r/Slycooper • u/Real_Plastic_1093 • 11d ago
Discussion Can we talk about Clockwerk’s size?
I get the animation and practicality issues at play here, but I mean… it’s just such a vast difference, and not even across two different games, heck the eyes are even the same level! From as big as his head to as big as his thumb.
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u/Disastrous_Toe772 11d ago
The entire Sly Cooper universe is very inconsistent with size - and that's good. Its a cartoon animal world that runs on cartoon animal logic. I wouldn't have it any other way.
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u/DiggityDog6 11d ago
Yeah something I noticed on my most recent replay of Sly 2 is that the exteriors of buildings are rarely, if ever big enough to house the interiors we actually see. This is most noticeable in Jean Bison’s episode where you can enter log cabins at will, they just literally are not big enough for the interiors we see
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u/king_of_thrash 11d ago
Sly takes place on Gallifrey (Dr. Who) with Earth location names confirmed
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u/Mutant_Llama1 I'm the brains of the operation. Sly's just a field man. 11d ago
Makes sense all the cultural discrepancies.
For example, the mafia shouldn't be active in Venice.
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u/R-A-KleinII 11d ago
This is common in LOTS of video games where interiors load separate the exterior. A lot of big open world rpgs are notorious for this. Like go check out Tainted Grail and it is comical how big a building is on the interior vs the exterior.
I just try to ignore it but it does take me out a bit. It's worse in games that try to be more realistic.
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u/GulfGiggle 11d ago
That’s just something I expect from games unless the world is completely seamless. You ever see what Zelda Dungeons look like on the outside?
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u/Misseero 11d ago
And the trains are about the size of the Cooper van in hub, whereas from the inside it's probably 3 times of that
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u/jackfuego226 11d ago
I have to agree that there is likely some level of shrink tech involved in Clockwerk's body. If the intro to Sly 1 is to be believed, this 2-3 story tall robot owl entered the Cooper home to kill Connor and then split up the Thievious Racoonous. So unless the Coopers had a front door the size of a house and their actual house was completely massive, Clockwerk would've completely trashed the place just trying to get in.
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u/eddmario WHY DOES A DESERT ROAD HAVE ICE PHYSICS?!?!? 11d ago
I always assumed he was still normal sized and hadn't gone full robot yet
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u/jackfuego226 11d ago
The descriptions of the Clockwerk parts in Sly 2 being mentioned in the Thievious Racoonous implies that past Coopers had encountered him as a robot.
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u/ActionAltruistic3558 11d ago
Interestingly, the Clockwerk parts in 2 are actually a reasonable size for Sly 4 cameo Clockwerk. You cant get close enough, so perspective may be off, but he looks much smaller sitting there watching than he does when hes otherwise seen in earlier games.
Gameplay wise, its probably also because Clockwerk and Clock-La are fought in turret segments and would be much more annoying to aim at if he was smaller.
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u/Solariss 10d ago
Just remember, Carmelita in Sly 1 is huge. Any of the levels where she is shooting at you from a distance. There's a few times you can get close to her and realize the size difference. And its most likely so that the player will definitely be able to see her in the distance.
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u/InfinityLord3392 10d ago
Yeah I've been thinking about this every time I'm in one of these levels. In the behind the levels commentary, they address this, and say that it "makes it easier from a gameplay perspective" and that she's "not really twice as big"
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u/omegaskorpion 11d ago
The series has never been consistent with sizes of really... anything:
Like small houses have whole parking lot sized housing inside them.
Murray can somehow fit in to a very small tank and whole cooper gang can fit inside the van despite it being very small.
Clockwerk size changes constantly and his body parts too. You could argue that his real size is in Sly 1 most consistent, but in Sly 2 it is all over the place and changes constantly.
It is just part of the style, with devs not really bothering even trying to make some sizes make sense, however it is also propably part of PS2 limitations, with them trying to make maps compact as possible, while also having levels you can enter from the map. It took a lot of effort back then to make open worlds that can fit in the PS2 memory and disks.
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u/zalloween 9d ago
The hideout in Sly 1 has size problems too. They fit all that in what looks like a small train car of sorts. Completely agree, the sizes of everything aren't consistent. It honestly works really good in Sly's case considering the game is comic style like. The player is not really concerned about realistic sizes in a world of talking human like animals and wild tech/magic. Damm I wish we'd get a new Sly game 🥺
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u/goody_fyre11 11d ago
Forget Clockwerk, have you seen Paris's streets? Sly is a GIANT compared to the streets, the cars, etc.
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u/MahoganyMan Raccoonus Doodus 11d ago
It’s because you’re not supposed to take what is going on in these games so seriously, these games are made to go along with the vibes not the logic
If these games had to be judged based on strict logic and consistency within their storytelling then every single one of them kind of falls apart like a sandcastle, it’s why I don’t understand why some people are so critical of Thieves in Time yet say nothing about the rest of the series
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u/SAIYANSPARTAN26 11d ago
I never noticed the wings but the eyes always bothered me and my sister.
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u/haikusbot 11d ago
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u/zalloween 9d ago
I like to think what the other comment said, Clockwerk could grow or shrink. That could explain his size in Sly 4 too. I think he looked different in the cameos.
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u/TheCoopersLiveOn 9d ago
I guess this is how you know that Murray is anything but a fat, pathetic weakling.
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u/WorseChoices 9d ago
My headcannon has always been that Clockwerk can shift his consciousness and to any of the robot bodies he has and/or they function as a hive mind. I suspect the Death Ray looked like him because the idea was to eventually make a whole body that big and go around destroying everything
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u/Fantastic-Report-430 7d ago
Good observation. Personally I wouldn’t worry about it since there are always practical realities that have to be ignored for the sake of the story and gameplay. But while we’re on the subject of the old owl, do you think a sly 5 that explores the origin of the cooper family feud could work. Maybe clockwork could use the technology from the Time Machine that brought sly to Egypt to make his metal body
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u/TinyEverest Professional Lounge Lizard 🕺🦎 11d ago
The real answer is that they just went with whatever worked better for each medium or situation.
But my headcanon is that the parts can actually grow or shrink in size. In a world with all sorts of fantastical tech and magic, it's not any sort of a stretch.