Video Game / Jak 3

Due to its nature as a sequel, spoilers for The Precursor Legacy and Jak II are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

The epic legacy concludes...

"Oh yeah! The boys are back in town!"

— Daxter

The third installment of the Jak and Daxter franchise.

Jak is banished to the Wasteland while Haven City is being torn apart by a three-way war between the remaining Krimzon Guard robots, the Freedom League, and the surviving Metal Heads. He is taken back to a desert refuge known as Spargus by the city's ruler, Damas, and grows to be one of the king's finest warriors. He eventually returns to Haven to help with the war effort, but not long after he discovers a much, much bigger threat to the world than anything before: the Dark Makers, who are approaching the planet and plan to terraform the world into a very dark and twisted land that Jak once prevented from occurring in The Precursor Legacy.

After yet another long journey with even more crazy plot twists than before (as expected when the game was directed by the same woman who wrote the Legacy of Kain series), the trilogy's storyline is wrapped up, giving our heroes a satisfying conclusion.

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Tropes Used In This Game:

• Aborted Arc:
  • Towards the end of the first third of the game, Ashelin meets Jak in the Wasteland and attempts to talk him into returning to Haven City. Jak angrily rebukes her offer and chooses to stay in the Wasteland. Immediately after this, he makes a beeline to the Monk Temple and starts on the path to returning to the City via the catacombs, the sewer and finally the port. Almost as if there's a scene missing where he reconsiders.
  • Before battling Errol, Jak alludes to some kind of shared history between the Dark Makers and the Metal Heads but we, the audience, is only hearing this for the first time now. No one knows how Jak would know this information, let alone what their history is. It never comes up again.
  • During the prologue, the heroes keep alluding to a council that controls Haven City and Count Veger making attempts to usurp them and rule independently. This council is apparently dissolved by Act 2 and we never see them or hear from them again.
    • Additionally, said council is never mentioned in Jak 2, or if these members were aligned with Praxis in any way.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Prominent in this game, as there are now three sewer levels rather than one (as seen in Jak II: Renegade), but they function much like the regular (fun) levels, and thus avert the dreaded Down the Drain trope. For some strange reason, you can only access them from the entrance gate but not at the exit gate, so if you want to revisit them you can't just go back the way you came — you have to trek all the way to the beginning doorway and repeat the linear path.
• Air-Aided Acrobatics: There are some ground air ducts on the city streets and in the sewers. Walking over them does nothing, but ride a JET-board over it and Jak flies high into the air. (Not as high as the Blue Eco Jumper Platforms of the first game, mind, but still quite high.)
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The War Factory serves as the this because it deploys KG robots and has a flying defense constantly patrolling around it, which can be shot down during the raid at the climax of Act Two, and serves as Ominous Floating Castle later because it's the KG leader's HQ. The Floating War Factory is so large it almost counts as a man-made Floating Continent. What exactly keeps it up is anybody's guess, but it does look intimidating overshadowing the city.
• Alien Sky: Now with Bad Moon Rising as an added bonus.
• Already Undone for You: Veger manages to get through many of the same areas as Jak, including the Precursor Temple and the ruins of the palace. Possibly justified in the first example because he was with Seem, so the monks probably have their own Death Trap-free passages to go through, but how the hell did he manage to get through the ruins, which were crawling with Dark Makers? Considering he had access to a giant fireball launching weapon, it wouldn't be hard to guess that he just fought his way to that point. This also means that Veger killed Damas.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Those pesky Metal Heads make a comeback, only to get upstaged by the much more threatening Dark Makers.
• All Deserts Have Cacti: The Wasteland.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: The European cover has Jak looking ready for battle while Daxter wears a smirk on his lips◊, while the American cover has both of them glaring intimidatingly at the player.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • Daxter finally gets his pants at the end of the game.
  • You get the original Jak outfit if you collect all 600 orbs.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • If your vehicle is turned over — and it will be, quite often — it'll eventually turn back over to allow you to keep driving it. While it might still get stuck on the environment while flipping, some Button Mashing is usually enough to escape the few times it happens.
  • Daxter is riding a rocket in one mission, and hitting walls will cause it to blow up. Hitting pedestrians and vehicles, however, will not cause an explosion.
• Anti-Hero: Jak starts out as a mild Type 3 (due to the betrayal he felt he suffered at the last game's end), but forges himself into a Type 2 by the end of this game. He is rather rough around the edges, and isn't afraid to cause trouble if he thinks it will solve the problem at hand. That's ignoring his short-fuse temper, which puts him at odds with certain authority figures. In the end however, he's one of the kindest people you'll ever meet and every bit the hero people see him as.
• Arbitrary Gun Power: Justified in most examples, since what you're shooting usually has super-strong armor.
• Ascended Extra: In Jak II: Renegade, you escorted a trio of demolition experts through the sewers. While Mog and Grim are never mentioned after that mission, Jinx comes back in this game, complete with a cutscene-quality model, a cigar and More Dakka.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Happens early when our heroes meet Kleiver:
  Kleiver: Those were some sweet moves in the Arena, boy. But a little more choke, an' you would've popped, eh?
  Jak: You talkin' to me?
  Daxter: Yeah, you talkin' to... him?
  Kleiver: No, I'm conversin' with me sweet departed mum. Of course you, ya bore head!
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: In Spargus, they "value strength and survival above all." The whole "leader = Jerkass or Big Bad" thing is averted though because King Damas is, deep down, a good guy. It's just that the survival of his people matters more to him than any individual citizen.
