Heavenly Sword - PS3

[Mardigan8]

Yeah, the game difficulty on first play is not an option so it pitches it at the same level for everyone, then Hard is there if you want to get in about it, which I will surely be doing... comabt games are my forte you see (DMC4 NOW please!!)

Am gonna run a wee stress test on this tonight actually... how long can Nariko survive the fight on top of the pillar from the demo if I dont touch the pad will she just block everything except the odd heavy strike, hehe. I will run a pool on it, £1 a guess, hehe. I give her about 6 minutes

[eastyy]

well in a away i do kindoff prefer this to god of war 2 .....in gow 2 i loved the combat but there was just far to many quiet points doing overlong puzzle/frustrating sections there was just not enough full on mass combat for me

here though there is alot of combat and so far puzzles have not been to long and is usually has combat during.And the things to break up the main combat such as kais section i found really fun

[lilman]

Bit of an odd question, but does the game come with a manual? I don't have one with mine... PAL copy by the way.

[Spatial]

Yes, it's supposed to have a manual.

[Number45]

I'm still not feeling this. I'm finding the combat a little on the clumsy side (Even as a button masher) and the stance based blocking is a little too twitchy (Particularly when you have both types of attack incoming at once, or you're on a boss fight whose attack switches quickly between speed/power).

And the QTE... erm, I mean 'Hero moments', are unnecessarily difficult because of the time given to respond to the prompt - it's more of a trial and error thing (Until you have the sequence in your head) than a response based game. It needs to learn from God of War and the recent Tomb Raider games in that respect.

Just at the second boss at the moment, so still some way to go I assume, but still not really a positive experience for me yet.

[Mardigan8]

Just finished it there... beautiful, just beautiful. So many things I want to say but its late so the gushing can start tomorrow

But, the final boss... how it didnt blow your head off Chopemon I have no idea, I let out a little "****en hell" on a few occasions my hard run through starts tomorrow and I cant wait.

Some of the best gaming hours I have had in ages, captivating and gorgeous from start to finish, I love it!!

[VR46]

How many hours is it taking you guys to complete it on your first run through? Played demo again last night and must pick this up by the weekend.

[chopemon]

But, the final boss... how it didnt blow your head off Chopemon I have no idea, I let out a little "****en hell" on a few occasions

It looked nice and the scale was great but the boss mechanics were yawn-tastic. I am really growing to hate bosses, only God of War seems to be able to get them right nowadays.

Mr. Holliss - I'd say that it was about 6 hours.

[MikeF]

I showed the first boss just who the boss was last night Finished Chapter 2 and then stopped due to it being late. I agree about the QTE events being rather harsh on the responce times but it's not taking any enjoyment away from this

The cut scenes are superb but the voices just don't feel right (too englishy for me) considering the setting

[Mardigan8]

I was about 6 hours aswell, each one of them pure joy

For the final boss I dont think it was all that different from the format of some of God of War 2s boss fights. The boss has a pattern, you learn what you need to do to defeat each tier of the pattern and enjoy the rest. I understand if you mean GoW is superior in terms of

->Open Spoiler<-

sheer size

, but for me this doesn't always mean a better boss fight. I absolutely loved the final battles in HS and cant wait to hit them on hard.

For me Boss battles peeked in DMC3, where a good player could rip a seemingly powerful boss apart in a matter of seconds. No need for QTE, just give me a system that lets you get deep and dirty with the boss fights enabling you to change a 5 minute boss fight into a 60 second schooling for the boss.

->Open Spoiler<-

It took me a while to realise you could counter all his projectile attacks but once I sussed that it was just fun the whole way through... oh, and being able to roll mid combo and not reset the combo, that move was invaluable on bringing him down. Wish I had realised how useful it could be earlier in the game it will without doubt be my party piece for my hard run through.

Shame the game doesn't have a survival mode or Blood Palace type thing, I would have spent countless hours battering it.

[Bleeders]

Onto Chapter 3 now, quite liking this still. I thought I'd hate the SIXAXIS stuff, but I've become quite partial to it, tbh. Production values continue to impress and whilst its not doing anything massively different, it's not half bad at all.

[chopemon]

I think my main problem with all the bosses was the length of their health bar. Each of them had a semi interesting strategy but it became too drawn out and protracted because of the length of their health bar. I think bosses should be short and sweet.

Speaking of rolls, did you know that you can do an infinitely long roll without ever stopping?

In the middle of a roll press an attack button and keep the rol direction pressed. She will go into another roll without breaking out of her first roll when you press the attack button. This means that you can just hold down a roll direction and tap the attack button to do one long continuous roll. It is fairly fast and can be helpful in the second phase of the last boss.

[Bleeders]

They like to draw out a boss battle in this don't they?

[Mardigan8]

Ah nice Chopemon, cheers.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the health, they do tend to take a bit of time to take down, but in the final one, if you counter all the projectiles and use the roll move mid combo the health just falls off him. Its like there is one sure way of defeating them and if you dont use it you are screwed. Imagine it will take a fair bit of time to bring him down on Hard, cant wait for it.

TBH though, when the setting, visuals and sound are as good as they are in the final battle they can put as many tiers into the fight as they want

[eastyy]

well i remember i kept dying against the first boss....but i really did not mind as i enjoyed the mass fight before hand so much

when it all clicked it was so satisfying countering moves and generally causing havok

only problem is at the moment i am struggling blocking and changing stances at the same time