Heavenly Sword

Heavenly Sword
Developer(s)	Ninja Theory
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Designer(s)	Sam Michels and Sam Hazlewood
Engine	In-house Engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, Hack and slash/Beat 'em up
Mode(s)	Single-player

Heavenly Sword is a video game developed by Ninja Theory exclusively for the PlayStation 3 console and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. The game was released September 12 2007, in North America, September 14 2007, in the United Kingdom, September 19 2007, in Europe and September 20 2007, in Australia.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Heavenly Sword resembles a martial arts title focused on melee combat while featuring opportunities for ranged attacks, comparable to modern hack and slash games such as Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox and PS3 and God of War for the PlayStation 2. The main character, Nariko, uses a weapon called the "Heavenly Sword" which changes into one of three forms depending on what attack stance the player uses as part of a unique fighting style. Speed Stance, the default, provides an even balance between damage and speed, where the sword takes the form of two separate blades. Range Stance allows fast, long-ranging, but weaker attacks, with the sword resembling two blades, chained together. Power Stance is the most powerful, but slowest style, where attacks are made with the Sword in the shape of one large, two-handed blade.

For exploration and certain battles, the game also makes use of "Quick Time Events" (QTE) similar to those found in titles such as Shenmue, Resident Evil 4, and God of War. During a QTE, a symbol for a certain button or for an action such as moving the analog stick to the right or left appears on screen and the player must match what is shown to successfully complete the scene.

In addition to Nariko, a secondary character, Kai, is controlled for some portions of the game. Many of Kai's stages take the form of sniping missions, using her crossbow to pick out enemies, in some cases to protect characters; whilst Kai cannot perform hand-to-hand combat, in stages that do call for her to explore the level she is able to hop over objects, as well as free herself from an enemy's grasp by temporarily stunning them.

Projectiles can be maneuvered to their targets using the motion-sensing capabilities of the SIXAXIS controller through a feature known as Aftertouch. Such projectiles include guiding Kai's arrows after she has launched them, and for Nariko, guiding a cannon or rocket launcher, or picking up and throwing objects.

Plot

Prophecy

Nariko's warrior clan believes in a prophecy of a warrior sent from the heavens with a godly blade (called the Heavenly Sword), to defend them from the ultimate evil. When the warrior was finished with his task he left the blade behind on earth. Many men were immediately drunken with the desire to wield its power and murdered over its ownership. It was then that Nariko's clan ended the violence and took on the dangerous undertaking of protecting the sword from such corruption.

The clan believed that one day a predestined male heir would be born and reclaim the sword as its rightful owner. Once this happened, peace and tranquility would return to the land and none would fight over the sword anymore. Their hopes were dashed however when the prophecy was nullified as Shen's wife produced not a male child but rather a female child (Nariko) while dying in childbirth. Shen was first tempted to murder Nariko but guilt swayed him, and instead he brought the girl up and trained her to be a warrior.

Story

The game follows the story of Nariko, the fierce red-haired warrior whose clan has long protected the "Heavenly Sword", a god's blade of immense power that drains its wielder of their life force. A power hungry ruler known as King Bohan, seeks to obtain the sword to gain its devastating power.

Upon beginning the game, the player is immediately thrust into the final battle with Bohan's army. After slaying many of Bohan's soldiers, Nariko can no longer resist the sword's deadly curse. She falls to the ground as the characters of the sword deeply engrave themselves into her skin. After dying, she wakes up and finds herself in an empty clearing. Nariko laments at the sword's decision to take her at such a critical moment and begins to recall the last five days before her final battle.

Nariko's clan is assaulted by the first strike of King Bohan's forces. Before she joins the fight, Shen thrusts the sword into the ground next to her demanding that she take care of it. Nariko fights alongside her father and her clansmen as their defenses are weakened and stretched by scores of Bohan's warriors scaling the city walls accompanied with catapults. As the Warriors and Shen escape from Bohan's Army, Nariko protects them until spotting a catapult moving toward the fort. As Shen had earlier instructed her, she flees, as the fortress is apparently destroyed behind her. Whilst fleeing, she passes a large black bird with a golden head, which gives the impression that it is watching her. When Bohan's army captures her father and corners her in a retreat from the clan's city, Nariko has no choice but to wield the sword to defend herself in order to escape. She takes a flying leap off a cliff edge when Bohan's archers begin to fire at her.

