Gravity Rush Interview With Keiichiro Toyama, Eric Bailey and Naoko Sato

semiconscious said:

imo? she just wasn't the inherently lovable, self-effacing kat i remembered. her character just seemed to lack consistency/focus, & her constant reference to herself as 'gravity queen' never ceased to grate. she reminded me of someone who's bought into their own hype :) ...

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you mean things she's been doing since the last quarter of the game?

And she lacked focus in all of GR. Hell, I'd say in GR2 she gained far more focus. Cause i can hardly think of a moment in that game where she doesn't have a clearly defined goal that she's set on fulfilling.

DriftingSpirit said:

I mean, there is a difference between criticism and what you said. A Steam early access game? Right....

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I was being entirely sincere when I said that.

That's what it reminded me of. A Steam early access game.

Sure Jan.

Anyway, I look forward to what Toyama cooks up next.

Great OP, Nia. Loved both Gravity Rush games and it's a shame Sony just sent GR2 out to die. Can't wait to see what the team works on next.

Zhukov said:

Oh, sorry.

I meant to say, OMG GOTY GOAT!

Can't be having anything other than gushing praise. That wouldn't be fun.

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No one said you couldn't post negativity but your post was pure nonsense. Fun take!

Zhukov said:

Because I downloaded the demo for GR2 and it was rubbish.

Braindead combat, boring blob enemies and half-baked animation.

Felt like something I'd stumble across on Steam early access or a handheld game that became afflicted with delusions of grandeur and tried to sneak onto the console bus with the big boys..

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bear force one said:

No one said you couldn't post negativity but your post was pure nonsense. Fun take!

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And your posts are utterly useless. What exactly does screeching "Fun take! Fun take!" add to the conversation?

If my points are clearly nonsense you should have no trouble demonstrating that.

If you think that my points are such nonsense that they aren't even worth taking the time to disprove then... why are you engaging with me at all?

I stand by everything I said.
The combat required no thought. I either mashed one button to melee, or I spammed the auto-aiming gravity kick or I spammed auto-aimed projectiles.
The enemies were boring. They were amorphous blobs of varying size.
The animation felt unfinished. I fly Kat into the side of a building and she just sort of glitches herself upright. One second she's ragdolling through the air, the next she's standing on the wall with no transition between the two states.

MattAces said:

There's a warning spoiler section.

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awesome. Thanks!

amorphous blobs of varying shape?

The navi?

The one enemy type (with several sub types) out of several?

Cause I'm pretty sure the mechs or the soldiers aren't amorphous.

Just got GR2 recently with the price drop. The game looks incredible.

I finally started replaying GR2 yesterday to get the rest of the trophies. I did the gem grind and now the only trophies left for me before the platinum are the saghassi paintings and women photos

Woozies said:

amorphous blobs of varying shape?

The navi?

The one enemy type (with several sub types) out of several?

Cause I'm pretty sure the mechs or the soldiers aren't amorphous.

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Not to mention, you can't spam the stasis throw against the mechs because you have to position yourself correctly to aim at the weak spots.

Kerozinn said:

a ton of repetitive bullshit in my opinion

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This game have the same repetitive gameplay that the most games on last years.

Maybe the game was boring for you, but all games have repetitive gameplay

Dardan Sandiego said:

Kat has to deal with all the people she dropped from the sky by caring for her daughter.

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Lmaoooooooo

Great read. I still intend to go back to GR2 and get the Platinum for it as I did for GR1. I can rarely not think about my time with either of them since last year. They also, for my money, rank as two of the best OSTs in gaming and, yeah, Kat is an amazingly realized character.

Somewhatgroovy said:

Kat is an amazingly realized character.

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My favorite protagonist period, sometimes I'm shocked at how charming the character is lol

Lotus said:

My favorite protagonist period, sometimes I'm shocked at how charming the character is lol

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I was coincidentally going through my photos of the game I snapped during my run through of 2 and there was a panel where she was laying next to Raven and , I'm paraphrasing, she says something along the lines of "When we first met we fought but now, knowing Raven is safe helped me get my first peaceful sleep in a long time.".Very few games love their characters the way these two games do.

Zhukov said:

And your posts are utterly useless. What exactly does screeching "Fun take! Fun take!" add to the conversation?

If my points are clearly nonsense you should have no trouble demonstrating that.

If you think that my points are such nonsense that they aren't even worth taking the time to disprove then... why are you engaging with me at all?

I stand by everything I said.
The combat required no thought. I either mashed one button to melee, or I spammed the auto-aiming gravity kick or I spammed auto-aimed projectiles.
The enemies were boring. They were amorphous blobs of varying size.
The animation felt unfinished. I fly Kat into the side of a building and she just sort of glitches herself upright. One second she's ragdolling through the air, the next she's standing on the wall with no transition between the two states.

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Good Lord you're a goon.

If they get to do more interviews I'd love to hear more about the music. The soundtrack for GR2 in particular is amazing

bear force one said:

Good Lord you're a goon.

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Fun take!

Still useless. Still not actually rebutting anything I said. Still choosing to engage for... some reason.

Zhukov said:

Fun take!

Still useless. Still not actually rebutting anything I said. Still choosing to engage for... some reason.

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You're rght. It was a fun take!

Mephala said:

Spoiler: This screen :D

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That be the one. Beautiful.

Somewhatgroovy said:

I was coincidentally going through my photos of the game I snapped during my run through of 2 and there was a panel where she was laying next to Raven and , I'm paraphrasing, she says something along the lines of "When we first met we fought but now, knowing Raven is safe helped me get my first peaceful sleep in a long time.".Very few games love their characters the way these two games do.

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Completely agreed.

Gravity Rush the most positive franchise of all time.

