Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal Retrospective & Development Deep Dive

Even over 15 years later, Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal is the highest-rated game in the Ratchet franchise, and to this day it's Insomniac's most acclaimed video game. Ratchet 3 is also my favorite game of all time. BUT, that's not going to stop me from breaking the game down, digging deeper into its development than ever before, and exploring what Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal looked like during its production. I've come out of this retrospective looking at this, my favorite game of all time, MUCH differently - and I think the same will happen to you, too! This is Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal.
This is the most comprehensive retrospective and development documentary that's ever been produced about a Ratchet & Clank title, featuring never-before revealed information about Up Your Arsenal's development, including details on the game's cut space combat, interviews with and information sourced from former Insomniac employees that worked on Ratchet 3, and much more!
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This video is not intended for viewers under 13 years of age, and may contain content inappropriate for such viewers. Parental guidance suggested.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:42 Development Overview
8:54 Crunch & Ambition I
12:40 Act I - Veldin Invasion
17:58 Florana’s Tree Beast
21:44 Starship Phoenix; Introducing Dr. Nefarious
26:06 Less Jump, More Shoot
33:27 Jump & Shoot - The Development of the Qwark Vid-Comics
41:48 The Q-Force
49:11 Just Sniff
50:12 Attack of the ‘Noids
53:53 Younglings (& Development II)
1:00:51 Act 2 - Daxxter
1:10:06 Multiplayer
1:15:20 Grinding Gears
1:19:59 The R&C HD Collection
1:24:37 Metropolis - Nefarious’s Victory
1:32:00 Qwark’s Redemption Arc
1:35:14 UYA’s Missing Space Combat, Detailed
1:39:10 Crunch & Ambition II: Going Commando
1:49:07 But.
#RatchetandClank #Ratchet3 #UpYourArsenal

[@TheGoldenBolt]

*DEADLOCKED RETROSPECTIVE:* kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXnWo5SjrNyEnNE Thank you so much for watching! If you enjoyed the video, please consider sharing it around with your friends, family, your community - every bit truly does help with projects as huge as this one! And if you want to watch more long-form retrospectives just like this, I have great news for you: I've got a bunch already on my channel, and many more on the way, so make sure to subscribe and check those out! I also want to give a special thanks to the former Insomniacs that took the time to speak with me about their time at the studio and working on this game - they've been a monumental help in allowing me to tell as full a story as I have today. These developers include Mike Stout, Moo Yu, Tim Trzepacz, Tony Garcia, and those that chose to remain anonymous. These folks and everybody at Insomniac poured their blood, sweat, and tears into these projects, and I'm glad to have a small part in sharing their stories where I can.

[@atasker7432]

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal is my favorite video game of all time as well.

[@bamban_garcia5562]

*Sly Cooper Retrospective!!!*

[@youcantseeme3456]

Im assuming you will do retrospectives on the other titles too? Maybe tie some games together as one vid like QOB/tools SAC/Size

[@DANCERcow]

When you say Douglas Adams, are you sure you are not referring to the author and humorist Douglas Adams of the hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy?

[@kaiengrail]

Finally another person who has played this game just as much as I did growing up. For years this was my only ratchet and clank game along side deadlocked because my other ones turned up missing. So I perfectly get what you mean when you said just how much you love this game but at times wish it didn't lose some of the older elements in the series.

[@TheDanTheManShow]

Your series has convinced me to replay these games, and I don’t regret it.

[@raraforever8770]

Me too, but sadly the trilogy is not playable on ps4...

[@lukastemberger]

@@raraforever8770 I have it on my Vita. It's great to play it on a handheld and you can get it pretty cheap these days ;)

[@raraforever8770]

@@lukastemberger i have the ps vita too, but the game is impossible to have under 40,50 € in my country (france ), and i cant buy the one on the store because my ps vita is already full...

[@lukastemberger]

@@raraforever8770 Well, my Vita is cracked, so I have every game on the PSN store for free... What do you mean your Vita is full? You can delete the games you're not playing right now...

