I Called It - Gravity Rush 2 Teased/Announced at TGS

Now, I'm not going to claim to be some sort of clairvoyant for seeing this one coming, but it needs to be said that, at every grumble about "oh no, Sony isn't committing enough First-Party to the Vita, blah blah blah", I said, without hesitation "you have no idea what you're actually talking about".  Or some variation of that, really.  And it all basically ended with "There's God of War coming in some fashion (likely beyond the HD Collection), Uncharted: Golden Abyss 2, hopefully an inFamous game and of course Gravity Rush 2.  Which will probably be announced at TGS, what with it being very Japan-focused and shit.  And Gravity Rush being a Japan-centric kind of game."  So, yes, I called it and I am going to gloat about that, because I don't even care whether or not I should gloat about it.

Anyone could see this coming, really - Gravity Rush was the title that was trotted out whenever the Vita was talked about, either because it looked amazing before it came out, or because it was amazing after it came out.  It did good numbers - it was never going to set the world on fire, given the hesitance to embrace the Vita by the community at large which is gradually shifting - but for what could have been expected of it, it did great, and being packed in for the Vita's first year of Plus made it accessible to everyone, thus ensuring it's a Vita game that's synonymous with the system.  So, a sequel was always expected, not just hoped for, and it was always going to happen.

The thing to wonder about now is just what's going to happen with it.  Absolutely nothing -about- the game was announced, just that teaser, so details could range from anything to everything.  The one thing that I almost worry about is whether or not the game is solely going to come out on the Vita.  One of the major whinging factors about Gravity Rush was that it was -only- on the Vita (because people don't understand the concept of exclusives) and were constantly clamoring for a PS3 version.  With nobody really wanting to commit anything to -one- system anymore, it seems, I worry that Gravity Rush 2 might be PS4/Vita which isn't bad per se, but it's missing the point.  Gravity Rush 1 -or- 2 doesn't need to be on a TV and I think that it might actually suffer from it, if not in the controls (the gyroscope, mainly, the touch controls I can take or leave) but for the sheer....feel of it, I guess.  It just fit perfectly on the Vita, and I worry that I might feel a sort of disconnect simply playing it on a DualShock 4 and staring at my TV.

It would also take the wind out of the sails of the announcement completely, since it would almost be confirming what everyone's griping about, with Sony "not committing" enough to the Vita.  A PS4 version would almost completely negate the Vita version in the ways that people....not 'care' about, but complain and speak smugly about, which just leads to a lot of annoyances and is completely not the point of the game or anything entirely.  It'll just mar something that could otherwise just be great personified and that irks me more than a little bit.  It all hinges on whether or not Sony wants to show a little loyalty to the Vita, versus scatter-shot release habits to 'ensure' that it's so much profit that nobody even knows what the fuck.  Which...seems like an unfortunately easy decision.  But we'll just have to see.  Not directly announcing it for the Vita with the teaser is making me just a...tad bit wary, I should say.

I still called that shit, and I want that on record, bitches

Freedom Wars Sounds Excellent

If you haven't heard of Freedom Wars before today, it's rather understandable, given that the game has only been formally announced for Japan with a vague launch window of "2014".  However, there are some reasons as to why you should know of Freedom Wars, and the sooner that's done, the better.  Firstly, it's a Vita game, which is obviously the reason -I'm- excited about it and bringing it up as a topic for discussion.  Secondly, it's a very nice-looking Vita game, which is probably where you start to care a little.  You're probably thinking, however, "Well, It's announced only in Japan and it's a Vita game, so I guess it's not coming out over here", to which I say you didn't let me finish.  The third thing about Freedom Wars is that it's being developed by Sony Japan Studio, which means it's first-party through and through.  Which means it has a very, very high chance of being localized.  As in, it has almost no chance of not coming out over here.  Interested yet?  Thought so. (The only correct answer was yes.)

Freedom Wars was originally teased as "Panopticon" thanks to the large structures of the same name that allow humans to exist in a desolate world.  The inhabitants of them, at least some of them, are branded 'Criminals' from birth and given a million-year sentence that they're expected to work towards shaving off so that they can have..you know, life as a free person.  I'm not quite sure how it actually works yet, but it's an interesting concept and is exactly what the game revolves around.  Your 'work' is going up against rather large monsters for different purposes, and that's what the game is set around. Of course, I'm not sure -why- beyond, shut up it's a video game, but I'm sure an in-universe explanation will come up at some point.  Like....you know, when the game is released and explains it.  Or something along those lines.  That's not really important, nor is it the point, though.

In what I'm attributing as a nod to Phantasy Star Online because it fills me with glee, you'll be getting a mechanical assistant, but thankfully it's a little bit more useful than a floating robot that hangs around your shoulder and/or back.  You robot companion, an android rather, is called an "Accessory" (for some reason) and is with your character not only to provide support in these missions that you have to do, but also to monitor you and ensure you don't do anything that would -add- hours to your sentence, rather than subtract them.  From what I can tell in the trailer, they're essentially the same as your Criminal, but likely they don't have the same sentence, nor do they have aspirations of being free I assume.  They're androids, after all, but perhaps that is a striving goal, I don't know.  It's certainly not the most original approach, but it's used because it has the potential to be interesting.