Kai finds Nariko after disobeying Shen's orders to hide and informs her of the temple that her father and clansmen are being held captive. Nariko infiltrates the temple and is ambushed by Bohan's general, Flying Fox. She defeats Flying Fox for the time being and continues on to rescue her father. Meanwhile King Bohan plots to set up a trap for Nariko with his mistress Whiptail. Nariko sees her father dangling from a chain and falls for the bait. Whiptail's guards ambush her but are unsuccessful in their attempt to kill her. Whiptail decides to take Nariko on herself and tells Nariko the truth behind her father's original feelings about her birth - Shen wanted to kill Nariko shortly after her birth, but was unable to bring himself to do so. Nariko tells her father to leave her and fights with Whiptail. After Nariko impales Whiptail with the sword, King Bohan turns up and brutally snaps Whiptail's neck in her dying moments. Nariko passes out and is captured by Bohan.

Nariko awakens and realizes she has lost possession of the sword. King Bohan gleefully informs her that it is safely stored in his armory. Meanwhile, Kai makes her way to Nariko's holding cell. Kai is able to find where Nariko is imprisoned and begs that she comes home with her "like a good girl." Nariko explains to Kai that she needs to reacquire the Heavenly Sword to kill King Bohan. She asks Kai to retrieve the sword and Kai accepts the task. Kai eventually succeeds in finding the Heavenly Sword, only to also discover the corpse of her mother displayed as a gruesome trophy. In a flashback, it is revealed that, some years ago, Kai's mother was murdered in front of her eyes by Flying Fox. In the present day, Flying Fox suddenly appears and attacks Kai, who barely manages to escape with the sword. Bohan decides to throw a spectacle for his soldiers and forces Nariko to fight her own clansmen and Roach's pets monstrous creatures (Orangumen) in a pit. During a battle with these creatures, Kai comes flying from the rafters and throws Nariko the sword. When Nariko defeats all the Orangumen, Bohan orders his own son Roach to murder Nariko. After defeating Roach, both Nariko and Kai flee from the pit. Bohan then commands Flying Fox to kill Kai.

As the two try to escape the temple, Flying Fox cuts Kai off from Nariko's safety and they are separated. Nariko desperately tails Flying Fox in order to save Kai from being murdered. When she finally catches up with Flying Fox, he hangs Kai from a rope, dropping her from a great height. Believing Kai to be dead, Nariko screams in grief and rage, before beginning battle with Flying Fox. As Nariko and Flying Fox battle with each other, Kai suddenly stirs and reaches for her crossbow, shooting an arrow into Flying Fox. Her shot pierces his forehead and he falls to the ground, dead. Nariko releases the injured Kai from the noose and returns her to the care of the clan.

King Bohan rallies his men to launch a final attack to regain the Heavenly Sword. Nariko fights alongside her father and clansmen once more despite being outnumbered a thousand to one. Nariko kills countless of Bohan's troops with ease and destroys his catapults. Despite her efforts, the game is brought back to the beginning of the story where she fell to the ground dying. But this time, Nariko reverses her death by making a pact with the sword to protect it from becoming a trophy of war.

Nariko descends back onto the battlefield as a glowing white goddess radiant with light. Bohan looks to his pet raven (seen regularly throughout the story) and begs that it bestow him the power to destroy Nariko. This opens the possibility in the story that the raven is an incarnation of the evil Raven Lord defeated by the Heavenly Warrior in the animated prequel. Bohan gets his wish and the raven enters his body making him a dark, winged demon that is almost invincible. An epic battle ensues similar to the one foretold in the prophecy of the sword. Nariko manages to launch Bohan into the air, where she dices him with the sword before finally slamming him back to the ground. The raven leaves Bohan's body, and despite Bohan begging for mercy, pecks his eyes out and flies away. Nariko decides not to kill the defenseless Bohan and allows his son Roach to carry him away.

