Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Gaming Backlog Book club. We are here to chat about the first few planets of Ratchet and Rift Apart up until we complete the first chapter on Savali.

Reminder. As always, we do go into spoilers sometimes, so avoid that by playing a previous episode and come back when you’re done.

So, before even starting, Alex, which difficulty level did you choose?

[00:00:25] Speaker B: I think whatever’s normal or default.

[00:00:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I went with that too. Rebel Agent, they call it. Is that what every game has to call it? Something unique?

[00:00:34] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:00:35] Speaker A: So that’s just the normal standard difficulty here. You know, I’m all for challenging games generally, but that’s not the type of experience I’m looking for from a series like Ratchet and Clank. I look for that in other genres. And while that doesn’t mean I’m looking for an easy, breezy, I’m invincible story mode here, I just want to have a grand old time. So normal seems just right.

[00:00:56] Speaker B: No, normal’s been right. I wouldn’t say before we get into anything, I have died a few times, so it’s definitely been. It’s not been a walk in the park, so I’ve enjoyed it.

[00:01:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I agree.

So the intro has a very Star wars andor vibe to it. And the rain soaked cyberpunk city full of robots.

And once the helmet is removed to give it so that the Lombax can give it to that citizen in peril, you find out it’s Rivet.

And I was actually semi surprised the story starts with Rivet rather than Ratchet.

Although you don’t actually get gameplay control over just yet. It’s still just kind of.

What’s it called? Cold Open.

Yes, but let’s just say her world doesn’t seem all friendly in the way that Ratchet’s does at this point.

[00:01:49] Speaker B: No, no, it does not. It definitely doesn’t.

[00:01:52] Speaker A: It’s, you know, dictator Overlord vibes through and through. And there’s a lot of robots there too, which Rivet is very much out of place. But we will find out more about that later.

So we quickly swap over to Ratchet and Clank, our dear old friends, and they’re being celebrated in a giant party.

And you immediately just kind of lightly jog over to Captain Quark, Skid McMarks and Rusty Pete.

Even just walking, you can feel the haptics in the controller.

And that got me excited right away for what Leva said to us last time about the haptic feedback being used here to excellent effect.

And so it for the most part seemed to continue throughout majority of this early sections here.

Gotta love it when you’re using the actual features of the console.

[00:02:50] Speaker B: Yes, very true. I. Yeah, no, it definitely has. I think I probably haven’t felt it as much, the haptic feedback, probably shooting wise because I realized I’m using the edge and I’m using the back buttons and not the actual triggers. Yes.

[00:03:09] Speaker A: And you tend to do that. You use the edge for almost all games at this point. Right.

[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So that’s actually. That literally like just actually came to me like. Yeah. Right now, like realizing when we’re talking about the haptic, like. Oh yeah, I haven’t.

I feel it for like walking or running or whatever on different surfaces sometimes. But so for shooting, because I’m using the back buttons, obviously I’m not.

[00:03:30] Speaker A: Okay, so you, you, when you play games, you always use the back buttons in place of the shoulder buttons.

[00:03:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Of L2, R2. Yep.

[00:03:39] Speaker A: Interesting.

That’s. Yeah, that’s great for kind of ergonomics and not great for feeling the, you know, intended tension and all that, but that’s fine.

So. Okay, interesting. So you’ll have a different experience there, but you do get at least the haptic feedback of movement across, I guess. Movement mechanics. Right. So like walking, going in sand and water and all that stuff.

[00:04:08] Speaker B: Very cool.

[00:04:10] Speaker A: Yeah, the, you know, to be honest, the. I felt the trigger pull differently in some other shooter games. Like, they work well typically with bows or, you know, you get a quick blast for a shotgun and they have harder pull for some things in other games here it’s not so noticeable, I suppose maybe because of the guns are so odd in comparison to regular, regular shooters. But it’s still all. It’s all well integrated. Right. So it’s not distracting, but it’s a nice kind of bit of. Yeah, that immersion there.

Anyway, so as we enter this party thrown for Ratchet and Clank, they’re apparently coming out of retirement, which I must admit is a half decent in world explanation of why we’re powered down and rebuilding our arsenal up from scratch. Despite being an accomplished hero.

So many games don’t really have a legitimate reason for doing that. They just say, up here, go find every single thing you’ve used in the previous game once again.

So appreciate that.

And then once you go through that kind of brief tutorial, jumping across the floats and shooting some things, coming under attack a little bit. Clank gives Ratchet, this tearjerker, heartfelt mini speech and a thank you gift of the repaired Dimensionator, which he’s gifting him for the specific purpose of finding other Lombaxes in the universe, since Ratchet is the only one in this dimension.

[00:05:47] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:05:49] Speaker A: Very nice of you, Clank.

[00:05:50] Speaker B: I know, it’s very nice of Clank.

[00:05:54] Speaker A: Not only is he super smart and able to mechanically fix a lot of stuff, he’s also, you know, got a personality. So you gotta appreciate that out of your robots, especially in this day and age.

But Dr. Nefarious can’t let a nice thing be a nice thing and ruins it by stealing the Dimensionator and then running away like the comically stereotypical evil villain. Saturday morning cartoons.

Funny enough, his voice actor, Armin Shimerman, is also the voice of Andrew Ryan in BioShock.

