Video Game / Jak and Daxter

This world is better left to Jak.

"For every age there is a time of trial. The rocks faced such a fire before they were the strength beneath our feet. The plants braved vast winds before their roots could give us life. As a sage of considerable years, I have known only one such great ordeal. Yet the hero it created was a champion of all time."

— Samos the Green Sage

A series of Platform Games created by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation 2 and PSP, Jak and Daxter is centered on the escapades of the Heroic Mime turned rogue turned good guy Jak, who has the ability to channel the energy substance known as Eco, and his wise-cracking, human-turned-ottsel sidekick, Daxter, who usually just sits on Jak's shoulder while he does all the hard work. These are just two of the many people you'll get to know throughout the series. So far, the series consists of:

• Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
• Jak II: Renegade
• Jak 3
• Jak X: Combat Racing: A Vehicular Combat game, if the title didn't give any indication of that to you already.
• Daxter: A midquel centered on the events of Daxter's adventures in Haven prior to saving Jak in Jak II, developed by Ready At Dawn.
• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier: Conceived by Naughty Dog, but later developed by High Impact Games.

• Jak and Daxter Collection (HD): A collection of the first three Jak and Daxter games remastered for the PlayStation 3 and Play Station Vita. A similar digital bundle (this time including Jak X) was released digitally on the PlayStation 4, however these are emulating the originals at double the resolution rather than the prior remasters.

Tropes related to those specific games can be found on their pages.

Taking it to the next level, SCEA released PlayStation Move Heroes, a three-way crossover between Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper. The titular duo also appears as playable characters in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Gameplay across all Jak games consists of exploration mixed with mild combat and platforming in a variety of different scenarios. The first game is a Wide-Open Sandbox collectathon in the vein of Super Mario 64, while every game past Jak II are closer in structure to something like Grand Theft Auto III. Of course, that's not all the series borrowed from Grand Theft Auto- the Jak games are infamous for taking a Darker and Edgier route as the series went on, with numerous elements being revamped to be more appealing to a teenage audience. Jak goes from a Silent Protagonist to a bitter and aggressive Anti-Hero, the combat gets augmented with firearms, and the world becomes a hellish Dystopia filled with unsavory characters.

On a side note, the Ratchet & Clank series seems to have a very friendly rivalry with this one. (An Insomniac game having a rivalry with a Naughty Dog game? Sounds familiar...) Games in both series will liberally borrow some concepts from the other, and will commonly feature cameos and even sometimes playable appearances of the other heroes.

In February 2022, it was confirmed that a film adaptation was in the works to be directed by Ruben Fleischer, director of the movie version of fellow Naughty Dog series Uncharted.

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A-B

• Aborted Arc:
  • Daxter gets his own Dark form in TLF... and it has no effect on the story, aside from showing Aeropan underground facilities and what they have been working on.
  • When Jak confronts Errol in Jak 3, Jak hints that the Dark Makers have some kind of history with the Metal Heads. What this history is, or how Jak even knows about it, is never revealed.
  • "Yes, Gol, and Maia... the Dark Eco probably destroyed them... probably."

• A Day in the Limelight: Keira's role in TLF rivaled (or maybe even exceeded) Daxter's in terms of importance.
• Adrenaline Makeover: Keira finally gets a new outfit in TLF, where she accompanies Jak and Daxter on their adventure.
• Adventure Duo:
  • Jak and Daxter.
  • The Lost Frontier seemed to be trying to make Jak and Keira a Battle Couple.
• Aerosol Flamethrower: Daxter wields a spray gun that sprays flammable pesticide that is eventually upgraded into a straight-up flamethrower in his self-titled game.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier:
  • The War Factory in Jak 3.
  • The Phantom Blade and ACS Behemoth from The Lost Frontier.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Remembering that Gol and Maia Acheron were good people before the dark eco warped their minds, it is possible to feel sorry for them. Similarly, despite all the trouble he caused, Baron Praxis actually becomes quite pitiable when he's dying.
• Alien Sky: Green sun, anybody?

• All There in the Manual: Commentary in Jak 3 refers to Seem as a "she." Also, the official ages (and heights, weights, and eye colors) of many of the main characters were given in Jak X, in their driver profiles.
• Almost Kiss: A Running Gag. Subverted in Jak 3, where Daxter (the cause of most of them) lets Jak and Ashelin kiss offscreen with a smug expression and Lampshaded by Daxter in Jak X when referring to Keira: "Would ya kiss her already?! Sheesh!"
• Always Chaotic Evil: Lurkers, Metal Heads, Dark Makers. Subverted with Lurkers in the second game on, as they're now slaves for the citizens. Heck, you even befriend one.
• Ambiguously Gay: Razer. Every other character in Jak X says "Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!" as a victory line, even Ashelin. Razer, however...
  Razer: Wham, bam, thank you... sir.
  • Some of his other lines are pretty suggestive as well.
• Anti-Hero: Jak
• Animesque: TPL is the most overt example in the series, with many of the character designs having an overt anime influence. Jak II and onwards would gradually downplay the anime vibe, until it was nearly nonexistent in TLF.
• Ambiguous Gender: Seem, ahem, seems like an intentional case given her name, to that point that certain official websites aren't unanimous on her gender and Daxter refers to her as "monk boy." Official scripts and art, however, denote Seem as female.
• Announcer Chatter: G.T. Blitz (and later, Pecker) in Jak X.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Baron Praxis, Count Veger and Duke Skyheed. Notice that Ashelin (who is not referred to with a title) is not evil. But averted with King Damas who's a goodie through and through.
• Arbitrary Gun Power: Justified in most examples, since what you're shooting usually has super-strong armor.
• Asteroids Monster: Some Dark Maker enemies in Jak 3 split up into smaller versions of themselves when struck.
• Attack Drone: The Gyro Burster in Jak 3. Jak X had a Red Eco power-up that gave you a protective drone.
• 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 Precursor Robot from the first game, and the Dark Maker robots and the Terraformer from Jak 3.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Several from across the series (although Cheats carried into New Game + can allieviate them):
  • The Vulcan Fury from Jak II has a very fast firing rate, long range and great damage, but has no auto-aim and it chews up ammo very fast. Its upgrades in Jak 3, the Arc Wielder and the Needle Lazer, are cool to watch, but the Arc Wielder is surprisingly weak in damage output for the most part, and both still chew through ammo. Luckily, upgrades make the Arc Wielder fantastic on KG robots and cut the Needle Lazer ammo use by two thirds.
  • The Peace Maker in Jak II delivers the most damage out of all the weapons, has the longest range, a homing ability, arcs damage across multiple enemies, and has a very fast firing rate, but is marred by its pathetically limited ammo, keeping it to special usage only. Same with the Mass Inverter and Supernova, the Peace Maker's upgrades in Jak 3. The impractical part is nullified once you unlock the Infinite Ammo cheat, however.
  • Dark Jak is very powerful, but it takes so much Dark Eco to trigger it in Jak II, and lasts such a short time, that it's usually easier just to shoot people unless you have a large crowd of enemies (which aren't that common). Fortunately, Jak 3 allows you to trigger it any time as long as you have just a little bit of Dark Eco in your meter — but you'll still need a big meter full of it to use Dark Jak's stronger abilities.
  • Light Jak's moveset is overall very impractical thanks to it being passive in contrast to Dark Jak. Time slowdown use a lot of Light Eco and is only required exactly twice in the game, while the Light Shield requires Jak to transform into Light Jak first and replaces the spin attack. That leaves only Light Healing, and while it too uses a lot of Light Eco, the usefulness of being able to heal at any time (even in battle) means it'll be the only Light Jak move you'll use frequently.
• Badass Biker: Jak, whenever he rides a Zoomer, at least.
• Badass Boast: Daxter does this a lot. Too bad he's a three-foot-tall rodent mustelid.
• Badass Bystander: The entire population of Spargus. Justified since they are all either banished from Haven for some horrible crimes, or else descended from people who were. Plus, it's a requirement: fail to kick ass in the Arena and you either die or get thrown out into the harsh Wasteland... and die.
• Badass Driver: Every (playable) character in Jak X.
• Badass Longcoat: Whether Veger himself is badass or not is up for debate, but the awesomeness of his duster is not.
• Badass Normal: Sig, Ashelin and (arguably) Torn (he only actually takes part in one mission in the entire series).
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Jak and Sig, Jak and Ashelin.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Daxter, who else?
• Bad Present: All games from Renegade onward are set in a Crapsack World, which is the future of the world of TPL.
• Bag of Holding: Not quite as a gameplay mechanic, but implied in TPL, as Daxter stuffs the Sculptor's Muse in Jak's backpack; she's quite a bit larger than the thing.
• Bald of Evil: Mizo from Jak X.
• The Battle Didn't Count: Basically, if the boss talks at all and it's not the final battle, he doesn't die in this fight. The only exception is Krew, and yet he still manages to heavily influence the plot later via holographic recordings.
• Beast and Beauty: Daxter and Tess (subverted in that TESS is the protective one)
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Jak goes from a Cute Mute to a brooding anti-hero due to two years of torture by Baron Praxis.
• Benevolent Architecture: Who exactly puts all those Eco vents and Green Eco crystal formations just where Jak needs them?
  • Can't say anything about the vents in TPL, but as for the Light and Dark Eco vents in the Haven City ruins in Jak 3, it could have been Mar.
• Benevolent Boss: Osmo in Daxter.
• BFG: Jak's Morph Gun, particularly the Peace Maker in Jak II and 3 and the Super Nova in Jak 3. Jak's Gunstaff counts, too, considering it's almost as big as he is.
• Big Bad: One for each game, but Count Veger is considered the main one by many because he was responsible for nearly everything that went wrong in the heroes' lives.
  • Baron Praxis and Kor, who is actually the leader of the metal heads for Jak II: Renegade.
  • Duke Skyheed for The Lost Frontier.
• Big Bad Duumvirate:
  • Gol and Maia for Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.
  • Count Veger and Errol for Jak 3: Wastelander.
  • Krew (albeit posthumously and through Rayn) and Mizo (which is the alias of G.T. Blitz) in Jak X: Combat Racing.
  • Kaeden, Metal Kor's Dragon, in Daxter.
• Big Good: Despite The Gods Must Be Lazy, they're still quite helpful.
• Big Damn Fire Exit:
  • The conspicuously giant warpgate located in the the Terraformer storage part of the Dark Maker ship is the way Jak and Dax survive the subsequent destruction of it.
  • In Jak II, this is how the duo escape the destruction of the Ammo Dump early in the game.
• Big "NO!": Daxter does one of these when Kaeden kills Tik. Actually played seriously, as a sign that things have gotten really freaking serious.
• Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: But let's face it, homing bullets and ricocheting lasers are fun.
  • Beam Spam / Reflecting Laser / Hyper-Destructive Bouncing Ball: The Beam Reflexor.
    • Especially when combined with the spin kick.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Dark Jak. Dark Makers. Dark Daxter. Dark Skyheed. By now, it's probably safe to assume dark anything has Black Eyes Of Evil.
• Blessed with Suck: Daxter at first. He later accepts his Ottsel state, if not because he's essentially taken the form of a God.
• Blind Seer: Onin, who also has Prophet Eyes.
• Blood Knight: Jak in the second and third game. When about to go into sewers for the war, he notes "Dark, dirty, dangerous? I'm beginning to like this war." Or when attacking an enemy factory he quips "Yeah! Right into the hornet's nest. This is gonna be fun." Good lord, Jak.
• Blood Sport: The Arena Battles in Jak 3 are officially citizenship tests, but also double as Gladiator Games challenges. Combat Racing in Jak X.
• Blown Across the Room: Possibly justified in that the ammo is made out of eco and not bullets and thus it has unrealistic effects.
• Border Patrol: The instant death Lurker Shark in TPL, a Krimzon Guard robot in Jak II, and a giant tentacle in Jak 3.
• Boring, but Practical: The Scatter Gun and the Blaster.
• Bottomless Bladder
• Bragging Rights Reward: Getting enough skull gems to get the Dark Giant power before beating Metal Kor is very rare, and getting all 286 Precursor Orbs in Jak II is also a challenge for it's own sake. Also done in Jak X, as beating Hero Mode gets you green turbo online.
• Brain Uploading: Vin "survives" a Metal Head attack by doing this.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • "All right, cut! That's it, where's the director?! I can't work like this!"
  • GAME RIGHTS?!
  • "This isn't a game..." Cue our protagonists looking directly at the player in confusion.
  • "Dude, that was so last adventure! Available in stores now."
  • In addition to these moments Daxter often looks at the player with varying expressions in cutscenes.
• Broken Bridge: Well, broken boat, really.
  • Also, missing pontoons.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Sig.

