We’re only an hour in and we’ve already got one of my favorite guns and one of my favorite cars in the game. Things are already looking up.

Shame about that whole banishment thing.

It always feels weird to get a power like invisibility in a video game like this, because more often than not it’s used purely to give us “permission” to reach an area or perform a puzzle. We rarely get to use it outside of very specific contexts. In this case, we need to use specific Dark Idols in order to activate the power.

I understand why they impose such limits on us, but it’s a shame we can’t make use of it in a combat situation. It would be fun to use invisibility to make enemies stop chasing us, or to sneak up on them, but that’s tough to program for, especially in the PS2 era with limited RAM. It’s partly why once we go up a generation or two, we see devs making more inventive use of invisibility and similar mechanics.

We’ve been introduced to a great many systems and mechanics all at once, and the game is not likely to hold up anytime soon.

Get ready to put the peddle to the metal.

I know I also said this with Jak 2, but I forgot how quickly Jak 3 gets us up and moving from objective to objective. These tutorials are utilitarian, with only the absolute minimum required to ease someone who might be new to the genre in.

It almost feels like Naughty Dog is assuming that we’ve played Jak 2 before Jak 3, when during this generation it was a well-known fact that most franchises sold more as the series went on, just by virtue of being an established brand name. It also helped that most sequels served as stand-alone entries, requiring no knowledge of the previous games in said series. This was not the era of the grand Mass Effect-style trilogy where every choice from previous games would have an effect on the new one.

Then again, platformers were common in this era. It’s not unreasonable to assume the average player knew the basics. And if they did, a short tutorial means that they aren’t wasting a ton of time on a New Player Experience they have no need for.

I wonder how a new player would feel. For me, this is great, but I can’t help but think someone new to gaming might be overwhelmed.

Alright. It’s time for us to start on the next (and final?) game in the Jak and Daxter platforming trilogy, Jak 3. As it turns out, we didn’t save the day the way we thought we did at the end of the second game.

Which means we have work to do… or we would if we weren’t banished to the Wasteland.

As much as I clown on this intro, the truth is that in many ways Jak 3 is paying for the loose approach that the previous game took to worldbuilding. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing necessarily. After all, those details weren’t terribly important to the plot of the previous game, and keeping them open means that whoever is writing the scenario for the next game can fill in what they need for their own story.

The problem is that a lot of what is going on in this 7-minute opening scene relies heavily on details like the government structure of Haven City and its outlying regions, along with what it was like prior to Baron Praxis taking over, and still doesn’t put in the work to even create a rough idea of what that structure is like. If we’re going to play politics, we need to know how the game is being played.

And with regards to the council being “too powerful”… we’ll get to that later. Much later.

Now that we’ve wrapped up our time with Resident Evil 4, let’s talk about it!

Thanks again to David Phillips for joining me on this one.

One of these days, I might go back to play the original Resident Evil 4, but that’ll be a time far from now if it ever comes at all.

The next time we record, it’ll be the final PS2-era Jak and Daxter platforming game. We’ll do what Valve could never do, and count to three.

At last, David Phillips and I have taken care of the parasite infesting both Leon and Ashley. Now, the only thing standing in our way is some dude with moldy hair, who will probably… definitely transform into a monster with obvious weak points.

Sounds like a video game boss fight to me. Let’s do it!

That’s it. Roll credits, and we’re finished. Well, not quite. Tomorrow, you should see the post-game conversation go live. Then, Resident Evil 4 will be done and dusted.

After that, we’ll be onto Jak 3. See ya then, folks!

It’s the home stretch. After defeating Kraven, David Phillips and I just need to make our way through a few more fights before we’re ready to finish the game.

Let’s keep up the pace in Resident Evil 4.

It’s good to know now that I can simply run past and avoid most of these fights. It would have been good to know in my original playthrough. But alas, I can’t take that back now.

I can, however, cutscene walk to the finish line, opening the door to Luis’s lab and finally getting rid of that damn parasite. Next time, we finish this.

Y’know, I almost forgot about Kramer and his… existence. He’s looking for a fight, so David Phillips and I have to give him one.

I guess…

In all sincerity, I’m still not entirely sure what Krauser is even doing here. It feels almost like he was ripped out of an entirely separate game just to be a setpiece in this one.

In fairness, said setpiece is a good excuse to take advantage of the parry mechanic that otherwise remains highly underutilized for the rest of the game.

I just wish it wasn’t attached to this character I have zero investment in.

We’ve got a goal in mind. Get to Luis’s lab and remove the parasite, then make our getaway. David Phillips and I just need to push forward to complete that goal.

What I like most about the wrecking ball segment is the way it neatly caps off Ashley’s character development over the course of the game. Now that she’s been through enough trials and tribulations with Leon, she’s confident enough in her own ability that she can handle working a wrecking ball under extremely stressful circumstances.

It’s a shame it’s undermined by the fact she gets kidnapped again immediately after this, but it’s a Resident Evil game so we take the writing wins where we can.

Lucky for us, we killed the Regenerador before it became a serious problem. Unlucky for us, there’s more where he came from.

But we need to help Ashley, so David Phillips and I just need to deal.

Thankfully, you don’t come to this channel for skilled gameplay, because if that were the case then you’d be sorely disappointed. At least we didn’t die too often, and made solid progress.

We’re in the home stretch of our campaign, and the end is in sight. All we need to do is catch up with Ashley, remove the parasite, and bring her home.

And David Phillips and I will take down any fool that gets in our way.

No matter what Resident Evil game we play, there will always be this point. Eventually, as we build up our resources and arsenal, the game shifts away from being a horror game and moves closer to being a third-person shooter. No matter what, this will happen to every game in the franchise.

This one is no exception, and we’re now at that point. Though ammo is still a concern, as you’ll see later on, this is the point where we’re expected to have a robust enough arsenal to take on any foe, no matter how challenging.

So I say, bring it on.