Siliconera recently explained "Volunteer" missions which certainly sound pretty neat, though I hope they're only a single of many types of missions you'll be able to undertake in the game proper.  Volunteer missions are essentially divided into three sections: Sortie, Engagement and Recapture.  More appropriately, it's a Seek-and-Rescue deal, where you look for captured citizens and bring them back to the transport zone while dodging and/or temporarily disabling Abductors.  The post mentions that Abductors regenerate themselves, so it would seem that you cannot actually 'destroy' them, or at least not in Volunteer missions which is...odd, to say the least.  I'd assume you -can- destroy them at some point, which I hope is involved in another type of mission, as stated, but this sort of mission is different from what you might expect given the way Freedom Wars looks, and it's refreshing enough at least.  Besides, Seek-And-Rescue seems like an odd fit for this game if that's all it is, thus I'm believing that it's not quite.

Something that definitely stands out with Freedom Wars is the "Thorn Whip" that Criminals and their Accessories have access to.  They appear as a sort of black and red energy thing that wraps around the character's left arm and work like a grappling hook from Just Cause 2 or, more appropriately, Lost Planet.  It's something that allows you to not only climb up buildings for recon purposes, but it allows you to attach and pull yourself to the Abductors to break off parts of them while you're engaged in combat with them.  Which is something else that leads me to believe that there are other mission types, specifically along the lines of a traditional "there is a giant thing, murder the shit out of it" mission structure that you expect from a hunting game.  Or...well, most games, these days.  Not that that's bad, and indeed with Freedom Wars merging this Thorn Whip and neat looking guns and melee weapons, the battle system seems like it'll be something rather neat to witness and experience.  Certainly has caught my attention.

The game is still a ways off, of course, in that it won't be out in Japan until next year, and likely not the first part of it, but it's still a game and it still looks rather enjoyable.  For those that continue to say that Sony's Vita support is lacking (despite the wonderful work at bringing indies to the device) this isn't the ultimate comeback, but it's part of it assuredly.  When you begin to consider that there are more than likely sequels to Gravity Rush and Uncharted: Golden Abyss in the works, not to mention a God of War iteration of some fashion at the least, the picture becomes that much better.  And really, that's just some of the things that we know about.  There are assuredly other things in the works (Soul Sacrifice 2, please, not like I have to really -ask- for that) so this just comes across as an affirmation of that.  Remember that the deluge of Nintendo first-party support for the 3DS didn't start until this year, really, and also make a note that not a whole lot of it has been new, where the Vita has seen at least three other brand-new retail IPs born on the device in first and second-party hands.  So take heed and take heart, because the Vita's nowhere near as bad-off as the internet likes to say it is.

basically this game looks awesome and other games on the Vita look awesome because the Vita has awesome games

Gravity Rush Is Probably (Definitely) Getting a Sequel

So, I believe that I made my feelings about the wonderful Gravity Rush known when I reviewed it and one of the things I touched on was the realization that there was -going- to be another game in the series, at least.  It needs another game in the series, but not in the way that, say, Assassin's Creed 2 -needed- Brotherhood (and apparently Revelations), as Gravity Rush's untidy loose ends are not blatant and are not getting in the way of it being a cohesive, self-contained experience.  Either that, or the ending was so satisfying that it more or less made me stop caring which is accomplishing the same goal anyways.  The point is that there was obviously more of Gravity Rush's story to tell, but it wasn't as if the game made you feel like it was keeping anything back to be shown later, which seems to be a -thing- with games nowadays, in that they purposefully set themselves up to be trilogies or such.  It might just be an argument of semantics or something similar, but impressions and opinions are swayed by far less.

Regardless, it was quite fair to say that there was going to -be- a sequel, so it seemed like a foregone conclusion, but to hear "I'll do my best on the sequel" from the director is welcoming.  It was hot on the heels of the news that the game won Japan's Game of the Year Grand Award which was going on during TGS, so perhaps it was something exclaimed in a moment of pure excitement.  Well-deserved excitement at that.  So perhaps he wasn't supposed to hint at the possibility of a sequel that they are theoretically already making, much less state in such definitive terms "the sequel" as in "the sequel that is happening", but these things happen.  Personally, I'm almost waiting for the moment where he does "I didn't really mean it that way, more like if one happens", but come on we all know it's coming, and we're all very, very excited for it.

I can't speak for what I would like covered in the sequel as that will obviously spoil things, but something I am quite hoping for is a leap of quality in terms of inFamous 1 to 2.  I'm not quite sure how this is possible, as Gravity Rush was pretty fantastic, as was the original inFamous, but inFamous 2's quality leap was so great, so tantalizingly delicious, that I can't help but hold it up as the yardstick for everything else.  It's not fair, I realize, since no series really can hope for that jump, but those that even get close are generally the ones we want to get that close, and the ones that will do anything to climb towards that height.  And we love them for it.  It's just that sort of realization that you get when you play a game like inFamous and you love it like I did - you can't really take any part of it and say "Well, I could do -this- and it would be awesomer" (except the animations.  We....don't speak of the animations.) and yet -somebody- manages to have the frame of mind to be able to do that.  It's amazing, frankly, and I'm glad that people like that exist.