C-E

• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The characters' Pointy Ears are never commented upon, and they have occasionally been outright referred to as humans. A good chunk of the fandom still insists on calling them elves. However, the subheading for the Japanese release of TLF is actually "Elf to Itachi no Daibouken" ("The Elf and Weasel's Big Adventure"), so at least in one language they're officially elves.
• Call Reception Area: How the whole thing began.
• Canned Orders over Loudspeaker: Part of Haven's Cyberpunk aesthetic in Jak II are small projectors on street corners which display an enormous Praxis emblem and broadcast his latest propaganda announcements.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Daxter gets drunk off his ass in Jak II. Possibly justified since 1) he's small, and 2) he chugged a lot of booze in less than a minute. He seems to have learned his lesson, as we don't see him get drunk again. Dax also gets props for sobering up pretty quickly (and with no hangover, either!) He gets an Alcohol Hic while intoxicated as well.
• Car Fu: Zoomers serve only two purposes, and this is the more fun one.
  • It's perfectly possible to destroy smaller vehicles by flying under them at high speed, then moving upwards. Not very heroic if you do it on civilians, but against the Krimzon Guard...
• Casanova Wannabe: After the Genre Shift, Dax spends a lot of time hitting on the women he encounters, calling most women he encounters things like "baby" or "honey." The only person to be receptive at all to this is Tess.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Jak 1, your standard light-hearted adventure game. As soon as Jak II starts, Jak is taken prisoner and subjected to scientific experiments to try and make Super Soldiers for two years. The very first words out of Jak's mouth are "I'm gonna kill Praxis!"
• Chain Lightning: The Peace Maker.
  • The Lost Frontier has an aircraft weapon specifically called the Chain Lightning Gun.
• Chaos Architecture: Haven City significantly changes between Jak II and 3, to the point where it's ridiculous: while the docks are the same, the water slums have been completely overhauled, the sewers are nothing like the ones in Jak II, and the regular slums have had some slight changes made. All in the span of a year, in the midst of a war, after the palace has collapsed. The new city section, however, is justified: in Jak II a message can be heard in which the Baron announces several sections of the city are about to be demolished for renovation.
• Character Development:
  • Most everyone goes through this, with Jak's major personality shift in Jak II being the most obvious change. Daxter matures throughout the course of the series less obviously, but it can be seen when you look carefully.
  • For example, in earlier games, Daxter was a notoriously bad flirt. In later games, Daxter's flirting is toned down to be more joking than serious, and it's practically nonexistent by Jak X: though he does occasionally call his female friends "baby" when speaking to them, he doesn't outright flirt. Although it may help given that he now has a girlfriend by that point.

• Chekhov's Gunman: The Kid is the heir to the throne of Haven City, but that's not why he's important. It's because he's Jak.
  • Count Veger was mostly responsible for kicking Jak out of Haven City, but there's nothing really personal between them... except for the fact that Veger knew all along that Jak was Damas's son, and in fact separated the two of them in the first place.
  • Kor is one of the first people you meet in Jak II. Guess who turns out to be the Big Bad?
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The first game's Big Bads, Gol and Maia Acheron, are implied to still be alive at the game's end, but they never reappear. Brutter from Jak II disappears in Jak 3 onwards (though he made a brief appearance in the Daxter spinoff) and the Crocadog disappears completely.
  • Also happens to Vin, who appears in one mission in Jak 3 and vanishes from the series (even after Jak promises to "keep in touch"). Veger, also, despite being one of the only villains to not die, doesn't reappear again. Popular fan theory says that he got eaten or killed by Kleiver between Jak 3 and Jak X.
• City of Canals: Haven City. It's pretty polluted, though, but it improves by at least Jak X.
• Constructed World: While the games have a handful of settings and locations, it's very clear that the games take place in a world that's distinctly not ours, with its own alphabet, mythology, history, and wildlife.
• Continuity Nod: The Power Cells from the first game make a reappearance in Jak 3 as an artifact, and in Jak X.
  • A more subtle one: on the Propaganda Machines in Jak II, Praxis mentions bulldozing several sections of the city for renovation. Come Jak 3, a large chunk of the city has indeed been demolished and rebuilt from the ground up.
• Continuity Snarl: In 2, Ashelin talks about looking down at the city when she was a little girl and dreaming of something better than her father's dystopia - which, since Ashelin is in her early twenties at the time, means Praxis ruled for at least fifteen years. 3 establishes that King Damas was overthrown by Praxis after the birth of his son, the Kid/Jak/Mar, meaning a maximum of 5-6 years, meaning that Praxis didn't take power until Ashelin was in her late teens. These two things don't fit together.
• Crapsack World: Starting in Jak II, many areas in the wilderness are infested by the Metal Heads, who have destroyed most settlements made by humanity. Haven City is safe from the Metal Heads until the shield walls shut down, but it's choking with pollution, full of crime and poverty, and it's ruled with an iron fist by Baron Praxis. In Jak 3, 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 Town 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. By Jak X, things get much better for Haven City, as the slums and industrial areas are once again free, but the newly introduced Kras City is far more sleazy and corrupt than Haven City ever used to be, and the frosty Icelands seem even more desolate than the Wasteland.

