Whilst researching the archives, I found it hard to believe that I only had one other Ratchet and Clank Platinum in my entire collection prior to this.
That was Ratchet and Clank : A Crack in Time, achieved back in 2012 as my 25th Platinum Trophy, and this lack of subtitled installment (apparently down to the fact that this is the first, and as of this write up, only release on a new generation of console), is therefore considered a reboot of the series that has seen multiple installments through it's PS3 era. This has included both brand new titles and remasters of the original first 3 games in the entire series.
Ratchet and Clank includes a large trophy list, consisting of 47 trophies in total, and is purely a story-driven, Single Player experience.
Taking control of Ratchet and Clank, the plot revolves around stopping Chairman Alonzo Drek from destroying a series of planets in order to harvest their remains to build his own network and develop a super-army in order to take over the rest of the Universe, so this is pretty run of the mill stuff for a Ratchet and Clank title. This plan turns out to be secretly driven behind the scenes by Dr. Nefarious, an old foe to the Ratchet and Clank series, and the game will take you from planet to planet completing a series of objectives specific to each area, and the varied, vibrant environments and characters within that accompany each of them along the way.
It's tough to draw on comparisons to previous lists in the series, and how they all line up against one another, purely down to the fact I've only ever had first hand experience of one other Ratchet and Clank title. However, there are a lot of obvious similarities here that seem to have been carried through, including a large focus on story-related progression-based trophies, rewards for miscellaneous activities and a return for Challenge Mode.
"The End Of The Beginning" trophy, awarded for Defeating Dr. Nefarious on the Deplanetiser, caps off the story as the final boss fight, and the list will throw a sizable amount of progression-based trophies at you as you go through the relatively short campaign, which clocks in at around 8-10 hours in length.
Along the way, you'll unlock an additional 14 unmissable trophies relating to hitting various points within the story, and given the short length, these pop at pretty regular intervals. On top of this, there are a host of other trophies you'll no doubt unlock subconsciously along the way, including trophies awarded for completing Planet-specific tasks and performing certain actions with some of the games host of weapons.
Speaking of which, the weapons are given a big focus within this trophy list, and the game does put alot of care and attention into the weapons system, and the trophies reflect and ensure that the player gets the fullest usage out of them all in the quest for the Platinum trophy. Ratchet and Clank games have historically always placed a large emphasis on their weapons system, and the trophy list is certainly used to provide exposure to this with maximum effect.
The "Master of War" trophy, awarded for Upgrading every weapon to maximum level, is one of the last trophies you'll unlock, and this is down to the amount of work required in order to max out every weapon in your arsenal. The list dedicates a large portion of itself towards the games vast array of weaponry, so be prepared to become very comfortable with every single weapon you'll handle, even if you don't like them.
There are 15 weapons that apply to this trophy (we shall exclude the wrench in this instance), and each one needs to be purchased, which is step one. The first important thing to note about this trophy is that you'll need around 3.5 Million bolts in order to purchase every single weapon in the game, so this contains an element of grinding to be expected. You will need to beat the game twice as a minimum though, reasons for which will be detailed later, so it's not just mindless end-game grinding, though that has the potential to massively become a factor into things if you're not conscious to switching up and using different weapons regularly enough. This point is fundamental, and the games willingness for the player to experiment with every weapon will work in your favour here, so don't be stubborn about it, or it will work against you.
When you initially purchase a weapon, you'll only be able to level it up to level 5, then you'll need to purchase the advanced version of the weapon, which will allow you to reach level 10, so this is effectively a two step process, and hence why you'll need so many bolts. It also effectively means the game actually has 30 weapons, rather than 15, since you're purchasing 2 different versions of each weapon. The advanced version of the RYNO alone will cost 1 Million bolts, and the multiplier within Challenge mode is THE key factor to accumulation of bolts which will minimise the amount of grinding you'll have to do when it comes down to progressing with this trophy.
The very short length of the story, and the vast amount of bolts you'll need to accumulate in comparison, is why it's important to maximise the bolt multiplier within Challenge mode, as this will allow you to earn greater volumes of bolts at a much quicker rate, meaning you can effectively chase this trophy, and ensure you're not leaving yourself too much to do once you've wrapped up 2 full play-throughs.
