Sujet : Could Ratchet and Clank learn from Metroid Prime?

I was discussing with someone on a Metroid Forum about how the Metroid Prime series is better than Metroid Other M. We talked a lot, and it seems that, the Ratchet and Clank games are as bad as Metroid Other M in comparison to other Metroid games. I'll cover a lot of ground here so I'll just divide this by categories.

• Plot Delivery- In Ratchet and Clank the plot is delivered by cutscenes and by in-game dialog from time to time. But, Ratchet and Clank could be better as a non-cinematical experience. For example, in Metroid Prime, with the exception of the Intro and the Ending, there are only cutscenes after or before a boss and when entering a new area. The rest of the plot is delivered by either playable cutscenes, or little things you can scan and find. Ratchet and Clank could benefit from this aspect. We all know how cool that scene in the beginning of A Crack in Time is right? When Ratchet and Qwark are flying around on Aphelion and then they're hit by that Time Rift. Now imagine, if you were in total Control of Ratchet's Ship, while Qwark delivers a line from time to time, then Aphelion warns about the Danger coming from behind, then when it hit the ship, you were still in control, could only move left or right, but your effort would always be in vain as you'd end up hitting Quantos anyway. This way, it would feel much more disappointing when you lost the ship, cause you would feel like you could have had done something, but in reality couldn't. That way, when you'd get Aphelion back, it would feel much more rewarding. There's also something about the plot that I will talk about later on regarding Ratchet and Clank.
• Exploration Factor- How man, this is going to be a BIG one ain't it? Oh well. Exploration! You know, the thing that has been kind of useless since ToD. Now, before you send me your hate mail, I know there are the gold bolts, the Ryno parts, the hover boots, yadyadyada, but when was the last time you found something truly useful when you'd go out of your way to explore outside of the first three games? Remember how awesome you felt when you found the Suck Cannon? How how rewarding it was to get the Morph o' Ray? Yeah you ain't going to find anything like that in the Future series. I mean, why not make us backtrack in order to discover a new track that would lead us to a whole new path. I'll give you another example. You're running around Luminopolis, having fun but then BOOM! Swingshot targets that you can do nothing about. So three levels later you finally get the Swingshot and then you're like: "Whatever it's probably just a gold bolt." You continue on and a bit further in the level you found a door that needed the Trespasser. Then you're like: "Whatever I'll find it later on." Then you finnish the level and you're about to get to the boss. But before you can access the boss, you need a Rocket Launcher. So you backtrack to the point where you saw those Swingshot targets and got trough that path to find a Trespasser, move on to the later level, use the Trespasser and THEN find the Rocket Launcher, I like that, make us find A, but we need B, but before we can get B we need to use C to get to D. That's the way I'd like a Ratchet and Clank game to be structured.
• Connection To The Player- Here's the part that I mentioned back in the Plot Delivery segment. See what I did there? Foreshadowing! Anyway, Ratchet has always had his own personality and I like that, we have a corny protagonist who likes to talk and interact with other characters. Cool. But having a mute protagonist with no personality is even better. Now some may say: "This kid is nuts!" To which I respond with a "Let me explain first!" So, here comes another Metroid comparison. When Dark Samus is absorbing it's source of power, we are seeing it with no voice over what so ever. Why not? It's much better to relate to Samus as she doesn't give her opinion on the matter. The only way Samus ever talks it's trough her body. So make Ratchet a silent, when Qwark's delivering those lines I mentioned earlier, Ratchet responds with a menacing yet funny threat to Qwark, now, some people may have wanted Ratchet to simply say "Shut up" or "You're so stupid" or something like that, if Ratchet was silent people would associate a lot better with him. Making up lines for him and stuff. Now ANOTHER example about playable cutscenes. Before the final fight with Dr. Nefarious, Qwark shows up regretting the lies he told to the universe. Now imagine, you're controlling Ratchet as Nefarious calls Lawerence to activate the Biobliterator. You are facing Nefarious then he simply vanishes and all you hear are the mechanical noises from the Biobliterator as it slowly rises, out of curiosity, you turn the camera to see the intimidating transformation process of the Biobliterator as you hear Nefarious' maniacally laughing making you feel weak. Nefarious starts making on of those speeches of his, Qwark comes in and interrupts him with a "Surprised cupcake?" Making you feel stronger and more confident than ever to fight this guy. After that, the usual ending sequence would take place (without the Nefarious part, I'll explain why later) and after the "Don't even think about it" line delivered from Clank, we would see the duo, leaving the Cinema with Ratchet simply saluting without saying any words (as well as for the rest of the game) It would be an epic conclusion, to an epic game. Now, here's another part where Metroid Other M fails IMMENSELY. If I want to be associated with my character, I don't want additional information. In Ratchet and Clank, there are too many cutscenes where there's this big story thing but Ratchet's nowhere to be seen. If I wanna be connected to a character, his brain needs to have as much information as mine in terms of story. There's this part in A Crack in Time where Nefarious sends the Valkyries after Ratchet and Azimuth, if that part was eradicated completely, and you just got to Korthos, then these women just told you: "We were sent by Dr. Nefarious" It would create much more drama, we would think: "What who are these people?" as so does Ratchet in the actual game.

