Heavenly Sword [Review]

Jorgi · 10-08-2007, 01:16 AM

Heavenly Sword

Platform - PS3
Developer - Ninja Theory and SCE.

Ok, where to start?
Well, this is truly a next gen experience worth playing; in fact it is so amazing that it made me forget all about real life for a whole day. I played this game; it was a mix of a movie and a game.
Is Heavenly Sword that good? Play it and if you don't agree then I’ll book you an appointment at your local psyche ward.

Well our hero is Nariko; a beautiful red haired girl, with a nice and strong body. She lives with her father and her “daughter” (It’s not her real daughter, let’s make it simple, Nariko saved Kai and treated her like her own child) and the rest of the clan, in this mountain winter landscape.

First of the game starts by teaching you all the basics, the game play isn’t that hard, in fact it’s quite simple.
Nariko has 3 different stances, speed range and power.
You make speed attack with the square and triangle; these are medium damage attacks, very good at small and fast enemies. The speed attacks have 2 small blades.
Then there are the range attacks, now Nariko has some sort of chain between her two blades, and swings it around her hitting multiply targets, not really that good, but you will find it useful at some enemies.
And my favorite, the almighty Power stance, Now Nariko put’s away the small blades, and bring forth a very big and beautiful blade. This blade has slow attacks, but is incredibly powerful, and can even attack multiply targets, it is very good at slow enemies, and good at breaking shield, not so good against the Ninjas you will encounter later in the game.
And yes you can switch stances In the middle of a combo, which leads to a lot of different combo attacks and variety to the game play!

Also you have to learn how to dodge, simply do this by pushing the right analog stick the direction you want to dodge, it’s very useful, and it looks awesome at boss fights when you dodge, slash, dodge slash, and so on, makes you kind of feel like a ultimate fighting machine, though the whole game makes you feel that way.
Also there are blocks, which are kind of hard to master; each enemy has an aura based attack. Red, orange and blue, whereas red is impossible to block, orange is blocked in power stance and blue is blocked in speed stance, and yeah range stance can’t block. You will block automatically if you are in the right stance, which is a very good thing, but it’s harder than it sounds. When you are fighting 10 enemies at one time and they all attack in different auras, it gets very hard to block the right attacks, then it’s useful to dodge, and block. Also bosses tend to switch auras in the middle of a combo, which makes it very hard to block right. Speaking if bosses, they are hard! Especially the last one, don’t even get me started on that one!

This is In game play.

Well that’s what you learn in the first chapter, located in this winter landscape. The first chapter doesn’t have that good graphics like the rest of the game, don’t know why, but as you get in 2nd chapter you will notice the difference, or at least I did.
When you get more used to the game you will be Watching Nariko fight like some other goddess of Martial art. She moves sways and performs combos with the perfect ease of your control. Sometimes easy and at other times you'll be overcome by the depth of her moves.
Even though you'll fight hordes of enemy Soldiers you'll find it hard to use all of her combos. The counter attack system is good. When you block and push the triangle in perfect timing, you will see a short cut scene of Nariko doing some serious cool moves and most often, but not always, killing the enemy.

The controls them self are dead on as she will respond to your every button press. And there is something called after touch. You will use this to steer things Nariko likes to throw at her enemy. Yeah the Sixaxis motion sensor. This can also be cannon balls, from BIG cannon at the village’s fort or a hand cannon which is totally awesome. Also you have to steer Kais arrows, as she fights with a bow, this is totally awesome and one of the missions where you will ride a cable car and you have to steer the arrows into a fire and then hit some fireworks to blow the enemies up, is awesome, and then the cables will break leaving Kai hanging upside down and you will steer the arrows now, which is totally weird and awesome because it looks like some twisted up side thing. But it is awesome to aim the arrows precisely into the enemies head… or butt.

The stylized sword play fighting are phenomenal Narikos hair is flowing with her body movements, and it looks really good, not like some stiff gingersnap man transformed into gel; I’m talking about smooth and realistic movements. Backgrounds are interactive and lush, simply beautiful, and the numbers of characters on screen are amazing. I’m not talking about on screen just standing there watching, they fight, fall, die, and everything in between. This is very evident in the games great ending battle. To put it simply BEST AROUND!

Speaking of Graphics, they are awesome, some of the best graphics out there, better then Ninja Gaiden, better then The Darkness. The graphics are so totally awesome that you feel like you are in a Movie, Well all the things happening makes you feel that it’s a half movie and half a game. Like cut scenes in the middle of a fight, split screen where you play in one, and see a movie in the other, it just feels right.

The One other amazing thing is how much work they have done with the voice acting, face movements, and sound. Ninja theory has worked 5 years on this game, and a lot of the time where used to perfect the voice acting, and perfect the music and the animations. The faces movement is so right with the voices, the voices is right for the person. The voice acting is one of the best, and may I say, oh screw it, it IS the best voice acting ever preformed in a game, yup I said it if you disagree I would like to see proof of another game that can deliver the same voice acting as this game. This may sound stupid, but voice acting and the right music has something to say, because it makes the game a lot better.