It's also relevant to point out that, on top of all this, you will also need to fully upgrade each weapon via Raritanium, a mineral found scattered around the various planets you'll visit on your journey. Each weapon has a corresponding skill tree where you can use Raritanium to unlock more and more perks until full completion. I'm not sure of how much you'll need in total, but some Raritanium is very well hidden and you'll need to go out of way within levels to find it, so I would personally encourage this to make sure you adequately keep up with this aspect of the task. Raritanium, no matter how well hidden, always shows up on the menu map, so there's no excuse not to explore in most instances.
Speaking of the aforementioned, the "Challenging" trophy, awarded for Completing the game in Challenge Mode, requires you to beat the game a second time, within a mode that is only unlocked after completing the game once on any difficulty, so the relevant point here is, of course, the fact that this game is a minimum 2 play-through adventure, regardless of anything else.
Challenge mode provides the previously mentioned bolt multiplier modifier, which can reach up to x20, and can be used to accumulate alot of bolts very quickly. This will increase the longer you kill enemies without getting hit, and once you move towards the x20 multiplier, you'll be earning generous volumes of bolts, which will allow you purchase weapons quicker, and therefore, minimise the amount of grinding you'll have to do beyond the minimum required 2 play-throughs of the game. Simple stuff really, though you do lose your multiplier whenever you get hit, and the hectic nature of battles within this game at times makes that a very real thing.
Challenge mode also allows you to carry over weapons and bolts to the next Playthrough, so this allows you to take advantage of the accelerated bolt accumulation to use towards purchasing and upgrading weapons, so it compliments the above well too.
This list also has a small handful of trophies which are technically deemed missable for varying reasons, and whilst none of the requirements for these are overly difficult, they will require a certain degree of diligence when playing through the game, mainly down to the fact these trophies will require you to perform certain actions on enemies that are either limited in their appearances throughout the game, or only appear once, which is mostly applicable to the handful of boss fights during the story. You'll get 2 chances to ensure you grab what you may have missed first time round when you tackle Challenge mode, but if you're still missing any of these (I count 5 trophies that could be deemed missable), then you'll need to play-through on a fresh run, which will add extra completion time on, so it's sound advice to be aware, especially given the fact they're mostly small tasks.
The "Death By Disco" trophy, awarded for Using the Groovitron on every enemy type, is a standout trophy though, requiring you to use the Groovitron weapon, which is a disco ball that forces the enemy into a dance-trance, on every available enemy at least once, of which there are 48 in total. These do accumulate between play-throughs, so again, it's no bother if you've missed anything on the first run, but there is alot to keep track of, and it's easier just to go through the game in Challenge mode and make sure you tick them all off in one fell swoop. It's also a great way to level up the Groovitron weapon at the same time.
Included within these 48 enemies will be bosses and "passive" characters that don't technically count as enemies, such as the Glowing Slug and the Non-swimming Pool Shark, and therefore could be easily missed, so just make sure you have a checklist available to mark your progress, and so you can understand which enemies count towards this trophy. Ultimately, you don't want to be adding on any extra play-throughs unnecessarily because you missed a few on your mandatory play-throughs.
Via the application of my own logic of using 4/10 as the starting benchmark for every game, and only considering anything lower in exceptional circumstances, Ratchet and Clank is about as 4/10 as any game can be. The game does have 3 difficulty levels, but the trophy list does not require you to play on anything higher then easy difficulty, should you chose to do so, and even the most challenging difficulty level (hard), really isn't anything to write home about. The gameplay is very casual, pick up and play, like every Ratchet and Clank game that has ever existed, which is a consistent parallel to the general low difficulty.
However, you will need to beat the game twice at the very least, and there is a moderate grind element present in order to max out all weapons, which saw me farm the end-game of my Challenge mode play-through, and also begin a third play-through of the story to be able to level up the remaining weapons I had with refreshed enemies available to kill. The missable trophies also have the potential to present further challenges if you're not paying adequate levels of attention too.
These are the key factors which stop the game dropping below 4/10, and time-wise, this is still around a 30-40 hour experience, but there isn't enough on the whole to increase this rating much higher, and you can bag yourself a nice easy Platinum, providing you haven't already seen enough of Ratchet and Clank trophy lists up to this point.
Notable Trophies -
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| The End Of The Beginning - Defeat Dr. Nefarious on the Deplanetiser. Challenging - Complete the game in Challenge Mode. Master of War - Upgrade every weapon to maximum level. Death By Disco - Use the Groovitron on every type of enemy. |
Master of War
Upgrade every weapon to maximum level
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