Heavenly Sword interview details PS3 gameplay

18 September 2006

Posted by:Ferry

Dailygame interviewed the producer of Heavenly Sword, Mat Hart, about Ninja Theory’s PS3-exclusive. Since not much has been shown of the game I’m lifting out the gameplay and storyline info. You can also take a look at the first trailer:
Heavenly Sword’s E3 gameplay footage looks even more amazing, like a mix between God of War and Lara Croft.

DailyGame: One of the things that’s so intriguing about Heavenly Sword is its fighting sequences. We imagine you were influenced a bit by fighting games, but where did you draw the most inspiration for the gameplay?
Mat Hart: We were inspired mainly by film, to be honest with you. Wushu films, things like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, that kind of thing. It’s that over-the-top, cinematic, beautiful ballet that builds up to the fighting that really gave us our inspiration.

DailyGame: The combo system, though, with juggling enemies in the air…there’s not exactly a lot of juggling in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
Mat Hart: Well, I’m not sure if that’s really true, actually. I think I’d have to disagree with you on that. I think our combat is an expression of the unique worlds that are in some of the Wushu films. There are fantastic elements to those films, and certainly there’s a cinematic element, but we recognize that for our game, the important thing is that the combat system be accessible and yet deep. So we’ve worked long and hard; the combat system has been in development for about two years, completely from scratch. We’ve got an amazing combat designer, and he’s basically put this system together.

Now you’ve got guys who’ve never played this game before kicking ass, doing cool moves, looking really great, feeling powerful.You know, you go into power stance and you feel the weight of the weapon, and you’re hitting people across the room, but then you flip over into speed stance, and you’re dancing all over the place, spinning the blades around, just whacking guys up into the air. It’s all really cool, and it flows together well, and we’re really excited about it.

DailyGame: So as players are going through the game, are there different weapons they can use? Are there ways to upgrade the character or weapons, or are we pretty much set when the game kicks off?
Mat Hart: From the get-go you are who you are, and I’ll give you a bit of background on just who that is. Basically, Nariko, the heroine, is part of a clan who are custodians of the Heavenly Sword. They’re there to protect this divine weapon that was given to them by the gods. Basically, it was foretold that a chosen warrior would come to take control of the sword and do something amazing with it. The slight flaw in that plan is that when Nariko was born, they were expecting a boy. So the whole clan is sort of “wait, you should’ve been a guy. We’re doomed, this is such a bad omen. What’s going to happen?”

Well, this king comes along many years later and just rapes the land. In a moment of desperation, Nariko takes the Heavenly Sword, but since it’s a divine weapon, it’s too powerful for a mortal to carry indefinitely, so it’s slowly killing her as she uses it. We didn’t show Nariko’s life force counting down at E3, but [in the final version] the player’s constantly aware of the very small window of time that Nariko has to wreak as much chaos and as much destruction on the opposing army as she can before the Sword consumes her. So it’s truly a race against time.

So to answer your question, the player uses the same weapon all the way through the game, but there are three forms of the weapon: there’s a ranged stance, a speed stance and a power stance. They all have different looks and feels to how they play. There’s also a bit of player progression, so Nariko’s abilities with the Sword will change and evolve and grow, so players will be able to do more with the Sword as the game goes on, but they’ll always be using the Heavenly Sword.

DailyGame: OK, so in terms of her depleting energy, will that happen within every mission or level, where her life bar gets lower like a timer?
Mat Hart: To be honest with you that’s still being finalized. We have a concept down, but above all we want to create a sense of urgency in the players and make them feel like “I’ve really got a limited amount of time to do as much as I can.” But similarly, we don’t want guys just rushing through the game, so it’s a real balancing act.