Rate top gamesVery nice game with small game design issues due to innovative but clumsy mechanics. Must have for Vita users in that time. I hope sequel will do some repairs, and maybe an almost perfect game awaits me (for me again).
«Can’t stop playing»
«Underrated»
The moment you and Kat (the main character) awake in this world you know nothing about it, even you clumsily navigate it with your powers, but as the story progress, both you and Kat feel and know how to harness gravity like a fish in the sea, the problem is that both mechanics and narrative aren't on par with the gravity gimmick
At first, I was fascinated and a little repelled to how the gravity mechanic worked in this game, it does feel kinda natural in a way but in the other, the learning curve felt stiff, I was failing over and over to land in the platforms that the tutorial offered me and more sooner than later I was blaming the "clumsy controls" turns out that as a new mechanic (at least to me) or one that has not explored that much in videogames, it had to be treated as a new skill, so from the moment one to the final moment of the game I was another person, expertly maneuvering through the stage, beating monsters like I was born in the sky, and that to me was one of the peaks of this game, not only Kat but you, learn how to handle gravity more or less at the same pace, and that gives it a lot of immersion to my experience, navigating without the bounds of gravity felt extremely good and it was a sentiment that never got old, at least in my 13-hour playthrough.
However,
The sentiment of liberty of flying around got buried underneath a lot of things, first of all: the gameplay, it turned out that the developers didn't seem to know how exactly merge the gravity mechanic with combat or things to do, and the combat system feels unpolished but serviceable at its best. Combat is separated in two forms, land combat and air combat, the land combat is simple, you hit the attack button from 1 to 5 times to have a combo, to damage your enemies you have to hit their weak spots (some red orbs, regular enemies are a weak spot on themselves), but when the game starts to throw enemies that have their spots on different places and you have to battle in air is when things get rough. When you're in air you have mostly one attack, an aereal kick, this kick sends Kat like a homming missile, the problem is that the targeting system is non existant and the monsters move in erratic ways that is easy to miss them, so more often than not you'll be flying around the stage trying to kick a low monster and failing again and again, these moments aren't fun at all and they will be gradually get more annoying since more weird enemies will keep appearing.
I liked the whimsical tone of the game, the characters are charming, not that interesting but they grew on you, the story however is pretty generic and dull despite its tight presentation in comic form which I think looks pretty good, it wants to get more serious and interesting towards the final act but for that moment is way too late to care that much, it adds salt to the wound that the lore is presented in the most boring way with some NPC sparce through the city giving info about their lives. Side-quests are non-existant, aside from 3 or 4 that originally were DLC, that feel more like separate stories than a compliment for the main story. Aside from the main quests and limited side quests, the game throws you "challenges" that reward you 'precious crystals', the game's currency for unlocking and enhance skills, this challenges are basically: slide races (you use gravity to slide in the floor like you're skating), time attack arenas and normal races (on which you use all your skills to get from point A to point B as fast as possible), this challenges are repeated through every stage and aren't that ground breaking or fun, the problem is that the main campaign doesn't give you a lot of crystals neither enemies drop them, so more likely you'll be doing this repetitive challenges to enhance your skills, granted the game is not that difficult and I assume you can beat it without enhancing Kat but that's not the point.
As for the art direction the game holds up quite well, this world looks amazing, a little limited but is expected since it wasn't a big team, the aesthetic looks inspired by steam punk and Paris and because of its themes of, thievery, revolution, etc, I think it fits well. I loved also the character design, they look pretty original and every character says you a lot just by its looks. Music wise, the game has a solid soundtrack and it has a lot of personality, it sounds at times jazzy and upbeat at parts, but never dull and always pleasant, I find myself expectantly waiting for the next area's tune to kick in.
I believe that Gravity Rush have a lot of great ideas but in the end it failed to achieve a good balance between them or even truly polish any of them, however as much as it have a lot of issues there's no denial that this game have a lot of potential and at times charm, I hope that it's sequel get things done and gives us a polished taste of what they really wanted this game to be.
At first, I was fascinated and a little repelled to how the gravity mechanic worked in this game, it does feel kinda natural in a way but in the other, the learning curve felt stiff, I was failing over and over to land in the platforms that the tutorial offered me and more sooner than later I was blaming the "clumsy controls" turns out that as a new mechanic (at least to me) or one that has not explored that much in videogames, it had to be treated as a new skill, so from the moment one to the final moment of the game I was another person, expertly maneuvering through the stage, beating monsters like I was born in the sky, and that to me was one of the peaks of this game, not only Kat but you, learn how to handle gravity more or less at the same pace, and that gives it a lot of immersion to my experience, navigating without the bounds of gravity felt extremely good and it was a sentiment that never got old, at least in my 13-hour playthrough.
However,
The sentiment of liberty of flying around got buried underneath a lot of things, first of all: the gameplay, it turned out that the developers didn't seem to know how exactly merge the gravity mechanic with combat or things to do, and the combat system feels unpolished but serviceable at its best. Combat is separated in two forms, land combat and air combat, the land combat is simple, you hit the attack button from 1 to 5 times to have a combo, to damage your enemies you have to hit their weak spots (some red orbs, regular enemies are a weak spot on themselves), but when the game starts to throw enemies that have their spots on different places and you have to battle in air is when things get rough. When you're in air you have mostly one attack, an aereal kick, this kick sends Kat like a homming missile, the problem is that the targeting system is non existant and the monsters move in erratic ways that is easy to miss them, so more often than not you'll be flying around the stage trying to kick a low monster and failing again and again, these moments aren't fun at all and they will be gradually get more annoying since more weird enemies will keep appearing.
I liked the whimsical tone of the game, the characters are charming, not that interesting but they grew on you, the story however is pretty generic and dull despite its tight presentation in comic form which I think looks pretty good, it wants to get more serious and interesting towards the final act but for that moment is way too late to care that much, it adds salt to the wound that the lore is presented in the most boring way with some NPC sparce through the city giving info about their lives. Side-quests are non-existant, aside from 3 or 4 that originally were DLC, that feel more like separate stories than a compliment for the main story. Aside from the main quests and limited side quests, the game throws you "challenges" that reward you 'precious crystals', the game's currency for unlocking and enhance skills, this challenges are basically: slide races (you use gravity to slide in the floor like you're skating), time attack arenas and normal races (on which you use all your skills to get from point A to point B as fast as possible), this challenges are repeated through every stage and aren't that ground breaking or fun, the problem is that the main campaign doesn't give you a lot of crystals neither enemies drop them, so more likely you'll be doing this repetitive challenges to enhance your skills, granted the game is not that difficult and I assume you can beat it without enhancing Kat but that's not the point.
As for the art direction the game holds up quite well, this world looks amazing, a little limited but is expected since it wasn't a big team, the aesthetic looks inspired by steam punk and Paris and because of its themes of, thievery, revolution, etc, I think it fits well. I loved also the character design, they look pretty original and every character says you a lot just by its looks. Music wise, the game has a solid soundtrack and it has a lot of personality, it sounds at times jazzy and upbeat at parts, but never dull and always pleasant, I find myself expectantly waiting for the next area's tune to kick in.
I believe that Gravity Rush have a lot of great ideas but in the end it failed to achieve a good balance between them or even truly polish any of them, however as much as it have a lot of issues there's no denial that this game have a lot of potential and at times charm, I hope that it's sequel get things done and gives us a polished taste of what they really wanted this game to be.