[00:06:30] Speaker B: Oh, very nice.

[00:06:31] Speaker A: Okay, so you can tell the depth just by comparing those two characters because they’re so different. I looked it up because I was like, this voice sounds like someone that I heard in Saturday morning cartoons. But nope, I came across that tidbit instead.

[00:06:45] Speaker B: That.

That’s cool.

[00:06:49] Speaker A: I also. So you come across Ms. Zircon, who is the weapon vendor here, who I previously remember being a boss fight in Ratchet Clank 2016.

Although it was a very gigantic version of a robot.

[00:07:05] Speaker B: Yes, you’re right. Huh.

[00:07:07] Speaker A: And you know, I’m sure there was a lot of character development somewhere in all those games between the original and this one, but it was kind of exciting to run into her again. Definitely enjoyed using Mr. Zircon in the 2016 game, since I love Summon builds, Although his funny lines eventually got old when he wouldn’t stop repeating the same ones endlessly.

I also think Zircon Jr. Here is the greatest maniacal weapon preview voiceover ever.

Do you watch the previews when the new guns pop into the store?

[00:07:43] Speaker B: No, I don’t think I have. No.

[00:07:45] Speaker A: You see, you just read the description and buy it off of that.

[00:07:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I should watch that. Yeah, I should watch the previews.

[00:07:50] Speaker A: Watch the preview. I mean, it gives you like a little actual, like video reel of what’s going on. But the voiceover here, he sounds like a cross between Invader Zim and the Circus of Values from Bioshock.

[00:08:02] Speaker B: Okay, okay.

[00:08:06] Speaker A: He’s just so enthusiastic about everything. It’s infectious and hilarious.

[00:08:11] Speaker B: Okay, nice.

[00:08:14] Speaker A: I bought. When you, you know, arriving at the store, which is still in the tutorial. Really? I bought the Enforcer first, which is that double barreled plasma shotgun.

[00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it’s like a shotgun.

[00:08:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it’s like a shotgun. Yeah. Did you go with that too?

[00:08:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I bought that one.

[00:08:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I got that instead of the shatter bomb grenade. Because, you know, grenades are grenades.

[00:08:34] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:08:35] Speaker A: In watching those previews though, I am definitely quite happy with the dual functionality of pulling the. Oh, so this is actually the good question because you’re not using the.

The regular R2 with the R2 button. You pull the trigger halfway to use one version of the attack and all the way to go more extreme with it. What happens with you?

[00:08:56] Speaker B: Oh, I just.

[00:08:57] Speaker A: You just click and it shoots.

[00:08:59] Speaker B: It just clicks and it shoots.

[00:09:01] Speaker A: So you must be using the full press version of everything.

[00:09:04] Speaker B: Okay, what’s the halfway?

[00:09:07] Speaker A: So that. Well, every gun is different.

So like for the grenade, for example, if you halfway, it gives you the, you know, that stereotypical video game grenade kind of preview, like arcing, arching lob angle. Basically the line that goes out there. And if you hit it all. Or you can go halfway and then pull it full way, or you can just go straight to full way and it just chucks it straight at them for. Let’s see, what’s another good example? Have you picked up the shield one yet?

[00:09:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I just got it. The Void.

[00:09:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a very recent. Yeah, I just got.

[00:09:47] Speaker B: I don’t think I’ve really used it though.

[00:09:49] Speaker A: So with that one. That’s a good example. Just because if you half press, you pull up a shield and absorb a bunch of shots. And if you full press it basically shotguns right in front of you.

[00:09:58] Speaker B: Okay, okay. All right. That’s helpful because I. Okay, I was thinking that. Because I did read the description on that one and I’m like. I used it a tiny bit and I’m like, there’s no shield.

[00:10:10] Speaker A: Where’s the shield?

[00:10:11] Speaker B: Yeah, okay, that’s interesting.

[00:10:13] Speaker A: So this is a very intriguing. You might be forced to go to that. Then I just prove the gameplay.

[00:10:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I’ll probably just switch to. I mean, I don’t have to take out the back triggers. I can still just use the triggers as normal. So. But yeah, I’ll just. Yeah, I just will start using the triggers.

[00:10:29] Speaker A: Interesting. You know, I hadn’t thought of that. Yeah, I bet the developers.

[00:10:32] Speaker B: I didn’t even think about that either.

[00:10:34] Speaker A: I bet the developers haven’t thought about that. Hadn’t thought about that when creating that mechanic either. I mean, they’re thinking for the average user who has the regular dualsense that comes with your PlayStation.

[00:10:45] Speaker B: When did the.

[00:10:46] Speaker A: 2020 now?

[00:10:49] Speaker B: Oh, I don’t know. When did the Edge come out?

[00:10:50] Speaker A: Oh, oh, I don’t know when the edge came out after that. That’s Apple years Later.

[00:10:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So that’s why. Yeah.

[00:10:56] Speaker A: Although I’m sure most of these developers have a preview idea that some new accessory is coming, but that’s not. You still gotta design it based on the core audience of people that don’t buy every extra accessory.

[00:11:09] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:11:10] Speaker A: So, okay. Interesting use case here. I think you’re gonna have to switch over. I’m gonna be curious next time how you like it now that you have that extra.

