The Future I See for Jak and Daxter script

The future i see for jak and daxter script

The future of the Jak series

With all these “rumours” going around about BluePoint games doing this Jek and Daxter Re-Trilogy, it got me thinking about how I would approach something new for this franchise. If you’re unaware of the rumours going around, go watch this video by Canadian guy eh, he explains it better than I could.

Just a little backstory about me and this channel, I used to want a Jak 4 that directly follows Jak 3, like a tonne of people still do. Since I was 13 though, my opinions have changed a lot. There’s nothing wrong with wanting this sort of game, in a perfect world, I’d still love to get one, but I really can’t see it happening.

A few years ago, I made a video about my opinions on Jak 4, going over reasons why I couldn’t see one happening, and why I didn’t want one anymore. I’ll be re-treading some of those points in this video, as I still agree with most of them.

Just to preface the rest of this video, I’m probably one of the biggest Jak fans ever. Not to sound pretentious or like a fanboy or anything, but the amount of my life I’ve invested in this series, whether it be playing the games, making videos, documenting them, pondering and discussing them, and spending thousands of dollars on them is quite insane. Pretty much all of last year, I lived and breathed Jak and Daxter, it was all I was focusing on, with youtube and my website that I created. I have spent countless hours researching the series, discovering facts behind its development, dissecting the story intensely, and critically looking at all the games. I know this series inside and out, I know it better than I know my family, so I think it’s safe to say I’m a massive fan of this series, and am very knowledgeable on it. HOWEVER. I am not blind to the many flaws and inconsistencies the series has, and am very aware of where it sits in the public mind, so, I think my opinion on this topic holds a little more weight than most people. Again, I’m not trying to blow smoke up my own ass, or act like a prick to anyone else, I just think I know what’s best for this series better than most, because I feel that I look at the topic extremely objectively. With all that being said, if you’re still with me, let’s continue.

Also, forgive me if I jump around a bit in this video, there’s a lot of common arguments that I’m trying to dissect here, so I may lose my train of thought every now and then.


Reasons I don’t want a Jak 4, and why I don’t see one happening

Let’s start with Jak 4. This seems to be a hot take, but no, I don’t want a Jak 4. Something I said in that older video is it’s been too long to have a proper sequel. I still agree with this sentiment. It’s been 15 years since Jak 3, I’m sure you can agree that’s a long time. I’ve seen the argument made before that certain series have had longer spans of time between sequels. But how often does stuff like that happen? To even consider the possibility of that happening, we need to look at the series in question. First, we see that the number of dedicated Jak fans is a decent size, but it’s still pretty small. Sales from these fans alone will not in any way warrant development of a new game, especially one that mostly appeals to dedicated fans, which is an even slimmer portion of the fandom. Next is cost of a new game. So, the Jak games were very expensive games when they were made, and they were incredibly ambitious and complex. Making a follow up for the series will not be cheap or easy. You can see where I’m going with this right? If some studio was to make a Jak 4 that appeals mostly to the hardcore fanbase alone, and have it not be a disappointment, they’d have to expend a lot of man power and money, for very little return. Of course new fans will discover the game and enjoy it, but the game would be made for the very small amount of dedicated fans, and those fans alone would not cover the costs. All these issues are just amplified as the years go on. The longer between titles, the more people forget about the games, so the less people will buy the product. You see where I’m coming from right?

The other major point I brought up in my old Jak 4 video, is that Naughty Dog is a very different team now compared to when they made the Jak games. Almost no one who worked on the Jak games is still working at Naughty Dog now, so a new game from them would be very different. The current team is specialised to make hyper-realistic looking games, with very real life mechanics and stories. This team isn’t designed to make a fantasy cartoony style game like the Jak series. I also said I can’t see them making a follow up to the trilogy, as they probably wouldn’t understand the story completely, and wouldn’t do justice to a Jak story. I still agree with this. I don’t think Naughty Dog could make a new Jak game at all. At least not the way we all want it, a cartoony platformer. A very gamey game. That isn’t to say another studio couldn’t tackle a Jak and Daxter game, but lots of people are still clinging to the hope of Naughty Dog making it, which is extremely unlikely.


The Jak and Daxter series is mostly remembered as the light hearted platformer Naughty Dog did on the PS2. The first game is the one that sold the most, and what most people remember the series for. Most people didn’t play the sequels, or if they did, they didn’t like the changes made, so they dropped it. I’m not saying that the sequels don’t have millions of fans, cuz they obviously do, but the point I’m trying to make is most people know the series because of the first game. Nowhere near as many people played and beat Jak 2 and 3, and most people don’t understand the story of those games, and the shortcomings Jak 3 introduced. If a proper Jak 4 that people want were to be announced, and tried to sell to a mass audience, the hardcore fans would obviously know what’s going on in the story with Mar and the dark makers and stuff like that, but most people wouldn’t have a clue what was going on, and would wonder why it wasn’t like the first game. A follow up to Jak 3 isn’t very likely, cuz it’s a very small minority of people who want that because of the story.


