Published by – Sony Computer Entertainment Developed by – Ninja Theory Platform - PS3 Age Rating - +16 Official Site - www.heavenlysword.com Score: 8/10
An evil king, Bohan, seeks the Heavenly Sword for himself to increaswehis power. Nariko is the daughter of then hief whose clan is sworn to protect the sword from those who desired its power. The clan had a prophecy that a boy would be born and able to wield the sword and save the world. However, Nariko was born. To protect the sword and her clan she is driven into wielding the sword even though it means giving her life as the sword gradually drains her life force.
Throughout the game you play as Nariko and her adopted sister Kai. These two characters have considerably different fighting styles. Nariko uses swords and is in the centre of the battles whereas Kai uses a crossbow and fights from more distant areas, where possible. Both characters have their own set of controls that are easy to get used to. This means that they have levels dedicated to specific characters that break up gameplay to varied layers like a cake.
Fighting as Nariko utilises many of the buttons and motion sensitive controls to create kick ass combos and generally throw enemies around like rag dolls, as well as hitting them with a huge sword that can be used in a number of different stances. The three fighting stances are speed, range and power. These all have their pros and cons for example with the range stance you can sweep debris from around you into enemies and in power stance powerful attacks are automatically blocked.
Fighting as Kai she can use things in the environment to make her attacks more powerful, for example flaming torches to light the arrow to then hit an enemy or barrel of explosives. There is are some similarity’s that Nariko and Kai share when it comes to fighting. Firstly there is the ability to control projectile weapons with what the game calls ‘aftertouch’. It allows you to control the projectiles movement by using the motion control to direct where it will fly. This is great fun especially when playing as Kai and controlling her arrows >:). The second is the collecting of glyphs which are used to grade your performance in a level kinda like Devil May Cry and stylish points. But the more glyphs you collect then the more things you unlock such as special features.
The graphics are awesome allowing for stunning character and environment design paying high attention to detail. The characters within the game have all been designed brilliantly to fit their personality’s making them more lovable and hateable. When first playing the game the landscapes near enough took my breath away with their beautiful design. The game soundtrack enhances the entire game by helping to build the atmosphere making locations more peaceful and sinister. There are however some repetitive points to the game such as the boss battles but this can be easily avoided by taking breaks when playing the game instead of playing it constantly. The game is also fairly short compared to other games. Overall I really loved this game as it plays well on the PS3 as the controls have taken into consideration the Six-axis motion sensor capability. I feel it does have replayablity to get all the glyphs to unlock all the special features and additional attacks if you’re one of these people that likes to get 100% on games.
There is also a DLC pack for LittleBigPlanet available from the Playstation Store, containing Nariko and Kai costumes as well as 27 Heavenly Sword themed stickers.
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