A Boy and His Ottsel

I recently beat “Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy” for the fifth time, and yet it’s still awesome.  I got all 101 Power Cells and all 2000 Precursor Orbs.  It took about a week.  I love this game.  So much.  It’s about Jak and Daxter (surprised?) who wander off toMistyIsland, even thoughSamos, the Green Eco Sage, told them not to.  Once there, the pair see two evil looking people (and as we all know, people who look evil most certainly are), giving instructions to creatures called Lurkers.  Hmm, could be important, but the two wander around some more, and Daxter ends up falling into a pool of a terrible substance called Dark Eco and comes out as an orange ottsel (otter weasel).  Daxter, of course, is rather distraught, and the two return toSamosfor help, who tells them that the only one who might be able to change Daxter back is Gol, the Dark Eco Sage, who of course, lives far away, and all the teleport gates are off.  So they set out on their little quest to the north to try and save obnoxious little Daxter, but little do they know of the evil plot that is brewing….  Mwa ha…ahem.  (By the way, don’t finish this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers, but it turns out that the two evil people are Gol, the only person that can help Daxter, and Gol’s sister, Maia.  They became evil because they were twisted by the Dark Eco.  Gol’s my favorite character because I often like bad characters and he has a good evil laugh.  I still need to draw him sometime.  It’s long overdue.  Oh, and by the way, I have a picture of Maia on my fan art page….).  This game is super delightful, one of the best ever, and I can find very few flaws.  It is nearly perfect, I think, and that doesn’t happen very often.  I shall tell you more!

            One thing that shows up throughout the game is a substance called Eco, of which there are several types.  Of course, there is Dark Eco, a black and purple substance that can kill or mutate what it touches.  While being deadly, I think it is also rather pretty.  I enjoy watching it.  My favorite is Blue Eco, which makes you run faster, attracts things to you, and activates Precursor technology (I’ll get to the Precursors soon.).  Also, when you get near boxes, they start shaking and then suddenly burst open. It makes me feel rather powerful.  Green Eco is for health and at one point, is used to heal plants infected with Dark Eco.  Red Eco makes your attacks stronger and Yellow lets you shoot balls of yellowness.  There’s actually one more type of Eco.  Guess what it is.  I’m serious.  Guess.  Or not.

            And like I promised, the Precursors, an ancient group of who knows what of which little is known.  They did, however, leave behind countless structures (even huge Precursor robots) and various objects, such as Precursor Orbs.  There are also Oracles laying around that give you cryptic messages and give you Power Cells when you give them Precursor Orbs.  I don’t know what they even do with all those Orbs, though.  Greedy statues.

            And recently speaking of Power Cells, these are used to power things such as the zoomer’s heat shield so it can cross lava.  You must collect them to progress through the game.  There are 101, but 100 is required for the secret ending, and I’ve gotten them all several times because of my mad skills.  Or at least, somewhat agitated skills.  You get these Power Cells by completing certain challenges, like catching enough fish with a “tiny net” (and the fisherman wonders why he isn’t catching anything), driving through all the rings with your zoomer before they disappear, destroying all the Dark Eco crystals, and even scaring seagulls until they fly into the mountain so hard that it causes an avalanche.  You can also buy them from people for 90 Orbs each or from the Oracles for 120 each, which are rather odd numbers, but whatever.  Also, many Power Cells are just lying around, just chilling as they wait for you to figure out how to climb over to them.

            Something I absolutely adore about this game (and the entire series) are the characters.  They have so much personality.  I love the voice acting and the character design and everything.  For example, there’s the overly dramatic warrior who got “pounded” like how one “tenderizes a Yakkow steak” by the monster terrorizingRockVillage.  Also the gambler who wears a barrel because he lost his money on a bet (he bet on the warrior beating the monster, I believe, and lost).  Boggie Billie, who lost his pet hip hog, lives in an outhouse, and doesn’t even know what a bathtub is.  The sculptor who lost his Muse.  Main character wise, everybody loves Daxter (not the characters in the game, but the people playing it).  He’s quite funny, and his voice actor, Max Casella, won an award for his talents.  I also like grumpy oldSamos.  Even though he’s mean.

            Another awesome thing is that this game is pretty much one, huge place.  There is no loading, which I’ve heard the creator, Naughty Dog, was quite proud of, and as you go through the game, you can look back and see the places you’ve been.  I spent a bit of time onSentinelBeach, looking out at theislandofGeyser Rockand watching the geyser spray water into the air.  It’s quite lovely.  And what I also love is standing atopSnowyMountaintowards the end and looking back at everything.  I can even see to the coast to the south where the game begins.  Then, I look to the north at the Dark Eco silos and the citadel, the last place.  Plus, the rocky shore that extends into the distance.

            Likewise, you can swim into the ocean and never reach a wall like you would in some games.  Of course, you can’t go on forever because if you swim out very far, a Lurker Shark will come and eat you.  Not fun being eaten, but I like that the world feels more real without any invisible walls to stop you.

            I also love the zoomer.  It is a vehicle ridden like a motorcycle, but it hovers instead of having wheels, and it has a big propeller on the front.  When driving one of these, the controller rumbles quite a bit, which is neat because it makes it feel more real.  I want my own zoomer.  They must be pretty dangerous, though, with that big, flesh-chopping propeller on the front.  How many people have lost limbs in that thing?  And they’re noisy.  Hmm, maybe I don’t want one.  It’s still awesome, though.  You can also ride a large bird called a Flut-Flut.  Good times.  Maybe I’ll just buy me a Flut-Flut instead.

            I also like the music.  I like how it’s not overdone like in a lot of games.  It’s often soft and doesn’t overwhelm things.  I find theSnowyMountainmusic particularly soothing.

            The only thing to compete with mini-sheep in terms of cuteness in this game was the sculptor’s Muse, even though it was a brat.  It’s a yellow critter with big ears and a long tail, and it runs from you when you try and catch it.  After following it along the same loop several times, I decided to try and trick it.  I chased it to the bottom of a ledge, climbed up the ledge, and jumped down onto it from above.  Take that, you little turd!

            One of the few things I dislike in this game is the health.  If you lose a unit of health, you must collect 50 little bits of Green Eco to get it back as opposed to, you know, one.  It takes a long time.  And by then, Jak will probably get hurt again, and then you need 100!  Grr!

Duck Eco Sage