Anyway, that was my rant, please tell me your thoughts on the matter. Would you appreciate this changes, or do you want the series to stay the same as it is now?

I see what you want, yes. I really like the Metroid series, not the Prime series for that matter. But I think it wouldn't fit perfect with the Ratchet series. In Metroid Prime you can scan the enviromentand figure out more about the story and stuff. But I rather have it like now, when you see a cool cutscene. Thats actually what I missed most in de Prime series. You should look for the story, stories must be plain text, stories must move and keep the players attention. Making him/her wanna play all the way trough to see what happens.

Nice topic though!

Actually, I don't want Ratchet to be mute He got his own personality and voice, and I would miss James Arnold Taylor's work Anyway, as a mute, most of people would be angry at Insomniac, that they turned they favourite Lombax, into certain other hero from the age PS2 (as he was in the first part of his series). But the way of story telling you just brought is very interesting, and Insomniac should definitly try it out, and ask beta testers, what they think about it

I agree with Kubak12 about making Ratchet mute, not so sure that would work with such an established character.
But otherwise those are some really valid points, especially about the exploration. There was a fair bit of stuff to find in ToD, such as the charge boots, but giving us some kit to find even if it isn't important to the main story would be cool.
I wouldn't want to totally get rid of cutscenes, but there are a few that could be split to give a controllable scene like you were talking about. How about in ACiT where Clank falls and Ratchet catches him? They could have done a nice dive section similar to the HALO jumps from UYA and ToD.

It doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have to talk, but at least make it so that we feel like we ARE the character and not that we are telling this character what to do. Way to make this possible: when interacting with other characters give us multiple choices for responding them that ACTUALLY affect the ending. Not only in interaction with characters but also in situations. Here's an example: When Clank tells Ratchet the dangers of using the Clock as a Time Machine, it would've been cool to let us choose, do we want to save the universe from Doctor Nefarious or do we want to team up with Azimuth and save the lombaxes? See? Another way of making us connect to the character WITHOUT making it a mute.

Ah yes I see what you were getting at now, where what you say or do takes you one way or the other. Maybe certain actions or answers could get you special weapons, gadgets or skins aswell?
I think there would have to be an unchangable ending, to continue ACiT example such as the final repair of the clock, otherwise there'd be trouble connecting each game to the following one if the various endings were too different.

I really hate that 'make yer own choices for an anternative ending' stuff since StarFox Command -.-

No, you would only have different ways of approaching the same ending.

No, you would only have different ways of approaching the same ending.

Oh, okay thats alright
Still I prefer that the story is one big line, as not like life where you make choices.



Cause in games 'fate' is already there. You just need to make sure to get there by following the paths. But you could also make another path in the same stage thats brings you to the same end. If you know what i mean