Title says it all, any fans of Ratchet and Clank on this forum? ^^
I have to be honest, if I absolutely had to pick a favourite video game franchise, Ratchet and Clank would be one of the 3 that I would consider saying as that franchise. I own every game in the series save for Secret Agent Clank on the PSP, admittedly I haven’t beaten any of the PS2 games, but that’s because I’m a lazy procrastinator and buy too many games to focus and play at once ^^; (see another thread I made for more on that particular subject though) I am on the final boss of the first game though.
But anyways, something I adore about the entire series is its unique weapons and gadgets, save for A Crack in Time (save for The Sonic Eruptor I found the additions in that game to be somewhat forgettable, I did love the Constructo Pistol but it wasn’t particularly unique, the others were not terrible but still) each game added something incredibly awesome as far as weapons and gadgets were concerned.
Also, save for the very first game were Ratchet was a bit of an asshat, the two characters to me have a huge amount of appeal. Ratchet is that sort of cocky teenager character, but it isn’t overplayed like it is with many characters of that ilk, again save for the first game where it kind of was, no thanks to the voice actor he had in that game (Mikey Kelley) but it was also his characterisation in that game as well. I suppose you could see it as the character starting off like that and then maturing as the series went on, but still, he isn’t particularly likeable in the first game regardless, but thankfully he is as of the second game.
What I love about Clank compared to say, Daxter (from another platforming franchise on the PS2) is that he’s much more of his own hero compared to most sidekick companions in these types of games, Jak could function without Daxter and vice versa but Ratchet needs Clank and Clank needs Ratchet, both from a gameplay and character standpoint.
That and he had a much better voice after as of Locked and Loaded (James Arnold Taylor) who bought out the character much better I feel, and to me he IS Ratchet so I hope he remains Ratchet’s voice actor for as long as the series continues.
To me, the PS3 Ratchet trilogy was as close as a video game has ever gotten to Pixar both in terms of animation, graphics and story telling, I do adore the PS2 games but the PS3 ones were what made me such a big fan, mostly Tools of Destruction though. It was the 3rd Ratchet game I got but I consider it my first in spite of this.
The PS3 Trilogy also had one of my favourite storylines in any video game series ever, though it ended horribly to say the least, but I’ll leave any elaboration on that under a spoiler tag, just to be on the safe side. I am kind of nicking this text straight from the script I used for my YouTube review of the game save for a few modifciations, but I’m a lazy bum, so shoot me.
[spoiler]The thing that made A Crack in Time’s ending so disappointing was the fact that it was made out to be the conclusion to not only the Playstation 3 trilogy, but also the end of the series altogether, so you can only imagine how wild my mind went with possible ideas for the ending. Was one of the protagonists going to die, would Clank choose to stay in the Great Clock as Senior Caretaker, would Clank be separated from Ratchet in some other way? I was almost certain that something epic would happen to bring the series to a close and give a great sense of closure, and provide for an emotional ending like no other to end off a great storyline across the 3 games.
So what actually happens? Well, towards the end of the game Clank has his mind set on staying in the Great Clock to take Orvus’ place as Senior Caretaker, and after defeating Azimuth and stopping him from inadvertently destroying The Great Clock, after which he sacrifices himself to prevent it from happening he still seems set on doing so. At this point I was readying myself for an epic goodbye scene, and a great closure to this fantastic series.
What do we get instead? Clank then suddenly decides “oh wait, I’m gonna go with Ratchet, here’s the Chronoscepter Sigmund kthxbai” and then the game ends. You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! I’m not sadistic but it seems like they gave the game a happy ending just for the sake of giving it one, and this is supposed to be the end of the series and with Ratchet and Clank flying off with the potential to have more adventures…yeah, closure my ass! I couldn’t feel any less closure to be perfectly honest, I really hate to admit it.
I know that earlier on in this thread I commented on how much I loved how convincing the two characters’ bond was and how strong it appeared to be, but that doesn’t mean an ending was to be happy just for the sake of being happy, because as I’ve elaborated here, Clank was hellbent on staying in The Great Clock until the very last minute.
I mean it isn’t such a big deal if this isn’t truly the last game, if anything it means more fantastic games can come out of this series, but from a storyline standpoint it sucks. I mean there’s still the issue of Ratchet finding the lombaxes, but then he can’t since there are no dimensonators left and the Great Clock won’t work, as the ending quite clearly showed so maybe they can’t expand on that. But then they wouldn’t have to if they’d given the series a decent closure, and there were so many ways they could have done so which made that ending all the more disappointing, not just for this game but for the trilogy as a whole.
It’s such a shame too because it was such a great game and storyline outside of the ending, but endings tend to leave the strongest impressions with stories and this is living proof of that. What wasted potential, it’s almost depressing to me actually.[/spoiler]
So yeah, any fans here? ^^
