my rating for a game is based on a simple question: "how much fun did you have?" and even if a game has flaws, if i loved it i will still give it five stars.

gravity rush 2 is an Experience. it's both exhilarating and heartbreaking for reasons both in and out of universe. there's so much lore to be expanded on, and it'll never be expanded on to the degree it requires because japan studio is gone. both in and out of universe, the world of gravity rush ended up being a fleeting dream (this isn't a spoiler, gr1 elaborates on this!), and tbh yeah i really think a gravity rush 3 is needed, even though it'll never happen. the only discussion i can find on this game is from Gamers who only play AAA games and complain about every little thing in the game, weebs who "correct" anyone who dares imply kat isn't straight and complain that the movie will have "diversity sjw garbage" or whatever, and people who are incredibly weird about female characters in games, and even outside of that like 90% of discussion on the game is comments on how "underrated" it is without actually saying anything about it. i however have collected a pro-con list i know nobody will make it to the end of that sums up my thoughts. it's, as anyone will tell you, full of charm to the max

LOVED

++ raven's ai is SCARY competent and whenever she's with me she. kind of ends up leading the mission. she's a better fighter than i am and she cleans up after me a lot and i might just say she's the most competent ai ally in any game i've ever played (i'm staring daggers at lost judgment right now btw)

++ raven's kind of an mvp in this game

++ i adore the addition of sidequests and i don't care if some of them weren't great. it added so much to make the world feel a little bit more alive, and many side story npcs reappear, be it more substories or just conversations. it gives you a glimpse into the lives of everyday people in the world of gravity rush. you can continue the legacy of jingle all the way and race people to get the last stock of the hot new doll as a gift. you can do a demon summoning ritual with some schoolgirls. you can dress up as a superhero to advertise ice cream. all of that and more. it felt a lot like how yakuza builds its world if you'll excuse me going yakuza brain again

++ there's two returning characters and the way kat interacts with them is both bittersweet and wonderful for character building. her chirpy "power through it" attitude falters and often vanishes around these two and idk if the game intends it but her interactions with these two are as important as main story beats characterwise

++ the social features are amazing?? the camera, the gestures, the costumes. on par with many ONLINE MULTIPLAYER GAMES in this regard despite not needing to be

++ the game's use of musical motifs is GORGEOUS and works in a big way. if you know you know

++ gravity rush has a habit of going full NieR when it gets serious and i love love LOVE it

LIKED

+ kali angel

+ syd is 100 times more interesting in this game

+ there's actually bosses you CAN'T unga bunga and requires combat instincts

+ your honour they're lesbians

+ i'm glad to hear more of the game's conlang. it's like a mix of japanese and french i love it

MIXED

++- game world is INSANE and i like jirga para lhao even better than hekseville but it feels like an out of control minecraft smp server in terms of structures. navigating by landmarks isn't really very easy and even after finishing the game i open the map every few seconds to figure out where i'm going. some areas have too many stairs, some not enough, dead ends where npcs walk and then turn around immediately, isolated plazas with no actual pedestrian access (leaving me wondering how people living here would get anywhere)

+- i loved it but the final act should have been an entire third game, and felt kind of rushed

+- the game's social critiques are a little basic, not to the point of "why can't we all just get along :(" or both sides-ism but it makes it feel like a game from a decade earlier in terms of social attitudes. however i do like that the angry centipede still got more depth than some other games would give them

+-- jupiter style's surge kick is satisfying but the mission where you get it is the WORST

NEUTRAL/NOT THE GAME'S FAULT

/ my hair's got red streaks in it already and i love raven so i'm REALLY tempted to go full red

/ i wish i could have remapped style switches to the d-pad and none of the preset layouts allow that. maybe that's yakuza 0 brain talking (especially as jupiter style scratches the same itch beast style does)

/ sony didn't give this game a chance and killed its online server after 18 months, only 18 due to fan backlash, and it was meant to be taken offline after a year. it's genuinely heartbreaking to get hit with the "the online service has ended" message every time i finish a challenge and it never gets any less sad to see. it also means a lot of stuff is impossible to legitimately acquire

/ there is a point where the game reminds you this is made by the same guy who made silent hill. this is not a plus or a minus because i have no words for it. you will know what point.

