to get dark Jak which a lot of people do not give Jak3 credit for, They fix the hold difficulty on Jak3 which every one that had play Jak2 has been complaining about.... Sure it's not 100 percents perfect but it's still enjoyable to go back and play the hold trilogy there are other games out there that's 10 times worst than people complaints on Jak3 that people don't talk about or too blind to see but thats just my thoughts about the hold thing and my point of view of things.
I disagree with the gameplay/ pacing - I'd rather have lots to do than the game just becoming repetitive and boring. Imagine it was ALL just classic J&D platforming... How boring would that be?
It’s literally impossible for Jak to be the Mar who founded Haven City and for the timeline to not have gone insanely off the rails. How can I know? Because the Butterfly Effect is a thing. Ya know, that theory that if you go back in time do something as insignificant as killing a butterfly, you can completely screw over time.
I like to believe Jak was just the descendant of and named after Mar and leave it at that. Saying they're one and the same just screws everything up. I'm not big on the whole "Grandfather Paradox" thing.
I feel like for me it comes down to what jak 2 and jak 3 try to do with the games. I feel as tho much of the gameplay mechanics that they pulled in to the jak series are super played out these days ie. Gun play , driving, mission structure. Jak 3 is the worse offender of 2 and 3 because they tried to account for so many different mechanics and it doesn’t land for me. Revisiting jak 1 nowadays is unbelievably refreshing because it feels fresh whereas 2 and 3 feel played out and like they don’t have enough of what I like about the first game and too much of what I am getting tired of other games doing.
The game design of TPL while relatively simple is straight to the point and an overall evergreen experience (unless someone was already sick of collectathons before playing).
When I was a kid, I played some games from a video rental store near where I grow up and one of them I remember was Jak 3 but for some reason I could never get past the tutorial level. Maybe I was too young to understand how the game works or maybe there was a lot that happened that just was too much to follow. Now that I’m older and have the PS4 collection, I’ve been tempted to give it another chance along with the other main games
For me Jak & Daxter TPL was THE game. I loved it and played it a lot. So as soon as I saw Jak II I was interested in playing it. I wanted to know what was next. Sadly though, I was not expecting a GTA clone. When I was little I just wasn't a fan. I never really liked GTA games nor the clones of them. Here is a city map, go drive here do a mission, drive here and do another. It wasn't exciting for me. It took me years later to pick up the game again and actually finish it. I did like the story but it still left some questions. By then, Jak 3 and Jak X were already out and I had a copy of Jak 3. It did feel short, and it was mostly driving which really felt more like a push though the game just to see the rest of the story I felt I was missing. In the end, yea I did feel like I was let down. It seemed pretty unsatisfying as a whole. I still like the games a bit more know as the GTA style has kind of grown everywhere and finally caught on with me. But I'll always prefer that adventure platforming style of TPL.
Anyone else see this video from an ad under the video you were watching? Weird but ig you gotta run those numbers up so no hate, just new to me seeing a RUclipsr I already watch be an ad.
Even though I did like Jak 3.....it wasn't until we reach Haven City and the atmosphere with Samos and ESPECIALLY Keira....felt off. The Jak and Ashlein romance, I wasn't against but I was like "waaaiit but Keira!!!! They never even get to kiss!!! And Wasn't she into Torn!!!!"
27:30 I think that the main villains of Jak 3 should have been Gol and Maia seeking revenge and to continue their plan to cover the planet in Darkness by working with the Darkmakers, Samos teased their return in Jak 1 so it would have been perfect
Yeah, the Dark Makers are kinda lame. And the Metal Heads were already the Precursors' arch enemies. Should've just been Gol & Maia with the Dark Makers as their minions made out of dark eco. Call them the Dark Spawn. I mean, hey - Dragon Age Origins wasn't out yet! :P
@@ThePreciseClimberYeah that could've worked. But I think the Dark Makers can still work as ancient enemies of the Precursors. Nobody said the Precursors can't have more than one enemy. Besides, not everyone is immune to Dark Eco mutation or corruption. Not even the Precursors.
J, if you consider revisiting Lost frontier please do not play the PS2 port but consider playing it on real hardware, it's a way better game than people make it believe, yes it still have some incredibly stupid things like Dark Daxter but the PS2 port is just atrocious and this applies for "Ratchet Size Matters" and "Secret agent Clank" as well. Played on a real PSP or on a psvita they hold up much better. I never tried them on an emulator but again, in my opinion playing those on real hardware makes you enjoy them way more
I feel a big part of Jak 3's problems are probably also due to being a PS2 game. They had too much to fit and had to scale back and had to replace stuff with the minigames.
Jak 3 is probably my favorite, I’d say the only thing that’s even remotely disappointing about it is that it wasn’t longer. Maybe I’m wrong but Jak 2 felt longer, 3 is a fun ass game and loved the universe and story.
I really enjoy the perspective you have on all three of these games! I grew up playing the Jak and Daxter series (Jak II being the first real videogame I remember playing besides some educational stuff on my grandma's computer), and to this day they're some of my favorites. Jak 2 is my favorite in the series, despite its somewhat harsh difficulty, and I have to agree with a lot of the criticisms you levied toward Jak 3 here. For me as an adult, Jak 3 feels like Jak 2's victory lap, like getting to play a much easier DLC of a favorite game. Especially towards the end, Haven City starts to feel like a playground that I can just use to mess around with the fun stuff like the OP weapons and the Jet Board. It's not one I seek to actively replay, as it doesn't have the same level of emotional weight for me, but it does remind me of when I was a kid, just messing around with mechanics in games because they were fun, not to accomplish any specific goal. I liked transforming into Light/Dark Jak just to transform, and shooting the final form of the peacemaker just to blow things up. All your criticisms here are correct and valid, but if I treat Jak 3 as just being Jak 2's updated expansion, then things like the minigames start to feel a little less stale and a little more fun.
I played each game as they came out, and still Jak 3 is my favorite of the main trilogy. But I get the points you make, and I can agree with a good chunk of them, I just personally prefer it over the others
I have a great fondness for Jak 3 because I finished it before 2, given it's much easier. In retrospect some of the weird ending twists are just baffling and the ricochet gun alone invalidates combat, not to mention the other guns and the massively increased health pool. So now I believe 2 to be much better as a game, but I still love 3 a ton still and I'll play both to death when the OpenGOAL project gets to them. The driving is mega jank, but I like it still (maybe a little stockholm syndrome) and I also remember really liking most of the mini-game stuff. Playing as the giant death robot not-so-much, doing the top-down perspective segment a whole lot. Oh and the Daxter segments too.