My only real suggestion for improvement with Gravity Rush was basically some improvements to the combat system and some side content.  I am a self-appointed Combat System aficionado, apparently, so Gravity Rush not coming in high on there is no real surprise since most games -don't-.  And it's sort of telling when one of your complaints about a game is that you want -more of it-, which I certainly did.  The challenges were there and then I beat them.  Then I found the Travelers.  And that was it.  So if the Sequel that is almost definitely happening manages to incorporate at least that, then we're all winners.  And I have a feeling that they will do just that and more because the quality was there already and it just needs to be expanded on, really.  Pulled out, made larger and if they take notes from other Sony Studios, which I think everybody does, then all the better.

It does still seem to be a bit premature speaking of the game as a thing that exists, but I'm sure that it will, so I'm going to do just that.  In fact, I expect an announcement of it sometime next year, possibly even at Sony's E3, with a release date somewhere in 2013's third or fourth quarter.  Primo spot would obviously be in the Holidays, but I'm not sure if they'd actually manage to do that, and if so, for all regions.  I'm hoping against a staggered release, but since it's Sony Japan Studios that made Gravity Rush, it certainly would not surprise me.  Whenever it comes out, however, it'll be well worth it, and I eagerly await it, even though there's....quite enough on my plate as it is.  But then again, that's always the case, pretty much, so there's no real change there!

Review - Gravity Rush

Fly.

It's a simple thing, yet I feel that it's something that video games have yet to really get a grasp on, to really give an appropriate sensation or feeling for.  While you're not expressly flying in Gravity Rush, it's close enough and manages, I feel, to buck the trend for the most part which is something of no small praise.  If for nothing else, if there were no other redeeming features to it, I would still recommend a play of Gravity Rush simply for that, for the absolute freedom you're instilled with when you soar through the air with the greatest of ease.  Fortunately for anyone that does play the game, however, the game shines in many many places so it's not a situation where your enjoyment will be wholly condensed in flying about.  However, if there is anything that will keep you playing the game when you're done with the story, it will be just that and I'll explain why in a bit.

First off, to elucidate the point about flying - you are not, in fact, flying when you play the game.  Contrary to the point, you're falling for the most of the game, it's just that you can control -how- you fall which is to say that you can make yourself fall directly up or fall against the side of a building so that you can stand as if you were perfectly upright.  Because you are, you see, just not perfectly upright in the comprehension of the rest of the world.  In much less confusing terms, the ability that our protagonist, Kat, is provided with is the ability to shift how gravity affects her.  That is to say when you are flying up, you're falling up because gravity in relation to her has been shifted to work that way.  It's an impossible concept to really state any easier than that, but I'm sure the spirit of it is not lost on you.  Basically, aiming your reticule on the side of a building and falling to it, then standing on it as with the opening picture means that the side of the building is the 'ground'.  It's like an M.C. Escher work in theory, but as a video game mechanic.

The mechanic is a lot less confusing if you don't think about it, of course, since it is fairly simple in practice while you're playing the game.  At most any time, you can hit the R button to suspend Kat in her own little anti-gravity bubble so that you can spin about and choose a direction in which to fall towards, hitting R once more to initiate said falling process.  The speed with which you fall is one of the short list of things you can upgrade in the game, but in my opinion it's more for the feel as the speed is really no more or less utilitarian at the start than at the end when you've gone and upgraded everything and still have 6,000 crystals in reserve.  That is how it works in its simplest form, though; press R, pick point, press R, fall, stand.  As you might imagine, you're not going to be using that a whole lot because it's never as simple as that except for in the start, and that is certainly the case with Gravity Rush, as it expects you to embrace, to master this mechanic of getting around.  And you, as the player, should want to do just this as well.

As you begin to understand the nuances of the system and implement them, that is when the real beauty of the game kicks in, since it allows you to get fancy, to zip around in impossible ways were you lacking the finesse, and to truly understand the quickest and smartest ways to get from point A to point B.  Of course, and I'm not sure if this is my own fault or not, but the system seems perfect when the situation doesn't exactly call for such precise measures as you're able to pull off.  Accuracy is not necessarily a strong point of the system which is a bit annoying when objectives call for it.  Most notably here are the side challenges that test your ability to get around in a fast, efficient way which need you to be able to turn and twist as you -want- to do, but to also land in exact spots which is a much-less achievable goal.  Too many times did I manage to land on the same general area as an objective, yet need to move the few extra steps to actually trigger it.  I'm hoping the sequel (yes, -the- sequel, not -a possible- sequel) will either re-evaluate this or tighten up the controls a bit to allow you to hit these as they desire.

Getting around is hardly the area where accuracy is against you the most, however.  That is reserved exclusively to the combat system which is a real shame from my point of view, as you all might know combat is a big component in video games to me.  The bulk of the combat in Gravity Rush is basically making use of the above, the Gravity Kick, to launch your foot of power directly against an exposed Nevi's core (Nevi being the baddies of the game, of course) from mid-air.  It utilizes the same base principle behind the basic shifting, except velocity increases the damage you do when you connect.  If you connect, however.  Basically what it means is that the further away you are (to a degree) when you initiate the kick, the more damage you do, except you're a little more likely to miss completely if the target moves a lot since you can mostly just fine-tune your direction mid-air.  It's a basic Risk/Reward approach which is not wrong in concept nor is it generally wrong in practice either.  The rub comes in when you have enemies that, whether intentional or not, are basically shielded from this attack not by requiring you to do it more (which exist as well, in the form of shelled Nevi) but by simply having, let's call it 'natural armor' that makes it rather difficult for you to connect, even at close range.

