#jak ii renegade

[jakndaxter-imagine]

Imagine Daxter trying to cheer you up after a breakup.

Submitted by Anon

[playstationpark]

'Jak II: Renegade' was released on the PlayStation 2 21 years ago today in the US. Support us on Patreon

[bedazzledstrider]

I have the unintentional habit of making dating sim shit

Anyway this is Kyle (Kei)

He is the trans version of Keira that was created in the JnD bug jar discord and I have fallen in love with him

Unfinished obvi

[jak2gooberglub]

I loveee this songggg

Song:

Madeleine - Blood Pact

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChJcMBKlTTC/?igsh=MTc5eGR0M3ozN25sYw==

Clips:

Jak and Daxter the Precursor Legacy

Jak 2

Jak 3

Jak X Combat Racing

ENJOYYYY

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how the Jak and Daxter series was able to survive having a sequel that was drastically different from the first game. For most series, I think they wouldn’t be able to survive having a sequel that went against the prior installment, especially if the execution was bad. Yet Jak II didn’t sink the franchise. In fact, I’ve noticed that the 2nd Jak game has received better reception in the years since it was released.

As a kid, even though it took some getting used to since I loved the 1st game, I wasn’t put off by Jak II being this cyberpunk GTA title. But I never understood why.

After revisiting the game (I watched a playthrough on YouTube), I think I have a working theory:

1) Jak and Daxter only had 1 game out at the time.

So, the expectations for how the characters would be portrayed wasn’t that strict. Think of it like this; Nintendo wouldn’t get away with turning Link into an unhinged, smartass killer who openly flirts with Zelda. Neither would Sega with Sonic, that’s why Shadow exists. Link and Sonic are too well-known and established that people have expectations on how they should be portrayed, thus not a ton of room for experimentation/deviation. Naughty Dog had some leeway since Jak and Daxter weren’t really household names.

2) Turning Jak into an unhinged, bloodthirsty killer who openly flirts with Keira and has serious anger issues wasn’t that drastic.

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. You start off as innocent Jak, then he got pumped full of Dark Eco. Also, he was tortured for several years, so it’s not hard to see why his character turned out the way he did.

3) The game still feels like the 1st Jak and Daxter, even with the change in tone.

It controls the same. It looks the same (as in the artwork still feels like it was made by the same team). You’re still doing puzzles. And, aside from Jak, the other Jak 1 characters are pretty much the same. I think it’s Daxter and his obnoxiousness that really makes Jak II feel like it’s not a completely different franchise. Without Daxter, I think players would notice the dissonance from the 1st to the 2nd game a lot more.

4) Continuing from point 3, the new gameplay elements only build on from the 1st game rather than take away.

Sure, you get guns, a hoverboard, vehicles, and Dark Jak. However, everything else is still the same. If you remember the controls from the 1st game, you shouldn’t have any problem jumping into the 2nd game, which I feel helps in easing veteran players in with the new tone and setting.

5) Even with the change in tone and setting, the game doesn’t really deviate too far from how Jak was in Jak 1.

Even though Jak is unhinged, angry, and hellbent on revenge in Jak II, he’s still an overall good dude who goes around helping people. Jak still feels like Jak, albeit traumatized and angrier for valid reasons. It helps that Jak was sort of a blank slate in the first game. Because he was a blank slate, there was more room for Naughty Dog to develop his character in Jak II.

Jak is also a bit of a meathead dudebro in Jak II, which isn’t really how he was portrayed in Jak 1. But Jak being a dudebro isn’t that crazy when you consider his best friend is Daxter. And the open flirting isn’t that crazy since Jak already had a crush on Keira.

6) Jak II commits to its dark and edgy tone without going too dark or too cartoonish. It feels like a genuine attempt to take the first game and just “edge” it up.

What my point says. Jak II feels like a genuine continuation of the first game, but darker and edgier. But the game doesn’t go too edgy to the point that it takes you out of the story. It’s not like Jak is going around dropping f-bombs and chopping people’s heads off. It’s a solid balance, that’s what I’m trying to get at.

[neon-inu]

Randomly started playing Jak 2 again for the first time in many years and my love for Erol still hits me like a pile of bricks every time.

Everytime I’ve replayed Jak and Daxter in last decade, it’s only ever been The Precursor Legacy because it’s a small easy game to get through, and typically I didn’t replay the other three games so I’m just 😦 at rediscovering just how dated these games are, when they have been so precious and important to me my whole life.

Everytime I play through Jak 2/3 I always think “this game could really do with a remake that fleshes out the characters, their histories and their motives”.