I had such warm memories of the Light Jak mode. I would go to Spargus, find the big light eco well they have there, and then park on the well. I’d time stop, slap three people in the face, go back to the light well, and just turn on the shield. Because I was on the light well, I had infinite light eco and could shield forever. Meanwhile, everyone else just shoots each other by accident and a giant civil war brews up, all while I watch from the comfort of my bubble.
The last few times I've replayed the trilogy, I end up dropping Jak 3 in the middle of it. I always it just burnout from completing the other two games right before it, but a lot of your points make a lot of sense and help explain why it's a hard game for me to finish.
I personally love this trilogy as a whole, flaws even withstanding. For one thing, I think 3 had much better balancing in the difficulty department than 2 did. Jak 2 can be one of the most obnoxiously difficult games I've played for what feels like some very wrong reasons. I still like it and think it was a great sequel to its predecessor, but 3 feels far more accommodating/fair with its difficulty. Not necessarily because of how broken in the player's favor the new powers and weapon upgrades are, but rather because of little things like the more frequent health pickups and such. I loved the gun upgrades despite how redundant most of them felt once you got the first and second Blaster upgrades. I liked the idea of traversing the desert with the use of exaggeratedly large and weaponized dune buggies, even if the drives did often feel vapid and time consuming when you weren't doing a mission. Light Eco powers and the new Dark Eco Powers were cool additions. The story had its issues but overall was a good time, though I do agree that the whiplash they give you with how indecisive they seemed in regards to who the star love interest was does NOT sit well with me. It sure ain't perfect but I'd rather play 3 than 2 based solely on how dickheaded 2 gets in places. 3 had a lot of cool ideas but their execution left some things to be desired. Not unlike Megaman X3, ironically enough. Maybe the reason I liked 3 more than 2 was because after how burnt the hell out I was from how relentlessly shitheaded 2 is in many places, 3 felt like a satisfying reprieve. That could also partially be my fault though since the last time I played this trilogy I played them all in rapid succession.
I think Jack 3 being my favorite really shows what my taste in games and story is showing how my brain works. I love games with variety in mini games added on to great main gameplay making the charachters and story bigger because the charachter can do a variety of things and not just known for 1 style of gameplay. I allways saw Jack 3 as the victory lap after all he had been through in 1 and 2 and in my head it makes sense that a hero like him would of course be op in 3. He perfected his platforming and acrobatics in 1 and his more darker side and marksmanship in 2 but in 3 he learns balance, inner peace, and shows he can do more then jump and shoot. Ik that doesn't make the best game or sequel but I just gravitate towards games like these, I guess that's why I also love Conker's Bad Fur Day. Fun short variety minigames are like candy to my ADHD brain lol.
Even if i disagree in... practically everything since i enjoy way more Jak 3 varied gameplay and "easier difficult" to the point of being not able to return to Jak 2, i can respect your opinion. Something i can agree is the story being better in 2, but i still like what 3 has to offer. Im probably the only one who like Veger as a "villian", i always seem him like a very devout obsessed person like almost if it came out from Final Fantasy XD. Idk, i just love the game, and it has some of the best visuals i ever seen in PS2 so something good came from this game that nobody cant deny. At the end of the day it would remain as my favorite game released in 2004 along with Half Life 2. Imo ND never made a dissapointing game.
The only problem for me is the ending. There are still other worlds to save from the Dark Makers. Gol and Maia are still in the Precursor catacombs. If we ever get a new Jak game I hope it's a huge open world.
People didn't like Jak 3? Thats a huge surprise. I love Jak 3.
Jak 3 is awesome. I think most people like it, they just seem to like 2 more
its mostly for different reasons its not a bad game just a very rushed game feels more like a knee jerk response to the criticisms of jak 2 instead of evolving things u could say this game feels more like dlc for jak 2
I loved jak 3 was and still is my favorite
I don’t hate Jak 3 but after finishing it recently, you can really tell this game was rushed
@@TheBlackSamurai2708 it really feels like an admittidly dated response trying to gimp itself because people complained jak 2 was too hard
This was my favorite of the trilogy personally.
Me too! I mean I’m biased because it was the first I played.
@@RhapsodyHC that's understandable.
I respect both opinions, honestly. [I grew-up watching my big bro play Jak 1]
@@ProjectRedfoot My big bro was the reason I was a fan too! He bought Jak 3, and played it but then he never touched it for years. That’s when I decided to play it out of boredom. After that we both became hooked and I bought Jak 2 then TPL, and then Jak X.
That’s why I say Jak 3 is my favorite because it brought me and my bro into the series. It holds a special place in my heart.
@@ProjectRedfoot yeah that one is great too.
Jak 3 is actually the most replayed game of the three for me.
Same for me, Jak 2 is just hard for me to want to go back to due to its all over the place difficulty curve.
@@Yarharsuperpirate I beat Jak II in hero mode a couple of years ago. That was hell. The on-rails ship-shooting mission was easily the most difficult and took me, I kid you not, around 4 dozen tries.
@@Yarharsuperpirate well the story is shorter. Maybe that's why? It ended to soon.
Jak 3 is most replayable game of the bunch. Jak and daxter is just plain boring/repetitive collecting all the power cells and trying to replay it. Jak 2 is the best game out of the 3 for so many reasons but trying to replay it(hero mode) and finishing it is hard due to the game being the hardest to beat and replay again.
same. its very well balanced and the missions have so much variety. Great game!
Instead of Erol being the main protagonist they had the perfect opportunity to bring back Gol and Maia since their fate was left ambiguous at the end of TPL and with the plot point of the Precursor Catacombs it would have been the perfect way to bring them in.
That's an ideal for a Jak 4. Devs has stated that they are still alive down in the Precursor Catacombs. They hinted that being down there for years would've caused some warping to their physical bodies. So we probably get something far more than a "Dark" transformation for them as what happened with Jak when he was infused with Dar Eco.
Yeah, Erol is not all that great a villain. They really should have brought back Gol and Maia as the Dark Maker leader or something.
