Kat (Gravity Rush)

Kat is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Gravity Rush series. A teenage girl with amnesia, she awakens in the city of Hekseville after falling from the sky and sets out to discover the origins of her power to shift gravity. Her power stems from a mysterious catlike organism she names Dusty that seems to be bound to her. Kat has received critical praise for her optimistic personality and the unique nature of her powers.

Characteristics

Kat is a teenage girl with tan skin, red eyes, and blonde hair. She wears a black romper held on her body by elastic, decorative pieces of gold metal.^[1] She also wears a cape-like scarf on her back, a matching headband, and two bracers, as well as tall socks with gold high heels.^[1]

Kat initially awakens after falling out of the sky and landing in a small playground in Hekseville, a city that is suspended in midair and attached to a massive vertical stone pillar called the World Pillar. Realizing she has amnesia, she sets out to look for the origins of her gravity shifting powers and begins helping people in Hekseville. Eventually she discovers the threat of the Nevi, mysterious interdimensional creatures that begin attacking the citizens of Hekseville, and becomes the city's defender, the "Gravity Queen". She comes into conflict with Raven, a fellow gravity shifter of unknown origin.

In Gravity Rush 2, Kat is taken through a portal into another universe, that of Jirga Para Lhao. She finally escapes and goes back to Hekseville, where she saves the city yet again. Climbing the World Pillar, she discovers that she is actually Queen Alua, the ruler of a lost civilization called Eto, but an advisor named Xicero attempted to murder her for wanting to save the city below from an oncoming black hole that marks the world's destruction and rebirth. She eventually escapes and returns to Hekseville, where she saves the city a final time from a dark force that has merged with the current ruler of Eto, an evil gravity-shifting child named Cai. She seals away the black hole, presumably perishing in the process, but she is hinted at being alive in the ending.

Reception

Ludwig Kietzmann of GamesRadar+ stated that he liked the character of Kat, calling her an "exuberant girl in a scarf" that stood in contrast to most superheroes, who were a "tortured dude in a cape".^[2] He also praised how she was a "delightful klutz", which tied into the game's initially imprecise controls. Stating "there's an art to being utterly graceless in Gravity Rush", he stated that he imagined her apologizing to the people caught up in her gravity powers as she passed by and said that "Kat's optimism in the face of her innate clumsiness is what makes her special".^[2]

Steven Strom of Paste Magazine stated that while Kat's amnesia was cliched, it freed her from the typical superhero origin story and established that she helped people due to her natural empathy rather than a past tragedy that befell her.^[3] He called what Kat does with her powers "endearing", since she uses them for "smaller, kinder acts of heroism", "literally gain[ing] a wider perspective on the world".^[3]

Twinfinite called Kat the runner up for best video game character of 2017, saying "I'm pretty sure it's physically impossible to dislike Kat", and calling her "one of the most charming and believably optimistic characters you'll ever come across in video games.^[4] Zhiquing Wan of the same website called Gravity Rush 2 "one of the most compelling stories of a protagonist just looking for something - anything at all - that vaguely resembles a home".^[5]

Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku called Kat not "exactly the ideal heroine", citing her penchant for collateral damage and calling her an "accidental mass-murderer".^[6]

References