Don't tell me "no".

I am mad that we'll never get. I'm gonna coin her Sphinx.

I just wanna know even if it was for a short moment who was the woman Kat and Raven were before she became them.

Im just glad they actually "somewhat" concluded Kat's story. First one is still my favorite one, can't wait to see what they can do next.

I don't think most would argue that the combat isn't janky or that it runs into slight gamey animation fungles when classing with the environment.

But I think calling it a Steam Early Access game is a bit much.

I mean I think the combat can get pretty meh in 2, but the ease of use when using projectiles now is a big improvement. I also don't really find it mashy as attacking enemies requires some spacial awareness which is the point of the combat and the game in general. So you spend a lot of time arranging yourself and setting up the attack more then you do just mashing attack.

But beyond that the world design of two is pretty amazing. The environments are beautiful and so detailed. There's nothing janky about them. One of the most well realized game worlds out there. It also looks fantastic with amazing art direction.

The music is great. The art is great. Just in general the presentation is well above I think the early access dig.

But yes it's one of those games so common in the Japanese niche sector where you have to be keyed into that "other" stuff that overcomes the kind of meh gameplay. Yet, make no mistake the actual flying stuff is great.

But if your not that kind of person who really values aesthetics and style or you're just not into the style of GR or you know you simply didn't jive with it, I don't think anyone should argue against that.

But calling it an early access game is a bit much. It does have a lot of polish and is clearly beyond that.

Ingueferroque said:

Hey ERA, why did you ignore this game?

So great to see that they are working on their next game.. I hope they get all of the creative and financial freedom they need.

I wish they asked if they would have liked to have the option of a PS4 Pro patch, and what that would entail. And what their thoughts were on the GR2 servers being shut down so early.

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Because it's not all that great, as someone who loves the first game I got bored playing it.

I loved and got the platinum trophy in both games. Great charming games. Really like the plot twist at the last chapter of the 2nd games and Raven's story free DLC.

Ingueferroque said:

Hey ERA, why did you ignore this game?

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Era wasnt around back then lol

Loved both Gravity Rush games. Kat is a fantastic character and the presentation is second to none.

The music, art direction, world design....



I'm glad they extended the servers an extra six months. Hunting for treasure and sharing/viewing pictures was really fun.

Raging Spaniard said:

Era wasnt around back then lol

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That's no excuse.

Zhukov said:

Fun take!

Still useless. Still not actually rebutting anything I said. Still choosing to engage for... some reason.

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Not really much to rebut when the elaboration is lacking in the first place...

.

Still one of my favorite game of this gen, it was the perfect follow up to a game I already adored.

I'll check out whatever these folks do next, they've earned my trust. (Although I wouldn't mind a third part)

Ingueferroque said:

Hey ERA, why did you ignore this game?

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Because fortunately they released a demo for me to judge the game with beforehand. The gameplay and controls are abominable.

Beautiful art direction though.

Man, that franchise is so dead. It's a shame because it's like top 5 for me in Sony.

rude said:

Because fortunately they released a demo for me to judge the game with beforehand. The gameplay and controls are abominable.

Beautiful art direction though.

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I remember the demo being a bit rough framerate wise, and not really being the best representation due to the limited size of the area and (iirc) focussing on a boss battle?

Shame.

I have a lot of respect for Keiichiro Toyama, between creating the Silent Hill series and directing Silent Hill 1, creating the Forbidden Siren series, and for creating the Gravity Rush series. I'm pretty okay with him doing whatever he wants as I believe him having creative freedom is for the best, but of course as a horror enthusiast I hope he does take another crack at horror somewhere in the future. I also hope if they want to make more Gravity Rush games they get a chance.

I'm happy they're doing okay, but I also do wish there was a bigger marketing push for his works than there is, or maybe that the gaming market was ready for the absolute creativity of teams like his.

Dusk Golem said:

I have a lot of respect for Keiichiro Toyama, between creating the Silent Hill series and directing Silent Hill 1, creating the Forbidden Siren series, and for creating the Gravity Rush series. I'm pretty okay with him doing whatever he wants as I believe him having creative freedom is for the best, but of course as a horror enthusiast I hope he does take another crack at horror somewhere in the future. I also hope if they want to make more Gravity Rush games they get a chance.

I'm happy they're doing okay, but I also do wish there was a bigger marketing push for his works than there is, or maybe that the gaming market was ready for the absolute creativity of teams like his.

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I fully agree (and have been waiting patiently for Siren to come back), but also believe the gaming market is ready. They need to be made aware of the games, though.

I remember shit like Sony not even including or mentioning GR2 at their big events around release.

Gravity Rush has one of the coolest ideas for world traversal and combat and somehow totally botches it. I love the story, setting, visuals, and music, but utterly despise the actual act of playing these games.

Also, Gravity Rush 2 ends like three times and that's kind of annoying. It feels like it should be building up to a greater narrative revelation, but instead just tells three almost completely separated stories.

Didn't know there was an attempt to make an actual in game language over it being gibberish. Anyway, I always wished Kat would've been a more prominent character for Sony as she's instantly likeable with a fairly unique costume design.

1 is a good game but 2 is a masterpiece. One of my favorite games this gen second only to The Witcher 3.

Loved this article, thanks OP.

Thanks for posting this.

apeAsnake said:

Both Gravity Rush games should be on PS+

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I saw the first game on PSN on sale for like £5 recently. You could support them by you know, buying it XD

2 was a disappointment of sorts, but I love this series enough that I hope we will see a third installment at some point in the future.

I think Kat is straight up one of PlayStation's greatest creations. She's too affable a character to let go to waste.

These games have a gorgeous and interesting world that it's really fun to jump around in; but the gameplay and story were both a mess in both games...