@@NRF3703 Or at least have Erol brought back as their second-in-command or something
@kidprime6863
That would make a lot of sense, actually. Gol and Maia were shown to have some skills in technology, considering they got a Precursor robot working again in the first game. Maybe them reviving Errol would also be a Dark Warrior 2.0, with Errol's cybernetics stabilizing and giving him his own Dark Eco powers? That way Gol and Maia would have their own counter to Jak.
For me the Jak 3 was the perfect game in the trilogy. In fact it’s one of my top 3 games of all time
I did grow up with this series, but especially 3, adored Jak X Racing, i played the hell out of it.
Same goes for me. Jak 3 is the best
What are the other 2 games, if you don't mind me asking?
It's forsure in my top 10 games
its #6 on my list, genuinely impressed as the other ones are more modern. 6th best game of all time for me came out on the PS2? thats impressive
Jak 1 was so revolutionary: day/night, no loading screens, beautiful graphics, and a script with layers for all audiences. Amazing.
@@CerealKiller Is ok to be wrong.
@@CerealKiller It was another 3D platformer, so? 3D platformers aren't bad
In fact, they are great, depending on the game
@@Agent-yw1kj Even so, i would argue that it was much more polished than Banjo Kazooie or other collectathons at the time since the camera in those games is very outdated and i dont like how you have to collect all in one go.
@@sebastiankulche The game it's a masterpiece, don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. I really don't like the sequels
I loved jak 3....1 and 2 were polar opposites and were amazing in their own way, 3 merged the mystical side of 1 into 2, and narratively tied it together. Theyre all perfect to me.
You get it !
I always thought the Mar reveal was just that the gang didn’t know kid Jack’s real name. But Jak traveling back in time and founding Haven City, while fighting off ancient Metal Heads, sounds intriguing.
And yeah, fuck that AshelinxJak scene.
It's the better ship
Yeah, if Jak travelled to the past he'd be too powerful for the metal heads to stop, he'd just go and stomp the metal head leader.
@@JAYDOG1337A yeah, and Kor would’ve recognized Jak as Mar. But it would explain how he knew about Jak in the opening of Jak II
@@zhitchcresttail3387 I disagree
jak x ashlen doesn't happen thankfully jak x sets things back in order keira gets more screentime there and better used so jak x keira forever baby
Well, I mean, Damas doesn’t come completely out of nowhere. Prior to the mission’s actual start, Daxter has the bright idea to use the beacon they got as a Mark of their citizenship to Spargus to call for back up. The two never really picked up on how it works however and didn’t realize it was just a beacon sending out a signal to the city. Hence, Damas shows up at that point.
Yeah, I mean it's not like the Wastelanders were just going to show up the moment Jak pressed the button. Plus, I'm sure it took awhile for Damas to get from Spargus to the Palace Ruins in Haven City. All Jak & Daxter had to do was hold out until then.
The plot twist that the Ottsels are the precursors was foreshadowed way back in the first game when Daxter tried to describe what the precursors would have been like in person, it’s not totally for comedic effect though it was surely played off that way
To me? Hilarious reveal.
I think some of the weird plot points came from Keira’s voice actor change. Perhaps Anna left and they couldn’t find a replacement in time, so they just cut Keira from the story entirely. But then they decided to put her back in at the last second with Tara as Anna’s replacement.
This is why Keira doesn’t say much (or is just there like the first scene when you enter Haven City) and why they chose to have Jak and Ashelin as a romance instead.
Not saying it’s true but it’s my theory.
I genuinely don't remember the romance in Jak 3. The twist of Jak's true identity and ripping around in a dune buggy are what sticks out in my mind.
I knew she sounded different
@@greylithwolf Keira and Jak kiss at the end of the game cutscene but it cuts to daxter before they kiss, not sure why they went that route but yeah that's what I can think of at the top of my head
@@1KQ_ Thats Ashelin not Keira
YOUR GAME THEORY!
The Dune Hopper was (and quite possibly still is) my favorite vehicle to drive in any game ever!
Pressing your turbo at the same time you leap to the sky is so satisfying
Dune hopper on full blast is amazing
@@The810kid I was just about to comment this lmao I loved doing this too. Especially if you did it on a hill or ramp you got major air 😂
I agree, except when you're forced to use the Dune Hopper for that one mission when you chase down the four Marauder cars. I rage quit at how the Hopper would flip over because of the tiniest desert slope. 😭
Boost + super jump + those grenades = orbital bombardment
I still think they should have continued off the end of three with jak (and friends) going into space with the precursors to help fight the dark makers. Like come on, Jak with space vehicles sounds badass.
I guess they were afraid that the franchise would become more like Ratchet & Clank if they did that.
My idea was to time travel back before Jak 1 when the sages were using light eco and all sorts of eco but bring all the guns and things they used in jak 3 to the past.
@@kidprime6863butt see if they did that. They could’ve planned for a colab sequel
Absolutely love all 3. But 3 has something a tad bit off. I feel it was rushed at some parts. Less polish
I feel the opposite about 3, I feel it's far more polished than 2. That said I do agree that it does feel off somehow, it feels like a more technically impressive game than 2 but the elements don't make a cohesive whole like they did in 1 and 2.
3 is my favorite but I absolutely see why plenty feel otherwise about it. As a game I find it to offer the most content and with a decent variety, feeling more polished and well put together than 2. However 3's structure and overall design is a lot messier, as J says the pacing is all over the place.
I'd call Jak 3 a better game than 2 from a purely gameplay perspective but as a story and an adventure it's kind of a mess. I think Precursor Legacy is so different from 2 and 3 it's very hard to judge it against the sequels so I don't even try.
I feel like it is a more enjoyable and thought-out game in comparison to 2. Felt like they sucked the life out of the series just to capitalize on GTA.
Love Jak 3, but I agree. Story is main reason for me why going into 3 felt off (like WHO the hell is Veger?). We could go into a long tangent of reasons.
Ok
@@zeroattentiongaming820 Even though I disagree with you, I can see where you're coming from and understand how you would prefer Jak 3 over 2
Jak 3 was my introduction into the franchise. I remember buying it at a TJ Maxx and I don’t regret it since I put countless hours into playing it.
OMG Me too! My brother bought it and I’m so glad he did because I instantly became a fan of this series. Jak 3 holds a special place in my heart for that alone.
It’s weird how I was just playing this game for the past 3 days on the PS4 and told myself “I wonder if J’s made a video on Jak3.”
