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[HyperBitHero]

I've always been a big fan of the characters in Ninja Theory's first game Heavenly Sword for the PS3. As far as I can tell, this was the first game to use "performance capture" to bring its characters to life (voice/face/body movements all at once). I wanted to showcase how much that made a difference here and how teaming up with Andy Serkis helped create some really eccentric personalities. Most notably with the game's main villain who has stuck with me since I first played it. I hope you enjoy this throwback and gain a bit more appreciation for the game. The game was significantly improved by playing it over PS3 emulation. It's no longer hindered by frame drops and screen tearing! This game's development set the stage for what they'd eventually do with Hellblade. Are you a fan of any of their games? Personally, I've always disliked Enslaved and DmC, but I have some admiration for Heavenly Sword and Hellblade's development.

 

[semiconscious]

oh, no! not that final boss battle! anything other than that!...

 

[adamsapple]

DmC played fairly well and had one of the most inventive boss fights of its time. It just rubbed people the wrong way for how the characters were treated.

 

[diffusionx]

I thought Enslaved was really good and I loved the story and characters. The ending was phenomenal.

 

[Synless]

I thought Enslaved was really good and I loved the story and characters. The ending was phenomenal.

Ive enjoyed all of their games so far but enslaved was easily my favorite.

 

[IAmRei]

Personally, i never like ninja theory. The face design always ugly :/

 

[hybrid_birth]

I enjoyed Enslaved.

I think I've played heavenly sword once on ps3. Couldn't get very far.

 

[semiconscious]

let us never forget the joy of playing a bit of twing-twang:

 

[HyperBitHero]

I thought Enslaved was really good and I loved the story and characters. The ending was phenomenal.

I was hyped for it when it first came out since it was right after HS, but I played the demo and didn't like it. Still beat it when it came out on PS3 and couldn't stand how rigid the controls/animations/climbing was. I even beat it on PC like 6 months ago, and while the performance wasn't terrible like it was on PS3, the game design wasn't improved. I kinda like the art design but the only parts I really lived were the hoverboard sections since you had more freedom to move around.

 

[CamHostage]

Cool reminder of Ninja Theory's history, thanks!

Heavenly Sword was originally going to be more Asian and like Crouching Tiger, btw. Interesting to see their old pitch video to see what actually made it to the final game.



There was also going to be a sequel (trilogy, actually. ) And I thought there were rumors of a planned PSP spinoff (focused on Nariko maybe?) but I'm not seeing validation of that rumor out there. But there is some sequel concept work out there.

Beta + Cancelled Heavenly Sword Video Games - Unseen64

A list of beta and cancelled Heavenly Sword video games, with information, images and videos. Help us to preserve more games!

www.unseen64.net

Personally, though, I think they made the right move to leave HS behind. Their later games are more appreciated (even DMC, which is a lot of fun imo even though people don't live this version of Dante,) and they found an audience in Hellblade (though that series has also pissed a lot of people off too, but at least its unique. )

 

[Agent_4Seven]

This game NEEDS A SEQUEL!
C'mon, man. Everyone is still alive and kickin', there's not time like the present to do it (after the new IP and other projects they're working on), if NT still be alive to actually do it that is.

let us never forget the joy of playing a bit of twing-twang:

Not the best part of the game for sure.

 

[CamHostage]

This game NEEDS A SEQUEL!
C'mon, man. Everyone is still alive and kickin', there's not time like the present to do it (after the new IP and other projects they're working on), if NT still be alive to actually do it that is.

Eh, I think the time is fully past. Maybe if the animated feature has worked out, or if Sony had fast-tracked a sequel, but now NT is with Microsoft, the only fans who remember the game are PS players, the original wasn't a hit critically or commercially, and the studio has a different brand that it believes in.

Id like it if NT did something "fun" again after Hellblade, like an original action game with just straight combat systems making use of their skillset. Not Heavenly Sword, but something if that spirit rather than the.methodical, psychological moodsetting they've been doing recently.

 

[Astral Dog]

DmC is a decent action game, not on par with Capcom's best but still good (reminder Capcom is still a big part of the combat design in the reboot )i just dislike what they did with the characters,art and writting.

Don't care about their other games though i have watched the cutscenes, they are an interesting mix, unintentionally hilarious for example Enslaved ending

 

[Kerotan]

I played this last year Via ps premium and my God the villains were a freaky cringe fest. Made me laugh some of the dialogue.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Eh, I think the time is fully past. Maybe if the animated feature has worked out, or if Sony had fast-tracked a sequel, but now NT is with Microsoft, the only fans who remember the game are PS players, the original wasn't a hit critically or commercially, and the studio has a different brand that it believes in.

They can do so much more with this IP now and the story for the sequel was already written back in the late 2000s and ready to go. It sucks that Sony owns the IP cuz Sony sure as shit won't be doing anything with it and they've nobody to actually make the game. Hopefully NT can buy the IP from Sony at some point.

Id like it if NT did something "fun" again after Hellblade, like an original action game with just straight combat systems making use of their skillset, but Heavenly Sword is unfortunately done for.

Well, action games are in their DNA, we can only hope that whathever they're doing next will see the light of the day.

 

[NewYork214]

I loved heavenly sword. Game was really fun. Using the motion controls for the arrows worked so nicely. I need to check it out if on PS plus still.

I've enjoyed all of their games actually. Still need to check out hellblade 1 and 2 depending.