[@raraforever8770]

@@lukastemberger but Did you know if i delete one game , the save is also delete or not ?

[@ruccsacc]

Its kind of ironic that the arenas, which were originally designed to be bullet hell non-stop combat, ended up having some of the only platforming in the game

[@Genoci]

Wow these retrospectives are more like expanded documentaries for each game, it's amazing. Good balance between opinion pieces, development history and gameplay/story segments.

[@GoldStorm07]

I'm genuinely appreciative of you using part of the review of your favourite game to address the proliferation of game development crunch, even within studios run by well-intentioned people, and even knowing how regarded they are as an employer nowadays; learning first-hand about the kind of stress and overwork that went into a pillar of your childhood must not have been easy to hear. With what I know of Kamiya I doubt I'd be able to stomach having that same level of info about Okami's development.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

It's not the most fun to level the art and artist, but at the same time it's something that you always kind of had to expect was a little bit the case. But I'd rather know the most that I can and share that out, because more than anything it showed me here that the passion shined through - even those with little nice to say still loved the work they did.

[@edddne9604]

Snowflake.

[@clipCommander101]

@@edddne9604 why do you have a blue haired sjw profile picture

[@ringer1324]

@@edddne9604 go back to 2016 dude you don’t belong in the modern day

[@csharpcoffee]

@@edddne9604 why the insults man..

[@Liliquan]

“But, given the games title, there’s always a butt.”

[@chilliicecream5456]

One of the things that got me, after all these years is how the first person throughout the whole narrative to complement Ratchet is Nefarious nearly 2/3 of the way into the game. It’s both a testament to how crappy everyone in Solana is, and to Ratchet’s development as a character that he manages to do his job without going on a justified tirade about his lack of respect.

[@platinumlombax4755]

"After putting it in slim cognito's slot, Ratchet and Clank split up and work together in one of the coolest sections in this entire game" this is also funny.

[@hamza361]

Loved the other two reterospectives. You deserve so much credit for the time and effort you put into these.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Thanks so much for the kind words, I appreciate it more than you know, my friend!

[@platinumlombax4755]

"A French alien brain in a jar controlling a flaming scorpion tank because, Ratchet and Clank" that is the best sentence I've ever heard!

[@MagiaBased]

The Intro says everything I feel about this game.

[@ryanwoods8683]

Thank you. This means a lot to me right now, more than you will ever know.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Much love, my friend. I'm glad to lend a hand however I can!

[@Jack-ve7ec]

Hope your alright man

[@majinefe2219]

We don't know what you're going through right now... But remember, there will be a rainbow after these rainy days when the sun is shining again. I wish you all the best man.

[@AskTorin]

Go Ryan! 💪

[@CocoHikari583]

The ratchet 3 port is so rushed they forgot to remove the level select/weapon unlock code. Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Square. unlocks weapons in the pause menu by hovering above the weapon slot by pressing L3 (left analog stick).

[@Qwark909]

No way. You fuckin with me?

[@CocoHikari583]

@@Qwark909 To unlock all planets press O at the end of the code instead of square.

[@Qwark909]

@@CocoHikari583 That would have been great to know as a kid. Thanks for letting me know now

[@CocoHikari583]

@@Qwark909 The code only works on the PS3 version of the game

[@Qwark909]

@@CocoHikari583 Still have ps3 and game. Will try it out sometime

[@Kathaar]

This, and the previous two retrospectives, were phenomenal. Can't wait for the 14 hour retrospective on what is, hands down, my favourite Ratchet game in the entire series (mainly because I DID play the hell out of the multiplayer as a kid)

[@weirdotzero7065]

Hearing about Insomniac performing that level of crunch is pretty heartbreaking to me. Insomniac is one of my favorite developers of all time. And it does hurt to know that they let crunch culture get the better of them. That being said, I am also happy to know that they did learn from this mistake and genuinely made an effort to correct it in future projects.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

My opinion on the studio started to shift back and forth a couple times during the research part of this video, but I'm incredibly glad that there's some sort of lesson learned here - especially since these issues end up defining why so many players don't care as much for UYA nowadays versus when it came out.

