mariokerter13 I would like to hear some essays regarding the Gamecube era stuff, it feels rather neglected as of late. But hey so long as I keep getting interesting perspectives on games I may or may not have liked, I'm game.
I honestly don't mind Ratchet being laid back and mature in the future trilogy because he earned it over the course of the PS2 games. The Reboot on the other hand potrays him as a bland boyscout from the begining which comes off as insulting to a Longtime fan like myself. I am really looking forward to seeing your thoughts on a Crack in time. I feel that was the last good insomniac game. I already know you're gonna rip Quest for booty to shreds lol.
Sunset overdive was okay. The dated memes and nothing plot really didn't add to the bland open world. I enjoyed the shooting and navigation but it got stale after 5 hours. I do like that it introduced me to HBlockz though. Great band.
In the words of valeforXD, “Tachyon’s walking throne goes down with one swing of the wrench, but later on it takes no less than 300 R.Y.N.O. IV rounds, 15 Negotiator rockets, 260 Buzz Blades, three Groovitrons, one Mega Leech Bomb, and a few Mag-Nets. I’m calling bullshit.”
I thought the future series was really good overall, I wasn't too impressed by the story but it was an attempt to expand the characters which I can understand. I didn't like that they disregarded some characters especially Angela Cross and I thought Insomniac had a real missed opportunity by not bringing back characters from older games and creating a story with them to expand their stories, even if they weren't part of the main plot.
*cough* Plumber *cough* Jokes aside I think from when I first heard the line “last Lombax in the universe” I was only looking at the game by how it’s no longer ‘my’ old R&C game rather than trying to enjoy it. I really should go back and just play the future saga by itself to see how it feels
One of the radio stations in A Crack in Time actually mentions Angela and tries to explain what she's been up to, although why Tacheon says Rachet is "the last" when Angela is still around is never explained as far as I know.
@@carlbloke8797 A lack of Loremasters presumably, somebody who's job is just to keep continuity straight and try and prevent plotholes like that. Angela being in an entirely separate galaxy could for example serve as an explanation as to why Tacheon never found her and the dialogue could be slightly tweaked to avoid having Ratchet just forget she exists entirely, I mean she was a love interest in Going Commando FFS people don't just forget their significant others, but those relatively small fixes needed to be implemented immediately because they fact that they went unadressed for 2 games and are only kinda lampshaded in an optional easter egg in the third game just makes the problem that much more glaring.
I've always hated the "chosen one" archetype the media can't seem to let go of. I love the original R & C because it doesn't try to overplay itself. The originals knew that kind of writing was lame, but the Future Series must have forgot.
@@ygobe2 same Both wind and ratchet were just normal boys doing their thing and ended up.being p much the only guys that actually did something to solve the situations they were in Now personally i liked thw future series for a number of reasons What i dont like is the writing of the r&c 2016 reimagening. I was really hyped for ir and i still like aspects of it but they could have done so much more..
One good subverted take on the "Chosen One" archetype is Tales Of Symphonia. In that game, there's multiple chosen one's that aren't revealed til' later. They are prepped up by the public as the pure savior that will regenerate the world. In reality, they are just lambs dressed up for slaughter. So the super special "Chosen One" isn't even that special, they're just cannon fodder for a plot point in the game. There's a major party member who gives insight on how much pain and stress being a chosen does on you.
@@Petronia911 Honestly I think subversions of the chosen one archetype are more common than played straight ones at this point, not that I'm complaining. Another good subversion of the archetype is Wandersong. Also Star Wars but everyone's seen Star Wars already.
They should've leaned really hard into satirizing chosen one narratives and how trite they are. Could've spun a whole thing about Ratchet getting kind of sick and tired of not just saving the day, but now this forced on label of "The one that is supposed to do all the heavy lifting". Not to mention being dragged into a conflict that has nothing to do with him, since he doesn't know diddly about Lombax lore. As for Clank. Instead of "being born" for the task, he could've been damaged and fixed with a supposedly insignificant scrap/gear, which turned out to belong to the great clock. Just spit balling here, but there were things they could've worked with.
OH SHIT, I never read it like that. I just thought she must have vanished off somewhere, but tachyon might have killed her if he wants all Lombax's dead.
@@venia6006 that totally could’ve been the reasoning for why she’s not around. How they could’ve fixed: Ratchet runs into Tachyon at the beginning of the game at metropolis as usual Tachyon says how he’s the last Lombax and ratchet then mentions Angela and then Tachyon tells him about how he already got to her and defeated her. Could’ve been an emotional moment early on and ended that plot hole.
I can't accept that because I feel Ratchet would have been A LOT more concerned for Angela's safety, in Future and in Rift Apart they hammer it in Ratchet has never met another Lombax prior Tools of Destruction. Imo Going Commando is just non-canon.
@@Spitfire_94 I think it's more the OG PS2 games are their own continuity as is the Future series, just that in Future *some* things from the PS2 series happened in their continuity as well, sort of a "soft" reboot thing
I've hated the writing in every game after deadlocked. Each new game is unfunnier and more melodramatic than the last. I don't even see the new Ratchet and Clank as the same characters as the ones from the ps2 games.
I like the original and Future. I think They are well written. I would not say All4One and Full Frontal Assault, they are a whole new gimmick, but I find the series outstanding.
Nah i didn't like Crack in Time. The humor didn't work for me, nor did the EPIC STORY. Not a fan of the cinematic style, or what they did to Ratchet and Clank as characters. I also didn't experience it as especially ''complex''.
