“Heavenly Sword” feels so good that it’s an unforgivable shame it’s over so soon.
Luckily, my brother happened to borrow that videogame from a friend, and he brought it to me just so I could give it a look. Not even a dozen minutes after the videogame's start, I had realized how my conjectures were totally wrong. Needless to say, I ended up asking to keep the game for a few days -and the more I played, the more I realized that maybe, for once, the hype for a much promised videogame was deserved.
The story at the basis of "Heavenly Sword" is, all in all, rather simple: there's this legendary sword who is said to have been left behind by a god who used it to fight the evilness of a certain Crow King. Point is, this sacred sword does indeed enhance the fighting prowess of the wielder, but it also happens to feed on blood -and ultimately, even on the life of its own possessor. Because of its power, the sword had for centuries been kept safe and hidden by a clan, a clan of which our protagonist, Nariko, is a member. When Nariko's mother was pregnant, it was expected that she would give birth to the incarnation of a new savior, to the embodiment of that legendary god -but alas, a female child was born, and from that moment Nariko was doomed to be considered a sign of bad luck and doom for her people. But when a certain tyrant, king Bohan, is dangerously extending his power and his greed to the point of desiring that weapon, Nariko decides to go against her clan's order and wield the forbidden heavenly sword to save those people who so much despise her....
The story is all in all predictable in many of its parts, yet what makes a signifying difference are the way it unfolds, the kind of dialogues, and the style of acting. Yes, acting -"Heavenly Sword" blends the expressive potential of next-gen graphics and animations with the prowess of real actors used in motion capture. The result is something I have never witnessed before: it's the first time one can say a videogame character is acting well the part, or is stealing the scene, or is overdoing it... it makes you feel as if you were judging a theatrical performance while watching a play. And it adds to a lot of acting fun even to the simplest scenes -playing "Heavenly Sword" makes me feel not just like watching a movie, but even like watching live theatre, and going to a play is something I always relish.
The theatrical effect is helped both by the cast of actors and the cast of characters they represent. Andy Serkis (who was also Gollum in “Lord of the Rings”) gives a lot of thespian eccentricity and acting charisma to the shrewd but mythomaniac king Bohan, undeniably the scene-stealer of the show (Serkis was highly involved with this project as he also was the acting director and one of the script’s writers). The main heroine, Nariko, though portrayed by a non-famous actress, has impressed me so much with her strong will and bravery, that she probably goes as far as to be the best female character I’ve ever seen in a videogame (!). Same applies for the cute half-crazy coprotagonist Kai, who in my opinion is the one with the most developed psychological depth. But all of the characters show such a creative originality in their artistic concept and in their personality, that I’ve fallen in love with pretty much all of them (except maybe Nariko’s father), and picking an absolute favorite is very difficult. The villains generally portray a much welcome “coin-op game of ‘80” feel, being all too exaggerate and way over the top. Their peculiarity goes as far as them being the likes of a moray-woman, a turkey-man, a cockroach-man.... but the characters aren’t build up only on their crazyness, and their personalities are always a pleasure to discover during the course of the game.
Of course, though, a videogame isn't only visual, musical, and acting quality. A videogame is also, and more importantly, the gameplay. I have seen this game being often compared to the above mentioned "God of War", or even to "Ninja Gaiden". Now, this is a reasonable consideration to make before trying the game, but it is a very silly paragon to attempt after you've played it. "Heavenly Sword" is quite different than those other two games: it feels and plays differently, and comparing it to them maybe is a bit like comparing the movies of "Lord of the Rings" to those of "Harry Potter" because they're both expensive fantasy-themed blockbusters.
The key point of the fighting system is that, whenever Nariko wields the heavenly sword, she has three different stances: ranged (normal), speed, and heavy. The ranged stance wields like a sword, the heavy stance (hold R1) wields like a huge two-handed swords, and the speed stance (hold L1) wields like a chain with two blades attached to its ends. Three different fighting styles, which offer a wide variety of long and different combos; in addition to this they can be switched in the time of a second, thus allowing you, for example, to start with a normal attack combo and then finish them off ending it with a couple power attacks. And as the game goes on, more combos will be unlocked, making your character stronger and supposedly giving you a reward for your progresses. However, the way the combo system increases and develops, I have failed to understand: that part isn't very well implemented, as in, while you're in the middle of beating off some dudes, some sort of "new power/speed/normal combo unlocked!" message will show up. Woah, I didn't even know how I did it.
The three fighting stances also work for the block and the counter-attack: if an enemy attacks you with the heavy stance, you must block (and eventually counterattack) using the same type of stance. All these details work very well in making sure that "Heavenly Sword" isn't a buttonmasher. (Actually, I challenge anyone to complete the game by simply randomly pressing the attack buttons.)