• Asteroids Monster: Those bizarre creatures which are deployed by Veger's Precursor Robot, the Metal Head tower and the Terraformer. Fortunately, they also yield plenty of ammo each time you 'split' them.
• A Storm Is Coming: Damas, when he finds Jak, says that he "smells a storm coming."
• Attack Drone: The Gyro Burster.
• Attack Its Weak Point: If you can't find one in any of the bosses, you're not looking hard enough.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Terraformers.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • The Vulcan Fury upgrades. The Arc Wielder and the Needle Lazer are cool to watch, but the former is surprisingly weak in damage output. And while the latter uses very strong homing needles, the homing AI isn't very good, and it chews up ammo just as fast as the Vulcan Fury. Worse, the Needle Lazer considers friendly Freedom Guard soldiers to be valid targets. However, you can buy the "Robot Shock" upgrade for the Arc Wielder, which drastically increases its effectiveness against KG Bots.
  • The Peacemaker upgrades, especially Supernova. Mass Inverter works as local Gravity Screw that looks cool, but doesn't do any damage to enemies. It's almost always easier to directly destroy whatever you're engaging with the same ammo via Peacemaker, meaning that besides bypassing hangtime vehicle challenges for orbs, it won't see much use. Supernova destroys everything within a certain radius, but can be shot twice at most even with upgrades, and it also destroys all vehicles including one you're currently riding. So if you're on a vehicle mission, you can't use it.
• Background Boss: Veger's Precursor Robot and the second part of the Terraformer battle.
• Bad Moon Rising: The Day Star approaches. With a cargo of Dark Makers on it.
• Bag of Spilling: You start off with none of Jak's weapons or the JET-board, as they were taken from Jak prior to his being banished. However, he regains them all throughout the game—with upgrades. Sadly, though, he doesn't get to keep the Dark powers he acquired in Jak II, save for the Dark Bomb and Dark Blast.
• Battleship Raid: The Floating War Factory assault. Also acts as a Cores-and-Turrets Boss.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Count Veger wishes to become a Precursor. There were aspects of this he was not expecting.
  • Tess when she unintentionally asks for pants like Daxter and winds up an Ottsel herself (much to Daxter's joy). She certainly takes it much better than Veger.
• Bedouin Rescue Service: Justified since Jak had a homing beacon on him.
• Behind the Black: At the end of the game everyone watches Jak board the Precursor ship and tearfully sees him off. A wide shot shows that Jak is most definitely not still on the floating platform...but a moment later on a close shot of Daxter, Jak appears next to him from out of absolutely nowhere. How did the cast all watch Jak get on the ship without seeing him get off? How did Jak manage to sneak up on Daxter on a tiny floating platform with no hiding places? It makes zero sense.
• Benevolent Architecture: Who exactly puts all those Eco vents just where Jak needs them? This gets particularly egregious on the Terraformer boss platform, which has, of all things, a Light Eco vent. As for the Light and Dark Eco vents in the Haven City ruins, it could have been Mar.
• BFG: Jak's Morph Gun, particularly the Peace Maker and the Super Nova.
  • So big that the developer commentaries mention how the model was so massive that when Tess showed off a new upgrade to Jak, they had to shrink the model down so it looked proportionate!
• Big Bad Ensemble: The role of the Big Bad is split between Count Veger and Errol and the Dark Makers. Between the two of them, Errol is more directly the big bad of this particular game's story (being both the Final Boss and the instigator of the plot), but Veger tends to be considered the bigger one in the context of the series as a whole because of his greater involvement with the heroes' backstories.
• Big Damn Heroes: Damas shows up when Jak and Daxter are near The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• Big Damn Fire Exit: The conspicuously giant warpgate located in the Terraformer storage part of the Dark Maker ship is the way Jak and Dax survive the subsequent destruction of it.
• Big Good: Despite The Gods Must Be Lazy, they're still quite helpful.
• Big "OMG!": It isn't shouted, but Jak's reaction to The Reveal that the Precursors are Ottsels is nothing short of perfect.
  Jak: Oh my god.
• Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: The Beam Reflector, especially when combined with the spin kick and upgraded for extra ricochets. But let's face it, homing bullets and ricocheting lasers are fun.
• Blood Sport: The Arena Battles are officially citizenship tests, but also double as Gladiator Games challenges.
• Blown Across the Room: Possibly justified in that the ammo is made out of eco and not bullets and thus it has unrealistic effects.
• Body Armor as Hit Points: As the game progresses, Jak collects armour allegedly worn by Mar himself, such as gauntlets, chest armour, and leg armour. Each piece increases his hit point count by two. Once he has all the body armour, his hit point count is twice that of Jak II.
• Border Patrol: A giant tentacle this time.
• Boring, but Practical: The Scatter Gun and the Blaster continue to be this from II, due to keeping their advantages (the Scatter Gun being good at clearing crowds and the Blaster being a good long-ranged weapon with plenty of ammo). The fact they get upgrades that are decently powerful without chewing up too much ammo helps as well.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: Those exploding mine carts just happened to be right over the Precursor Robot's head.
• Boss Arena Recovery: All the bosses feature some stage when you can restock on ammo, usually by killing the Flunky Boss mooks. The Final Boss has Dark Eco vents and a Light Eco vent available at certain points during the battle, but only for a short time.
• Boss Banter: Cyber-Errol just won't stop taunting Jak.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The Blast Bots are either this or a form of Elite Mook, because they're incredibly tough to beat.