The Precursors being ottsel is easily one of the best twists I've ever seen in a video game. It ties the series together in a really satisfying way that gives you this incredible eureka moment that I rarely ever get in games these days. Plus Veger is so hateable that seeing him get what he deserves is so satisfying
Kind of a kick to the nuts though. I get the message, and if the second and third games were more in tone with Precursor Legacy, then I think the twist would’ve had a more positive reception.
Well ..... They did Jak and Ashlein which was random as hell.
@@UnifiedEntity I have a theory that they chose this because Keira’s original voice actor left and they couldn’t find a replacement in time until it was too late. It explains her absence in the story and why in some scenes she just stands there with no lines.
@@UnifiedEntity Yeah, that was random as heck.
@@RhapsodyHC then just don’t do the scene. I do know why they thought having that kiss wouldn’t piss off fans. It’s like if in Sly 2, Sucker Punch had Sly make out with Neyla.
Looking at this game overall; I feel like the goal they had intended with this one was to make it a perfect middle ground of sorts between the first two games. Like everything in terms of combat and puzzle solving remains the same mechanically from Jak II but than you have shit like herding lizards and chasing rats that are just herding animals like in some of the 1st game's missions, stuff like turret sections, ring races that also feel more so in line with that game, hell, the very first mission in Haven Forest is spreading green eco to some plants infected by dark eco which is what you did in the Precursor Basin in the 1st game. All of that combined with the tone of this game trying to strike the middle ground between being light hearted and being serious in tone and that best sums up what I see in the game; an attempt to appeal to fans of the 1st game and the 2nd game alike.
Lost Froentier feels more like a mide ground between Jak 1 and 2
It’s also synonymous with Jak balancing his dark eco with light eco.
As a child, I really, really didn't like Jak 2 for going so different from Jak 1's tone and gameplay, so that would explain a lot why I still liked 3 enough to still have fond memories of it today - made for me in particular as a middle-ground between the two.
@@ralpbeez8414 but how is it a middle ground? It's more like a mad max style of game. Lost frontier and Daxter are more like middle grounds between Jak 1 and 2
3 is personally my favorite story wise. The whole Haven City at War bit was great. Honestly Jak 2 is my least favorite out of the trilogy. The difficulty got on my freaking nerves and made me rage quit for weeks until I got interested again. Plus, I played The Precursor Legacy first both at 13 years of age when they were newer titles. So going in blind to Jak 2 and finding out the HUGE difference between the two was jarring at first it took me awhile to be actually okay with it. Like hearing Jak speak blew my mind and how dark the story was. Eventually I grew to love it. Then I accepted it for what it was.
Jak 3 holds a special place in my heart. It got me through my freshman year of high school haha. Jak X I just consider as a spin-off but I loved it for what it was. I never played the Last Frontier because by the time it came out I was college aged. So I was too busy to actually play it. Jak 2 though I felt they changed the element because shooters were a big thing at the time. Like Ratchet and Clank it had to adapt or die. I loved the Adventure elements of Jak and Daxter but the genre was dying out because of Shooters. If Jak and Daxter came out today it wouldn't sale well because these kids just don't have the attention span for it. They like games like Cuphead fast paced and all over the place. It's a shame honestly but you either truly have to adapt or die in today's Gaming industry.
Jak 3 was my favorite, had some crazy plot twists and felt like a great mix of the first 2 games styles. Also Light Jak was so much fun to use, I loved slowing time to fight and flying was fun.
Man flying with Light Eco feels amazing. Jak 3 is the best, no doubts
Jak 3 has its flaws with balance and storytelling but it's still my favorite in the series. I just find it the most fun to play out of all of them. Going through the nice variety of levels with the absolute banger of a soundtrack playing in the background never seems to get old.
What I find fun about the Jak and Daxter trilogy are the different tones that make them distinctive from one another, not unlike the Evil Dead trilogy. The first one is a light-hearted adventure, the second is a darker and edgier dystopian tale, while the third is Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
I may disagree with alot of what you said in this video but I respect your opinion on it. The one thing we can both agree on though, is that the mini-games are annoying and kind of suck at times lol 😆. Also I like being OP, that's what I play games for. You should see some of the mods I install 😏
Jak 3 definitely felt like a "More is better" kind of game in every sense of the word. At first I would say it was my favorite game in the series since it was essentially more Jak 2 with new weapons, an expanded world to explore and just an overall bigger game than it's predecessors. After replaying the game after Jak 2 a couple of years back though, I started seeing a lot of holes in the design that I never noticed beforehand.
For instance, I forget who said it but someone else I watched noted that the new weapons introduced in this game seemed to be made with the express purpose of making sure the player didn't have to do much aiming since near every one of them serves as a way to nuke things without having to actually turn and face them. One thing that i've come to appreciate more and more about Jak 2 is how much mileage you get out of the basic 4. It makes the game more tactical in a way and when jumping over to Jak 3 I just felt like they gave you too much with very little improvements to the enemies to make up for it.
I remember watching a video saying Errol could have been much better if he remained Jak's opposite/rival, so instead of becoming of robot from the dark eco crash he should have remained relatively intact but scarred and had a darker form like Dark Jak and so the two opposites clash again.
@@skibot9974 I would've brought them back too and maybe make Errol their second-in-command
The Dark Eco is destructive and kills, you're forgetting that and he TRIGGERED AN EXPLOSION, there's no way you're staying intact after that but we see he is mutated, not just wrecked badly.
@@artistanthony1007You're not wrong. They could've just made him a Dark Eco mutant instead of a cyborg. Or maybe both. Why not? The Dark Makers are corrupted Precursors who turned themselves into cyborg mutants, so make him a Dark Maker.
You’re one of the few people to articulate exactly how I feel as well. Despite their differences, Jak 1 and 2 are both masterpieces and I love replaying them 20 years later. Even when I played Jak 3 as a kid in 2004, it felt…less (?) than the first two. Less exciting, more bland? I always replay the first two games but seldom touch the third nowadays.
Edit: amazing Herman Melville reference at the end there
I think it's mostly because it lacked challenge. Jak 2 had missions where it was hard af and could take multiple retries, also most enemies could kill you within just a few hits which meant you had to becareful. In 3 though after a few hours of progressing in the story you practically become a God with all the abilities, extra guns, and extra health that you don't really have to sorry about anything other than falling.
