Ratchet and Clank Nexus (Creative) Retrospective

[@aparzoo]

So bizarre, i was just watching the 5 hour retrospective this mornin. The universe really does have a wonderful sense of humor

[@The_Guyman]

Same for me. I finished it like 2 days ago, was not expecting this, but I will gladly take it.

[@TheWhoniversalMan]

@@The_Guyman I only finished about a week ago. Great timing! :)

[@Just_a_Snake]

This is amazing I love how you create a narrative through an analysis of one, it's not something you see often in a video essay and yet you do it so seamlessly.

[@RanDieBam]

Oh god when you cut back to R&C3 I was shocked by how much better it looked than Nexus. Jesus

[@decadentgamer3108]

It really illustrates that just because 3D Art has come so far, it doesn't mean that you should overdo it because the end result can look really unappealing.

[@pullsane]

My reaction when clicking on this video: "Strange.. This sounds like something pretty unique in my subbox. I only have like 4 people subscribed that make RaC Videos. Why do I not remember this guy.. WAIT. It's the guy with the sparrow looking bird in his Profil Picture . YESSSssss. This gonn get good." I love your videos man it's currently 2:30 in the morning and I've had some rough nights after moving away from my parents house into the city for college. Thanks for making m sleepless nights more bearable. Have a good day sir!

[@littlebadassgaming]

Hope you're okay.

[@sapphirre9892]

that compression anecdote at the end of this thing is going to live rent free in my head for the rest of my life

[@iThomas2000]

This game totally needed a 2 year development cycle and there’s no reason it shouldn’t have been on the PS4

[@iThomas2000]

1:40 in trailers, the game was called an “epilogue to the future saga”

[@thecommentsofyoutube7265]

I can already tell this will be quality content

[@SuperWorldJumper]

When it comes to Ratchet and Clank reviews, there is none like you. You are like Anton Ego, the critic from Ratatouille. “You’re awfully critical for someone who likes Ratchet and Clank.” “.....I don’t LIKE Ratchet and Clank, I LOVE IT. If I don’t LOVE IT, I don’t REVIEW IT.” “Then why are you reviewing Into The Nexus?” “People wouldn’t stop asking. It was too popular, and I realized it was playing without an opponent.”

[@MicahEdmonds]

I honestly can't tell if this is a good thing or not, but it certainly feels accurate.

[@Atri4]

Beautiful man. I really do love your essays. So chill and long, it's perfect for relaxing.

[@Nathan55411]

In fairness, you did include Ratchet Deadlocked in your retrospective which I'm almost 100% sure was designed mainly for the co-op mode

[@OniLink96]

I've always had the impression that co-op was a late addition. I don't feel like Merc and Green would exist in the way that they do if a co-op campaign was the intention from the start.

[@Nathan55411]

@@OniLink96 but they serve literally the exact same function as the gadgets you get in co-op

[@chickenheart3612]

@@OniLink96 the entire art design of the game was made to be more edgy and spikey so that polygons could be saved for split screen coop play. The bots are simply a very smart substitute.

[@kwk-r7x]

As an aspiring critic, I find your videos really inspirational. I actually have 2 scripts cooking, but for some reason when I start recording, it's suddenly really hard to articulate words properly. Anyway, I'm not gonna stop practicing, and I hope you too will keep making videos. Your stuff is top notch.

[@xerxBreak]

i agree wholeheartedly on the Netherbeast tangent, this thing has charme and isnt fucking overbearing like Zurkon (tho it might become that if they had it quip)

[@fat-gotenks]

Christ almighty that ending tho

[@Jnensrevenge]

Only one good James Bond movie? From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Spy Who Loved Me, Living Daylights, GoldenEye, Casino Royale, Skyfall?

[@WowThereBuddy1]

And plenty more. It was a weird take to hear.

[@hamza361]

I’ve just finished playing into the nexus and I loved it. Thought it looked stunning and had great gameplay. It’s my favourite of the short ratchet and clank games. But I do agree that Vendra and Neftin sucked.

[@henrywinters9496]

Your ideas are amazing

[@haberbro5282]

Just watched the first video a day or too ago, your stuff is great

[@gaminggladiator06]

