filmfreak-ochoa23 Review of Heavenly Sword

Heavenly Sword (2007 Video Game)

Basic Storyline but excellent gameplay mechanics and THE BEST BOSS BATTLE

[9/10 · 26 July 2011]

Heavenly Sword- 2007 The tale of Nariko is one of tragedy at the beginning of this story where you see our heroine defeated by the evil sword but empowered to a goddess level where she can defeat thousands of evil goons, so you start very overpowered at the beginning, kind of like Final Fantasy 13 where is so easy you start to wonder why you are playing the game. These games are why you must give them a chance beyond the beginning; it starts from mind numbingly easy to excruciatingly difficult! I admit is not a good strategy, since most people judge the game at a first impression, but I can also see why they do this. By giving the person some power at first, it makes the player comfortable with the character and by letting loose the reigns, all chaos ensues with some really challenging boss fights. It also makes sense in the overall story, at first the player has to sense that Nariko has extraordinary powers from the Heavenly Sword when she is fighting a horde of minions and even at the end of the game from which this scene is re-played since it starts like Memento, in the end, they are extremely easy since they are minions. The bosses are fun to play against, teaching you countering moves, albeit not necessary to beat them, but essential to practice on. The final boss, however, is ridiculously hard, but in a good way. The game assumes that you practiced the necessary dodging and countering techniques with the previous bosses so it is essential that you know these to defeat the final boss. Think Ocarina of Time Ganondorf with the countering but stricter, meaning you miss the timing by a millisecond and you are hit, you have to time it right when your character is hit by the beam blast, it is the best boss battle ever in my opinion, in video game history, so far. Challenging and frustrating but in a good way, in a way that when you beat him, you feel proud, not like Shao-Khan, which when you beat him in MK9, you think, "FINALLY!!" after spamming him in some way for being cheap. In terms of story, it's nothing special, the whole point is that this sword is killing Nariko but providing her with extraordinary power, some evil bad guy, who is hilariously portrayed by Andy Serkis and steals the show, wants the sword to rule the world (he's the final boss by the way) and her father has a secret that will backfire on him regarding Nariko.. the plot was your basic good vs evil storyline with a mystical artifact but the gameplay was very excellent and the over the top acting from Serkis is hilarious. I would say to buy the game to experience the best boss battle ever, really good use of the SIXAXIS controller when controlling Nariko's friend (she shoots arrows and the arrows are controlled with the SIXAXIS), and a great cast of villains especially King Bohan who is Serkis.