Thread: Really Random thread

It wasn't just the animation though.

Even if the cutscenes had the best animation in the series up to this point there'd still be the problem where Ratchet and Clank, the title characters, don't really interact with each other all that much, especially when you compare it to the other games in the series and it gets even worse when you take into account that this is supposed to be their origin story, how they met and became the iconic duo that we see in the other games.

If we go by the PS4 and movie version of the story then… they just kind of became best friends right off the bat, despite not having anything in common or having any real reason to like each other apart from the fact that they're the title characters.

Maybe the other games TJ Fixman has worked on having Ratchet and Clank seperated from one another is because he can't really figure out an interesting way to write interactions between the two?

I'm always drawn to: "Whoa and it's autographed! For Ratchet and Clank, the coolest dudes I've ever seen on a hostile alien planet–cool!" THAT line was good, but the blank stares and emotionless faces don't help at all!

I think the best cutscene in the Ps4 game was Skidd's infobot–proof that they CAN make a good cutscene, if they tried.

Thats my one problem with it. The blank stares during in-game cutscenes. Every time there was one, I just got pulled out of the immersion/flow. It was very distracting.

Maybe the other games TJ Fixman has worked on having Ratchet and Clank seperated from one another is because he can't really figure out an interesting way to write interactions between the two?

He wrote them as a duo pretty well in the comics though and I really like the scenes they share in ItN. I don't think Fixman is to blame here - the movie is loosely based on his original script and in the game he's just one of the writers, maybe he just wrote a few blarg chats in his spare time, we don't really know. This game was made in a rush, perhaps they ordered the script last-minute, which resulted in it being such a mess. What worries me though is that nobody really seems to mind . The gameplay was fun, the graphics were pretty, so it's all fine, 10/10, masterpiece! I'm affraid IG will come to conclusion that they don't need actual storytelling, cause that's not what people are looking for -_- Heck, I keep getting seeing these comments saying "the game did better job at telling the story than the movie"… Uuum, no, it did not, not at all. The movie is no masterpiece, but the game (I'll say it out loud) is terrible, absolutly terrible in this regard.

I'm always drawn to: "Whoa and it's autographed! For Ratchet and Clank, the coolest dudes I've ever seen on a hostile alien planet–cool!" THAT line was good, but the blank stares and emotionless faces don't help at all!

If lines like this popping up from time to time are this script's defense… The situation is REALLY bad.

I think the best cutscene in the Ps4 game was Skidd's infobot–proof that they CAN make a good cutscene, if they tried.

*a decently animated cutscene

Totally agree on the blank stares. They ruined the voice acting. I was surprised when the characters start to have emotionless faces in Aridia. I was already impressed with the previous cutscenes, but well, it then goes meh. Another thing I would like to point out: Bella Thorne's voice acting is terrible in the game. Cringy lines and tones. Meh, I'd rather be partnered with Brax.

Another thing I would like to point out: Bella Thorne's voice acting is terrible in the game.

Oh, yeah, her… In the movie's she's alright, but here… Ugh…

At this point it's probably just a matter of waiting for a sequel.
We know the game's development was pretty messy and I think it's safe to assume we won't be getting another movie so I wonder what Ratchet and Clank PS4 2 (or something along those lines) will be like now that it doesn't have those shackles.

Although unfortunately I have a feeling they might end up skipping the second game entirely and have it follow the story of the third one but that's another matter.

At this point it's probably just a matter of waiting for a sequel.
We know the game's development was pretty messy and I think it's safe to assume we won't be getting another movie so I wonder what Ratchet and Clank PS4 2 (or something along those lines) will be like now that it doesn't have those shackles.

Although unfortunately I have a feeling they might end up skipping the second game entirely and have it follow the story of the third one but that's another matter.

If they decide to set the next game (if it's coming any time soon) in the movieverse, I seriously hope it is not a GC PS4 nor UYA PS4. I want a new title with original planets and story, another not-entirely-a-new-game-but-kinda is more likely to become another mess.

Or it might be a Future saga continuation, though it's less likely after the R&C PS4's success…

That's true but at the same time I imagine there's lots of people who'd love to see some of their favorite levels from 2 and 3 reimagined for the PS4, I know I'd kill to see Boldan and Joba on PS4 at least.

And I honestly doubt they're going back to the Future story, TJ Fixman has left Insomniac and I doubt anyone else would want to continue his story (which might be part of the reason the series was rebooted in the first place)
I personally thought the ending of Nexus was kind of dumb and unnecessary though, Crack in Time had a perfect ending for the whole thing.
The Future series is about Ratchet understanding that he doesn't really need to find the Lombaxes; Clank, Talwyn and everyone else around him are his family and he'd rather be with them than with the bunch of people he's never met before, even if those people are his own kind. This is a conclusion he reaches in Nexus too but then the cliffhanger kind of implies the next part of the story will be about going to the Lombax dimension which kind of defeats the point IMO

Another thing I would like to point out: Bella Thorne's voice acting is terrible in the game. Cringy lines and tones. Meh, I'd rather be partnered with Brax.

I agree on that as well. Cora could have been a character to my liking. Ali Hillis would have been perfect for her. If she hadn't already replaced Tara Strong as Talwyn (Nexus), I think IG might have used her. Instead of letting her loose on computer voices and NPCs.

I personally thought the ending of Nexus was kind of dumb and unnecessary though, Crack in Time had a perfect ending for the whole thing.

Yup! The ending wasn't bad, but the fact they didn't expand it was such a shame. ACiT has one of my favorite endings in history.