• Brain Uploading: Vin "survives" a Metal Head attack by doing this.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: As per the Running Gag: "This isn't a game!" Also accompanied with an Aside Glance.
• Breath Weapon: The Terraformer.
• Bridge Logic: Daxter does this in the volcano level.
• Call-Back: When Daxter finds out that he's a Precursor, he does one of his Power Cell acquisition victory dances from the first game.
• Car Fu: Zoomers, once again, serve only two purposes, and this is the more fun one.
• Chain Lightning: The Peace Maker. Also the Arc Wielder, to a degree.
• Chaos Architecture: How exactly did New Haven City come about unless there was a peacetime at some point during the war? The positioning of the five fallen palace towers doesn't always tally with their original positions in Jak II. Also, the corners of the port, some sections of the Slums and the Industrial district are clipped for unexplained reasons. Otherwise, the game mostly averts this: despite claims of Haven Forest being completely unrecognizable, a bird's-eye-view from the Floating War Factory shows that it's a different section of the forest. Still doesn't explain how the entrance to said part of the Forest got there.
  • Even worse are the Haven City sewers. They're much larger overall, and the returning areas are completely different, all with absolutely no explanation given as to why.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The Seal of Mar, which Ashelin gives to Jak in Act One to try to convince him to come back, enables him to explore further in the Precursor temple, leading to his return to the City. It also proves important later, when Damas gives him his own Seal of Mar to identify Damas' son. This is when Jak realises who he is.
  • The Turret Challenge Kleiver gives you in Act One has no further influence in Act One and has no bearing on the story in Act Two. In Act Three, however, it proves instrumental in repelling the Dark Maker invasion of Spargus, which leads to Jak receiving the last of Mar's armour from Damas.
  • Those Dark and Light Eco Crystals do have a purpose, which is served when Jak enters the Catacombs in Act Three.
• Chokepoint Geography: Given the overall linear layout of the missions, this is not surprising. In order to complete Act One, Jak has to progress through the Precursor Temple and the Catacombs subrail leading to Haven City, and then work his way through the Eco mine to get within the city walls. This also happens during Act Two, when the only means of accessing New Haven City is by taking the long route through the robot-infested industrial section from the Port. The sewer levels are also one-way, and the only way to reach Haven Forest is to pass through the Metal Head city section. No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom is averted, however, by the sandbox-type gameplay overall.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: 'Captain' Brutter and the Crocodog completely disappear from this game for no apparent reason.
• City of Canals: New Haven City.
• *Click* Hello: Veger pulls one of these, though we don't hear a click; he announces his presence by shouting at Jak.
• Collision Damage: Jak can still take damage just by walking up to an enemy, complete with knockback.
• Colossus Climb: A small part of the Terraformer boss battle involves this.
• Combat Tentacles: The Terraformer has three. Also, Border Patrol.
• Continuity Nod: The Power Cells from the first game make a reappearance as an artifact.
• The Corruption: "The Dark Makers were once Precursors, but their exposure to Dark Eco changed them..."
• Crapsack World: Haven City takes a turn for the worse, as much of the northern part of town is destroyed when the palace is shot down, and the slums have been wrecked by the Metal Heads, who have created an organic hive in the northern farm area. On top of that, the Krimzon Guard Robots conquered the factories and created a floating base, leaving only the Port and the New Haven City inhabited. The Wasteland on the other hand is a massive unforgiving desert with some pretty bad sandstorms, but Spargus is not quite that bad, though the inhabitants are all armed with guns and short tempers.
• Creative Closing Credits: Almost every single character in the game will appear in the credits, either walking or just standing there. Their names are also present. You can actually rotate them, as well, as well as switch them. Not to mention the awesome music that plays.
• Credits Running Sequence: Again, most characters walk during the credits. The game is also noticeable for being a rare Western example.
• Crosshair Aware: The three floating vehicles which attack New Haven City and the Cyber-Errol boss battle use this. The latter can even take out the floor if need be.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: Did you see how far Jak fell near the end of the Act Three climax? Keep that in mind when you then consider how high his Angel-Winged Light Form can fly during gameplay.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Apparently what happened to Cyber-Errol between this game and the previous one. Not that he had much of a soul in the previous game.
• Dark Is Evil: Dark Eco, the Metal Heads, the Dark Makers... Knight Templar or not, Count Veger is at least justified in his hatred of Dark Eco. Jak's Superpowered Evil Side ends up as a subversion (see below).
• Dark Is Not Evil: Jak is the exception, and even he needs Light Eco to counter its worst effects. Even so, Jak being The Hero is overlooked by Count Veger.
• Deadly Training Area: There is sort of a gladiator pit with periodically rising, deadly lava, and guys that swing their pointy, deadly swords at Jak.
• Decapitated Army: Not in the game itself, but the Metal Head leader seemed to be this in Jak II, since the Metal Head raid on Haven City was stopped after his death. Then we learn almost immediately that the strongest Metal Heads have survived and come back with a vengeance.
• Deflector Shields: Appears as both one of Jak's Light Eco powers and the main weapon of the Dark Makers.
• Developer's Foresight: After you reach the end the sewer you access within North Town, the pipes you hop across to reach the part of the sewer that leads you into the Metal Head side of the city will be constantly shooting out poisonous gas. Even if you cheat and use invincibility to bypass them, the door leading to that part of the sewer won't open, thus preventing any sequence breaking.
• Did Not Do the Bloody Research: Kleiver says "buggers" an awful lot, though he's not exactly the nicest guy in Spargus anyway. More off-puttingly, Daxter also refers to the kangarats as such.
