Jak II: A Series' Midlife Crisis

[@culIen]

If anyone can figure out the song used before the vid credits you are entitled to the Millenial Discount and a cookie

[@thecomedygamingnetwork261]

Jak 3 Is worth covering. Lost frontier, hell no. Daxter psp game? Yea

[@maraganger]

Not only did I learn lots about a game I've legit never played but also, absolutely loved the way you approached that ending ! Very inspiring. :>

[@culIen]

Maraaaaaaa thank you 😭 I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with wrapping up this vid so I'm glad it landed! I tried to ride a line between saying something and not saying too much about a Scrimblo game lfnfjfjfjfkf Glad it worked, thank you for watching it means a lot 🙏

[@ShinyQuasarDragon]

I personally adore this game and still hold it as one of my favorite games of all time, with that said, I enjoyed your video and even though I disagreed with some points regarding the gameplay and mission aspects, I can totally understand the frustrations and complaints about it. Especially since not everyone is gonna play the game as I did and the experience varies through person to person. With that said, I truly look back at the game and hearing other people talk about it is always refreshing since the Jak games only get praise mostly for Jak 1, while understandable, it's unfortunate not everyone gets to appreciate the risks and the changes in the industry that Jak II was going for. I really hope to see the Jak 3 review soon, though. Which btw, the best version in my opinion is the PS3 version despite having two major issues: punch glitch and the vehicle handling. Punch glitch is a annoying glitch that plagues all 3 games in the collection that makes Jak go to a unintended way when punching while moving through the map. This happens in certain spots but if you are fine with ignoring it, that's good. The second is the vehicle handling in a large portion of the game, it does make the vehicles very slippery for some reason and it can get very annoying at certain missions. That's mostly it, really. PS2 still holds up as well but the resolution and more screen tearing could be annoying for some but that truly depends on you.

[@oldmanonyoutube]

I loved the first Jak and Daxter game and wanted to like Jak II so much. I tried to play it a couple of times (maybe more) but I didn't find the missions fun, especially the one where you have a time limit to get across the city.

[@culIen]

I'm surprised I didn't mention those, because they just suckeddddd. I think I blocked them out of my memory, they're so uneventful. I still don't know how I managed to hit credits with how rancid some missions get lmao

[@HonzyandFriends]

Great job of this video! Anxious to watch more of your work.

[@fatherlucid4995]

I am making a fan game that’s a what if Jak and Daxter 2 that follows the mold of the first but it’s more story based than collectathon based. It’s taking the depth the world presented us with and expanding upon that to craft a deeper story. That’s what I’m working on. It also does not decanonize 2 and 3 it’s just an alternate path or reality if you will

[@culIen]

That sounds fun! If we ever got a new Jak game it would be cool for it to be something that's the best of both worlds. Good luck 👍

[@fatherlucid4995]

@@culIen Thanks. I enjoyed your analysis of the series

[@PowercellZeke]

I disagree with quite a lot of your opinions towards the game (and the first game), but I thoroughly enjoyed the video. I think Jak 2 is one of those games that gets better with more playthroughs and getting to know the mechanics better. The gun combat is actually quite deep and very well designed, the jetboard is incredible once you really know how to use it, and the vehicles can feel floaty, but again, I find them pretty fun and engaging once you get a grip on how they feel. The only things I can't really defend the implementation of is the approach to the open world, and Dark Jak (both conceptually great though). Idk, maybe you'd call it stockholm syndrome cuz I've been playing it most my life, but I find the game incredibly fun and well designed. However there is one thing we agree on which I think is most important, Jak 2 is a totally unique game that wasn't afraid to take risks, and I give it a lot of respect for that. It's something I also value greatly in art, and I can't think of many other games that did what Jak 2 did (especially after the first game). The video was also funny af, I loved it. As for Jak 3, totally up to you which version to play. I prefer PS2 (cuz I'm a sucker for original hardware), but the performance is about as good as Jak 2, while pushing the hardware even further. The PS3 version performs pretty well (although, for some reason, the new vehicles handling is suuuper slippery in comparison to PS2, no clue why). Pick your poison I guess

[@subwaytovenus3237]

I love the voice overs of your thoughts coming through characters, especially the Gorillaz one. Plus the skull gems edit was beautiful

[@culIen]

Fun fact, the skull gems part was actually not planned! I was in call with a group of friends while editing, realized the mistake, and GC just sent me that so I didn't have to record a new line lol. We laughed our asses off, it ended up becoming on of my favorite bits.