The thing that amazed me with the future series is how badly it managed to fuck up it's own plots. Both Tools of Destruction and A Crack In Time said the macguffin is bad, but then had it used multiple times throughout the plot with no ill effects, just to remember in the final act that it was supposed to be bad and forced it to suddenly malfunction. TOD: Dimensionator works as expected a total of 4 times, 2 mentioned and 2 on screen, NONE of those times had any ill effects. It only malfunctioned when Tachyon started spamming it while being shot at, and even then we see him alive in the comic series so what exactly was bad about the dimensionator? Doesn't matter, plot says it's bad because Clank must be right even though he has zero evidence to back his claims up. The only problem was it getting into Tachyon's hands which happened in the stupidest possible way. ACIT: Time travel is bad as the plot states early on. Clank knows this, so upon seeing Ratchet for the first time in a year Clank immediately demands that he go back in time to save his father. Later, after Ratchet fails doing so due to the cutscene stupidity virus causing him to sit there and stare while Orvus dies, Clank immediately says no to going back in time to save the lombaxes because time travel is bad and NO ONE brings up the last thing he asked Ratchet to do. LATER, they use time travel again to steal a friggin' space ship. Once again, NO ONE mentions how doing that was bad or a risk. Then Alister wants to do it, and based on what the games events have proven, time travel is heckin' awesome and does exactly what you want, but the plot has an agenda so he needs to be wrong. I'd also like to point out how little weight Clank's choice to use the clock to save Ratchet actually has, Time travel has had no ill effects at this point and the plumber outright told him it would work, so it was robbed of any impact before it even happened. It could have been a good moment of him showing that his best friend means more to him than the entire universe... but no, we got the plumber going "lol six minutes is a-ok!" It's impressive how badly they fucked up the main plot points of both games when they were so damn simple. They brought on the new writers for the future series to make it deeper and more complex, but it became more childish and poorly written than ever.
"Bringing on new writers to make x thing y." What all producers say before their series goes off the rails and into a river. By this point "bringing on new writers" might as well be code for hiring sucky ones.
Angela being forgotten until having her name dropped in A crank in Time is even more hurtful when you learn that there was unused dialogue from Up your Arsenal that referred to her as a Lombax. (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nFaxhkPd9F0.html) They even removed some dialogue from A Crank in Time where Alister Azimuth talks about a friend of Ratchet's mother called Lorna Cross. Who may or may not be Angela's mother. (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--nyBzhkFZaQ.html) Still don't understand why it took Insomaic nearly seven years to say that tails are a male trait for Lombaxes.
4:36. Spot on - you absolutely nailed it. The first few titles projected how consumerism can become nefarious and how dangerous it can become. And the R&C games became enveloped in just that - cinematic consumerism.
Why can't he just like... make content he likes without being pigeonholed? Plenty of people do that, and it's not like there isn't connective tissue; he reviews games he likes/doesn't like and does opinion pieces.
It's no longer about DMC references, it's all about bad R&C 2016 quotes You ain't helping the -economy- comments section by hoarding all those DMC references
The short way I look at the situation is like this: Ratchet and Clank started off as a small, humble story that thrust them into a big situation. As this goes on, the scale gets larger, the stakes higher, and the production values and tone shift accordingly. Not bad, just different.
My problem with it is that they retroactively denied something I really loved about the duo (they were both misfits, Clank being a defective robot and Ratchet a mechanic who simply sought adventure). Not chosen ones, they are closer to outcasts.
It would have been more interesting if the future series delved into themes like imperialism and colonialism. Not only would it have a stronger connection to the anti-consumerism message of the PS2 games, but also provide better context to the journeys Ratchet and Clank have. Imagine Ratchet having to learn about the unsavory past of his species while Clank struggles with an existential crisis over whether he has a soul or not. There's a real missed opportunity here for expanding on the R&C universe in an organic way that Insomniac sadly missed. I guess fan fiction is the only way any of this will be possible now.
You know what’s funny? Spyro had a reboot in 2006 which took itself more seriously and featured Spyro as a dragon who could harness all the elements and would save the world. A year later, Ratchet and Clank started taking itself more seriously and introduced the plot point of lombaxes being amazing inventors and Ratchet supposedly being the only one left.
i like the implication that even if insomniac kept the licence for spyro, we probably would have gotten legend of spyro regardless. (though an IG-made spyro would probably have handled better than "god of war but you play as a dragon")
Even to this day I don't understand why they never use Angela Cross again...I meen they use another Character again in previous games so why never use her again..?? I don't understand this series anymore...
Pretty sure it was a combination of her character design and ToD's story. Angela is very tall and lacks a tail, two traits that don't really mesh well with Ratchet's design unless Insomniac wanted to have the female lombaxes be twice the size of the males. As for ToD's story, Insomniac wanted Ratchet to be one of the last Lombax in existence so having Angela exist detracts from this. Ratchet even acknowledges that he's never seen a Lombax.
@@shadowknight743 Except that Angela is still canon, in A Crack in Time they mention her on one of the radio stations, and it's made clear by numerous other references that the previous games are all still cannon so...
Your opinion on this feels so correct it hurts. CiT is the only "Future" game that was above average. Edit: especially the final boss of CiT successfully tugged at my heartstrings.
"CiT is the only "Future" game that was above average." I wouldn't necessarily say Tools was average. It was still pretty enjoyable and way better than other games that were considered average. Though yes, CiT is the best of the future series and my personal favourite Ratchet and Clank game yet. Quest For Booty is average tho.