[@ligma334]

Don't know when you guys are gonna just have to accept crunch everyone does it even when they say they don't you really think insomniac did almost 3 games at the same time with no crunch to have 2 release with barely any bugs it's a fact sadly

[@TheGoldenBolt]

This studio's most recent game was made without crunch. It's literally the reason I highlighted it so heavily here: If this studio can go from horrendous, underreported development crunching, to now shipping 2.5 games in 7 months _without_ crunch, in a pandemic while shifting to work from home suddenly? Guess what, it can be done anywhere, studio heads and project managers just need to do their job ethically. But go ahead, go off!

[@ligma334]

I know they said it but I don't believe them even though I love insomniac remember when cd project red said they don't do crunch? Everyone does it even if it's a prior little

[@benhitchcock3463]

​@@TheGoldenBolt I can expect most game studios were doing some sort of crunch and were doing it on purpose and never got out. This sounds like it was growing pains and tbh you made it sound like they did it on purpose. I loved the retrospective and it made me respect the devs. Just you need to look at every game from that era with that same light.

[@jaspern.7702]

Love that one section of the Tyrranhoid Mother boss fight is one of the very few examples of second-person perspective gameplay I can remember.

[@AtlasBlizzard]

I think the sewer labyrinth is a great improvement over the crystal hunting in Going Commando, not least because the enemies aren't so hard that you'll constantly die and have to start over. That it's so linear was no detriment in my book; I put on some Prodigy and blasted through this labyrinth, allowing me to earn enough bolts for the most costly items in the game.

[@aerostas_8678]

I had no idea about the crunch culture going on behind the scenes. I recall Tim Trzepacz commenting on one of your previous videos; my heart goes out to him for his experiences and I don't blame him for leaving. Crunch is a serious issue in the industry that really needs to be addressed - there have already been cases of developers being hospitalized due to being overworked - and it's important to keep talking about it. The "reverse microtransactions" line definitely made me laugh. Excellent video! I'm looking forward to more.

[@noodlekeeper5150]

The worst part about crunch is when it happens, and the game still isn't complete. I'm looking at you, Cyberpunk. I really wish CDProjecktRed had just delayed to 2021 the first time. It needed the delays, more than customers wanted the game released.

[@sunshineshipping]

Crunch has even killed people in some places, its truly just a horrible thing

[@BBWahoo]

That's why I LOOOOOVE, NESTLE CRUNCH!

[@maestrofeli4259]

I reeeeally want to know what exactly happened with the flying sections of UYA. All the hints point that something spicy happened...but no one wants to tell!

[@TheStubbzy]

I'm glad you gave this game so much praise. It's my favorite of the trilogy and maybe in the entire series. I think it's my most played Ratchet and Clank game. I love the game's humor, especially the running gag with Dr. Nefarious's soap opera malfunctions.

[@drewlovelyhell4892]

Oh, that reminds me of probably my favourite ever gag, where Lawrence is translating Nefarious' monologue into sign-language. Hysterical! 😂

[@purromemes7395]

This game was my childhood. Remember playing it in the dark basement on a CRT

[@Dirvinator]

I HAVE THINGS TO DO TODAY DAMMIT

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Correction: NOW you have things to do 😉

[@mollysmoshingtankcrew9441]

You're entire backstory as a kid. Just coming home and beating the game casually before bed resonates with me so much because I literally did the same thing. I've beaten the game well over a 100 times. And I would literally come home. Beat the game. Then go to bed. 😂Yo I'm just glad I'm not the only one who was that obsessed with this game

[@TheGoldenBolt]

There are dozens of us. Dozens!

