Heavenly Sword
| Heavenly Sword | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | Ninja Theory | ||
| Publisher | Sony Computer Entertainment Europe | ||
| Senior Developer | Nina Kristensen | ||
| composer | Nitin Sawhney | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
 September 12, 2007 September 14, 2007 September 20, 2007  |
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| platform | PlayStation 3 | ||
| Game engine | Havok Complete | ||
| genre | Action-Adventure , Hack and Slay | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Gamepad | ||
| medium | Blu-ray disc | ||
| language | Multilingual | ||
| Age rating |
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Heavenly Sword is one of Ninja Theory developed and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe publicized video game for the PlayStation 3 .
action
The game follows the story of Nariko, a passionate red-haired warrior whose people have long protected the "Heavenly Sword". The “god blade” has an immeasurable power, which it draws from the life force of the wearer. If it is used too often, it can also kill the wearer. A power-hungry ruler, King Bohan, wants the sword to benefit from its destructive power. At the beginning the player is thrown into the final battle with Bohan's army. After Nariko kills some soldiers, she is finally overwhelmed by the curse of the sword and dies. Nariko wakes up in a clearing, lamenting the sword's decision to fetch her at such a critical moment, and remembers the last five days before their final fight.
Nariko's people are ambushed by King Bohan's forces, and her father Shen entrusts her with the Heavenly Sword. Together they fight with their tribe members for the fortress, but are unable to maintain the defense and flee. When Bohan's army catches her father and corner her, she has no choice but to use the Heavenly Sword to defend herself and flee. Kai, who disobeyed Shen's orders to hide, finds Nariko and informs her where her father and the other tribe members are being held. Nariko infiltrates the temple and fights Bohan's General Flying Fox . She defeats him and continues to look for her father, who is being held as bait by Whiptail, another of Bohan's subordinates. Nariko is ambushed and eventually fights Whiptail, who informs her that Nariko's father wanted to kill her after she was born. Nariko asks her father to leave to fight Whiptail alone. After Nariko brings her to the brink of defeat, King Bohan shows up and kills Whiptail. Nariko is passed out and captured by Bohan.
When Nariko wakes up, she realizes that she has lost the sword. It is now in King Bohan's possession, who keeps it safe in his armory. Meanwhile, Kai is on his way to Nariko's cell to free her and ask to come home. However, Nariko wants to kill King Bohan with the "Heavenly Sword". Kai can find the sword, but also comes across her mother's corpse, issued as a trophy, which was killed years ago by the Flying Fox in front of Kai's eyes. Flying Fox suddenly appears and attacks Kai, who just manages to escape with the sword. Meanwhile, Bohan forces Nariko to face her tribal brothers and monstrous creatures, the orangumen, in a pit. During the fight against the monsters, Kai appears and throws the sword to Nariko. Nariko defeats the monsters and also Bohan's son Roach, who wants to kill Nariko. Nariko and Kai flee, and Bohan orders Flying Fox to kill Kai. Flying Fox separates Kai from Nariko, and Nariko desperately pursues them to prevent him from murdering Kai. When she finally caught up with him, all she saw was Kai, hanging on a rope, falling from a great height. Believing Kai is dead, Nariko is fighting with Flying Fox when Kai suddenly moves, reaches for her crossbow and shoots Flying Fox. Nariko brings the injured Kai back to her clan.
King Bohan gathers his men to launch a final attack and get the sword. Nariko fights next to her father and tribal brothers one more time. Nariko kills countless soldiers and destroys Bohan's catapults with ease. But despite her efforts, she falls to the ground and dies. The game starts again where the story began at the beginning. But this time Nariko reverses her death by making a pact with the sword in which she promises to protect it from becoming a war trophy. Nariko descends, back on the battlefield, as a white radiant goddess. Bohan speaks to his raven, which he had with him throughout the campaign, and asks him to give him the power to defeat Nariko. Bohan's wish is granted: the raven occupies his body and turns him into a dark, winged, almost invincible, demon. An epic battle breaks out - but Nariko can defeat Bohan. The raven leaves Bohan's body and pecks at Bohan, who is begging for mercy, and flies away. Nariko decides not to kill the helpless Bohan and allows his son Roach to carry him away.
