Jak and Daxter: Legacy

DISCLAIMER:

This novel is a work of fanfiction based on the Jak and Daxter series by Naughty Dog. This work is not intended to infringe upon their right to all things related to the Jak and Daxter series, nor will it be used for any purposes beyond entertainment.

DEDICATION:

This novel dedicated to the hard-working team at Naughty Dog who made Jak and Daxter possible. Thank you for all your late nights, coffee-fueled mornings, and hours on end drawing, writing, designing, and programming. Without your efforts, the world – and my childhood - would be missing one of the best game series ever made.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

This story will not include regular author's notes at the top of each chapter. Instead, thanks to reviewers will appear at the bottom of each chapter so as to not inhibit reading flow. My general notes to readers can be found in this section and the foreword after.

FIC SPECS/TRIGGER WARNINGS:

This story is classified as a Reboot AU Epic; many of the characters and settings will remain the same as in the original series, but they and their world will be developed to fit my vision of a series reboot. Because of the nature of this fic, one doesn't need to know the story of the original Jak and Daxter series, but having prior knowledge will greatly benefit your enjoyment of it. The world and plot tries to integrate the tone of the first game and the second/third more organically, while also incorporating ideas from the art from Naughty Dog's cancelled reboot. For more information on what's to come, please take the time to read the foreword.

Because of its classification as an 'epic', this story will be very, very long. I've estimated it to be ~200,000 words long, or about eighty chapters. I just wanted to warn you ahead of time before you became invested, just in case epic length works aren't your thing.

Trigger warnings include: death/dying, blood, heavy/gun related violence, drug use (mentioned), needles (non-drug related), torture, prostitution (mentioned), and slavery (mentioned).

FOREWORD:

I know, I know, forewords suck. Forewords that are paragraphs long and ramble suck even more. But if I don't give you a heads up before reading this fic, you're going to walk away from the first chapter either scratching your head or shaking it in disgust, because true to the original source this ain't.

There comes a time in everyone's life when something they love meets its end. I feel that stories are some of the hardest to let go. We get so enraptured by a setting, a character, a theme, or even just a single idea that – when it finishes – we are left standing there like one might if it were possible to face the edge of the world. "Is that it?" we ask ourselves. "Why can't there be more?"

Sometimes, we're granted more. Sometimes, we're not. In the case of Jak and Daxter, we're still standing on that precipice. The studio behind Jak and Daxter is radically different now, focused on telling cinematic, realistic, interactive stories that I love just as much as J&D. However, I would be lying if I claimed that J&D wasn't a bit more special to me than Uncharted or The Last of Us. This series was a milestone of the PS2. It was a milestone of the platformer genre. Most importantly, it was a milestone of my childhood (and many others', I'm sure), one I still revisit regularly.

There was a reboot attempt at one point. However, as we all know, Naughty Dog felt it was veering too far away from what made J&D… J&D, and so went on to create something else instead; a little title some of you just may have heard of: The Last of Us. And man, was it a well-paying gamble, as it led to one of the most heartwrenching, complex stories in the history of video games. But, the J&D 4/Reboot's art was released, I made the mistake of looking at it, and I… was insanely mad.

NOT because I thought it was hideous, but because I was immediately remorseful that it had never come to fruition. I don't know what the hell you all are smoking, but why a bunch of fans across the internet thought that art "hideous" is beyond me. Um… realistic Jak looked freaking sweet. The environment art looked sweet. Those aliens and robots looked sweet. Daxter was a little strange, but yeah… I could get used to Daxter rocking a Rocket Raccoon-esque look.

I get it. It wasn't cartoony like the original series. And don't get me wrong, I really dig that style, too; my childhood included many a day admiring Jak's cartoony waifu angst mug. But um… a Jak so gorgeously rendered to the point that I can count the number of hairs in his goatee, in a Horizon: Zero Dawn sized setting that's a lovechild of steampunk, cyberpunk, and fantasy, in a story from the people who wrote The Last of Us? Would anyone seriously turn that down? I mean… what?

That's like hating chocolate ice cream just because vanilla came first. Yeah, vanilla's great, too, but… holy shit, chocolate, guys. Fucking chocolate. And you'd buy it, too. You'd down that sweet, sweet ambrosia with a blissful smile. You'd go on forums and complain about how it's not like the original vanilla flavor, but you'd eat that chocolate goodness up and savor it like Krew would a bacon-wrapped, butter smothered, twenty course buffet served so state fair style that even the goddamn sticks are deep fried. Don't lie.

Anyways, I digress (and probably just pissed off about 99% of the fandom; put down your pitchforks and torches, kiddies, I don't mean to offend). Onto the main point: the actual reason behind this story.

So, what do you get when you have a writer that really liked those concepts, really loved the original series, and would love a new version of the story that not only gives everything a shiny coat of paint, but tries to make the characters as deep as what a modern Naughty Dog game might offer (all while keeping many of the same setting/backstory ideas)? This story is what you get. It might not be as good as the reboot we almost got, but it's something to go on in this metaphorical desert of content.

If that already sounds gross to you, then feel free to scoot on out of here. If that sounds cool, then here's a brief summary of what's to come:

The deja-vu realistic versions of Jak and Daxter live in a world called Nadoa, where the lush, fantasy setting of the first game is mashed together with the grim, steam/cyberpunk dystopia of the second and third. Jak is a boy of mysterious origin (TM) who works as a green eco sage's apprentice in one of the last few traditional villages – untouched by extensive technology – left. However, his curiosity gets the best of him, bad things happen, and he is thrust onto a journey to find a cure before time runs out. Along the way, he meets Daxter, an ottsel who also is an unfortunate victim of ancient Precursor tech, and the two travel together across an entire continent to get to Haven City, where Gol and Maia Acheron – the only dark eco sages left in the world – will hopefully cure them of their predicaments.

However, when they arrive they soon get caught up in Haven's seedy underworld, where gangs led by crime bosses like Krew and a rebellious resistance called the Underground rule the streets. Jak needs to make enough money before the dark eco kills him to get a chance at his and Daxter's cure, but are the terrible things he's forced to do worth it? Better yet, the "side effects" of his sickness are getting worse every day, and time is quickly running out…

If you at least somewhat like those ideas, and don't mind a character-driven, possibly novel-length long story (probably with two sequels because what else exists in my life but programming, writing, and other nerdy pastimes) with themes that question religion, explore environmental concerns, highlight class struggle, explore the dynamics between creators and the created, and mull over the ethics of genetic engineering… well, click on that "Next" button down at the bottom of this page, because this is the story for you!

If not, well… I just wasted like ten minutes of your life that you'll never get back. Oops. ;)

Also, one last note: I really want to be a professionally published author someday, so I am totally open – and honestly am glad for – any critique. Feel free to leave your nitpicks and gripes in reviews. This may be fanfiction, but I like to hold everything I write to the same standard of quality I do my original works. As long as your critique isn't, "Eyyy, man, this story isn't like the J&D I know, Jak's slightly OOC, etc…", because then I'll tell you to read this foreword.

Thank you for reading to the end of this! Now, without further ado… sit back, relax, click that "next" button, and get ready to enjoy Jak and Daxter: Legacy.