Gravity Rush 2 : When the gravity is more than a mechanic

Gravity Rush 2 is a video game edited by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Japan Studio, released in January 2017 on PS4 and produced by Keiichiro Toyama, father of the license. It is the sequel of the first game of the same name Gravity Rush or Gravity Daze among our Japanese friends.

The story is about the adventure of Kat, the gravity queen, helped by her cat with astral colors, Dusty.

Gravity Rush 2 takes place after the events of the first game. Kat and Syd, a friend of hers, has been sucked into a gravitational tornado and has found refuge with miners who give board and lodging in exchange for hard work.

Even if Dusty is not present for the very beginning of the story, Kat finally find him after around ten minutes of play, allowing her to use her powers.

The events come one after another and the player moves between Jirga Para Lhao and Hekseville where he has to solve mysteries linked to the gravitational storms, the apparition of Nevis and all the political and societal problems of the two cities.

Gravity Rush 2 tries to take up the torch and answer to a lot of questions left in suspension at the end of the first game.

ARE THE MECHANICS TOO POOR ?

If you've already played the first game, the second one will not be disorienting to anyone.

The mechanics are globally the same, few corrections have been made in terms of animation or fluidity for example, but the gravity queen can still use

her kicks, her rolls but especially the gravity to slide or “float” in the air in order to throw herself in all directions, or rather falling through the air in according to the gravity.

We could regret the lack of originality in terms of gameplay, which looks the same as the first entry, even if the addition of some functionalities erases the redundancy of the main mechanics. Yet, the player unlocks those late and the challenges proposed do not require the use of the lunar style, nor of the jupiter style (The lunar style makes Kat lighter and more agile while the jupiter style makes her heavier and stronger). However, using them is still pleasant and gives the player the illusion of lightness when Kat changes a gravitational kick into a teleportation kick, or the illusion of strength when she attracts debris around her to create a huge ball to throw into enemies. The plentifulness of feedbacks around the transformations allow to feel the sensation of lightness or heaviness.

The addition of crafting is interesting but secondary. The crafting elements, that of course give more stats, become collectibles rather than items truly necessary to the progression of the story.

Finally, this lack in the gameplay seems to be explained by the story and the player’s progression. After repeating the same patterns, the same mechanics, the player can execute them automatically, allowing him to be totally immersed into the universe and the story.

Moreover, in this sequel, Toyama gives a metaphorical dimension to the use of gravity. The first game was created around the main mechanics without really thinking about it because the story justified it, a bit like its distant cousin, Super Mario Galaxy that plays with the gravity mechanic between planets and camera accordingly.

Gravity Rush 2 is more engaged and depicts a society marked by inequalities, represented in-game by the disposition of the district of Jirga Para Lhao, a big flying city which evokes the Castle in the sky or Howl’s Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki, and where the main district is located between the rich district at the top, and the the poor one at the bottom. This time, the gravity is not simply controlling if you are falling to the bottom or to the top, but choosing what is the Top and the Bottom of the world, thus, destroying the pyramid of inequalities, traveling to a place to another and deciding that poverty is not in the bottom but at the top and conversely. The mechanic of gravity becomes the support of this criticism towards inequality.

A SETTING THAT SUPPORTS THE STORY

The settings go with the universe and the story. the combination between the gravity, that give the impression of liberty, and the settings offer to the player a pleasant and non tedious exploration? It incites the player to go finding gems, not only for the collection but also for the pleasure of discovering new places.

Jirga Para Lhao, inspired by the Latin America, offer a large colour palette but also a population that make sense and give an impression of a living city even if some NPC are in double. It also allow to play with the notion of inequality, where, like in some latin american country, the population is segregated and thus give a dimension of reality to the intention.

The map of Hekseville do not change a lot, just some objects to give meaning to the story and its progression. It is a pity that the city hasn't undergone any major changes while Kat was away for many years, it's just a gratuitous recycling of the old map. It offers few issues to the player and is explained by the fact that the story finishes where everything began. The player is still accentuated in a nostalgic feeling while floating on the streets of the dark tinted city.

