This review is pretty lousy to be honest. It's like you never took the time to get to know the game.
"Reputation, in turn, is gained through completing the story missions, which infuses the game with a fairly easy-going, if slightly repetitive, rhythm."
It's also gained by using gems to fix the city.
"You can fight on the ground, but Kat's standard three-hit combo does relatively little damage, and is infuriatingly difficult to land on taller enemies."
Okay.
1. If you're using a three hit combo throughout the game, you know what that tells me? You never leveled up her kick ability. If you never leveled that up, I wonder what else you didn't take the time to do...
2. If you want to land a kick on a taller enemy, there are ways to do that. The counter attack is one of those ways. Depending on the Nevi type, you can also exploit its attack pattern to reach its core.
3. You can also slide into an enemy to attack it. It's really powerful too.
4. You can also use your stasis field to grab objects and throw them at Nevis.
"A precious few late-game enemies demanded the occasional dodge - achieved by a swipe of the screen - or ranged combat but you can make it through the majority of the game, including a fair few of the boss encounters, using only the flying kick. Overall, the combat feels like it was meant to play second fiddle to the game's exploration and movement mechanics, and it's notable that you never encounter any enemies outside of story missions."
Dodging is used frequently throughout the game if you know how to play it - by exploiting enemy actions. Many of them are vulnerable after they attack. So you bait them. To avoid, you dodge. Simple enough. You do this throughout the game.
About the gravity kick, I doubt you even know how to use it to its fullest. Some Nevis require you to use short range attacks. For others, long range attacks are better. Once you're good, you can also tie in the gravity kick with other abilities like the dodge and the gravity slide. Even if you're a little off target, you can always move Kat while performing the gravity kick with the left stick.
"When she's standing on a solid surface, Kat's hair will always point downward to keep your orientated, but there's no such visual clues when you're airborne, making it very easy to lose your bearings."
Press the lower d-pad button. The camera will re-orient itself.
"It doesn't help that the camera is partially controlled by the Vita's motion controls. In theory, tilting the Vita should tilt the camera, but it's a rather temperamental system. Sometimes shifting your weight, or adjusting your hands will do nothing, other times it'll send your reticule skyward, or cause you to look at directly at the ground while you're trying to line up attacks. You can also make Kat slide along the ground at speed by pressing down on the corners of the screen and tilting the Vita to steer. It's a touchy system made worse by Kat's habit of getting stuck on corners. Unfortunately, none of the motion controls can be turned off."
Gyro aiming is spot on. You can mess with the sensitivity too if you want. I never had a problem with sliding either. Then again, I knew how to drift and messed with the sensitivity enough to know when it was suitable.
