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Gravity Rush Remastered is a masterpiece on PS4
Tue, 2nd Feb 2016
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Gravity Rush was one of the best original games to ever come out for the PS Vita, and now the game has been remastered for the PS4 in the form of Gravity Rush Remastered.  Gravity Rush Remastered tells the story of a young girl with amnesia named Kat. She has no memory of who she is, but she has the ability to float in the air for several seconds at a time. She can only fly because of a mysterious cat that accompanies her, as the cat is the one with the real powers.  As the game progresses, Kat has to find out who she is and why she has been gifted these new powers given by this cat. The story starts off somewhat slow in the beginning, but becomes great the more you play it and find out who Kat really is. There's more to Kat than meets the eye.     At the start of the game, Kat is stuck in a floating city called Hekseville. The city is often attacked by mysterious black and red monsters called the "Nevi". Kat is the only person that has the ability to fight them off. As the story progresses, Kat discovers there are other floating cities around that needs saving too. There are also far more Nevi for her to fight as well.  When the game first came out on PS Vita back in 2012, it made perfect use of the handheld's unique control scheme. Players used the touch screen and gyroscope to control where Kat was flying towards. It was innovative back then, although some players might have had a hard time getting used to it.  Gravity Rush Remastered improves the controls as you can now use the right analogue stick to navigate Kat while she's in the air flying. Using the analogue stick is far easier than the motion controls utilised in the PS Vita version. It actually made the game a less frustrating experience as more gamers are comfortable using analogue sticks. There is more to the game other than flying around as Kat is very proficient in combat too. The combat system is one of the most unique I have played in recent memory as Kat's ability to fly makes it far more enjoyable to play. She can hone in on enemies using a gravity kick and evade attacks when she needs to.   Aside from batting small scale enemies, there are also big Nevi monsters that serve as boss fights. The boss fights are really fun to play as Kat has to find a weakness to exploit and they can last for several minutes. The bosses aren't too predictable either as they don't have a set pattern outside of you trying to find a weak spot(s) on their bodies.   The core gameplay is great as you can do more than just follow the main story. The game has a mini open-world as there are several side quests that you can undertake. The side quests can include things like becoming a maid, solving crimes or even just doing checkpoint races and more. The main story itself is pretty lengthy so the side activities just adds even more hours of fun.  Graphically, Gravity Rush Remastered looks absolutely gorgeous on the PS4. The game already looked great on the PS Vita system, but everything now looks much bigger and smoother playing it on a TV screen. The cel-shaded graphics are a nice touch too as are the comic book style cutscenes.  However, the game is not perfect as there are some flaws I found in this game. Sadly, the game does not feature many voice-overs as the characters mainly speak in a different language. Not to mention the music could have been much better as it is not as memorable as in other action-RPGs I have played in the past.  Some people may also find that it can be tedious trying to improve on Kat's abilities. Instead of fighting lots of enemies to level up like in other RPGs, Kat needs to collect lots of gems in order to improve her abilities. You will spend several hours just floating around the game collecting lots of gems all of the time which can get tiresome.  Aside from a few flaws, Gravity Rush Remastered is still a masterpiece and one of the best games I have played in recent memory. It has a very likeable main character and a story that will make you want to play until the very end. The gameplay itself is also unique because it's unlike any other game out there. All PS4 owners should definitely check this game out if you have not played the PS Vita version before.  Verdict: 9.5/10