[@arandomdonor3577]

@@TheGoldenBolt i feel like dozens is an understatement

[@TheMegaPingasMobile]

I did the same with ratchet gladiator and size matters on psp... that game sucks ass but still just kept playing it over and over again (and still never 100% it)

[@gothicgothic2839]

Me to...

[@TaRAAASHBAGS]

I wanted a toy Going Commando Ratchet and Clank with their ship so fucking bad

[@andrewparks162]

The perspective during the Queen bossfight at 52:11, would that count as playing the game in second person? Trying to wrap my head round it haha, great vid as always dude

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Actually, yeah, it totally is! It's one of a select few games that uses second person POV, good shout!

[@Minchken]

Think of it as this. You're the camera and the player character is the subject referred to in relation to you who is the camera. 1st person - Me 3rd person - Him/Her 2nd person - You What makes the 3rd and 2nd different is with 3rd person you the camera aren't a person itself therefor technically not present so when addressing the player character It's simply him since it's not directly to them. With 2nd you the camera are now a person that can interact directly and would refer to the player character as "you", because you are there with the player as another person. And of course for 1st person you, the camera and the player are both the same person, which would be called me.

[@SALEENS7GTR5]

Nick Robinson made a video about this, and concluded Driver: San Francisco was the only game he could think of that had a "2nd person" sort of experience to it, as you were being chased by your pursuer from the pursuer's perspective, but controlling yourself. I guess this game (and probably others) did it earlier.

[@nick1834]

Battletoads

[@Lassenissen]

"She always seemed so sweet and innocent in her videos. WELL except that one with the *unts ts ts- unts ts ts- unts ts- youknowwiththe- uuuhnn!"* Best line in the game.

[@AskTorin]

Straight Legendary, Shout outs to Courtney Gears

[@NamsCompendium]

This was an excellent look at Ratchet 3! I knew that the game had a pretty rushed development from watching the developer commentary on the game by Useless Podcasts, but I had no idea about the stuff regarding the younger workers. I can only imagine how stressful it would've been believing that they needed to live up to the expectations set by the top employees on the team. I haven't watched your videos on the previous two games as of right now, but I'm going to when I get the chance!

[@Chris555Chris]

This was a great video, probably the most detailed and in depth on a much cherished video game from our childhoods. I appreciate all the work that went into it!

[@theblobconsumes4859]

My primary issue with this game's combat is enemy types. With such a combat-heavy game that doesn't use platforming that much for pacing and with an already set arsenal and mechanics fully laid out, what you have to do next in order to keep it interesting is just to introduce interesting enemy types that utilize the existing arsenal and mechanics appropriately. Sadly, this didn't do that.

[@imfamouswarrior2976]

The sewers were my favorite area in the game. I absolutely loved getting lost in the winding tunnels. Finally getting to a crystal but being on the wrong side of the slime wall and having to backtrack. And finally getting the thing that tracks the crystals and clearing out the caves fully.

[@maxwell_edison]

I just thought of an interesting way they could have reworked the "Weapon level up" crate. So what if instead, when broken, it *temporarily* leveled up ALL of your weapons? Say for 30 seconds all weapons got +1 levels. That means you could actually put them in a lot more locations than the other two crates. But also, you could make a "Level 6" for over-powering your max level weapons - It could be as simple as a palette swap with a damage boost, but it'd still be awesome and radical to use. Whether using it to make your max level gun OP, or to boost your lowest-level gun's level temporarily to farm XP, it'd be super fun.

[@Diphenhydra]

Two hours of somebody talking about my favourite series, sign me up. I’m gonna have to split this up into a several day watch.

[@helloitsme472]

i literally watched all 3 of your R&C retrospectives yesterday and i gotta say, im hugely grateful that they exist 💙

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Much love, my friend! (That said, give me some time to get more of the series out, you went through them all so quickly! Lol)

[@Uncouth]

This game is definitely a top 5 for me, but the first Jak and Daxter will always be my #1 game of all time. It's still amazing.

