Gravity Rush Remastered is a Action-Adventure Game was released in between 2015 and 2016 for PS4, and it was developed by Bluepoint Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is a fully remastered version of the 2012's original PS Vita title created by Japan Studios under Team Gravity.
Do you really remember the Sony's handheld console called PS Vita? well it's a portable system that was released back in the year 2012 and it is a successor to 2005's Sony's first handheld console such as PSP which many regarded the device as Nintendo DS's main rivalry of 6th gen era.
While PSP was generally well received after the launch in 2005 thanks to libraries of games and system's multimedia features, Sony was expecting the successor PS Vita to do it well at the 2012's launch release to compete against the Nintendo DS's successor such as 3DS which was released in 2011, but ultimately in couple years later after the system's launch release it did not do well for its high retail price, lacking both the AAA first-party and third-party support which many of developers had preferred to work on PS4 hardware as their main focus, and many prefers 3DS or smartphone gaming over this system which led the poor commercial sales of the PS Vita did not meet the Sony's handheld marketing expectations resulting the PS Vita's discontinuation in 2019.
Despite the lack of success, many people considered the PS Vita as being the most underrated handheld system which shares with numerous of solid libraries of games such as Persona 4 Golden, Soul Sacrifice, Freedom Wars, Killzone: Mercenaries, LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway, Uncharted: A Golden Abyss, and of course one of the system's flagship title that made people remembering PS Vita such as Gravity Rush which many regarded it as one of the best cult-following title by the critics and fans had praised the game for its visuals, presentation, and gameplay design.
Back in my early 20s when I remembered the day where I've borrowed my brother's PS Vita console for the month when I had a PS Plus subscription just to play free titles, so this is where I've first discovered Gravity Rush on PS Store as part of the PS Plus's monthly free games catalogue.
First of all, I had no idea what the game is all about until when I started to play it on my PS Vita for hours, I was amazed with the system's technical aspects such as big open-world environments and cel-shaded visuals really shows off the PS Vita's hardware showcases, while I did managed to enjoy the entire game for its story campaign, likable protagonist, and overall gameplay design which had turned out to be one of my favourite title of PS Vita's libraries.
Then in around my mid-20s, I got hands on with the 2017's sequel called Gravity Rush 2 for PS4 which is a first game that sadly never got it made for PS Vita, so I got lucky I had the game on my PS4 which I considered the sequel a better title thanks to lengthy campaign with many more quests and challenge, larger open-world map to explore than the original game, expanded gameplay mechanics, and of course the story presentation are just as good as the predecessor had to offer.
As I managed to enjoy both of these games back then, but now after nearly 11 years since I've played the first original game I've decided to re-visit the first original game again to see if this game did really hold up to todays standard which is why I've bought the copy of Gravity Rush Remastered for PS4.
It is a HD remastered title that was designed for PS4 hardware featuring increased frame-rate, upgraded visuals, and all completed DLCs content included in the game.
Along with the additional features for PS4 which is sounds great, but I just wanted to take a deep dive of the PS4 Remastered version to see if this game actually plays it well comparing with the PS Vita counterpart in terms of controls, graphics, and quality standards.
Is it really worth to play the original game again after 11 years later? please sit back and enjoy reading my gaming review today.
So without go further do, Let's start the review.
Presentation
The game is set in floating looking city called Hekseville, as it starts off with the girl named Kat waking up in the park as she had suffered with the memory loss not knowing who she is.
She then been accompanied by a mysterious cat named Dusty as she discovers that the pet cat has ability to give power allowing her to control gravity.
After rescuing the boy from being swept up in a gravity storm, she then accepting to help the citizens to protect the entire city from the monsters spawned from the storms called Nevi, while uncovering the mystery behind her past.
The story in the game has an interesting start at the beginning where you start waggling the apple from the tree till it drops onto the floor and rolls through to the location where Kat was found layed down in the park.
As she waken up from the unconscious, she clearly don't remember at all due to amnesia that causes memory loss. This really reminds me of one of the movies and games that has similar opening with the protagonist has no clue where they from, so I really liked the idea of having the person going on the adventure while uncovering the truth behind their past is really keeps the storyline quite interesting because I really liked the mysteries aspects in the game.
