A former Naughty Dog developer has revealed that Jak 2 underwent a major overhaul after the team saw early screenshots of Kingdom Hearts.
"True story: on [Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy], we used the same character models for both gameplay & cutscenes (Daxter didn't have fully articulated fingers)," series lead cinematic animator Josh Scherr explained (thanks, GamesRadar).
"For [Jak 2], we saw early screenshots of Kingdom Hearts, went 'oh sh*t,' & made high-res models for cutscenes."
Scherr even attached a side-by-side comparison of Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and Jak 2, highlighting how low-poly the models were in the original game. I've never looked at them side-by-side before, but it is a major upgrade, even if I still miss that bright blue tunic.
So, we have Sora and his Disney friends to thank for Haven City's denizens looking as good as they did.
An interesting note Scherr makes in a follow-up tweet is that "graphic fidelity was a big selling point in the PS2 era, much more so than now". Just look at the huge leaps made with Grand Theft Auto 3, Silent Hill 2, God of War 3, and Metal Gear Solid 2....
