Gravity Rush – Dreams, Cat & Heroine

Gravity Rush is a game one will recognize as amazing from the start – yet over its course, several realizations will be had, a sudden awakening to the immersive qualities, and a shock from the immensity of the plot.

It’s not even a rarity – but something more. This title had us engaged, it was unsurprisingly spectacular – however, around halfway in, a thought came to mind which we couldn’t deny, a complaint for this game we simply could not find. Our usual gaming experience involves glancing at the clock compulsively in hopes of not wasting too much time on a game being played more so for sake of wasting time than anything else, yet Gravity Rush was above this.

The only barrier keeping us from literally becoming inside the game was the inability to physically pass through a 3-D screen, and into a 2-D world – quite a depressing limitation.

Indeed, somewhere in the middle of it, an awareness hit to the fact that Gravity Rush was as if an extension of our life – that’s how captivating it is, and the thrill is something almost ridiculous in how creative and innovative it is compared to any other given modern title of gaming. Let it be noted, however, that perhaps the game isn’t legitimately flawless – nothing of our material world is, yet Gravity Rush doesn’t have us bothered by anything for the reason that there’s not a single aspect which doesn’t fit in the atmosphere, imperfections included.

No matter, one can pick on the arbitrary as per their own desires – we’re too occupied with fascination.

An Apple A Day…

Tap away diligently on the touchscreen – a single apple is seen upon the start of the game hanging from a tree within a mini-garden platform which has one of those Eden vibes to it, and our objective is to poke at it. Right then and there, this game became overwhelming – the apple is symbolic of gravity with certainty, yet as one travels throughout to the ending of this spectacular work, they will wonder if the apple ever had any more meaning to it.

And additionally, the scene of the tree becomes a monumental memory when considered in retrospect after facing the finale. The opening seconds won’t be particularly as striking when playing initially – yet once one completes a play through, the substance of it will be almost mind numbing. A clear blue sky engulfs a city which sits in the clouds – this is where the apple tree is, and this is a place which we will no longer see for the rest of the game.

Everything is meaningful in Gravity Rush – do not take anything for granted or as a passing detail.

As result of our twiddling, the apple will fall, continuing along to an edge which then sees it dive a distance unimaginable. Likewise, our heroine fell from a city high above, down into a place settled far below – from skies of blue, to orange, red, and all sorts of other hues. Whatever occurred, she awakens in her new home, a city to which she plays a role one would never have had the slightest thought when going into the game.

The complexity of Gravity Rush knows no bounds in terms of story – yet while elaborate, it’s also highly articulate. Gravity Rush’s plot will be understood based both on what it explicitly states, as well as what never goes touched. Certain aspects shed light on others indirectly – making apparent their significance in the story without the series needing to be brute about it.

Cats & Kat

Now attempting to tackle the tale, after our heroine, Kat, finds herself within an unfamiliar world, she’s met by a cat, a neko deciding to follow her and become her companion – and secondly, she has amnesia. Kat isn’t a stereotypical amnesic – she doesn’t dawdle over lost time, she strives forward instead, and one will see that themselves. The game begins, and the past couldn’t be cared any less about – Kat attempts to scope her current situation, as well as potential of moving forward, truly not even questioning her own origins till later on.

We’re simply going to recommend now that you play the game, as from here on, we intend to tear apart the story.

While the workings are a mystery, the cat which allies with our heroine of its own accord allows her to shift gravity – there’s also another female in the city similar to her, and with a bird companion instead, the girl’s name is Raven.

Kat would go through an immense adventure restoring the city of Heksville to a state of peace which it apparently experienced at some point in the past. When Kat first arrived to Heksville, the place was infested with a creature called a “Nevi” – and was segmented in ruins.

Never is it made entirely clear what a “Nevi” is – yet the visible is that they’re all black with some seeming red, entities coming in a variety of shapes and sizes, with a beaming red core which their survival depends on. While the Nevi are made out as enemies of the citizens, there’s an instance in which one was protecting a girl – and then secondly, a scene which reveals that Kat’s cat is, in fact, at least partially a Nevi. The cat is definitely not an ordinary one – it’s not even a cat, it’s a creature, perhaps a Nevi, taking the form of such an animal.

The Creators

Note that near the end of the game however, Cyanea refers to the cat as a “guardian”. Cyanea is a being who proclaims herself a “Creator” – she’s the second one will find, the first being an elderly fellow named Gade. These two “Creators” have uncertain roles – they claim to have made the world, though they cannot control it, and they’re not omnipotent. Gade has a universe where his abdomen would normally be – and as for Cyanea, she actually consists of several entitles within a single body of a cute young girl.

Cyanea The Creator can assemble worlds, Cyanea The Dream Guardian keeps the girl Cyanea “anchored” within a zone between dreams and reality, and then Cyanea the typical shoujo.

Attempting to find definite answers to anything regarding Cyanea is futile – perhaps a sequel will share the story with us, yet going based off what Cyanea tells us herself, she repeatedly tells our heroine that the world in which they stand is the dream of Cyanea. And in response to that, one has to question then who exactly is Cyanea, and why is it that she keeps dreaming.