"Should the world be too small for your plans, I pray you walk right into a future you yourself design. But remember, the universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is, learning how to take a joke".

That was an amazing line to end things with. Beautiful game and it concluded itself very nicely. Nexus wasn't even needed for that.

oops

That's true but at the same time I imagine there's lots of people who'd love to see some of their favorite levels from 2 and 3 reimagined for the PS4, I know I'd kill to see Boldan and Joba on PS4 at least.

I wouldn't mind visiting a few familiar locations (with new layout though, like R&C1 levels in UYA, or Metropolis in ToD), but I don't want another whole game centered around already existing levels.

which might be part of the reason the series was rebooted in the first place

It was rebooted because of the movie - most of it's target audience were people, who have never even heard of the franchise, so making it a continuation of a story that's been going on for so many years would make it REALLY confusing. Now, perhaps without the movie they would reboot the franchise anyway, for the same reason, seeing how many new fans the PS4 game introduced, but given ItN's ending it would be less likely.

I personally thought the ending of Nexus was kind of dumb and unnecessary though, Crack in Time had a perfect ending for the whole thing.
The Future series is about Ratchet understanding that he doesn't really need to find the Lombaxes; Clank, Talwyn and everyone else around him are his family and he'd rather be with them than with the bunch of people he's never met before, even if those people are his own kind. This is a conclusion he reaches in Nexus too but then the cliffhanger kind of implies the next part of the story will be about going to the Lombax dimension which kind of defeats the point IMO

Youp, fully agree on that. Insomniac likes to call it an 'epilogue' to the Future saga, but it actually resurrects the "find the Lombaxes" story rather than concludes it.

I agree on that as well. Cora could have been a character to my liking. Ali Hillis would have been perfect for her. If she hadn't already replaced Tara Strong as Talwyn (Nexus), I think IG might have used her. Instead of letting her loose on computer voices and NPCs.

Honestly, I belive she was created for the sole reason of being voiced by a celebrity - she doesn't do anything relevant to the plot, has no real relationship with any of the main characters, has perhaps the most lazy character design in the series' history… Seriosuly, what is she doing there? I actually think all these new characters are serving as shells for celebrity voices, but they didn't manage to acquire as many stars as they have planned (after all, with three main heroes voiced by annonymous VAs they've got to squeeze in these poster names somewhere, right?).

Victor, he works for Drek, then he dies and that's pretty much it. MAYBE he was supposed to be in some sort of contradistinction to Clank (given how much he wanted to off that "DEEFECT!" - both Drek Industries robots, yet two polar opposites, but the movie didn't really expand on that idea.
Zed, he seems to be acting as a comic relief. And honestly, an intern assistant for the main bad guy is not a bad idea. The problem is that, yet again, the movie doesn't really do much with that concept, Drek is pretty much a comic relief himself and there's already Victor, Nefarious and all the Blargs running around as the "baddie supporting characters".
Grim, a father figure for Ratchet, who could use A LITTLE more screentime with our main hero. There's not much to him other than that though.
Elaris, probably the only one, who has a likeable personality, a developed relationship with one of our main heroes (Clank) and plays an important role in the "brain vs. brawn" conflict, she's cool.
Brax, it's the same case as with Cora.

Seriously, what's the point of having all these characters? None of them gets enough time (okay, except for Elaris), most of them don't contribute to the story at all, they're not even fan service characters like Nefarious and most importantly they take screentime away from the titular characters! Seriously, my guess is they really exist just for the sake of celebs…

As I said somewhere in this thread I honestly think they were mostly thinking of how they could turn this into a new series and if a sequel to the movie/game were to be made it would most likely be based on the third game.
All the pieces are there: Nefarious has been introduced and turned into a robot, the Galactic Rangers have been established and Qwark has had his redemption arc sort of but still has a criminal record so they could go bring back the tribesman stuff if they really wanted to.
Plus Nefarious now has a grudge against Ratchet from the get-go instead of Qwark so they could pretty much skip like 60% of the story this time and not have it feel too rushed.

It felt like the movie was more for setting up the new universe rather than telling an actual concrete story.

On a completely unrelated note has anyone played the newly released game of the year?

Say what you want, but I find Knack 2 pretty interesting from what I've seen.
Anyway, as for R&C now, just because the reimagining ended that way it doesn't mean that could couldn't still become a villain in the next one.
For example, GC reimagined could be set like this:
Qwark embarrased from the recent events disappear from the public. Then R&C get contracted to find the missing Protopet, which Qwark has stolen only to place it somewhere and find it himself and become a hero in a new galaxy. Once he sees that R&C came, he tries to send them back to Solana by impersonating mr Fizzwidget. He fails and the two find the Protopet and give it to him. He then changes his plan into releasing the protopet earlier. Then Angela becomes the Thief and escapes from the Megacorp facility along with the expirement in order to finish it herself or destroy it if she fails to. Although R&C get it back and securily hand it to Fizzwidget. Then the rest of the plot stays mostly the same.

Totally agree on Elaris being an important character. Her voice actor did a great job in both the movie and game. And I actually sympathized for her in the movie, as Qwark (and pretty much other Rangers) ignored her analisis and strategy at first. But I was surprised, and impressed, in the scene when she tried to fight Victor. That was a brave move, though she failed to take him down.

Im just hoping that insomiac can take in to consideration the story problems with the ps4 game, and get new writer for the series that has a good track record and would be a good replacement for tj .fixman.