The Jak II Retrospective

While Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was a success, it wasn't as much of a hit as Naughty Dog were hoping. The video game market had begun to shift during the final months of development, as mature games like Grand Theft Auto III, Halo, and Devil May Cry captured players' attention while critics began to grow bored of platformers.

Just as they had been doing for years, Jason Rubin, Andy Gavin, and the rest of the studio wanted to move with the rest of the industry. And rather than discard the kid-friendly mascot duo they had spent three years producing, they decided to bring them along for the ride. But between a wide stigma against the genre, player anxieties over the series' new direction, and widespread comparisons between their sequel and Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank, Jak II would be facing an uphill battle.

Patreon:   / andrewbluett  
Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/drubie.bsky....

Additional Voiceover (in order of appearance):
Ty Schalter: ‪@FunFactorPod‬ https://bsky.app/profile/tyschalter.com
KHGuides: ‪@KHGuides‬
Majuular: ‪@Majuular‬
Pretty Cody: ‪@prettycody‬
Frank Wood: ‪@SuperRPGFriends‬ ‪@WoodmanFLG‬

Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:04 Part 1: A Market in Flux
9:43 Part 2: Old Dogs Need Rest
15:55 Part 3: Metastasis
25:16 Patreon
25:33 Part 4: Jak II
29:42 Josh Mancell's Game Score
32:25 Art Design & Haven City
35:48 Cinematic Presentation
43:43 A Contemptible Villain
49:26 Jak, the Renegade
1:05:35 Augmenting Gameplay
1:17:55 Difficulty
1:29:02 Constructing a Narrative
1:39:30 Narrative Shortcomings
1:48:26 Metanarrative & The Loss of Innocence
1:56:41 Personal Thoughts
1:59:04 Part 5: Time Capsule
2:10:12 To Be Continued...

The bibliography for this video is available for free on my Patreon, no membership required: https://www.patreon.com/posts/1294632...