Heavenly Sword

"Two Words: Twing Twang"

I was one of those people that said the PS3 was screwed. I giggled at it like a school girl.

Last Saturday, while working at Gamestop, I saw a used PS3....and heavenly sword.

Mr. Visa and the Swipe-card Express allowed me to take it all home and fire it up. I am glad I took the chance at it.......because, Holy Aunt Jemima, it was glorious.

Keep in mind, I am a huge RPG gamer. I don't even typically play these choppy chop games....why I was suddenly prompted to buy a PS3 and HS is beyond me...

Graphics: 10.

Oh man. I don't even own an HD TV and I was drooling at the facial expressions and smooth graphics. Simply awesome. Great detail, and originality. Some very realistic looking people and scenery. I was amazed.....and this was only with standard component-in, not HD!...It was perfect. The cut-scenes are exceptional, and full of awesome acrobatics and theatrics. Lord of the Rings battle quality...!

Sound: 10

Another great aspect. The music was very fitting, and the sound effects were perfectly suited to the events and gameplay. The weapon clanging, and dying sounds are very awesome in surround sound, and you can feel alot of the low notes (drums etc.) rattling your ribs.

I should also point out, the voice acting in Heavenly Sword is the BEST voice acting I have ever heard in any game. Ever. End of story. It bests all the RPG voice acting I'm used to. I expect this acting out of a professional movie, not a video game , but I got it anyways..!

Gameplay: 9

It's good fun. You run around brutally annihilating stuff, and occasionally entering "action" scenes a'la Dragons Lair in which you press a button at the right moment on screen to continue through the scene. I loved the SixAxis after touch controls.... gliding arrows through flight made it very fun when controlling Kai. So is...throwing corpses and directing them through flight also......

Superstyle attacks are sweet also, and are amazingly acrobatic and gruesome to watch.

The objectives and environments are definitely fun to run around in. I dig it.

My favorite part of the game is playing as Kai in "Kai's Mission". It has some of the funniest cut scene moments ever.

My only gripe is that some of the boss battles are kind of annoying. Not really hard, just annoying/tedious....and there isnt enough blood for the amount of epic slaying that reigns forth.

Story: 10
Nariko has the heavenly sword that everyone wants, and she has chosen to wield it in battle for vengeance. This is going to kill her in 5 days since the sword slowly becomes one with the weilder and kills them.... between start and finish, alot of chaos ensues between her clan and Bohan's clan, who wishes to destroy Nariko's clan and get the sword..... Bohan is a pyscho, but he is a comical one....He and his cronies are a bunch of hopeless goons.

The story advances in these 5 days in a real nice manner and you learn a lot about characters.

It also becomes rather epic having only covered 5 days of someones life. It was a good story telling....


So long story short: Awesome graphics, fun gameplay, sweet characters, and enough action to keep you playing! Go grab it , its worth it!

Twing Twang!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/07

Game Release: Heavenly Sword (US, 09/12/07)