No, I’m switching over things.

[00:11:20] Speaker B: I’m definitely gonna switch over because I bet something we’ll talk about later. I. I wonder if there’s more haptic feedback in it, too, so probably.

[00:11:28] Speaker A: Probably. Yeah.

[00:11:29] Speaker B: So I will definitely switch over to regular triggers.

[00:11:32] Speaker A: Hmm.

And as you know, to be honest, I think this is the first game that I’ve played that has this kind of functionality in the trigger like that. I’m sure more exist, but this is

[00:11:42] Speaker B: my second because I remember I used the real triggers for Horizon, Forbidden west, and you really feel the pull of the bow.

[00:11:48] Speaker A: Oh, you lost. That was Pull string. Oh, that was cool.

[00:11:52] Speaker B: Okay. I did use it on that. Yeah. That was fun.

[00:11:55] Speaker A: All right.

[00:11:56] Speaker B: But. Yeah.

[00:11:56] Speaker A: All right. All right. Well, there you go. If you’re using a DualSense Edge or another non PlayStation controller that has back buttons, just use the regular triggers.

[00:12:08] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:12:10] Speaker A: Okay. Happy accident.

[00:12:12] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:12:13] Speaker A: This is why we talk about these things.

[00:12:15] Speaker B: Exactly.

[00:12:19] Speaker A: So, yes. When you catch up to Nefarious, Ratchet in a cutscene shoots and breaks the Dimensionator while Nefarious is dialing up some coordinates, which then proceeds to throw everything out of whack.

If. If only Ratchet shot the ship that he was on or Nefarious himself, you know, problem solved. But then we wouldn’t have a fun game to play.

[00:12:43] Speaker B: I was gonna say. Then we wouldn’t have a cool, fun game with different dimensions.

[00:12:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess. Silver lining to protagonists being somewhat inept or having the aim of a stormtrooper in cutscenes.

Well, anyway, with our glove.

With our glove, we can now connect to those portals that have opened up with the Rift Tether, I think, is what they called it. And the adventure begins in earnest. So you probably have subtitles on too, since we both like to have that backup in case some out of game noise distracts us and you can just keep reading.

I do love that the enemies in the first level and I think kind of throughout are called Goons for Less.

[00:13:27] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:13:30] Speaker A: That just.

If you’re gonna. Nefarious is not only inept, but a cheap skate. Yes, he’s very cheap.

[00:13:39] Speaker B: At least this version of Nefarious, our

[00:13:42] Speaker A: Doctor Nefarious, he’s not successful at all.

[00:13:47] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:13:48] Speaker A: You got to give him credit for trying though. Their participation trophy.

And so Dr. Nefarious ends up in the palace of Emperor Nefarious. But his new right hand tells him he’s back early from his conquest. So. Right. Okay. We immediately find out that the legitimate Emperor will turn up sooner or later.

And our well known Dr. Nefarious is going to royally screw things up.

[00:14:13] Speaker B: Oh yeah.

[00:14:14] Speaker A: Most definitely. Meanwhile, Ratchet is somewhere unknown and Rivet immediately finds Clank. I thought there would be a little bit of wandering before running into him, but nope, she just pops up right there.

And so, you know, while 2016 had a skill tree system for manually upgrading all your weapons and that does make it return here. Rift Apart also has this kind of more western RPG system with armor plates or pieces. So you can get a helmet, chest piece and boots.

I don’t know. I don’t think any of them have any status effects. Right. It’s really just cosmetic.

[00:14:51] Speaker B: No, they’re. Some of them. Do they say under them? Like plus, do they.

[00:14:56] Speaker A: I haven’t looked closely enough. I’ve just been like, oh, that looks cool. Here you go.

[00:14:59] Speaker B: They do, but I have a feeling it doesn’t.

Like, I know I have a couple pieces that have status effects or whatever.

[00:15:09] Speaker A: Do you think you need all three of them? I think you need all.

[00:15:12] Speaker B: I don’t know if you need them on, but I think you need to have collected all three in the collection.

[00:15:18] Speaker A: Interesting.

I’ll have to take a closer look at that next time.

[00:15:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Because I have. Yeah, I have different.

Like a different helmet, chest piece and boots. They’re not all part of one collection, but one of them, my chest piece is. I think it’s working. I don’t know. I’ll have to check more because I just got it. I’ve completed a collection.

[00:15:38] Speaker A: Yes. I. Because there are only three pieces. Yeah, I’ve done at least one. I don’t remember which one it was.

[00:15:43] Speaker B: There were a few because I had a few from. Also because I have the digital Deluxe edition of this. Okay.

[00:15:49] Speaker A: No, I’m using the PS plus version.

[00:15:53] Speaker B: They don’t have status effects at all. Like, they just don’t. They were just cooler looking ones we add there, but they don’t have any effects for them.

[00:16:01] Speaker A: Cool looking is good.

[00:16:02] Speaker B: Yeah.

I like that. You can also change the color.

[00:16:05] Speaker A: Oh yeah, that’s pretty.

Not always an available option. So it’s always appreciated.

And so it’s fun running into the alternate versions of Ms. Zircon.

And especially funny to run into the new skid McMarks, especially because he’s now a smart secret agent here despite. Despite still speaking like a stoned out surfer dude.