[@subwaytovenus3237]

That's the best fun fact! It's why it felt so genuinely funny!

[@Jona-14]

assuming i don't have the bell pressed already smh (great video)

[@earthbound9999]

Can't believe You're an Evergrace liker too. There's gotta be, what, six of us out there?

[@culIen]

It'll be at least 7 when I get around to making my evergrace video and share the love with the world 😤 For now, I have to settle with sneaking in the occasional Kota Hoshino song into videos!

[@irisbeldroth6502]

@@culIen I actually am planning on streaming a full play thru of this game lmao

[@artyawa5704]

Quick question. @ 1:13 is it meant to be a joke insinuating that Jak is saying "I'm gonna fuck Praxis!", or is KZbin genuinely at the stage where it's requiring video makers to censor the word "kill"?

[@culIen]

It's the fuck thing, but honestly it's funny either way tbh

[@artyawa5704]

@@culIen Not gonna lie, I'm relieved 😅 Great video btw. A lot of good points and the edits were genuinely funny. I played Jak II religiously growing up and loved it to bits, but it's nice to see a "warts and all" take on it.

[@sg_gaming786_springsilverfox]

I have played through the Jak and Daxter series last year. (when it was on sale) I never encounter or see any error when I first play through them

[@Artemisio987]

Knowing you hated the races too makes me feel so at peace, the vindication tastes ever so sweet even 20 years later. I remember i managed to win the mandatory one bc the bots all feel into a ditch and i was the only one standing, and that was after at least a dozen attempts

[@culIen]

I think I got lucky enough that Errol's ai crashed himself into a wall enough times for him to die and then from there I just got lucky LOL. Absolute dreadful experience, one that would have likely been a deal breaker if I was a kid when I played this. The bits I've played of driving in 3 so far are LEAGUES better, don't know what they were thinking with hover bikes.

[@Dgillespie937]

Low key, I loved this. I’ve tried finding somewhat decent jak content for years, and the memeing of this is essentially just a look inside my brain who really shouldn’t have lived off this series 😂😂😂

[@KBash]

i wish to be sauteed in evergrace

[@PowercellZeke]

My boy KBash on a Jak video??? Based

[@KBash]

@@PowercellZeke yo i caught your jak 2 video and it made me wanna play the games. love mechanical inquiry stuff like that 😤

[@PowercellZeke]

@@KBash yooo that's so cool! It's such a weird and cool feeling when a creator I respect says they've come across my videos and enjoyed it lol. Just sayin tho, seeing a Jak thumbnail in your style would be pretty sick. A video to go along with it would be neat too!

[@culIen]

Missed opportunity to say sauteed in evergrease

[@KBash]

@@culIen sautee me already. for the culture.

[@PunishedPrince]

glad i watched ideon last month

[@culIen]

B Invoked as well, I hope?

[@PunishedPrince]

@@culIen yup!

[@ajax4887]

Jak 3 when?

[@culIen]

Awhile! Jak 2 burned me out hard lol. The best answer I have is "this year, hopefully"

[@tbone007]

​@@culIenwell, the good news is that if you were to play it, it is much shorter than Jak 2 as well as so much easier as there are so many checkpoints in the game.

[@acenewtype8544]

I both love and hate Jak 2, I have so much nostalgia for it. But man, there are certain missions I just hate and just stop me from going further every time I play it. It's mostly down to the bad checkpointing.

[@culIen]

It's so weird, because Jak 3's good check pointing in a way has made the levels a bit less memorable? They're much better all around, but don't drill into your head the way Jak 2's do. It's such a weird game, it's hard to truly hate this despite its MASSIVE list of issues.

[@Yup932]

Jak 2 was a midlife crisis that ended up being a success story

[@JohnnyRico118]

Loved this game as a kid, but it was too difficult for me to ever complete. I think if I went back and played it as an adult all the flaws of the game would be more obvious.

[@Wayneisboss]

They replaced the fun obnoxious sound effect the warp portals had in the first game 0/10

[@culIen]

There was a sound with the warp portals????