This can be described as the Pixarization of Ratchet and Clank games. They started out as meta games with commentaries on the consumerism culture. Then the PS3 games tried to get more personal and ‘heroic’ with their stories, with no emphasis on meta commentaries. It finally culminated with the release of the PS4 reboot which was just as consumeristic in its personality, as something that they would have tried to parody during the PS2 era. The Dead Space franchise also was gradually pixarized until it stopped selling. And God of War also got pixarized this year. Basically, the more profitable a franchise becomes, the more mainstream the makers try to force it to be. A perfect parallel of what happened to R&C’s pixarization can be drawn from what happened to the Riddick franchise. It started with a self contained fun semi-horror story ‘Pitch Black’ which turned out to be significantly profitable for the studio. So, they pixarixed it and the sequel was your avg ‘hero saves the galaxy from evil’ flick. But it performed poorly and the makers went back to the roots in the sequel, even if it wasn’t that good. Guys, we just gotta stop giving ‘em our money if we want it to become what it originally was.
Nuclearpoweredturtle I remember that. Sadly, it became quite common for reviewers to call R&C games ‘Pixar-like’ since then. That’s why I used the term ‘Pixarization’.
Turtlemain The reason DS3 turned out to be so organic was because Visceral honed out their vision while simultaneously complying with EA's demands for making the game more mainstream. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed the co-op campaign despite its flaws. But still the reason its sales were so poor was because the fans weren't happy with the change in the core of the genre and their reasons seem pretty understandable. Hardline was a solid game. But BF loyalists only buy the games that stick to routine.
You mention the Metropolis level in Tools and it just reminded me how much I loved it. I remember when that demo dropped, I played it over and over. It was a great first level, something that you can go back and have fun over and over, like in Sonic 2 or the first two levels in DMC3.
I don't know why but I also really really love Crack in Time. I generally think they try too hard with the story in the new Ratchet and Clank games and sometimes it really miss the goofy humor from the classics. R&C 2 is still my favorite, but Crack in Time comes at a close second. I can't explain why I like it so much. (Besides that it just is a great game)
The Future saga in general may have felt somewhat at odds with original trilogy + Deadlocked, and while Tools made that distinction very blurry, Crack really nailed it into a genuinely touching story. (I love the final recording of Orvus that plays while Clank runs to the ship). It felt like the last time there was a genuine passion and desire to push Ratchet gameplay and structure forward, although I still enjoyed Nexus and even the reboot as games.
Anybody miss the old school ratchet and clank commercials, where they test out a weapon from the game, with the tag line " these weapons were not meant for this world".
The original creators and founders of the franchise dissapeared along with David Bergeaud. R&C Deadlocked Gladiator was the last of them. It happens in modern companies and government, higherups surround themselves with asskissers rather than talented individuals.
Actually David Bergeaud was still composing the music for Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty. I think the problem was that they wanted him to change the kind of music he was making from experimental electronic & industrial to orchestral score type music which obviously weren't as good or memorable as the experimental stuff.
Simply put, it's not funny at all. As someone who grew up with this series since the beginning, I still find the dry & crude humor of the old games funny. This new kiddy disney hero crap pisses me off.
Nash Rarig not to mention going around viciously firing down hordes of enemies clashes horribly against that Disney/Pixar film vibe. Rift Apart looks even worse.
Disney is awesome but yeah, Ratchet should've never went in that direction. It's a shame that they couldn't have a balance of dry/crude humor with the deeper story narrative they were trying to do with the future trilogy but it didn't help that we didn't even get to see fan favorites like Big Al, Darla Gratch, Helga, Skid, or any of the other original game characters pre Future trilogy.
@@nerdstorma8427 Rift Apart may be good if it actually carries on from Into the Nexus and answers some questions that weren't answered. Hopefully they won't carry on with the tone that the 2016 Reboot had because most people really didn't like that direction at all and I would like to think that IG will take this into consideration and just try to move back to the older style, at least with the Future trilogy but with better writing.
I think the "chosen one" archetype could have worked in this series if they did it a little differently. Rather than having the lombax be this super intelligent race that saved the galaxy, simply focus on the fact that they're all missing. The lombax could still be known to be intelligent and such but don't make them the heroes of the story, rather than Ratchet being the chosen one the story could just be a simple on about finding his missing race. They could build Ratchet up as the "last lombax" all for it to be a bunch of horse shit in actuality, this would only further the original themes of if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. I'm not too sure how this could play out, perhaps a villain spins a tale about the lombax in order to send Ratchet and clank away on a search for his people whilst they get up to their own evil deeds. This could add a bit more character to Ratchet too, showing how when he eventually finds out that he's just been strung along he has to struggle between doing the right thing and finding the family he's been missing all his life. I think making it this way would have made the generic plot we got have come off a lot more Ratchet like.
I dont know how you are always able to read my exact thoughts about this saga and express them in a coherent and deep way... but wow... you nailed it, again.
robot ghosts, who I think were pirates, were in deadlocked tho. anyway I liked them and also talwyn. Idk, narrative was never that bad for me. also ratchet 2s ship levels were like, super frustrating and not fun.
The pirates never really had a large part of the narrative the same way that they do in ToD. I agree on the ship levels in Ratchet 2 not being fun, though.
The Ninjadillo except that we are talking about robot ghosts, which is still part of the story and since were at it, why not complain about robot ninjas, or that space hipster that can use magic to fix ships?
