User Review : Heavenly Sword

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Throughout gaming history, man has been the dominant mascot for many gaming platforms; however, that doesn't necessarily mean we've been without strong women. The likes of Samus and Lara Croft were always held up to be to best examples of great lead female characters. With Heavenly Sword, it's not only safe to say Nariko can be held up to that pedestal, she can also be considered one of the PS3's best mascots for early adopters of the system. Given Nariko's powerful demeanor shown in Heavenly Sword's cover, one only has to ask this one question: Does this game's quality reach toward the heavens?

As already mentioned, your main playable character is Nariko. A scantily clothed heroine with long, red hair who has been tasked with safe-guarding the Heavenly Sword. As told through unlock able videos, the Heavenly Sword is a powerful sword with the capability of mass destruction supposedly sent from the heavens in order to save the world from darkness. A setback to the sword is that it also consumes the life out of the one using this powerful weapon.

Heavenly Sword's story actually begins with Nariko being consumed by the Heavenly Sword and pinning you in Nariko's shoes 5 days before her death. As the camera pans to close-ups on Nariko, who's seemingly in the afterlife, you're given narrations of Nariko's thoughts leading up to the climax. You also see battle through the eyes of the hysterical, yet undeniably charming Kai, an orphan found and raised in Nariko's clan. The overall plot revolves around Nariko keeping the sword from the clutches of the evil King Bohan, the undisputed ruler of the land that has united all of the clans together against Nariko's clan. Overall, the story is one of the best stories for games released in 2007. The game is filled with interesting characters, great dialogue, and deep-thinking narrations by Nariko and Kai that raise questions to both the game's story and the gamers, and having it is all topped off with a poignant ending. Heavenly Sword is the definition for what next-gen action stories can achieve.

Seeing that this is a PS3 exclusive being heralded as a "must-have" game before its release, there's no question that Sony, the publisher, wanted to back Heavenly Sword with the best graphics money could buy during that time. From the scale of the expansive landscapes to the subtlety of the detailed facial animations, Heavenly Sword is one of those rare cases of seeing neither scale nor detail being sacrificed in the end product. The hitches throughout the game come in the likes of a few framerate hiccups and an overall sense of repeated sceneries.

Another case of audio mastery, Heavenly Sword's roots is founded on Chinese instruments you may hear in the likes of many great martial art movies. The weight of different swords sound fantastic, the voice acting for all of the pivotal characters is diverse, and the mystical melodies rendered for the Heavenly Sword's role are top-notch. Kai's child-like behavior is really the stand out from the whole game. For butchering so many enemies, Kai certainly seems to have a light-hearted manner about slaying her enemies. This attitude actually gives off a compulsive sense of comedy to the story. From the goofy manner displayed by characters, for both sides, one could argue that this list of characters is the most diverse in terms of personality. The only quibble I have with the sound design would be the confusing choice of having all of the "cannon-fodder" soldiers sound like British actors. It never really made sense and it turns into a big detractor to the game since they're heard so often throughout the game.

One of the most divisive aspects of Heavenly Sword falls down into the gameplay category. This six to seven hours adventure may not last very long, but it makes up for it in depth. Heavenly Sword's sword-wielding falls into three categories: Range, Speed, and Power. These three categories establish a bunch of different combos for you to unleash on your foes, even though it's tough to determine which deep speed combos are actually more powerful than the other. There is no block button for you to use in Heavenly Sword, so all of your counters are reliant on the color-coded stance your enemies will use-with red color codes being unblockable. For such a short adventure that the game is, you'll be surprised to see how recycled both the map layout and enemy layout is throughout most of the game. It seems that enemy variety takes too long to start actually getting interesting before the game reaches it dramatic ending.

Adding to the mix of the swordplay is Kai's gunplay. When playable, you play a game of "twing-twang" throughout most of Kai's adventure. Upon shooting an arrow from her inventive crossbow, you're granted the power to aim the arrows in any direction using either the Sixaxis or control stick. This is actually one of the most inventive ways to use the SixAxis thus far, and it is especially exhilarating when Kai needs to kill an enemy with precision. You combine Nariko and Kai's general mechanics, mix in some puzzles and QTEs, and you have the entire layout of what to expect. Although satisfying, certain anomalous mechanics that made it into the final product are disheartening.

Overall, Heavenly Sword is a disappointment. It certainly has broken new ground in terms of artistic direction in video games, but once you go a few layers down, you'll be greeted with a short game, with little to no replay value, and a few gameplay mechanics keeping it from reaching exemplary heights. Heavenly Sword comes off as one of the "ultimate rentals" for this gen; but even when considering that, I can't recommend this game to all action fans because of the repeating nature of the game.

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