Gravity Rush, a franchise made for PlayStation by Japan Studio, released its two games in early 2016 and 2017. Featuring Kat, a young girl with the ability to manipulate gravity, the franchise follows her as she navigates her powers and works to help the people around her. With an amazing blend of 2D manga panels and 3D game animation, music composed by Kohei Tanaka, bright pops of colors and vivid world-building, the Gravity Rush franchise is a great addition to the PlayStation collection, but many fans consider it to be a hidden gem.
Japan Studio, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s first-party studio in Tokyo, developed the two games in 2015 and 2017 under Project Siren, also known as Team Gravity. Despite Gravity Rush selling 200,000 copies and its sequel, Gravity Rush 2, selling over 102,000, the franchise hasn’t made it into mainstream media. Since then, Japan Studio went defunct on April 1, 2021. Fans are still hoping for a potential third sequel.
The Gravity Rush franchise begins as Kat and her companion Dusty awake with no memory and learn to control her newfound ability to shift gravity. She works hard to protect Hekseville, meeting a Dream Guardian and her new best friend, Raven, as she defeats the Nevi that plague the city. Gravity Rush 2 takes place after Kat, Raven and her police officer friend, Syd, are brought into the sky by a gravity storm and transported to Banga Village. Kat struggles to convince the citizens of Banga that she is able to shift gravity until she finds Dusty and recovers her ability to protect the village. Kat must work to protect Banga Village, Jirga Para Lhao and Hekseville from danger throughout the story.
Gravity Rush and its sequel center around Kat’s ability to manipulate gravity. While the games feature ground combat, they focus on combat using the ability to rotate and aim at enemies with gravity shifting, such as the Gravity Kick, Gravity Slide and Stasis Field. Enemies in the franchise display weak points that Kat can target for attack. In Gravity Rush 2, Kat gains two new forms of gravity manipulation, Lunar Style, which enables Kat to move faster and jump higher, and Jupiter Style, which allows for stronger attacks.
Coming from Japan Studio, Gravity Rush lost its mainstream chance for a big hype release. Bungie, the studio responsible for the Destiny franchise, sold 1.5 million copies of Destiny 2 within its first week of release, while the Gravity Rush franchise has only sold approximately 300,000 copies during the release of their two games. Gravity Rush is a franchise that many gamers haven’t heard of, much less spent the time to play. With online features being disabled in 2018 and Japan Studio’s disbandment in 2021, the games have been left behind as another failed franchise.
Gravity Rush is a franchise worth looking into. With an open world, organic character development and immersive gameplay, the franchise shouldn’t be forgotten as just another PlayStation game. I highly recommend Gravity Rush to any gamer who enjoys action-adventure gaming.