• Didn't See That Coming: Neither Jak, Daxter and especially Veger were expecting the legendary Precursors to actually be ottsels.
• Died in Ignorance: Damas, Jak's mentor figure, dies after asking Jak to find his long lost son, Mar. After Damas passes a symbol of his house to Jak that Jak previously owned, Jak realizes he is Mar and thus Damas's son. Tragically, Damas dies before Jak can tell him the truth, and Count Veger, the villain responsible for their separation, takes the opportunity to gloat.
  Veger: You were the son of the great warrior Damas. Oh... and he never knew... how delightful.
• Disc-One Nuke: The second mod for the Beam Reflexor is obtained very early in the game, and its rapidly ricocheting bullets can quickly clear a room of even the most difficult enemies with just a few shots.
• Dope Slap: Jak does this to Daxter when Kleiver challenges him to beat his top score on the turret minigame. "Oh don't worry. Jak beats things all the time. Hehehehe—" WHACK.
• Double Jump: Unabashedly. You can also use a spin kick to stay airborne even longer.
• Downer Beginning: The opening scene of the game has Jak exiled from Haven City due to his past history with Kor and many citizens blaming him for the war going on. He, Daxter, and Pecker almost die in the Wasteland before being found.
• Dramatic Drop: Veger drops his cane/scepter/whatever-it-is after The Reveal.
• Dramatic Irony: Damas gives Jak a piece of Mar's armor that was meant for his son. Damas dies and advises Jak to look for his son and Jak realizes that Damas is his father when he gives him the Seal of Mar, which matches the one he wore as a child.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Torn gets on better with Jak now after he proved his worth in II, though he still doesn't seem to like Daxter much. Luckily Torn shifts his opinion on Daxter as well after he helps take down the first barrier in the Industrial Section!
  • In a more traditional example, Jak's banishment. Many times in II Jak had thwarted Metal Head invasions and driven back their forces, and stopped them from draining the city's Eco supply. Instead of celebrating him however, Jak is blamed for the Metal Head invasion because he worked with Krew, and is banished for it (almost certainly thanks to Veger's influence).
• Eldritch Abomination: The Dark Makers. Given what Daxter's Superpowered Evil Side looks like, the fan theory that they're really robots has some credibility, but until official confirmation, they fall under this trope.
• Escort Mission: Quite a good one in Act Three where you have to escort Torn's explosives-laden vehicle from New Haven City to the Metal Head Nest — at least until you reach the port, where he suddenly decides to fly around the two towers rather than just, you know, head straight into the Metal Head Nest.
• Establishing Character Moment: Veger's introduction, Kleiver's introduction, and Sig's refusal to kill Jak among others.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Slightly downplayed as the Zoomers and Cruisers have more health than in II, but ultimately played straight as they still explode when they hit 0. The desert vehicles also fall under this trope: they appear to be Made of Explodium and blow up when they run out of health for any reason except being submerged in water.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Metal Head Tower, especially at night. At least before you blow its head off and leave it a smoking mess on the skyline.
• Exploding Barrels: Eco barrels, to be precise. This comes in useful during the Escort Mission in Act Three (see above).
• False Reassurance: Kleiver, Torn, and Damas have a bad habit of doing this.
• Final Dungeon Preview: In one mission, Jak takes control of a robot onboard the Dark Maker's ship to destroy the shield generator. He is later transported onto the ship to confront Errol.
• Finish Him!: Sig and Jak run into each other during an Arena fight, and refuse to off each other.
• Faux Affably Evil: Cyber-Errol. "Ah, my little friends have come to see me off."
• Flipping the Bird: Daxter does this to Pecker who's half-bird (censored by the top of the screen of course). Pecker is not pleased.
• Floating Platforms: Justified as being lost Precursor technology.
• Flunky Boss: All three of them deploy less powerful enemies to attack Jak at some point, Cyber-Errol especially.
• Follow the Money: If you can see Precursor orbs on it, you'll be able to access it.
• Forced Tutorial: The Arena fight, though the actual fighting is still pretty fun.
• Foreshadowing: Seem's scene when he's rescued in the temple in Act 3 actually gives a major clue about the Precursor's true nature.
  Seem: At least I was granted the gift of seeing the face of my creators. Thank you, little one.
  • Also, after destroying the Dark Maker shield remotely, Jak gets a brief glimpse at the Precursors and mistakes them for Daxter, as they are the same species.
• Game-Over Man: As with the first game, Daxter — though only on occasion. Jak's death animation must be the exact same one he's had since the first game in order for this to happen.
• Gatling Good: The Vulcan Fury.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: The Terraformer boss battle initially works like this, though it's not running away from Jak — it barely notices him and he just has to keep up with it.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Not the actual Dark Makers themselves, but the form the final boss actually takes feels slightly like this.
• The Gods Must Be Lazy: Why the hell are the Precursors, the "most powerful beings in the universe," relying on a mortal man (whose amazingness was quite possibly given to him by the Precursors) to solve their problems? Commented on by Daxter in the third act, right before The Reveal.
• Green Rocks: Eco. The Ottsel Leader's explanation for Daxter's Forced Transformation when he touched the Dark Eco in the first game only adds fuel to the Wild Mass Guessing.
• Ground Pound: Jak can jump into the air and slam his fist against the ground. Must hurt.
• Guide Dang It!: Some of the precursor orbs can fall under this.