• Custom Uniform: Erol and Ashelin are members of the Krimzon Guard, but their outfits are way different because one is The Rival / The Dragon and the other is an Action Girl / Ms. Fanservice.
• Cuteness Proximity: This might be the reason Tess was so ga-ga over Daxter when they first meet. Then it was upgraded to Sickeningly Sweethearts.
• Cut Scene: Hours worth. Usually no more than five minutes apiece.
• Cypher Language: The Precursor markings actually mean something, and there are translation guides online.
• Daddy's Girl: Keira, and she's not happy about it.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Jak 3 had the option to have the camera controls inverted or not. Jak II did not.
  • The rolling long jump is an attack in TPL, but not in Jak II.
• The Dandy: Daxter definitely cares more about his looks than you'd expect a Forced Transformation victim to. He's also made laudatory comments on Razer and the Sky Pirates' outfits, and complained about the state of his claws, one time going so far to say that he needed a manicure (of course, that was said in TLF, so...)
• Darker and Edgier: A positive example of the trope. The generally cheerful mood of the first game takes a nosedive a minute into the second, in which Jak is captured by the bad guys and tortured and experimented upon for two years. However the later games still keep a sense of humor, (with Daxter whose personality is unchanged if not more crass) and the general themes and endings are still optimistic.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Jak, sort of. Dark Is Evil in pretty much every other instance. Even Jak's dark side is basically a beserker that he can't fully control.

• Deadpan Snarker: Jak, despite being very stoic, can be just as sarcastic as Daxter.
• Death Course: Most of the areas in the games.
• Deflector Shields: Appeared in Jak 3 in the form of one of Jak's Light Eco powers and as the main weapon of the Dark Makers; appeared in Jak X in the form of a Red Eco pickup; appeared in TLF in the form of a Green Eco Beehive Barrier.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • The Pelican in Sentinel Beach in the first game can be blown to bits using the Lurker Cannon. Getting the Power Cell this way is even a little quicker than using the "normal" method.
  • TPL also features One-hundred and one Power Cells with which to get the 100% Completion ending with, just in case one glitches and becomes unattainable.
  • Because cutscenes are rendered in-game, it's possible to access Sandover Village in Jak II and walk around in it. It can be accessed by exploiting a menu glitch.
  • In Jak 3, 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.

• Difficult, but Awesome: While not great for tougher enemies, the Arc Wielder is fantastic at destroying small groups of enemies with its fairly long range and whip-like arc. With enough practice, it can even make short work of the dark maker Asteroids Monsters.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Early concept art for Count Veger shows him sporting a mustache that greatly resembles that of a certain dictator.
• Dope Slap: Jak does this to Daxter at least once in the first three games. Daxter, in turn, slaps Jak at least twice in Jak X.
• Double Jump: Unabashedly. You can also use a spin kick to stay airborne even longer.
• The Dragon: Erol to Baron Praxis and later to the Dark Makers. Kaeden to Metal Kor.

• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Torn doesn't like Jak, which is why he's given a lot of crappy missions. By Jak 3, however, he's warmed to Jak considerably. Daxter on the other hand...
• Dumb Blonde: Averted with Tess. While somewhat ditzy and saccharine, she is quite capable when it comes to building and maintaining firearms.
• Dynamic Loading: Usually a door opening, or a long elevator ride.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first Jak game in comparison to the sequels. Its gamestyle and tone is more in line of the traditional 3D Platformers of the 90's, with a Silent Protagonist and lighter storyline. Starting with Jak II, the series becomes Darker and Edgier.
• Easter Egg: Most things that can be unlocked with the Precursor Orbs.
• Embarrassing First Name: Pecker. Even Jak started to crack up when he first heard that. To Daxter's credit, he hasn't made any dick jokes... yet.
• The Empire: Baron Praxis and his Krimzon Guard. In the third game their mechanical replacements are even reffered to as the KGB, standing for Krimzon Guard Bots.
• Engineered Public Confession: This was done to Mizo at the end of Jak X.
• Equipment-Based Progression: The series gives you new abilities and weapon upgrades from the second game onwards (the first game just placed temporary powerups in certain parts of the levels) as you reach certain points in the story.
• Escort Mission: Made even worse by the people you're escorting being utter morons. Ironically, the Kid, who is a toddler, is the least likely to get caught.

• Eternal English: even though Jak and crew are flung far into the future in the beginning of Jak II, everybody still talks exactly the same way as they did in Sandover.
• Eternal Equinox: A day-night cycle, yes, but no seasons to speak of in Haven or the wasteland.
• Even Evil Has Standards: There's a scene in Daxter where Veger is arguing with Erol against the Dark Warrior Program, saying straight-up that it's a bad idea.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Every vehicle in this world ends its life in an explosion. Every. Single. One.
• Evil Brit: Gol & Maia. Krew and his daughter, Rayn.
• Evil Chancellor: Subverted with Ruskin in TLF. He's a sour, distrusting old fart, but not evil.
• Exploding Barrels: Eco barrels, to be precise. Also dynamite barrels in the first game.
• Exposed to the Elements:
  • Jak and company overheat in the intro to Jak 3. His wardrobe is altered to make it more suitable.
  • Subverted a bit in the Snowy Mountain level of TPL, where Jak wears his usual shorts and sleeveless shirt yet isn't visibly affected by the cold.
• Exposition Fairy: Daxter.
• Eyepatch of Power: Baron Praxis has a metal plate covering one of his eyes. Sig has what appears to be either a bionic eye or a fancy lens of some kind.

F-I

• Facepalm: Jak does this in Jak II while Daxter is harassing the Shadow. Daxter gets at least one as well.

• Family Business: Rayn can't escape her father's criminal dealings.

• Fanservice: Provided by Tess, Keira and especially Ashelin.
• Fanservice Cover: "PlayStation Magazine" had a cover with Keira in a Sexy Santa Dress.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Jak's single shoulder pad and triple-strapped backpack come to mind, as well as his goggles (one lens doesn't even appear to be see-through!).
• Fat Bastard: Krew and Kleiver, though the latter wasn't as ridiculously obese. Or as much of a bastard.
• Firing One-Handed: Ashelin and (weirdly enough) Veger.
• First Girl Wins: Keira was Jak's first love, though in Jak 3, Ashelin was given the role as love interest. This was fixed in Jak X and TLF, possibly due to fan outrage.
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: Applies to Haven City's Computer in Jak II. One scene in TLF resulted in Jak having a flashback to his time under Baron Praxis's eco experiments, with the opening line ("Dark eco injection cycle complete") being heard - albeit spoken by a different voice actress.
• Flipping the Bird: Daxter does this to Pecker in Jak 3 (censored by the top of the screen of course).
  • Also Pecker to G.T. Blitz in Jak X, this time censored through camera effects as they're on live TV.
• Floating Platforms: Justified as being lost Precursor technology.