[00:16:34] Speaker B: Mm.

[00:16:35] Speaker A: And what’s his name in the Phantom? Like the Phantom?

[00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah, he’s the Phantom.

[00:16:42] Speaker A: Just, you know, I. I creative to make a super spy also sound like he’s always high.

[00:16:50] Speaker B: Always high. Yeah.

[00:16:53] Speaker A: I do love having the Phantom dash ability because after that first bit of gameplay, just jumping around, it felt like a dodge was sorely needed.

[00:17:03] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:17:06] Speaker A: I. Although I will say I do often try to use it as a dash forward into enemies to go like hit them with the.

The wrench or the hammer. But it typically there’s a little bit of lag between landing on your feet again and being able to swing, so it’s not a lot useful. It’s really just a dodge.

[00:17:27] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:17:29] Speaker A: I also, you know, it’s feels very familiar because the animation of it looks quite a bit like Sargon’s dash from Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown last season.

[00:17:39] Speaker B: Oh, it kind of does. Yeah.

[00:17:41] Speaker A: With two or three hologram versions of yourself trailing behind you.

[00:17:47] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:17:49] Speaker A: I was like super excited that that game seemed to have a unique animation for a dash. And then here it is.

I don’t know which one. I think Lost Crown came out afterwards by a couple years, so wonder if there’s some inspiration there.

[00:18:04] Speaker B: Do you throw your. Have you thrown the hammer and the wrench?

[00:18:09] Speaker A: You know what I don’t love?

I don’t love when you in a game, you have to hold a trigger to. No.

[00:18:18] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:18:19] Speaker A: It’s not. It doesn’t have to do with holding the trigger, but. Right. You hold the trigger square. It is.

[00:18:22] Speaker B: Right. Yeah.

[00:18:23] Speaker A: I don’t like having to aim and shoot with my thumb.

[00:18:28] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:18:30] Speaker A: So I, I typically in like, in like Overwatch, for example, I remapped in game, remapped almost every character’s buttons in some way to almost never have to use a face button for an ability that requires aiming because I can’t stand it. Because you can’t actually aim and shoot unless you put your finger in this weird crab claw thing.

So. No, I don’t use it much. I’ve used it a couple times. But there’s enough ammo in here that I feel like it’s not really necessary.

[00:19:01] Speaker B: No, there is. It’s just. I like that they added it. It’s obviously after God of war 18, 20, 18.

[00:19:06] Speaker A: You know, I want to say it might have. Oh, I want to say it might have been in 2016, but you might be right.

[00:19:14] Speaker B: No, the new God of War is 2018.

[00:19:15] Speaker A: Oh, no, I’m talking about the previous Ratchet and Clank was 2016.

[00:19:19] Speaker B: Oh, that was. Oh, did that have it as well? Could you throw it?

[00:19:22] Speaker A: Oh, I couldn’t remember perfectly remember. Maybe, maybe not.

[00:19:27] Speaker B: I thought it was newer to this, and so I was just like.

[00:19:30] Speaker A: And it definitely has, like that boomerang feel to it. No, because you don’t recall it. It just comes back.

[00:19:34] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:19:36] Speaker A: It’s always great to have options, though.

Even though it’s not the one I

[00:19:40] Speaker B: choose, I don’t use it very often.

[00:19:45] Speaker A: There are a couple sections here. So the first time when you hook up Glitch, the holographic spider robot to unblock the terminal to get to Nefarious Lair, I was expecting to see at most a brief cutscene of a door unlocking, not a full mini section with a unique gameplay where you’re kind of like this. Speaking of Overwatch, like an Orisa style tank that can crawl on the ceiling and actually have turrets. That was fun.

[00:20:11] Speaker B: It was. I like the little glitch sequences so far that we played. It’s kind of like a funny little robot.

[00:20:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, Absolutely fun. Little change of pace for a few minutes. And always nice to have that palate cleanse in the middle of gameplay.

[00:20:31] Speaker B: It did, yeah. I was trying to think of it slightly. Reminded me of.

Oh, my God, what did we just play? That had it.

We had to go to another dimension.

[00:20:45] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.

[00:20:46] Speaker B: I can’t even think of version.

No, no, no, no, no, no. It was.

Oh, I don’t know. It’ll come to me.

[00:20:54] Speaker A: One of our other seasons is what you’re talking about.

[00:20:56] Speaker B: Yeah, one of our other seasons.

[00:20:58] Speaker A: Great night.

[00:21:00] Speaker B: I know. My mind is blanking right now.

[00:21:02] Speaker A: You got to drink some coffee here.

[00:21:04] Speaker B: I know.

[00:21:06] Speaker A: All right, well, for the sake of, you know, not looking like fools, just own show about our own season. No, hold on. I’m going to. I’m going to tell you what it is.

Let’s see.

Oh, Astral Chain.

[00:21:18] Speaker B: That’s. Yeah, yes. Those actual other dimension things. Yeah, it was similar.

[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah, you’re right, visually.

[00:21:26] Speaker B: But this one’s more fun.

[00:21:29] Speaker A: Yes.

And I like the little pocket dimensions and this kind of segment of. What’s it called?

Glitch the Spider Robot.

[00:21:38] Speaker B: Good stuff.

