Sony Interactive Entertainment released Gravity Rush 2 on PlayStation 4 in 2017, with SIE Japan Studio developing and director Keiichiro Toyama returning. The sequel to Gravity Rush scored 8.1/10 across 19 outlets in the IGDB critic aggregate.
Trailer, via PlayStation Europe.
Three Ways to Fall
The gravity mechanics from the first game return and expand. Players pick among three styles and switch between them on the touch pad.
- Original: the baseline style from Gravity Rush.
- Lunar: light, boosting Kat’s speed and her jump height.
- Jupiter: heavy, adding impact to her attacks.
Toyama has said immersion comes from widening the universe and making Kat and her surroundings feel alive. The new city is more lively and colorful, and Kat can chat with inhabitants, throw gang signs, and watch people react organically. Environments are destructible.
The Nevi return, joined by human soldiers, some of whom operate combat mechs. Raven, an antagonist for most of the first game, becomes an AI-controlled ally who can fight with Kat in certain battles. The mission count is three times that of the predecessor, playtime runs between 20–40 hours, and the map is 2.5 times larger than the original’s.
Kat in Jirga Para Lhao
The game opens directly after Gravity Rush and the prequel anime Gravity Rush: The Animation ~ Overture ~. Hekseville is rebuilding after the incident caused by former mayor D’nelica. When a gravitational disturbance is reported in the floating district of Neu Hiraleon, Kat heads there with Raven and Syd, a police officer. A fight with mysterious androids ends with all three pulled into a gravitational vortex and dropped into another world, district included.
| Beat | Setting |
|---|---|
| The disturbance | Neu Hiraleon |
| The vortex | Transit to the new world |
| Mining and the Vogo Sun swindle | Banga Village, Rift Planes |
| The Raven fight | Jirga Para Lhao |
| The uprising | Jirga Para Lhao |
| The giant Nevi | Neu Hiraleon, in a Rift Plane |
| The return | Hekseville |
Kat and Syd land in Banga Village, where they befriend Cecie, another arrival under unclear circumstances. They mine Gravity Ore in the Rift Planes and sell it to the trader Vogo Sun. After blocking his attempt to shortchange the village, they travel to the floating city of Jirga Para Lhao for supplies and find its rich oppressing its poor through military force.
Raven, brainwashed into believing she is Night Gale, fights Kat. Kat frees her and sparks an uprising against the Council, the city’s usurping rulers. The insurrection succeeds and restores Banga’s people to rule. Then Neu Hiraleon reappears as a giant Nevi, kills the Council, and is destroyed by Kat and Raven, who rescue Cecie from being used as a power source. Kat is pulled back to Hekseville, where she meets Kali Angel, a mysterious Shifter who replaced her as the city’s hero, and Dr. Brahman, a brilliant scientist who designed a city-wide, robotic, Nevi defense.
The 8.1 is the detail worth holding onto. Nineteen outlets landing on that number says the gravity gimmick still works, and three styles give it room to breathe. What the aggregate cannot show is how much of the 20–40 hours goes to earning it.
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