The game also involve protecting citizens lives and fighting against the creatures that harms the city is basically like you hear mostly from the typical comic book stuff where superheroes goes out saving the day just worked really well on this game.
You have female protagonist Kat which I finding it quite cute and also likable in regards of her cool special powers abilities allowing her to fly through the air and walks on the wall, and also I really liked her personality which shown to be heroic, innocent, and upbeat, while interacting with other characters shown to be optimistic and heartfelt is what makes her character's development quite positively throughout the game.
She has her companion Dusty which is a mysterious black cat that given her power to control gravity, so yeah there's nothing to say much about Dusty because it's just a useful cat that gave the heroine the strength to fight and protect the city, so why not everyone having a pet friend to be their companion. She then meets with a police officer named Syd who becomes her friend after saving him from the Nevi creatures.
She then now been labelled as Shifters by her towns people, so while continuing to protect the city she is confronted by fellow Shifter named Raven who sees her as an enemy until you'll hear their final outcome in later part between these two may going to surprise you.
She then meets with the man named Gade, who claims to be a creator, offers to help her restoring the remaining sections of city swallowed by spatial rifts.
The presentation in this game is fantastic because the I love the cinematic design in the game has a mixed of between the actual cutscenes and comic-book style slideshow with text dialogue which kinda feels like watching most of the awesome superhero movies due to great art style and colourful environment details in the game.
The open-world scenery are also look beautiful to look at which I really liked the floaty structures of the cities in each locations, so stuff like Auldnoir is just a quiet peaceful old town filled with water fountains, bridges, residential areas, elevator, TV Tower, and factory.
Pleajeune is filled with entertainment district stuff with bars shop, ferris wheel, night clubs, and hotel.
Vendecentre is larger downtown area of Hekseville which is similar to French city with landmarks stuff such as giant clock tower, skyscraper buildings, and stations.
Endestria filled with dull looking stuffs like industrial hub, factories, energy plants, and tower.
Lastly Boutoume which is a home residents of lost tribes filled with dark and gloomy environments and junky village homes.
Overall, it has solid storyplot, likable protagonist, and beautifully made presentation design.
Gameplay
You take control of Kat in open-world area, as your main goal is to complete all the story quests to progress throughout the game.
You move around with the left stick, while using the right stick to rotate the camera around. Pressing the cross button to jump used for the platforming. To make you fly around the city in the air which can be activated by hitting the right shoulder button to make you float high as the gravity mode, and then you will have round-shaped blue cursor on the screen which allows you to point and navigate stuff where to fly through and where to land on, and then hit the right shoulder button again which makes you fly forward but you can stop flying forward by hitting the right shoulder button again, and then to deactivate the gravity mode hitting the left shoulder button will return you to regular platform as normal.
The gravity mode are also allowing you to land on any of the walls like side-ways and ups-downs platforms so you can able to walk on the walls in different position.
To keep you in mind when using them, the gravity mode are also depleting the round-shaped gauges bar on the top-left corner which indicates the gauges meter, so which means that your gravity mode will automatically deactivated if the gauges bar are fully empty, but it is also fully automatically recovers the gauge bar when the gravity mode are not activated in 5 seconds.
You can do a gravity slide by holding both the triggers which allowing you to slide through the surfaces.
In combat, you'll attack the enemies by hitting the square button to kick, while floating in the air you can also launch with the air kick onto the enemies by pressing the square button.
You can use the telekinesis power by pressing the circle button to pick up objects, while aiming with the right stick then throw things with the circle button which you can use them as a throwing attacks, but these telekinesis are also used for lifting the objects or citizens in the air as well.
You can evade the enemy's attack by pressing the right trigger or swipe up touchpad to avoid getting hit by the enemy's projectiles.
