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Heavenly Sword Demo: A Ninja's Guide to Success
I’m taking a guess that, if you’re reading this blog, chances are you’ve seen the episode of Heroes in which Niki Sanders (aka Jessica) and her son Micah start the show playing Heavenly Sword. Am I right?
Well now you can do what they were doing - or at least you can from Thursday July 26, anyway! That’s right: the demo of Heavenly Sword came flying out of Format Testing and is hitting Playstation Network tomorrow - but then you all already knew that, didn’t you?
But, if the internet is awash with this news already, why should you read this blog update? Well, its only here that I can give you guys the inside track to make sure you get the most out of the demo. Spread the word, this is the place to be...
So, as I say, what I want to do here is highlight some of the cool bits for you to check out in the demo. Call it a personal 'Mat Hart Guided Tour of the Heavenly Sword Demo' if you like. Sound cool?
Our demo opens with Nariko and her adopted sister looking out over an ancient water temple as they begin their search for their father. Kai quickly runs off to hide and safely from Bohan’s soldiers and the game begins as Nariko attempts to find a way down to the temple. In a short space of time you’ll find yourself in the thick of it as Bohan’s soldiers and guards rush in and attack Nariko.
So, things to try out are:
- Experiment with stance switching. Nariko can instantly switch between stances using the shoulder buttons. Your standard stance is the Speed Stance, L1 pressed and held is the Ranged Stance and R1 pressed and held is the Power Stance. You’ll find the various enemies react differently to each stance, meaning you’ll need to find different tactics to defeat them with style.
- Once you’ve mastered the basic attacks, it's time to try some advanced stuff. Wait for an enemy to attack and hit TRIANGLE to counter their strike. This relies on careful timing but, if you get it just right, you’ll deliver a killing blow to your attacker.
- By this time, you should have some Superstyle built up. Look at the HUD element in the top left: the inner dial is your Superstyle bar. Whenever one or more of the gems light up, you have access to a variety of Superstyles that can wipe out dozens (and in later levels, literally hundreds) of opponents in one devastating blow. These moves are stance specific so, at each level, you have a Speed, Power and Ranged Superstyle. Activate these using CIRCLE while in the stance of your choice. Obviously the more gems highlighted, the bigger and more devastating the Superstyle!
- Got that nailed? Sweet! Now try using L1+TRIANGLE on someone who's staggered - they'll fly up into the air. If you’re quick enough, jerk the pad up and Nariko will launch into an aerial combo. Try SQUARE + SQUARE + SQUARE to start with but don’t forget that other combos are shown in the pause menu.
- On that note, Nariko only has a handful of moves available in the demo, with tonnes more to unlock during the full game. Some of these moves have a little broken shield icon which signifies that this is a Block Breaker move - use these to break down enemy defenses.
Hopefully, this’ll give you a good place to start for now. Let me know how you get on - I’d love to hear what you find cool! Over the next few weeks, I’ll try and reveal more of the techniques and tactics you can use in the demo and final game.
One final sneaky tip: don’t kill the axeman during the opening hero sequence (i.e. miss the final SQUARE press) as you slide down the ropes. This’ll give you a chance to see what it’s like fighting a tougher character!
- Mat Hart