[@GCVazquez]

I miss the guy that talks in the gutter voice

[@tbone007]

You think the Erol street ring race is bad? To get the platinum trophy for the game you have to do the same race but you have to beat it in a time of 2 minutes and 6 seconds to get the gold medal.

[@Santana_Art]

8:16 lmaooo 😂😂😂😂

[@SolidArf]

Watched the Jak 1 vid recently, and really appreciated this too! I have a lot of nostalgia (and muscle memory) for the series, so it's super interesting to hear how they feel for the first time today. Found your point about replayability especially interesting. Maybe I'm weird, but I've always enjoyed replaying 2 & 3 way more than 1 - largely *because* the moveset grows throughout, and there's so much (admittedly flawed) variation. Whereas with 1, I don't feel a sense of progression after Playthrough #1. Totally agree about the rooftop scene though. Stuck with me as a kid so it's cool hearing *that* still hit for you!

[@culIen]

I think that's a fair point, and I probably should have developed that idea more! My point is mainly about how a returning player might get bored having to re-unlock all the fun tools they got used to and find it boring, whereas with 1 everything is already there so you can play around with your kit from the start. 3 seems to have a better pace of unlocks so far though, so I think that might hold up good for a replay? 2 just makes me think of having to do the Sig fight with only a Shotgun before I shudder and think again about replacing it lol. I was worried how people would think of the rooftop scene, so it's cool I'm not alone there! I know Jak has a weather system in place, so I was even a bit worried that scene being so pretty wad random haha. Overall, this is a fun project I look forward to continuing! Hoping 3's vid doesn't take as long, but I'm struggling to get me feelings into words on that game so far.

[@TerrorOfTalos]

I think Jak 2 is decent but it's pretty much the game that handicapped the IP as a whole.

[@culIen]

Oh yeah, when all things are said and done I like the game a lot but 4 hours into Jak 3 and I can tell they were struggling to figure out how to follow that up. 2 is a bit too much of an "Everything Game"

[@forza8719]

@@culIen I agree 2 is a bit too much of everything but that’s also what made me love it. Great review btw I really vibed with you said despite liking the game more. Since your playing Jak 3 will we get a video soon?

[@bloody_outlaw8000]

Jak 2 is a masterpiece i win bye bye

[@ImRatherTwistd]

You do.

[@simonemancuso3576]

You do for sure

[@NikoTeaJay]

I didn't mind the tonal shift (though I can't say I was a fan of the phenomenon, ah early 2000's), I didn't mind aping GTA (though it was poorly aped). My main gripe was the fucked up difficulty. I did play through the game, but it was significantly more difficult than Jak1 and not in a satisfying way. I don't know if it was.. "malice" or just rushed balancing, but the resulting repetition was quite grating. I quickly moved onto Jak3 (still in the first half of that game) and so far my thought's have been "like Jak2 but not infuriating". Nice analogy with the midlife crisis uncle, hah.

[@markmendoza3579]

Final fantasy 10-2 had a larger tonal shift in my opinion

[@sometimespauly]

"Jak II asked me what right I had to judge it as a twenty something who has definitely committed the sin of doing the KZbin gag involving me shooting a fake gun at an evil version of myself" Absolutely sent me. Another banger vid!

[@ColonelFrostNZ]

Jak 2 feels like it has more flaws than pros and if a remake ever did happen it would need to be a complete rework. Story is good but the rest of the game needs major life saving surgery

[@supersonicfan7]

Great Vid Cullen. Totally understand the critiques, and your frustrations, and I appreciate the ending bit. As an *insane person* that loves Jak 2, despite all the faults, I totally concede that it is hard and frustrating for the wrong reasons, but it still ends up being a joy for me to replay.

[@culIen]

Thank you so much! I hope more Jak 2 fans (which, weirdly enough after all is said in done I almost see myself as one???) are able to get to the end to see that I do genuinely think this game has merit. It might have destroyed the series' cohesive identity, but it's an important stepping stone for ND that seems unreplicable. I'm excited for 3, and I might give 2 another shot on the HD Collection in a couple years to see if my thoughts change.

[@JimmyJames10-k7v]

Imagine if Jak 2 was more like 1

[@krispy_kornflake]

There's something about early 2000's games for me... Would try Jak II if the NoAH patch wasn't just released today LETS GO WOOOOHOOO CoZ FTW!!!

