User Review : Gravity Rush

A fun adventure using gravity powers.

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Story
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Kat is an amnesiac girl who wakes up in a floating city called Hekseville. There, she found a mysterious cat called Dusty, that allows her to use gravity powers. As she explores the city, she tries to recover her memories back, as well as helping people along the way.

The story is very simple. Although there are many interesting sub-plots in the game, they are ultimately left unexplained even towards the end of the game. Characters likewise, are not well-developed, although they are distinct with their own way. Kat herself is a very likable chaarcter, but she too doesn't get her story developed much by the end of the game, other than new mysteries.

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Gameplay
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This game is an open-world and action adventure game. You can traverse between different districts, collect Gems, use your gravity powers to fast traversal, and others. She can also use her regular kick attacks, special attacks on enemies, and other powers for her usage. You may also dodge attacks by swiping on the PS Vita's screen. As this game uses the the touchscreen feature intensively for some of Kat's powers, practice on using it is highly advised.

The game's progression is simple, as you progress in the game by completing Story Missions. Story Missions are simple in design, where you can go from one point to another, beat monsters, or do other objectives. Traversal in this game is rather unique as you can use Kat's gravity power to stick on walls, fly faster towards you destination, and much more. You will be using her gravity power. However, she has her own gauge that dictates on how long you can use here gravity powers, and the gauge will replenish itself if you do not use any gravity powers for short period of time. Or, you can pick up items to replenish her gravity gauge, as well as her health.

As you progress in the game, Kat will have more variety of gravity powers to be used, for both combat and traversal. You may also choose to upgrade her powers by spending Gems, which can be obtained while exploring the districts, Rift Planes, or by completing the optional Challenges. However, you can only upgrade a power or a stat to a certain level until you reach the next level of reputation. Kat's reputation can be increased by fixing the city's facilities and completing Story Missions. There are a variety of Challenges in the game, such as racing from one point to another within a time limit, and beating up the Nevi to get a high score. Getting a medal in one Challenge will reward you Gems, which can be used to power up Kat's powers and stats.

In combat, you will fight against enemies called Nevi, black coloured creatures with red orbs as their weak points. There are several types of Nevi with different shapes, such as one shaped like an elephant, one shaped like a plant, and etc. The regular Nevi will not pose much threat, but the bigger ones may pose major threat to you during the game's Missions. Destroying the red cores will destroy the Nevi, but some of the Nevis' red cores may take more than one powerful attack to destroy it. Boss fights are also included in the game, and some of them can be challenging if you do not upgrade Kat's powers or stats properly.

Overall gameplay is solid. Although the combat is fun, many of the game's enemies require very same strategy to beat them, which is to destroy the red cores. Gravity powers are relatively fun to use, but some players may face nausea when using Kat's gravity power such as shifting as the camera may orient inversely involuntarily. Story Missions are a bit varied, but still repetitive on objectives.

However, the upgrading system is simple, yet creative as Kat's reputation affects how many levels can she upgrade her powers or stats. The PS Vita touchscreen feature is well implemented for sliding, and the game provides rather unique gameplay that is worth trying out at least once.

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Graphics
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This game uses cel-shaded graphics, which perfectly represents the game's environments and characters like an anime series. Not only that, the comic book styled cutscenes are also rather well-drawn. In-game engine cutscenes are very few, but they are still well-done however.

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Sound
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The soundtrack is rather nice to listen, with different themes played on different districts, as well as nice and listenable themes when playing the game's missions and battles. There are only minimal voice acting, where the voice actors speak an in-game language like ICO and Shadow of the Colossus during certain cutscenes.

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Replay Value
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Sadly, this game has low replay value once you have finished the game's story. You can opt to get all Gold medals in all Challenges, defeat the rare Nevis in the game, listen to all of the mysterious couple's conversations, or get the Platinum of this game. There is no New Game Plus mode in this game, and not many side quests are available in the game, other than the DLCs Missions and Challenges.

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Conclusion
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Despite the game's simple progression, simple and underdeveloped story, repetitive yet fun combat and low replay value, this game still manages to be unique among other PS Vita games for the game's focus on gravity powers with unique overall gameplay controls, as well as amazing cel-shaded graphics. The game's ending also potentially suggests a sequel (which I am totally excited for), because the game's mysteries are too many yet interesting at the same time. First time PS Vita buyers should try out this game first.

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Score
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Story: 7/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 8/10

Final Score: 7.75/10.0 or 31/40

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Pros and Cons
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Pros
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- Interesting storyline.
- Kat is a likable protagonist.
- Good supporting characters.
- Unique gameplay controls.
- Gravity powers are fun to use, especially when flying.
- Fun combat.
- Fun boss fights.
- Excellent exploration using gravity power.
- Simple yet creative upgrading system.
- Amazing cel-shaded graphics.
- Good soundtrack.

Cons
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- Many underdeveloped characters.
- Cliffhanger ending.
- Many unresolved mysteries.
- Not many sidequests.
- Combat feels repetitive towards the end of the game.
- Many of the game's enemies require same strategy to beat.
- Low replay value.