Mysterious Female Lombax is a Playable Character in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

At the PS5 reveal event last week, Insomniac Games unveiled two games the studio has been working on: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. While there was some initial confusion around what exactly the Miles Morales game was, Insomniac dropped a lot of information on Ratchet & Clank, first showing a cinematic trailer and following it up with a gameplay trailer. The end of the cinematic trailer teased a mysterious female Lombax (the type of creature Ratchet is), and Insomniac is teasing that the character will be playable.

The bluish purple female Lombax was seen when Ratchet and Clank get separated—”rifting apart,” as it were. When Clank calls out for Ratchet, she responds with “Who’s Ratchet?” While this moment gave the hint that she might be playable, or even replacing Ratchet in some way, the followup gameplay trailer clearly showed Ratchet as the playable Lombax, leaving the question of who this female Lombax was and if she’d end up being playable.

The confirmation from Insomniac that she’ll be playable presents some very interesting possibilities for the Rift Apart. Will she have a similar move set to Ratchet, or have her own unique gameplay? Is she only playable at certain segments, or can we choose to play as her anytime we want? Is there an alternate reality version of Clank too? Does she partner with Clank when she’s playable? She wields a hammer and appears to have a robotic arm, which may or may not factor into her gameplay.

Rift Apart will be the first original entry into the series since 2013’s Into the Nexus. 2016 saw a PS4 remake of the original 2002 Ratchet & Clank, but it followed the same origin story as that first PS2 game. It’s not clear where the upcoming PS5 game falls within the canon, if it follows the PS4 remake of the original or comes after the Future series of games that ended with Into the Nexus. Having multiple dimensions will really allow Insomniac to play around with what we know about the narrative of the Ratchet & Clank games so far, and they haven’t yet hinted much about the story.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is coming to PS5 at an unspecified date.