• Gun Fu: Jak has some moves that combine his hand-to-hand techniques with the Morph Gun.
• Had to Be Sharp: Spargus is not a gentle place, where one must earn the privilege of survival. To even live, let alone thrive, in such a city requires considerable tolerance for hardship and being just as deadly as the Wasteland you were plucked out of. It speaks volumes about their culture when Damas' face lights up when he learns of Jak's unstable and deadly Dark Form.
  Damas: "Ah, then he is dangerous! And that could be useful!"
• Hijacked by Ganon: At the beginning of the game, Torn wonders who the new KG Leader could be. It's Cyber-Errol, back from the dead cyborg with newfound Omnicidal Maniac urges.
• Hit Points: You get eight to begin with, but end up with sixteen by the end thanks to Body Armor as Hit Points.
• Horde of Alien Locusts: Metal Heads, though this is mostly inferred by fans as no other motivation appears to guide them.
• Hostile Terraforming: The Dark Maker's Terraformer will do this to the planet, making it completely uninhabitable to current life.
• Hover Board: The Jet-board makes a welcome comeback.
• Humongous Mecha: Veger's Precursor Bot. It looks impressive, but thanks to Boss-Arena Idiocy and Tactical Suicide Boss, you shouldn't really have too many problems. Also the Terraformer.
• Humiliation Conga: After Jak and Daxter get back into Haven City and word of their heroics gets the city on their side again, Veger suffers one humiliation after another, ending with him becoming an ottsel and being forced to be Kleiver's sidekick under threat of severe beatings and possibly being eaten.
• Hurricane Kick: One of the series' signature moves.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Averted, Jak doesn't have 12 guns, he has 1 gun with with 12 different mods that fire differently and you can clearly see the Jet-board on his back shrunken down.
• If You Ever Do Anything To Hurt Him: Tess warns Jak that if he fails to protect Daxter, she'll hunt him down and hurt him REAL BAD.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Averted, once the Krimzon Guard become the Freedom League, they suddenly learn how to shoot. One of the rare examples where the good guys are better. Also, sadly, averted with the KG Deathbots; they are deadly accurate if they get a chance to aim at you.
• Interspecies Romance: Daxter and Tess. Thankfully, they don't actually do anything until Tess gets turned into an ottsel.
• It Has Been an Honor: Towards the end, Jak and Daxter have this exchange when cornered in the palace ruins by Dark Makers...just before Damas pulls a Big Damn Heroes with the Slam Dozer.
  Daxter: Jak, let me just say, before it's all over: riding on your shoulder, although it is kind of bony, and uncomfortable...well, you've been a good pal.
  Jak: You too, Dax. These adventures, they've been great.
• It's All Upstairs From Here: The Metal Head Tower requires Jak to ascend slopes, glowing bridges, and platforms to reach the elevator to the topmost chamber in Act Three.
• It's Up to You: During the last two acts, Jak is asked to do all the major missions, something which Daxter snarks about often. Amusingly, on the one occasion when Ashelin seems to be about to subvert this trope, Daxter is affronted and complains even more about that.
• I Will Fight Some More Forever: Marauders, Metal Heads, KG Robots, and Dark Makers seem completely oblivious to the fact that Jak is a One-Man Army Person of Mass Destruction.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Jak coldly rejecting Ashelin's offer to return to Haven may have been extremely unheroic, but he's completely in the right to be angry about how he was made into a scapegoat for the Metal Head invasion and banished to the wasteland for it, despite saving their asses from the initial invasion and killing the Metal Head Leader.
• Karmic Transformation: Veger gets turned into an ottsel.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Veger's actions. You'll find trying to have Jak banished as a scapegoat for all the problems in the city wasn't even the worst he did.
  • The Reveal that Jak was the son of Damas...who died in the arms of the son he never knew, features Vegar's infamous gloating at its knife-twisting finest.
  Vegar: You seem upset...Did I tell you too late? You are the son of the great warrior Damas...oh, and he never knew. How delightful.
• Killer Rabbit: The most powerful beings in the universe are fluffy and adorable.
• Kissing Discretion Shot: At the end between Jak and Ashelin.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Some of the idle chatter among the Freedom Guards reveal that many of them have given up any hope of victory, feeling like they're Red Shirts in a Forever War. Others openly pine for the days when Praxis was in charge, or give half-hearted assurances that Torn will see them through the crisis. When the fighting starts, though, you'd never guess they doubt their cause for a second.
  Guard: We can't win this war.
• Kudzu Plot: The story is practically impossible to sum up quickly, and the revelations made in this game raise many questions that may never be answered.
• Large Ham: Veger, thanks to some delightfully over-the-top voice acting. His entire Motive Rant and "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Jak just before the Precursor Robot fight is Made of Ham. Cyber-Errol gets in on the act, too. The animators say during the commentary that this is the reason it was such good fun animating these characters.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Veger gets his comeuppance when he discovers the Precursors (who he idolized) are ottsels, gets turned into one, and becomes Kleiver's sidekick. Almost makes you feel sorry for him... oh, wait, no it doesn't.
  • Veger appeals to Jak's friends and tries to persuade them to let him lead the expedition to the catacombs. Not only do they all side with Jak, but Ashelin removes him from authority. The cutscene is even called "Veger Gets Humiliated".
• Laser Sight: The Morph Gun.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Kor being the Metal Head leader, mentioned by Jak in the first few lines of the opening when Samos mentions the Metal Heads are still fighting.
• Last-Second Word Swap: After the second Metal Head Nest challenge with Sig:
  Sig: It's gonna be a big pile...