You guys are weird
@@CerealKiller I honestly don't know what you mean. The gameplay is the most varied of the series. The combat is basic just like jak 2 which really wasn't noticeably more difficult outside of the couple difficulty spikes that everybody used to criticize the game over. And jak 1 is literally one of the easiest games I've ever played and an extremely basic platformer that is mostly bolstered by its charm and advanced animations for the time. Jak 3 had the most to see and do and the most varied gameplay and environments, and toned down the jak edginess slightly from jak 2 where it got a bit embarrassing, while building on that games dark turn of the story in a really interesting way. The vehicles are best and most varied. The game is challenging enough, I don't find any of the sly or ratchet games on ps2 any more challenging and those are the main peers of the jak series from that era to compare it to
3rd installments in a series always have the toughest time, they have to end a story in a way that's satisfying. That's not an easy task for anyone. You could end up with a Rise of Skywalker if you do it poorly. No one wants a Rise of Skywalker.
You could also end up with a complicated plot twist like in Mass Effect 3
Okay so honestly i can say one thing: Jak 3 uses dark jak more than jak 2 the advertising mascot for jak 2 is used in jak 3 more than jak 2.
The entire series can be analagous for growing up.
Jak 1. hopeful optimistic child
Jak 2. Dark brooding teen
Jak 3. a bit of both growing out of the dark phase.
Also i feel as if jak and daxter got more addicted to vehicles as it went on. consider the next game is literally a racing game.
I'd rather Jak 4 (if it does happen) to be "mature adultish".
Jak and Daxter head to Kras City, Haven (or the rebuilt New Haven), Spargus, and others to stop Rayn from building an empire now that the Metal Heads have retreated to the mainland wastes and find out she is planning to bring back Gol and Maia in a new Lovecraftian form after stewing in dark eco for centuries
I haven't played Jak 3,I've only played Jak 2 and 1 and I liked Jak 2 more than Jak 1,maybe Jak 3 becomes my favorite like Sly 3 became my favorite in the Sly trilogy.
It is so weird to watch two retrospectives in one day and say almost the opposites about the same game. You thought the story was all over the place, while the other video said that it was the best in the series. I know this doesn't matter because of "opinions are opinions stupid", but nonetheless it intrigues me.
whos the other retrospective? sounds intresting
I actually enjoyed Jak 3
It's a decent game but IMO it was boring mostly because it lacked challenge. Jak basically becomes an overpowered God from all the extra guns, light abilities, extra health from armor etc where it practically breaks the game; most of your deaths will be from falling.
Also it lacked the wanted system that Jak 2 had which was a huge highlight of fun from that game. When you shot a guard in 2, the whole city would be chasing after you with guards shooting from the ground and vehicles trying to ram you, but in this one it's completely gone. A huge part of the mayhem in Jak 2 was getting the guards after you
Agreed the Metal heads and deathbots weren't as fun in the overworld
Maybe, but it was also very annoying. The game always punish you when driving in the ground, despite that is the only reliable way of driving without crashing with something. Always when i play this game the guards are constantly chasing me.
it was not disappointing. you youtubers need to stop rewriting history. that game was great and it was the only thing that drew me to a playstation instead of an xbox.
I didn't think it was bad, but I didn't think it was all that great either. He did have some points that some story elements felt off compared to II. Bringing back certain characters, then having them disappear for some time, then randomly popping up out of nowhere, I think the devs could have put more time in the oven but I can understand the founders wanted to hurry up and leave the company.
Just finished Jak 2, so very interested to see if I agree with you when I replay 3! I've only played it once when I was 9, so I have fond memories for now.
For me, Jak 3 is the most replayable of the series. Because the actual difficulty curve is alot more fair. While Jak 2 had difficulty spikes all over the place in seemingly random places. While Jak 3 is far more consistant in its curve even with how broken the beam reflexer is
Jak 1 is the best. I think the magic was lost in the sequels, which i still loved, but as I reflect... there was just something so perfect about the world of the first game that I think "grungifying" ultimately destroyed.
Agreed. I didn’t get into Jak 2 as a kid as was way too big a shift for me. I wish Jak 2 was a sequel like the sequels were in Crash and Spyro (same gameplay and world base but just building on it). Respect the fact that a lot of people love the sequels though maybe I wasn’t old enough for them when they came out.
Agreed as well. Jak and Daxter was special.
Yeah Jak 3 felt very dissapointing back in 2004, particularly considering I got 1 christmas gift and this game was it. I had a lot of hype going into Jak 3 and then it never really felt as impactful as jak II.
Which is odd becuse a lot of things were improved, but Jak II just had this wow factor. I felt like a total badass. Jak 3 I got way more weapons and vehicles and always felt like.....just a person wandering aimlessly.
I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out I was a huge fan of high difficulty action platforming. Jak 3 had less platforming, less difficulty and the story was amazing, it felt like some huge pre planned "bigger than you" story and the new story was just...bet up a councilmn for being mean to you, find out some dude is randomly your dad and the big villain is a C tier villain form the last game.
When Jak 3 eventually gets decompiled, I hope by that point the modding community will have made tons of platforming levels. In my opinion because of how fluid Jak's moveset is, the platforming in these games have always been the best in 3d platformers.
Yea, jak 3 was kinda mid tbh it had memorable moments but it had such an identity crisis that half of them didn't even materialize properly. Im hyped for that jak x review man, don't forget to talk about the osts on that, those songs on it are LEGENDARY.
Undeniably the best of the trilogy. Fixes all the problems from 2 and gives you a ton more toys.
The desert fantasy punk aesthetic is also a fantastic touch.
Fixes nothing and rather play safe going the easy way, Jak 2 still the best
The story is garbage tho
I enjoyed the mad max (mad jak?) aesthetic but the story wasn't all that great
Jak 3 isn't bad but MAN did it feel very disappointing to Jak 2, very rushed and sloppy story, horrible weapon and difficulty balancing, and so many stupid driving and gimmicky missions that felt like they just expanded on the worst parts of 2 and made that most of the game.
Agreed
Jak 3 is good but the story is all over the place and the vehicle missions feel like unwanted padding.
Personally I think Jak 3 is very good, but not as enjoyable as Jak and Daxter 1. Jak 2 is decent... But Jak 3 fixes all the flaws Jak 2 has.
every shadow has a light source also the hillarious thing is the sequel to this one isn't the lost frontier it's the car game jak combat racing which has ratchet as a playable character.