DISLIKED

- challenges pay peanuts as before and there's less gems everywhere. grinding mines was something i didn't wanna do either

- no rp walking :( i bumped into a fair few people in lei cosmolna and made them drop their stuff

- gravity sliding is somehow worse than in gr1

-- far far far far far far FAR too many stealth missions. some good, some awful, mostly just barely tolerable. like half of this game's missions were stealth and they could have used more variety bc they def had some creative sidequests

this is a game that will stay with me for...quite a while. merch is nonexistent, the one fanzine i could find is impossible to obtain, most characters who aren't kat or raven have no cosplay that i know of, some characters have little to no fanart...i wish i could do my part in making sure gravity rush isn't forgotten

ok that's all i go now goodbye

(from the game manual)

[#]UCHU- story

One day suddenly,you receive 12 UCHU- guided bombs. What do you do?

No thank you. No increase so much!
Less time to play. Soon the game is over.so No thanks.
Therefore I can't use so much.
Oh, no more. To make a sortie,give me a turn. Here.
Why do you increase!? No more increse. No more!
I can't make full use. Too many! Too many! Give me a turn.
Ohhh! Ohh ! Why increase SO MORE? It becomes a terrible thing!
How many bombs!? No! No! I CAN'T USE!
Do you listen? No more! Why increase! NO! NO!
Who in the world use so many bombs! No more. Already enough!
Hey,PLEASE no increase! You listen!?
NO NO MORE! STOP STOP! No increase! It's enough!
STOP! STOP NOW! NO! NO! NO INCREASE! NO MORE!
What are you doing!? Increase,no increase,or WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?
HEY! Really what are you doing!? Soon it's overflow! Terrible!
NO MORE! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

fuck reviews we dump all our random thoughts like real yakuza

KEY
++ this was a huge plus, and contributed to my enjoyment of the game.
+ this was a plus, and was something i enjoyed.
+- this is a mixed bag, and has both upsides and downsides.
- this was a minor issue, but nothing i can't brush off.
-- this was an issue that impacted my enjoyment of the game.
// this was an issue, but is either a me thing or just isn't really the game's fault.

LOVES

++ the combat is so much better. oh my god. this is what 7 was missing; something that actually made use of the positioning within the circle. normal attacks have not only become viable but i PREFER normal attacks just for the fun interactions i can have as a result of my position. back attacks and back combo attacks are the most satisfying things in the world. i do wish attack modifiers stacking was labelled properly (ie back combo, back weapon attacks) but it still happens and oh my GOD i love the combat in this game now. also the area markers for skills
++ characterisation is on point as ever! in fact, bonus points for not having a main cast female character be made to use her "feminine wiles" to get information from the enemy. it was ATTEMPTED at one point but it failed and wasn't even shown, so i still don't count it. yes this has to be mentioned because 7, judgement AND lost judgement/kaito files (THREE TIMES, WITH THE SAME CHARACTER) did this
++ kiryu gets a certain kind of substory and i'm HERE for them
++ music is AMAZING as always. they got a banger of a trap music jam in here too. (barracuda voice) barracuda
++ i adore honolulu. i will not only not fast-travel, but i will sometimes rp walk everywhere like an actual person. i will sometimes take the trolleys. i will wait to cross the road. i will take tourist snaps in funny places. i can't say enough they did an amazing job modelling this place!!!
++ this game genuinely does pay homage to previous games. if it seems like it's thin on 2/kiwami 2 references, it's because gaiden had that covered. i adore that this game didn't cut out references to older games just to cater to an imagined "newbie" - SO many older things i didn't think anyone remembered received references. including yakuza for the ps2. not its remake, kiwami. the original ps2 game got shoutouts.
++ from the above - it's extremely interesting that this game shows what kiryu remembers from the events of previous yakuza games as important vs what the fans consider important. he doesn't seem to actively remember much of the serious side of 0, but i get that - he seems to consider everything pre-kiwami as time spent messing around as a dumb kid with nishikiyama, and the bubble era to him is disco, funny outfits and dancing all night. 4 he barely mentions because the plot didn't really need him, and what little of 4 he was there for, he already addressed in 6. he names 5 as the worst time of his life, and 6 was kind of a red haze to him - but YEAH it's really interesting to see remembering things from his point of view