[@culIen]

I'm so excited for that, I just got my steam deck back too so I plan to play the whole thing on it :D

[@krispy_kornflake]

@@culIen it's out!

[@markmendoza3579]

They were teens not midlife

[@buster3041]

Jak 2 is the best in the series. Played several times over the past 10 years and still feel the same way every time.

[@JimmyJames10-k7v]

Hell no

[@Neon_Neutral94]

I only like the first game but I’ll try 2 again and 3 if I can bear it 😬

[@ko7302]

You should probably just play 3. I loved jak 2 I grew up playing it. I have beat it many many times. Most people complain it's too hard though

[@attackofthecopyrightbots]

jak 1-2 are perfect in my eyes but yes, 2 is the best

[@attackofthecopyrightbots]

but 3 was trying too hard to be like the first one but still keep the feel from 2 too and didnt mesh in my hands and ugh it was so obvious they wanted to just make jak x fkc the racing sht

[@EekChocolate]

I think Naughty Dog's eventual shift towards making the gaming equivalent of HBO dramas pretty much started with Jak II. There's an old interview tidbit from Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin on Computer and Video Games where he talks about being disappointed with Super Mario Sunshine and the perceived stagnation of Nintendo's games: ------------ Rubin: It definitely redoubled my belief that you have to push the genre forward, because when I put that game in and expected Miyamoto greatness, and the characters came out saying: "Bloop! Bloop! Bloop!" I was like, that is 1997. I don't need that in 2003. Give me a character with a voice and a personality, and more of a cinematic experience. Don't give me Mario from 15 years ago. They just haven't moved on; that's not their focus. I think its very hard for Miyamoto to both run Nintendo - which he does to a certain extent - and get into the game design. I don't think I would be necessarily disparaging Miyamoto himself to say that Mario Sunshine did not live up to my expectations. It may just be that he doesn't have enough time to get his hands on that stuff anymore, but I wasn't that excited about that game. I thought Ratchet and Clank was far more interesting. -------------- The more I think about this quote, the more amusing it sounds because gameplay-centric games have continued to dominate the market - including those made and published by Nintendo. Meanwhile, there's been tons of videos, articles, and social media posts decrying Naughty Dog's "movie games" as a stagnant, dated formula.

[@del46_60]

For reference, Super Mario Odyssey sold 12M copies in its first year. God of War Ragnarok just 11M in 2 months. Not as cut and dry as you'd be led to believe based on the noise from the "very online" demographic.

[@EekChocolate]

@@del46_60 I wouldn't really call the newer God of War games "movie games". They have a lot of cinematics, sure, but they're still mostly gameplay-driven titles - complete with side quests and post-game content. But even if you count them as such and put a lot of weight behind their success, that's still like one or two Sony AAA titles versus like 15 Nintendo-published titles that have sold 10+ million units. And that's not even getting into stuff like Minecraft and Fortnite, which are also heavily gameplay-driven and way more popular than "movie games".

[@del46_60]

@@EekChocolate Would Horizon count? HZD sold 20M units at one point. Only Naughty Dog games? Uncharted 4: 15M units. TLOU, completely new IP: 17M units. Hell, even Death Stranding sold 10M units. Those have all met your criteria of success (+10M units), especially considering these are not IPs cemented as cultural touchstones almost 40 years ago or MP games with low barriers to entry on billions of devices like Fortnite that benefit from network effects. It is extremely reductive to claim "gameplay-centric" releases dominate and "movie games" are dated while ignoring that Naughty Dog's games sell better than 99% of all releases in the first place. They crush most full retail releases in any given calendar year, including critical, gameplay-centered successes like Metroid Dread, Bayonetta 3, or Kirby. ND's games are more comparable in success to historic entries of major franchises like Halo 3 (14.5M copies). I think my perspective is further supported by the fact that the vast majority of online criticism targeting TLOU 2 wasn't about "stale" gameplay at all, which had radically improved and surpassed the incredibly popular first entry, but around a controversial character death. Separately, IP is the most important element when it comes to Nintendo's catalogue in my opinion. You cannot convince me that the most popular Nintendo franchise, Pokemon, is "gameplay-driven." It is not the baby's first JRPG experience, which ironically refuses to evolve, that moves 20M units. The gameplay is objectively less of a focus in its formula compared to Dragon Quest 11. I would also argue the gameplay is inferior to many comparable JRPGs, but the sales combined with release frequency for Pokemon are in another stratosphere altogether. They are absurdly popular because of the IP: the cute characters and idyllic setting. How about Breath of the Wild? Some argue it's the greatest game of all time, and it's a major entry in a foundational game series that has largely centered around gameplay. It sold less units than Spider-Man (2018). You can find plenty of people online calling that a "movie game" too. The game mostly polished tried and true open-world gameplay mechanics to an Insomniac level of quality while offering a compelling story. It's certainly not more gameplay-driven than BotW, nor was it as innovative. But Spider-Man is just more popular than Link as a character. I'm not saying "movie games" dominate the industry, but I think your framing is just echoing sentiment from a vocal minority. It's really not that cut and dry.