• Forced Transformation: Daxter is a transformed human who wants to reverse his transformation ...until he finds out he is a member of one of the most powerful species in the universe.
• Forced Tutorial: These are usually integrated into the games (escape from prison, win the Arena fight), though the first game has one character literally forcing the heroes to "get some practice" under threat of Forced Transformation.
• Foreshadowing / Ironic Echo: One of the Baron's announcements in Jak II: "I am still in control! And I assure you; There's absolutely no Metal Heads in the city. Anyone who contradicts this fact will be shot." Later on the Baron gets killed by an energy blast, courtesy of Metal Kor.
• Furry Reminder: Daxter occasionally drops to all fours and displays some other animal-like tendencies, such as using his hind leg to scratch behind his ears and enjoying being petted and scratched.
• Future Me Scares Me: Averted, as Young and Old Samos just bicker all the time. And The Kid likes Jak.
• Game-Breaking Bug: TPL had the game freeze and crash on you if you managed to get your flut-flut out of the designated area, into a different level, and die. Jak II would crash once on most playthroughs. Early copies of Jak X would erase your saves randomly.
• Game-Over Man: Daxter
• Gang Up on the Human: Happens in Jak X—even your teammates get in on it!
• Gatling Good: The Vulcan Fury.
• Genius Ditz: Tess. She may be a bit of an airhead, but as revealed in 3, she really knows how to make a badass new gun.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Although Light Jak's eyes glow, the "doom" part comes from the fact that he can use the Morph Gun in that mode, not from the Light powers themselves.
• 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 game, right before The Reveal.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Averted with Jak's goggles. In the first game they come in handy to aim through channeling yellow eco; in the third game he wears them while out in the desert to keep the sand from getting in his eyes. Played straight with Keira's and Daxter's goggles.
  • ...until the fourth game in Daxter's case, where he wears them in the opening cutscene, and later on, in TLF
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Jak. When as Dark Jak his eyes turn completely black, while as Light Jak his eyes glow in a holy-like manner.

• Good Is Old-Fashioned: Implied a few times in the sequels where important figures take note of Jak's heroic attitude carried over from the first game, as it contrasts with the Crapsack World he finds himself in for the sequels. Praxis is critical of it and says all the heroes died long ago, while Damas is more wistful says that the world is not yet out of heroes.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Near the end of 3, Jak gains Light Flight with the power of wings. Said wings aren't the typical angelic bird wings, but instead large light tentacles with membranes like a bat's wings.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Mar, the founder of Haven City, ancient enemy of the Hora-Quan/Metal Heads and ally of the Precursors. He was chosen to protect the planet by the Precursors and helped build many relics and structures seen throughout both Jak II and Jak 3, including the Shield Wall and eco grid. He must have been a great hero ever known since there are several statues that are placed near and around Haven City.
• Green Hill Zone: Sandover Village in TPL.
• Green Rocks: Eco. Also available in Red, Yellow, Blue, Dark, and Light.
• Grimy Water: Other than some locales such as Boggy Swamp in J&D and The Dead City in Jak II, you'll be fine in the water. Mostly it's the Dark Eco you've gotta watch out for.
• Ground Pound: Jak can jump into the air and slam his fist against the ground. Must hurt.
  • When timed properly, Jak can High Jump directly from a Ground Pound by jumping just as his fists connect. The guy has CRAZY upper body strength.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Severeal times, though it's more common in the second than in the third. Sig is more likely to serve as a guest than anyone else.
• Guide Dang It!: Some of the Power Cells and Precursor Orbs can fall under this.
• Gun Fu: Jak has some moves that combine his hand-to-hand techniques with the Morph Gun.
• Guns Akimbo: Torn has two pistols. Keira gets two as well after her Adrenaline Makeover.
• Hair Reboot: Must be all the hair gel.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The Lurkers are dressed like this, and Daxter becomes this (the half-dressed part, anyways) at the end of Jak 3.
• Ham and Deadpan Duo: Daxter and Jak respectively.
• Handguns: Anyone who's not Jak (or a Wastelander) and is armed has one: Ashelin, Torn, Keira (both of whom have TWO), Veger, Captain Phoenix
• Happy Ending Override: Just when Jak and Daxter can chill out for a bit, BAM! The End of the World as We Know It is nigh... again.
• Have a Nice Death: Daxter has made this into an art form.
• Heavenly Blue: Light Jak glows blue. The same blue, in fact, as the Precursors themselves. Or rather, the Energy Beings they project. The real Precursors, actually ottsels, all have blue eyes, even the ones that were originally human.
• Healthy Green, Harmful Red: Eco is the colored magical crystal energy that fuels the world, with Green Eco being used to heal players. Red on the other hand symbolises attack strength, and it's used in later instalments as the fuel for Jak's shotgun.
• Heroic Mime: Jak in the first game. Lampshaded in the sequel:
  Daxter: "Say something! Just this once!"
  "Maybe he's a mute, like you used to be."
  "Er, sorry. He's new to the whole 'conversation' thing".
  • It actually appears to be a bit of a Cerebus Retcon, as during gameplay in TPL Jak makes all sorts of vocalizations and even says "ouch" when hit, and there are several times during cutscenes where Jak opens his mouth to talk, only to be interrupted by Daxter. Both TPL and Renegade satirize this trope in differnet ways.
  • His former silence is even used as a major plot point in the sequel, since Keira doesn't realize the racing team Krew sent her is actually our heroes until Daxter finally starts lobbing insults at her, recognizing his voice instantly. Being that Jak had been talking to her quite a bit prior to this, there's a strong possibility that when he walked into her garage was the first time she'd ever heard Jak speak.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Captain Phoenix in TLF.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Our heroes, natch.
• Hide Your Children: With the exception of The Kid in Jak II.
• Hit Points: You get four in the first game, eight in the second, and end up with sixteen by the end of the third. Unfortunately, most enemy attacks in Jak II take away at least two health blips, technically giving you only four hit points (this may be one of the reasons Jak II is so friggin hard). There are enemies that only do one blip of damage though, but they are easy to kill.

• Hot Coffee Minigame: Parodied/lampshaded. Since Jak X came out in 2005, the same year as the infamous "Hot Coffee" GTA scandal, Naughty Dog threw together a joke unlockable. A 30-second video entitled "Hot Coffee" which shows Daxter and Tess flirting... and drinking coffee. Daxter notices the player watching them near the end and indignantly yells "What?!" while Tess smiles coyly.
• Hover Board: Called the Jet Board in-game.
• How We Got Here: Daxter is framed as the title character regaling his friends with how he went from being lost in an unfamiliar city with no idea of how he was going to pull off his rescue of Jak to actually pulling it off and starting the events of Jak II, at some point in time between that game and Jak 3.

• Humongous Mecha:
  • The Precursor Robot in the first game, which serves as the final boss.
  • Funnily enough, you face another giant Precursor Robot in the third game, but it's much easier.
• 100% Completion: In TPL, this gives you a bonus ending.
• Hurricane Kick: One of the series' signature moves.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Collapsed versions of the Morph gun and the JET-board can be seen on Jak's back after he acquires them, but where he keeps everything else from the up to twelve gun attachments to city passes to all the Precursor Orbs, Skull Gems, and even the Power Cells and Scout Flies in the first game, is a mystery.
• I Am Not Weasel: Daxter is commonly mistaken for various other small furry creatures, like rats or muskrats, etc etc etc.
• I Call It "Vera": Krew likes weapons a little too much.
• Idiot Ball: There's a scene in TLF where Daxter sees a machine with brightly colored buttons and decides it's a candy machine.

• If You Die, I Call Your Stuff: One thing Daxter says in TPL when Jak dies: "Can I have your bug collection?"
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The Krimzon Guard, minus Ashelin. Good thing she's a good guy. Hell, they aim so bad that moving is more likely to get you hurt.
  • However, once they become the Freedom League, they suddenly learn how to shoot. One of the rare examples where the good guys are better...
  • Or the Krimzon Guard training program was just that bad.
• Incoming Ham: "I...am Pecker!"
• Informal Eulogy: Daxter occasionally gave one in TPL when you died.
  "Don't worry, Jak, I'll avenge you! ...Not!"
  "I was right behind you, Jak! Really, I was."
  "Step one: stay alive. Step two: try not to think about doing something like that again!"
  "I'll say something really teary at the funeral, like How am I going to be changed back now?"
• Interface Spoiler: In the seconds and third games. The empty Light Eco meter next to the Dark one that is unlocked from the start is particularly obvious. Arguably, the weapon selection display is one as well (four categories of weapon, with three individual weapons in each in the latter game). You also start the third game with only a fourth of the health meter circle covered in orbs, making it obvious you'll get health upgrades.
• Interquel: Daxter pulls double duty by taking place during the second year of Jak's imprisonment in Jak II's prologue, while framed as a How We Got Here story Dax tells the group some time after Kor's defeat but before Jak is exiled.
• Interspecies Romance: Daxter and Tess. However, they don't actually do anything until Tess gets turned into an ottsel.
• Iron Butt Monkey: Poor Daxter. Whenever a gag entails Amusing Injuries, he's usually the victim.
• Item Get!: The famous Power Cell dance(s) in TPL. Got mocked in Jak II to show the series was getting serious.
• It Gets Easier: Well, "You get used to it" anyway.
• I Want Them Alive!: Sig about Krew, who Jak has already killed. Sorry, big guy.