*Okay, I have to say.. In A Crack In Time they DO mention Angela Cross on one of the radio stations, and say that she fled the galaxy before Tachyon attacked.. sure, it's not a huge amount of detail, it does feel like a retcon, and I agree completely that it clearly didn't seem very thought out.. but it is at least brought up.. This game is fun to play, but I agree with everything you said about the story..* That being said... A Crack In Time is still my favourite in the series.. sure the satire is gone, but this isn't Robocop, it's a fun game for kids, and ACIT is beautiful, addictively fun, and has my favourite puzzle sections from any game ever.. I know you don't like the future series very much, but you always seem to focus on story, and writing, and not the gameplay.. You gotta remember that this is a game.. that people play... for fun.. ACIT has the best gameplay of the series, and the story between Ratchet and Azimuth is great, even if it completely lost the satire.. I do agree that this one is a complete mess, although fun to play for the most part (turn the six as controls off.. It's much better)
a) don't forget ACIT even doubts Angela being a Lombax due to the lack of tail. b) the gaming brit being a story and writing guy? nope... he's a very gameplay-focus critic. he just loves his games challenging. when they aren't there's just not much to talk about...
He focuses on everything he can. He said he still likes the game, he just felt like the presentation was off and I agree. The classics are still the best imo overall, but ACiT and Tools are enjoyable games.
And yet ACiT was one of the worst to play, IMO. The gameplay felt different from all the others, even just from the platforming that was completely different due to the Hover Boots, which were there because Clank wasn't. And it has the blandest Planets out of all the good R&C Games, and the least amount of them, something I'm still salty about; I don't care about moons that feel all the same, don't progress the story and are side-quests which you never have to do once you've done them once (seriously, when you play NG+, if you do all the Missions, the game is over in like nothing (aside from cutscenes) because almost all of the moons are done; it felt like complete padding to excuse the pathetic number of new Planets). Vapedia is fine, though. At least in concept and a bit in the presentation. The actual level design could have been better..
World and character building are still very important in games that choose to focus on the story to some capacity, and that is exactly what every Ratchet and Clank game does, they all have plenty of cutscenes. That's why Gaming Brit focuses on the story and writing so much in his Ratchet videos - because the PS2 games nail that stuff, so it's natural to be interested in seeing where they take it in the later games. And indeed, it's not Robocop, but satire in that vein is always fun and it's what the series established itself on, so it's a shame to see it go, in favour of story tropes that are a lot more safe and sterile. I'm not going to knock you for loving A Crack in Time though, it's great to hear that you had such a positive and memorable time with it, and nobody can take that away from you! So when you watch Gaming Brit's video on it and he inevitably criticises things about it that you enjoy, try not to feel upset, just remember that it's all down to personal taste - some people prefer the classic style of the series, and some people prefer the later style. Gaming Brit makes these videos in order to explain why he is the former, but he's not saying that his opinion is objective and that you must feel the same way or else you're wrong. As for myself, when I played ACIT I enjoyed Clank's puzzle stages, which actually seemed like they were comfortable with giving the player a challenge with brain teasers, unlike the 2016 remake. And I thought the ship radio was very funny, flying around in space battles whilst listening to smooth jazz or classical music! However, I wasn't much a fan of the lack of unique planets, with the game using the large amount of smaller, less visually interesting moons seemingly to pad itself. And then after that game there was Into the Nexus which was super short so it just kind of seems like Insomniac had trouble coming up with enough original content for Ratchet games towards the tail end of the series, sadly!
In the Future Saga the lombaxes are handled like thre Precursor in Jak and Daxter, but in jak and Daxter the Precursers were always handled that way. In RaC this is not the case.
No. Size Matters, Secret Agent Clank, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, Ratchet and Clank: QForce/Full Frontal Assault, and the 2016 Reimagining are all below-average experiences. The Future Trilogy doesn't suck.
It does seem different than the OG trilogy, I’ll give you that. Honestly, though, I though ToD was a fantastic game. Call me a sucker for spectacle and the melodramatic, but it was cool to see Insomniac do something different without totally butchering existing character development (a la 2016 remake). I grew up playing the originals and today as I play through the Future saga I find them very well done. Only things that really bugged me were the Zoni stuff and the audio desync in some cutscenes haha. I also thought the pirate bits were dope. I loved Treasure Planet as a kid, so seeing those tropes play into RaC was really fun, and that pirate theme is awesome.
Been waiting for you to cover Tools of Destruction. Really liked it, but it had such a weird story. Not good weird, just this change in tone that heralds watering down. This is like Doctor Who with Matt Smith. Not total shit...but it was weird enough to let the standards drop much lower. EDIT: Story wise that is. Gameplay wise, played it by far the most of any of the games. The arena, traversing that asteroid station, when the final planet is a darker nighttime iteration of this abandoned planet was great.
I know they did, but I actually played 1 after TOD (for some reason I got into the series with 2 first, then 3 and TOS) I just remember that being a good novelty in this when I think back about the game, it was good in 1 too but that game's highlights are the darker look and far more industrialised aesthetic
After Matt Smith held up the Mighty Morphin' Dalek Rangers with a Jammie Dodger, I couldn't watch New Who again unless forced. Doctors 2, 3 and 4 are brill
Its because the PS2 games felt real, and relatable. Ratchet wasnt a lawful good hero, he was a nobody who as it turns out, had an affinity for fixing things, and using guns. He felt like a person, instead of this designed by committee furry do good hero.