There you go.

[00:21:40] Speaker A: Yes. We totally remember our game that we played two seasons ago.

[00:21:44] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I understand why I kind of forgot it more, but. Yeah,

[00:21:50] Speaker A: let’s not bring that up again.

[00:21:52] Speaker B: All right.

[00:21:54] Speaker A: Fun game overall, right? Yes, overall.

Tangent over.

Okay. So you arrive at Sargasso as Rivet and crash land in that lush forest, which is gorgeous. I. They do a very good job visually here.

[00:22:14] Speaker B: The visuals. And I play on PS5 Pro.

[00:22:17] Speaker A: Oh my God, it looks.

[00:22:19] Speaker B: And then also OLED tv. I was like, oh, my God, this for when this came out, like one of the first. This looks so nice.

[00:22:28] Speaker A: That’s great. Yeah. And I’ve. I’ve been playing, you know, traditionally I try to go performance mode, but I went on the. I guess it’s called quality mode. That mixes. It’s not a locked 60fps or whatever, but it has good. But it has a bit of ray tracing too. It’s not the most visually stunning version of it, but it has ray tracing. And the landing, when you get out of the ship on Sargasso has this like giant beam of sunlight coming through the trees and it looks great.

[00:22:53] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:22:55] Speaker A: So bravo. You know, it. It almost convinces me to buy a PS5 Pro, except between price increases and the fact that you have to pay extra for a disk drive is never going to happen. Yeah, that’s. You know, with conversations around the latest announcement by PlayStation aside as well. Because F. That.

[00:23:15] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:23:19] Speaker A: But yes, the forest looks great.

And while I do wish Rivet had her entirely own and unique suite of an armory to play with, it is great that you get to share all the weapons you’ve already unlocked as Ratchet at this point instead of having to rebuy them.

[00:23:36] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s nice. I get the. I think it would have been. It would have been cool if there. Yeah. If maybe not all of them. Like, you can still like, have both of them have some similar. But then each one maybe has something unique to them.

[00:23:52] Speaker A: Variations. Yeah. You know, and if it was a longer game, I think I would be more demanding of it, but because this is a fairly short story, I feel like it’s not a requirement, but it would have been a nice to have. Right. Like at least. Or have a couple of weapons that are unique to each.

[00:24:09] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:24:10] Speaker A: Not a full complete replacement.

[00:24:12] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no. Just a couple.

[00:24:14] Speaker A: Because, yes, development work takes a lot of time, as it should.

[00:24:18] Speaker B: I mean, obviously, I know she has a hammer, he has a wrench.

[00:24:21] Speaker A: Yes, right.

[00:24:22] Speaker B: That’s. Yeah, that’s really the only difference. Yeah. Weapons with.

[00:24:26] Speaker A: They’re functionally the same.

[00:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah. But. Yes, yes, that’s true too.

[00:24:30] Speaker A: Good, good, good.

The speed bugs, I think they’re called Speedles.

[00:24:34] Speaker B: Speedles. Yeah.

[00:24:37] Speaker A: To cross all the acid pools and Rivers is fun, but it. They’re so fast that you fly past so many bolt boxes that when I crashed into a plant in that first kind of long distance Beetle run, I slowly ran back as far as I could to pick up more currency.

And. And then did you do the three puzzle room dimensional rift as Clank

[00:25:03] Speaker B: three puzzle.

Ooh, that’s Clank.

[00:25:07] Speaker A: It’s. It’s. Okay. So you get on Sargasso, you reach the place with all the morts in that kind of helipad area.

[00:25:16] Speaker B: Oh, yes.

[00:25:17] Speaker A: And then there’s a rift there when they say, like, oh, Mort got stuck in that rift over there. And you go in as Clank instead of as Rivet.

[00:25:24] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

[00:25:25] Speaker A: And you have these, like, kind of handful of puzzle rooms with the. Was it a prophet, I don’t know, one of the crocodile looking dudes kind of guiding your way.

Not too tricky by any means, but a nice kind of another quick change of pace here.

[00:25:42] Speaker B: Yes. It was like the.

[00:25:44] Speaker A: Yeah. You have the little orbs that you can magnetically grab and throw, and then you place them into a spot and you can either speed up or have a giant jump kind of thing.

Yeah. I mean, I enjoyed Clank sections in the last game too, although those were more like quick time event heavy. And this is more interesting overall.

[00:26:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. No. Yes, I now fully remember the puzzles. Yeah, I enjoyed those little puzzle parts. They were grabbing the orbs, the speed orbs, and the jumping whatever orbs.

[00:26:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

[00:26:21] Speaker B: Place them down.

[00:26:23] Speaker A: So speaking of the morts, they don’t. It’s not exactly the same by any means, but they kind of sound like the super friendly people in Fargo.

[00:26:32] Speaker B: Okay. Yes, yes. The. The main Mort, she gives the piece to 100% does.

[00:26:40] Speaker A: Oh, you betcha.

[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:44] Speaker A: So appreciate that. I. You know, it’s always fun chatting with those creatures.

And I also, I picked up here.

I love the root grenade weapon, AKA the topiary sprinkler.

[00:27:03] Speaker B: Mm.

I. Yes. I didn’t actually buy that right away.

I bought that.