Later on in the game, you start to encounter bigger and badder Nevi that are shaped as actual -things- rather than the walking little blobs towards the beginning that can waddle up to you and smack you if you're not paying attention.  Without getting too detailed, the ones that gave me the most grief are Nevi that are shaped, more or less, in a rather Dragon-esque form.  They have three sets of wings, an elongated body and a head and fire off a plentiful amount of projectiles that have limited homing and can stop you mid-air if they hit you.  They are not inherently deadly if you're even decent at the game, of course, but the trouble comes in actually defeating them.  Their cores are located on the back and the head, three for the wings specifically, and they are nearly impossible to reach at range because the wings pull all the way back over them as it flies.  If you hit them, or any part of a Nevi's 'body', you bounce harmlessly off or are shoved off in a different direction.  As I've alluded, I'm not entirely sure if that's intentional or not, but it's there regardless and it means that I spent quite a lot of time throwing Gravity Kick after Gravity Kick at these specific foes and not hitting them at all because my timing wasn't precise.

Those of you with sense are probably shouting at the screen "This is what the special attacks are for!" and you very well may be right as there are a few Special Attacks you can gain in the game and they prove to be very very useful when you actually use them.  To my own fault, I underutilized the special attacks in the game purely because I always wanted to keep them back 'for an emergency' or the like.  You know what I'm talking about - those Megalixers or equivalent that sit in your inventory during a JRPG through the boss fight, through the optional super hard boss fight(s), they're there 'just in case' and you never use them and it just makes things difficult for you.  I could surmise that it's the limited cool-down that the abilities require that deterred me from using them (particularly because I couldn't pin down an indicator that suggests how long it would be), lending to the 'just in case' mentality, but the point I'm trying to make is that the Gravity Kick is obviously expected to be your main tool, and enemies that have unnatural protection from it is a worthy grumbling point.  Though in the scheme of things, they were mercifully uncommon, so I can't strike too hard against them.

Your other methods of bringing the ruckus are basically just the ground combo of punches and kicks which you likely won't use quite as much as I would prefer, and utilizing the stasis field to launch things that are not yourself at foes.  Special attacks aside, the Stasis Field, an ability that allows you to project a small field that grabs up items around you to be flung at enemies, is your only real method of using projectiles which....kind of seems like a wasted opportunity to me, personally.  But at the same time, being an origins story, I can understand that Kat can only control herself and have a minimal effect on the environment, as it were.  Regardless, the Stasis Field was also something that I completely under-used which is a strike against my playing ability as well, as well as my ability to comprehend things.  Such as leveling up the Stasis Field allows you to pick up more things if you hold the button longer.  Part of my under-use of the ability was my failure to get that which lead me to get frustrated when I was still only picking up two people at a time from a group of them in challenges that required you to grab people and take them to points of safety.  So I made specific mention of it here in case it was not merely a fault of me being dumb and it'd help someone else.

Almost as important as the ability to craft a system as free and fluid as Gravity Rush's shifting, is the care and detail shown in the process of making the world with which you use it.  In that department, the game is no slouch either, as the world is rather lovely to look at and not only for the very distinct art style that the game uses throughout.  More to the point, it's -cohesive- or at least as cohesive as a city semi-supended in air from being built around an endless pillar can be.  Each district of the city has its own distinct style that makes it more or less appealing to be hanging around in, depending on your preferences and the game offers fairly fun ways of getting between them if you don't have enough gravity juice, as it were, to just get there that way.  (By the end of the game you will)  Between riding on the tops of trains and sky taxis and such to get around, you're offered a lot of chances to just take in the scenery which can be just wonderful as you see above and it's those moments that really just let you appreciate it all.

These moments only come as you contend with the story, of course as in the case with most sandbox games.  The world is not fully open to you to start with and only opens up more and more as you get further and further along and that's fine with me as it doesn't feel quite as superfluous or forced as other games handle it.  Though, the story is not without its own flaws as it sort of requires you to ignore a few very obvious things (obvious to us as observers, that is, people who kind of have seen many types of song-and-dances before) which lead to "well, duh" moments that don't quite have an impact on us as much as they do the characters.  Similarly, the story seems to forget a lot of its own points here and there until it all of a sudden remembers them and thrusts them back in, insisting they're relevant when they really aren't.  Without spoiling anything, and saying this in a way that will likely only make sense to people who've played it, one thing in particular is pretty important for the start of the story, disappears completely, and then only pops up a couple more times to screw with the perceptions of not only Kat, but the player as well.  I'm waffling between whether or not I actually like this or not because it is nothing if not effective, but I'm not sure if it was as intended.

