Heavenly Sword - 12-15 hours gameplay mayhem, No special edition planned, plenty of replayability

Ninja theory developer working on the upcoming playstation 3 exclusive title , Heavenly sword have confirmed that, Heavenly Sword will clock in around 12-15 hours of gameplay mayhem.

He confirmed this via the official forums:

12-15 hours sounds about right for a gamer well versed with fighting games. That's just for a first playthrough - there's also plenty of scope for replayability - especially with the stacks of unlockable content that's been stuffed onto the Blu-Ray.

[TriggerHappy]

Man 12 - 15hrs is not bad at all, and plenty of replayability.

[BLUR111]

yea 12-15 hrs is not bad it look awesome . and gears was short but it had a good story and was really good

[cr33ping_death]

@ BLUR....GEARS had a good story? did i miss something. i have beaten the crap out of that game and still dont see a story. the online portion is what keeps me playing it. but a good story i dont think so buddy.

[JOLLY1]

I thought 12-15 hours was ridiculous! Gears was 12-15 and that was way too short for next gen. Now that a sony game is 12-15 is isn't so bad? Thank God Sony has blu-ray.

[IPlayGames]

here we go sony come out with a new game and it how does it match up to gears.

Took me 7hrs to beat gears and it was the 1st xbox game i ever played all the way through.

Find a new game to compare with.

[GoLeafsGo]

I know I'll make this last a lot longer by playing with style ^_^!

By the way, what's the typical length for an action game anyway?
The only thing I recall is RPG games being 40+ games -_________-'!

[techie]

Prince of Persia:SOT - 10-12hours
POP: WW - 13-15hours
POP:TTT - 10-12hours
GOW1 - 10-12hours
GOW2 - 12-15hours
Resistance Single Player - 10-12hours
GearsOW - 8-10hours
Tomb Raider Legend - 10-12hours
Tomb Raider Anniversary 12-14hours

Many of these don't have replyability. :) HS with it's complex fighting system, and ability to open up any level to replay with new moves gained by playing it through - will have A LOT of replayability.

[Gizmo_Logix]

Good points, depp! :)

[ironwolf]

Not very long ago, the Sony boys were crowing that Gears of War was only 10 or 11 or 12 (whatever it was, I never played it) hours and a complete rip off. They're vaunted Blu-Ray would give them days worth of play. Yeah, right. Now 12 hours is wunderbar.

Keep track of the posts here. Sooner or later they'll always contradict themselves. Always.

[LeShin]

I can't believe your comparing a beat em up to a shooter! They were talking about a shooter, when Killzone 2 comes out, then you can voice your opinion on whether Sony are being hypocrites.

[GoLeafsGo]

I think people said 8 hours for Gears, though I'm almost certain I'm mistaken.

Anyway, I ask again, how long is the typical action game?
IIRC, Devil May Cry 3 was about 18 hours (and that's when I had no idea what to do, because all the text except weaponry was in Japanese!).

[bootsielon]

On the hardest difficulty. Just shut it.

[tehcellownu]

wtf i played gears and its not 12 hours more like 8 or hours or less..Heavenely sword is goin to kick as for sho.

[aiphanes]

They ran out of disc space...so what do you expect? Also the gears textures look all the same..

Even the online is only 8 players total...compared to 32 players total in warhawk...with no lag...

Now gears of war on the PC is going to be tight!

Unreal 3 will be the bomb...

[kingjkv]

Does anybody know the answer to the question 3 on the posting tests. ABout Genji interview and the other interview. I always get a score of 10/12.

[timmyp53]

.

[Antan]

12-15 is just about perfect for me. (Ironwolf
) I also never got the impression while playing Gears (or after i completed it) that it was too short, maybe the last chapter but as a whole game, certainly not. The 8 hours for Gears is a bit silly if you ask me! im sure you could finish in that time, but why would you want to? Just because you can doesn`t mean you should. Anygame can be as short or as long as you like, depending on how quick or slow you play of course, but how much would you miss? ill bet an awful lot!!

[THC CELL]

i think its one of them games u will do over and over again

[ElementX]

HA, 360 haters have said "Hahahahahaha, Xbox 360 games are short because the DVD fills up too quick" and here you go, a Bluray game lasting about the same, or maybe an hour longer. People don't want to play 30 hour action games.

EDIT, ok 360 HATERS, not PS3 fanboys. I enjoy my PS3, almost finished with Resistance.

[InMyOpinion]

Exactly, it has nothing to do with storage space. Developers design their games a certain way cause most casual gamers have jobs, and don't have 50 hours to spare to complete an action game. 10-15 hours is normal. Get it in your heads!

[bootsielon]

...yet you can take the liberty to say that. By the way, isn't it funny how you universalize PS3 owners?

Anyway, Gears is 6 hours on the hardest difficulty, and it's almost 8 Gigs in size. So, 15 hours with the same (or should I say better?) production values should give you at least more than a DVD worth of space.

Besides, 50 GB blu-ray games haven't come out (yet), Sony is probably getting their launch ready.

[tehcellownu]

its longer then any other games on the 360 thats out right now..lol..

[InMyOpinion]

Gears is not 6 hours. It's 10-12 hours. Perfect length for a shooter. It's a silly arguement really. I don't see any RELEASED Ps3 titles that take more time to complete than the ones on the 360. They seem to have about the same length. Forza 2 takes much longer time to complete. Does that make it a better game than say Motorstorm? Nope. Again, it's a designer decision. Who wants to play an action game that takes 40 hours to complete? Not too many, that's why they don't make them that long. Oblivion proves you wrong. And so will Mass Effect.

[cr33ping_death]

GEARS is not no 12 hours long by any means. i got every replay achivement on it and every time i went through the game it did not take no 12 hours....id say more like 8

[WIIIS1]

Gears takes 6-8 hours... Why do PS3 fans even pretend to know how to play shooters?

[aquaviva71]

Gears of War. So forget about which game is longer because its about which game has better action and which game has better replayability. I know there both of different genres but I still think Heavenly Sword has a much more interesting story line and will keep me going back wanting more.

[InMyOpinion]

Yeah, I guess you know much about the story since the game isn't released yet. Beat 'em ups tend to have great storys, just look at Final Fight or Golden Axe lol! I doubt you have played Gears, I think it has a good story. Not epic but certainly not bad. It's driven by gameplay though, as action games should be. If you want a deep, intriguing story, go grab an rpg.

[techie]

There's lots of info about the story Jenzo.

WHy is this news now? The length of HS has been known for about a year. As is the length of Lair (12-15hours) and Uncharted (12-14hours)

[InMyOpinion]

But how can you be sure it's good when you haven't played the game? Who knows how long those games are? Maybe, if you rush through them, they aren't more than 6-8 hrs?

[emogen]

So it sounds about right.

[hotshot1237]

look how they QUICKLY came on here to try 2 make themselves feel better. and element x said ha we dont need blu ray. dumbass, not every game needs 2 be extra long. its called CHOICE. yea i know 360 owners dont have much OF CHOICE NOW DAYS U KNOW.....................AS FAR AS SENDIN UR SYSTEM BACK 2 GET IT REPAIRED.lol

[DaTrooF]

not to mention all the unlockables,and the fact that everytime you play the battles will most likely not be the same(if you choose to take the three stances into full use..be creative) since you can create your own moves with the three fighting stances.

[ktchong]

A true replayability is when you can play a completely different character, class, race or gender, or can can play on the different side (good or evil,) or use a different approach (violent versus diplomatic.)

I don't consider getting unlockable features or some hidden eastern eggs as true replayability. Saying that it is = PR or fanboy talk. Very few games have true replayability, and this game is not one of them.

[TheExecutive]

I dont like when people say "it isn't TRUE _____". Its an opinion mascaraded as some sort of objective truth. I love action games. I played each of the God of Wars on each of the difficulty levels and had a blast every time. To say that it isnt "true" replayability (notice my switching of the scare quotes) is rhetoric that doesnt need to be said.

[celticlonewolf]

I cant wait for this game Ive played the demo a butt load of times and think the game from what I have played plays really well and looks great. On a side note it is kind of funny that a while back when there was a thread about Too Human being around 10 hours long a lot of people jumped all over it saying it was way to short and that you wont getting your moneys worth and all this and the reason it was so short was because of the dvd9. Take a look back its all there probably around 3months ago. Now I agree though for these types of games 10-15 hours is way log enough same goes for Lair(on xplay interview the dev team said it would be around 12 hours long). The only games I like to last a while are rpgs maybe Im old school that way lol. Good gaming.

[xhi4]

I just cant stop replaying the demo. Over and over again. Everytime doing different style attacks, using diffeernet techniques and seeing what would happen if i do this differently. Its basically the main 'game' part from resistance (only ps3 title i own...sadly) i play on my ps3....cnt wait till it comes out.

[Sevir04]

Resistance as a shooter clocked in at 18 hours. and 20 on the hardest mode.

12-15 hours for an action game like HS isn't bad, but i'm sure plenty of people will clock in at about 22 hours because of how the game play will pann out after playing the demo it's gonna be pretty obvious that mashing buttons just dont cut it with this game. thats good stuff

[Azures]

Their is a huge difference between 8 hours of game play and 12-15 hours of play.

"The bouncer was really close to Gears in terms of time too...only like 4 hours..."

See how dumb that sounds?

I really wish that multi player element to the game was for real, I imagine it would've been something like the multi in Star Wars: Jedi Academy (a great game) which was very fun. Give players three fighting styles to work with and various other elements like the dodging and counter attacking. Maybe for Heavenly Sword 2.

[TrillHeat954]

what the blu-ray provides besides more space for textures and all that. Xbox fanboys say it has no advantage that DVD is just fine but what about sound,extras, and convienece. Let me know what Xbox 360 has linear PCM uncompressed surround sound, you can't because first of all it can't pass that signal through its HDMI output (only HDMI ver. 1.3 ) and because it would take up about 4 gigs of your precious dvd 9.

You can defend saying oh you dont need that thats bull and I'll let you argue because I know when those Xbox fanboys who have sound systems hear what it sounds like to play a game with that kind of sound.....they won't argue anymore because yall will see the difference and how much more immersive it is. Don't expect to hear that blu-ray is going to make developers create 30 or 40 hour games because no one wants to play them unless its a game like oblivion.

No they will use that space to provide uncompressed sound, textures, and anything else they can think of. So what's so bad about having blu-ray? You fanboys act like its the stupidest thing having 25 gigs for the developers to work can only do good.

[ISay]

i played and beat gears 10 times from easy to hard and in co op best replay of any game, so as long as HS has good story and replay who cares how long it is.

[Azures]

The way I can play the demo over and over again, which is an inferior version from a technical standpoint compared to release...I can see myself playing through the retail like 3-4 times.

[Clinton514]

Not supporting drama sites so here's the real deal:
http://www.ninjatheory.com/...

[sandip787]

lol me and my friend beat gears in one night, about 6-7 hours long.
if it took you 15 hours to finish that game then you are a noob.
15 hours is ok, i would have proffered around 20. i suppose if theres a lot of unlockables then its all good.

[Dogswithguns]

is good I guess. but it's the the Blu-ray youknow, it can store more stuff. and the game costs $60, I think it should take 30 to 40 hours or so..... I wanna play the game on and on hundreds of hundreds of hours. hell yeah, and the Blu-ray can do it.

[power of Green]

Watch Ninga Gaiden 2 be just as long as Heavenly Sword and look better with better AI and more complex fighting systems.

[power of Green]

What most idiots don't understand is using up Blu-ray's disc is chalked full of filler to try and push the format you're out of your mind if you thinnk the average dev's going to sit around for 5-10 years spending hundreds of million dollars filling blu-ray up with actual useful gameplay for $60 a pop you're only fooling yourself.

[DJ]

I love to say this: you are WAY too attached to DVD. I know, she was great while it lasted, and even gave you a few wild nights, but it's time to move on to something better.

[aiphanes]

Bluray is next gen...why are you fighting it? Reistance is futile!

50 GIGS vs 8.5 gigs....why do you not like this?

Show me one xbox 360 game that has 7.1 PCM uncompressed sound or even 5.1 PCM uncomressed sound?

[power of Green]

GoW 5-8 hours?.

[THAMMER1]

I hate fan boys.

[RadientFlux]

8-15 hour game is perfect for an action/fps genre. for me means that the game will take me about a week or so to finish.

[TheMART]

12 - 15 hours

Why so short when there is so much room on a BluRay disc?

[felidae]

yeah man. keep on digging. you will always find something negative about the ps3. heavenly sword looks like a movie - so there goes the space man.

i own both next-gen system and i think the ps3 really is the better system.

[DJ]

versus six 2-hour movies for $120. I don't see what the complaint is about. Either way, length doesn't determine quality, or vice versa. Hell, Devil May Cry was only 2 1/2 hours long, and I still think it's one of the best games of all time. =]

PSN ID: LoveHateTragedy

[Bloodmask]

hrs seems like the average for most hack-n-slash type games. It is a good length as long as cut scenes are not included.

For really long games that is why there is the RPG genre.

[power of Green]

Thats just it isn't Heavenly sword pack full of Cutscenes and interative cutscenes?.

[monoknacker]

please bore off, your constant ridiculing of things that will not appear on the xbox is seriously boring; especially when you haven't even played the game. God of War is packed with cut-scenes and qte's and that easily manages to be a phenomenal game.Who's to say heavenly sword wont be any different?
I personally am really excited about this game and i really hope it turns out as good as it looks

[Maldread]

And i`ll have to say the same as DJ above me : "length doesn't determine quality, or vice versa ". MGS1 is one of my top two favorite games of all time, and it last about 8-10 hours, but because i loved it so much i`ve probably played through it about 20 times or so. It helped a bit that it had to different endings too, even though that only accounted for two playthoughs.

My point is that if you really love a game, the length of a play-through dosn`t determine how much time you`ll spend with it. Sometimes it can be the story or the gameplay that makes you go though it all again (or both in MGS1 case), and from what i`ve seen Heavenly Sword, it does seems to have both in order of those aspects in order as well.

[Rythrine]

I'll take a 12-15 hr game with replayability value than a 50 hr with none. If you want a long game without replayability then play an RPG, problem solved.

[aiphanes]

Yep 12 to 15 hours is perfect....for this game Heavenly Sword...you an only fight so much...and this is only part 1 of 3.....

[WIIIS1]

12 - 15 hours of gameplay minus 6 hours of sequenced button mashing. That leaves you with 6 - 9 hours of actual hack and slash. Not too bad for a half assed game.

[JokesOnYou]

you got to love the hypocrisy of sony kids and how everthing they say comes back to haunt them. this game doesnt look anywhere near as spectacular as Gears, doesn't do anything new basicly its a half ass god o war clone, if you blink you'll miss the demo with the really bad close ups of her face wit the little girl, why is her hair so dam stiff it doesnt look natural closw up oh well as guess alot of the sony kids blinked so its understandabal they missed the bad details or they just dont say but to top it all off this is another amazing huge unlimited poo-ray game thats no longer than other games of its kind now to make themselves feel better gears was only 5 hrs long, ha ha ok sony kids whatever you say, next it will be 2 hrs long, I mean how easy is it to make up stuff like just because this game is about the same amount of time on poo-ray, well I got news for ya sony kids, dev's are not going to double or triple their already long dev time and resources just to give you sony kids 30hr action games for $60. once again sony kids=

JOY

[Mandangoof]

This game looks phenomenal. Yes, it looks better than Gears. Holy sh** can you f@gs not see it? Lair does as well. Now we have come to a time where all future games are matched up against PS3 games in terms of graphics. And I have a feeling only PS3 exclusives will be able to stack up.

Gears was 6 hours, I beat it real fast at a friend's. If it was something like 12-15, which is great and totally appropriate for an action game like HS, I would know.

Action games don't have the gameplay to last 30 hours. What kind of a stupid argument is that? Oh lol, that's right, it's an Xbot argument. A brick wall would offer a better one, don't you think?

[Sovannah Phum]

it's pretty obvious that bluray was added to give room for developers to put full hd content in their games. if you're dealing with hd content bluray on this gen is comparable to dvd for last gen. cd on the 32 bit era., it's obviously not going to increase the length of the games, but rather the content is enhanced. people can make a game whatever length they want it to be, it doesn't deal with size of the disc, however it would if they were still using dvd content on a bluray disc. but that's not the case, how can people even argue about this?