Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
Well, I just beat Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. My first thought on the game?
It... really wasn't all that hard. Not even the side missions. In the first three Jak games, there was always at least one mission and/or side mission that I had a really hard time beating. In the first game, it's Boggy Billy's stupid pig. Jak II has that turret mission that I swear I never would have beaten without help from Zalein, as well as several side missions that I have yet to even earn bronze on. Jak III still stumps me on that race that takes you through those tunnels. How the heck are you supposed to earn gold? I still can't manage it, even with unlimited turbos. And of course the gun courses. I kind of suck at gun courses. >.>
But TLF? I just breezed right through most of it. There were a few missions that gave me a little difficulty at first, but still nowhere near the grief that Jak II and III gave me. I expected to really tank on the ship flying missions, and I did crash into things and get shot more than I should have, but still. Destroy the various ships? Those suckers were toast. "Race" that pirate and shoot skeet? Gold's in the bag, baby. Every single one of 'em. Even the final boss fight wasn't all that difficult.
The difficulty actually would have been greater if the game didn't save your progress so frequently. Man, that would have sucked if I'd had to restart those various boss fights from the beginning, rather than from the last auto-progress-save, where they conveniently restore my health.
As far as the game goes, it was... okay. I don't regret the money I spent on it at all. It wasn't a great game, and there was a lot that could have been done better, but I still enjoyed it and I'm more than willing to play through it again on Hero Mode. It had some good ideas for new uses for eco - and I was so happy to be able to use other kinds of eco besides dark, light, and green. I absolutely loved Phoenix and will have much fun speculating all about him. And the music. The music was spectacular. So much awesome.
Game mechanics, my biggest peeve was the camera that thought it knew what it was doing better than you did and kept swiveling around so that you were looking through a rock. Also, I miss the freedom of being able to walk or jump onto just about anything. TLF had specific areas that you were allowed to walk on. Everything else you either slid off of or fell off a cliff. No climbing random rocks or jumping on top of people's houses, sorry.
With the story, my issues mostly lie in how rushed the plot felt. There were so many points where I was like "wait, what? Why did they do that? That doesn't make sense! Plz to explain more and giving reasons why they're doing these things!"
SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!
I really wish Keira had given Jak some reason as to why he should trust Phoenix. But no, it was all "Oh, hey Jak, nevermind, don't need rescuing. Now get along with each other, damnit! Because I said so!"
Jak: *grumble grumble* ...okay.
Phoenix: *grimaces but is apparently just as much under Keira's thumb (HOW THE HECK? SO QUICK?) and shakes on it*
And when exactly did Skyheed turn on them? It seemed like one minute, he was sending Jak off to do his dirty work, then the next he's trying to kill him. Maybe I missed something, but it seemed like there was no explanation for why Skyheed suddenly attacked. That isn't to say that I can't think of reasons why he attacked, but nothing was ever shown or spoken about in the game to indicate what tipped Skyheed off.
Then there's Jak and Daxter. Jak doesn't feel like Jak to me. He feels like an AU Jak. Some of the same elements, but like he had a different background. Daxter... My biggest issues with him stem from the introduction of Dark Daxter. I don't like Dark Daxter. I think it was done poorly, his characterization during those periods bugs the hell out of me, and I really think when Jak realized what happened to Daxter, he wouldn't have reacted like that.
Even if Daxter did sort of the same thing when he first found out about Dark Jak.
Speaking of Dark powers, I kind of wish they'd shed more light on the origins and purpose of the Dark Warrior program. I mean, I know they did, but I wanted more. I want to know how Baron Praxis got his hands on one of those machines. *sighs* But with the limited amount of time they can spend on cut scenes, I suppose they had other things to focus on.
On the bright side of things, I no longer have to avoid other people's spoiler posts~
It... really wasn't all that hard. Not even the side missions. In the first three Jak games, there was always at least one mission and/or side mission that I had a really hard time beating. In the first game, it's Boggy Billy's stupid pig. Jak II has that turret mission that I swear I never would have beaten without help from Zalein, as well as several side missions that I have yet to even earn bronze on. Jak III still stumps me on that race that takes you through those tunnels. How the heck are you supposed to earn gold? I still can't manage it, even with unlimited turbos. And of course the gun courses. I kind of suck at gun courses. >.>
But TLF? I just breezed right through most of it. There were a few missions that gave me a little difficulty at first, but still nowhere near the grief that Jak II and III gave me. I expected to really tank on the ship flying missions, and I did crash into things and get shot more than I should have, but still. Destroy the various ships? Those suckers were toast. "Race" that pirate and shoot skeet? Gold's in the bag, baby. Every single one of 'em. Even the final boss fight wasn't all that difficult.
The difficulty actually would have been greater if the game didn't save your progress so frequently. Man, that would have sucked if I'd had to restart those various boss fights from the beginning, rather than from the last auto-progress-save, where they conveniently restore my health.
As far as the game goes, it was... okay. I don't regret the money I spent on it at all. It wasn't a great game, and there was a lot that could have been done better, but I still enjoyed it and I'm more than willing to play through it again on Hero Mode. It had some good ideas for new uses for eco - and I was so happy to be able to use other kinds of eco besides dark, light, and green. I absolutely loved Phoenix and will have much fun speculating all about him. And the music. The music was spectacular. So much awesome.
Game mechanics, my biggest peeve was the camera that thought it knew what it was doing better than you did and kept swiveling around so that you were looking through a rock. Also, I miss the freedom of being able to walk or jump onto just about anything. TLF had specific areas that you were allowed to walk on. Everything else you either slid off of or fell off a cliff. No climbing random rocks or jumping on top of people's houses, sorry.
With the story, my issues mostly lie in how rushed the plot felt. There were so many points where I was like "wait, what? Why did they do that? That doesn't make sense! Plz to explain more and giving reasons why they're doing these things!"
SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!
I really wish Keira had given Jak some reason as to why he should trust Phoenix. But no, it was all "Oh, hey Jak, nevermind, don't need rescuing. Now get along with each other, damnit! Because I said so!"
Jak: *grumble grumble* ...okay.
Phoenix: *grimaces but is apparently just as much under Keira's thumb (HOW THE HECK? SO QUICK?) and shakes on it*
And when exactly did Skyheed turn on them? It seemed like one minute, he was sending Jak off to do his dirty work, then the next he's trying to kill him. Maybe I missed something, but it seemed like there was no explanation for why Skyheed suddenly attacked. That isn't to say that I can't think of reasons why he attacked, but nothing was ever shown or spoken about in the game to indicate what tipped Skyheed off.
Then there's Jak and Daxter. Jak doesn't feel like Jak to me. He feels like an AU Jak. Some of the same elements, but like he had a different background. Daxter... My biggest issues with him stem from the introduction of Dark Daxter. I don't like Dark Daxter. I think it was done poorly, his characterization during those periods bugs the hell out of me, and I really think when Jak realized what happened to Daxter, he wouldn't have reacted like that.
Even if Daxter did sort of the same thing when he first found out about Dark Jak.
Speaking of Dark powers, I kind of wish they'd shed more light on the origins and purpose of the Dark Warrior program. I mean, I know they did, but I wanted more. I want to know how Baron Praxis got his hands on one of those machines. *sighs* But with the limited amount of time they can spend on cut scenes, I suppose they had other things to focus on.
On the bright side of things, I no longer have to avoid other people's spoiler posts~