Twing twang in Heavenly Sword(s)
Twing twang
So the other day I got my grubby mits on a retail version of the game Heavenly Swords. Finally I can find out what the hell twing twang is! If you have not seen the demo of the game, or the brilliant review that Yahtzee made, do so now and then come back here so that you have a context. Done? Good. Now I did play for like half an hour, on a really small computer monitor (ok, it was 23'', but it looks small compared to a real TV) with some crappy computer speakers hooked up. Despite this, I do feel that the game was ... decent. Now, the game is of course something of a novelty since it's a ps3 game that actually is in the stores. I also happen to have the privilege to share an office with one of the graphics programmers on the game, Marco Salvi. I can only say, good job Marco Ninja-san! The game really looks amazing, there are some bugs in there that stand out, but on the whole it looks really great. Now as for the gameplay, ironically I did like the twing twang games better than the main event, the combat. The combat just left me exhausted after pressing all the buttons possible and still don't understanding how I survived. I suspect that the game is slightly too easy since it didn't really gave me - who suck at video games - any trouble to kick everybody's ass. No, wait what am I saying? It's great! Finally an easy game. But it kind of reduced the combat to just button mashing and waiting until all the guys were dead. And what's up with the fixation on the crotch finishing move? Every time I see Nariko killing somebody it makes me wince. At this point I'm probably immune from any sort of pixel violence, but still seeing a pixel guy taking a sword to the crotch kind of feels ... uncomfortable.
On the whole, I just might be convinced to go and buy the game to play it on a real tv with real sound just to see something better than the first generation ps3 games...
3 Comments
Leave a comment
Software
About
So after playing the game here at home for a couple of hours I must say I enjoyed it quite a bit actually. I gotten into the stage here I need to not just mindlessly press buttons anymore, but also try to memorize the combos in the game, as well as picking up on the visual triggers for the enemies as what they intend to do.
The game has tree modes it seems, normal, power and speed. In these different modes the two attack buttons do different things, as well as the combos. I just recently realized that the combo list screen actually scrolled down! There are an insane amount of combos -- who but the designers will remember all these? I'll just try to learn some "fit all sizes" combos and the be done with it. Even shaking the controller is involved in some combos, that's just crazy :)
The game definitely passed the initial test though, the last game I spent more than an hour with was final fantasy XII...
Thanks Jim! BTW..what bug are you talking about? my code is bugs free! (yeah..I wish :) )
I have noticed bugs in it myself as well. The most prominent is at numerous places throughout the game the opponents get stuck in walls, doors and so on when thrown. There are also a number of points where the angles go way beyond what is within the battle stage so it is just a bunch of mashing buttons until you move to a place on the battle stage that allows vision again. Many games have that issue though so whatever. The key problem I have heard with the game is that it requires a bunch of nonsense mashing of the buttons and although this is true it is exactly what the game system makers wanted. How much is a new controller? Anyway overall I am not a gamer but have watched my brother play for the past few days. I myself think it is a pretty decent game and the story line is a good one as well for those who play for the story. Oh and the fox fellow is outrageously annoying but I'll give it a two thumbs up.