Gravity Ghost

Developer: Ivy games LLC | Publisher: Ivy Games LLC | Release Date: 2015 | Genre: Indie / Casual / Puzzle | Website: Official Website | Format: Digital Download

We cannot often describe a game as peaceful, but Gravity Ghost certainly fits the bill. This moving tale of a ghostly girl searching for her fox companion amongst the stars features no dying, killing, or failing. The result is far from boring, though, as soaring through the cosmos is equal parts relaxing and delightful. Even the story, which started off feeling whimsical and abstract, slowly became more apparent the more we played, until eventually, we were left with a lump in our throat when the credits rolled.

The game, set entirely in a hand-painted galaxy, tasks you with soaring amongst the planets while collecting stars. There is one star and one exit door per level, and grabbing the former opens the latter. Levels are short enough to be completed in seconds, but there are an absolute ton of them, and your character, Iona the ghost, also unlocks new powers to keep things interesting. The action is viewed from a 2D side-on perspective, like a traditional platform game, but instead of simply running around small planetoids, Iona can jump and soar into space. Each level features different planetoids, which impact how Iona interacts with them. Ice planets are slippery, while water planets have no surface, causing Iona to fall through them. On the other hand, fiery planets will repel Iona while gas giants act like the bumpers on a pinball table, and super dense planets pull Iona towards them as she floats around.

As Iona flits around the levels, she also sometimes encounters animal spirits. These critters can be caught in her long, flowing hair and transported to a different level where their bones are found. Reuniting an animal spirit with its bones triggers a beautiful hand-drawn cutscene that further fleshes out the story. There are more than 30 minutes of animated stories to discover, and it is well worth the effort. We will not spoil anything as we really enjoyed the story, and puzzling it all together is half the fun, but suffice it to say that all is not as it seems initially.

Some levels feature a maze in the center of the screen, with a small sphere inside that is attracted to Iona. Moving around the circular maze’s outside, you can guide the sphere towards the exit, where collecting it grants Iona a new power. These range from a double jump and speed boost to the ability to increase her mass or become immaterial. Each star cluster also has an animal guardian waiting at the end, with a puzzle to solve.

In addition, Iona can unlock terraforming powers, which enables her to change planets by running around their surface in a full circle. For example, a star to complete the level might be inside a forest planet, but running around it with the water terraforming power selected will allow Iona to pass through its surface and collect the star. The terraforming power is based on Iona’s hair; the color indicates what power is selected, and the length indicates how much she can use it. Replenishing her powers is as easy as collecting the flowers dotted around each level, though, and we never ran out.

The special powers that Iona unlocks make some terraforming abilities redundant, though. Iona can make herself immaterial to pass through any planet and collect a star or use her dash power to escape the gravitational pull of a dense star instead of transforming it. For the most part, we found ourselves speeding through the levels without really encountering any difficulties, but there was enough variation to keep things from becoming boring.

Gravity Ghost’s visual style is unique and perfectly captures the dreamlike atmosphere of the game. Sometimes, we found ourselves simply swirling around a level, making patterns with Iona’s long trailing hair because of how beautiful it looked. The best way to describe the visuals is that they strongly reminded us of the children’s bedtime storybook drawings.

Gravity Ghost also features some great audio, and the dynamic soundtrack is a perfect match for the visuals. The ambient tunes and serene gameplay mean Gravity Ghost is a great game with which to sit back and unwind. The game also features full voice acting, and the cast, which includes Ashly Burch as Iona, does a good job with their characters. Initially, Iona comes across as a stubborn and petulant child, but she grew on us as the story progressed and we learned more about her character. The game is perfectly playable using a keyboard and mouse, but using an analog controller felt more natural.

In total, it took us about three hours to complete every level in Gravity Ghost, but none of it was time wasted on dying or retrying levels. The game’s relaxed atmosphere, striking visuals, and great soundtrack make for a unique and thoroughly entertaining experience. Unless you must have killing or dying in your games to be entertained, Gravity Ghost is highly recommended.