  Daxter: Yeah, a big pile of sh— (picks up the peace maker) —ould I cock this?
• Law of Inverse Recoil: Averted; Jak's gun actually does jerk back after firing.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Volcano and the Spargus Arena.
• Lighter and Softer: Subtle case. The plot takes some rather dark turns from the very start, but the tone is not quite as brooding as the second game, with a larger amount of whimsy and comedy akin to the first.
• Light Is Not Good: Count Veger is revealed to be this. He compounds this in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Jak.
• Limit Break: Dark Jak.
• Loading Screen: Averted completely. It's disguised via background loading, such as airlocks and giant doors. Even flying from Haven City to the Wasteland - both very large open areas for the time - is easily disguised by a ten second-long cutscene, and even skipping ''that'' just shows a black screen for a few seconds before fading in.
• Local Hangout: The Naughty Ottsel.
• Lost Technology: The Precursors and Dark Makers left their technology scattered around the Wasteland.
  Daxter: Great! More Precursor crap!
• Malicious Misnaming: This is Daxter's favourite method of annoying Veger.
  Count Veger: Pure light will rule the universe, and I will be the bright light that shines to every corner of the world and destroys all shadows!
  Daxter: Er, excuse me Count Vulgar—
  Count Veger: It's Veger!
  Daxter: Yeah, whatever.
• Matter Replicator: In the first arena level, Damas mentions "matter formers", though we never see them or learn exactly what they're for. Maybe to explain just where the hell all the Marauder gladiators come from?
• The Man Behind the Man: Cyber-Errol replaces Count Veger as the main antagonist during Act Two, and the Dark Makers appear to replace him as the main antagonist during Act Three. That last one is unresolved since it's not clear what the relationship is between Cyber-Errol and the Dark Makers.
• Mascot with Attitude: Daxter. He has some badass moments, though, so Tropes Are Not Bad.
• Meat Moss: The Metal Heads have this influence over the Western side of Haven City.
• Mecha-Mooks: The KG Robots are back from the previous game, with some new enhancements, and appear more frequently than they did in Jak II. They've even taken control of the Industrial section of the city.
• Mentor: Not officially, but Damas often gives Jak advice and guidance, as well as details about the tough philosophy of the Wastelanders.
• Might Makes Right: The motto of life in Spargus. One must earn the right to live in the city by passing three trials by combat by murdering other residents to earn citizenship and weakness or mercy is not tolerated. The way of gladiator combat determines who is right in the kingdom with the King as the mightiest of the warriors in Spargus.
• Military Mashup Machine: The KG's Floating War Factory.
• Mini-Mecha: There is a level in the third act where Jak controls a Dark Maker Bot with his mind.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: The game can feel like this at times, though Tropes Are Not Bad.
• Model Museum: There's one available that can be purchased with Precursor Orbs, with models from Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and Jak II: Renegade available for viewing as well. The model viewer lets players watch animations of various characters from the cast with a bunch of silly dialogue that occasionally breaks the fourth wall.
• Mordor: The Dark Maker ship.
• More Dakka:
  • The Morph Gun's blue upgrades.
  • The Beam Reflexor, if you use the Jump → Kick → Fire trick. Even more so if you buy the upgrade for it that increases its reflections.
• Morph Weapon: The Morph Gun.
• Motive Decay: Just why are the Metal Heads bothering to attack the city anymore? At least in Jak II, their leader had a reason to drive them to press their attack, since he was after the Precursor Stone, but now he's gone, their motivation seems to have diminished to For the Evulz.
• My Nayme Is: Kleiver. Jak, too, honestly.
• Nitro Boost: Turbo power-ups for the vehicles in the Wasteland.
• No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: Averted, mostly because you usually get equipment in cutscenes.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The commentary reveals that this was the reason behind the palace coming down.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Downplayed. Jak will lose health if he falls a considerable distance onto dry land, and will instantly die if he falls from a certain height, even if he hits the ground not long after passing this limit. Nevertheless, he can avoid serious injuries if he is using the Jet-board at the moment of impact or if he hits water, apparently because of Soft Water. This latter case is noticeable in Haven Forest, despite the considerable height from the top of the Precursor Astro Viewer to the lake below.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Cyber-Errol gets a delightfully badass one moments before the Terraformer head blows up.
  • Veger has a moment like this seconds before his karmic transformation, as if the Universe was just waiting for him to put two and two together.
• Oh, My Gods!:
  • "By the Precursors" seems to be Samos' stand-in for "Oh my God."
  • Played for Laughs when Jak says "Oh my God" during The Reveal in Act Three.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Cyber-Errol.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Veger ends up getting Damas who is Jak's father and only living family killed, Daxter, of all people, urges Jak go after him to make him pay with no fuss or complaint, which surprises Jak. Daxter even lampshades this:
  Daxter: Yeah well, don't get used to it! It's just that nobody one hurts my best friend and lives to brag about it! Let's get him!
• Out of Focus: The surviving Metal Heads from Jak II are downplayed significantly from their threat status in the original game in favor of Cyber-Errol and the Dark Makers, and we don't even get to see the conflict between the city and them get resolved.
• Overheating: Happens with the Haven Forest turret guns.
• Pass Through the Rings: Some of the more aggravating missions. At least it usually only happens in sidequests.
• Physical God: The Precursors, again. This game finally out-and-out confirms their nature.
• Pinball Projectile: The Reflexor gun.