Part of me wants to think that the main reason this game was made was for the purpose of having it made. To explain, you’ll need to look back onwhen this game made it’s debute, as it was around the time where the ps3’s life cycle was coming to a close. The ps4 was coming to light and as such, sony wanted to put the ps3’s line to a close with what i would call a “semi-final hurrah” Not saying it was the next to last celebration to it’s end, but more rather the final celebration that was kept quite short. With the console coming to a close quite soon, it was the ambition of not only ending it as quick as possible, but to also end it while getting the most out of it, financial wise. And seeing how popular the R&C games are, insomniac was quite possibly demanded to make another game for the nearing end of the ps3. This could, altogether, explain why the negatives in the video were like this, for lack of better words. It was the possible time crunch, as well as likely complacantcy to have to make something for an otherwise dying console that quite likely made this how it is. Like it’s said in the video, you can tell the passion and focus in a video game from it’s developers by the overall attention to the whole game. It was noticable that a lot of attention was given to a crack in time, and it’s noticable that barely any was for this, outside of the weapons that i am, too, very fond of. While it does feel like a sort of rememberance to all the games prior to nexus, i would not call this a full-on game, and am rather hesitant on calling it a dlc to anything, of all things, as it’s just rather as it does feel rather short and leaves barely any sort of replayability. Which, by the way, and as the only excuse to be nit-picky for a game, while the use of cloud saving did seem like a good idea to begin with, the fact that you cannot completely restart your game severely cuts any replayability to none, as you’ll always have to start with all your weapons unlocked and, if you are really going for a 100%, are all going to be completely upgraded, rendering no sense of trying to play once again. If i were to say anything to people that may actually be interested in at least trying out the game, i’d say that you are welcome to try, there really isn’t anyone to stop you, except yourself, but to remember just because it was from really talented people who made really good games in the past, you should not hold the solely responsable for anything that you see wrong. I’m sure the team at insomniac are all lovely people that really do love the franchise, but were most likely forced into making this, as well as having a rather sharp time-crunch that caused so many problems during during development that we all are able to notice.

[@henrywinters9496]

Does anyone agree with my list? 9. Quest For Booty (short) 8. Tools of Destruction 7. Ratchet 2016 6. Ratchet and Clank 5. Into The Nexus 4. Deadlocked 3. Going Commando 2. Up Your Arsenal 1. A Crack In Time

[@pikminologueraisin2139]

og rac deserve the top5

[@hamza361]

For me it’s Rc2 - crank at time - rc3 - rc1 - tools - nexus - deadlock - 2016 remake - size matters

[@littlebadassgaming]

You missed rift apart

[@ShadowNexa]

I watched your retrospective last week so it's great seeing this pop up! Honeslty I agree out of all the ratchet games into the nexus is just ugly to me in a way but there are times the game looks gorgeous it's just few and far between.

[@ShadowNexa]

I never did notice how into the nexus just piggybacks off the other games.

[@haloreach21]

I really enjoy your ratchet videos. Would love to see a ratchet 2016 video if you'd be up to it.

[@PixelaGames2000]

I just wanna say the music you played in this video sounds amazing if you could send a link to the original music or something I would love that very much overall great video I understand we’re you coming from sure this game has it flaws I can see the over use of bloom lighting i can somewhat understand the problems with the art but I can’t remember hear the problem with the audio like the voices in the cutscenes sound fine I don’t really get the problem with the voices but I will say I think the score that plays in the cutscenes is a little to loud like I think when it comes to audio I think the voice file should be put over the music make the music quieter then the voices because when I’m watching a cutscene I wanna hear the voices front and center anyway I can tell that insomniac is bringing there A game when it comes to rift apart and I’m incredibly excited to play that game

[@raraforever8770]

The online on qforce was really fun and compétitive

[@Leonlonglegs]

I think watching this video is a pretty good sign of getting your feelings on the game based on the movie...based on the first game. It's crazy how much this game influenced the design of that game and how disappointing that is for a remake really.

[@MicahEdmonds]

The tie-in is a curious beast. Somehow the Ratchet gameplay is on par with the likes of Mario Odyssey but the environments and story do nothing with it, and it's as addictive as it is underwhelming. However, given the crazy unique circumstances under which the game was developed, I hadn't planned on making a video about it. I'd be talking more about behind-the-scenes stuff than the game itself. Thankfully Rift Apart looks like it's expanding on the gameplay of the tie-in, though, so here's hoping it goes well! Might take a look at that one if I can get my hands on a PS5.

[@Leonlonglegs]

@@MicahEdmonds That's actually an incredibly interesting way to handle a video on the movie game/remake. The game is such a fun game that if it wasn't for being a remake of the first game, I doubt there'd be really much conversation of due to it being so derivative of the series as a whole. Do you ever plan on tackling the Jak or Sly games at some point as well someday?

[@MicahEdmonds]

I've actually only fully played Jak 1 - I missed the boat on the other two and I'm sorry to say I wasn't as much of a fan of the direction 2 was going when I gave it a shot. Sly as well, never played it apart from the demo on the Ratchet 3 disc. I'm certain there's other folks that have made better content about them than I ever could :)

[@stephenbosci1213]

@@MicahEdmonds hey what type of ratchet game would you prefer rift apart to be like what hopes do you have for that game what do you think of the game so far by just seeing the marketing for it do you hope the story could be as good as crack of time like what would be the most ideal game it could be that would make you really like the game when it comes out if you can get a ps5 do you hope rift apart could be putting the series in right direction im glade they have said rift apart is going to be a full length ratchet and clank game i hope it is as long or a bit longer then a crack in time

[@jupiter4602]

Hard agree on your visual critique. Lighting is used to distract from unpolished texture, and the contrast is Really off. oversaturated to the point that it doesn't feel colorful despite very clearly trying to use color. overall the most memorable thing to me is how this game was marketed as a "love letter to old ratchet fans". not even the game itself very much.

