Short, yet good action game.
The game's plot is actually very good. I was pleasantly surprised. The villains in the game, besides the main villains are pretty much jokes. Yet the main villain ends up being a bad ass, who just doesn't want to go down. He is truly an awful human being and easy to hate. Yet he has his own charm. It's something rarely seen, while he has little back story, you know you want to take him out.
Nariko is also a pretty cool main character. She has plenty of emotion, and is a girl who isn't just a generic hero, in fact she goes through many things, and has quite a bit of development. The story is as I said, very good. Yet even though a short game isn't entirely bad in some cases, it feels if the game was longer the plot would of been expanded on, a lot. Though for the most part, the story will keep your interest and keep you guessing. It's very good.
The gameplay is a standard action game, yet with some noticeable issues. First of all, there is no upgrading of the weapons. While sure this technically may not be a flaw to some, it seems to lack any kind of character progress , with the exception being the end game. While you only have three weapons, it would of been nice to have the ability to make your weapons more powerful. Unlike Devil May Cry or God of War you don't collect anything either. It feels like a step back to any other action game out of there.
The enemies are pretty much the same, and the games enemies are fairly easy. The difficulty though has balance in it's boss fights, considering bosses are almost invincible with their health. Also the main style of attacks, make it so you have to consider blocking, which is fairly interesting.
Though Heavenly Sword is the only action game I've played where you use mostly all the buttons. Which is a good thing in my opinion.
Another issue of the game is the tacked on third person shooting mechanics. It has Resident Evil 4 style shooting. While it works, it wasn't really built for it. Six-axis controls are in this, but thankfully they implemented the ability to turn it off.
The graphics are stunning, and look great in HD. Everything has great textures, the enemies look great, and so does Nariko. The environments are lush, yet linear. No real complaints with the graphics, and the cut scenes are amazing.
The sound is also very good. The voice acting is spot on, and really delivers the story in a good way. The music fits the setting, and everything just sounds good. The music while not exactly anything i'd go out and buy, it does have some catchy music. Even though the villains I felt are mostly jokes, they were also given spectacular voice work.
So all and all. Heavenly Sword is a fairly generic action game, with a good story. It could of been better and longer, but it's not entirely bad. In fact it's not bad at all. If you have the time I'd give it a rent. It's not worth full price though. Though if you find it for 20$ or less, I say it's a good buy. It has another difficulty mode, so you may desire to play it again.
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 7/10
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Final Score: 7.5/10