Although she was able to successfully protect the sword against evil, Nariko has to pay her life as the price for using the power. And the story comes to an end ... Nariko tells her father that her fight for prophecy was in vain and that she is not the heavenly warrior sent, but that she chose to be the chosen one her people before the Evil saves. She took the sword, paid the price, and defeated Bohan's army, but she was still a normal woman nonetheless. It also implies that the sword did not come from heaven as they believed, but it comes from somewhere else. Nariko heals Kai and gives her the sword for safekeeping before she finally dies. At the funeral, Nariko's body is placed in a boat filled with flowers, and Kai and Shen send her out to sea.
The Prophecy
Nariko's warrior tribe believe in the prophecy of a warrior with a divine sword, called the "Heavenly Sword," which was sent from heaven to defend them from ultimate evil. When the warrior was done, he left the blade on the ground and disappeared. Many people were drunk with greed to control power and murdered to gain possession. Nariko's tribe ended the violence and took on the dangerous task of protecting the sword from abuse. The tribe believe that one day, in the year of the fire horse , a predetermined male heir will be born who will claim the sword as the rightful owner. Once that happened, peace and quiet would return to the land and no one would fight for the sword anymore. However, their hope was dashed when, on the day of the fire horse, not a male but a female child, Nariko, was born while her mother died in childbirth. Her father Shen was tempted to murder Nariko, but the guilt was too heavy and instead he raised the girl and trained her to be a warrior.
Game principle and technology
The game mechanics of Heavenly Sword are comparable to modern hack-and-slay games like Devil May Cry or God of War from a third-person perspective . It is based on close combat and intermittent ranged combat sequences. The main character Nariko uses a weapon called "Heavenly Sword", which changes into one of three forms, depending on the attack style the player uses. The “speed” stance maintains a balance between damage to the enemy and speed. The sword here takes the form of two separate blades. "Range" allows quick, far-reaching, but weaker attacks, with two identical blades chained together. “Kraft” is the strongest but also the slowest style in which the “Heavenly Sword” takes the form of a large two-handed sword. The transition between all styles is fluid. During explorations and in certain battles, the game makes use of quick-time events . If the symbol of a certain button on the gamepad appears on the screen, for example the symbol "O" or "X", the player must press this button in good time to successfully complete the scene. In addition to Nariko, the player controls a second character in some parts of the game: Kai. Most of the missions that have to be completed with Kai are sniper missions in which the player, with Kai's crossbow , has to take down enemies from a distance. Kai cannot fight hand-to-hand combat, but he can explore levels more extensively, as she can jump over objects and temporarily stun enemies she is trying to hold on to. Projectiles can be steered during flight using the motion controls on the PlayStation 3's Sixaxis Controller . These include Kai's shot arrows, picked up objects that are thrown, and the "rocket launcher" that Nariko has been using in the meantime.
Production notes
Heavenly Sword was developed on the PlayStation 3 by Ninja Theory from 2002 . In an early development phase, it also ran on an Xbox 360 prototype ; however, the version was not pursued after the takeover by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe . The game was developed using Havok Complete , a combination of Havok physics engine and Havok animation . Actor Andy Serkis , known for his motion capture work and voice for the character Gollum from the Lord of the Rings films , was the motion capture actor of King Bohan , one of the main characters in "Heavenly Sword". He is also one of the authors of the story. The music for the game was composed by Nitin Sawhney and performed by the Prague Philharmonic .
For the first broadcast of the episode "Parasit" of the television series Heroes , an eight-second excerpt from the game was shown in one scene four months before the release date. Heavenly Sword was released in Europe in September 2007. So far it has sold 1.38 million times worldwide (as of October 2009). The first patch 1.10 released for the game integrated vibrations of the DualShock 3 controller in certain parts of the game.