But this is the first time I realise damn this game really needs a remake because the humour is so genuinely bad and dated. A few jokes still land, like the ones mocking tyranny and capitalist greed etc but the majority of the humour is riddled with misogyny, fatphobia or ableism which makes me cringe that a lovable protagonist is saying such vile things.

But then contextually, looking at the gaming community in that era, it isn’t much of a surprise given the market they were targeting. (Like the game awards back then were… something)

IMO, The main mistake they made when they last touched on a remake of Jak was they abandoned the iconic art style of Jak and chose to make it generic/hyper realistic. When games choose to have an iconic art style it gives it so much personality and charm which is lost in hyper realism. Like the Jak games are so old but the graphics still hold up because of how extremely stylised it all is, it works with the art style imo??

Anywayyyyyy I still love my problematic fav Erol and want to cosplay him one day when I can afford making him from scratch 🙏

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

How successful would Jak (Jak II era)…

Propaganda for the mic skills:

As soon as he was allowed to talk, his dialogue was like 80% cold blooded shit. Jak would always be talking about how he wants to fight someone, take the Baron down, how he’s angry and full of darkness and so on. It helps that his voice was badass. Jak got that heel aura / anti-hero babyface aura. Randy Orton the Viper energy.

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Propaganda for the wrestling skills:

You fistfight the enemies most of the time. And Jak’s got amazing agility and jumping abilities. He would kill it in the ring.

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Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!

[tegabyte]

hey is there any overlap between Jak and Daxter fans and Final Fantasy XV fans, or is it just me and like one other guy? XD

and is the overlap between ignoct fans and jaktorn fans even smaller (ie: just me)?

I'm not actually going to tag them bc this is me going renegade (ha), but ostensibly the vibes of this count for the ignoct week enemies to lovers prompt in my heart. (Jak and Torn aren't technically enemies at any point but they do antagonize one another, soooooo)

Tega be normal about a pair of fandoms challenge (impossible)

Could I ship Jak/Keira? yeah. In the context of this AU? no. (in the context of the canon games? it's not as fun to follow the canon when you're reading fanfic so like ???)

I haven't actually assigned all the characters for this theoretical JnD AU actually, my mind's going BRRRRRR too hard. Noctis, Regis, and Ardyn are set (Ardyn's position is dubious but I'll hold to him being Jak II's biggest bad rather than Jak 3's bitchass villain), but like everyone else I can make a case for being BASICALLY ANY CHARACTER I WANT and that's too much power. I mighta assigned Prompto to three different characters as potentials, and even Ignis got a few different options along the way. I am not actually giving brainspace to this, I've got like...... too many crossover AUs that are taking up my worldbuilding ram (Ladyhawke AU, Laputa AU, HZD AU, Gunbuster AU, Ever After AU... I am the king of the crossover AU........), so this is just a fun thought experiment for now.

But I welcome other options for which character is which in the swap. :3

[jakndaxter-imagine]

Imagine Erol raving all night long after his shift as the Commander of the Krimzon Guard.

Submitted by Anon

[woelfin-sheeps-clothing]

"I see a man who makes it home alive...but it's no longer you."

[alteredphoenix]

I do like how every time I peek back into Jak & Daxter - which mostly consists of speedrunners streaming Jak II: Renegade and sometimes Jak III - I wind up making and setting up files for fics that involve Jak, his trauma, and the prevailing angst of being forever stranded in a world that was never his (even if, eventually, he does make it his home).

It's one of those series that I wish would continue, bumps and all (regardless of how I feel about those bumps in particular), even if it had to be a soft reboot set in the (present) future timeline, if only because what we see is a small part of the world and there has to be much more to it.

Also we never got to see Gol and Maia return despite Precursor Legacy kind of-sort of-maybe wink-wink-nudge-nudging at it, so that would make for a fun return to form a'la sci-fi versus fantasy.

[playstationpark]

'Jak II: Renegade' was released on the PlayStation 2 20 years ago today in the US.

[bedazzledstrider]

Comparing my Jak art from last year to now

I remember spending WEEKS on the first one and manually darkening colors to shade and thinking it was CRAZY how people could draw and color all in a few hours

The second one took me about a dayish

[jak2gooberglub]

Flash warningggg

This one is my favorite of the 3 lol

The song is called Mouth by Haylog

[extraneousdominomask]

What I did on my summer vacation

As you've no doubt gathered by now, for the last two years I've been playing various old games with my wife. I often used to post about that adventure here, and then I kinda stopped. I feel bad about that, especially when it comes to the two excellent, free indie games I had fully intended to spotlight. So here's a quick rundown!

