Heavenly Sword's origin is on first Xbox

by Ross Miller on Aug 1st 2007 2:25PM

Heavenly Sword could have been an interactive version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon exclusively for Xbox One. Gametrailers chronicles the history of the now-PS3 exclusive by Ninja Theory using trailers that have been shown since May 2003.

Originally, protagonist Nariko had black hair, a more traditional Chinese attire, and a voice eerily similar to Michelle Yeoh. Even more reminiscent of films like Crouching Tiger and Hero were scenes of combat on top of water and gravity-bereft air fights. By May 2004, Nariko's hair had turned red and her clothes had all but disappeared. It wasn't until May 2005 that Heavenly Sword began to look like the final version we know today. A trailer from E3 2006 is not in the video montage, but trust us, it was there.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Source

Tags: heavenlysword, ninjatheory, PS3, video, Xbox

Reader Comments (43)

Shit happens all the time.

Hmm. That first trailer looked like a fun game. I mean, the graphics aren't fantastic by current-gen standards, but it looked interesting.

Have any games with this kind of console-hopping pedigree over many years turned out great?

The 1st trailer wasn't in-game

Halo was originally a mac product...

If that avatar is you dressed up as a ninja... then you do.

silly racist, trix are for kids

So, what's the apeal? Is this like a God of War? The graffics look good but what's special about it?

That guy who played that thing in Lord of The Rings is in it :D

I REPEAT:

"silly racist, trix are for kids"

*pssst*

We can't see you over the internet...

/whisper

So one of the most hyped PS3 games is a xbox game that never was huh,lol.

I can already imagine people in Gamespot forums "Hey PS3 owners one of your most hyped games was a rejected xbox 1 game" lmao.

That's old news, I thought it was common knowledge that MS passed on the franchise. However, the trailers are new to me.

Really I never heard anything of these being mentioned before or it was known by everyone as a fact or little people knew/care about this.

so your opinion is that because MS didnt want this game for the xbox it wont be a good ps3 game ?

It's been on wikipedia for a while too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Sword#Development

http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox/1028/Heavenly-Sword/

Microsoft didn't reject it, no publisher was attached does not mean it was rejected. There's countless good games that don't make it past the initial stages because publishers are afraid to take a risk on unheard of franchise and in the end do you really think if Microsoft got asked again they'd turn it down? Heavenly Sword is more than just God of War that's like saying just because two games are in the same genre means they're the same game.

It sounds like it will be competent, but I have the feeling that, like some other PS3 titles *cough*Lair*cough*, some of the larger review outlets are going to have much more sour views of the final product than they had when they were romancing the idea of the final product instead.

Rose colored glasses looking into the future, but hindsight is 20/20, all that.

My guess is that the complaints will be that it's short and it has uninspired quick-time sequences, and possibly that the enemies are repetitive without much variation, and the AI is crap.

We'll have to wait for the reviews.

this kind of thing does happen often though not often in this way, the 360's big launch title (Perfect Dark Zero) was just a back-burner GameCube game until it was given a 360 makeover, Too Human was originally a GC concept as well...

Lots of games get delayed between companies' own platforms (Super Paper Mario, Kirby Air Ride, StarFox Adventures), but sometimes this occurs as well

Too Human was actually a Playstation title before becoming a GameCube title, and now a Xbox 360 title. I'll bet this UE3 problem they're having will magically push it back until the next next gen... I wonder which console it will be on then?

Looks like the Xbox just lost another exclusive. First, a warranty extension, then the price drop, then Halo 3 Co-op is limited to 4 players online, and now this. The bad news just doesn't quit.

wow 4 player co-op isn't enough anymore. I thought that was good news. The price drop? I think thats good news! Warranty? Hmmm, good news to me:)Bitter,scared PS3 fanboys posting irrelevant posts sounds like bad news to me. Anyway, I'm waiting to see how the AI will be, before making a judgement, but so far looks like an asian God of War, maybe Goddess of War.

Not personal attack on Jake just a sarcastic comment.