[00:27:08] Speaker A: I saw it and I watched the preview and I just thought, yes, this is the perfect thing.

[00:27:13] Speaker B: Yeah. But I have used it. I’ve used it quite a bit since I did buy it.

Yeah, it’s fun.

[00:27:18] Speaker A: So we’re still, you know, we’re only a third of the way through the game, and there’s a possibility that it still might make a comeback. The Groovitron from last time, which I mentioned, which makes the enemies dance. But this is just as fun of a stunning, you know, you turn them into a giant plant and you can even use it against bosses like that dinosaur that shows up soon after and the helicopters so you can stun them in place. And I follow that up with a negatron collider blast many times. Like what a combo. Do you like that weapon? I love it.

[00:27:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it’s a good weapon.

[00:27:53] Speaker A: But I charge it up unleash.

[00:27:55] Speaker B: See, it’s going to be different for me. Yeah. Because mine would just like I just hold it.

[00:28:00] Speaker A: It’s just holding it all the way

[00:28:01] Speaker B: down and going instantly. But yeah, overall I enjoy that weapon.

[00:28:07] Speaker A: It’s a fun combo. And I also like the. What’s it called?

Mr. Fun Guy.

[00:28:13] Speaker B: Uh huh. Mr. Fun Guy is cool.

[00:28:15] Speaker A: Who I after.

What’s it called? After.

Upgrading a handful of nodes on there, it turns into Ms. Fungal.

[00:28:34] Speaker B: Oh,

[00:28:36] Speaker A: okay. Ms. Fungal. Yeah, you know, although I don’t think they don’t really talk all that much, so I didn’t really notice it in gameplay. But it was funny to see that on the node kind of upgrade menu.

[00:28:48] Speaker B: Okay, I’m gonna have to check that because I think I have it at like level three. And then upgraded all those.

[00:28:52] Speaker A: Most of those nodes. So yeah, I use it pretty consistently. So it’s.

I’ve upgraded a handful of sections.

[00:29:00] Speaker B: I have to check that.

[00:29:03] Speaker A: And then Rivet finally reaches her hideout and plugs Clank in to watch his recent memories as a video and is in shock that Clank wasn’t lying about his Lombax friend.

It’s reasonable considering there aren’t any other Lombaxes in her dimension. So obviously though, she’s been curious about the rest of her species too and looking to find them because she gets quite excited.

[00:29:25] Speaker B: Yeah, she does.

[00:29:27] Speaker A: And then of course, like any good Saturday morning cartoon, the Centipede ship finds Rivet’s hideout very quickly and accidentally grabs Clank while trying to recover the Infobot.

So of course we’re off to the rescue. And it’s half chase sequence and half boss fight in two parts. Each riding speedles around. You know, it has simple boss moves that are easy to read after the first couple attacks, but doesn’t make it any less fun.

Did you just kind of unleash fire on it or do anything specific?

[00:30:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it was kind of. Yeah, a lot of fire. Just switching out between weapons.

[00:30:06] Speaker A: Yeah, they, they do run like most of the weapons run out of ammo fairly quickly.

[00:30:10] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:30:11] Speaker A: So it’s nice that they’re all on a weapon wheel to quickly pull things up. I, I use the Topiary sprinkler and then the negatron as a combo. And then they both ran out of ammo, launched a bunch of Mr. Fungi and some grenades, and finally finished off with just the regular shots because I was out of all of the ammo.

[00:30:29] Speaker B: Yeah, the part where you’re chasing the secret pede just. It kind of brought me back to the one.

The one colossus in shadow of the colossus that’s kind of flying where you kind of do that.

[00:30:40] Speaker A: Oh, the. Yeah, the one that flies around. Yeah.

[00:30:43] Speaker B: I don’t know.

[00:30:44] Speaker A: Just brick him.

[00:30:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that was.

[00:30:50] Speaker A: And so, okay, you kind of finish that off, you move along and arrive at the Scarstu debris field.

And especially kind of the bar there feels right out of Star wars. Both between the Santina vibe and then watching the arena from the window up in the bar is kind of like the weird version of chess that I don’t know the name of from Star wars iv. Well, a New Hope.

And then, of course, you got to step into it. But first you step up to the bar and you see one of those sheep that you can turn enemies into in the 2016 game.

[00:31:27] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:31:27] Speaker A: Nice little callback there.

[00:31:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that was a little callback.

[00:31:33] Speaker A: And then Pierre, the French space pirate is just so over the top stereotypical in a Looney Tunes kind of way.

[00:31:40] Speaker B: It was so ridiculous.

[00:31:42] Speaker A: But that just makes the character even funnier to laugh at.

Turns out he’s also this alternate dimension version of Rusty Pete.

And Rivet challenges to him. A fight to a fight for the piece that she needs to repair clank. And Mr. Zircon makes an appearance here as well, of course. Pyrrhus? Afraid. So he sends out a bunch of minions and a giant robot that fires lava balls at you.

I used up a lot of my ammo to take him out.

[00:32:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it was. I actually died in the.

When it got to the final wave of this, I died a couple times, and I had to redo the whole thing.

[00:32:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I just kept running away and dodging. Yeah.

[00:32:25] Speaker B: Trying to run away, dodge, and, like, get some health and ammo. Yeah, yeah.