Though successful in protecting the sword from coming into the hands of ultimate evil (The Raven Lord/Bohan), Nariko still must give her life for wielding it, for that is the price for using the almighty sword, and the story comes to its end.

Nariko reflects to her father that she believes they have fought in vain for the prophecy, that she is not a warrior sent from heaven, but rather she chose to be the one who was going to save her people from evil. She took the sword, paid the price and ultimately defeated Bohan's, but nevertheless she was still a normal woman.

She also implies that the sword is not from heaven, as they believed it was, but somewhere else.

Nariko heals Kai and gives her the sword for safekeeping, before passing away. At the funeral, Nariko's body is placed into a boat filled with blossoms, and Kai and Shen cast her out to sea.

After the credits a short clip is shown, revealing a hooded man dressed in black find the boat containing Nariko's body. he whisper the words: "the prophecy is far from over, and that in fact it's only just begun." The last shot shows Nariko's body glowing red from a distance.

Characters

Nariko is the main character of the game. She's 23 years old at the beginning of the game. A fierce, talented, and beautiful young warrior who belongs to a clan headed by her father, Shen. A prophecy once foretold that a son would be born who would act as a saviour to the clan; with the birth of Nariko, a daughter, the clan have come to shun her, and even go so far as to blame their misfortunes on her. Despite the loneliness and resentment felt towards the people of her clan, Nariko willingly protects them with her life. A strong-willed individual, Nariko is a deadly fighter who displays unprecedented skill in combat. After King Bohan launches his destructive tirade to find the Heavenly Sword that the clan protect, Nariko bears the burden of wielding the cursed sword, trading her life to save her people from the grip of the genocidal King and to avenge the people who died protecting it.

Kai is the adopted sister of Nariko, and a member of the clan which protects the Heavenly Sword. She is an innocent character with child-like and impish behaviour, but is highly skilled in the use of her deadly crossbow, a "game" which she names "twing twang". Previously belonging to a once-great clan, Kai is the last survivor; her mother was murdered by one of Bohan's generals, Flying Fox right in front of her which caused severe trauma. Kai was eventually found by Nariko and her clan. She is extremely attached to Nariko and will often disobey orders from Shen or other clan members to assist her.

Shen is both the father of Nariko and the leader of the clan that protects the Heavenly Sword. He acts as Nariko's mentor first and father second. Despite the failed prophecy that was foretold, Shen spared his daughter's life and instead crafted her into a fierce and loyal warrior. For ages he has protected the sword from the forces of evil and corruption. He was once a fellow student with King Bohan before they became the leaders of a separate clan and kingdom, respectively.

King Bohan is the main villain in Heavenly Sword. Bohan is a power crazed king, utterly obsessed with otherworldly treasures and getting his hands on the Heavenly Sword. He leads his army in a search to obtain it, attacking Nariko's clan in the process. He believes himself to be a messiah sent from Heaven to shape the world for a new era and to eliminate all "savages", and that capturing the Heavenly Sword will symbolise his dominance over the land. He obeys and worships a raven which has a gold face plate covering its face.

Flying Fox is the first of King Bohan's war generals. Flying Fox is a rather crazy, eccentric, and demented blade wielder, who is capable of appearing in a different spot in an instant. He does not seem to have any desire for dominance over the land; he is only in it for the money and the "sadistic desire" of the kill. Fox was one of the people who took part in the decimation of Kai's clan and the brutal murder of her mother. His back is covered with several metallic wings on both sides, and he possesses the ability to levitate, teleport, and create copies of himself.

Whiptail A twisted, serpentine seductress, Whiptail serves as Bohan's lover, mistress, and general who has an insatiable desire to please Bohan and craves his attention. She wears a stylized headdress in the shape of an eel atop her head and down her back; the tail moves as if it is part of her. With her scaly skin, razor-sharp teeth and forked tongue, it would appear that she is not necessarily even human. In battle, her weapon of choice is a whip. She also possesses the ability of water manipulation, allowing her to create massive tidal waves and typhoons with water in her immediate vicinity. She also possesses the unique ability delve into people's minds.