[@JPEG_music]

45:06 .... some tasty stuff!!!

[@TerrorOfTalos]

5:12 until today that is lol

[@beastyorionmusic]

First female villian. Dont disrespect courtney gears like that

[@decadentgamer3108]

Hm so I can't comment on the technical aspect of things, that's just not my forte when it comes to video games so outside of simplistic opinions when it comes to stuff like sound/audio editing, unless it's really jarring, it's not something I think of much. But your point about how the Bloom effect was totally abused in the art direction of this game, I definitely can see it. I haven't played Into the Nexus in years, I've only played it once and that was when it first came out but it's the game I have not come back to all that much and I probably should replay it but when you showcased just how bad the bloom effect was in this game while comparing it to an older game, yeah I could feel my eyes bleeding lol I think the bloom lighting was a problem a lot of the PS3/Xbox360/Nintendo Wii generation in general to be honest because I've seen lighting like that in other games and it perplexed me even back then. As for the part where you said you felt like the game didn't have a coherent art style, I could see what you mean for most though I disagree with Vendra and somewhat Neftin. To me, I think Vendra fits the Ratchet & Clank style, at least the Future saga. She's just a darkly-inclined character and as someone who is darkly-inclined in real life myself with how I look, I just think that aesthetically dark characters like her will always stand out in games that aren't inherently dark in tone and the way I see it in the case of Ratchet & Clank, Vendra just represents the token Dark character and the reason why it feels weird is because the series never had a darkly-inclined character in the games. Like think about something like Teen Titans with the character Raven. She tends to stick out from the rest of the group because of her dark aesthetic in comparison to the more livelier and colorful aesthetic of her teammates. If that makes sense? lol As for Neftin, I'm mixed on him. I can see what they were going with him but something about his design just feels very weird and with him, I think what you said about Vendra more applies to him if anything. I wish I could articulate why I feel the way I do about him but I just don't have the words to describe what I mean aside from he just looks hella awkward. Overall though, this was an interesting retrospective. I haven't watched your first R&C retrospective since it's like 5 hours haha But I'm gonna check it out for sure. But anyway, neat video

[@hatsumiyo6915]

I'm excited i haven't even watched it yet but I love these types of videos and into the nexus is my favorite!!! Aaahhhhh Edit- finally finished it. Hard disagree on a lot of things, and in regards to the last thing you mentioned (the audio) i can see how it would bother you and everyone else, but i literally wasn't able to hear anything even playing it back a few times so Im not sure what you mean in detail, though i can imagine. It possibly is just my untrained ears, I'm a visual artist, not a musician. Though i do agree they should have not compressed it and should have added the best possible audio considering you're buying a finished, polished game, i really did feel like that point is easily ignored for me. It didn't affect my enjoyment of it, and neither did most things in this video. My perception and interpretation of the experience was drastically, impossibly polar opposite, and that in itself is pretty cool, i think. That's what games are about. What art is! Well made and thought out video,even if I disagreed all the way. It was beautifully made, good job

[@WowThereBuddy1]

Boooo at that James Bond comment

[@eishikibahamut]

51:37 what was that clank?

[@jshanequattrone3283]

Let me guess, you didn’t want to make this video?

[@tayloralexander5652]

I honestly disagree with almost all of your reviews, the game looks good and plays great. This was a big nitpicking session and you say things that I just can't understand. Do you play on a big flat screen or a monitor? Because of course playing 1 foot away on a small screen will hurt your eyes, and you won't get as many details without straining your eyes.

[@tayloralexander5652]

Also, maybe your speakers are just crap, because on my surround sound system, I heard zero audio problems where you mentioned.

[@2xRainb0w]

I’m pissed I can’t buy it on psn Australia, if I want it I gotta pay 60 on amazon or 120 from people who know how rare it is

[@littlebadassgaming]

Have you tried changing the consoles region?

[@2xRainb0w]

@@littlebadassgaming I stopped trying, I actually think there’s a tax on it that doesn’t show on the store and cause I don’t have excess money it won’t let me buy. The tax only shows on the app but not the actual store on the ps3.

[@henrywinters9496]

Finally: It was advertised as being the epilogue to Future

[@lodge4554]

I'm watching this after finishing the huge series retrospective the other day. I'm really excited for Rift Apart to come out, not only to play a completely new and fully priced Ratchet game, but also to see what you have to say about it now. Even if its just a short mention, the way you talk about R and C is so interesting

[@henrywinters9496]

A lot of the "ugly" stuff is probably intentional.

[@DolanDuking]

Goddamn is this game ugly, I guess the post-processing guy was doing busywork. EDIT: LMAO, didn't even reach the part of the video when I made this comment