Mach1,

I was just being silly.

actually too human started off on the ps1

I think Jake was being sarcatic.

But either way its funny that this used to be for the xbox.

Ah, your sarcasm detector works. Well played. I'll get you next time, though.

Lol...thanks.

Her hair looks horrible though in the xbox build.

When did God of War come out?

Sarcasm detectors work when the speaker in question is railing against that which he has been biased toward in the past

Like if John Edwards said, "Private insurance companies are the best thing that has ever happened to the American Medical system."

@ mach1z

I guess reading between the lines isn't one of your strong points. ;) Jake's email was all sarcasm...

Btw, from someone who has played God of War, God of War 2 and the demo for Heavenly Sword - I can say this.
It's going to be a fun game. The level difficulty to perform combos lies somewhere between God of War and Ninja Gaiden. Three different attack stances, counters, aerial combos and style attacks make this a fantastic game. I've played the demo 10-12 times now and I'm still figuring out new moves. Fun!

Anyways, that's my 2 cents - I'm sure it means a lot on these forums. (hey mach1z, that last part was sarcasm in case you were wondering).

seeing as I've already dl'd and played the demo on my PS3...here's what the judges had to say:

it's nothing new that hasn't been done before. have you played NinetyNineNights (N3)? (Simon)

well, you're pretty. hold on to your looks. (Paula)

it was a'ight, dog. I'd rent it for a week. (Randy)

@ umm...hello

LMAO! Thats dead on what they would say in real life!

The only people who care about this are the x360 fans that wish it was at least still both systems.

Are you retarded or something?

1st off this game was NEVER for both systems idiot. As the article CLEARLY states it started out as a game for the original xbox. It was REJECTED and then it became a ps3 title.

2nd of all why would we be jealous? its Goddess of War. Theres hardly anything original about this game. Other than the fact that its an Asian girl...

I find the audio to this video very curious - I strongly suspect that parts are taken directly from a movie called Hero (英雄）that was released two or so years back - the two lines of subtitled Chinese dialogue are almost certainly from it (and the subtitles are pretty far off: the video claims it goes: "I... I have tried my best"/"I am not ready to die" when the voices are saying: "we have to go (我们要去)"/"going means death(去就是死)"/"if we die, we die together(死就一起死)" - basically the opposite.)

this explains why the heavenly sword demo sucks, it was originally an xbox game, dooming it from the beginning

sony fanboys and their pathetic excuses. It was probably an xbox game for a small period.

Face facts. This game has been developed by sony and for sony for a long ass time now. Many changes ahve obviously occured since it was originally planned for the xbox.

The demo sucked cuz sony has no clue what a good demo looks like.

The game is going to suck because its Goddess of War.

However it will sell to ps3 owners since they've convinced themselves that they need to keep sony afloat by buying any and all games coming out for the ps3.

Haha Goddess of War, I heard that somewhere:) Got to admit I did like God of War because of the Greek mythology, and I don't think they can outdo the Greeks. Kratos Rules All! Off the subject: we need a Soul Calibur with Kratos playable, I would buy a PS3 for that! Come on Sony put some Windex on it!!!( if that happens I want credit for it, and you are all witnesses)

Not gonna lie, that would be sweet... Also, put Master Chief or the Arbiter with the plasma sword in the 360 version:D

One the 2003 X-box trailer, she pulls out a purple flag with english letters on it... is it just me or does it say "Just Ate MONSTERS".

Wow, she eats monsters! For BREAKFAST!

"Just Add MONSTERS" is the name of the developers, before Ninja Theory took over.

I heard in a recent publication the reason why Heavenly Sword became a PS3 exclusive because the 360 hardware couldn't run Heavenly Sword. Already the weakness of the 360 is becoming prevalent. I think in a couple of months the PS3 will show how obsolete the 360 technology really is.

um, article link? Before claiming PS3 BIG WIN! XBOX TOO SLOW!

On that note, I read in some article somewhere that PS3 slows down with time and you have to keep buying a new one every year to keep the speed up.

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Heavenly Sword's origin is on first Xbox

Reader Comments (43)

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