[00:32:30] Speaker A: Running out of ammo is not, not, not the greatest because the. You can’t get quite close enough and have enough time to react to his attacks when you’re just smacking him with the.

The. The hammer.

But, yeah, so I. I use up a lot of ammo there. I don’t ever really enjoy waves of enemies in a room in games.

So until the boss arrived, I was. This was very much a moment I could do without, but was Able to just kind of semi quickly push past it and move on. I don’t think I care enough to try out the other eight levels across the three tiers that appear to exist with probably some degree of unlockables. That is, unless we’re required to do more later.

I will see.

[00:33:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I don’t know if I will either.

[00:33:20] Speaker A: Once we can chat with Ratchet, though, over the zoom, he and Rivet meet long distance. And while they’re presumably alternate dimension versions of the last one, Lombax, Considering how they’re thinking and saying the same things, I hope they avoid the trope of making them romantically involved just because it would be so unnecessary.

[00:33:45] Speaker B: Mm.

[00:33:48] Speaker A: It almost looks like they want to go that way, but we haven’t seen enough, I suppose.

[00:33:53] Speaker B: No, not yet, but let’s just keep

[00:33:56] Speaker A: this thing PG here.

Anyway, from here, we must go find the blueprints to build a new Dimensionator, and we’ll have to pick up the rarest material in the galaxy to do it. So it’s off to Sovali.

We will, as a note, be covering Blizar prime as our first stop next time, by the way, even though it’s already available at this point when you get access to Savali. So if you did go and play that as well, catch up with us later to see what went down over there on our end.

[00:34:25] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:34:27] Speaker A: In the meantime, as you’re running back to your ship, you get a call from Mortgage about their pet, which opens up an optional quest. Did you go back and do that?

[00:34:35] Speaker B: I did. I went back and did that. And then it opens up like three additional options. I did like the first two, and then the third one was a collection of collecting a lot more than what I needed or what.

And so I just kind of stopped at that point and then went back into the story.

[00:34:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I also did this despite my better judgment, since I entered this season not planning to do much side content, since I don’t love side quests and collectathons typically, but figured I’d check it out and have them prove me wrong.

But yes, overall, it just kind of involved collecting things for Trudy the dragon. And then you get to fly on her eventually.

[00:35:18] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:35:18] Speaker A: And then you keep going and you actually unlock fireballs.

[00:35:22] Speaker B: Oh.

[00:35:23] Speaker A: So it’s a pleasant enough diversion, but not convincing enough in terms of getting me to do any more of these side quests. Quests.

And I suppose I’ll call this an example of a side quest for this game, since you have to go back to a previously visited planet to Complete it in comparison with what. What I would call a diversion quest, where you can just go ever so slightly off your path to do something when you’re doing something in the main quest.

[00:35:52] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.

[00:35:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree because like, I. I’m fine with doing things when I’m already there, but if I had to go back.

[00:35:58] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:35:58] Speaker A: Worth the time for basically what are end up being cosmetics or tiny bits of lore?

Hard to say.

Now on Savali, this level opens up so much in terms of just breadth of its map.

It reminded me. I’m curious if you think this too. It reminded me a lot of the big open jeep level in Uncharted 4, actually. Both visually, like art design wise and in the way that it’s shaped.

Kind of a big circle.

[00:36:28] Speaker B: Yes. Mm.

[00:36:30] Speaker A: That one was definitely more complex with, you know, a lot of different elements to it and kind of weird terrain. But this gave you the gravity boots, so that’s cool.

[00:36:42] Speaker B: Hover boots.

[00:36:43] Speaker A: Hover boots. Well, I got the name wrong.

[00:36:47] Speaker B: Hover boots.

[00:36:48] Speaker A: Oh. I think gravity boots are the ones that let you walk on panels.

[00:36:50] Speaker B: Gravity boots will let you walk on the.

[00:36:52] Speaker A: Like on the magnetic.

[00:36:53] Speaker B: Yeah, the magnetic parts, yeah.

[00:36:54] Speaker A: Oh, there you go.

Did. Yeah. Did you do the Lombax Shrine quest, this kind of diversion here?

[00:37:03] Speaker B: I did, yes.

[00:37:04] Speaker A: Did you do all 12?

[00:37:05] Speaker B: Yes, I got all 12.

[00:37:07] Speaker A: So, yeah, they weren’t too difficult to be fair.

Yeah. You know, remember how I literally just said I wasn’t going to do any more side quest stuff?

[00:37:15] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:37:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I quickly ate my words here because I enjoyed the speed skating from the hover boots enough to do all these extra activities and get all of the Lorbs.

Did you listen to the Lorbs?

[00:37:27] Speaker B: Yes, I did. Yeah, I listened to all of them.

[00:37:29] Speaker A: You find out that there’s. Well, there are voice notes from a Lombax named Mags talking about building the Dimensionator.

And there are some references to other PlayStation games. I can definitely guarantee. There was one about Sly Cooper, There was one about LittleBigPlanet, and I think maybe Horizon because it talked about machines or creatures getting pieces knocked off or something like that.

Although I don’t know if I know every last one. I think one of them actually might have been Tetris because it said something about smart shapes or small shapes. Don’t recall.