Roach is King Bohan's illegitimate son. His mother is probably Sumi, the remains of whom is kept in the treasury, and is described as a warrior-witch, who desecrated the Kings loins. Roach is mentally retarded and he often seeks his father's approval. He frequently refers to king Bohan as "daddy" which Bohan hates being reminded of. Despite Roach' hulking, gargantuan, and intimidating appearance, he is a rather gentle creature with the mind of a child. He is very mindful and caring of his father and seeks his approval. His large torso resembles a roach's thorax.

Kai's Mother is a character in one part of the story. She was killed by Flying Fox, in front of her daughter, Kai which is supposedly the cause of her traumatic behaviour. Years later Kai goes to King Bohan's Armory to find the Heavenly Sword for her sister. While she retrieves the sword, she accidentally discovers the corpse of her mother which instantly rekindled her memory of her mother's fatal encounter with Fox, and briefly drove her insane with grief, before an unexpected and near-fatal reunion with her mother's killer.

The Heavenly Sword is the mighty sword that came from the skies with the "heavenly warrior" a long time ago, and defeated the Raven Lord in a fierce battle. After the evil lord was killed, the warrior vanished and the sword remained on earth, and it was later delivered to a clan of warriors devoted to protect it, and wait for the return of the heavenly warrior, who was going to lead mankind to a new age of peace and freedom.

As the game moves forward it is shown that the heavenly sword is somehow alive; it gives the wielder incredible destructive power, as well as some degree of agility and speed, in exchange for his or her soul. The game does not explain why this bargain happens, why the wielder must die in order to use the sword; that is just the price that has to be paid for wielding it.

Nariko states that when she is away from it she feels weak, empty, and meaningless. This is probably another effect from using the sword: the wielder gets 'addicted' to it. Also, she says near the end of the game that in the past she fought only to defend herself and her people. However, after wielding the sword for so long, she was beginning to enjoy the slaughtering and all the kills, which implies that the sword was slowly twisting her personality. In the animated series, in chapter 2, it is said that after being used by so many warriors to kill and tear apart flesh, bones and blood, the sword now hungers for killing.

Development

Heavenly Sword started development on PC with a view to moving onto next generation platforms such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The title was in development since 2003 with footage of the original PC version published on TeamXbox.com in 2004. It had, at one time, been up and running on an early Xbox 360 prototype, but this was abandoned in favor of the PlayStation 3 when the title was picked up by SCEE. [1]. The game was developed using Havok Complete, a combination of Havok Physics and Havok Animation.

Actor Andy Serkis, who is best known for his motion capture and voice work for the character Gollum in the The Lord of the Rings movies, performs as the voice and motion capture actor for King Bohan, one of the major characters in Heavenly Sword; he also acts as Dramatic Director for the game and is one of the writers of the story of the game.

A demo was released to the PlayStation Store on July 26 2007 featuring a short, cinematic clip at the beginning and two brief enemy battles, lasting approximately five to ten minutes.

An eight-second clip of the game was seen in an episode of the TV series Heroes entitled "Parasite", ostensibly being played by Jessica Sanders and her son, Micah. It featured Nariko running across ropes as they were cut by Bohan's soldiers, before landing on the platform to face them. Whilst the episode was broadcast over four months before the actual release of the game, the level displayed remained in the released build, including the rope sequence shown; the icons in the final game used to inform the player which buttons to press were changed from large, central icons as seen in the clip, to be smaller and positioned at the bottom of the screen.

A recent patch (1.10) released was for the inclusion of the DualShock 3 Vibration during certain parts of the game.

Cast

Role	Voice actors (English version)
Nariko	Anna Torv
King Bohan	Andy Serkis
Kai	Lydia Baksh
Flying Fox	Steven Berkoff
Whiptail	Race Davies
Roach	Richard Ridings

Video

Animated prequel

Nariko as represented in Part I of the animated series

A series of Heavenly Sword animated episodes were released prior to the launch of the game itself, acting as a prequel to the events of the game. The series, which consists of five episodes, was produced by London production company Blinkink and animated by CHASE animation studios. The videos were made available both online and through the PlayStation Store. The first two videos were also included on the retail version of the game; the latter three videos were not ready in time to be included. The videos are based on where the heavenly sword is from, the clan protecting the sword, the origins of Bohan, divine birth, Nariko's training when she was a child and battles before the game.

