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Heavenly Sword Review

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Heavenly Sword is a video game that was a lot of fun to play but you’d never have expected it to get a movie as well. They were really confident that this could be the next big franchise and unfortunately that was not in the cards. It makes for a solid action movie but there isn’t a lot to it beyond that. It has some ups and downs but all in all I would still say that this one gets a thumbs up.

The movie starts by explaining that there was supposed to be a chosen warrior who would save his humble village from an impending invasion. Unfortunately for the king, he gives birth to a daughter instead and is now completely distraught. He considers her to be a failure and doesn’t even bother to train her. Sure enough, King Bohan and his army show up to murder everybody and now there is nobody left to fight him. Nariko does her best but the sheer numbers are much too vast and so she is forced to flee with her friend Kai. They have to try and find Nariko’s long lost brother Loki who may be the chosen hero of legend. Finding him will not be easy.

Now right away you may be wondering how Nariko is able to fight at such a high level if she never trained. Well, it turns out that one of the king’s advisors trained her anyway and that was a smart move. She is one of the only people able to fight off the invaders. She probably beats over 50 of them as the film goes on and that’s probably undercounting the effort. Her skill with the blade is unmatched and she also has a strong personality. Nariko is easily one of the highlights of the film and always has a biting remark for the characters around her.

Her father deserved every one of those comments because he is just a lousy character from start to finish. The film even takes him down a darker route than I remember from the games but it probably just stands out more in a movie. He really kept trying to have a proper heir and abused his power in order to do it. There’s just no way to root for him by that point. Most of the folks in the village are also hard to root for. How do you have bullies running around in a village that must always be prepared for life or death fights? There just aren’t a lot of survival skills here.

The only good ally Nariko had was Kai. Kai looks excellent here as she takes out numerous fighters with her crossbow. It was really impressive to see and this may be the first title that gives proper respect to how important it is to have an archer. Particularly in the olden days where there were no guns, it makes sense that arrows would be overpowered. Kai is able to stay at a distance and pick off foes left and right. Her skill with the bow is also unreal. I was always glad to see her at the ready and it makes a difference having at least one ally. Nariko’s journey would have been a lonely one otherwise.

There is also her brother Loki but due to how the plot is set up, the guy doesn’t show up for very long. I immediately liked him though. The guy had a strong sense of self importance without being arrogant and was also quick on the uptake. He wasn’t the kind of guy who was going to just stay back and watch how things played out. He even hit the He Man pose briefly to show off his power. I would have liked to have seen more of him but he was definitely fun.

As for the main villain Bohan, he’s mainly here to serve as an antagonist to defeat. There’s not much to him beyond being the King. He’s a powerful fighter thanks in part to his contract with a demon but the movie doesn’t go into this very much. So if you haven’t played the game then it’s going to feel a bit random but still makes for a fun fight. His henchmen were also pretty tough even if the film had to go through them quickly. The guy with the shimmering wings was particularly powerful and was probably the strongest character in the film, at least not counting end level power ups.

The guy really dealt a lot of damage too. This is one of those films that doesn’t hold back with the body count and it’s not a happy adventure by any means. It felt like every character was doing their best to make Nariko’s life as miserable as possible. I would have liked for their to have at least been a happier ending. It’s the kind of ending that just hurts replay value for this film all the way.

As far as the graphics go, it looks a lot like the video game. I’ve always been cool with this kind of CG. It’s not going for a very life like approach and doesn’t have the top level production values but I always enjoy video games. So this style is just nostalgic and still works for all of the fights. Otherwise the film would be in trouble because the film is essentially a collection of nonstop fight scenes. They just keep on coming over and over.

The battles can be rather violent as the film isn’t holding back on the bloodshed. Every character is fighting to kill after all so there is no room for holding back or taking the enemies alive. This is a war after all. Unfortunately the characters also go after the horses but at least the film doesn’t focus on that too much. Those scenes never get particularly brutal which may be an animation limitation but I’ll accept that. No matter how it happened, the film avoided getting bogged down in animal violence which is really important.

The movie is also really quick so the pacing is on point. How much you enjoy the film will likely be based around how much you enjoy the fights. To be honest the plot often takes a backseat here. It’s fairly straight forward after all so the rest of the runtime is padded out by the battles. It’s always fun to see Nariko crushing her opponents and if anything you just wish she could jump in sooner to save others. The amount of people who die in this film is crazy but it definitely establishes why an invasion is so scary.

