Gravity Rush was a fun romp, Gravity Rush 2 was a chore.
Before going into specifics I'll say I found Gravity Rush charming as hell (I 100%'d it and gave it 4/5 stars). GR2 is ONLY for people who already liked the first game.
If you played GR1 and feel the need to play GR2 instead of watching a "Gravity Rush 2 full movie" youtube video (which I do recommend over playing the game). I would strongly suggest to just do Story Quests (also maybe knock it down to Easy later to compensate for lack of upgrades).
Doing otherwise makes the game worse. I honestly believe if I didn't decide to pivot from doing every Side Quest, to beelining the story after Story Quest 9, I wouldn't have finished it.
Extended Thoughts
I'm gonna get pretty negative here.
Gravity Rush had some rough edges, but was unique enough to carry someone through to the end. Gravity Rush 2 still has those rough edges, plus everything new it adds is awkward at best, tedious at worse.
The core mechanics of Gravity Rush 2 haven't been improved at all from the original. So the issues with camera wrestling, awkward geometry collisions, and barebones combat haven't been addressed. When the concept was fresh this was more forgivable, in a sequel it sticks out.
Instead of improving the core, it is "built upon" with a style switch system. On top of the default, there is now a lighter style that lets you attack faster+weaker plus float better. As well as a heavier style that lets you do big slow hits and fall faster. This does nothing for me. It's awkward and almost solely exists to use in situations where the game locks you out of your default kit to make you use the light style to jump to a goal, or use the heavy style to slide fast. Outside of that, there are times where it makes sense to switch for combat, and being able to fall slower or faster has it uses. But I don't think the style switch overall really does anything for the core gameplay.
If instead of the bloat of the style switching, Gravity Rush 2 added some kind of timing mechanic to traversal and made combat more fluid instead of the constant stop/start, it would have done wonders.
Outside of toolkit "additions", the other new feature is stealth sections that make me want to rip my hair out holy shit they suck. Enough of the Side Quests had them, that I just stopped doing Side Quests all together.
So why finish it?
If you ignore all the extra content in favour of just doing the main story (and got the game cheep) Gravity Rush 2's worst crime is just slightly overstaying it's welcome (also those stealth sections holy shit).
There was still a part of me going "oh this is cool" or "oh this music is fun" or "oh X from Gravity Rush 1!" to carry me through to the "Final Chapter". In which case I was locked in until the actual end of the game.
Light Spoilers
Gravity Rush 2 has an erupt "ending" after an honestly pretty gnarly (for its age-rating) looking boss fight. Then after talking to a new NPC at different locations a couple of times, it starts the "Final Chapter", which is what fans of the first game would have been waiting for this whole time.
I stress, while not fully worth playing the whole game just for it. The Final Chapter is solid closure for loose narrative threads and characters from the first game. (If you told me the Final Chapter was originally bonus content for Gravity Rush Remastered, I'd believe it. It honestly just kinda happens as a replacement for a strong ending for Gravity Rush 2).
Light Spoilers Over
With Japan Studio sadly being closed and the talent breaking off into many smaller studios. If we every get a spiritual follow up to Gravity Rush (assuming after Slitterhead actually comes out in another 5 years), I would still love to see one with less jank, and more of those good tunes.
OH! Not to leave this rambling as all negative, credit where its due, Kohei Tanaka obviously kills it. The music is easily the best part of the game. While nothing hits the high of Douse Shinundakara, plenty of songs rival the quality of the rest of GR1's OST.
Before going into specifics I'll say I found Gravity Rush charming as hell (I 100%'d it and gave it 4/5 stars). GR2 is ONLY for people who already liked the first game.
If you played GR1 and feel the need to play GR2 instead of watching a "Gravity Rush 2 full movie" youtube video (which I do recommend over playing the game). I would strongly suggest to just do Story Quests (also maybe knock it down to Easy later to compensate for lack of upgrades).
Doing otherwise makes the game worse. I honestly believe if I didn't decide to pivot from doing every Side Quest, to beelining the story after Story Quest 9, I wouldn't have finished it.
Extended Thoughts
I'm gonna get pretty negative here.
Gravity Rush had some rough edges, but was unique enough to carry someone through to the end. Gravity Rush 2 still has those rough edges, plus everything new it adds is awkward at best, tedious at worse.
The core mechanics of Gravity Rush 2 haven't been improved at all from the original. So the issues with camera wrestling, awkward geometry collisions, and barebones combat haven't been addressed. When the concept was fresh this was more forgivable, in a sequel it sticks out.
Instead of improving the core, it is "built upon" with a style switch system. On top of the default, there is now a lighter style that lets you attack faster+weaker plus float better. As well as a heavier style that lets you do big slow hits and fall faster. This does nothing for me. It's awkward and almost solely exists to use in situations where the game locks you out of your default kit to make you use the light style to jump to a goal, or use the heavy style to slide fast. Outside of that, there are times where it makes sense to switch for combat, and being able to fall slower or faster has it uses. But I don't think the style switch overall really does anything for the core gameplay.
If instead of the bloat of the style switching, Gravity Rush 2 added some kind of timing mechanic to traversal and made combat more fluid instead of the constant stop/start, it would have done wonders.
Outside of toolkit "additions", the other new feature is stealth sections that make me want to rip my hair out holy shit they suck. Enough of the Side Quests had them, that I just stopped doing Side Quests all together.
So why finish it?
If you ignore all the extra content in favour of just doing the main story (and got the game cheep) Gravity Rush 2's worst crime is just slightly overstaying it's welcome (also those stealth sections holy shit).
There was still a part of me going "oh this is cool" or "oh this music is fun" or "oh X from Gravity Rush 1!" to carry me through to the "Final Chapter". In which case I was locked in until the actual end of the game.
Light Spoilers
Gravity Rush 2 has an erupt "ending" after an honestly pretty gnarly (for its age-rating) looking boss fight. Then after talking to a new NPC at different locations a couple of times, it starts the "Final Chapter", which is what fans of the first game would have been waiting for this whole time.
I stress, while not fully worth playing the whole game just for it. The Final Chapter is solid closure for loose narrative threads and characters from the first game. (If you told me the Final Chapter was originally bonus content for Gravity Rush Remastered, I'd believe it. It honestly just kinda happens as a replacement for a strong ending for Gravity Rush 2).
Light Spoilers Over
With Japan Studio sadly being closed and the talent breaking off into many smaller studios. If we every get a spiritual follow up to Gravity Rush (assuming after Slitterhead actually comes out in another 5 years), I would still love to see one with less jank, and more of those good tunes.
OH! Not to leave this rambling as all negative, credit where its due, Kohei Tanaka obviously kills it. The music is easily the best part of the game. While nothing hits the high of Douse Shinundakara, plenty of songs rival the quality of the rest of GR1's OST.