Animated prequel
Before the game came out, an animated series was published around Nariko: A prequel to the events in the game. The series, which consists of five episodes, was produced by the English company Blinkink and animated by CHASE Animation Studios . The videos were available online and through the PlayStation Store . The first two videos were also included in the retail version of the game. The other three could not be completed in time and therefore could not be added. The videos shed light on where the Heavenly Sword comes from, the people who protect the sword, the origins of Bohan, the prophesied birth, Nariko's training as a child and battles before the events of the game. The style of the animated series is different from the game's graphics: the series was made in a simple 2D style using a combination of Adobe Photoshop , Flash and After Effects .
Others
- In addition to a demo that appeared on July 27, 2007, two other playable demos were released on the PlayStation Store at the end of 2007 . The "Nariko Version" was released worldwide, while the "Kai Version" was released exclusively in the Japanese store.
- Sony and Ninja Theory created five 'making of' videos about the production of Heavenly Sword, each of which highlighted a specific aspect of the game's production, such as music or motion capture . The videos can be unlocked as the game progresses or downloaded from PlayStation Store .
reception
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Heavenly Sword received mostly positive reviews. The review database Metacritic aggregates 64 reviews to an average of 79. The successful presentation, the combat system and the cutscenes were received as positive. The testers complained negatively about the few and meager puzzles, the monotonous characters and the lack of depth.
“The combat system is simple, but well thought out. And lots of great ideas such as the ability to steer projectiles yourself, together with the fantastic cutscenes, round off the gaming experience "
"And despite (or because of) the small size, there is a lack of depth and variety: The few puzzles turned out to be extremely simple, but the inserts with Kai or the shot control provide a little whistle."
“However, Heavenly Sword never reaches the playful excellence of a God of War. The overview suffers too often for that, Nariko sometimes reacts stubbornly and often maltreating the attack buttons is enough. In addition, unlike Kratos, the heroine does not develop any further, which makes her story more monotonous than that of the Olympic warrior. Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to watch her until the end, to steer projectiles to the finish in slow motion and to enjoy the grandiose film scenes. Heavenly Sword is thrilling - both because of the tight narrative tempo and the technically excellent recordings. Because especially the sequences in which the incredibly real-looking antagonist rattles, hisses and snorts are overwhelming! "
Web links
- Official website
- Heavenly Sword at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884088/releaseinfo?ref_=tt_dt_dt
- ↑ https://www.gamezone.de/Heavenly-Sword-Spiel-5736/
- ↑ https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/08/23/a-heavenly-date-down-under
- ↑ Destructoid.com: The evolution of Heavenly Sword: originally intended for the Xbox 360? Retrieved April 27, 2018 .
- ↑ havok.com: Heavenly Sword with Havok developed, access on October 28, 2009
- ↑ Wired.com: Andy Serkis on Turning Heavenly Sword into Theater. Retrieved April 29, 2018 .
- ↑ playstation.com: Creation of Music, accessed October 28, 2009
- ↑ gamepro.com: New in-game video in the "Heroes" series. Accessed October 28, 2009
- ↑ ign.com: IGN UK Heavenly Sword Review, accessed October 26, 2009
- ↑ vgchartz.com: Sales figures, accessed October 29, 2009
- ↑ play3.de: First patch accessed on October 28, 2009
- ↑ playstation.com: Marketing Manager SCEA via series, accessed October 28, 2009
- ↑ itsartmag.com: Ben Hibon in charge of the animated series ( Memento from July 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed October 28, 2009
- ↑ joystiq.com: Two new demos in the Japanese store ( memento of the original from February 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed October 28, 2009
- ↑ ign.com: Demo in the Playstation Store, accessed October 28, 2009
- ↑ PSU.com: Heavenly Sword Cheats. Retrieved May 2, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Metacritic.com: Heavenly Sword. Retrieved April 29, 2018 .