Things sort of begin to feel very general in terms of whether it's 'important' or 'important right now' when new plot points come up and it's more or less appropriate for an Origins story, but can leave the player sort of unsure of what to hinge on.  What I mean by this is that in most games, you have a very clear end-goal and a very obvious way of getting there and it's just usually a matter of the journey in between.  With Gravity Rush, there is sort of an end-goal that arcs over everything else, but it generally gets pushed into the background and is not resolved in the game at all.  Then as plot points pop up, they're generally swiftly resolved which just leads you into bringing up new ones so you can put them down as well.  To say any more would be spoiling matters, but suffice to say that I'm not throwing it down as an utter negative, nor am I saying the game is unfocused or anything like that.  But personally, while playing it, I found that my motivation never got honed to a fine point, since I never felt as if I was really in for the long haul against something.

At the same time, the ending does offer a satisfying bit of closure while still leaving the door open for the inevitable sequel in a fairly subtle way which is appreciated.  I mean, I know that the goal is to have another game in the series, but at least it didn't end with a "To Be Continued..." or a scene with one of the main characters turning out to be working with a big bad all along or anything so undesirable as that.  And I have to say that the very last bits of the game, the penultimate and final boss sections were possibly one of the more enjoyable segments in the game for me.  The penultimate boss because it absolutely nailed how the game should have felt all throughout because it was face-paced and allowed for the sort of finesse that you've gained by that point but aren't really expected to use.  It's hard to quantify it in words, but even though I spent the fight using the basically same tactic as any other boss battle which is more or less "Gravity Kick a lot", it -felt- like there was more to it than that because of the pacing and the openness of the battlefield itself.  It was glorious.  The final boss fight was the standard fare of the others, however the framing of it in terms of the story put it up there as something much more than that pretty easily.

When the story ends, however....that's about it which is quite unfortunate.  Side-content in sandbox games is often a double-edged sword as we all enjoy the opportunity to have other things to do in a game besides the main story, but there's a very fine line where there is too much of that and I don't think anybody quite knows where that line is.  Either they go far too much across it, or don't even come close to it, with nobody really having a good, happy medium spot and that's certainly the case with Gravity Rush.  In a game where pretty much all I want is more incentive to fly around and do stuff, there is little to be found beyond my own personal enjoyment.  Give me some sort of validation for finding it ever so fun to get around in your game because simply flying about because it's fun is fun, but we all have to move on eventually and I would like if it wasn't so easy to move on from a game I enjoy so thoroughly.

To this end, you only really have two options with the first being the Challenge Missions scattered about.  There is a surprisingly good amount of them, which by that I mean there are not too many nor too few, and they offer, unsurprisingly, a good challenge to be had which sometimes threaten to steal goodly amounts of time from your life to fine-tune your movements and to teach you the true finesse in the game.  It's not uncommon that you'll come in really really closely, but they're all very beatable with a little effort which is a very good area to be in.  The main flavors of these challenges are racing in nature, but specifically some task you with racing to checkpoints while making careful use of precious little energy, some have you fight as many Nevi as you can in a time frame and then you have the dreaded sliding races which make use of checkpoints and the Gravity Slide technique which is near-universally despised since...well, it's not very good.  Sliding takes the accuracy issues of the game and exemplify them, almost putting them under a lens because you very nearly have no control if you're not moving directly ahead.  It has its uses, but they are not ever-present given the limited scope the technique offers.

Beyond that there is only one 'collectible' which comes in the form of 'Travelers' whom you speak with.  They are not the easiest people to find, as they're not available on your map at all, only denoted by their speech icon if you're close enough to be able to spot it and their locations are generally the places you're not really expecting on going.  Which sort of touches on giving you a reason to fly around and explore, but without other things to find, it can be quite discouraging and end solely in just looking up a guide because it becomes more of a nuisance looking around to no avail.  However, these two people, for reasons I'm not going to get into, have a fairly important side-story, and divulge more and more of it with every encounter, thus making it worth it to seek them out at the very least.  It's optional of course, but interesting nonetheless because of what they have to say.  However, there are only 16 encounters and when they're done, they are -gone- and that is it.

It's kind of unfortunate because I am dead serious when I say that.  Like inFamous, there are all sorts of things scattered about that you pick up to improve your powers in a completely optional way (speaking of inFamous' blast shards specifically versus the crystals in GR) but they're handed out like coins in a Mario game or rings in a Sonic game so finding a cluster of them is not even a reward so much as a thing that will occur several times in the span of a few minutes.  Just something else like that, like the Blast Shards from inFamous, a game that I've made several allusions to when speaking of Gravity Rush being both Origins stories of sorts, would have been nice if just to give you a sort of meta-reward as it were.  I don't need to find 100 of them scattered over the world in completely obtuse places as other games treat their collectibles, but I want them in there nonetheless. 

Even though there is not exactly a lot in the game beyond the story content, what -is- there is quite worthy and definitely enjoyable.  The knowledge that it will not be the last bit of it by any stretch is very welcome, however since by no means is this the last time we'll see Kat.  Which isn't counting her cameo appearances in Hot Shots Golf and Playstation All-Stars (which isn't confirmed but come on) of course, as there is definitely more story out there that I have no reason to think we won't get.  Gravity Rush is a very good, very viable IP to sell on the Vita and it won't be the last I'm sure.  When the next installment will show up, I have no real idea, but I know that it won't be soon enough for my desires since I want more Gravity Rush right this moment.  Which, if nothing else, is pretty much the point to make for the entire game, double-speak involved with that and all.

