Ratchet and Clank is a series of games about the adventures of a Lombax mechanic and his robot friend, with the duo having to foil Dr. Nefarious' plans several times to save the galaxy. Ratchet and Clank games have an overarching theme concerning the fate of the Lombax race, and Ratchet being the only one left. This repeatedly proves not to be the truth, though, because of the other Lombaxes that Ratchet and Clank meet on their journeys. Especially now, with Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart introducing Rivet, a female Lombax from another dimension that faced Dr. Nefarious many times, albeit a different version of him.
The hammer-wielding Lombax from Rift Apart is not the first to make an appearance throughout the series, though. Before her, players were able to meet Angela Cross and Alister Azimuth, other Lombaxes that played a role in Ratchet and Clank's lore and interacted with the protagonists. Both characters do share some things with one another, and with Ratchet, too.
Angela Cross In Going Commando
Angela Cross first appears in Going Commando. Angela is quite an unusual Lombax, as she lacks a tail and works in the field of genetics, rather than being a mechanic. When the game's story begins, Angela is not an ally of Ratchet and Clank, and she uses a disguise to become the Unknown Thief, stealing the Protopet to take it to her flying lab on the planet Aranos.
She does this not because of some ill intention, rather she was close to curing the Protopet of its violent temper before it was sold in stores. However, Captain Qwark disguised himself as Abercrombie Fizzwidget and he pushed forward the release date of the Protopet before Angela was finished. That's when she took on the identity of the Unknown Thief so that she could either cure or destroy the Protopet.
Ratchet and Clank are tasked with infiltrating her lab to steal the Protopet back, and after a series of events, the duo succeeds in retrieving the Protopet and deliver it to Fizzwidget. Later, Angela proceeds to warn Ratchet and Clank of the imminent danger all of the Bogon Galaxy is in. That's when the three start cooperating, with the ultimate goal of stopping the Protopet.
Prior to the events told in A Crack in Time, whether or not Angela was indeed a Lombax sparked a lot of discussions. This was because of her physical appearance, as she is lacking a tail and she is sensibly taller than Ratchet, but also because of Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction referred to Ratchet as the last Lombax in the universe. However, she was later confirmed to be a Lombax, and her story even sees Percival Tachyon hunting her down precisely because she is one of the last remaining Lombaxes.
Alister Azimuth And The Fate Of The Lombaxes
A Crack in Time is part of the Future trilogy, and it revolves around Ratchet trying to save Clank from Dr. Nefarious and Clank's creators, the Zoni. Dr. Nefarious pretends to be helping the Zoni, but he intends to use the Great Clock for his own ends of taking control of time. In this game, players are introduced to Alister Azimuth, a childhood friend of Ratchet's father, Kaden.
Long before Ratchet was born, the Lombaxes were at war with the Cragmites, seeking to destroy the Lombax race for good. However, the Lombaxes managed to get rid of them by using the so-called "Lombax Secret," the Dimensionator. All of the Cragmite were gone, but one egg: the Lombaxes decided to keep the egg and raise the Cragmite hatchling on their own, naming him Percival Tachyon. When Tachyon secretly learned about what the Lombaxes had done to his race he swore vengeance.
At the time, Alister Azimuth feared the state of the galaxy was at risk, and he wanted to protect it in more efficient ways. He granted Tachyon access to Lombax technology, but he built his Imperial Army instead, killing hundreds of Lombaxes before they could flee using the Dimensionator themselves. Alister was exiled, and in the game, he reveals to Ratchet his plan to gain control of the Great Clock to turn back time and change the past. Things don't go exactly to plan, and Alister ends up sacrificing his life in order to stop his own plan, as it could bear irreversible damage to time and the whole universe.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart releases on June 11, 2021, for PS5.