Congratulations! Your the 666th comment!.....Devil
I personally liked jak 3 it was a really interesting game
Jak 3 is actually my favorite of the series, mostly for the quality of life improvements you mentioned. I especially like the refinements they made to traversal. No longer are you forced to go through massive congestion to get to the next mission, and I love the buggies (the race near the beginning of the game was dull, but at least there's only one). However, I will agree aspects of the plot were messy. I find it odd how the game seems to completely abandon Keira to make Ashelin Jak's love interest (who, in turn, appears to have forgotten about Torn), and the council being too powerful for Ashelin to stop is completely disproven when she dissolves them on a whim later on.
I like the theory that Jak is actually the grandson of the orignial Mar. That there was Mar who created Haven City, then he had a son, Damos, (which would make sense that Damos would be able to become King of the city as well), and then he named his son Mar after his legendary father, whom we know as Jak.
Except Jak's cited as "the Mar" by Ashelin herself which make all of this a little weird.
Listening to your analysis it was wild how all your criticism sounds like my complaints with Crash 3 (too many mini games, not enough dope Crash platforming, Crash is too powerful)
Yet I’ve never thought that about Jak 3. I guess I like the mini games better in Jak 3? And I never had a problem with the difficulty of Jak 2; I felt OP as shit in that game too once I got the standard blaster. So being more OP just meant I got to do more things in the sequel if I felt like it.
Jak 2 for sure had the cleanest story that do be right 😎💯
Jak and daxter and the precursor legacy was my childhood. I remember playing this game everyday restarting the whole thing every time I beat it. The snowy mountain is my favorite area.
For a long time Jak 3 was my favorite of the series, but when I look back I do notice some of the cracks in the design. The game is still one of my favorites and I always enjoy revisiting it, about as much as Jak 2, but nowadays my favorite for the series goes to X. Really fantastic, that one.
OMG finally someone acknowledges Jak X! Me and my brother spend hours playing it together in 2 player.
I love the whole series, but I’d rather play 3 than 2. I’m gonna have to go back and try them both again
@3rd Way the problem is hero mode is still easy in jak 3. the guns themselves just break the game and making the enemies a little spongier doesn’t fundamentally change this. the balancing is far too broken for just some stat adjustments to fix, especially compared to jak 2’s fantastic balancing
@@RomanCzachor Like if Jak 2 hero mode wasnt easy. Literally the only hard part is the turret section.
@@sebastiankulche jak 2’s hero mode isn’t all that difficult ya, enemies just take a little longer to kill (but ya fuck that one turret mission) but that’s not my point. the difficulty is well balanced both on normal mode and hero, it encourages you to play well but it’s not brutal or anything. jak 3 is a joke whether it’s on normal mode or hero mode
@@CerealKiller the enemies are generally tankier, as in they just take more hits to kill, usually just one or two more hits for normal enemies. for example, the infamous turret mission everyone talks about is only so hard in hero mode because it the crimson guards fly in faster than you can kill them due to their increased health. the players health is the same tho
Source: I've played a lot of Jak 2
Alot of the reasons J listed is why I always preferred 2 to 3. I will say I do enjoy 3 over the Precursors legacy because I enjoy the setting and characters of the future more. To Jak 3's credit I do think the vehicles handle the best of the entire trilogy. The precursors twist actually was genius in my opinion a nod to the wizard of Oz.
I think it would have been really cool if Gol returned as the Big Bad of the last game of the trilogy.
These videos have been very informative and entertaining! Despite only having played the first game in the series, this is still an IP I am very nostalgic towards, and still respect and admire the games after all these years!
This was a half hour of saying the game sucks followed by “I’m not saying the game sucks”
How dare you talk so lowly of that metalhead mission, that one is memorable af
and basically your only down side is there's no difficulty setting, other then that it's still not disappointing at all. Your title sounds like a massacre happened when it was a papercut. Disliked for false clickbait.
Btw Jak left in the end.. time travel lol.. oh and the part where Pecker says Mar wore this armor in his battle to defend this planet from the Dark Makers Jak was the one who did that so its a full circle effect 🤝🏽
I grew up with all three games at once, and I think Jak 3 was my favorite out of the the three just because of how accessible it was to me. The relatively low difficulty let me enjoy it to the fullest extent, whereas Jak 2 just kicked the shit outta my 8 year old ass and the OG just didn’t have enough stuff in it to excite me. Still probably my favorite, for nostalgia purposes, but I can 100% agree that story was on some crackhead shit.
Stongly disagree, jak 3 is the best one for me
One thing I wish you mentioned is that even when taking the OP-ness into account and imposing self-challenges and rules, such as banning the Beam Reflexor or only using the four weapons from Jak II, the combat still fails. Enemy placement in TPL and Jak II was intentional, and that intentionality could be felt in every single combat encounter in each game. Naughty Dog knew which strategy you would employ to take them down. In Jak 3 however, enemy placement feels so arbitrary and random (no doubt a consequence of it being developed in only a year) that no encounter felt designed around a specific Eco or specific weapon, which also adds to breaking the balance of the game given how this compounds every other flaw in the action-platforming flow channel.
Jak 3 proves ND had no further goal with combat after Jak 2, they just tacked on more OP weapons without the proper balancing, shooting mechanics, precision and an upgrade system that actively plays an active role in character progression like RaC.
It literally doesn't
I agree with you mostly but I still recommend avoiding the OP weapons when you replay the game. It's just less brainless gameplay to actually have to aim your guns LOL and they already give you too much health.
you hit the nail on the head there. last time i played jak 3 i put on the self restrictions of only using the base 4 weapons and not using any healing or shield from light jak and well, it was harder, not that much harder and the difficulty was less consistent, but it also wasn’t fun. enemies are just thrown into an area without care, they aren’t animated like at all when they are idle from a distance, and every encounter just feels like a shooting gallery instead of unique situations that you have to approach tactically and use all of your tools on hand. it’s just fucking sad, every level feels so much more hollow and lacks the memorability of jak 2, especially since there isn’t even dynamic combat music anymore, not a single encounter feels intense
@@RomanCzachor Jak 2 had worse mission design and had the same "problem" as Jak 3 when it comes to enemy placement. You're a clown
Personally Jak 3 is my favorite in the series.
Kinda surprised you didn't mention that depending on if you max out your Dark Powers completely by the end of the game, you actually get a different ending, though not sure what that entails cause... I didn't find enough of the things to do that
Jak 3 was not disappointing.