Another feature of the combat system is the "superstyle move": once you charged up by beating up enough enemies, you can execute some acrobatic and very pleasant to see finishing move (and there's so many of them to see). You can also upgrade the superstyle move, which means that when you execute it you will involve other enemies in it and thus will be doing quite more damage.
Even though the combat system is so nice, one may feel the game could get repetitive if it was but an endless defeat-the-next-horde-of-lowbrained-enemies thing. Thankfully there's also more: in some parts of the game, you will play as Kai, a catlike girl who is Nariko's adoptive sister and who also is quite nuts, usually living in her own eerie world. As eerie as she may be, Kai isn't an useless secondary character: she's very skillful at killing hostiles with arrows (something she considers a game, called "twing twang"), and she's as agile as a cat. So when playing as her, you must change your tactics completely: keeping as distant as possible to the enemies and hitting them with arrows.
You can also directly control the arrows via sixaxis movement (that is, moving and inclining the joypad nearly as if it was the arrow itself), creating an effect that looks just like the popular moving camera invented by Sam Raimi. You will often end up using the direct arrow controls to gain the needed precision; plus the same sixaxis system you can also use whenever you throw any item using Nariko, or even when she's shooting cannon balls. At first getting used to the sixaxis may be difficult, but once you've learnt it, it's terribly amusing and effective.
So is this game varied and wellmade? Does it offer a wonderful gameplay mixed up with interesting and original characters? Is this, in the end, a real Killer Application for the PS3?
Well. Let’s analyze the various points. First, the graphics: now, with the coming of next-gen consoles, everyone seems to have suddenly gotten haughty. Look, me I don’t know anything about frame rates and dpi and whatever all that stuff is. All I know is that I look at the game and can’t but keep saying “oh my gosh those graphics are so AWESOME!!”. I may be naive, but judge by yourself: all the screenshots you can click in my review are the actual in-game images (and you should see them moving…). Plus, the game easily holds up like 2000 people on screen without any sign of lag or distress….
Second, the sounds: the music themes are composed by the philharmonic orchestra of Prague, and they fit very well the atmosphere for each scene –often the portray the mood and personality of a specific character, and they do it nicely, so that just listening to the music you know who (what) you’re facing. The sounds effect have even been made by those same guys who created those of the award winning “The tiger and the dragon” or whatever the movie was called. Now, that’s what I call overdoing it, but hey it’s nice to know they went as far as to spend a huge lot of money to simply create the sound effects.
Third, the gameplay: the fighting system doesn’t always work as well as it is supposed to do, and it get confusing to keep track of what kind of attack the enemy is using, especially when there’s that many foes pushing you from all sides (see “2000 people on screen” above). Also there’s no jump button –I know it wasn’t necessary, but hey I like jumping! Air-controlling Nariko with the sixaxis just isn’t enough! Anyway, with all the (not so many) bad things one could say about the controls, they still show a good attempt to bring innovation into a fighting system that in other videogames was becoming too canon and repetitive. And as general Flying Fox would say, they’re SSSSTYYYYYYLEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
If this was all that had to be said, then this product may even be worth a 9 out of 10 points. However, there’s a big Achilles heel to “Heavenly Sword”: in fact, this videogame is really, really too short. I have completed the videogame in about 8 hours, and that’s not to say that I’m a supergamer because even the less experienced player will have it finished in no more than 10-12 hours (if playing slowly). Because the game adds to its shortness the fact that it’s also way too easy: sure there’s a more satisfying “Hell Mode” difficulty unlockable, but only after you’ve already completed it the first time. Of course, there’s no rule which says that a game always needs to be lengthy, and we may even try to say that the unchallenging difficulty level will at last avoid frustration to decrease your excitement. But “Heavenly Sword” asks 60 bucks, and you may not want to spend all that money for a videogame which will last about… one week, or less? Sure there’s nice extras that can be unlocked if you gain combo points and play the game well: interesting “behind the scenes” videos, a couple episodes of the short and weird cartoons (telling the sword’s story before the events happening in the game)… but I suppose it’s still not enough. This is a big shame because it’s the main reason why “Heavenly Sword” can’t reach a much deserved superhigh marks, but must be satisfied with just a mere 7.5 score….
LUN’S FINAL JUDGEMENT:
”Heavenly Sword” is one hell of a great ride, sweeping you off, taking you inside a full action blockbuster which is probably also acted better than most modern Hollywood productions, and not giving you a single moment to take your breath or even to *try* getting slightly bored. For 60$, Nariko and Kai shall give you unparalleled pleasure…. which will be over before you have the time to say “PEEKABOO”. This videogame absolutely *must* be rented by pretty much every single PS3 owner; but if you’re planning to buy it, keep very well in mind that good things end too soon.
VERDICT: 8 OUT OF 10