J-O

• Jerkass:
  • Pecker, at times.
  • G.T. Blitz as well, until the end, when he's revealed as the bad guy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Jak as of Jak 2; he is abrasive, rough and bitter but is a nice and good person at heart and will always do the right thing.
  • Daxter is also abrasive and a tendency to get himself and Jak in trouble with snarky remarks, but genuinely cares about Jak and the state of the world.
• Karma Houdini: Rayn, the true antagonist of Jak X, gets away with poisoning the heroes scot-free. The only semi-form of comeuppance she gets is a sliver of regret that her newfound friends likely all hate her now.
• Kick the Dog: Veger gloating at Jak right after Damas' death.
• Knight of Cerebus: Maia and Gol in the first game raise the stakes from simply helping Daxter return to normal to saving the world, and lack the colorful, humorous personalities like the other islanders. The two, however, ended up outdone by Baron Praxis and Metal Kor, due to the former torturing Jak for the better part of two years, causing Jak's personality to become much darker, and the latter is part of the reason the world is the way it is, and once his intentions are revealed, the characters' goals become to immediately destroy him.
• Knight Templar: Count Veger, a strong supporter of Light Eco research and revealed to be one of the main villains of the overall series. The official strategy guide has a pretty apt description: "Although in some ways this guy means well, he is going about it in all the wrong ways and for all the wrong reasons. Too much of a good thing is bad, and Veger is as bad as they get!"
• Large Ham: The Baron. His Propaganda Machine announcements are so hammily insistent on upkeeping the totalarian atmosphere of the second game that they border on self-parody.
• Laser Sight: The Morph Gun.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • Gol, the guy who was supposed to cure Daxter in the first game, is the Big Bad.
  • Ashelin is Praxis' daughter.
  • Kor is actually the leader of the Metal Heads.
  • Erol comes back in Jak 3 as an Omnicidal Maniac working for/with the Dark Makers.
• Law of Inverse Recoil: Averted: Jak's gun actually does jerk back after firing.
• Lean and Mean: Count Veger.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Fire Canyon, Volcanic Crater, and the Lava Tube in TPL, the Dig from Jak II, and the Volcano and the Spargus Arena in Jak 3.

• Limit Break: Dark Jak, Jak's Superpowered Evil Side that can be triggered by filling the Dark Eco meter.
• Limited Wardrobe: Everyone has either one or two outfits, period (except Jak, who gets a new outfit every game).
• Loading Screen: Averted completely. It's disguised via background loading, such as airlocks and giant doors. If the player somehow manages to Speed Run through an area faster than the game can load the next area, Jak and Daxter will trip and fall over, taking a moment to get back up while the streaming loading takes place.
• Local Hangout: The Naughty Ottsel.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Rayn isn't happy when she finds out that Jak killed her father. "You knew? You ALL knew, didn't you?!"'
• Lost Technology: The Precursors left their crap everywhere.
• Love Triangle: Jak has two possible love interests depending on the game: Keira (Jak and Daxter, Jak 2, Jak X) or Ashelin (Jak 3). Parodied in Jak X, where the two girls look like they're about to go for each other's throats on a tv reel while Jak looks utterly confused in the middle.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Sadly, Jak figured it out seconds before Damas died, and didn't get a chance to tell him.
• Made of Explodium: One of the red eco powers in TLF.
• Magic Pants: When Daxter changes into his eight-foot-tall Superpowered Evil Side, his goggles and gloves change size too, and his pants are only shredded from the knees down... and when he goes back to normal, his pants are magically restored!
• The Man Behind the Man: Baron Praxis initially starts off as the Big Bad of Jak II, until it's revealed that the Metal Head Leader, AKA Kor is the one pulling the strings, forcing the Baron to trade large amounts of eco just to keep the Metal Heads out of Haven City.
• Manipulative Bastard: Rayn, who was aware of the poisoning plan from the start of Jak X and faked being poisoned too to get the heroes to do what she wanted.
• Market-Based Title: The second and third games are just called Jak 2 and Jak 3 in the US market. Outside of the US they get subtitles as well.
• Mascot with Attitude: Subverted with Daxter. He's definitely a silly-looking creature with a snarky personality, as well as one of the most recognizable character in the series, but instead of being the protagonist, he just sits on his shoulder.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Samos" is an island in Greece known for its fertility; the character is the tree-hugging Sage of Green Eco.
  • The major city of the Wasteland continent, Spargus, is clearly a play on the famous Sparta. Spargus even has limits on 'citizenship', because only people who survive three different marathon deathmatches are considered citizens.
  • Continuing the Ancient Greece theme, the two known kings of Haven (Tyrant Praxis, who usurped King Damas) have remarkably similar names to a few Spartan kings [1] and Athenian archons [2].
    • Also, Praxis is an actual Greek word basically defined as the combination of theory and practice. Baron Praxis will come up with and execute any scheme or tactic he deems necessary to achieve victory, such as threatening to kill his own daughter.
    • It could be interesting to note that Deimos is a moon of Mars and Damas is a descendant of Mar / named his son after Mar.
  • The surname of the two Big Bads of the first game is Acheron, which is the river of woe in Greek mythology, and the river that Charon would ferry the souls of the dead across.
  • G.T. Blitz has two meanings: "Blitz" is German for lightning, which is fast and dangerous, not unlike Combat Racing. "G.T." stands for "grand tourer" (or, in Italian, gran turismo), which is a kind of high-performance car built for long-distance driving.
• Meaningful Titles: Played straight with Praxis and Veger, subverted with Skyheed.
• Mêlée à Trois: Happens two separate times in the series. The first one happens in Jak II, which focuses on the three-way struggle between the Underground Resistance, Baron Praxis and the KG, and the Metal Heads. Then, in Jak 3, Haven City becomes a war zone between the resurgent Metal Heads, the Freedom League, and the army of KG robots led by a cybernetically-revived Erol, and that's not even bringing Spargus or the Dark Makers into the mix.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender:
  • In TLF, we see people of both genders wandering around Aeropa in the beginning. However, once it's revealed that they're Always Chaotic Evil, they all become identical Mooks... and male. In addition, there are no female Krimzon Guards other than Ashelin (who doesn't die), and no other female in the series dies (unless YOU do it, but that doesn't count). But then again, in TLF, the Aeropans you fight underwent transformation and were put in heavy armor.
  • Maia does die.
    • Probably...
• Miles Gloriosus: Daxter talks a big game, even implying he is the true hero who needs to get Jak out of tight spots, but in the end always ends up letting Jak do the fighting.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Samos, the Bird Lady, Jak's uncle.
• Mini-Mecha: Jak pilots one a couple times in Jak II. There is also a level in Jak 3 where Jak controls a Dark Maker Bot with his mind.
• Missing Mom: There are five fathers in the series (Samos, Damas, Krew, Osmo, and Praxis) but mothers are only mentioned. Pecker says his mother was "very vindictive"; Samos' comment about Keira being "just like her mother"; Sig's "my momma used to read me bedtime stories..." bit; and Kleiver's sarcastic "No, I'm conversing with me sweet departed mum."
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Ottsels and yakkows and monkaws.
• Moment Killer: Daxter did this to Jak and Keira twice, interrupting him from kissing her in both the first and second games. Jak got his revenge eventually.
• Momma's Boy: Possibly Sig. "She'd give me a warm glass of yakow milk... and my little Poopsie Bear..."
• Mood Whiplash: Between the first and second games.
• More Dakka: The Morph Gun (especially its Jak 3 upgrades) and the Gunstaff.
  • And then there's the Vulcan Cannon weapon for planes in The Lost Frontier, which sprays a cloud of bullets in whatever direction you point it. Loaded onto the Gunship, which has five weapon mounts per wing, and you have the most dakka the series has seen so far.
• Morph Weapon: The Morph Gun and the Gunstaff.