Overall, I would recommend this film if you enjoy the Dynasty Warriors kind of title. This takes place in the pre electronics days and has nonstop action. As long as that sounds like it is up your alley then you will be having a good time here. If you’re looking for a very deep and nuanced story about trying to live up to expectations then this isn’t the right film for you. It’s not going for any deep themes but I don’t consider that to be a negative. Having a good main duo helps out a lot as well so Nariko and Kai really help the film to have a good dynamic going on.

Overall 7/10

Heavenly Sword Review

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It’s time for a game with a really iconic cover but I admit that I completely forgot it existed for a while there. Heavenly Sword is one of those rare 3D beat em ups that isn’t a warriors title. I love the beat em up genre so this was definitely fun although the game is very short. So keep that in mind because you will have this game done in under 6 hours easy and there are no PS3 trophies in terms of replay value. The initial playthrough needs to be enough for you to get all your enjoyment in.

The game starts off in the climax with Nariko fighting off legions of warriors but the cursed blade is draining her life force. Her battle is at an end but then we cut back to 5 days earlier. Nariko always grew up as someone that everybody disliked and she wasn’t treated particularly well. People wanted a boy, not a girl. Well Nariko did her best to get strong either way and it turns out that she is the one destined to use the Heaven’s Sword. Now she will have to fight off the enemies for a people who don’t even respect her. She only has one friend in the world, a girl named Kai. Perhaps that will be all the inspiration that Nariko needs.

Honestly if Kai wasn’t around I would not blame Nariko if she just up and left. Even up through the end when she’s saving lives you still have the NPCs being rude for no reason. Nariko is basically a one woman army and without her the main fighters would have died out ages ago. The whole thing is just so absurd that you get annoyed when thinking about it. Her own father was tempted to murder her several times and just doesn’t seem like a good guy. I know the game tries to redeem him to an extent but it’s all just too late and he nearly convinces Kai not to help Nariko near the climax.

Kai is the only solid heroine here to help out. She may not be nearly as strong as Nariko but her bow and arrow skills are really good. While most of the gameplay is your classic 3D slasher, her levels are more motion based. You shoot arrows and then control them by tilting your controller to hit the soldiers from the opposing side. While I am not a fan of motion controls and this was the weakest point of the game, I did really like the concept they were going for here. An archer or any kind of sniper is always a huge asset on the battlefield because of how many people they can take out.

Due to the game’s war setting it’s fun to see her taking people out even while the main fights are occurring elsewhere. So that was pretty cool but of course the best part is playing as Nariko. You have light, normal, and heavy attacks. You switch them up to cancel the opponent’s moves and then keep attacking to land damage. It is like a game of rock paper scissors with the 3 elements and it can be tough to memorize them. The game has a lot more depth than the average beat em up. I was actually button mashing for a good chunk of time towards the end of the game because it was hard to land the hits perfectly.

My biggest piece of advice is to roll a lot because that allows you to get out of the line of fire and start some counter attacks. Especially with the final boss who has a huge health bar you need to do this. Any time he lands a hit on you, that’s going to set you back big time. So keep that in mind here. There is some motion control elements with the platforming but not too many. You also have a lot of quick time events which are fun but the timing is incredibly fast. I wasn’t able to react to almost any of those and just had to memorize them for the second run through. Fortunately there are constant check points in this game.

The graphics are definitely pretty solid. It’s going for a big of a realistic vibe but the effects have aged well. The characters do tend to look rather ugly though and while that is the point, I wouldn’t mind a more stylized version for a sequel. The soundtrack is also pretty solid. Nothing out of this world but it works well within what the game is trying to do. You can easily picture this being a movie so I’ll be curious to check that out at some point.

The story ends with some interesting directions they could go in although I would need them to undo one decision near the end of the game. You need certain characters to make this a success. I’m cool with a whole new cast of villains though as none of the bosses you fight in the game are particularly impressive. I enjoy them more for the banter than for their actual characters. I also give Nariko a lot of credit here for her own tough lines of dialogue which bring out the best in her opponents. The shadow bird is really our best hope of a big villain for a new game.

Overall, Heavenly Sword is a short game but it is a hype experience. So how much you enjoy the game will really come down to how well that balance works for you. If you don’t think that’s good enough then you may end up skipping it but at the same time the going price for it isn’t all that bad nowadays. So to me there isn’t really a downside anymore. I would also say the high quality of the hours that we do get is more than enough to keep you going here. The levels will even give you a reasonable challenge. So I’d definitely be hyped for a sequel.

Overall 8/10