• Platform Game
• Platforming Pocket Pal: Daxter
• Playful Otter: Er, ottsel. Close enough.
• Plot Hole:
  • When Ashelin meets with the banished Jak in the Wasteland to try and get him to return and help Haven City, he refuses, telling her that everyone in Haven City can rot for all he cares. The missions following this scene lead up to Jak returning to Haven City without anything that explains this sudden change of heart.
  • Ashelin was unable to stop the Grand Council from banishing Jak in the beginning of the game but near the end she suddenly has enough power and authority to dissolve the entire Grand Council by herself just because she was tired of dealing with Veger.
• Poor Communication Kills: Ashelin declines to share with Jak how she knows Damas, Sig refuses to explain why he was a spy for Spargus in Haven City, and Damas is understandably terse about his own past, particularly when the topic of his son is brought up. All of this could have led Jak into realizing Damas was his father a bit sooner, before it ended up being too late.
• Primal Fear: Border Patrol for the Wasteland section is Combat Tentacles. Sounds silly? Think again.
• Purposely Overpowered: The Peace Maker and Supernova weapons.
• Racing Minigame: Very prominent.
• Refusal of the Call: When Ashelin pleads with Jak to return to Haven City, Jak is unimpressed, still bitter over his banishment. "I'm through saving the world."
• Remember the New Guy?: What exactly was Veger doing during the events of Jak II? Given his significance here, especially his apparently strong influence over the city council, his absence in the last game seems a little jarring.
• Remixed Level: Haven City has undergone several changes since Jak II, many caused by the collapse of the palace at the beginning of the game. Many areas, especially the centre of the city, have been closed off by the wreckage, while others have been damaged beyond recognition, both by the tower and by the Metal Head invasion of the west side of the city. The slums have been mostly rebuilt as New Haven City on the northeast side of the city. Some of this is covered under Chaos Architecture, however.
• Red Shirt: The Freedom Guards, who are literally Krimzon Guards painted blue.
• The Reveal: Lots. Some predictable, some not.
• Riddle for the Ages: We never learn what exactly is the deal with the Dark Makers. How many do they number? Is the Day Star the only vessel in their arsenal? Are the creatures we fight simply automatons? And with the revelation that Precursors are Ottsels the most pressing question of all: What do they look like?
• Riding the Bomb: Daxter does this in the second mission for Torn at the port.
• Rising Conflict: Jak and Daxter (and Pecker) start out just trying to survive in the Wasteland. By the end of the game, they're trying to stop The End of the World as We Know It... again.
• Rule of Cool: Some of the missions, like Daxter's Riding the Bomb and Jak's Storming The KG War Factory.
• Runaway Train: The explosive cart in the Eco Mine.
• Say My Name: Happens once in Act Three, after Jak's Suicidal "Gotcha!".
  Daxter: Jak? JAAAK!
• Scary Scorpions: The scorpion Metal Heads, especially when you see them swarming around the abandoned North Town ruins for the first time. Fortunately, they're pretty easy to beat.
• Scenery Gorn: Jak's first sight of the Haven City's northern ruins at the beginning of Act Two, and when he infiltrates the Stadium ruins later in Act Three.
• Secondary Fire: The Morph Gun's upgrades.
• Selective Gravity: As well as the standard anti-gravity Precursor orbs, there is a less orthodox version of this trope in action. The Mass Inverter creates selective gravity: a ring expands from the gun, and any enemy caught in the radius will float helplessly in the air until the effects wear off. In that time, the player is free to kick the crap out of them, send them flying across the room, or carefully position as many as possible over Bottomless Pits. Videogame Cruelty Potential indeed.
• Sequel Hook: With the revelation that Jak is the mythological hero Mar he says "with all our adventures ahead, you wouldn't last a second without me." And Jak is absolutely right.
• Sequence Breaking: At one point during the second sewer mission, you're trapped in a corridor by several electric gates and must fight a horde of KG bots before you can continue, or you can use Light Shield to safely walk through the fences and ignore the bots.
• Serious Business: Artifact hunting to the Wastelanders.
• Shifting Sand Land: The Wasteland.
• Shooting Gallery: Tess appears to have inherited this. For some reason, it's changed location between Jak II and Jak 3.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the bonus features allows you to set up a Ratchet & Clank gun course in Haven City.
  • Daxter om-nom-noming on the circuit grid à la Pac-Man.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Migrates slowly back toward the middle as the game progresses. The world is ultimately not a Crapsack World, but it's no picnic, either.
• Spider Tank:
  • The Terraformer is an impossibly large one. Rule of Cool played to its limit. This makes the Final Boss one of the most impressive in the Jak and Daxter series.
  • On a smaller scale, the Blast Bots and the even smaller KG bots.
• Spring Jump: A new feature of the jet-board allows you to charge it up before jumping, causing Jak to soar high into the air.
• Stable Time Loop: Implied, though unresolved.
• Stupid Evil: The Marauders harassing Jak must come from an incurable race, because they continue trying to kill Jak and continue to get slaughtered. It gets to a point where you wonder if they want to die.
• Suicide Mission:
  • Damas sends Jak and Sig on one in order to redeem themselves. Them being them, they survive.
  Damas: I'd say "good luck", but then, luck won't help you.
  • According to Torn, he and his men got sent into the Port on one of these by Veger.
