Heavenly Sword

"I'm Pretty Sure Kratos is Crying Himself to Sleep"

This is a cinematic masterpiece that takes games like God of War to a whole new level. Although being fairly short, the time it does last provides an intense and fun experience. With a fluid combat system, breathtaking graphics, a compelling story, and good characters presented, this game is definitely worth trying out, if not only renting.


One thing Heavenly Sword is known for, would be the graphics. Aside from Nariko`s hair, there are very few hitches. The facial expressions in this game are some of the best seen yet, especially those done for King Bohan. Expression was a major point in this game, and it shows; the dubbing of the voices are matched perfectly with the mouthing of the words. The body structure itself is very life-like, and moves how you would expect a body to move. The movements are not choppy, and there are very few clipping issues. My only qualm, as I stated earlier, is Nariko`s hair. Although there is no clipping whatsoever, her hair seems bunched together and scattered, though it looks nice in some scenes, others it`s a bit wild compared to the non-gameplay scenes.

The environments are also of cinematic quality. The view distance is extremely far, and even at long ranges, it looks compelling. Early on in the game, you`re defending a fort as literally thousands of enemies rush towards you, each having a basic AI script, and there is absolutely no frame-rate drop; which I`ll address in a minute. The mountains, snow, grass, everything about the setting glows with an almost peaceful mood to it. The fire from explosions, or dust as ground is pulled up, almost has a life of its own. Perhaps I`m exaggerating, but you get the idea; it looks nice.

I also mentioned how there was virtually no frame-rate drop; this is constant throughout the game. Not once was I forced to yawn as it chugged by, or lose my concentration because it skipped a frame. Regardless of what was going on in the screen, there were no issues. It was fluent, and definitely smooth. There may have been one or two miniscule drops in the last battle, but you`ll be so into it at that point, you won`t notice. I didn`t.


The sound, mainly the dubbing, is quite exceptional. The voices fit the characters perfectly, along with the timing; the most noticeable is with the antagonist, King Bohan. From the first few minutes of the game, you`ll realize just how good it is. Although the `British` accent was a tad overused for enemies, you won`t notice it as much later on.

One qualm with the sound is how there`s virtually no music, or virtually no memorable music. I haven`t played it much recently, but I can barely remember if there even was music. It would have been nice to have a good `Kick-Your-Ass` type tune for the bosses, but I don`t believe one was put in; why is beyond me. Regardless, the atmosphere of the battles you`l be fighting is a fine substitute for music, and you`ll be so concentrated on the battles, you probably won`t care.

I talked about it in a previous paragraph, about how this simply expands on games like God of War in terms of play, and how the combat is fluid, and things like that. Nariko really only uses one weapon throughout most of the game, which would be the Heavenly Sword. However, the Heavenly Sword has three different forms to it. Range, Speed, and Power. By just using Square and Triangle, you use the Speed formation; which has moderate range, and moderate strength. By holding L1, you enter Range, which causes the sword to become two chained blades (Think Blades of Chaos from GoW) which have large range, but not much power. The final stance is R1, which enters Power. The sword becomes a massive claymore, and has moderate range, slow, but allows you to hit for massive damage. (No reference intended)

Each of the above stances can be used in conjunction with each other, there is no menu involved when it comes to weapons. You are able to switch stances mid-way through a combo and is often encouraged, if not forced. Aside from your standard, and many, ground combos, you also have a variety of aerial attacks at your disposal. All of them are started by pressing L1 and triangle, then shaking the controller to follow them. These are the most complicated combos, as some involve quickly switching styles and a larger variety of combinations.

The amount of enemies you have to face is also quite improved upon. Without spoiling anything, at the end of the game, you will literally be killing thousands of enemies, all on screen at once, running their own AI scripts. Even before this epic battle, you`ll be faced off with quite a few enemies. Not all of the game is as Nariko, however. There are a few parts where you play as her companion, Kai.

Kai`s parts mainly deal with Twing-Twang, which is just another phrase for `Aim for the head. `You`re in a stationary location, protected from enemies, and you have to kill them with her crossbow. At one point you`re defending a fort, or a bridge at another. These are done with some kind of Sun-Powered Laser Sight (Corny, I know) and it`s just pure killing. You can zoom in with the right analogue stick, but it`s fairly useless unless they`re close and not moving. The main form is when you hold down the fire button and control the arrow with the SixAXIS/Analogue stick. With this, the camera follows the arrow through the air and towards its target, allowing for added precision. There is one or two parts in the game where you play as Kai, and can move around.

Such parts involve mostly strategic manoeuvres, evidenced by the fact she has no offensive attacks other than her crossbow, which you must stop to use (Think Resident Evil 4). The rest of her `Attacks` involve evasive movements, such as jumping over an obstacle, or flipping around an enemy. Most of the time you`ll want to use the regular aiming for this, considering they may be getting quite close, and you can be hit in these segments.

The effect I described above, about controlling the arrows, is called Aftertouch. This applies for both Nariko and Kai, when Kai fires an arrow, you can hold down the button and you`ll be able the control the arrow in mid-air. However, you can only change the vertical and horizontal values slightly, meaning no 180 turns. But you`ll still be able to have full control over it, in a sense. With Nariko, she doesn`t have a bow, but you can pick up anything the enemies drop and more; including their bodies. Be it a shield or sword, you can pick it up and run with it, throwing it straight ahead, or using Aftertouch to control it. All of this is done with the SixAXIS, or analogue stick if you change the settings.


Heavenly Sword`s story is quite compelling, it`s a story of redemption, retribution, and utter revenge. It starts out with Nariko standing amidst thousands of soldiers, holding the Heavenly Sword. It starts to burn her hands as she falls to the ground, and runes crawl up her arms and eventually into her eye. She`s thrown into Purgatory, where she pleas to be given another chance.

The jest of the story is told in flashbacks, with Nariko giving small intermissions between chapters as she sits in Purgatory (Or Hell, it`s never really said). The story itself deals with Nariko`s quest for revenge against Bohan and his tyranny, and to master the sword, allowing her to change her fate.


As for replay value, there is quite a bit to unlock. Two episodes of the animated series, along with artwork, combos, and various other things. These are done by meeting special requirements for the levels, and unlocking glyphs. However, the game is very short and only has one extra difficulty, which is unlocked by beating the game. There is a chapter select, where you can choose a chapter, then a specific mission, and play through anything after it. Overall, it`s worth more than one play through, but once you get everything, it may get stale.

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Story: 9/10
Replay Value: 6/10

Overall: 8/10

Heavenly Sword is a game worth a rent at the very least. As I stated, it is short, but not short enough where you`ll be able to unlock everything in three days. Unless you play almost non-stop, of course. But that could be said for any game. I bought it and I`m happy with it, so this one could go either way. Rent it if you think you won`t want to beat it more than once or twice.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/24/07

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