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Gravity Rush (VITA) Status: Finished playing I started playing this game on Wednesday 22 May, 2013 // I stopped playing this game on: Sunday 29 December, 2013
Current opinion of this game
A real gem.
July 1, 2013 01:51:19 PM
I have a love/hate relationship with achievements and trophies. I think they're brilliant (as a concept), but I keenly feel how they often affect and distort the way I play a game. I'll admit that some times I'm weak (and play to an achievement), but there are occasions when the trophy extends the life of a game in a positive way. This recently happened to me with Gravity Rush. I was getting close to a point where I realized the game was soon to end but I really wanted to keep on playing. I've really enjoyed just moving around the game's world (picking up "gems" that are mostly meaningless since I've already bought all the powers I'm interested in). This is where some well-designed achievements kicked in. I had to discover all the "sewer" entrances (which help you to move quickly between locations) and I had to find all the locations of a temporally-displaced couple. Good reasons for wandering semi-aimlessly. Especially since I enjoyed the wandering. By now I've finished the game and deleted it from my Vita's memory card (which is annoying, because the Vita only accepts Sony memory cards which are outrageously overpriced). I probably spent a good 4-5 additional hours with the game just enjoying the scenery...which reminds me... The art direction on this game? Wow. I was truly amazed by how beautiful the game is and how each of the neighborhoods is distinct through the architecture but also the color palette. Sometimes, when moving from one district to another, you run into weird "paradoxes" (oh, it's always night time in this area? it's always late afternoon in another, etc.), but in the end, the game is better for it. As for the story? I'm not sure I understood what was going on. In particular, I think (I could be wrong!) there are some major unanswered questions: who was the terrorist guy? why didn't the world end? who is the protagonist?. The game is narrated by Kat (the protagonist) sometime in the far future...and it's unclear to me how the game's end ties in with Kat's (present?) narrator. Oh well, I hope there's a sequel!
June 6, 2013 10:06:20 PM
I've been playing this a fair amount and making good progress. I'ts a surprisingly good game even though - at least on paper, there are so many things that could go wrong. Actually, there are a lot of things that aren't "perfect", but I'm more than willing to turn a blind eye simply because the game's setting is so intriguing and interesting. In a nutshell, the game's main mechanic is a nightmare (on paper). It works well enough, and where it doesn't, that's ok - because there's plenty of "leniency". So, here's what I've enjoyed... 1. I'm having a hard time describing the game's art style. It's sort of anime, sort of steampunk. I'm reminded of studio Ghibli movies (and also Otomo) because of the distinct style and detail there is in the surroundings. 2. The setting is quite neat. It's not incredibly detailed, but it has a lot of character, and that counts for a lot. The game takes place in a world that's both familiar and alien. Rather than use a real language, they've invented a new one (I presume just for this game?) including an alphabet for the signs in the game and so on. 3. The game is mostly about manipulating gravity in order to fly around the environment. The environment (generally a city) is a lot more detailed and "convoluted" than you might imagine. It makes it quite interesting to fly around. You also have to fight baddies, and many of the attacks have a soft-lock-on which really helps with the (frequent) disorientation. 4. Getting disoriented is actually fun. Most environments are actually interesting to look at from all angles, which is neat. And the game has a very workable "beacon" system (an arrow telling you where to go and how far you are). And the story? Also interesting! But I'll write about that later...

Gravity Rush (VITA)