LIKES

+ kiryu's new look really grows on me. i was tired of the grey suit + red shirt combo and i really like this new one. might be my fave kiryu look
+ yutaka yamai
+ very big fan of all the little conversations you can have. it's even better here
+ one thing i don't like is when people talk about older characters like they're withering away and weak just because they're over the age of 30. this is the middle aged man game series, not your skinny anime boy game series. over 30 means stronger babey. kiryu (55), adachi (63), sawashiro (61), gramps (77), yamai (50) are all in VERY good condition and i wouldn't have it any other way
+ you get a segway to travel round. there are two party members who sometimes go "let's go~" when you start riding one and i love it so much
+ BEATDOWN
+ even if a literal single line, acknowledges the pandemic, which is more than i can say for most media

MIXED

++- i love the aloha links and having an instant "say hi" button. it's extremely satisfying. however, people you are buddies with will walk up to you and say hi over and over and over. they won't leave even if you say hi back and it makes trying to do anything in the presence of an aloha link buddy really annoying. i'm typing this one after having a walk and talk finale overlaid with an npc buddy going ALOHA over and over because she'd encountered ichiban in the spot i began the cutscene, and she'd stood there waving and repeating ALOHA at him the whole time, and it killed the vibe entirely
+- i t s n o t a s h o w s h i t h e a d
+- k n o c k i t o f f w i t h t h e s t a r i n g
+- joking aside, maybe it's just because it's in english this time and yakuza has probably been doing this the whole time (ie "CHOTTO SOGORO"/"OI, MATTE YO") but there are a LOT of repeated lines, which becomes worse given the way being spotted works in this game - ie you can dip in and out of the vision cones, triggering the lines repeatedly. there's the npc "spotted" lines, there's the npc chatter ("today is gonna be a blast", "what time is it? our reservation might be soon", "this is the best vacation ever"). in the anaconda shopping mall it makes it sound like an art installation or even music, and i kinda like it, but that's just me. however. enemy callouts can get annoying when you wanna get around, ie trying to listen to a walk and talk only to get hit with WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT. though having it be not an insta-battle begin like in 7 is AMAZING
+- the general gameplay flow of like a dragon/yakuza is that it lets you mess around with substories and minigames until you're ready to return to the main story. unfortunately, infinite wealth pads out the main story by forcing you to engage in substories and minigames. this was a problem with 5 too, the now second longest yakuza game. wasn't letting the player discover the side content for themselves until they're ready to return to the main story the deal? this is a mixed bag because the side content is genuinely good but i wish the game would let players discover things for themselves a bit. if dondoko island wasn't as fun as it was i would NOT have been happy (see: yakuza 4 making you do the shitty old engine cabaret club minigame to progress)
+- i do love the trolleys but there's very limited use for them; it's VERY rare for me to want to take one over a segway. stops are so far apart that you may as well walk the distance because the stop you need won't take you where you need, but at the same time the loops are so small that you'll barely get time to relax going from one stop to another, but taking the trolley two stops is. prety much making over half a loop round the line. might as well segway. i only take them when i'm rping being a tourist. this map is big but still not big enough for the trolleys to be of proper use
+- i found the substories to be a step down from 7, but there were still standouts (let it snow, the stunt one, the one with the heads in the sand, coming out of her shell)

