Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

Story

Continuing the ending of Quest for Booty, Clank has been kidnapped by the Zoni on behalf of the robot Dr. Nefarious to a place called Great Clock, who is trying to learn the secret of the facility from him. Nefarious tries to get to Clank's memory banks to find the key to the so-called Orvus Chamber, but is denied by the Zoni. Nefarious then unleashes his Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler, causing the Zoni to flee and a power failure. When the power is restored, Clank is awakened and tries to escape, but he is caught and immediately immobilized by Nefarious and his butler Lawrence. Clank later wakes up to find himself with a robot named Sigmund, who is the junior keeper of the facility, but no sign of Nefarious and his troops. With the help of stations called mnemonic chambers that tap into his memory banks, Clank learns that the Great Clock was constructed by the Zoni scientist Orvus to heal damage to the universe caused by the overuse of time travel. Part of Orvus is still in Clank's memory banks. It was placed there when Clank was constructed by the Zoni so that he could one day assume the mantle of Senior Caretaker with the Zoni's help. Clank also learns that his father went to an outpost on Zanifar and never returned to the watch. Meanwhile, Ratchet and Qwark explore the Breegus system to find information about Clank and Nefarious. They learn of an "exile" who is also fighting Nefarious, and trace the being to another Lombax, General Alister Azimuth. While they search for an Obsidian Eye in Krell Gulch to speak with Clank, Azimuth tells Ratchet that he knows about his parents and that it was his fault that Emperor Tachyon was able to come to power because he shared the technical genius of the Lombaxes. When the Lombaxes left for another dimension, Azimuth was forced to stay behind as punishment for his "crimes." Azimuth also tells Ratchet about the Great Clock and that they may be able to use it to bring the Lombaxes back to this universe. After talking to Clank through an obsidian eye and saving Qwark from a wargrok named Snowball, Ratchet uses a time portal on Zanifar to find out what happened to Orvus. Nefarious had captured the Zoni to get into the Orvus chamber, but he failed after Orvus vanished into thin air. Ratchet managed to escape and save Azimuth from Nefarious' henchman Lord Vorselon. (But only after he changed Nefarious' appearance by giving his former self a permanent scar on his right eye.) Ratchet and Azimuth manage to rescue Clank from another group of Nefarious' henchmen, the Valkyries. Clank then manages to convince Ratchet that Azimuth's plan to use the clock would inevitably destroy the universe, whereupon Azimuth sadly departs. Ratchet, Clank and Qwark then launch a stealth mission on Nefarious' base, but are eventually caught. Before sending Ratchet and Clank into space on an asteroid, Nefarious reveals that he plans to travel back in time with the Great Clock to thwart the various heroes in the universe and create a present where the villains always have the upper hand. Ratchet and Clank's asteroid crashes into a nearby planet (Planet Morklon), but they remain unharmed because the Zoni protect them. They see that the world they landed on has been destroyed. A surviving Fongiod named Yurik reveals that the Agorians caused this ten years ago and tells the story of the battle in Gimlick Valley. One day, Agorians suddenly attacked the peaceful village and captured many Fongiod villagers. The tribal leader and an army of soldiers were assembled to fight, but the tribal leader was killed and the Agorians destroyed the dam and wiped out the Fongoid village. They use a similar time portal from Zanifar to save the Fongoids from ten years ago to the battle in Gimlick Valley. They fight the Agorians and rescue the child Yurik, who asks Ratchet to rescue the prisoners. After freeing the prisoners with the help of the Fongoids, they encounter Commander Argos, an Agorian general who has been piloting his ship. The duo destroy the ship as it sinks into the dam. The Fongoids rejoice at the victory and then the duo returns to the present where they see another, more peaceful village in the Gimlick Valley. The duo's surprise is huge hedges that remind them of the duo, and it is the tenth anniversary of the day the duo saved the Fongoid village. The duo meets with a Fongiod, whom they ask to borrow the memory ship that Argos used during the battle, which was apparently recovered and repaired after it fell into the dam. The duo returns to Nefarious and confronts him again before he can reach the clock. They manage to defeat him aboard his ship, but Lawrence manages to escape in the escape pod as the ship veers off course and heads for Nefarious' base. Just as the ship hits, Azimuth arrives to rescue Ratchet and Clank. As the two run to Azimuth's ship, Nefarious' ship collides with it and destroys the base. The group returns