The story is also awesome, won’t spoil too much of it though, but I can say Nariko isn’t the typical hero, she isn’t liked by her clan, she fights for something she doesn’t even care about. And even her father is disappointed in her, the only thing she has is Kai. This is probably because Her father has the Heavenly Sword, and everyone is disappointed that Nariko is the new born warrior, they think she doesn’t deserve the Heavenly Sword, which is an incredibly powerful sword wielded by a warrior long time ago. Although early in the game Narikos father chooses to give the sword to Nariko and she masters it well, and in a way no one has done before, won’t say much about that either.

Oh almost forgot, the game is a little short, but in my opinion it would be weird if it were a lot longer, maybe some extra sections would be nice, but I think it is perfect as it is, and you have to explore every single detail about the game as well you know!

And btw the game uses the extra gigabytes on the Blu-ray disc to include Spanish, French, German and Italian voice acting, in addition to the Standard English performances, also a bunch of languages for menus, texting and stuff, including Norwegian >.>

Well afraid of repeating myself I will end this review, thanks for reading it, and go buy this sensation of a game, which has became one of my favorite games of all time. Peace!

Yeah it is in-game-play footage. And you get to play this war with a bazooka and the heavenly sword, along with 2000 enemies on screen to attack. Wich is totally awesome!

From scale 1-10

Graphics 10
The graphics is totally awesome, the camera moves automaticallu, but you also use r2 l2 to tweak it if you wanna look more of the beautiful background. It looks so amazing, probably one of the best graphics out there., As well as good graphic, the art is good aswell ,the scenery and the look of everything.

Controls: 9
The controls are very good, and the sixaxis works well. You feel Nariko responds very fast to your commands, she moves good, and it is just right and simple, yet hard to master, in a perfect way.

Story 10
The story is unique in it's ways, and amazingly well told with flashbacks, split screen and the good voice acting and music.

Sound 10
This may not seems so important but HS has the best voice acting Iv'e ever seen in a game, and I believe to say ever in gaming history. Also the music is awesome. And I think it makes the game alot better.

Value: 9
Although the game could be a little longer it is worth the price, because this is simply something uniqe, beautifull, powerfull masterpiece.,

All in All score:

9.5/10

I recommend you go to the Official Heavanly sword Website for more information and Media
Heavenly Sword on PLAYSTATION®3: The Official Site

Oh and thanks to Ninja Theroy for making this game, and Sony for suporting and financing them.

**Bully** · 10-08-2007, 01:28 AM

Excellent review. I just skimmed through it, but I read a good percentage of it. I heard it was short, though, but with elements like God of War, I'm more motivated to buy a PS3.

One question. How long did it take you to type this?

Jorgi · 10-08-2007, 01:47 AM

30 min, lol

Had to search for picture and stuff aswell , I'm not done yet

**Halcyon** · 10-08-2007, 01:59 AM

Wow, you really like this game. One suggestion, though: Maybe a simple

Sound:
Graphics:,
Etc. Would help. That way I wouldn't have to search through your essay to find that information.

Jorgi · 10-08-2007, 02:01 AM

Yeah, I was about to do that, but I can't edit it

**Halcyon** · 10-08-2007, 02:03 AM

You can't? Like the button isn't there, or it just won't load?

Jorgi · 10-08-2007, 02:42 AM

I have edited what I want, but it keeps loading, for 10 minutes now *giving up and writing here instead*

from scale 1-10

Graphics 10
The graphics is totally awesome, the camera moves automaticallu, but you also use r2 l2 to tweak it if you wanna look more of the beautiful background. It looks so amazing, probably one of the best graphics out there., As well as good graphic, the art is good aswell ,the scenery and the look of everything.

Controls: 9
The controls are very good, and the sixaxis works well.

Story 10
The story is unique in it's ways, and amazingly well told.

Sound 10
This may not seems so important but HS has the best voice acting Iv'e ever seen in a game, and I believe to say ever in gaming history. Also the music is awesome. And I think it makes the game alot better.

Value: 9
Although the game could be a little longer it is worth the price, because this is simply something uniqe, beautifull, powerfull masterpiece.,

All in All score:

9.5/10

**Halcyon** · 10-08-2007, 02:46 AM

If you're doing the Quick Edit, it sometimes does that to me too. Just go into the Advanced Edit, then it should work fine.

Jorgi · 10-08-2007, 07:12 PM

Nope doesn't work with either..

Ok, lol update it worked with Internet S,explorer

Another funny thing about the game is that the very small and rather unnkown company; Ninja Theroy made this game, and Sony should have some trust in them for financing a load of money for this game to be reality. Well good job on that!

**Bully** · 10-08-2007, 10:10 PM

I just have to say one thing about Nariko.......she is pretty hot.

Ryan · 10-08-2007, 11:53 PM

sorry to interupt the covo.

Jorgi you got the edit to work with I/E?

If so then i need to report this to Vbulletin. Thats a compatibility issue that VB says "vb work with all internet browsers."

Also ill buy this wonderful review off you for 2500 or.... wait your have a review account dont you? why not post it?

If you didnt understand my tut on it try reading this one.

http://www.gamelair.com/Review-Tutorial.php