You can perform three types of special moves that deals with the heavy damage attack such as spiralling claw which allows you to do quick spin attack, gravity typhoon uses to create chunks of spikes and launch them forward at the enemies, and micro black hole forms a small black hole that unleashes a series of destructive energy pulses, so it can be activated by pushing the left stick forward or backward then pressing the triangle button when the pink-rounded dot suddenly appeared on the round-gauge bar.
In exploration, there are many purple gems scattered around the area which you'll be collecting these from any of the location's whereabouts, so these gems are used for upgrading your attribute skills such as stronger melee and special attack, increased health points, reduced gauge recovering time, increase speed for flying and sliding, and gathering more telekinesis capacity up to 5 objects, but if you completed many both the story and side quests further then your skill levels will increase forward meaning that you can able to unlock enough skill levels further more, the stronger you will become making most of the enemies and bosses feel vulnerable against you.
What I've liked about exploring the maps is that you can participate other activities such as side-quests which has 6 missions to uncover the side-story that is not linked to the main plot of the story campaign, and you will also completing with the challenge missions where you must beat the goal tasks which rewards you with more gems.
There are numerous of manholes locations in each cities which allowing you to warp through the maps as fast traveling system, as well as gaining entry to Kat's homeplace where you can able to change available costumes and of course save progress.
So far, the game plays it really well with the controls are simple, smooth and easy to get into because I find the movement and combat does the job well done which I really liked the gravity special mechanics where you can able to fly around the city and walk onto the walls ups-side-downs just worked really good on this, while requiring to get a better attributes levels in order to become stronger which is why I've spent time exploring throughout the cities and collected many gems as possible, so that I can able to upgrade the skill level further more allowing me to easily defeating the enemies and bosses much quicker just adds up a great balance of combat system.
I also wanted to mention about this version is that you can always turn off the motion controls options which did really help the game quite a lot because it doesn't fit to the PS4 controller standards comparing with the PS Vita version which is more suitable for the portable playability in my opinion.
While the combat and movement plays really great most of the time, there's one thing that kinda bugs me the most is the gravity air kick can be tricky to use because you really need to make a perfect timing to launch onto the enemy's weak spot which indicates shiny round-blob that you need to destroy it, but sometimes it can be went off-tracked if the enemies suddenly moves too fast or maybe you've just missed out the target, so it's better to stay on the mid-range target in order to get a perfect timing to launch onto the enemy's weak spot.
I did manage to enjoy the entire story quest because it shares with many good chapters such as the three rift plane stages has the ruins filled with floaty structures on above, the inferno are filled with lava settings all over the places, and the mirage has the galaxy-like themes with tall mushrooms which feels like you're on the different kinds of world, and I did liked the several of segments such as battling with Raven in deep falling tunnel, finding the missing girl in Pleajeune, stopping the criminal lord like Alias harming the city, visiting the strange world with weird platforming structures, and of course fighting against the Nevi creatures to protect the city is what keeps me playing the game further more.
I also wanted to say that I did liked the side-quests, a DLCs packs originally on PS Vita, which involves three parts in 2 missions each such as investigating rich madam's crime, joining with special forces, and spying on street gangs that causes trouble are all included in this version.
Lastly the challenge mission are quite fun to play because you have stuff like free race, throwing challenge, time attack, and sweeper trial which I consider these as useful, as it rewards you with the higher gems currencies.
So I'm glad that the game still remains to be a finest single-player adventure does the job done right which I never got bored of playing it thanks to numerous of quests, combat, and exploration are the main highlights of the whole game.
Overall, it has enjoyable single-player quests, and great combat and exploration.
Graphics
The graphics are stunningly beautiful for most part especially on PS4 remastered because I've appreciate with the cel-shaded art-style are looking amazing on visual design aspects.
What makes the PS4 version done better is that the developer team has upgraded the visuals that made the game looked up-to-date.
I loved the overall detailed of the open-world environments such as city buildings, towns, landmarks, districts area, and many structures which I consider these as bold and sharp, and these textures surfaces and the use of special effects are looking quite clean and crisp which is why the game is yet more appealing again in years later.
The character's animation is looking fantastic in the game due to great use of facial animation and their appearance that adds the personality of the character development which makes them even look interesting.