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier was disappointing.
You had high hopes for TLF? Need I remind you high impact games hasn't made a single genuinely good game and a bunch of mediocre to garbage games.
@@TerrorOfTalos No, I didn’t have high hopes for it and it still disappointed
Wait, so your videos are just complaining about something for half an hour then telling me it's not that bad? wtf is this concept? I'll make sure not you check your your videos "J".
he never said it was a bad game he's just explaining why its disappointing is it that shocking of a concept?
Oh god, let's see why the GOAT does not like Jak 3 that much.
i'll be back when i finish the video to see what's your point.
Yeah but what do ya guys expect for a 2004 game? It's not like they can go back and fix Jak3 and all the criticism when they had a dead line rushing to get the hold Jak and daxter trilogy done, and to be honest I kind of like what they did with Jak3, How Haven city doesn't feel like it's tight area to drive on, and how they improve the game play and how the story actually take some stakes, and improve on dark Jak as in Jak2 you had to keep on grinding to get dark Jak which a lot of people do not give Jak3 credit for, They fix the hold difficulty on Jak3 which every one that had play Jak2 has been complaining about.... Sure it's not 100 percents perfect but it's still enjoyable to go back and play the hold trilogy there are other games out there that's 10 times worst than people complaints on Jak3 that people don't talk about or too blind to see but thats just my thoughts about the hold thing and my point of view of things.
They could be made the Story characters levels longer.
I disagree with the gameplay/ pacing - I'd rather have lots to do than the game just becoming repetitive and boring. Imagine it was ALL just classic J&D platforming... How boring would that be?
Okay but like can we talk about how cool that render at 14:11 is?
It’s literally impossible for Jak to be the Mar who founded Haven City and for the timeline to not have gone insanely off the rails. How can I know? Because the Butterfly Effect is a thing.
Ya know, that theory that if you go back in time do something as insignificant as killing a butterfly, you can completely screw over time.
I like to believe Jak was just the descendant of and named after Mar and leave it at that. Saying they're one and the same just screws everything up. I'm not big on the whole "Grandfather Paradox" thing.
I feel like for me it comes down to what jak 2 and jak 3 try to do with the games. I feel as tho much of the gameplay mechanics that they pulled in to the jak series are super played out these days ie. Gun play , driving, mission structure. Jak 3 is the worse offender of 2 and 3 because they tried to account for so many different mechanics and it doesn’t land for me.
Revisiting jak 1 nowadays is unbelievably refreshing because it feels fresh whereas 2 and 3 feel played out and like they don’t have enough of what I like about the first game and too much of what I am getting tired of other games doing.
The game design of TPL while relatively simple is straight to the point and an overall evergreen experience (unless someone was already sick of collectathons before playing).
Jak 1 is the game equivalent of comfort food
When I was a kid, I played some games from a video rental store near where I grow up and one of them I remember was Jak 3 but for some reason I could never get past the tutorial level. Maybe I was too young to understand how the game works or maybe there was a lot that happened that just was too much to follow. Now that I’m older and have the PS4 collection, I’ve been tempted to give it another chance along with the other main games
I mean Jak 3 is basically a DLC
For me Jak & Daxter TPL was THE game. I loved it and played it a lot. So as soon as I saw Jak II I was interested in playing it. I wanted to know what was next. Sadly though, I was not expecting a GTA clone. When I was little I just wasn't a fan. I never really liked GTA games nor the clones of them. Here is a city map, go drive here do a mission, drive here and do another. It wasn't exciting for me. It took me years later to pick up the game again and actually finish it. I did like the story but it still left some questions. By then, Jak 3 and Jak X were already out and I had a copy of Jak 3. It did feel short, and it was mostly driving which really felt more like a push though the game just to see the rest of the story I felt I was missing. In the end, yea I did feel like I was let down. It seemed pretty unsatisfying as a whole. I still like the games a bit more know as the GTA style has kind of grown everywhere and finally caught on with me. But I'll always prefer that adventure platforming style of TPL.
I love jak 3
And didn't mind all the weapons I never found the enemy challenging even when I was a kid
oh weird Jak 3 is my favorite Jak game
Why it was disappointing: It wasn’t
I fixed it, you’re welcome
Anyone else see this video from an ad under the video you were watching? Weird but ig you gotta run those numbers up so no hate, just new to me seeing a RUclipsr I already watch be an ad.
Even though I did like Jak 3.....it wasn't until we reach Haven City and the atmosphere with Samos and ESPECIALLY Keira....felt off. The Jak and Ashlein romance, I wasn't against but I was like "waaaiit but Keira!!!! They never even get to kiss!!! And Wasn't she into Torn!!!!"
27:30 I think that the main villains of Jak 3 should have been Gol and Maia seeking revenge and to continue their plan to cover the planet in Darkness by working with the Darkmakers, Samos teased their return in Jak 1 so it would have been perfect
Exactly, this was a perfect opportunity to bring them back.
Yeah, the Dark Makers are kinda lame. And the Metal Heads were already the Precursors' arch enemies.
Should've just been Gol & Maia with the Dark Makers as their minions made out of dark eco. Call them the Dark Spawn. I mean, hey - Dragon Age Origins wasn't out yet! :P
@@ThePreciseClimberYeah that could've worked. But I think the Dark Makers can still work as ancient enemies of the Precursors. Nobody said the Precursors can't have more than one enemy. Besides, not everyone is immune to Dark Eco mutation or corruption. Not even the Precursors.
You don't know Jak
J, if you consider revisiting Lost frontier please do not play the PS2 port but consider playing it on real hardware, it's a way better game than people make it believe, yes it still have some incredibly stupid things like Dark Daxter but the PS2 port is just atrocious and this applies for "Ratchet Size Matters" and "Secret agent Clank" as well.
Played on a real PSP or on a psvita they hold up much better.
I never tried them on an emulator but again, in my opinion playing those on real hardware makes you enjoy them way more
I loved the whole series but even as a kid i replayed two the most.
Nope, just nope, favourite game of the series so many new features so even if you're not doing story line just the in game war keeps you going
I literally don’t know anyone that dosnt think jak3 isn’t the best and most fun of the series
I personally prefer TPL but Jak 3 is still a masterpiece and i can understand people who prefer that game.