It's all the more sad because the way Ratchet was like in Going Commando, Up your Arsenal, and Deadlocked, it was a good middleground of him being friendly and likeable but still having a bit of snark.
When it comes to story telling, there is nothing that irks me more than forgotten lore. FGS you wrote the story, how can you possibly forget it? I'M LOOKING AT YOU AKIRA TORIYAMA!
This definitely nails down how TOD misstepped with so badly. It's just never felt genuine to me, and their attempt at an overarching narrative was definitely weak.
"exploring clanks origin" lol As if he isn't literally born and introduced in like the first 20 minutes of the first game and we never met his mother..... Riiiiiiight
(WARNING LONG THOUGHTFUL COMMENT) Somehow i find this game my fav in the future series and after finishing a NO ARMOR run recently (yes it was scary) i find it easier to critique and compare. The "cinematics" felt like when they make an hour-long tv movie special for a long-running cartoon. I think the story is "fine" but it feels too stiff and scripted most of the time. This game's graphics feel a little too "real" and lack most of the bright cartoony charm of the classics. And ratchet's face is slightly less expressive and stiff. (especially compared to up your arsenal) Now for the gameplay........After i finished up your arsenal, i immediately played this one, only to find that ratchet's movement (such as wall jumping and platforming) was REALLY stiff in comparison. I've never had the 6 axis on because i heard too much of how awful it was. The weapons....worked(with low ammo and damage sometimes)....but they were already lacking in creative designs and uses. The most i could get was using the net launcher first and then following up with the claws or alpha disrupter (the only weapon i really got attached to.) So.....to conclude....tools is about as fun as a one-off tv cartoon movie that is still great to enjoy as an occasional treat. When you do crack in time, ill tell about that one too.....
Here's how I would've reworked the lombax-race plot to be more tonally in line with the og-titles: lombaxes are just an average alien-race who mostly work in lower working class-type occupations. They're largely kinda overlooked and under-appreciated, however this tide is turning because Ratchet's ever-growing fame as a hero is bringing new positive attention to the lombaxes. The main villain would be like a scummy two-faced politician who resists against this movement by enacting a smear-campaign on Ratchet and the rest of the lombax-race. Of course Ratchet's father would get involved, and he would be more like a recluse who wants nothing to do with "the system" and is perfectly content with his isolated self-sufficient lifestyle. I'm not saying this is the best possible alternative, but I reckon it's at least better than some chosen-one schlock
Idk man, I think it's kinda silly to call out the Future saga for "robot ghost pirates" considering that Deadlocked had already taken the series most of the way there, the game right after that joke was made. In Deadlocked, not only did we have Robot Ghosts, and Robot Zombies, we eventually had _Robot Ghost Zombies_
Direct quote of R&C 3: UYA: “Am I reading this right? Robotic pirate ghosts?” They’ve been in the series for 3 games at the time of TOD, idk what he’s complaining about. He also goes on some huge rant for the first 5 minutes or so about the players always looking at marketing and corporations in this way and that.... like wtf? No? Guarantee nobody did that but him lmfao
@@Kro-RissaVirus Wow, how on earth did you miss that the quote you cited was making fun of the idea of robotic pirate ghosts? And that he used that same quote in this very video to demonstrate his belief that Ratchet and Clank had become the very thing it once made fun of? Talk about r/woosh!
This review much like your others about this series is awful. Where do I even start? You complain of linearity yet praised Deadlocked in a prior video, the most linear game in the main series. You grasp at straws to see subtext that was simply not there in the PS2 games, the notion they had some deep routed anti capitalist message is a stretch at absolute best, it had a few jokes about consumerism but that was it. It was mostly pop culture jokes or innuendo. Also, you seem to hate the cutscenes for having...better cinematography and music. What even? They decided to make the story a bit wider in scope while retaining the humour. And this is offensive to you somehow. There really is no pleasing you once a series makes the leap away from the PS2, is there? You even allude to enjoying the core gameplay of ToD yet still felt the need to basically shit all over it with nitpicks as opposed to actual analysis.