NEGATIVES

- why did they not bring back the va for a certain character in hawaii :(
- can we please have jobs for women that aren't Like That. i would rather there be no gender-locking at all tbh
- this game went all IN on having people call ichiban an old man??? what
- what does this game have against sharks. portrayals of sharks as bloodthirsty savage killer beasts do NOT make me happy
- add some more grey hair and wrinkles to more characters to show the time passed you cowards
- as with gaiden, localisation qa has slipped a little (it'd be too convenient to blame this on scott strichart leaving so i'm not going to do that), and i'm noticing a few typos

MAJOR DISLIKES

-- i'm sorry but imo this game doesn't make the best use of its soundtrack, which is a shame because the soundtrack is really good. some tracks are often wasted on one-minute fights, some don't even pop up when they should, and there's one escape sequence in the game where the bgm is really tense. do you know what the music was for the enemies that pop up? the extremely unserious normal battle bgm. it killed all tension the sequence had and made me feel like i was just grinding, and made me want the sequence to end already. raid music begins before the raid even starts, and sometimes before a battle BEFORE the raid, too?? like a dragon using the silly "sad" substory music in inappropriate places is kind of a meme but the music placement in this game hurts a little more. there is a LOT of generic boss/enemy themes for enemies that are established to have their own themes
-- while there can def be valid concerns about nuclear energy it still feels like this game paints it in a very bad light. images of barrels of nuclear waste for fear factor left a bad taste in my mouth, even if i understand japan's a little warier of nuclear post-fukushima

MISC COMMENTARY

// there are many characters who speak both english and japanese in hawaii. of all of the ones who speak primarily english and secondarily japanese, two of them had their english voice actors do their english lines, but...just them? the rest had their japanese voice actors cover their english. not sure the cause of this inconsistency

// despite shops being modelled, many just have the cashier blocking the entrance. w. why

// during the interview circuit, yokoyama advised fans not to try to blitz this game in one marathon, otherwise they'd "get sick". despite this, many players just...did this anyway? i don't feel it's fair to call the game bloated as early on as many people were reviewing it, given the people who reviewed it early are the ones who blitzed what was otherwise a VERY long game. yakuza 5 used to get flak for being bloated, and, to be fair, i called it that too, and that's because i tried to blitz it. but not every game has to be rushed just to keep up with Current New Games. of course, there's other reasons to play a game fast. like during a depressive spiral where you don't want to do anything else, which i. KIND of did with this game?? but what i'm saying is, not all games work at the same pace. people often go ham on minecraft for a week, then put it down for a year. that's just the pace of the game, and so, different games have different paces. i did leave it entirely some days, and as a result, this game took around a month for me to finish, and i like it that way.

// ALSO during the interview circuit, yokoyama said he'd often get confused during gaiden's development circle as to what the game he was working on while doing things. that made it sound like the two games shared locations and/or characters, but this...wasn't the case at all? they share a grand total of two characters and zero locations, and i'm guessing most of infinite wealth was made before gaiden's development circle started, as gaiden isn't really acknowledged in this game. that's not a fault of anyone's though, even if it is a little sad that nothing in gaiden receives any reference outside of hanawa

// my patience wears thin with the daidoji in general

// i don't know a single thing about how people feel about this game as i was offline the whole time i played this and was offline as i typed this, but i feel like chitose is a controversial character in the fanbase

this was an overall enjoyable experience but this goes down one star for the god awful ps2 port of this. i grew up with the ps2 but i have never until now played a ps2 game that LAGGED

+ i kinda liked how for the most part the game doesn't put you on a pedestal. you are part of a team who have just as much responsibility as you
+ dialogue ambience is really good. unless you stay to listen to EVERYTHING, conversations continue without you after you leave the room. also the doctor sings to himself while he works which is an a++ detail
+ voyager's cast do a pretty good job with their voice acting and they were given decent dialogue
+ very good weapon variety! they're all fun to use in their own way