I feel a big part of Jak 3's problems are probably also due to being a PS2 game. They had too much to fit and had to scale back and had to replace stuff with the minigames.
And why they would make the ps3 years later
Jak 3 is probably my favorite, I’d say the only thing that’s even remotely disappointing about it is that it wasn’t longer. Maybe I’m wrong but Jak 2 felt longer, 3 is a fun ass game and loved the universe and story.
I really enjoy the perspective you have on all three of these games! I grew up playing the Jak and Daxter series (Jak II being the first real videogame I remember playing besides some educational stuff on my grandma's computer), and to this day they're some of my favorites. Jak 2 is my favorite in the series, despite its somewhat harsh difficulty, and I have to agree with a lot of the criticisms you levied toward Jak 3 here.
For me as an adult, Jak 3 feels like Jak 2's victory lap, like getting to play a much easier DLC of a favorite game. Especially towards the end, Haven City starts to feel like a playground that I can just use to mess around with the fun stuff like the OP weapons and the Jet Board. It's not one I seek to actively replay, as it doesn't have the same level of emotional weight for me, but it does remind me of when I was a kid, just messing around with mechanics in games because they were fun, not to accomplish any specific goal. I liked transforming into Light/Dark Jak just to transform, and shooting the final form of the peacemaker just to blow things up. All your criticisms here are correct and valid, but if I treat Jak 3 as just being Jak 2's updated expansion, then things like the minigames start to feel a little less stale and a little more fun.
Jak 1 is way better then 2 and 3
3 has gotta be my favorite out of the trilogy to be honest. It took little kid me like 4 years to beat it though
I played each game as they came out, and still Jak 3 is my favorite of the main trilogy. But I get the points you make, and I can agree with a good chunk of them, I just personally prefer it over the others
I prefer Jak 3 over Jak 2, especially its first act, due to the variety of missions, instead of "take down 5 things" missions every 10 minutes
Freedom League = Brave Forces
Krimzon Death Bots = Bloodthirsty Robots
Metal Heads = Bloodthirsty Creatures
Wastelanders = Brave Warriors
Marauders = Bloodthirsty Warriors
Dark Makers = Corruptible Beings
I have a great fondness for Jak 3 because I finished it before 2, given it's much easier. In retrospect some of the weird ending twists are just baffling and the ricochet gun alone invalidates combat, not to mention the other guns and the massively increased health pool. So now I believe 2 to be much better as a game, but I still love 3 a ton still and I'll play both to death when the OpenGOAL project gets to them.
The driving is mega jank, but I like it still (maybe a little stockholm syndrome) and I also remember really liking most of the mini-game stuff. Playing as the giant death robot not-so-much, doing the top-down perspective segment a whole lot. Oh and the Daxter segments too.
In my opinion jak 3 is the best out of the trilogy :)
I had such warm memories of the Light Jak mode. I would go to Spargus, find the big light eco well they have there, and then park on the well. I’d time stop, slap three people in the face, go back to the light well, and just turn on the shield. Because I was on the light well, I had infinite light eco and could shield forever. Meanwhile, everyone else just shoots each other by accident and a giant civil war brews up, all while I watch from the comfort of my bubble.
The last few times I've replayed the trilogy, I end up dropping Jak 3 in the middle of it. I always it just burnout from completing the other two games right before it, but a lot of your points make a lot of sense and help explain why it's a hard game for me to finish.
I personally love this trilogy as a whole, flaws even withstanding. For one thing, I think 3 had much better balancing in the difficulty department than 2 did. Jak 2 can be one of the most obnoxiously difficult games I've played for what feels like some very wrong reasons. I still like it and think it was a great sequel to its predecessor, but 3 feels far more accommodating/fair with its difficulty. Not necessarily because of how broken in the player's favor the new powers and weapon upgrades are, but rather because of little things like the more frequent health pickups and such. I loved the gun upgrades despite how redundant most of them felt once you got the first and second Blaster upgrades. I liked the idea of traversing the desert with the use of exaggeratedly large and weaponized dune buggies, even if the drives did often feel vapid and time consuming when you weren't doing a mission. Light Eco powers and the new Dark Eco Powers were cool additions. The story had its issues but overall was a good time, though I do agree that the whiplash they give you with how indecisive they seemed in regards to who the star love interest was does NOT sit well with me. It sure ain't perfect but I'd rather play 3 than 2 based solely on how dickheaded 2 gets in places. 3 had a lot of cool ideas but their execution left some things to be desired. Not unlike Megaman X3, ironically enough. Maybe the reason I liked 3 more than 2 was because after how burnt the hell out I was from how relentlessly shitheaded 2 is in many places, 3 felt like a satisfying reprieve. That could also partially be my fault though since the last time I played this trilogy I played them all in rapid succession.
I think Jack 3 being my favorite really shows what my taste in games and story is showing how my brain works. I love games with variety in mini games added on to great main gameplay making the charachters and story bigger because the charachter can do a variety of things and not just known for 1 style of gameplay. I allways saw Jack 3 as the victory lap after all he had been through in 1 and 2 and in my head it makes sense that a hero like him would of course be op in 3. He perfected his platforming and acrobatics in 1 and his more darker side and marksmanship in 2 but in 3 he learns balance, inner peace, and shows he can do more then jump and shoot. Ik that doesn't make the best game or sequel but I just gravitate towards games like these, I guess that's why I also love Conker's Bad Fur Day. Fun short variety minigames are like candy to my ADHD brain lol.
Even if i disagree in... practically everything since i enjoy way more Jak 3 varied gameplay and "easier difficult" to the point of being not able to return to Jak 2, i can respect your opinion. Something i can agree is the story being better in 2, but i still like what 3 has to offer. Im probably the only one who like Veger as a "villian", i always seem him like a very devout obsessed person like almost if it came out from Final Fantasy XD. Idk, i just love the game, and it has some of the best visuals i ever seen in PS2 so something good came from this game that nobody cant deny. At the end of the day it would remain as my favorite game released in 2004 along with Half Life 2. Imo ND never made a dissapointing game.
The only problem for me is the ending. There are still other worlds to save from the Dark Makers. Gol and Maia are still in the Precursor catacombs. If we ever get a new Jak game I hope it's a huge open world.
Not to mention there could also be more Metal Heads in the Cosmos too.
Really good video, actually made me reassess my own feelings on the game (though I already shared your sentiments about the plot being a mess)