A STORY NOT THAT FREE ?

The interest of the game is in the story. It dominates the mechanics and the universe. It is the essence of the game.

The beginning is slow, allowing new players, and old ones to be immersed in a new universe, understand Kat's new situation and new concerns. The story is depicting a city controlled by a corrupted council, while the secondary missions are familiarized with the characters and show a city full of societal conflicts and problems around wealth distribution. Some missions even propose to choose between prioritizing help to the rich or the poor.

Back at Hekseville, the story speeds up and everything come one after another, quickly but intelligently. We are immersed into Kat’s past and the origin of the character, treasure of the fan of the first sequel that only had those questions in head. The story is never free, it is given at the end but with whole levels that offer new challenges, most of the time puzzles to solve with gravity and that change form the regular exploration and fight.

The game is 20 hours long, if you do it in one go to, 30 hours if you complete every secondary missions. It could be long for someone that is not into the story, with a redundant gameplay, but the game try to push the player to do the secondary mission in order to look deeper into the lore with bonus in reward thanks to the optimization of the skill’s menu, which is simpler to use and allow the player to less difficulty to use it. He may be able to has extra life, more gravity or more.

Gravity Rush 2 take the player in a fascinating story, a rich story and touching characters. If we look deeper on it, we are driven in an adventure where we are immersed and fascinated from the beginning to the credits. The story is well written and has coherence. First it could seems free and simply entertaining but it is a critique of the society, of the caste and of the inequality between rich and poor under the cover of Jirga Para Lhao, a city that put the poor aside and where the colours are changing between districts : gloomy, dark tints for the poverty, the lower floor and enlightened by the sun, with warm colours for the rich, the highest floor.

The game dare to choose its party and asume it. It did not directly critic a political movement, we do not know which political and economical system are in place. But we understand the inequality and the pain faced with the segregation.

Kat permit us to keep the head out of the water and read the story like it is presented. She is not a perfect heroine and she do not want to become one, we are playing with the gravity to slide from left to right and from top to bottom instead of settle as soon as the start the problems that we see. But Kat is a young lady, and she is just following what she wants to do. However, once she is in front of the problems, she do not hesitate to dive into them and settle the societal problems, a bit like Delsin Rowe in Infamous : Second Son, we choose the world in which we are evolving rather that accepting to be the hero. Over the game, the origin of Kat take shape, fallen queen and forced to go back to where she is from, she prefers to choose to quite the security of her palace to dive into the danger of the world from above of the Tree and save the world, because it is what she wanted to do.

Yes, Gravity Rush 2 depict a world close to our, where the environment look like our. the inequality of wealth are present and constantly represented by this scale where, at the bottom the poor have a hard life and at the top the rich take advantage of everything. Whether it is at Jirga Para Lhao and the representation of districts or the Tree of Life at Hekseville where at the top, the time goes slower and where the place overhangs the rest of the world, far away from the storm that threaten it and where at the bottom, the time goes faster and everything is closer to the storm.

But this time Keiichiro Toyama use it, brilliantly, to support his intention : Inequalities can be defeat without weapons, just with kindness and perseverance but mainly, by a strong independent woman, well designed and not with a male stereotype.

GRAVITY RUSH 2, A GOOD SEQUEL

Keiichiro Toyama did not revolutionize his game by his gameplay and his gamedesign, but he had the ambition to try to tell a story with many facets and create a mechanic (the gravity) that is the the support of every challenges (puzzle, exploration, fight). The mechanics are poor and redundant but it allows to catch reflex in order to follow the progression of the story. Whereas playing with the gravity is never boring and give the feeling of liberty to the player that will devour the world around him and enjoy the settings, in a way that is more clumsy and less advanced than The Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild, but in a way that allow them to have both some success.

Gravity Rush 2 is less surprising than Gravity Daze, it has the same mechanics. But it succeed to find coherence in its sequence and pleased everybody, new players and old ones. Gravity Rush 2 is enjoyable, we finish the game with the satisfaction of discovering something new, a new rich universe and to have meet complex character.

Gravity Rush 2 is not a game that we play, but a game that we read.