I also wanted to praise the PS4 remastered for not just the visual upgrades that I've mentioned earlier, but it's the stable frame-rate that ran smoothly with the 60fps on the hardware with no signs of slowdowns whatsoever.
That being said, the game performed really well on the PS4 hardware which I did not expect the PS Vita title being played on the big HDTV screen offered a quality design overall that adds the appeal to the newcomer who are interested to play this on the PS4 console.
Overall, it has amazing visual art-style, detailed open-world environments, fantastic character's animation, and smooth frame-rate.
Music and Sounds
The original soundtrack in the game is quite incredible for most part. It has an charming orchestrated music that you hear from these locations such as Auldnoir and Vendecentre are described as calm and gentle, where as in Pleajeune has a Jazzy-style music that fits the settings of the city districts.
I also liked the style of 8-bit chiptunes and electronic music thrown together in the inferno section of rift planes stage, where as in the ruins section and strange platforming world are sounds more of the space-ambient style, and then lastly you have the epic orchestrated music thrown-in at the action sequences just absolutely stunning to hear.
It was composed by Kohei Tanaka, was known for his musical scores for anime television series, OVAs, films, video games and Tokusatsu series including Gunbuster, Sakura Wars and One Piece, did a outstanding job of capturing a best original score in entire game.
The sound effects are just sounds epic for whole game due to use of realistic background and environmental sounds effects from the open-world area, and atmospheric noises that fits really well in the game.
However I did encountered with the volume mixing at the Kat's finishing moves sequences which gets so loud even I did put the volume down from the option settings, so I don't know if it's just me or whatever, but thankfully it didn't happen to the rest which is fine in the in-game playthrough.
The voice acting for most of the characters in the game didn't really speak with the actual language, so instead it was spoken in mixed between Japanese and French fictional language which makes it sounds bit more ancient, so it didn't really bothered me at all because that what the game is supposed to be sounds like which is absolutely fine by me.
Overall, it has incredible original soundtrack and decent sound effects.
Special Features
I have already mentioned about the all DLCs pack being included in the game such as 6 side-quests missions, but if you completed these 6 side-quests missions then you'll unlocked these costumes that you've wear on the side-quests.
Overall, a really good content.
Advantages
Solid storyplot
Likable protagonist
Beautifully made presentation design
Enjoyable single-player quests
Great combat and exploration
Amazing visual art-style
Incredible original soundtrack
Disadvantages
Gravity air kick went off-tracked
Weird volume mixing on Kat's finishing moves sequences
Final Verdict
Presentation 9/10 - solid storyplot, likable protagonist, and beautifully made presentation design.
Gameplay 9/10 - enjoyable single-player quests, and great combat and exploration.
Graphics 9/10 - amazing visual art-style, detailed open-world environments, fantastic character's animation, and smooth frame-rate.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - incredible original soundtrack and decent sound effects.
Special Features 8/10 - 6 side-quests and unlockable costumes.
Overall 9/10 - As much as I loved the original PS Vita version, this PS4 remastered counterpart does the job well done which not only these story presentation, art-style, soundtrack, and gameplay design are surely just fantastic, but with the upgraded visuals, stable frame-rate, and additional content that made the game look fresh which still holds up pretty well to the today gaming standards making it a worthy to play the title again.
I am so glad that I've bought a physical copy of excellent PS4 remastered title that give the original PS Vita classics a justice.
So be very cautious about the retail cost are quite pricey because the physical copy are likely goes up from £50 and over due to rarity, where as the digital release from PS Store cost £25 are slightly bit cheaper but it is also included on PS Plus subscription as well.
Luckily I just bought it for £25 off from one of the local gaming shop which proves that this PS4 remastered copy is not as cheap compared with the PS Vita copy are cost around £20 or more which is a easier purchase options for PS Vita collectors.
Is it worth getting the PS4 remastered version? absolutely because this gives the PS4 players an introductory to the series before they can get a hands on with the 2017's follow-up title.
That being said, it is not just being the best but also an overlooked remastered title that you should definitely go check it out if you're the fan of the action-adventure type of games.
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