The Good

• Impressive Art Style makes it very distinct all throughout and wonderful to play for it
• Kat is a very likeable protagonist, having enough personality to establish herself quite early and build on through the rest of the game
• The Controls offer a very real possibility to do some impressive things for the pure joy of it
• To further that point, 'flying' feels and works fantastically making it just a pleasure to play
• The actual setting of the game is whimsical and lovely, with the people milling about keeping it from feeling 'empty' as most sandbox games struggle with
• The story does several things correctly throughout for a proper Origins story
• The story also comes to a proper conclusion if not a 'complete' one
• The penultimate boss fight of the game is honestly like the perfect moment of the game
• There's a very real amount of charm that permeates through the entire game which elevates it overall

The Bad

• The game's challenges want a higher level of accuracy than players can comfortably give
• Gravity Sliding sections.  'Nuff said
• The story, by virtue of being an Origins story, brings up a lot to think about and to work with later
• Combat system isn't too varied, the Gravity Kick is pretty much your go-to move
• Some enemies have a sort of unnatural defense against the Gravity Kick, meaning battles go on far too long because of it (unless you use a special attack, probably)
• There's a real lack of side content
• The side content that's there (The Travelers) is a nuisance to get to because it's in no other company

Mogs Says

I really like Gravity Rush because, quite simply, it is a very likeable game.  It is a very good game and a strong contender for being the game (of the year) for some folks and this is all for very good reason.  The control of movement that the game really offers is staggering if you think about it and when you wrap your head around it, the controls with which to make it wonderful come naturally.  This, combined with the other efforts of the game itself make it really and truly enjoyable to play and experience.  If you have a Vita, then you likely have this game, possibly because of this game.  However, if by some strange reason you don't, this is definitely something you should get because this, more than anything else I've played so far, exemplifies the Vita itself with the subtle uses of the complete range of its features and gives an experience that you couldn't find anywhere else.

Gamescom News Dump - PS3 Edition

As with the Vita news from Gamescom, there was quite a hefty bit of news for the Playstation 3, and it came in all sorts of delicious flavors.  The best one of them all was the one we don't get a taste off too often:  New IP, as no less than three new IPs for the PS3 were revealed and shown off some.  Two of them are rather tantalizing at the very least, and should prove to be quite the games when they come out with the meantime serving quite well as a time to properly await them.  At least, hopefully the wait won't be too long, as I'm not quite sure we got much beyond announcement trailers for the bulk of them - nothing in terms of release windows or the like, but I wouldn't expect them anytime soon, of course.  Middle of next year at the earliest is my bet, perhaps even part of next years PSN Play thing for the PSN release(s), if they decide to do that again.  Or...something like it but with a different theme and/or name.

The first title is the above-pictured Puppeteer, which seems to be a rather magical platformer that is a little bit LittleBigPlanet and a little bit Dynamite Headdy if I'm not mistaken from the trailer for the game.  At least, it certainly looks like the main character switches out his head for various things that also somewhat serve as a head, but more importantly perform a function.    If I'm reading things correctly, this is all in an effort for the boy who is the main character to not only reclaim his -actual- head (I guess the one he has is a....dummy....head?  Urgh, I'm sorry.) so that he can then try and turn back into a real boy as well.  Oh, yeah, that's kind of an important thing to mention, I should think.  The whole....set up and story bit of it, since it is sort of vital to the game.

It starts with a young boy being kidnapped by "the maleficent Moon Bear King" to be taken to the castle where he is then turned into a puppet.  I am not sure if the boy is -real- before he is brought into the puppet show, or if the boy is a real boy puppet and is then turned into a puppet boy puppet.  When the entire thing is puppets and it's -about- puppets, introducing a non-puppet makes things a little confusing.  As a puppet, his head is devoured by said Moon Bear King and the boy, now headless, discovers a magical pair of scissors that is to be the main tool of the game, I would imagine.  As you might have seen in the trailer, it does sort of serve as a zipline sort of deal at one point, cutting along tapestries as he moves forward in his journey.  It is certainly a thing of magic and whimsy if nothing else, and despite my slightly tepid reaction here, I am definitely looking forward to it.  It has the right amounts of looking fantastic and charming as well as different, and the angle of the stage moving around you is wonderful if not just directly ripped from Dynamite Headdy.

Now, being a 2D Platformer, some might think it's relegated to a PSN Only release, but Puppeteer will be a fully-fledged Disk-based retail release.  This means that I will actually be able to buy this game when it comes out which pleases me because I certainly intend to do just that.  I'm too curious about the art style and the what seems to be the gameplay style to -not- intend to pick it up at this point.  Whether or not that changes as more and more information comes out is yet to be seen, but I highly doubt it.  We need more of these types of neat games, so any support that they get is a good thing, provided it's worthy.  Any new news about the game that comes out will be in the 'near future', so we'll just have to see what pops up; hopefully a little more gameplay footage will come out, or at least something that more easily explains the whole puppet, non-puppet thing.