[@EmporerEmblem]

Great video, getting to hear about so much behind the scenes work and developer experiences on one of my favourite games of the PS2 era has given me a different type of appreciation for the game and Insomniac as a whole. The fact that those issues with crunch resulted in lessons learned and improvements to how the company handles future projects, instead of being treated as excuses for crunch like "Bioware magic," makes this a much more positive case when talking about crunch culture. Insomniac has also pretty openly touted that Rift Apart actively avoided crunch, and given the game's positive reception, I'd say that they're on their way to setting a strong example in the AAA industry that could contribute to helping reform modern crunch culture and promoting a healthier work environment. That is if they manage to keep up the current company attitude.

[@dwcramer92]

Upon discovering this series, they have become my favorite videos on KZbin. I love it, keep em coming, I hope you get to every ratchet game!

[@literalcharlie4171]

Thank you for all the hard work you put into this video and the series of retrospectives. I have legit learned so much about one of my favourite ratchet games and have a new appreciation for it and this video is the reason why

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Thanks so much for the kind words, my friend! If there's anything I try to do with these, it's bring a little bit of teaching and new info beyond just the usual retrospective/analysis stuff, so I'm always stoked to hear that that extra mile paid off!

[@weedoms9766]

This channel is so underrated for all of the hours of work you put into these amazing videos. Keep up the great work man

[@isharpedge8469]

I gotta make a point on what you mentioned with why Nefarious attacked Veldin. Qwark was at this point nowhere to be found, and Nefarious was bent on revenge before turning everyone into robots. Seeing as Veldin is a remote planet with few inhabitants, it would make sense for him to attack there in case Qwark was hiding there.

[@BugsyFoga]

Right up there with A Crack in time as not only my favorite game in the series , but my favorite game period.

[@VolcanicDeadLocked]

Same

[@nbabackcourtmedia]

A Crack in time is one of my favorites as well, my absolute favorite R&C game is Deadlocked tho

[@TheWordPlay]

Man the amount of work you put into these retrospectives is amazing! It's weird how UYA feels so polished in some areas (gameplay and a strong narrative), yet rushed at the same time. The talk about crunch was hard to hear since I loved everything about the company back then, but I'm glad Insomniac learned from it

[@grabben9062]

Love these vids, dude. Looking forward to the Deadlocked one alot!

[@CiccioImberlicchio]

i was waiting for this retrospective, i'm, probably gonna watch it in bed until i fall asleep. Great work, man!

[@matthewlee4834]

You have clearly put SO much time and work into this video, man. Major respect, hats off

[@smgofdvld]

this one is of my favorite games as well I know the Multiplayer areas were kinda baked in to the story but I still enjoyed everything even today.

[@MatteoVitello216]

Just got home after a long day of work. This is the best thing I could have gotten a notification for. Thank you for more quality content!

[@wesleydorneval2077]

I'm glad to have found this channel. The love you have for this series is made apparent by the sheer effort and the quality of your vids. I can soundly sound, im a fan of your content and hope I can properly support in the future.

[@MrDegan2]

these have been a delightful watch so far, you're clearly super passionate about the topic and the amount of work you've put in truly shows, got a subscribe form me and I look forward to seeing more from you

[@S3any23]

Awesome video, really great retrospective and an extremely thorough analysis of all the areas of the game. Super impressed and can’t wait for the rest of the series :)

[@plaguis1391]

I'm excited for this, so excited in fact that I'm going to go rewatch your retrospectives of the previous two games before I watch this one. Never played the series myself, so stuff like this is very fascinating to me :) love your work. Be back in 3 hours.

[@cyanbolt6503]

I've just gone through and watched the original trilogy retrospectives again and my already high opinion of your work has been raised. I really think you identify and articulate the good and the bad for each of the three games - each of which I love in their own way. This is truly a work of art and you should be enormously proud.

[@Joey64YT]

"I am never doing a video this long again"

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Look-

[@Wolfkaosaun]

Up Your Arsenal is one of my favorite Playstation 2 games. It's what got me to try out the rest of the franchise. Also thank you for the Rowlett idea

[@zebran4]

What is the Roulett idea?