It's very interesting listening to such a different opinion than mine, Ratchet 3 is my favorite on Ps2 and I love this game also. xD Different strokes for different folks I guess. Nice video still! :)
Firstly, I would like to say that this is, as always, a very well put together video. It’s always fun to watch your videos and see you discuss your opinion in such a respectable manner. Now, when it comes to your Ratchet and Clank videos I feel like you tend to over praise the old games and blow the new games’ flaws out of proportion. For example, yes Ratchet and Clank 1 had a good story for a 3D platformer of its time (a lot of the games in the genre didn’t care about their stories) and I do have respect for insomniac for not feeling like they were limited by the type of game they were making, but the writing wasn’t the best and Ratchet could really get on your nerves at times. Furthermore , Ratchet and Clank 1 and 2, even ignoring gameplay, have not aged well. I personally didn’t enjoy the interactions with the planets’ inhabitants, as most of them just felt pointless. I don’t think talking to one person can give you an idea of what their planet is like. If we do consider gameplay, then that’s when the first two games start to really feel clunky. Firstly, the controls feel very rough (especially in 1). Now, I understand that for a 2002 game it’s to be expected, however I believe it should be mentioned when comparing them to the other games in the franchise. Secondly, and this may be an unpopular opinion, but I’m REALLY not a fan of the vehicle/spaceship segments. They’ve always felt so frustrating and broke the flow of the game. At least the ones in ToD are simpler and don’t give me a headache. So, let me talk about ToD, now. I am actually really happy with the cinematic approach of the new games. Regardless of what you think of the story, you have to admit, the cutscenes are very well produced and still contain a lot of light hearted humor, keeping the game from feeling to serious or melodramatic. For example, DMC 4 had a pretty generic story structure as well (Guy likes girl, girl gets kidnapped, guy saves girl and the world), however characters like Dante and Trish just have this “Let’s not take this too seriously” attitude that helps forgive a lot of the game’s cliches (Although I still think Kyrie is the most generic “girl” ever). Anyway, back to ToD. Yes, it has a lot of cliches and I do admit the story isn’t exactly Oscar worthy, but for a first attempt at a “bigger” story, I really think it’s good. Now here’s the thing, I’m actually not the biggest fan of Tools of Destruction. Don’t get me wrong, I like the game, (I like every game in the franchise), however it’s in no way one of my favorite. Like, even though this came out years after R&C 3, I think ToD has aged worse than that game mostly because of all those gimmicky “THIS IS PS3” mechanics and strange structure. In fact, I think we both feel the same way about this game, but for different reasons. So, I didn’t really write this because I disagreed with your overall opinion of the game, I just disagreed with some of your points. So yeah, I’m done. If I didn’t bring up one of your arguments it’s probably because I agreed with you. As I said at the beginning, this was still a great video with very well expressed opinions. P. S. On the other hand, I do love A Crack In Time and I look forward to your video on it, although I know you probably don’t like it as much as I do. P. P. S. Also, Angela was mentioned on the radio in aCiT, so she’s still definitely canon. Maybe the whole deal with her will be explained in a future game? I don’t know, I’m still hoping for an explanation.
I think the reason Ratchet is more laid back and mature on the ps3 game is because, like the player, he grew up. Think about it, he was 15 in the first game and 18 in Deadlocked.
While I agree the whole setup and plotline of Ratchet being last of his race is super weird thing to introduce out of nowhere into the 5th mainline entry of the series and to this day it feels just kinda tacked on, the thing that ultimately really made it impossible for me to enjoy this game as much as its predecessors, were the characters. Tools has easily the worst supporting cast in the entire mainline series and it's only made that much worse by how the devs for whatever reason feel the need to keep bringing them back into the stories for most of the subsequent games. The Smuggler would have been fine enough as an one-off character, but sure, lets instead make him a stable of the entire Future-series, who has to appear as a recurring character in every single game, even though he well and truly had outworn his welcome by the end of the first game he appeared in, not to mention how his continued presence ads nothing substantial to the story, themes, or humour and only works to make the universe of the games feel smaller. While I wouldn't call any of Ratchet's love interests an exemplary character, Talwyn's got her own league of nothing going for her. Atleast Angela was a clumsy doofus, which worked as a comical contrast to her work in the line of corporate espionage and while Sasha's role in the story was fairly basic, she had some cute interplay with Ratchet here and there, enforcing the idea of palpable personal chemistry between the two of them, but somehow it's the good old daddy-issues-Talwyn, whom the devs deemed worth keeping around as Ratchet's recurring girlfriend for the foreseeable future, so they could proceed to do absolutely nothing with her. Not to mention how with Talwyn we ofcourse got a packaged deal for Cronk and Zephyr, two old warbots whose entire characters consist of nothing but senior citizen jokes. Yay... Then there's Tachyon, who is easily my least favourite villain in the entire franchise so far. He is such a weird, contradictory and unappealing mish-mash of ideas, that his character just amounts into a complete mess. His design is wacky without being visually interesting, intimidating or funny, his voice is obnoxiously grating, it's impossible to take him seriously enough to be threatened by him and his quirk of undermining his authority by being a constant bumbling idiot is too on the nose and tryhard to be really humorous and only makes it that much harder to see him as legitimate threat, which is just mind-boggling, given how huge the narrative stakes connected to him were supposed to be. Like how were we ever supposed to buy that this pompous incompetent royal clown would have been the villainous mastermind responsible for wiping out the supposed most advanced civilization in the known Universe and taking over an entire galaxy? And finally there's Captain Slag and Rusty Pete, who are unironically my favourite new side characters introduced in ToD. I agree playing the whole pirate thing straight was really dumb and felt pretty out of place, but what can I say; they somehow managed to be pretty entertaining in-spite of that and ended up the only two characters from Tools I was actually happy to have back in the sequels.
Tom Phelan It's an epilogue game and honestly, I don't get the hate. Yes its short, but they never said it would be otherwise. And it was less than 30€ on release
That one's pretty good. The gravity thing was VEEEEERY underutilized, though, and the chibified art shift kinda messes with the drama and horror it tries to build up, but the reformatted upgrade system is an absolute joy, making raratanium feel much more distinct from bolts, and doing much better than the raratanium mod system from Tools of Destruction. It's actually rather fun to use it. Plus, the museum is pretty cool, too, and the game has my favorite weapon IN THE ENTIRE SERIES; The Winterizer. It shoots a candy cane laser beam, turning enemies into snowmen that drop presents full of bolts. And as long as you hold down the trigger, the gun sings Jingle Bells. It's glorious. If the PS2 games are comparable to RoboCop, then Into the Nexus is Alien.
I genuinely LOVE a crack in time it is not perfect by any means and It has been a bit since I played it but I am very curious to see your thoughts on it.
