Insomniac Games' Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart has solidified itself as the PS5's latest critical and commercial success story. The multiverse hopping platforming shooter serves up a heart-warming adventure, filled with gorgeous visuals and memorable characters. One of the newest fan favorite additions to the cast in particular, is the surprise introduction of Kit, Clank's yellow robot doppelganger.
Being a parallel dimension's version of Clank has gifted Insomniac Games with the opportunity to go back to the franchise's roots, whilst exploring the ways in which the pair's destinies have both endured and diverged. It's for this reason that Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart's latest star ultimately winds up becoming a true homage to the events and themes of the original game, 19 years after its initial release.
Kit's origin story within Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is the most obvious homage to the first entry in the franchise, beyond her spherical design. On the surface, both Clank and Kit were brought to life in their galaxies at the hands of one of Ratchet and Clank's evil despot villains, and were intended to roll off their production lines as a Sentry-bot and Warbot respectively.
Even though Clank was instantly spared the trauma of this existence, Kit's gradual awakening from her imprisonment ensures both robots are left with the same questions and identity crisis throughout their debut adventures. Whilst it's true that these narrative threads have been a constant topic of exploration across the franchise's history, it's telling that Insomniac Games have chosen to parallel the pair and demonstrate how similar they are despite their contrasting upbringings.
Being a epic sci-fi tale means simple topics like character origins aren't always as clear cut as they might first appear. During the events of Ratchet and Clank Future: a Crack in Time, it was established that Clank was actually designed and placed on the production line by his father Orvus, the guardian of the Great Clock. Leaving Kit without a similar source of closure not only has the effect of making her story unique from Clank's, it also ensures her narrative journey is actually closer to the first game. Like a lot of good coming of age stories, Kit learns through the people and places she goes to overcome her doubt, much in the same way that Clank originally did.
When it comes to personalities, Kit manages to solidify her homage status by embodying the character traits of both titular character's from 2002's Ratchet and Clank. Ironically, Clank is actually the one part of the equation she mirrors the least despite their robotic similarities. While Clank was immediately struck with the responsibility to save the universe from Chairman Drek's agenda, the same instinct only materializes within Kit at the very end of Rift Apart. Instead her shyness and shame for her actions whilst under the control of the villainous Emperor Nefarious, initially prompts the yellow robot to isolate herself from the rest of the universe.
In a lot of ways, her refusal to answer the call of heroism bears a striking similarity to Ratchet's original motivations and isolation within the original game. It's hard to envision now considering where the character has gone since, but Ratchet started out life as a self-centered jerk, who had no intentions of helping Clank save the galaxy. It's for this reason that Insomniac Games have likely placed the pair together for large sections of Rift Apart's story. Even though Kit refuses to stand by Rivet out of fear, and actively fuels tension between the two at times, it's thanks to her fledgling friendship with Ratchet that she eventually follows his lead and abandons her loneliness.
Kit's homage to the original Ratchet and Clank isn't exclusively limited to her narrative journey or personality, there's also a couple of functional call-backs that even make it through to the latest game's gameplay department too. Most obvious of which being her ability to interact with Rift Apart's pocket dimension based anomaly puzzles. Even though it's true she only gets one stab at these, it still seems fitting that Insomniac Games have guaranteed players get to directly play as the robot, much like they did with Clank first appearance back in 2002.
The yellow robot also retains Clank's forgotten ability to transform into a giant gun toting version of herself, which her counterpart hasn't had access to since 2008's Secret Agent Clank. Thanks to the game's narrative, there's sadly no option to directly play as Kit's Warbot mode like players could in the original game. Instead fans will be left to wonder if the feature might return in the seemingly inevitable sequel to Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart instead.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is available now for PlayStation 5.