[@maestrofeli4259]

I require information on the rouguelete concept

[@HeirofAzaran]

Your content is really amazing and I LOVE how deep you get into R&C. I can't wait to see what you do after you're done with the series.

[@EngineEconomics]

Can’t wait for you to dig into the future series! This one is definitely up there in my favorites but I have a fondness for tools of destruction as well.

[@Swedishmafia101MemeCorporation]

This is my favourite Ratchet game on PS2, and honestly one of the most important reasons is the option of lock-strafe and remapping the fire trigger to R1. It feels soooo much better for me to play that way, compared to the previous games that forced me to shoot with circle.

[@endymated5133]

One of my favorite videos on the entire platform!

[@neroheart34]

This was my childhood too, so seeing you reviewing it brings back memories, thanks, golden bolt. 😁

[@jumponeverything]

Awesome a 2 hour video, very excited to grab some popcorn and sit through this!

[@theNeorax]

Oh boy, I’ve been waiting all evening for this.

[@hawkeye6487]

Wow it was pretty heavy to hear all of these truths about one my favorite games in general, but it was incredibly insightful. Thanks to you and mykonosfan for a really good video, looking forward to Deadlocked.

[@johnmccarrick3123]

I really appreciate how much legwork you've done to shine a light on the behind the scenes of these games. Insomniac games are the main inspiration to my current indie game project, I've been researching 3D combat platformers and your videos have been invaluable. Thank you!

[@jessicastrike5640]

This is a work of art! The game and your video on it. This is my personal favourite in the series :) can’t wait to see more from you!

[@cobinator1466]

Absolutely loved every second of this video!!

[@pages4573]

I love this game, and while I think Going Commando is probably the better one out of the two. I won't say this one didn't have its fair share of advancements. It certainly is more story focused without losing the series signature humor (Something the series struggles with a lot after Deadlocked.) And while you can see the cracks, it manages to cover them up quite well.

[@CallmeZimm]

Bro, thank you for this. You’re so underrated. I appreciate this video and look forward to all of your future content🙏🏽

[@PixelKeyPlus]

I'm loving these retrospective videos. I finished this game the other day since I've been replaying through the games before Rift Apart. Looking forward to your future videos.

[@Scorpionspear77]

This is my favorite classic Ratchet title, topped only in the whole series by Crack in Time.

[@Scorpionspear77]

Third place would probably be Going Commando, fourth place would be Into the Nexus, and the movie game would be fifth

[@williamkelly5689]

@@Scorpionspear77 haha nice joke😂

[@Cykelpump33]

@@williamkelly5689 Angela Cross wanker...

[@wiredtardis]

I don't know, I played this game a lot back in the day, loved it, then went through the HD remaster. That let me have a chance at Going Commando which I missed initially, as well as replaying Up Your Arsenal, and I have to admit: I still had more fun out of Up Your Arsenal than Going Commando. I still get more kicks out of it and have the most fun from the combat of the three, and I still get the biggest laughs and points that I forgot or didn't get as a kid. I think the gameplay improvements made for huge improvements, I had loads of fun with these gadgets, and I enjoyed that the flying missions weren't as irritating as the Going Commando. To me, this still ranks as my favorite of the franchise.

[@JeanRodo]

Really cool video this is literally the first ever R&C3 video talking about space combat! Never realized it was missing up until this point!

[@NicklasHansen1995]

This is also (one of) my favourite game(s) of all time. I can relate so much to this video. I'm going for a replay soon, thanks to these videos! Thanks mate!

