Audio logs are a narrative staple in video games. For decades, RPGs have buried audio files in the menus and codices so that story nerds like me can soak up as much lore as possible. Whether they’re delivering essential world-building details or storyli🔯nes that are ancillary to the main plot, audio logs are an essential, if somewhat clumsy way of delivering key information in games.
The audio logs (or lorbs) in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart are no exception. Not only do the lorbs build out an important part of R&C history and bridge the gap between Rꦫift Apart and the Future trilogy, but they also cheekily re♔ference a number of PlayStation’s most famous (and infamous) platformers. These audio files confirm the existence of a multiverse that connects several classic PlayStation franchises together, including the most beloved PS4 game of all time, Knack.
A quick story e✤xplanation just in case you need a Ratchet & Clank refresher: The titular Ratchet is a lombax, a furry species thought to have gone extinct. During his adventures in the Future trilogy, Ratchet learns that his fellow lombaxes did not die out, but in fact escaped to another dimension using a device called the Dimensionator. His father, Kaden, was the keeper of the Dimensionator, and when his species came under threat by Emperor Tachyon and his army, Kaden hid the lombaxes in another dimension with the Dimensionator and sent his son away to grow up in secret on the planet Veldin. Kaden hides the Dimensionator a👍nd dies at the hand of Tachyon, never revealing the true location of the device.
Emperor Tachyon returns in Tools of Destruction on a new mission to find the Dimensionator. Ratchet & Clank manage to find it first and lock Tachyon away into another dimension, but the Dimensionator is destroyed in the process. When Rift Apart begins, Clank has managed to repair the device and presents it as a gift to Ratchet, but it is quick🥃ly stolen by Nefarious, which begins this game’s story.
While exploring a planet called Savali, Ratchet finds a set o𝓡f 12 lombax relics, called lorbs, that contain audio logs from a map maker named Mags. Mags has been tasked by Kaden to explore every universe in existence in an effort to find a new home for the lombaxes. Daunted at first, Mags gets to work exploring each dimension using the Dimensionator. In each audio log, Mags describes a different universe that should sound ee🅠rily familiar to long-time PlayStation fans.
“Mapped my first dimension today, pretty standard stuff, but the colors there were so vivid,” Mags explains in the third lorb. “There were these creatures; one of them even looked like a lombax, but he had smaller ears, a mask, and a cane, and I think he was pulling some kind of heist.” Of course, the creature Mags is describing is Sly Cooper. In another lorb, Mags describes a pair of creatures, one of them “firing a gun and spinning himself around every other second while the other one hung out on his shoulder doing live commentary.” If you haven’t already figured it out, that’s none other than Jak &ꩲ Daxter. Mags also visit a world where the inhabits are made out of wool and can make anything, which is likely a reference to Little Big Planet, as well as a dimension where everything is made out of “really smart cubes,” a pretty on-the-nose reference to PlayStation puzzle game I.Q.: Intelligent Qube.
But then, the earth-shattering reveal. On his second dimensional visit, Mags discove🌞rs a universe with strange creatures. As Mags describes them, “their bodies were made out of all these old relics, but they could break apart and still be alive.” I don’t know about you, but that sounds exactly like the world of Knack to me.
The revelation has had my mind spinning for days. With the newly repaired Dimensionato꧟r in his possession, there’s nothing to stop Ratchet & Clank from going on an adventure with Knack himself. Appreciating the Knack franchise may be a meme, but if you think about it, these franchises actually have a lot in common. Both games feature plucky heroes that can interface with ancient technology, n🀅ot to mention both games have a certain knack for exploding crates and 𝓰tiny pa🍸rticle effects. As much as I’d love to see the return of Jak and Daxter or a stealthy Sly Cooper crossover, Knack is probably the best fit for the Ratchet & Clank universe.
It’s easy to dismiss these audio files as cute little easter eggs, but Mags’ story is an integralꦏ part of Ratchet & Clank lore, and these lorbs set up the sequel teaser at the end of the game when Ratchet decides it's finally time to go find the lombaxes (Mags reveals the location of the map to the lombaxes in one of the lorbs). If nothing else, we’ll likely get to meet Mags in the next Ratchet game. Nothing would make me happier than to hear the tale of the time he visited the Knack universe.