74) Gravity Rush (2012)

After serving as director for both Silent Hill while at Konami and later Siren at Sony, Keiichiro Toyama gained a bit of a reputation for working within the horror genre. With the increasing costs and decreasing profits of the genre, he decided to prove his ability to design outside of the genre, turning a vague idea about people floating in space into a gravity action game. Originally intended for the PS3, the gameplay was inspired by his experience with the Sixaxis controller prior to the console's release. in 2009, after getting to see the Vita's gyroscope system, and with encouragement SCE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, development shifted to the Playstation Vita.

We begin with our amnesiac protagonist, Kat, waking up in a floating city accompanied by a mysterious cat that she names Dusty. As a gravity storm begins to ravage the city, Kat leaps into action to save a young boy, discovering that Dusty can manipulate the way gravity affects her in the process. This enables her to help people and fight monsters known as Nevi, who seem to be a byproduct of the gravity storms. At first, the citizens of the floating city are distrustful of Kat, associating her with another person who has similar abilities and with the gravity storms themselves.

The gameplay loop becomes a mix of exploring an open world that grows as we continue the story, doing missions that vary in their objectives, and completing various trials that test both our combat and mobility prowess. The primary reward, both for exploration and for completing various tasks, are gems that serve to upgrade Kat's abilities, giving her more health, increasing the power of her attacks, and giving us more freedom to move about the world. It comes as no surprise that the primary inspiration for the gameplay comes from 2007's Crackdown, which is very similar in terms of the gameplay loop, though the added gravity mechanics help it to stand out.

The story, while never fully explaining itself, is charmingly told via comic panels with beautiful artwork. As we proceed, we get a better understanding of the world, though our protagonist rarely concerns herself with any sort of deep questions, instead focusing on a simpler life where she's free to help those in need as she pleases. While it would be easy to be frustrated at the lack of answers, Kat's indifference is rather endearing. She spends a good portion of the story simply reacting to trouble, though she takes time to think about cute boys and upgrade her modest living space.

The story takes a bit of inspiration from, of all things, the film Hancock. In particular, the focus on two rival characters with similar powers and the way in which Kat sluggishly moves through the air display this inspiration. While the player is given pretty good freedom to move through the air, it's important to note that Kat doesn't fly so much as she falls in the desired direction. This distinction is important, as it makes her movements far more comical and helps the player feel truly powerless in the few sections in which we're separated from our cat Dusty, who is the actual character with powers.

For as much as I fell in love with the strange world and the goofy protagonist, I have to admit that movement and combat felt a bit lacking. Movement takes some getting used to, and while it eventually felt good, there were still times I would get frustrated or mixed up. For the most part, this is minor, as the game is very forgiving and falling the wrong way is more of an annoying setback than anything detrimental. Combat on the other hand, gave me no small degree of trouble. The combination of trying to orient myself after a mistake mixed with how some of the later enemies behaved began to wear on me. When I could line up an attack, I would often be met with an attack that disrupted me at the last moment or with an enemy that could just, twist or move out of the way. While some of the unlockable attacks help to alleviate this, it comes off more as a concession to the player than anything else.

As much as I may have disliked the combat, I absolutely adored the world and Kat as a character. The world is fun and creative with some tongue in cheek humor, and Kat was almost always a delight as she would often care more about her interests as opposed to any big noble goal. Normally, a story of a character having lost their memories focuses on them trying to regain them, but Kat accepts the loss pretty quickly and takes the insanity that is her life rather readily. If nothing else, Gravity Rush is a fun and engaging proof of concept that left me wanting to spend more time with our lovable lead as she just tries to live peacefully in this insane world.