YMMV / Gravity Rush 2

• Applicability: The video "Gravity Rush: A Hierarchy of Sinking Worlds" by SolidArf interprets the looming threat of The Darkness as being representative of the real-world issues of climate change and ecological disaster, with the inequality highlighted throughout the game representing how poorer communities will be more devastated by it than the wealthier ones that have more time (literally in the case of the World Pillar and Eto) and resources, and yet refuse to help because of their own apathy or selfishness.
• Broken Base: The Raven's Choice DLC. Fans were initially disappointed that Raven's subplot about waking the children inside the Ark wasn't addressed in the main game so the promise that it'd be the center of free DLC went a long ways towards mollifying them. Post release, while many agree that the opportunity to play as Raven and the addition of new levels and bosses is enjoyable, the plot is polarizing. For some fans, it tied off one of the first game's biggest loose ends and gave Raven's character closure. For others, it feels like it's among the weakest parts in the series, with much of Raven's story being sidelined in favor of the Light and Darkness plot. It feels especially glaring to some, as the main game introduces unresolved questions left untouched in even the DLC.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Syd being Alias is a fun twist, but he's probably your only suspect at that point in the story.
• Continuity Lockout: Played with. If you play through the main campaign without having played the original game first, you'll be hopelessly lost. But the first game's plot was its own blend of incomprehensible within itself, and the plot of the entire series won't make much sense until you reach the hidden ending of Gravity Rush 2 anyway.
• Die for Our Ship: Syd for Kat/Raven shippers. The Captain Obvious Reveal above makes it a little more amusing.
• Even Better Sequel: Like its predecessor, Gravity Rush 2 has received generally positive reviews, with an average score of 80 on Metacritic. However, most major gaming publications scored it higher than the predecessor, within the 8.5-9.0 range, with Destructoid even giving the game a score of 9.5.
• Event-Obscuring Camera: Depending on your playthrough, the camera can be merciless in comparison to the previous game, especially if you're in enclosed areas and can't see where you're going. Especially Egregious during Black Eagle, with its multitude of narrow hallways, which will have you twisting off at every turn, gravity shifting included.
• God Damned Bats: The flying Nevi, particularly the larger ones that will always move out of the way at the last minute when you Gravity Kick them. You're encouraged to throw objects at them, but when there's nothing to throw, it's a test of patience. The Lunar Style in general, especially its Wormhole Kick, is practically designed to take care of flying enemies with its high tracking properties as long as you can get a bead on the enemy, considerably reducing the annoyance of these enemies once obtained.
  • A particular type of Nevi that is quite troublesome if left alone is a floating eye-like Nevi that fires long-range lasers. They are surprisingly accurate, and due to how the automatic lock-on for Kick attacks works, it is quite possible that attempting to attack them while they fire their laser will simply result in running into the laser. As a result, the player is better off waiting it out, which leaves them vulnerable to other Nevi, but taking their eyes off the Eye Nevi may lead to getting shot in the back. It is best to take them out from long range with thrown objects. It doesn't help that some of them come with shell armor.
  • Another type, this one grounded, is a robust Nevi that always comes with rock armor. This one is distinct for being able to telekinetically control rock. It has tough armor that is very difficult to destroy without Jupiter Style, but what makes it annoying is its rock spires that it uses to attack. They can attack you from anywhere, and are very fast and accurate. Much like the above Eye Nevi, leaving them alone is asking for a surprise attack.
• I Knew It!: More than a few fan theories based on the implications of the first game were confirmed in this one. In particular, that Kat was once a queen and that Syd is Alias.
• Les Yay: Between Kat and Raven. The former even states that she only gets her most peaceful sleep when she finds Raven once again. And the same scene also shows that Kat and Raven apparently share a bed. Raven even shows a particular fondness for Kat one would never expect given their begrudging partnership near the end of the first game.
  • The side quest "Together, So Strange" starts with Kat teaching Raven how to gather ore in the Gravity Mines. Once Raven's picked up the basics, Kat decides to hold a contest to see who can gather the most, saying she wants to impress her. And several more, as Raven ends up being much better at the job. At the end, Kat reveals this was her intent from the start, and Raven, seeing how hard Kat was taking the whole thing, suggests a contest, winner takes all, to see who can wipe out the most Nevi. She comes up one short. Which is, of course, a load of nonsense to make Kat feel better. Raven's response to the look her crow gives her for all this? "What do you mean it's out of character for me? What matters is that she's smiling again. That's more important than any competition."
  • The journey up the tower is filled with this. Kat at first sets off alone, only for Raven to follow her, saying she 'felt like Kat needed her'. The two spend the rest of the trip reminiscing on their history and how much they enjoy being being partners. And when Kat is feeling uneasy about what they'll find at the top, Raven comforts her by saying that whatever it is, they'll face it together.