How I see the series moving forward/common arguments

So, I don’t want a Jak 4. Does that mean I wouldn’t want anything new from the series? Of course not. Here’s what I would want to see.

The rumour I mentioned at the start of the video has the right idea. A sort of remake/reboot of the original trilogy. The rumour says it will be a very ambitious remake, streamlining the story and gameplay, and making changes and additions to both. This is exactly what I would like to see from the series. This would be the perfect chance to not only introduce a LOT of new people to the series, but also fix all the questionable plot elements and unbalanced gameplay to really maximize the potential of the series. Not only would this appeal to fans like me who understand the flaws of the series, but I’m sure some old fans would greatly appreciate fixes to the problems with gameplay and story they didn’t realise were there. I say some fans because I KNOW that a tonne of people would not be on board with this kind of remake, but I’ll get to that later.

Just look at crash and spyro. They shot straight into popularity when their remakes were announced and released. They’re now part of the public mind, because the public was reintroduced to those games. Because they were remastering the original titles, games many people have played before, it sold to their nostalgia. Now we have a bunch of old fans invested in the series again. Both those series are in a great place to get new games, and so many people are wanting new games. I have a feeling there will be new games, it’s only a matter of time.

Anyway, my point is, people LOVE remakes. If it’s a game they played when they were younger, they’d likely get it. If they only played it a little, they’d likely get the remake to give it another shot. It’s a lot easier to jump into a series with a remake than trying to play the originals again. I don’t think people understand the potential a Jak remake has. Not only will it finally give fans something new, and give them a fresh experience of their favourite games, but also be the best possible jumping in point for new fans. Crash and Spyro got loads of new fans through their remakes, because they not only tapped into people’s nostalgia, but they were also heavily marketed. If they were to do a Jak remake, they would almost certainly put a lot more marketing towards it than they did for the PS3 and PS4 versions. If the Jak series were to get a remake, I think it would do really well. Anyone who played it before would pick it up, people who had heard of the games would likely pick it up, and tonnes of new fans would have an easy way to get into the series. Remakes are a popular thing at the moment, they have been for the last few years, people are really looking to relive their childhoods with these old franchises. Same could be said for a reboot, but I think that’s a lot riskier to just straight up reboot the franchise, because it would be really hard to choose a direction for this series, so the idea of a remake that changes, adds and fixes things in the trilogy is, in my eyes, the absolute best possible way to approach this series in the modern age. That way, we could have the original games at heart, but we now have them much more focused and streamlined, and very easy for the general public to digest. With all this being said, I do understand that the Jak series doesn’t have the same mass appeal as Crash and Spyro, but I think this kind of remake would do well regardless. Keep in mind, when I say remake, I don’t mean a graphical face lift like the crash and spyro remakes. I don’t think that’s necessary for this series at all, the games still look amazing, I really need to emphasize this. A remake that does something new is what is needed.

I’ll now address a lot of the concerns people have with a remake

I see lots of old fans and even new fans say that a remake is completely unnecessary because all the games still hold up well. And you know what, I completely agree. HOWEVER, that doesn’t excuse the fact that these flaws the trilogy has have been there since release, time hasn’t produced these flaws. I agree that these games are a lot easier to go back to than a lot of other old games, due to things like the fantastic controls, and the graphics still hold up really well. But here’s the thing. If we aren’t willing to accept change, then this series will never move forward. Like I went over earlier, a Jak 4 like most fans want is simply not viable as the series is now. Sure, new fans can go back and play the original games to be up to date with the story, but most people won’t because they’re older games. If a Jak 4 was to be announced and tried to appeal to a mass audience, most people would just pick it up and not bother with the original games, because they just want to play the new one, because it’s new. Case in point, kingdom hearts 3. That game was a very long awaited and anticipated title. In just the first 2 weeks the game became the best-selling game in the series. You know what that means? Lots of new fans dove right into this game without trying the old ones. With any series, if you’re looking to get into it, you’re likely going to want to start with the newest one, especially if it’s a long running series. Kingdom hearts 3 tried to be good for old and new fans, what this gave us was a story that went nowhere until the last 5 or so hours, because if the story had a good normal pacing, new fans wouldn’t know what the fuck was going on, and would get frustrated because they just wanted to play the Disney worlds. Now just imagine Jak 4. New game is released, sells better than any game in the series, and the story is exactly how the old fans want it to be. But the majority of people playing it will be new fans, who more than likely didn’t go back and play the original games. Then we’ve got potentially millions of people who think the game sucks because it didn’t cater to them, then the series is dead for good. I know it sounds shitty, but that’s how the general audience works. You’re probably thinking to yourself that they should just play the original games. But most people don’t want to. Why would they want to play a bunch of PS2 games just to play a brand new PS5 game? Most people wouldn’t do that, they wouldn’t put in the effort to try and experience the new game in the best way possible.