[@MadDogSolo]

Not sure if you tried out Jak 3 yet, but overall that game isn’t as frustrating and Dark Jak is better in that game, also doesn’t have the time limit and instead the gauge goes down as you use it’s abilities.

[@Beem0b0t]

I adore the Jak trilogy, and have since I was a kid, but you're so right. I will never replay the second or third games despite loving to replay the first.

[@culIen]

I think I'll probably try to replay the first in a few years with that fan made PC port to see if my thoughts will have softened by not playing it on PS4 lol

[@JohnnyJohnnyJohnnyJohnnyJohnny]

I just recently downloaded the ps4 collection. I for the most part enjoyed Jak 1, while I agree it was pretty uninspired. Then I went to play Jak 2 and really wanted to love the changes, but I ultimately gave up on the game halfway through. If it was just difficult I would've pushed through, I mean Crash Bandicoot 4 is insanely hard, but I loved that game. It was just unintersting. The gun combat I thought was pretry varied and fun, but the aiming absolutely ruined it. Most of the missions are either some awful vehicle level, or a pretty good, linear platforming level. But every single level has at least one aspect that feels like complete bullshit to inflate the game's length. Not to mention the boring world, and cringe inducing writting, that left me with nothing to keep playing the game for.

[@JohnnyJohnnyJohnnyJohnnyJohnny]

Also I just wanna say I dropped the game after suffering to beat the first race for 2 hours and immediately found out I had to complete the whole circuit

[@ko7302]

​@@JohnnyJohnnyJohnnyJohnnyJohnnyI have beat the whole game... many times. It's extremely hard but rewarding when you win. For the time it came out people liked that cheesy stuff.

[@twilftw]

I personally wish jak 3 didn’t exist as it is with it being jak 2 2 and instead was mad a few years later with another tonal change

[@mercury5003]

God, I loved jak and daxter as a kid, I was so excited to finally get to play jak 2 and when i finally did I absolutely fucking hated it. Glad you got some enjoyment out of it though!

[@PLANTBAT]

I always liked Ratchet and Clank a lot more, Naughty Dog as a whole is such an interesting studio.

[@TerrorOfTalos]

As someone who's one of the least biased when comparing both series (even technically having more nostalgia for JaD while preferring RaC). Jak while a relatively more ambitious series for the time had drastic changes too soon for direct sequels forming a lack of identity that handicapped the IP in hindsight. For Crash, Spyro, Sly and RaC those trilogies can all be described in a sentence or two; same can't be said for JaD. RaC in particular just simply had an easier way to realistically handle its transitions by Insomniac not fixing what isn't broken from what was conceptualized to begin with while also experimenting a bit; whether it be story, gameplay or style. ND just couldn't figure out a way to do that with Jak in an incremental way while also still having passion and a clear vision for it. The cancelled ND PS3 title even shows NDs self awareness on this. They knew they couldn't make a game that resembled what people liked on PS2 because outside of drastically changing the style they didn't really have anything else to pull from that they themselves felt was right/liked that also respected the franchise prior.

[@culIen]

I'm playing Ratchet 1 right now, and really enjoying just how blissfully simple it is compared to Jak 2. If nothing else, I'm glad this project had gotten me to check out some PS2 classic scrimblos

[@sebastiankulche]

I may agree that RaC this days may been the superior series, though i think TPL is better than any Jak and Ratchet... like ever.

[@keeferkifflom360]

Idk what’s more cringe,this game or this reviewer?

[@culIen]

@@keeferkifflom360 definitely me I'm winning the cringe off