But as far as the actual. In game lore, something bad happened in the past. And the reason that Mags was tasked with mapping all the dimensions was to hide all the Lombaxes.

Yes, they did manage to get most of them to one Dimension. So that’s good. Except where are the odd ones out.

[00:38:32] Speaker B: Yep. But now we have a potential new thing of finding them.

[00:38:38] Speaker A: Correct.

[00:38:38] Speaker B: Maybe.

[00:38:40] Speaker A: Hopefully.

And then KT or Kit, who is the alternate version of Clank, gets lots of backstory throughout.

And then at the end, in the final kind of defense of the Archives, transforms into a giant killer defense robot.

[00:38:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Turns into.

Oh, my gosh. It’s like Iron Hulk.

[00:39:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it looks like it. Actually. I was going to. Oh, I can’t remember. Kind of. I think it’s called the Hulkbuster, maybe.

[00:39:10] Speaker B: Hulkbuster. Thank you. Yes, the Hulkbuster.

[00:39:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it looks very similar, just more comical.

[00:39:16] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:39:16] Speaker A: Okay. Comical is a bad word to use, considering it’s from comics.

I don’t know. More silly looking, this version.

[00:39:24] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:39:26] Speaker A: And she has this kind of tragic backstory of trying to being forced to go hunt people down that she didn’t want to, I guess. Is it a she or a he?

[00:39:34] Speaker B: I don’t know.

It’s a. I’m pretty sure it sounds like it.

[00:39:38] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:39:39] Speaker B: I think.

Think it’s a female because I think it’s like Rivet’s female now with male Clank. And then it’s just opposites. And then.

Yeah.

[00:39:48] Speaker A: Makes sense what I took it as.

But. Yeah, you know, Ratchet’s able to convince her to come along. So we’ve got two lombax plus killer robot combinations here. Maybe we’ll get kind of a hot swap at some point. Like supposedly exists in Spider Man 2 with Peter and Miles. I haven’t played it yet, but I know that that’s how it works.

Or I’m sure there will be at some point in the final boss or level, like moments where you play as each group. I wonder if this is how we stay, though, or if we swap back to Ratchet and Clank and Rivet and Kit or not.

Big important questions.

[00:40:32] Speaker B: I know. The archive fight was actually kind of difficult for me.

[00:40:35] Speaker A: Yeah, a little bit. I died a couple times on that one. Yeah, there was a lot going on in there.

[00:40:40] Speaker B: There’s a lot of running around trying to get the health box to come back.

Ammo.

But yeah, it was fun.

[00:40:48] Speaker A: Yeah, the ammo problems.

Well, anyway, what are your first impressions overall of the game, Alex?

[00:40:57] Speaker B: I’m enjoying it.

It’s fun. It’s just a fun action platformer.

It’s like the typical 2016 red shin. It’s fun.

[00:41:07] Speaker A: It’s what I was expecting.

It matches what it says on the box.

[00:41:13] Speaker B: Right.

[00:41:13] Speaker A: Like you’re going to have fun. That’s It.

[00:41:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.

[00:41:17] Speaker A: Don’t need more than that. Don’t need less than that.

[00:41:20] Speaker B: I’m intrigued with the story too. I’m intrigued at where it’s going to go. I’m definitely intrigued to see Emperor Nefarious. Yeah.

[00:41:27] Speaker A: So that I want to see the like, competent version of Nefarious. Let’s.

[00:41:31] Speaker B: Let’s see. Yeah. That I’m looking forward to. And then. Yeah, I just. To me, just visually, it just. It looks incredible, so.

[00:41:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it does, it does. It looks great. I’m very impressed. And runs very well on the PlayStation portal as well, actually. Obviously you lose a lot of the visual quality there, but it still looks great. It runs great.

[00:41:53] Speaker B: So I was gonna say it runs smooth. Yeah, I mean, it runs very smooth. So it’s. Yeah. I mean, the transitioning going through the dimensions and it’s just.

[00:42:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I also, you know, I like these pocket dimensions. They’re really just kind of light platforming puzzles that I find entertaining enough to go through alongside just being visually interesting. And at least they’re very clearly optional since they just reward you with a cosmetic armor piece at the end instead of something that really affects gameplay.

But even if you don’t want to do the platforming in the pocket dimensions, they’re always worth at least walking into for a moment because they all. All the ones that I’ so far have some Raritanium literally right after the door.

[00:42:32] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:42:33] Speaker A: So definitely at least walk inside. If you don’t want to do the platforming, skip it. But you get free Raritanium just by walking in the door.

[00:42:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Which is huge for upgrading the weapons.

[00:42:42] Speaker A: Important, important, important tip.

So you can’t beat that.

[00:42:47] Speaker B: No.

[00:42:49] Speaker A: Well, for next time, play until you finish the Ardalis chapter, then save and quit and hang on for the following episode.

[00:42:58] Speaker B: Yep. Thank you everybody. I hope you guys are all enjoying the start of Ratchet and Rift Apart as we are, and looking forward to continuing it.

Thanks everyone for listening.

If you want to follow along and discuss our playthrough of many of games on the Gaming Backlog Book Club podcast, please give us a follow on your podcast platform of choice. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music or Pocketcasts, as well as our Discord and Instagram account under the same name. Thanks.