So it only took me 2 years but I finally finished GRAVITY DAZE on the trusty ol' Vita. The reason why I finally got around to finishing it is of course, the impending shutdown of the online portion of the sequel. So I need to get on that soon before I miss out on the exclusive online currency redeemed costume shit. Ugh, gaming nowadays...
But enough about shitty modern gaming practices. As is Jhipster custom, let's first look at the title:
GRAVITY DAZE/重力的眩暈：上層への帰還において、彼女の内宇宙に生じた摂動. Why did they have to change the title to
Gravity Rush? "Daze" was clearly chosen to reflect confused, dizzy, and starry (look at the cat). I mean it says fricking "gravity dizziness" RIGHT in the subtitle (重力的眩暈 for the non-Jhipsters). "Rush" sounds like some sort of jacked up endorphin/pharmaceutical induced high. Huh, I guess that is a pretty good localization choice after all. GO USA USA USA!!!
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| OH NO BIGLY WORDS! We have to "localize" that away, ASAP!! |
Speaking of the subtitle, hot dayum look at all dem words! I wonder how they localized that? Oh... they just... removed all the scary, bigly, liberal elitest words. I see.
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| I guess vidya games DO teach you something! Well for Jhipsters at least... |
Ok, on to the game itself. Gravity Rush holds a special place in my gaming history (LOL) because the demo was the very first thing I ever played on my sister's Vita way before I would purchase my own. I have to say, if you saw this thing on an OLED for the first time around when it came out, the graphics were mind blowing (insert obligatory firework gif here). The cut-scenes, the character models, and that intro with the apple, my gawd.
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| Dayum, what is this Nintendo Switch? Cause you know, portables didn't exist before Switch. |
While the game is definitely less impressive by the time I finally finished it yesterday, I have to give it huge props for the technical achievement of its time. The fact that you had an open-world game where you can literally fly (or more accurately fall) from one city to the next is truly amazing. Sure, the long load time is annoying when the game starts and the draw distance is blah blah blah but still, I was amazed at how far you can go after you open up the other areas with almost no additional load time. I especially loved the part where you go down to help someone pick up a dropped letter and you end up going down, down, and down and it keeps going and going. Though unfortunately that area is closed off afterwards.
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| Seriously, this is a Switch game, right? |
So while the game was technically amazing, as graphics usually go, the wonder quickly wears off and you're left with a pretty decent action game. This was obviously made as a showcase for the Vita as it uses every possible hardware feature except for the camera and back panel (thank god!). The gyroscope may be
kinda cool for AR games or whatever but it's very awkward to have to move your Vita from side to side for the Gravity slide challenges. Speaking of challenges, they felt a bit like a Ubishit type of filler though obviously not nearly as bad. Overall, I thought it was a fun game but I'm not exactly an action type of guy. It was aight, I guess (shrugs). It would have been nice if there was an indicator for which way was up as it can get quite disorienting. At least the environments were varied and interesting.
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| The cities are detailed even if you're gonna fly right past it. |
The story was honestly the least compelling part of the package. Without giving away any details, this was obviously intended to have a sequel and while the Vita flop probably delayed that (FU mobile), even a game with a sequel should have its own climax and complete subplot. The story here is lacking most of that though I loved how the cut-scenes moved around with the gyroscope. Now
that was a great use of the feature. It's kind of hard to convey without seeing it for yourself but it had a really neat effect.
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| This is the story section tilted at an angle. You have to see for yourself. |
However, despite the rather incomplete story, I really liked Gravity Kitten as a character. I much prefer Kitten's more innocent and naive personality as opposed to the more typical sassy Kat English localization take. Like other Japan Studio games, the characters speak a fake language that is neither Japanese nor English but I still prefer the Japanese "translation".
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| I bet Kat has the typical angry retort regarding breast size but Kitten plays it cool. |
I do have to point out that there's quite a bit of text I may want to read one of these days that goes over the story from Kitten's perspective. I wish there was a way to re-watch the cut-scenes too. Either that feature is not there or I haven't figured it out (manual wut?).
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| Blah blah blah bigly best words words words |
Score: 3.5 I swear it was amazing for its time! out of 5 (27 hours for 100% completion)
Given how amazing this game was technically back in 2012, I REALLY wanted to give it a 4 as a great game. However, I feel like most of my time was spent hunting down gems and trying to complete the challenges to get... more gems for upgrades. Combined with the rather lackluster story, I have to say this was an above-average game but not a GREAT one.
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| You're going to be doing this A LOT. |
I was a sucka and bought the DLC as well because it was on sale. Obviously you can get it on disc now with the PS4 HD edition though I guess non-Jhipsters will need to pay up the wazoo for a physical copy. Was the DLC worth it? I guess? I'm a sucker for cat suits.
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| Ah fuck, ok, take my money. Just fucking take it. |
Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely
