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Heavenly Sword: How Not to Kill Your Heroine (in the movie)
Heavenly Sword begins with its heroine in agony, convulsing on the battleground, her tangled red hair swirled in the dirt. Nariko still clings to the cursed sword that had gotten her so far. As searing scripture snakes up her arms, branding her the doomed property of this mystical blade, she wonders: Why now? Why, on the verge of victory, does the sword claim my life? That glimpse of Nariko, unable to dodge the sword's fatal toll, forever lingers over the action game that follows. Instead of a plotted ascent to power, with sharp, assured victory in hand, we play through a dreaded descent. With every new chapter, Nariko comes closer and closer to the end of her strength.
Nariko kills a lot of dudes in this Heavenly Sword movie trailer
Nariko, wielder of the titular Heavenly Sword in the upcoming film, is a life insurance company's worst nightmare. In this trailer she kills over a dozen soldiers in under a minute – wait, do henchmen even get life insurance?
Nariko and Fortesque confirmed for PlayStation All-Stars [update]
Two more characters have been announced as members of the PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale roster, both of which attach firmly to either side of the "deep cut" spectrum: Nariko of Heavenly Sword fame, and MediEvil's Sir Daniel Fortesque.As has been the case with the last few All-Stars character reveals, both Nariko and Fortesque were originally rumored a few weeks ago when files pulled from the beta found their way to neoGAF. Nariko's fighting style is described as "high risk, high reward" by designer Seth Killian in the video above, while Fortesque is said to be much slower and more methodical. Both characters, however, use weapons culled from the annals of their respective series' history.Update: The video originally embedded above, belonging to Gamespot, has been set to private. We have replaced the video with a mirror located here and have updated this post's source link to reflect that change.
Rumor: Sony working on a Smash Bros-esque fighter featuring Sony all-stars
The hat of "Sony Mascot" has been worn by many, many different critters and folk since the days of Crash Bandicoot and, uh, Croc. In fact, Sony's stable of lovable household names is so fully stocked that they've decided to pit their creations against one another to determine who lives and who dies. Okay so, that last part might be a little hyperbolic, but the rumor mill is operating at full capacity over Title Fight, a Super Smash Bros.-ish cross-franchise brawler reportedly in development at SuperBot Entertainment, according to The Paul Gale Network. If rumors are to be believed, the game will feature a cast of Sony-console specific characters like Nathan Drake, Sweet Tooth, Sly Cooper, that guy from Killzone and Fat Princess. Fights will take place in various Sony related locations such as Sandover Village or a golf course from Hot Shots Golf. The gallery of images below, which shows Sweet Tooth, a blank female form that may or may not be Heavenly Sword's Nariko and a debug screen that mentions Kratos, were tweeted (and subsequently deleted) by SuperBot Entertainment's senior level designer Chris Molina. Apparently, this hullabaloo is also what that franchise-rich teaser trailer from September was all about, which would also indicate the inclusion of Parappa the Rapper, as well as a representative from FOXHOUND. If all this pans out, Title Fight will be the latest in a long, proud history of SCEA-published fighting games like Battle Arena Toshinden and Cardinal Syn. We'll keep our ear to the ground for more as this story develops.%Gallery-140432%
LittleBigPlanet's Nariko Sackgirl is Best Buy exclusive
Sony previously announced several planned pre-order bonuses for LittleBigPlanet, including custom downloadable "Sackboy" versions of God of War's Kratos and Heavenly Sword's Nariko. While the Ghost of Sparta went to GameStop, the official LBP blog has revealed that pre-ordering the game at Best Buy will land you a download voucher code for Nariko. Both characters are über-spiffy, but, if you want both, you'll have to pre-order the game twice. No one's preventing you from avoiding it at one of the two stores when it's released, though. Oh no, certainly not us. Of course, you could always wait a bit for the characters to be made available for paid download via the PlayStation Store, something we're sure Sony would never think of doing, not in a million billion years.
Nariko Sackgirl is Play.com's LittleBigPlanet preorder bonus
Europe, rejoice! You're not being left out in the cold. Those amazing LittleBigPlanet preorder bonuses will be available on both sides of the Atlantic. So far, we've spotted Nariko hanging out over at Play.com, but there's no sign of any of the others. At least, not yet. The Nariko Sackgirl (who is actually a Sackboy playing dress up, but don't let that put you off) is downloadable via the PlayStation Network. Instructions will be sent out during the week of release, according to Play.com, so don't expect to be playing with your new heavenly pal on launch day. Now, where's that Kratos Sackboy got to? We're sure he's hiding around here somewhere.
Heavenly Sword demo in NA this week too
That was touch and go there for a bit. After confirming Europe would be getting their chance at the Heavenly Sword demo this week, there was still the lingering question of the North Americans. We don't want Sony giving Europe a big head, considering they're already getting the PSP Lite before Japan. The PlayStation blog confirms Heavenly Sword will also be making its North American public demo debut this week as well. Now everyone with a PS3 will get some time with Heavenly Sword and decide whether it's the next great Sony exclusive franchise -- they could use 'em. In the demo players take control of Nariko on a quest for Kill Bill-style vengeance. The game is slated for release in September.
Heavenly Sword week continues: the tech behind the sword
The week of Heavenly Sword continues over at GamePro, today gracing us with a kinda-sorta behind the scenes look at some of the story, art direction, and graphics. We'll highlight what's important and leave it to you to check out the full scoop so you can sound like the go-to guy/girl for this game. The Cell is stressed by Heavenly Sword by handling so many enemies on screen at once: "the trick is that Cell treats entire regiments as a single unit of artificial intelligence when they are at a distance; as they draw closer, Cell gradually divides the army into smaller and smaller groups, so they eventually become individual troops with unique fighting styles and tactics." Neat! Graphics are gorgeous and respond to their environment or whatever: "Wind gusts swirl Nariko's hair and clothes, and bazooka blasts send out showers of dust and rubble." Yeah, but... 1080p? How about physics and SIXAXIS support? "When firing a cannon, Nariko can influence the trajectory of the projectile using the Sixaxis. Ninja Theory claims it needs the Cell to handle these complex calculations." They claim... so is there another way? We think back to the Nikita missile in Metal Gear Solid... that was fun. We've still got a lot of questions -- Nariko's past is still pretty much unknown and things like 1080p support haven't been set in stone. No matter the case, this game will be something to grab come September.
Heavenly Sword week opens with 10 new screenshots
There's nothing quite like having an entire week themed on a certain game -- it just so happens this week is extra special because the focus over at GamePro is on Heavenly Sword. The action title is boasting some pretty tight-looking control schemes and action that may rival God of War in unrelenting badassery. Is that a proper term to use for a fantastic female lead? Or would we just call her "sexystrong"?In addition to the ten new screenshots that were released, we'd like to spurn on a discussion for you guys. More and more lately, there seem to be female spots springing up in games as supporting leads (Rachel in Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Lady in Devil May Cry 3 among others), but they've usually got the "share the spotlight with the male lead" syndrome. We pose this question (which I discuss with one of my friends every month or so): what games had a great female lead, who either didn't have to share the spotlight with a male lead, or who had male supporting roles beneath her? Here are a few examples: Aya Brea: Parasite Eve, Parasite Eve 2 Terra and Celes: Final Fantasy VI Virginia Maxwell: Wild Arms 3 (let's not kid ourselves, overall the story was hers) Your turn![Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
