4 Reasons Why Heavenly Sword Deserves A Sequel
Heavenly Sword was brought out as a launch title for the PS3, revealed at the previous E3 to the awe of gamers and journalists alike. The game shouldve been a whopping commercial success, so what went wrong? Well even though it sold over 1.5 million copies, meaning it likely made enough money to be profitable (it didnt have such a bloated production budget as Dead Space 3 or Tomb Raider), its release coinciding with great games like Resistance and Assassins Creed meant it never really got the attention it deserved. As a result, many members of the press felt the game was a little too traditional, not doing as much to move its corresponding genre forward as the other said games did, resulting in this top-class title being highly underappreciated. It also had the disadvantage of being an exclusive for the most expensive and least commercially popular console of its generation, seriously stacking the cards against it in terms of both possible sales and coverage from the start. A series of unfortunate events caused the publisher to give up on the notion of a sequel, but considering even Mirrors Edge is rumoured to be getting a follow up we think its about time to remind people why Heavenly Sword warrants a comeback.
4. The Plot
Written by Rihanna Pratchett, the woman who recently helped reinvent Lara Croft, Heavenly Sword is a masterful creation thats central premise is more engaging than almost all other games of this generation. Set around a thousand years ago in a fictitious version of Asia, the games plot revolves around tribeswoman Nariko trying to prevent the sadistic King Bohan from obtaining the Heavenly Sword, a weapon capable of giving its wielder God like power while simultaneously draining them of their life-force. Villages get burned to the ground, heroes fall, and Nariko must fight alone against the inexhaustible army of the King. Narikos death at the beginning of the game, brought about from use of the holy sword, leaves a sense of foreboding in the players mind all through the tale, subsequently creating a mix of anticipation and uncertainty over how the game will progress. Its real appeal, however, is not the epic battles or classic Chinese-style setting. No, its the fact that, despite working from a fairly standard base, it never crosses into the filthy waters of cliché, staying away from the chosen one dynamic and US style happily ever after ending. Its a victory for the heroes only in the sense that they survive (partly, at least), and a sequel could go in so many different directions, all of which would make a brilliant video-game. But whats a story without characters?
Lets move on...