• Mundane Utility: Need to open a box? Shoot it!
• Mundane Wish: After having been turned into an ottsel in the beginning of the first game, Daxter gets his chance to turn back into a humanoid in the ending for Jak 3 as the Precursors offer to grant him a wish. He wishes for a comfortable pair of pants.
• The Muse: The Sculptor in TPL has one. It glows!
• My Nayme Is: Jak, Erol, Ximon, Kleiver, Razer, Rayn...
• My Greatest Failure: While admonishing Errol about the foolishness of attacking the Metal Head Nest, Praxis gazes out a window and mournfully touches his cybernetic implants. It's clear he's still shaken by the horrors he lead his men into, even if his Propaganda Machine bills it as "glorious".
• New Game Plus: Any cheats you unlock with Precursor Orbs will carry over to new playthroughs of the game.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: the characters did technically usher forth the Metal Head apocalypse onto Sandover/Haven, and can't correct it because of some strange Stable Time Loop shenanigans at play. As Daxter sagely puts it:
  "Honey, the more you think about it, the more it hurts the head.
• The Nicknamer: Jinx (and Daxter, though he's usually derogatory).
• Nintendo Hard: After players complained that the original game was too easy, Naughty Dog turned the difficulty up to eleven with Jak II. Jak 3 took it down a notch, but inconsistently, varying from "pretty easy" to "shout invectives at Naughty Dog and snap controller". Then, Jak X came out, and is to racing games what Jak II is to action games.
• Nitro Boost: Blue Eco temporarily increased Jak's speed both on foot and while driving the zoomer in the first game. Turbo powerups could be picked up in the zoomer races in Jak II and the Wasteland driving missions in Jak 3, and blue eco showed up again in Jak X.
• No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: Averted in Jak 3, mostly because you usually get equipment in cutscenes. Played straight in TLF though.
• Non-Action Guy: Daxter only ever rides on Jak's shoulder in the first game. Averted in later installments where Daxter gets his own levels.
• Non-Indicative Name: While Haven City originally served as a haven from the Metal Heads when it was built, it has become a war zone twice during Jak's stay. The, all of a sudden, misnomer is especially apparent near the end of Jak II when the Krimzon Guard fights the Metal Heads as well as in all of Jak 3 when the Freedom League fights the Metal Heads and the KG Death Bots.
  • Heck, in Jak 3 Spargus City is actually a much safer place than Haven, and at one point Jak is glad to be banished and not be in Haven to fight in the war.
• Noodle Incident: Jak to his younger self: "Stay away from ANY wumpbee nests on your ninth birthday, okay?"
• No OSHA Compliance: Gol and Maia's Citadel is full of rickety wooden walkways, floating Precursor gadgets, and bronze platforms, and it's all held over a huge Bottomless Pit. And then there's the Praxis Palace and the Weapons Lab. The Praxis Palace has a huge pit in both of it's machinery rooms, and the Weapons Lab is filled with glowing green toxic goo.
• Not a Game: Lampshaded because it is, in fact, a game.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Unless you count Daxter's excessive flirting, which has all but stopped since Jak X.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Jak's response when Daxter first tries to tell him about his Superpowered Evil Side.
• Not Quite Dead: Sig seems to be killed by a Metalpede at the end of Jak II. He reappears triumphantly at the party in the outro, in perfect health.

• Numbered Sequels: Oddly, the sequels started with Roman numerals with Jak II, but switched to numbers for Jak 3.

• Official Couple:
  • Jak and Keira as of Jak X.
  • Torn and Ashelin in Jak II and Jak X.
  • Daxter and Tess.
• Oh, Crap!: In Jak X, when Jak (and the player) realizes that Jak's weapons have been sabotaged. In the middle of the race. One can only imagine Daxter's reaction...
  • Veger has a moment like this in Jak 3 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." Mar's name is also used as an oath, with characters exclaiming "Thank Mar you're here!" Interestingly averted at the end of Jak 3 and Jak X, when Jak famously says "Oh my God." Especially considering that in 3 he is standing before his Gods. Daxter also says "...God, I miss pants" in Jak 2.
• Ojou: Ashelin is the Baron's daughter and a high-ranking member of the Guard before becoming Governor of Haven City.

• Omnicidal Maniac: A few over the years
  • Gol and Maia in TPL. Although they genuinely didn't seem to have a motive beyond releasing Dark Eco into the world and seeing what would happen.
  • Errol in Jak 3.

• One of the Boys: Keira's oldest (and presumably closest) friends are Jak and Daxter, and she likes to tinker with machines.
• One-Winged Angel: The Metal Head leader reverting to his real form in Jak II, as well as any time Jak turns into Dark Jak and Light Jak.
• Only One Name: Everyone. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether someone is referred to on a Last-Name Basis or not.
  • Since most names in this series are uncommon/alternatively spelled real names, it stands to reason that at least Veger is on a Last-Name Basis with the rest of the cast.
  • Averted in the first game, when Samos refers to the great sage of Dark Eco as Gol Acheron. It's assumed that his sister Maia shares this surname.
  • Also, Keira and Samos Hagai.
• Optional Traffic Laws: As long as you don't hit one of them, the Krimzon Guard couldn't care less how many civilians you plow into. And neither does the Freedom League, for that matter.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: The Kid in Jak II had an amulet around his neck, marking him as Haven City's lost heir to the throne. As it turns out, it was an indicator of Jak's heritage and proof positive that he was Damas's son.
• Our Angels Are Different: Jak's light eco form is an interesting case. Besides the light = good = angelic imagery, he was literally granted the form by the Gods to fight as their warrior. While Jak does generally have a good heart and receiving the ability to channel light eco helped make the dark eco feel "far away" according to him, he's still a bit of a sardonic jackass from time-to-time. And when he gains the ability to fly, his wings aren't the typical angelic fair but giant tentacles.◊
• Our Humans Are Different: Jak's species has long Pointy Ears and natural hair colors in various abnormal tones, and some have technicolor skin. The characters seem to be otherwise no different from humans, and are even referred to as "humans" on more than one occasion. Many characters also have slim fingers with proportionately bloated fingertips. Examples are Jak, Daxter, and Samos. This is possibly referred to when either Keira or Jak says "cross your fingers" and Daxter holds up his index and middle finders and says "ya know, I've never been able to do that". It's entirely possible that this discrepancy is an artifact concept from a time when the games were meant to be straight fantasy. Since the characters are infrequently referred too as human, despite clearly not being so, the most likely explanation is that the writers decided to streamline any debate about pronouns and descriptions by just calling them humans whenever it came up.

P-S

• Parental Abandonment: Most characters never mention their parents (but given that the world is war-torn and they're all adults, that's excusable). One intriguing example is Daxter's parentage: they've never been mentioned or seen, so most fans believe that he's an orphan.
• Parental Substitute:
  • Samos is a father figure for both Jak and Daxter.
  • Jak's explorer Uncle in TPL.
• Pass Through the Rings: Some of the more aggravating missions.
• Physical God: The Precursors, again. They (supposedly) all died out before even the first game, and they were stated to be an ancient, super-advanced race. However, they are often invoked as if they were gods (see above), and the second game hints at their true nature. The third game finally out-and-out confirms it.

• Perpetual Frowner: Jak.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Jak was experimented on for three years as part of the Dark Warrior project, in order to create a trump card to use against the Metal Heads. It worked, but maybe not in a way the tyrannical Barron would've wanted.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: Jak, after being involuntarily experimented on during the two years between the first and second games.
• Pinball Projectile: The Reflexor gun.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Daxter, again, at least in the later games (and especially in his self-titled entry). And if he ever gets his Precursor powers. As an extension, any Precursor has the potential to be this.
• Pirate Girl: A... slightly drunk... lady pirate... is included in Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. No, she only appears once and is just a background character.
• Platform Game: And one of the best of its kind.
• Platforming Pocket Pal: Daxter
• Playful Otter: Daxter is a pretty fun loving and irreverent guy (He's actually an ottsel, but close enough.)
• Pointy Ears: Subverted. The characters' ears aren't used to indicate that they are inhuman or supernatural.
  • Although at certain times, it is implied that they do in fact have certain superhuman traits, like better hearing. The best example of this implication is in Jak II, when Jak and Daxter are eavesdropping on Erol and Baron Praxis from a high, glass ceiling rooftop. Both parties can hear each other clearly despite the pouring rain and distance between them.
• Power Echoes: A lot, in the case of Gol Acheron. Between this and the Vader Breath, he can be hard to understand sometimes.
• Precursors: There is an ancient race called "The Precursors". They leave deep-voiced oracular statues and various giant robots scattered about, and depict themselves as glowing Energy Beings, but that's just a Wizard of Oz act; they're really ottsels, otter-weasel hybrids like Jak's sidekick Daxter. In fact, he becomes one because all eco contains their essence.

• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Jak only appears in Daxter two or three times. Given that he's in prison for most of the game, it's justified.
• Primal Fear: If you've been eaten by the Lurker Shark in TPL, then you know.
• Psycho Serum: Dark Eco for Jak in Jak II; it makes him stronger and gives his attacks a Chain Lightning property, but apparently increases his aggression to nigh-uncontrollable levels and will eventually kill him if left unchecked.
• Purposely Overpowered: The Peace Maker and Supernova weapons.
• Puzzle Boss: Pretty much all of them.
• Quick Draw: Jak (and Daxter, when Jak's on the Zoomer)
• Racing Minigame: In some parts of Jak II, very prominent in Jak 3.
• Real Men Wear Pink: G.T. Blitz.
• Rebel Leader: Torn. And the Shadow, though he (justifiably) spends a lot of his time not doing anything.
• Rebellious Princess: Ashelin takes this to extremes by being a double agent for the Underground, who is working to topple the Baron's rule.
• Recursive Ammo: Doubling as Macross Missile Massacre, the Apocalypse aircraft weapon in The Lost Frontier fires a single missile that splits into three smaller warheads, each of which splits further into three more missiles for a total of nine warheads per single shot. Needless to say, it doesn't take long to clear the airspace around you when using this weapon.

• Retcon: Many (relatively minor) of the things revealed in the second game, as applied to the first.
• The Reveal: Each game has a progressively more shocking one:
  • TPL: The only person who can cure Daxter is the Big Bad.
  • Jak 2: Kor is the Metal Head leader, and The Kid is Jak.
  • Jak 3: The Precursors were ottsels.
• Riding the Bomb: One of Daxter's more badass moments in Jak 3 and TLF.
• Rising Conflict: Every single game in the series.
• Rise to the Challenge: One of the last things you do in the Lost Precursor City in TPL, only with Dark Eco instead of water.
• The Rival: Erol fills this role for Jak in Jak II and is of the Arch-Enemy variety. Pecker becomes Daxter's rival in the same game, though they're only slightly less violent towards each other.

• Ruder and Cruder: Jak II: Renegade uses moderate to severe profanity compared to the first game, and the trend carried over into Jak 3: Wastelander and Jak X.
• Rummage Sale Reject: The half-shoes in the first game, for starters.
• Runaway Train: Jak 3, in the Eco Mine.
• Running Gag: Two major ones, both involving Daxter...
  • Daxter interrupting The Big Damn Kiss of Jak and Keira's at the end of each game save for Jak X.
  • Daxter bemoaning the fact that he can't wear pants anymore.
    Daxter: God, I miss pants...

• Saving the World: It never starts out that way, but that's what it usually turns into. Except in TLF; they know early on that this is a save-the-world quest.
• Say My Name: Happens once in Jak 3, after Jak's Suicidal "Gotcha!".
  Daxter: Jak? JAAAK!
• Scarf of Asskicking: Jak has one in Jak II and Jak 3.
• Scenery Gorn: The ruined areas of Haven City in Jak 3. What's even more unnerving is that there are parts of the ruined city that can be recognized from Jak II, making the point (that this place really has gone to Hell in a handbasket) hit that closer to home.
• Secondary Fire: The Morph Gun's Jak 3 upgrades.

• Sequel Hook: "I'm done with adventures." You wish, Jak.

• Share the Male Pain: The end of Jak X gives us this little exchange, as the group prepares to face off against Mizo's gang in the race for their lives.
  Jak: All for one...
  Ashelin: And one right in the groin.
  Sig: *covers crotch with hand*
• Shooting Gallery: There's one in the Haven City Port in Jak II and 3.
• Shoulders of Doom:
  • Damas and several other Wastelanders have obnoxiously large/spiky shoulder pads. Errol has a single large mechanical shoulder for his single large mechanical arm in Jak 3.
  • Sig stands out with his set having been fashioned from the skulls of slain Metal Heads.
• Shout-Out:
  • There's a Ratchet & Clank poster on one of the monitors in Haven City. Samos's house in the first game contains one of the piranha plants from Crash Bandicoot.
  • Early in TLF, during the first mission with the Hellcat, Daxter yells "Do a barrel roll! Try a somersault!" It's hard to believe that was unintentional.
  • TLF has a lot of shout outs: Return of the Jedi, MST3K (specifically the Space Mutiny episode), Diablo, Planet of the Apes...
  • Not to mention "A more elegant weapon, for a more civilized time," said about the electric bug-swatter in Daxter.
  • Some call me... Tym.
  • All of the dream minigames in Daxter are shout-outs to certain movies: The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Braveheart and Indiana Jones.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Daxter and Tess. The smooching is pretty much non-existent thanks to the species difference, but the rest of the symptoms are there (baby talk, stupid nicknames, cuddling).
  • So one can only imagine how bad it got once the species difference was taken out of the equation.
• Side Kick: Daxter, although he does eventually become The Hero in his own right, especially in Daxter.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: An exchange between Jak and G.T. Blitz in Jak X.
• Slasher Smile: Daxter, oddly enough.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Jak had his sleeves removed in the beginning of Jak 3. Torn and Sig have sleeveless shirts in Jak X. Sig might always have that shirt on, but it's difficult to tell underneath all the armor he usually wears.
• Sky Pirates: Phoenix and his band in TLF.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: Tess when she showcases new weapon for Jak. They actually scaled the gun model down for Tess and it still looks huge.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Slid from one end all the way to the other in less than five minutes at the start of the second game, migrating slowly back toward the middle as that game (and its sequel, Jak 3) progressed. The world is ultimately not a Crapsack World, but it's no picnic, either.
• Smart Ball: Daxter isn't exactly dumb, but the amount of times he picks this up makes one wonder if he qualifies as a Ditzy Genius. He's broken into high-security areas crawling with Mooks, disarmed bombs, piloted rockets, driven vehicles with no previous experience, and has run a business since he was seventeen, also without experience (or schooling, for that matter).
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Daxter.
• The So-Called Coward: Daxter. Though he's never expressly called a coward, this is the basic perception of him, both by the people in game and the fans.
• Some Call Me "Tim": Not technically an example, but the line is spoofed/uttered in TLF with Tym.
• The Speechless: Jak doesn't have any lines in TPL, parodying the dying breed of the Heroic Mime at the time. In Jak II it's retconned that he was a mute.
• Spell My Name With An S: In Jak 3, Erol's name is spelled Errol.
• Spider Tank:
  • The Terraformer.
  • On a smaller scale, the Blast Bots from Jak II and Jak 3.
  • The Baron has a spider tank he uses in the Tomb of Mar, in Jak II.
• Stable Time Loop: Jak II. Jak 3 even more so.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Samos essentially says this to Keira in Jak X, when he finds out that she wants to be a racer and not just the mechanic. The exact wording was "a woman's place is in the garage fixing cars!" Good thing Ashelin wasn't around to hear that...

• Stripperiffic:
  • Ashelin, the only female Krimzon Guard we see, wears a "uniform" like this.
  • And then there's women NPCs in Haven City that have skirts with cutaway holes in the side, partially revealing their bare legs.
• Steampunk: The Lava Tube and Gol and Maia's Citadel in the first game qualify. Later, the sequels toned down on the Steampunk-Style technology, going for a more Cyberpunk look.
• Suddenly Voiced: Jak from the second game onward.

• Super Drowning Skills: For Jak, this is caused by Border Patrol (except in TLF, when it's completely unjustified). For Daxter, this is because he's got electrical equipment tied to his back. All enemies die instantly when knocked into deep water, even the ones that came out of the water in the first place.
• Superhero Packing Heat: Jak, with his morph gun and his Eco.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Dark Jak in the second game. The third adds a Superpowered "Good" Side to contrast. In TLF, Daxter gets a Dark mode too. Considering Precursors that are overexposed to Dark Eco become Dark Makers, this has the potential to be quite an interesting development if the series continues.
• Super-Soldier: The Dark Aeropan Warriors are essentially this. They were mass-produced to be combat-effective warriors against the Eco Pirates by infusing citizens with dark eco.
• Super Window Jump: Jak drives through a window (okay, aquarium) in Jak X.
• Surfer Dude: Ximon in Daxter, also arguably the Sculptor from TPL. One of the Precursors in Jak 3.
• 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.
  • The Gunstaff from TLF can be used in melee and comes with the Scatter Gun (now called Concussor Gun), the Blaster, the Vulcan Fury, and something like the Peace Maker.