• Swiss-Army Gun: The Morph Gun has a shotgun, a rifle, a sub-machine gun, a lightning gun, lightning-ball gun, an RPG launcher, a shockwave generator, a Reflecting Laser, a drone launcher, an Anti-Gravity generator, a homing-dart gun, and a mini-nuke.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Veger's Precursor Robot and Cyber-Errol insist on raising platforms and sending in exploding drones respectively, despite the fact that this gives Jak precisely what he needs to defeat them. The Terraformer, to a degree.
• Taking You with Me: Jak attempts a heroic version on Errol, to prevent the launch of the Terraformer. It doesn't work.
• Take Your Time: Search for Orbs, play mini-games, explore the desert — that Day Star won't come any closer until the plot says it should.
• Techno Babble: Tess spits out a run-on sentence about one of her BFGs. Cue shot of Jak and Daxter with a "Bwuh?" look on their faces.
• Techno Wreckage: North Town is severely damaged and completely abandoned save for the scorpion Metal Heads. See also Scenery Gorn.
• Temporary Platform: Everywhere.
• The Battle Didn't Count: Cyber-Errol escapes the first time you beat him, but it has the effect of shutting down the War Factory.
• This Is Reality: Subverted. Jak and Daxter look directly at the player after Seem's "This isn't a game!"
• Three-Act Structure: The game has 3 Acts all seperated by boss fights. Act 1 is the prologue, the intro in the Wasteland and ultimately the boss fight with Veger's Precursor Robot. Act 2 is primarily about Haven City, fighting the Metal Heads and KG Robots and reuniting the Freedom League forces, ending with a boss fight with Errol in the floating factory. Finally Act 3, an even blend of Haven and the Wasteland, the war with the Dark Makers and one last boss fight with Errol using a giant Dark Maker weapon.
• Tomato Surprise: The Precursors are ottsels.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Errol is a dick in the second game, but he's worse here.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the previous games, Samos could be quite rude to Jak and Daxter, but he's noticeably mellowed in this game.
• Trilogy Creep: Jak 3 was originally thought to be the end, but then they released Jak X, Daxter, and The Lost Frontier.
• True Companions: Exactly how many of the main characters are now part of it depends on who you ask, but the general consensus is that Jak, Daxter, Keira, Samos, Torn, Ashelin, Tess, Onin, Pecker, and Sig are the "official" party here.
• Underground Level: The Metal Head Nest in the Wastelands, and a pretty unpleasant place — the tunnel leading to the underground chamber is swarming with constantly respawning, squishy, Zerg Rush-type enemies that would be a nightmare to confront on foot, so never leave the vehicle while you're down here. The chamber itself initially acts as an incubation site, which floods with poison gas once you complete the first mission. When you go down the second time, Big Creepy-Crawlies called Metalpedes have taken control.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Multiple; The Hellcat Jet missions, Daxter's Pac-Man minigame, the Rail Shooter vehicle sections, and the Dark Jak stealth missions.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The citizens of Haven City, when the war breaks out, immediately pin the blame on Jak, who saved them from certain extinction in Jak II. It's All There in the Manual.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Jak's Light Eco form, BFG-type Swiss-Army Gun, and Superpowered Evil Side will go unremarked in civilian areas — the worst they do is run away if you get too close.
• Unwanted Assistance: invokedAshelin, Samos, and Torn view Veger as this: Veger's attempts to beat the KG and Metal Head forces are as foolish and dangerous as you'd expect from a Knight Templar.
• Vent Physics: These have been introduced to the ducts scattered around the Port and the industrial section. They only work on your Jet-board, and they are crucial for collecting certain orbs.
• Very High Velocity Rounds: When you fire a gun in Flash Freeze mode, the enemy's lasers are Painfully Slow Projectile weapons. It's great fun dodging them in this mode, especially when you can then give swift retribution on the would-be attacker.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Try following the new Freedom Guards on an attack to either the KG Bots or the Metal Heads. Now say you don't feel pain when a Metal Head jumps on a FG and mauls him to death.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential: You can start huge shootouts with the Wastelanders. Get one to start shooting at you, get that one to accidentally hit someone else...
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Daxter and Pecker do not get on very well, but are unambiguously on the same side.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • What Happened To The Metal Heads?
    • The entire three-way war for Haven City doesn't get any actual resolution after Errol is defeated. The implication is that after the destruction of the Metal Head Nest/Tower and Errol's final defeat is that the war is won, but post-credits gameplay is literally just the Freedom League fighting the Metal Heads and KG Robots all over the city. Maybe the implication is that they're just mopping up the last remnants?
  • Vin is shown to have survived his death by uploading his mind into the Eco Grid, and helps Jak and Daxter with getting an artifact, but he disappears from the plot (and by and large, the series) after that.
• Wham Shot: Where to start…
  • As Damas lays dying, he shows Jak a pendant that belonged to his missing son, and he recognizes it as the one his younger self had.
  • The Precursors being Ottsels.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Possibly the logic behind making the KG Robots major enemies and Cyber-Errol, though the robots are little more than killing machines and in any case they're Always Chaotic Evil.
• Womb Level: The deepest part of the Metal Head nest under the volcano. Also the Metal Head section of the city and the Metal Head tower.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Jak now has both Dark and Light powers at his disposal. For Dark powers, he has Dark Bomb, a Dark Blast, Visible Invisibility, and a supercharged blast attack. For Light powers, he has Healing Hands, Flash Freeze, Deflector Shield, and limited flight.
• You Need a Breath Mint: Kleiver receives this treatment, twice.
  Daxter: "Great stink of the Precursors. I got two words for ya... tooth brush!"
  • Veger also reacts with waving hand gestures when Kleiver drags him close.

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