Heavenly Sword sadly never got the recognition it deserved for being a launch title , and oddly enough, I feel that is due to it being a launch title. Heavenly Sword is plagued with a lot of issues that came with early PS3 games, mainly forced motion controls and lack of PS3 trophies. While the lack of trophies are more apparent as it weakens the value for Trophy hunters, the real downfall was the motion controls. Being forced into a number of sections through out the game in order to use the clumsy six axis control is a chore and nearly half the time you use them it slows down the pacing immensely.
Aside from these hiccups tho, Heavenly Sword does manage to be a neat little hack'n'slash game with some really interesting boss battles and over the top characters, amazing face capture technology at the time, and a genuinely interesting story. While the framing of the story isn't exactly the best set up, with most of the game being a flashback, the highlights are the interactions of the ever serious Nariko and her cast of zany counterparts.
While I don't think Heavenly Sword will turn everyone's heads around to play it, if you ever wanted to play another game like God of War on the playstation, you can't really go wrong with Heavenly Sword. Despite all it's warts it's still a pretty fun time, but you do have to go through some grim to get there.