You know what is the real trouble? The made his hands more relative in size to his body rather than his massive hands. I still think the PS3 games look good, aside from Talwyn because actual people never look good in the cartoon-y 3D animation style. Can't wait for your Crack in Time review, as that is my favourite non ps2 R&C game.
They started this "Missing Lombaxes" storyline 15 years ago and it's still going. I liked Rift Apart, but there's no way the resolution to this arc will be satisfying at this point, if they even bother trying to conclude it.
yeah, at this point, it feels less like building up to an epic conclusion and more "wanna see if ratchet will find the lombaxes? buy our next game (and the console it's on) to find out!" not to mention the games post-ps2 really feel like one of those "you gotta play the Future series and the non-spinoff games that came after it (ITN and RA) to understand the story" shit that i hate that a lot of modern franchises do.
this is a half life 3 situation. No matter how good it is it won't live up to the expectations (unless it revolutionizes the industry, but that won't happen) and they know it. That's probably why they keep pushing back the reveal.
Tools of Destruction was my first ratchet and Clank game, and I loved the hell out of it!!! Obviously when I didn't know that other lombaxs existed and that clank was supposed to be a defect the plot was a lot easier to stomach. Anyway, having played the first two games for the ps2 I can concede that your'e right on pretty much everything here. Except the pirates theme music, I love that track.
Let me just say making Rachet the last of his kind is the dumbest thing they could of done. The franchise is meant to be fun that is the opposite. It's depressing. This means Rachet has no parents no family will never find love he will never have his own cubs. When he dies his people die with him. Does that sound like fun action adventure to you? Who's stupid idea was that?
Toad Lash The Doctor also doesn't just casually meet another timelord then forget entirely about the experience. Ratchet as the last lombax doesn't work because the idea clearly wasn't there from the start. Even if you disregard Angela, he still gets called a lombax in the original games in a very casual way, as if lombaxes were common.
Gage Beck true it's a stupid idea that makes no sense. It be like if we saw a unicron running around the street and we talked about seeing it as if we saw a cat. The only way it could make sense I'd if there had been some lombax genocide in between games but if that's the case how would Rachet and the rangers not know about it?
So i didnt watch this video when it first came out and having got through about maybe 2 thirds of tools of destruction so far and feeling safe enough to watch this game, here are my thoughts The game isnt as good as the first 4...but i cant think of one problem that brings it down...it is a hundred little problems...all working to annoy or irk me when my brain compares it to the first 4. So ill list a few things before i watch this video. 1. The cutscenes are bugged, sometimes annimations skip and sometimes the audio goes out of sync 2. The cutscenes seem less focused on developing character in their dialogue and often just have people explainng the plot to ratchet, his involvement in most peoples decisions is next to none for the first half of the game 3. The sound mixing in game is off...all the sound effects are either too quiet or too loud, good example is the wrench, it is criminaly too quiet compared to everything else i can not hear it. 4. The annimations for gameplay feel worse aswell as some of the creative decisions for the movement, for example, clanks helipack, it still has its two fuctions, its vertical leap and its horizontal leap but they are far less satisfying and less functional, its awkward. 5. The weapon level up sound is the old sound effect in the background with a new one stacked on top of it and they dont blend with eachother at all, just get rid of the old one. 6. There is a seriously lack of npc diversity, this is a problem that started to happen in Ratchet and Clank 3 and 4 but in 4 at least the premise allowed for it and it still introduced side characters that didnt directly interact with ratchet or clank which was nice. The whole reason i loved the unique npcs on all the planets in the first two games was because it allowed them to represent the planet they lived on, it gave a vertical slice to the part of the galaxy (or galaxy as a whole) you lived in, and its just not there anymore...other than pirates i guess * shrug * 7. I like the idea of the new shops being unique from gadgetron and megacorp but why did they have to be annoyingly childish charecatures that repeat the same 4 voice lines when i visit them every 10 minutes. 8.I really liked the first level as an introduction to the mechanics, it introduced them quite well but the only old character it introduces was quark, a character i had felt had already gone through his character ark and didnt really serve a purpose in the story compared to other characters i would have liked to see return from the 3rd and 4th games. 9. Moving platforms have screwed up gravity, you glue to them before you even hit the ground. whoever is still reading, i mention these not because any little one of them ruins the game, but because i have seen better, and i know they could have done better, i dont know what kind of deadline they were working on but it clearly seemed like they had issues with this title.
Yeah i totally agree with. For me i cant enjoy Tools of destruction it feels always like a soft reboot for me. We have ratchet and clank in metropolis without any context to the older games. Where is the Phoenix or the Q force ? Its lazy writting for me. All the older games have the perfect introductions because R&C 2 starts where R&C 1 ended. R&C 3 started where 2 ended. And deadlocked started where 3 ended.
9:25 I like to think of it as destiny. These two nobodies met by accident, saved multiple galaxies together, and then later find that they both have greater purposes. I think it fits well, I like it. And the ending part of ACIT is super effective when you take each of the characters' motivations into consideration
I see what you’re getting at in this vid, but you are being waaaaay too harsh on TOD, and the future series in general. Just because the Future series went the more cinematic route doesn’t it make it cheesy or any less good than the OG games. Different does not equal bad. I personally really like the Future series and the fact it took a more serious route, it makes it more engaging and interesting in my opinion. Each to their own, but I feel like your opinions are pretty biased. Every comparison you make between the games is just, “Oh, the OG Ratchet and clank does this, but TOD does it differently so it’s bad”. You don’t really provide an explanation for it, you just say it’s bad and we’re supposed to believe you lol
Framing the story in a cinematic style doesn't really work once you remember that up til this point the series has taught us to NOT trust overly produced media as such. His point was that we used to be down WITH Ratchet and clank on these planets, not observing their adventure through a cinematic lens. No dramatic music cues or things being framed in a certain way. I don't see the 'bias' here, his point make complete sense. even I recall something just feeling off when I first finished it. It doesn't feel like the same characters or even world.