Unfortunately, there’s simply no answers at this point – though it’s worthy of note, Kat makes a friend upon her time on Heksville, a lively yet scheming friendly fellow named Syd who for a split second during the conclusion of the game makes a gesture that implies he knows Cyanea from somewhere.

Having nothing further to dwell on in that respect, we turn to the other “Creator”, Gade – aside from the aforementioned gaping black hole on his body, he oversees sectors known as the “rift planes”. These are alter dimensions – the name “rift” implies they serve as a medium between two points. Assuming the world of Gravity Rush is indeed all but a dream, perhaps the rifts are just that – pathways between the dream world of Cyanea, and reality.

Each rift plane contains a very abstract space, with some sort of central theme – although it’s uncertain if that latter aspect has any value. One rift plane is reminiscent of ancient ruins, another, an inferno world of flames, and a third, a place starry like space. All three have a tree within which gives Kat a special power when encountered – the tree is reminiscent to that seen at the game’s beginning.

Enemies & Friends

Earlier mentioned was Syd, his character is quite basic if taken at face value – Syd is one of the first people whom Kat meets, and the two become rather well-acquainted, with him even aiding in saving her near the game’s end. However, the game implies all throughout that there may be more to Syd – there’s a criminal who has odd manipulative powers, Alias, and rough evidence points toward Syd being Alias.

Alias can split into clones of himself, he robs the city of jewels which supposedly serve to protect it, and he’s regarded as an antagonist – yet his role is highly obscure. He’s very much on the sidelines of the entire game’s story – being prominent, but not having any understandable position in it all. And further, there’s a point in the game where it appears that he dies – yet he later on haunts Kat while she’s at home. He somehow splits her neko into 20 different units – and wastes quite a bit of time with Kat till she ends up getting a glimpse of his face.

We never get a glimpse of his visage ourselves – yet Kat’s reaction says that it’s someone she knows, and the only logical candidate is Syd. Two things however, Alias’ abilities make his species or whatever he is, very shadowy and open for debate – and secondly, Syd himself has made it more than apparent that he’s on Kat’s side. Making the presumption that the two are the same individual, it would be likely that in that case, that they’re not aware of each other’s actions – perhaps even, they’re two separate dimensional variants of the same man.

Nonetheless, shifting onward, “Raven” is a girl much like Kat in her ability to play with gravity – a point in the game comes along where one learns that she was originally part of a group of children who fell off of Heksville, and down into a city on the edge of the world. There, time stood nearly still – the other children, as result, never grew. Raven somehow escaped that place however – returning to Heksville, and that’s why she’s not a child.

Time is variable depending on location – every city is attached to an unfathomably ginormous tower. As one progresses through Gravity Rush, it will be revealed within the village of children, by means of several manners, that time is not consistent in this world, but relative to spot on the tower – the middle being about regular, the bottom operating at slow speed, and the top turning at years which would be only days for Heksville.

An upsetting facet is that we never understand how or why Raven became able to control gravity, aside from the fact that the gift is made possible by an animal bodied creature – though it’s the same deal with our heroine, Kat.

Queen Turned Heroine

Yet we do at least gain an item of knowledge regarding the towers from one of the “Travelers”, a soul who resides within a ruptured distortion of space time as per an experiment went epic fail – there’s a male and female traveler, and the female tells us that in her exploration of the world, she’s found a second tower, with a society similar, but not identical, to the one where our heroine and story take place. With a second tower in existence – Kat may have originally come from there, it’s hard to comprehend why the game would otherwise share this information.

Onto the subject of our heroine once more, Cyanea The Creator provides a feast of knowledge regarding our heroine – she foreshadows an event we later see in the future within a subconsciously created realm, and then she also shows us something which confirms a suspicion one might have secured somewhat earlier into the game. Kat was a queen of an upper part of the tower – she fell down to Heksville, losing all memory, and that marked the start of adventure. Upon the game’s ending, we’re also again given a solid confirmation that Kat is a queen of the tower’s pinnacle.

Alias is noted to be acquainted with Kat when she was a queen – and on the last note of her royalty, Cyanea The Creator said many interesting things when she was essentially showing Kat a bit of her past:

“The burden your frail arms were forced to carry was too much to handle. Yet you never thought twice about your actions.”
“The truth concerned those around you.”
“Your innocence was your undoing, for it stirred them into action.”
“In the end, you gave up. You shared the blame for what befell your world.”

Let’s say Kat was betrayed by her subordinates when she was a queen at the top of the tower, this would be ironic as her innocence is what saved Heksville while it seemingly destroyed her own former home.

One more item for thought, the name “Bolsey” is certainly thrown out a lot – yet we never see the fellow ourselves, he’s ousted in position by a conniving creep before we ever meet him. The creep however is shown to be familiar with Kat when she was a queen during the conclusion. And giving the most lethal injection of anxious excitement for a sequel to this game, a character says during the ending that this was all but “the calm before the storm” – implying that all of Gravity Rush’s events were merely a build up for another greater event to come.

Endless Dreams~

There’s still much to be said about Gravity Rush – though it seems that may be “another story for another time”. The plot alone is too expansive a subject to discuss – yet not only is it vast, it’s also completely bewitching. While they’ll be examined later on, we can however still say with full confidence that contributing factors, such as visuals and sound, taken into account with the story, offer a full game experience of which one could only dream.

Dreams come true after all.

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