The style of the animated series differs from the graphics of the game itself. The animated series relies on a simple and stylized 2D look, which allowed director Ben Hibon to "create a complete visual re-interpretation of the world and its inhabitants". The videos were produced using a combination of Adobe Photoshop, Flash and After Effects. Initial reference frames were created with Photoshop, which were then animated in Flash and exported as separate layers into After Effects. The layers were composed onto a 3D stage with multiple foreground, middle ground and background elements, which allowed the use of 3D cameras and lighting to give depth and movement to the video.

Production

Sony and Ninja Theory have made five 'making of' videos about the production of Heavenly Sword, with each one detailing a certain aspect of the games production, from music to motion capture. The videos can either be unlocked whilst playing the game or downloaded from the PlayStation Store.

Soundtrack

Nitin Sawhney composed the music for the soundtrack. It was performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Stephen Hussey. Tameem Antoniades of Ninja Theory said "we have our big orchestral soundtrack but we wanted to add a more ethnic element and marry those two together. There are actually very few musicians in the world who are experts in both areas. Nitin Sawhney is one of them." Sawhney stated that his creation of "musical textures take in everything from Hollywood, European and Chinese cinema to Indian and middle eastern instrumentation through the orchestras and soloists hovering between sonic tidal waves and reflective moments of intimate grace."

Reception

Reviews and awards Compilations of multiple reviews
Game Rankings	81% (based on 68 reviews)
Metacritic	79/100 (based on 60 reviews)
Publication	Response	Award
Edge magazine	6 out of 10
Game Informer	8.75 out of 10
GamePro	4.5 out of 5	Editor's Choice
Gamespot	8 out of 10
IGN	7 out of 10
Official PlayStation Magazine (Australia)	9 out of 10	Silver Award
PlayStation Universe	9 out of 10

Heavenly Sword sold over one million copies by May 2008. The game has been praised for its graphics and combat system, while criticism has stemmed from the short length of the game and lack of online capabilities. Currently the game holds an average score of 79 out of 100 on Metacritic (based on 60 reviews), while Game Rankings has an average score of 81% (based on 68 reviews).

Trial Versions

Two playable demos were released on the PlayStation Store. The "Nariko" version was released worldwide while the "Kai" version was exclusive to Japan.

Sequel

According to Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades, the story for the sequel has been already written; in fact a whole trilogy is being planned. He stated, "We've had the story for the sequel for a while now. Hopefully, if this game is successful, then there's no reason why there shouldn't be a sequel and we'd very much like to go into that."

On March 21, 2008, on G4's Attack of the Show it was listed on the scrolling banner that Ninja Theory is not planning to create a sequel for Heavenly Sword, and instead has decided to work on a new project. Though information on the decision and the aforementioned project was sparse, it was stated that production time for the new project will span well over two years, and that the project, like Heavenly Sword, will be extremely cinematic.

On May 21, 2008, IT Manager “Peonic” announced that a follow-up to Heavenly Sword would be extremely unlikely due to Ninja Theory's decision to pursue opportunities within multi-platform development:

"We’re not abandoning HS just on a whim because we want to go off and do something different - there’s a great huge raft of reasons behind us taking the direction we are - and it’s also the nature of the business that I’m not allowed to share any of those reasons with you.

As for the ‘you’re just not doing HS2 NOW’ comments - well one thing you learn in this industry is that you never say ‘Never’. So I’m not going to say we’ll “never” go back and make HS2 - but it’s something I personally see as extremely unlikely."

However, since SCE retains the IP of Heavenly Sword, there's always the possibility of production on a sequel being outsourced to another developer.

External links

Official Websites

• Official Site
• Developer's Official Site
• Animation Studio's Site
• Q&A with Ninja Theory
• Heavenly Sword entry on the Encyclopedia Gamia
• Motion Capture video. Featuring Andy Serkis