Also yeah... it's pretty damn cheesy. The whole 'chosen one' nonsense came completely out of nowhere and might be the most bizarre and egregious decision they made for the series.
he does that in every single one of his ratchet and clank reviews. Future games are compared to ps2 games, up your arsenal is compared to going commando, going commando is compared to the original. I don't think he did a R&C 2002 review yet so I wonder what he'll compare that too.
I agree with this one a lot more - Tools of Destruction has been my least favourite of the 'main' Ratchet games and some of your points coincide with why. The story is pretty cheesy, generic, and not told all that well (and retconning previous events to coincide with this story is pretty dumb, why not bring Angela into it and push the slightly awkward romantic angle between them as a 'we're the last of our race, its up to us to continue it' sort of angle. Yeah, it'd be really stupid, and they wouldn't get to push Talwyn as a love interest (not that that or her character really go anywhere) - the space shooting sections are easy and too long, and not complex enough (while I don't think the other games did them particularly well, at the very least the 3D movement adds some complexity to it) Not being able to shoot on Grind Rails? Yeah, it kinda sucks they didn't keep that from Deadlocked. The grind rails here are quite interesting in terms of platforming, and making it into a moment of 'now I've got to try and shoot these guys and platform' would add some complexity, and could be just as cinematic for the big boss fight on Jasindu. My disagreements come from the devices and difficulty. Yes, the devices limit use, which would in theory add combat complexity through decision making, but they don't do a hell of a lot of damage - so when ammo for them is sparse I'd rather just use my main weapons that have more ammo and level up with use, rather than something I'll have to change out almost immediately to have any useful effect. The difficulty is nice too - its good to get a challenge from Ratchet and Clank and the final level certainly gave me some trouble on my initial play through. I wish this didn't come from bullet sponges though - for a game called "Tools of Destruction" the lack of impact your guns have due to needing 60-100 buzz blades to take out some enemies is wholely unsatisfying. Predictions for a Crack in Time? Gonna dislike the lack of Talwyn in the story for the same reasons Angela's absence here feels odd. Probably a complaint about the again, not great space combat - praising the nonlinear approach the moons give you, but criticizing that this wasn't continued for the actual planets now that you can visit several at once. Perhaps difficulty complaints? Its not as hard as ToD. He'll almost certainly complain about Nefarious's presence too - even if it's much better here than in the reboot. Alister being another lombax (lol) will surely be mentioned and if he knows about it the pitiful excuse insomniac give for Angela's absence from ToD will surely be criticized. An overall interesting critique.
MexicanJesus The weapons in the Future series feel so impotent. There's nothing like the Mini Nuke, Plasma Storm, Blitz Cannon, Harbinger, even the Walloper feels better than most of the newer weapons.
dandre3K Yeah, the only ones I really get any impact from are things like the Negotiator, Constructo Shotgun and maybe the Plasma Striker. Even the RYNO incarnations feel weightless and not THAT special
Yeah, racthet runs so smoothly and natural in the ps2 games. The hipnatic sway while he's running. The ps3 and ps4 games, racthet runs so weirdly and not as smooth.
Where's the R&C 2 of the new Reboot series? Is it even in development? Was 2016 R&C as successful as the sycophantic gaming press said it was? The world (and Sony for that matter) may never know...
I honestly don't care that much, but it still kinda interesting to see if it gets a sequel OR if it will get mercilessly shitcanned like Sly Cooper.....*cries a little*....I really miss Sly...He was my favorite...*sniffles*
There was never a "reboot series". Ever since that game launched, Insomniac said they didn't know what the next Ratchet game would be, or if there would even be one, depending on sales for the 2016 Re-imagining. Right now they're working on Spider-Man, and they're teasing something for Oculus Rift at E3. I don't even think their smaller team is working on Ratchet right now.
For me I think rift apart will be like t.o.d and a crack in time Another game on a powerful system (don’t @t me) And the story of crack in time Ratchet and clank get separated nefarious is the villain and a another Lombax is involved Am I the only one who sees this
I just hope insomniac will keep making ratchet and clank games but they maybe should and this sound pretty strange ditch ratchet and clank. Really what can you do with these heroes their character development is so dead.
What's the name of the outro song? I know it's Death to Squishies by Courtney Gears but there's like 50 different remixes of it on youtube and that sure doesn't sound like the original version.
I agree completely, I deal with it by saying the original series ended at ratchet and clank 4, gladiator and tools of destruction onwards is a new universe separate and follows ratchet and clank PS4 directly i.e. Timeline 1: Ratchet and Clank 1, 2, 3, 4 and the psp series (including the clank game) Timeline 2: Ratchet and clank PS4, ToD, QfB, CiT and all the other spin offs
7:26 i hate these so f***ing much in the newer games, thank you for bringing this up. It's as if all of the life has been sucked of in game-animations. I wanted to cry when this was even present in the remake. What happened to the old-school insomniac methods of cinematics?