 

[HyperBitHero]

This game NEEDS A SEQUEL!
C'mon, man. Everyone is still alive and kickin', there's not time like the present to do it (after the new IP and other projects they're working on), if NT still be alive to actually do it that is.

It'll probably never happen, but I'd like to see it continue.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

That final fight with King Bohan was amazing.

Also, Nariko was a great MC.

The whole game was amazing imo, despite being 6 hrs long.

Setting was great, combat was great, animations were great, characters were great, story was good, combat felt awesome.
It just got shat on for being so short and adding the tilt-function.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

This game NEEDS A SEQUEL!
C'mon, man. Everyone is still alive and kickin', there's not time like the present to do it (after the new IP and other projects they're working on), if NT still be alive to actually do it that is.

The present NT would not make a game like this, nor any other Western studio under the umbrella of Sony or MS. It's pretty telling they evolved from mere fun to hipster artsy stuff.

 

[GymWolf]

The cutscenes with him are the only good memory i have of nt output.

The enemy cast was hilarious.

 

[CosmicComet]

Its amazing how ninja theory used to be a decent game maker and then devolved all the way down to hellblade.

Their technical expertise sure did keep up with the times, but everything else regressed heavily.

 

[CosmicComet]

This game NEEDS A SEQUEL!
C'mon, man. Everyone is still alive and kickin', there's not time like the present to do it (after the new IP and other projects they're working on), if NT still be alive to actually do it that is.


Not the best part of the game for sure.

Sony owns the heavenly sword ip.

Will never happen.

One of their other studios could do it but they wouldn't ask any of them to work on a dormant property.

 

[Sorcerer]

There's a theory that Senua is actually based on Kai from Heavenly Sword.
I wonder if Kai would have been given her own game had Sony not owned Heavenly Sword? But of course unless Kai devolved into madness for some reason like Senua, the personalities don't match.

 

[Sorcerer]

oh, no! not that final boss battle! anything other than that!...

Actually he is super easy once you figured out a trick I can no longer recall. Too bad it two me two weeks of constant restarts to figure that out. F**K Andy Serkis...JK
My reward for finally beating him should have been the character dancing to Thriller like Andy did in 13 going on 30.

 

[sono]

I've always been a big fan of the characters in Ninja Theory's first game Heavenly Sword for the PS3

Me too brother

 

[Sorcerer]

That final fight with King Bohan was amazing.

Also, Nariko was a great MC.

The whole game was amazing imo, despite being 6 hrs long.

Setting was great, combat was great, animations were great, characters were great, story was good, combat felt awesome.
It just got shat on for being so short and adding the tilt-function.

The cutscenes were actually moving. Andy Serkis excelled at making you hate the villain. Without out spoiling too much, one of his lackeys dies and the way Bohan reacts was like "F**K, that is super cold"... I played it recently and thought back to how amazing this must have been in the PS3 era. No one gives a shit if a good game is short now, but it got crucified for it back in the day I hear. Also, it shows that Ninja Theory was thinking about cinematic games like Hellblade all along but the tech wasn't there. Of course now that they are capable the game play part is taking a back seat...

 

[LordCBH]

DmC played fairly well and had one of the most inventive boss fights of its time. It just rubbed people the wrong way for how the characters were treated.

I enjoyed DmC, though I didn’t get it till the PS4 port hit. Wasn’t the original PS3 release locked at 30fps? I seem to remember people complaining about it back in the day.

 

[adamsapple]

I enjoyed DmC, though I didn’t get it till the PS4 port hit. Wasn’t the original PS3 release locked at 30fps? I seem to remember people complaining about it back in the day.

Yes, it was 30 on PS360. It was also UE3 based and not using Capcom's MT Framework at that time

 

[Agent_4Seven]

The present NT would not make a game like this, nor any other Western studio under the umbrella of Sony or MS. It's pretty telling they evolved from mere fun to hipster artsy stuff.

I'm not so sure about that. It's the same people as before (minus Tameem Antoniades), I bet you they'd love to make a sequel for which they already have a script done and it's their own IP, no something they did for someone. All of their games are way different that someone else's, even DmC is almost an arthouse type of game if you compare it to what Capcop did before, you can barely even call it DMC cuz of how much different it is in therms of what they did with the characters and story. But as long as Sony own the IP, it'll never happen.

One of their other studios could do it but they wouldn't ask any of them to work on a dormant property.

None of them can do what NT does. It's like asking some studio to be Remedy, make 3rd Max Payne and we've seen what it looks like already.

 

[peronmls]

I have enslaved. Still need to continue it.

 

[Kokoloko85]

TBH Ninja Theory did the cinematic action game before ND did it with Uncharted. It had the facial animations and voice acting that felt like ND took inspiration from to make there games what it was when it comes to acting and scenes.

I really liked Enslaved, I wish it got a sequel

 

[FuinIthil]

I liked this game. I finished it a few times, but it was too short.

 

[TGO]

They always seem close to being a really good stand out studio, DMC is probably the closest they got but after that it seemed they hadn't learnt anything.

 

[HyperBitHero]

TBH Ninja Theory did the cinematic action game before ND did it with Uncharted. It had the facial animations and voice acting that felt like ND took inspiration from to make there games what it was when it comes to acting and scenes.

I really liked Enslaved, I wish it got a sequel

Technically, those early Uncharted games don’t use facial capture. I’m not sure if ND was inspired, especially since Uncharted was so soon after. I think it was natural for games that gen to chase that aesthetic, since they were already doing it in the 6th gen.