The first thing that came to my mind after playing the Heavenly Sword demo was “where’s the rest”? More on that in a bit.

The game is beautiful, there’s no doubt about that. All those great screens and videos we’ve seen in the past definitely do the game justice. Animations were very crisp and the framerate is pretty stable as well, only dropping in a couple spots. I’m guessing it could be demo code that will be improved later on.

The controls feel very good, with similar button mappings to God of War. Oddly the game doesn’t have a jump button, which I would have thought would have made it easier to perform aerial combos. The use of the L1 and R1 buttons to change your fighting stance works very well. Aerial combos are very fun with the control scheme as are the Superstyle moves. The SIXAXIS control for aftertouch when throwing an object is fun, but I don’t think it will play that big a role in the game. I love the camera controls by using either the L2 and R2 buttons to pan left/right or by tilting the SIXAXIS in either direction.

I’ve played through the demo four times now, with a record of 4 minutes on my last time through. You get to fight through two waves of standard guards and see some cutscenes in the beginning. After you defeat the second wave of guards, three larger enemies break down a gated door to attack you… and the demo ends. Kind of disappointing it ended so soon, especially given the fact the same level was playable for a longer period at E3. I do give Sony credit on it though, it really left me wanting more. They did a good job at accomplishing that.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the demo (other than the length). The game is shaping up very well and should be a killer app for the PS3 later this year.