- but i can't say the same for the main cast of this game. biessman and chell (who appeared in the show what did they do to him) are cartoons for some reason???? telsia and chang are ok and foster's inbetween but holy hell is it hard to go from kate mulgrew's janeway to whatever biessman is doing
- the lag is the worst thing about this part and hugely responsible for me knocking off a star. it takes barely anything to happen. ps2 games should not lag at all
- not a major minus but what is tuvok's problem in this game
- the plot isn't interesting either which is ok for the most part until it goes full saturday morning cartoon at the end with the final boss
- extremely buggy. often audio falls out of sync, dialogue fails to fire which can stop the game entirely and force you to reset the console, and dialogue can loop
- ally ai is so bad. they are CONSTANTLY getting in your way, often into your line of fire, and on the ps2 the game lags during any decently sized engagement, where it's going too slowly for you to be able to target properly
- targeting is not fun with the imprecise ps2 controller
- what is the music doing. it's vaguely voyager-ish but it just warbles ineffectively in the background. even during the final boss. they paid a guy to make like 3 mediocre background tracks that the game cycles between for everything

this is one of those games that has to be viewed historically to enjoy properly but once you get past that it's a fun time!
wait

wait THOSE WERE TERRANS WHAT WHAT THEY DOING THERE WH

goes a little deeper into the subject matter than you'd think and the gameplay is pretty solid, though the general vibe of this game still feels a little "believe in yourself and everything will be okay" and does feel a little naively optimistic - the bully secretly being gay, and reporting him to the teachers resulting in a clean resolution etc. it does feel like it has a schoolkid's view of the world a-

OH it was made by schoolkids! that's pretty cool actually. i was gonna say, for my initial feedback being that, the game kinda won me over eventually and ended up lifting my mood a little. even by the game's admission, each character's end doesn't claim that the ending will magically fix things. also a very big fan of how the gameplay experience changes to reflect mood changes, realisations etc

this is gonna be in bullet point form bc i'm striking while the iron's hot!! i'll be spoiler free

+ this is the definitive experience combatwise. this game has learnt from lost judgment on what works about dragon engine combat, and at this point i'm ready to call it "dragon engine 2.0". kiryu has never been more fun to play, and i would wager this is the most broken kiryu in terms of power over even yakuza 5 kiryu. both dragon and agent styles are INSANE here
+- the music does take from lost judgement's style a little bit more. i don't know if it's because i was playing from my tv and not through headphones but i have yet to warm up to it rather than just feeling like it were There with like 3 exception
+ a fair few tracks reused, notably Lost from Yakuza 6 and Matter of Factly from Lost Judgement. they were really good tracks and i'm happy to hear them again
- the long battles left me wanting. they were far and few between and many of them seemed to be less about gleefully mowing down waves of enemies and more about putting you in miniboss room after miniboss room. it gets better later on though
+ PLENTY of side content as always and it's all fun as hell
+ the story is really touching, and i often describe this as "a better yakuza 6 than yakuza 6". i really like he new characters
+ i love shishido. he gets his own point
+ akame is another step forward for women who are actually characters in the rgg universe, building on mikiko from kaito files
- this game somehow completely fails to mention exactly WHY kiryu has any leverage over the daidoji, or why he's involved with them to begin with. they probably should have done that
+ there are some VERY surprising substories and i mean this in a good way
+ i really like the insights into kiryu this game gives us. not saying any more.

overall!! this game was extremely solid in story (it does stumble around chapter 2 imo but otherwise good), gameplay and characterisation. i'm not penalising it for not including things really since i just assume it may be saving stuff for like a dragon 8, but this is everything we were all hoping for

makes me feel at home and nostalgic despite happening in a time and place i've never been. i'm from the uk and have watched a fair amount of irish + northern irish tv so my familarity with the vast majority of the slang and irish terms (ie not really needing to click on most of the explanations) definitely helped but this game makes me feel a really weird kind of longing

i don't know what that longing is for but maybe i'm as of yet too young to know. at first it didn't resonate, esp as i struggled to reconcile kasio and cassieopeia's stories (i didn't know what was going on w cassieopeia's story tbh) but then i just. kept thinking about it

i might replay this in the future. it's a game that stays with you, and despite the mild annoyance of the actual gameplay mechanics, is more than worth it