Gravity Rush Creator Was Concerned Kat Was "Too Japanese"

Is being Japan-like negative? Gravity Rush producer Makato Isomine and writer Naoko Sato thought about this while designing the PlayStation Vita game (which was actually planned as a PS3 title).

During a CEDEC presentation, Sato said having a female protagonist, a fictional city with a made up language, and a toon graphic style were generally negative points for overseas games. A project member from France also asked why do Japanese games have boys and girls as the main character.

Sato explained that Japanese people regard youth and childlike nature as something sacred, while overseas people think a young protagonist would probably die due to their lack of experience. While Japanese games tend to have boys and girls as protagonists, games made in the west tend to have realistic heroes with adults fighting a world crisis. Sato decided to balance the two ideas by using traditional Japanese character design and capturing the feeling of reality to broaden the market for the game.

Some changes were made to Gravity Rush as it was being prepared for a worldwide release. A gag where Kat was supposed to kick Syd in the face was modified.

Sato ended the talk saying at first she thought "too Japanese" was a negative, but now she has a new appreciation for the term.