Next up is Until Dawn, which is a game that I have mentioned before, but when I did mention them, it was impossible to know just what kind of game it was.  Now, most people would think that, upon expecting a game that could have possibly been a Vita game after mentioning handhelds in the information, finding out that it was a Move Title would be a disappointment.  Most people....would not be too far off.  I have made my enjoyment of the Move peripheral (if nothing else but conceptually) fairly known and don't impulsively roll my eyes at everything planned for it.  However, I'm just not quite sure what the experience you're meant to take away from Until Dawn is, and I'm not too sure it will be able to effectively sell itself (especially against the unnecessary splash-back from being a Move game and not a Wii game since apparently the difference is between one being cheap and a bad idea, and the other being on the Wii) whenever it releases.  (Smart money is on October...but we'll see.)

What Until Dawn -seems- to be is a campy Horror movie based on jump scares and the like turned video game.  And it acknowledges this, which is refreshing, though it still seems to expect to be able to scare you which is, I'm sure, a challenge many would be willing to take.  In....again, entirely different circumstances that are not playing this game on the PS3 with the Move which is honestly a shame.  The sheer level of negativity that the Move carries across the internet is baffling when you think about it; so much so that I debated talking about the game because of it.  Of course, I realized that I actually do care a little about the project here, and figured that I could go off of that if nothing else.  I was really excited about Datura after all, even though I haven't so much as looked around for the demo of that yet.  Doesn't mean I don't care, though.

So, why should you care about the game?  Well, just think about it this way for a moment; picture this game on the Wii instead if that helps with the knee-jerk reaction (and doesn't inspire another one, of course).  Remember when Silent Hill:  Shattered Memories was being showed off, and the main thing was using the Wiimote as a flashlight and that was legitimately awesome?  That is what this game does.  It likely does not have a story that is anywhere near as dumb as Shattered Memories is purported to be, even though what story it does have will likely be delivered as poorly.  So you have a legitimately cool game mechanic, you have a situation in which it is useful to the mood of the game itself, and if it was on the console that 'started' the motion gaming thing, you can bet that it would be shouted about from the rooftops.  That it's on a different system means nothing, so if this is a thing that appeals to you on any level, just run with that.  You are likely not going to buy a Move for this game, but that doesn't mean you cannot be civil and level-headed about it, now does it?

Last up is 'rain' which is a game that I was completely and utterly wrong about, as was another website that I will certainly not be putting any stock into any time in the future.  And it's totally not because I am very, very bummed that the game is, in fact, not a game by Sucker Punch nor does it even look anywhere near like it was, -nor- does it have any cyberpunk elements in it whatsoever.  Not at all.  However, what 'rain' -does- have is precious enough, because the game has style, much like the above-mentioned Puppeteer.  Unsurprisingly, both games seem to come from some of Sony's Japanese studios if I'm not mistaken, and they both really seem to carry a wonderful amount of charm as well as the ability to completely set the mood that they are going for.  Where Puppeteer is light, cheery, but with an air of mystery and adventure, rain seems to be the antithesis of that - moody and low-key, perhaps even melancholic at times if the story and vibe match up with what the game will end up as.

The story behind rain seems to be that a boy who is invisible in a dark, dreary world where it seems to rain quite often.  The boy, because of this, can only be seen while it's raining, as shown above, because the water helps define his form for the eyes.  Based on what the trailer itself says, the boy is in this world for reasons that aren't immediately known and sees the silhouette of a girl that seems to be invisible.  He is lost and eventually becomes invisible himself, still searching for a way out of this world that is strange and different from the real world.  At least, the real world is inhabited by people and things who are not completely invisible.  It's a very unique concept and does carry the chance of being something truly brilliant and/or beautiful in the way that such games are considered to be.  Games like Ico, where their strength is truly the simplicity and the ability to truly embrace that, those are the games that tend to leave an impact larger than most, and rain seems to have the makings of one of those types of games.

Without hyping it up too much, of course, I'm certain that a lot of people will be looking forward to this one, frantically pawing around the internet for any news that comes of it.  It has been announced as a PSN Exclusive and, being a first-party developed title, will assuredly stay that way, with only a Vita version really being a possibility outside the announced PS3 version, I'd say.  And really, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see this again for months and have it sort of drawn out to eventually be released as one of the 'headliners' for the next PSN Play or equivalent promotion.  Certainly it'd be fantastic and would get a lot of pickups no matter when it comes about, but throwing it into a promotion like that will only sell it that much more.  Regardless, if anything, this is probably -the- game to watch out for, even if you're not really interested in basically anything else that was announced at Gamescom.  Of course, if you weren't, then I don't know what to tell you because Seriously, Tearaway, but the announcements really point to something for everybody I think, so it should be easy enough to pick -something- out.

Soul Sacrifice Looks Brutal, Awesome

Look at the screenshot above.  Now look at your Vita.  The above screenshot is concept art for the oft-teased (at least, in the last week or so) "Soul Sacrifice", a game which has just now started spilling out delicious delicious information.  A game that will be on the Playstation Vita, and a game that looks wonderfully screwed up.  A game that has literally planted itself on my radar simply by being insanity given form in a budding thing.  And a game that I will no doubt be following fairly intensely in its development process.