Celeste, OJONMRAG, Double Cross

Three great indies I got in the same bundle. Celeste needs no introduction, and I've spoken about it before. I don't know if I ever mentioned Oh Jeez Oh No My Rabbits Are Gone!!!, but it's a fun puzzle game with cute visuals and surprisingly catchy music. And speaking of those two things, Double Cross is a hidden gem of a game. We really enjoyed its eclectic cast, and still sometimes quote the zany catgirl in particular. ("All cats are tyrants, Zahra.")

Manic Miners

Lego Rock Raiders was a toy line in the 1990s, which earned its own video game tie-in. I remember it fondly... as did one absolute hero, who remastered the dang thing as a non-profit passion project. Manic Miners is available via Itch for free - because it's a fan game! He had to ask very nicely to do this at all! - and it completely revitalizes what was an engaging but flawed fuzzy memory from my childhood. As well as adding several quality of life improvements to make the game flow better, cut content is restored and entirely new features are added in, such as a character creator. If you want an accessible game that can provide the sweet, sweet satisfaction of collecting every scrap of resources from a initially messy environment, I highly recommend this.

inFamous 2: Festival of Blood

An important thing to know about me is that I hate vampires. I don't like 'em and I don't like looking at 'em, so I usually avoid and and all vampiric media, even if they're getting slaughtered. For that reason, despite loving inFamous 2, I never checked out its DLC side-adventure Festival of Blood... until now. (Making a new purchase on the PS3 digital store was hard, but not impossible. Thanks for complaining every time they try to shut it down, everybody!) It's a short experience, but a lot of fun, thanks to the wise decision to let Zeke narrate the whole bullshit stor- I mean, thrilling tale of true heroism. I found Bloody Mary to be an entertainingly nasty villain, despite my biases.

Psychonauts 2

Psychonauts is one of the video games ever, no question. Expectations were lofty for its much-delayed sequel. If anything, I think I prefer this one! The core (the gameplay, visuals, hilarious writing, and Peter McConnell's consistently excellent music) all remain unchanged, with new mechanics, some quality of life improvements, and an impressive voice cast all added on top. Jack Black and Elijah Wood are both in this game, and they're both great!

Pokémon White

this one kinda sucked ngl

Halo: Combat Evolved

Mostly, I'm showing my wife a game and not the other way around. There was one major franchise that I had almost entirely missed, however - aside from a few free-form skirmishes at parties - that she fondly remembers. This summer, we both experienced the first Halo together, and in short: yeah, I can see why this changed the course of the industry singlehandedly. It still feels great to play, even with my wife assuring me that the sequel is a big improvement from these already solid bones. I frankly don't relish slaughtering the fleeing, crying Grunts, since we as a society have moved on considerably when it comes to the rights of funny little guys. But it feels great to shoot aleins and Cortana is my friend. Exactly as advertised.

Jak II: Renegade

this one definitely sucked, holy shit. I remember this being a good game. I remembered incorrectly.

Shantae (2002)

I've played two of the more recent Shantae games, and I found them charming. But how does the original hold up? Pretty well, honestly! It's far from perfect - the day and night cycle really adds nothing beyond referencing Castlevania - but the music and visuals are truly impressive for the original GameBoy. I'm gonna be thinking about Shantae's cute little 8-bit dances for a while.

Undertale Yellow

Like anyone who listens to a lot of Toby Fox's music over YouTube, I've seen my fair share of dubious OCs and "epic fights" floating at the corner of my vision. With that in mind, I went into UY with managed expectations, despite the positive buzz. Could a fangame really match the unique energy and charm of one of the greatest independent games of our generation?

Uh... yeah! I'm as surprised as anyone else, but everything from the music to the gameplay to the writing was really bang-on. It's not a flawless experience - the El Bailador fight needed reworking, it was WAY harder than other, more impactful fights - but the eight years of passion very much shine through. If you're a fan of UT/DR and need something to tide you over as we all wait for Chapters 3+, I fully recommend this. It's free!!!!

Spyro the Dragon (1998)

Finished this just yesterday! I got the remaster when it came out, but - no offense - nothing beats the blocky low-poly charm of the original. This was my first time replaying it in several years, and for the first time, it felt small. Levels I remember struggling with posed no challenge any more. But I think that only speaks to how many times I replayed this lovely little adventure. Also, did you know that of the, like, four voice actors in this game, one of them is Clancy goddamn Brown? He plays like 30 of these polygonal dragons!

...I would normally try to end a post this long on a more climactic note, but, uh... yeah.