[@chrisherzog1367]

Great video, extremely high quality and awesome that you got dev interviews! Also Courtney Gears’s extermination song is a banger

[@cyanbolt6503]

I just found your channel a few days ago and finally finished all the Ratchet and Clank retrospectives. These videos are all phenomenal, truly a tour de force. I found them to be remarkably fair and objective, well analyzed, and very in-depth, particularly bringing in details from production that I wasn't always aware of. The original Ratchet and Clank trilogy are games that I've played dozens, if not hundreds, of times since their release, and I think you've done them justice better than any other KZbinr that I've ever seen. I also appreciated how you highlighted the strengths and weaknesses (relatively) of each game, particularly contrasting with the other two in the trilogy. You have earned my sub and I look forward to seeing more of your future work.

[@Alexis-so4he]

What a great video! Watched the three videos back to back, it was very entertaining, I learned a lot of things and it really makes me wanna play those games all over again! Very slight note but I wish you'd have talked about the music! The Starship Phoenix theme for example is absolutely wonderful and the soundtrack as a whole is up there with what made that game so great in my opinion! Also thank you very much for taking the time to highlight the crunch that occurred for this game and how toxic things can be in the IT industry. As a young developer that had to literally take a break after working 3 years in one of those workplaces, it means a lot.

[@xsemog6768]

I respect you so much man. Thanks for all the time you spent doing these Videos ♥️

[@DeadlyPants1404]

going commando is way better but the combat is 3 is insane very good music too

[@ty_sylicus]

This was an amazing series of retrospectives that let me relive the magic I experienced as a teen with my original PS2. Thank you. BUT, I imagine this video alone could have easily been a two-parter. It's Rhino-sized!

[@Fro_Jangles]

I absolutely loved the dedication and length of this video

[@potblack97]

Absolutely hooked on this video series mate, fantastic work!! 👍 Makes me so nostalgic!!

[@SekiberiusWelkesh]

Quark has always been one of my favorite game characters, he's a very well written buffoon.

[@How3Kiwi]

I feel like I've been waiting years for this video

[@A_Wild_Dyzzy]

I’m listening to this at work in the background. I’m a massive fan of this series and I’m glad you made these so I can recount my experiences with these games before I finally play Rift Apart since I got my ps5.

[@KevinHenderson100293]

So, I purchased the R&C collection and Ratchet: Deadlocked on my PS3 many years ago. I haven’t had a PS3 for 6 years. I came across one at a yard sale 2 weeks ago and coincidentally I had just come across your channel. I didn’t hesitate and picked that PS3 up. Luckily, I still have the same PSN account and was able to download those games again. 100 percented the first 2 games in a week and I just started my play through of Up Your Arsenal yesterday. Keep up the great work!

[@donaldorr932]

You dropped this 👑

[@RedUmbreon40]

Found this series in the middle of me replaying the series. I've already beaten the first game and gotten every weapon (including the RYNO) and Gold Bolt, and started on Going Commando. I have the box basher but not the armor magnetizer yet. I haven't gotten all of the Platinum Bolts of the planets I've gotten to yet, but I plan on going back through them once I've gotten the magnetizer. This is great for learning more about the games I've loved. I love third-person shooters and I love third-person platforming, so learning so much about this game is great! Thank you so much for going so in depth about this!

[@jackkelly1914]

Truely a phenomenal video, brilliant job God bless your channel nothing can hold my attention for 2 hours and you had me hooked the entire duration

[@bellespawnlol]

I literally finished this game for the first time TODAY so this is perfect timing. Still gotta level up those weapons for the platinum trophy though.

[@cliffturbo2146]

Ah, Whaddya think of it?

[@bellespawnlol]

I’ve since played through the rest of the mainline games and Up Your Arsenal is my second favorite, beaten only by A Crack in Time.