You've probably been thinking to yourself "Why is he eating his hand?" or something similar while looking at the above picture and I assure you, I will get to that in all due time.  First, I should probably explain the premise of the game, or at least what little bit of it has been shared.  You play a wizard that is the slave of a more powerful mage and, at some point, a demon comes by with a magical book that seems to serve as the 'hub' by the way it sounds, since it apparently lets you 'experience' the different events inside, indicating that it would ideally be the actual storyline and the way it progresses.  The wizard that you play is meant to be -your- wizard and as such, you'll be able to change their appearance to your liking, and I imagine the style in which the wizard specializes in will be up to your whims as well.

Speaking style, I of course mean fighting style, which hasn't been detailed too much, but the little bits that have been pointed out are....quite a thing.  They're the focus of the game for a very obvious reason when you get into it, and will likely be the main thing you either love or hate about the game.  You see, the magic used in Soul Sacrifice all works off of, well, "Sacrifices".  Whether it be an item, likely health or, for the big, bad spells, parts of your body itself.  Literally.  You see, the picture at the top of the post here depicts a wizard using the "Excalibur" spell, for which the required sacrifice is, uh....your spine.  So he literally rips his spine out through his mouth and the body part is used as an instrument of death, likely for a short period of time only.  After which, one could assume it just sort of...uh....goes back in.  Maybe.  Similarly, other spells discussed so far are "Greipnir" which sacrifices....the bones in your fingers, s'far as I can tell, to turn your hand into an extending instrument of torture, and "Gorgon" which requires an eye, thus summoning other eyeballs that fire lasers.  Seriously.

Some will likely take well to the rather over-the-top insanity that the game clearly has at its core where others will simply say that it's 'trying too hard'.  I'm sure with my history and the praise I've had for it so far makes it fairly clear which camp I'm in.  And still others won't know what to think beyond "How is he walking around if he ripped his own spine out" to which the obvious answer is "Shut up, that's how".  One does not question the merit of using your own spine as a weapon, but rather must simply applaud the ingenuity involved in even -thinking- about that, much less the backbone guts to actually do it.  Of course, with only these three spells being the ones I've seen so far, that's only the tip of the ice berg and I can't wait to see just what else they can think of along those lines.

Of course, there is a downside to ripping apart your own body in various ways to destroy your enemies.  Who would've thought, right?  Apparently, from a few pieces of information pulled together, the baddies of the world may just be other wizards who wielded the same sorts of spells in the same situations (fighting the wizards before them) until they twisted and mutated them into that which they sought to destroy.  It's a vicious cycle thematically, and might just come into play in the gameplay itself, especially with the Multiplayer aspect of the game that plays up on the slight "Monster Hunter" vibe the game carries.  Which is to say that there will be lots of rather large monsters that will be much more fun to take out with a friend or friends, and the Vita's capabilities will allow just such a thing to occur.

Despite the rumors and comments about the art style of Soul Sacrifice, From Software, the makers of Demon's and Dark Souls, has nothing to do with the game.  In fact, it's one of those (I'm assuming) rare games that actually have three different developers behind it working cooperatively.  Soul Sacrifice's trifecta come in the form of Sony's Japan Studio, Marvelous AQL and Keiji Inafune (or rather, Inafune and his development studio Comcept I would assume).  If you had managed to hear word of Inafune accidentally admitting to working on a Vita game, well, this would be the one and it's...certainly not what anybody expected, I'm quite sure.  Still, it looks quite out there and as I've said, I'm already looking forward to it just based on the little information we have.  There should be a trailer here soon for the game, so when it comes out, I'll link it here for your viewing pleasure!

Update!:  As I said, a trailer went up today, so let's take a gander, yes?

Still no real gameplay, but it does show what "Excalibur" looks like in motion and it's just as brutal as you might expect.  Also, at the tail end of the video, it gives a little glimpse at just what you might expect after using such a high-end spell:  Death.  Of course, with a game like this, that might not be quite as much of a barrier as you might expect; after all, the creatures of the world are only creatures because they were so badly disfigured after using so many strong spells.  Death in battle seems to be able to serve as a primary tactic as this siliconera post goes on to say.

This group of players decided on sacrifice and a wounded sorcerer set himself on fire to cast the spell Salamander. The other three players decided to sacrifice Cerberus and claim the reward.

One player sacrifices himself so that the others can finally finish off the creature, or even offer it salvation, after the end of the battle.  They will then be rewarded accordingly.  I've seen elsewhere that such a sacrifice from a player can result in a large buff for the remaining party as well, though I imagine there are other advantages.  And of course, it won't always be completely necessary for three players to reap the benefits of a victory; I'm sure part of the challenge comes in at finding out just what these times are.  With such a system in place, though, I'm curious as to hearing just how the lasting effects work.  After all, after playing your character online with others for so long, you'll likely use enough magic for disfigurement, but it seems a little odd to reward your players for success by rendering their characters to being awful abominations.  Regardless, it's something curious and great to look forward to, since even though localization is just 'an option' at this point, this is almost assuredly coming this way.