This just in! The mysterious female Lombax is confirmed to be playable, according to these tweets from Insomniac Games: https://twitter.com/insomniacgames/status/1274031988069064705! Though, it isn’t surprising when her hammer is large enough to knock some sense into her enemies. Now everyone is just waiting for confirmation for her real name. Let’s hope she doesn’t pull an Alister Azimuth (in other words, betray Ratchet and Clank and become the final boss) on everybody.
However, this still left more unanswered questions such as is Clank a playable character? Will Clank ride on the female Lombax’s back while she does all of the fighting? What kind of moveset will the female Lombax have? Will Clank reunite with Ratchet? How will she and Ratchet react if they finally meet? How the female Lombax will react to Clank upon meeting him (besides blurting out, “Who?”)? Does she have a back-story? How or where did she get her cybernetic arm? How or where did she obtain her hammer? How did the dimension end up like the way it is? What did the dimension look like before Dr. Nefarious taken over it? Is the dimension always dystopian? Is the dimension Clank landed in is the Lombax dimension? Will there be more Lombaxes aside from the newly-revealed female Lombax? Will we encounter the Lombax society? Will we ever finally check out or explore the Lombax dimension? Will she become Ratchet’s love interest (in spite Ratchet’s girlfriend is Talwyn Apogee)? etc.
There is speculation the new female Lombax is Trans but nothing is confirmed yet. Although, Sol Brennan said she is Trans. She helped rig most of the trailer along with her many colleagues, including Austin Broder (oneLankyMunkey), Adam Engel, Andrew (intern), Leroy Chen and Steve Ryder (animator). Xavier (xavierck3d) is the character lead and he is responsible for completely remodelling Ratchet and building the initial version for the female Lombax. Melissa Coleman (_mlktea), Marco Villapando (BoxingMarco), Sol Brennan (wuffles) and Mackenzie Patrick also helped out in bringing the game to life. Sam Maggs (SamMaggs) is the lead writer for a year and a half. Xavier made the big dinos and the tentacles but they broke the engine in multiple ways. He left production almost a year ago and in that time, a lot of work has put into the characters and other things by other employees of Insomniac Games. Leroy Chen, Marco Villapando (BoxingMarco) and Damon Cimarusti lent a hand in developing this game. The only thing Xavier can take credit for is to not make Ratchet’s feet look like potatoes.
https://twitter.com/xavierck3d/status/1271553486174351360
A lot has changed since Xavier helped develop Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart but he and Sol Brennan are well aware of the Rule 34 fanart spawning out of the Ratchet & Clank community the instant the trailer launched. They were interns when they worked on this game.
https://twitter.com/wuffles/status/1271204659516981249
Hopefully, the female Lombax will have a different moveset as opposed to Ratchet’s moveset along with different weapons aside from her melee hammer weapon. Maybe her cybernetic arm will come into play and will aid her in battle. Who knows? It might be tricked out with modifiable weapons and gadgets. I don’t want her moveset to be similar and fingers crossed it will be unique. Therefore, it will set herself apart from Ratchet.
https://twitter.com/wuffles/status/1271174903656361985
Not only that, but Armin Shimerman returns to reprise his role as Dr. Nefarious according to his tweet: https://twitter.com/ShimermanArmin/status/1271936197573480448
Even Clank’s voice actor, David Kaye, compliments on Armin’s return: https://twitter.com/dkayevo/status/1271942505227972608
This is to be expected, considering a hologram of a Dr. Nefarious statue is in the dystopian dimension Clank landed in. Not to mention, a Dr. Nefarious’-shaped spaceship is seen in a gameplay video. Within said video, Ratchet and Clank are fighting off the Thugs 4 Less while a futuristic city (probably Meridian City in the Polaris Galaxy from Ratchet & Clank: Tools Of Destruction and Ratchet & Clank: Nexus) is under siege. Their previous appearance is in Ratchet & Clank: Nexus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKgvVS53e9s
In recent news, the Topiary Sprinkler is confirmed as one of the new-fangled weapons according to a tweet from Insomniac Games as stated in the previous Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart article. It’s not surprising, considering if you go out of your way to pause the gameplay video or watch it in slow motion. If inspecting the gameplay video closely, the Topiary Sprinkler seems to freeze an enemy upon contact before countless plants and flowers grow around the defeated foe.
https://twitter.com/insomniacgames/status/1274031988069064705
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-3nawqhnhg
In regards to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Stray, Sony’s got a monopoly on cats with backpacks. Ratchet is technically a Lombax but he is still a feline in nature. Watch this space as more news surfaces. More Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart news will be covered as more news appears.