  • The Playable Epilogue shows that Raven is living in Kat's Pipe House and has taken up her role as Hekseville's protector. Dialogue with other characters indicates that as much as she tries to hide it, Raven has taken Kat's Heroic Sacrifice the hardest. In a private conversation with Misai, Raven even refers to losing Kat as like 'losing half of myself'. And of course, there's her look of utter joy and relief when Kat returns.
• Moe:
  • Kat already was this, but Cecie/Durga fills this trope completely.
  • Heck, Raven is this at certain moments, especially her adorable relief and smile when Kat/Queen Alua returns one year later after the final fight.
  • Before her Face–Heel Turn phase, Kali Angel qualifies.
• Narm: The story takes a dark turn and loses all of its humor once Elektricitie enters the scene, but that Punny Name makes it hard to take seriously.
• Player Punch: The battle against Elecktricitie before Kat arrives is full of this. Watching her nigh-on effortlessly defeat your friends, Raven and Yunica, (the former who you were playing as until said defeat) and to a lesser extent Permet is unusually bleak and hopeless for a usually somewhat lighthearted game. She defeats Yunica by breaking her cybernetic legs for crying out loud! This is reflected in Kat's reaction upon coming back. She's PISSED and immediately flies into a Berserker rage after she see's what Elecktricitie's done to her friends. And even that doesn't really do anything to Elecktricite. It's not until Cyanea uses her creator powers and sacrifices herself to give you a fighting chance that you can put down this monstrosity. Even then, the battle's not over yet.
  • The end of the segment where Kat gets her memories back. Syd turns away from Kat and says that this is their last memory together, confirming that yes, he died when the debris hit the ship. Up to this point, it was left ambiguous whether he actually died or not, and the player may have been hoping to eventually see him later in the game. This is undone later on, through the Heroic Sacrifice of Bit, another creator. But that in itself might be considered a Player Punch of it's own.
  • The creators sacrificing themselves could also be considered this. Since the other two sacrifices are covered in the above entries, it seems only fair to mention Gade's sacrifice of teleporting Kat to the final battle to help the desperate situation there. They're usually not supposed to meddle in the world's affairs but they couldn't just stand by and watch the world be destroyed and for that they paid the ultimate price.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Dusty Tokens. In order to unlock some costumes, accessories, and gestures, the player must obtain Dusty Tokens through online gameplay features. However, it can be days before you can redeem any tokens and you only receive a few tokens at a time. This makes it very difficult to grind. It's gotten even worse since the servers were shut down; now they're all-out impossible to grind, and the rewards can no longer be obtained by anyone who didn't get them (or the game itself) beforehand.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A number of characters from the original game were hit hard by this.
  • Singlor and Nala were built up in the original game through their Foreshadowing dialogue, their tragic story, and Kat's comment about seeing them again. However, while concept art reveals their house and Singlor's experiment, they not only don't appear in the main game but they also relegated to making small cameos in Raven's Choice.
  • D'nelica. The end of the first game showed that he had Kat/Alua's crystal, implying he had a greater knowledge of what was going on in the world and deeper motivations for his actions. However, while he's referenced in this game, he not only fails to appear but his actions only occur offscreen. Notably, that he was the one who ordered the Jellyfish Special Defense Force to go underground.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The end of the second act. With the corrupt Council deposed of for the time being and Lisa assuming leadership of Jirga Para Lhao, it's made clear that not all is well just yet and a lot of work needs to be done to quell tensions between the various classes of the city, opening the door for some more morally-nuanced storytelling while the Council plot their counterattack in the background. Then the Lost City appears, the Council is abruptly killed off, and Kat finds herself jettisoned out of Jirga Para Lhao and back into Hekseville, where she gets involved in a completely unrelated story mostly divorced from what had been built up beforehand.
  • Eto. The player gets to interact with both Hekesville and Jirga Para in-depth, allowing you to bond with the cities and characters. However, despite the last chapter centering on Eto and Kat's past, you don't get to actually explore the city. Once you get to the top of the tower, you're trapped in the castle and can barely explore or interact with anyone, before being guided along the narrative path. It doesn't help that the final chapter of the game is the only one that actually starts addressing all the dangling plot threads left over from the first Gravity Rush, which makes everything that happened before feel like padding.
  • Kat/Alua's crystal recording is given a lot of focus. It's a Sequel Hook at the end of the first game, with The Reveal that D'nelica had it and recognized Kat from it, and its referenced more than once in this game. However, nothing really comes of it, as only D'nelica is seen with it and he doesn't even appear in the sequel.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Some of the generic character portraits just look creepy and mannequin-like with their impossibly smooth complexions and glassy emotionless eyes.
• The Woobie: Queen Alua/Kat. Alua was chosen to become queen and forced to leave her family to live closed up in the castle, where she suffered ridicule and doubt. Not only was she older than when others had chosen but she also failed to manifest a Guardian. Then, when she found out that the people below Eto are in danger of the Darkness, no one supported her desire to help them. Though Syd saved her from assassination, he got stabbed to death in front of her and she fell from Eto anyway.