Nightmare Fuel / Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

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• Remember back when Clank insisted how the Dimensionator was too dangerous to use, given its potential to glitch out portals and such? Well, luckily for you, Rift Apart shows us the catastrophe that could've happened if Tachyon (or Vendra or even Ratchet) kept toying around with it: the dimensions have begun collapsing on one another, and spontaneous portals have begun appearing, forcibly throwing everyone from our protagonists to the average NPC across the infinite realms of all creation. Imagine you're simply going about your day, only for a strange giant hole to suddenly pop up in front of you without warning, getting sucked in with no way to escape its pull, being thrown into a void with literally no idea of where you'll eventually end up on the other side, seemingly no way of ever getting back home, and no guarantee that you'll even land safely on solid, level ground or end up somewhere without, as just one example, a giant bloodthristy alien monster out to eat you. And then there's the possibility of reality itself collapsing into nothing. It's suddenly a very good thing the Lombaxes kept their Great War technology under lock and key—otherwise this catastrophe could've already happened a long time ago.
  • Listen to Clank's voice during the dimension-hopping montage after the Megalopolis demo: even if it's mostly in his typical "polite but firm" range, you can clearly hear an unusual tinge of urgency and panic in it, almost on the verge of breaking. He's the guy that Ratchet usually looks to for reassurance, and he doesn't even know if this mess can truly be fixed before reality as they know it potentially shatters like glass.
  • And at the end of the demo, Ratchet and Clank are forced into a battle with space pirates, and following a split-second explosion on the deck, the two get forcibly separated from one another as Clank is thrown into another portal. Sure, we know that Clank arrives on the other side safely to find Rivet, but imagine this from Ratchet's perspective— your best friend has been lost to who-knows-where in a time where the entire multiverse is bound to be in a crisis, and there's nothing you can do about it. The fact that Ratchet's also the one responsible for causing Nefarious' Dimensionator to bug out and start this catastrophe only makes it worse for the poor Lombax.
• Emperor Nefarious is a surprisingly terrifying Knight of Cerebus. Unlike the familiar Laughably Evil and Large Ham Dr. Nefarious (though no slouch by any means), the Emperor boasts a more elaborately skeletal appearance, conducts himself with soft-spoken sadism, proves dangerously efficient in tailing the heroes throughout the story, and very nearly succeeds in his plan to conquer all dimensions. This version of Nefarious has never lost before and it shows in his despicable demeanor. Near the very end of the game, he suffers a truly catastrophic Villainous Breakdown owing to his inability to process his loss, and he threatens to collapse all dimensions in on themselves, destroying all of reality just so he could nurse his wounded ego.
  • Throughout the game, various characters mention that they crossed Emperor Nefarious in the past and were consequently punished for it, with reasons ranging from harboring a member of the resistance to… misspelling his name on their tax returns. As whimsical and silly as some of these are, they really drive home just how petty and dangerous Emperor Nefarious is, and how cruel and oppressive his rule over his dimension is. And to think his rule could've been prevented had Rivet and Kit teamed up to stop him.
  • And once he fully introduces himself in the game proper after Rivet wins against Dr. Nefarious in battle, his first of many cruel on-screen actions involves him casually using the Dimensionator on completely uninvolved audience members, sucking them into a portal, and all that over Rivet taunting him on how a variant of himself lost. It's an effective showcase of just how insane and dangerous the Emperor really is.
  • As much as he deserved it, Emperor Nefarious' death is still pretty terrifying. Especially when he spends his final moments begging for his life only for Dr. Nefarious to callously kick him into Bubbles' mouth, where he is promptly devoured. Pierre had every right to be scared of his near-death back on Ardolis as a result.
• The entirety of Blizar Prime... or what's left of it. Rivet's and Clank's reactions upon arriving at the now desolate world say it all. If the Mysterious Stranger's message is any indicator, it was also caused by the very drill that Rivet and Clank use to acquire the phase quartz. Good thing they stopped it in time…
• The abandoned version of Cordelia, full stop. If the sewers on Pokitaru from the first game were truly abandoned, they'd likely end up like this - an empty wasteland occupied by a single seemingly-insane robot, and a monstrous power source gone rogue that abuses the robot on a regular basis and attacks any and all intruders. Made even worse in the sections where Juice begins to chase after you and makes its presence known in many ways. The segment turns into Survival Horror as the invincible beast stalks Ratchet through the darkness, completely immune to his weapons and only temporarily stopped by busting open canisters of food. Thankfully gets some Nightmare Retardant at the very end where it’s revealed that the present day Juice just wanted freedom from the facility, and the Juice from the abandoned dimension gets along with them well.
• The fact that unlike Clank’s Giant transformation, over which he retains complete control, Kit’s corresponding transformation actually involves her Hulking Out - her giant form seems to be even more powerful than Clank’s, but she loses herself in the transformation and targets friends and foes indiscriminately, very nearly killing Ratchet on Savali. She is terrified and ashamed about this aspect of herself, considering herself “broken,” and it leads her to compulsively push away anyone who tries to get too close.
• While it's not explicitly shown on-screen for obvious reasons, the very fact that Kit injured Rivet so badly that she had to get her arm amputated. That in itself is pretty horrifying, but then you remember her earlier outburst in Savali when she tried to kill Ratchet, too. Little wonder why Rivet was scared of robots before meeting Clank.

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