[@cliffturbo2146]

@@bellespawnlol Alrighty! 👍

[@SageofStars]

This one really does show what it did different then the other 2 platformer trilogies on the PS2. For Jak and Daxter, it was level design. Some of those were polished to a mirror shine, with little details and tricks you could learn on the fly(It also meant those levels without that polish stood out more sadly). However, because of the rush all 3 series had in its final chapter, Jak III was a bit of a mess, with levels that didn't quite fit together, and sometimes even had to jerk control away from you to point you in the right direction. For Sly Cooper, it was the story. That plot was both kind of epic when you listened, and well thought out, with characters and motivations done fantastically. The Rush for 3 hurt it only marginally in this aspect, due to theming(B-Mask's series on this points it out), but they did sadly let gameplay suffer a bit due to the sheer amount of characters and stuff, and even then, the plot had some unstable moments. But for Ratchet and Spank...Clank, the gameplay was king. It wasn't about what a level felt like individually, it was how the weapons felt to use, with each one having their own flair to them, and each giving you some other way to mess with the enemies. Yeah, there was usually one that was overpowered, but after game 1 they never let that happen quite as hard again, and 3 shows off their balance work nicely. The rush still hit them, there's massive re-use of levels, the plot is just silly compared to others(Why do the Tyranoids work with Nefarious when he hates organics for instance), but those weapons are fantastic. Their best balance work of the series, and they made sure to hit the ground running in this respect, the first level throwing you right into the action in a way the first two games actually avoided, giving you simpler combat arenas instead. All in all, I think that's why R&C3 works so well, despite what deficiencies it has. That gameplay still rocks, and it showed in how the weapons balanced around each other...RYNO 3 is still garbage at final level though. Who thought that was a good idea?

[@DaermaeonBranKor]

I read your comments on the Completionist Rift Apart video and loved them, so I checked out these retrospectives. Amazing work, my dude. I learned a lot and am completely enthralled. Again, well done.

[@DemonWhisper1]

Amazing video, you put a ton of work and research into these retrospectives

[@xerxBreak]

great stuff i can never decide wether i prefer Ratchets 2 or 3; 3 has so much charme, but the rushed development gets really apparent after a while because it ends up feeling rather short on subsequent playthroughs without the volume of minigame sections, side stuff and unlockables 1 and 2 had

[@TripedalTroductions]

I've watched your retrospectives on all three games in the trilogy now and after watching through the first and second, it really made me want to play them again, including the third one but after watching this it made me remember how boring the third one is compared to the second. The third one is basically a weapon level-up simulator and doesn't feel as adventurous as the second. The first always has a special place in all of our hearts even though the lack of strafing makes it pretty difficult.

[@JayJay2515]

That base jump part with the rangers was one of my favorite segments and always stuck in my head

[@macaronimatt5531]

Amazing, cannot believe the amount of research put into this, first 2 hr+ video essay where I actually learned something about the topic on top of the opinion.

[@mitch.paulsen]

Been waiting for this dude! These are so good and bring back a bunch of nostalgia. Are you doing every game in the series?

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Yessir! I'd intended to get them all done before Rift but then they started being longer than movies... Deadlocked will come after I do a spoiler-free video on Rift Apart at this rate, and then I'll be alternating: one Ratchet video, and then one of the other other projects I'd wanted to do this year like Ghost of Tsushima, Zelda, and repeat!

[@mitch.paulsen]

@@TheGoldenBolt You clearly put a lot of time into these and the quality reflects that. Excellent dedication. I thought I was a RAC expert until I watched these : ). Looking forward to your next one. Now if only I could get a PS5 for rift apart lol

[@3ftninja132]

I'm SO GLAD lessons were learned. Crunch culture and not paying overtime is literally, and I'm not censoring here KZbin be damned, the fucking worst.

[@acuteavocado1962]

1:25:33 "yo klunk chill tf out for a moment im going for a skill point" absolute chad moment

[@Swedishmafia101MemeCorporation]

These were some of the best 2 hours I've ever had. 🙏 great video!

[@CocoHikari583]

The sewer crystal hunt is everything Tabora and Grelbin wished they were.

[@mcihay246]

Nice joke on Douglas Adams. Just as much as they'd be confused on the Number 42.

[@alexclough1652]

Holy hell, I can’t even put into words the quality of this video, the amount of effort, research and time you have put into this is incredible, respect to you sir well done.

[@ReaverofBone]

Fourth time going through this playlist and as always, superb work, sir!