And you know what else, I’m still seeing people say that Sony should just port the original games to PS5 to “test the waters” and gauge interest in the series to see if making a Jak 4 is viable. I can’t believe I have to say this, but they’ve already done that, twice. Once with the HD collection on PS3 and Vita, and again when they ported the games to PS4. Neither sold insanely well, the HD collection sold under a million units, and most people don’t even know the games are on PS4. I’m not saying these flopped or anything like that, I’m trying to say that these really only sold to the hardcore fans, and Sony didn’t exactly do a whole lot to promote them, especially the PS4 ports. Testing the waters is not the way to approach revisiting this series, if we just keep getting remasters and ports, the series will never get anywhere. The general public doesn’t care much for old games in their original form on modern hardware, most gamers don’t spend upwards of $400 on a new console to play almost 20 year old PS2 games, I’m probably the only one who did that with my PS4.

What I think people fail to see in a remake of this sort, is the potential for a Jak 4 to come from this. Just imagine this. We get a remake that fixes many problems the original games had, they handle the series perfectly, and the old fans are happy, and loads of new fans love it. The remake is a success. At that point, Jak 4 is in a better spot than it ever has been. A game to continue from the remake would make sense business wise, and we would all finally be getting brand new Jak and Daxter content. How incredible would that be? That’s the ideal world. I really think people need to accept change with this series if it’s ever going to move forward. I don’t want a remake or a new game that’s more “modern”. I’ve seen a lot of people say a new Jak game in the style of God of War 4 would be great, and I’ve seen people be scared of that happening. Personally, I would hate to see that happen, I don’t want this series to turn into something it isn’t just to appeal to the modern audience. But what I do see being possible, is a remake in the style I’ve been describing. We need a remake that isn’t afraid to change and fix things in the original games. The way I’d approach it is to keep the design of the games mostly in-tact, fix some issues here and there, change some elements of the gameplay and story, but I don’t want the original games to become too modernised, I still want them to feel like PS2 games with modern graphics and stuff. If a Jak 4 coming after the remakes were to happen, THEN I’d love to see whatever developer take the series into the modern era, in terms of technology and scope. I’d still want the game to feel like a game, but I’d love to see how the world design and the gameplay could be evolved with modern tech. I want to see this series evolve, and I feel this can only happen if we’re willing to accept some change, we need people to not be afraid of change. Look, I love this series to bits, but after playing them inside and out and completely exhausting their gameplay potential, I’m in need of something fresh. A remake like this is perfect, for all the reasons I’ve already stated, but it would also be great for fans like me to fall in love with these games all over again in a new way.



So, this turned out to be a lot more of a rant than I was intending, I apologize. If you made it this far, thanks for sticking around, let me know what your thoughts are. One last thing, if this remake thing is to get made, Dan Arey NEEDS to be on the project. He’s the original story writer of the trilogy, and he’s really the only person I would trust with the task of fixing the story problems present in the trilogy. For the longest time, I’ve really only trusted people like myself and some others in the Jak community to handle a story continuing from Jak 3 because we know it better than anyone in the industry possibly could. But if a remake would go down the route of fixing the original trilogy’s issues with the original writer at the helm, while listening to some concerns from fans like myself, I would have full confidence in a remake meeting my expectations. I know I don’t have the biggest reach, and most people wouldn’t have made it this far, but let’s really try to get this message out there. We want a Jak and Daxter remake, and we want Dan Arey to work on it. I don’t know if he’d be willing, but that is the ideal way to approach a remake like this. Let’s try and get #JakAndDaxterRemake trending on Twitter and Instagram etc, and send the message that we want E. Daniel Arey to lead to story department. Let’s get this out there everyone, thanks so much for watching.



When I was first writing this script, I was just me listing everything different I would want to see from a remake, but I decided to do this instead. If you guys would like to see me talk about all the changes in the trilogy I’d like to see in a remake like this, let me know. Let’s try and get the Jak and Daxter name out there everyone. Catch yas later