T-Z

• Tactical Suicide Boss: The Precursor bot in Jak 3 insists on floating right underneath a triad of precariously perched mine carts filled with explosives, and one of his attacks creates pillars in the ground at varying highs for Jak to climb onto so he can shoot them down.
• 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. Gol and Maia won't get open the Dark Eco silos until you get there, either.
• Talking Animal: Daxter and the rest of the ottsels, too.
  • Polly Wants a Microphone: Pecker. He actually gets one in Jak X.
• Tattooed Crook: Everyone in Mizo's gang has the same tattoo on their right wrist.
• Team Dad: Samos, though his age makes him more like the Team Grandpa.
• Team Hand-Stack: The team at the end of Jak X stacks hands right before the final race.
• Technicolor Eyes: Nearly everyone. Praxis, Krew and Seem all have red(dish) eyes, Damas' eyes are purple, Erol has gold eyes and Blitz' are indigo.
• Techno Babble: Tess spits out a run-on sentence about one of her BFGs in Jak 3. Cue shot of Jak and Daxter with a "Bwuh?" look on their faces.
  • Vin also launches into an impressive spiel at one point.
  Daxter: Did you understand a word he said?
• Temporary Platform: Everywhere.
• Theme Naming: Every member of Mizo's gang is named after a sharp object: Razer (razor), Cutter and Edje (edgy) are the obvious ones; a shiv is any type of improvised, bladed weapon (common in prisons), and a mizo is a type of Bowie knife. Kleiver (cleaver), though not originally a gang member, also fits in.
• Third-Person Shooter: After acquiring the morph gun in Jak II and Jak 3. Parts of TPL are like this when using yellow eco.
• Three-Act Structure: Jak II, Jak 3, and TLF, though the latter changes the formula slightly in that a boss fight doesn't mark the ends of the first and second acts.
• Timed Mission: Very Strict from II onwards, to the point were some of the ring challenges start you off with 9 seconds. Makes you wonder why the timers even have a 10-minute marker.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Daxter and Tess. That gets fixed at the end of Jak 3.
• Token Minority: Sig. The tokenism here has gotten ridiculous as not only is he the only black member of the main cast, he's apparently the only black guy on the entire freaking planet.
• Tomboy Princess: Ashelin.
• Town Girls: Keira (Neither), Ashelin (Butch), and Tess (Femme) in the second and third game.
• Took a Level in Badass: Both Jak and Daxter go through this. Jak's is abrupt and noticeable while Daxter's is subtle and usually ignored.
• Touched by Vorlons: How Jak got his Light powers.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • Jak II being set in the future.
  • Daxter getting a Dark mode.
• Trapped in Another World: Subverted with Jak II, as that is instead a Bad Future, not another world.
  • Making this more a case of Stranger in a Familiar Land.
• Treacherous Advisor: Kor in Jak II
• Trigger-Happy: Jak (and Daxter, whenever he gets a chance to use the damn thing).
• Trilogy Creep: Jak 3 was originally thought to be the end, but then they released Jak X, Daxter, and TLF.
• Troubled, but Cute: Jak.
• True Companions: Exactly how many of the main characters are these depends on who you ask, but the general consensus (judging from the group as shown in Jak X) is that Jak, Daxter, Keira, Samos, Torn, Ashelin, and Sig are the "official" party.
  • Torn, Ashelin and Sig joined the gang as Fire-Forged Friends in Jak II.
• Twitchy Eye: Veger gets one when the Precursors are revealed to be ottsels.
• Two-Part Trilogy: The first Jak and Daxter have little to do with the next two games besides the portal at the end.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Both played straight and averted with Praxis, who turns Haven City into an oppressive police state, but is shown towards the end of Jak II to genuinely care for the citizens he's in charge of (perhaps a little too much).
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Rayn is Krew's (KREW'S?!?!?) daughter.
• Unflinching Walk: The end of Jak X.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Krimzon Guards don't notice you until you hit one of them, or if you're taking on a mission against them.
  • Plus, no one seems bothered by the fact that Daxter is a talking rodent muskrat ottsel who rides on Jak's shoulder.
• Used Future: Haven City features grungy industrial areas, rusty floating vehicles, and badly polluted waters, despite being a futuristic city. The surrounding areas aren't much better, either, as the Metal Heads have taken over.
• Vader Breath: Obviously all that Dark Eco experimentation couldn't have been good for Gol's lungs.
• Verbal Tic: Pecker squawks loudly and abrasively on occasion.
• Vice City: Pretty much every human settlement.
  • Wretched Hive: Kras City
• Victory Pose: After getting a Power Cell in the first game. Lampshaded at the beginning of Jak II.
• Videogame Cruelty Potential: Starting in Jak II, you can indiscriminately slaughter civilians, knock Krimzon Guard into the water to drown, and even trick their hoverbike riders into slamming into walls or the back of your car, causing them to crash and die. In Jak 3 you can start huge shootouts with the wastelanders. Get one to start shooting at you, get that one to accidentally hit someone else...
  • The pelican in the first game.
• Video Wills / The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Krew's holographic will in Jak X.
• Villainous Breakdown: Erol
• Villainous Glutton: Krew
• Visible Silence: At one point in Daxter, Ximon makes a kind of "uuhhhh..." sound, which the subtitles show as "..."
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Daxter and Pecker. They totally hate each other's guts... but will happily hang out together without too much fuss.
• Warrior Prince: Jak again
• Wasteland Elder: Damas
  • Damas doesn't fit this trope: he is clearly the biggest badass in Spargus and, therefore, its king, and he makes it clear that it's either HIS way, or the highway to death by exposure.
  • A better example might be Kor, who before it was revealed that he was the Metal Head leader and still in human guise, seemed to have made a place among the rebel forces by being old and a Reasonable Authority Figure.
• Weak Turret Gun: In Jak X, the only way to destroy a turret gun is to drive into it (of course, you're always in a car, so...). However, you receive no collateral damage for doing so, nor do you slow down.
• Weasel Mascot: Daxter
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Jak and Daxter (yes, Daxter is guilty of this too) can shoot/punch/maim hundreds of Krimzon Guards and Aeropans to death, but they're still considered heroes? The latter class of mooks makes this incredibly uncomfortable, since their only crime is not being strong enough to retain their own minds after Dark Eco experimentation, though supposedly they all went along with it of their own accord. The MST3K Mantra is especially necessary here.

• Winged Humanoid: Light Jak
• Wire Dilemma: Parodied in a cutscene near the end of Jak II. Daxter crawls into the Piercer Bomb in order to get the Precursor Stone back and, theoretically, disarm it. He says things like "Should I clip the blue wire?" before just deciding to break a few more things to see if anything comes loose. It works. The Lost Frontier also has him disarming missiles by ripping wires and such out.
  "Wait a minute, are ottsels colorblind???"
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Dark Jak. Dark Daxter.
• Womb Level: Metal Head nests.
• Worf Had the Flu: In The Lost Frontier, The instability in the world's eco makes Jak unable to use his dark form.
• World of Technicolor Hair: While there are many characters with normal hair colors, many others sport shades far more exotic. It's particularly common for this to take the form of multicolored hair, such as Jak's hair being green and yellow and Keira's being green and blue.
• Wrench Wench: Keira (vehicles), Tess (weapons)
• Writers Cannot Do Math: In Jak X, it's confirmed that Jak and Keira are only one year apart. So, young Jak would have had to be at most one year old when he and young Samos went back in time. However, Baron Praxis was in charge of Haven City for at least two years, so Jak would have to have been at least that old by the time he went back in time. A common fan theory was that Keira was adopted, but that's been debunked since Samos mentioned that she was "just like her mother." The new theory is that Keira's mother was single and married Samos. If she is indeed Samos' biological daughter, as the series seems to treat her, then it falls under this trope.
  • This trope is averted by the fan theory that Keira and Samos arrived in the future at a different time than Jak and Daxter. This idea is supported by Samos when he claims he's "added six rings to [his] trunk just waiting for [Jak and Daxter]!" which would imply that he has been in the future 4 years longer than our heroes.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Jak can collect and utilized both Dark Eco and Light Eco powers and abilities in Jak 3.
• You Killed My Father: Rare version of the hero killing an ally's father: Rayn is not happy when she finds out Jak killed Krew. She forgives him later, though.
• You Need to Get Laid: Daxter implies this when talking to Veger at one point, going off on a tangent about hot babes. Veger reacts as one would assume he would.