The Curse of the Launch Title and the Gameplay Gimmick
A conversation that had to have occurred at Ninja Theory during the development of Heavenly Sword:
We need to show off this new six-axis technology-- how should we do that?
I know, let's make it so that it's nearly impossible to hit anyone during the escort mission miss-one-guy-and-it's-game-over archery sequence-- we might as well disable the reticule for as much as it will help you aim! That way players will be forced to use the six-axis to directly control the arrows!
Brilliant! But wait, isn't our six-axis gimmickcontrol system twitchy as fuck?
Seriously. I managed to hit one of the snipers using the six-axis controls after, oh, 8 tries. After 10 tries to get the second sniper, I gave up and just tried to aim, not with the reticule (as placing it directly over your target is no guarantee that it's going to hit anywhere near it), but by watching where my arrows went in the picture-in-picture of the sniper and trying to angle it accordingly. Which, by the way, is great fun using an analog stick.
Oh, and all this difficulty just to kill two guys? This was the untimed segment. Not so for the following one, where if you miss even ONE of the NON-STATIONARY guys running towards the entirely defenseless person you have to protect, you have to do it all over. Including the sniper part.
It was hard enough during the cannon sequence, where you had 3 minutes to hit 12 shining boss weak spots (which seemed to have had tiny, tiny hit boxes). At least then, your targets were stationary trebuchets, so you could fire off a shot, watch where it landed, and adjust accordingly. Ain't no time to adjust when your targets are a bunch of tiny running dudes; you either gotta master the six-axis, or hope that a constant barrage of random shots will take care of everyone. This is a level of precision that should not be allowed in a console game.
This is going to be the thing that stops me from being able to finish this game. Not combat difficulty. Not simply forgetting about it. Fucking attempts to show off a gimmick that was quickly abandoned by subsequent games who realized that it was janky as hell.
EDIT: My sources are now telling me that you can disable the six-axis and control the aftertouch feature using the analog sticks. Thank you, Guan Yin.
EDIT 2: Oh, wow, it's actually FUN if you play it this way... the way they didn't intend you to play it. My arms are now noodles, though, after having to do the "sky car" bit twice, having died at the very last part.
