Ninja Theory’s PS3 brawler will get the demo treatment shortly, says the game’s head of production. Well, he’d know, wouldn’t he?

Mat Hart’s the guy disseminating these glad tidings, which he does via his chatty blog on IGN. Of the many juicy tidbits revealed we’re told that the game is designed to replicate the look, feel and pace of an action movie; that they’re now 95% complete and working hard to fix the remaining bugs, and that Nariko’s principle weapon – the Heavenly Sword – can be used in three distinct ways. “Speed stance” splits the weapon into two blades, “Power Stance” fuses ‘em back together into one slow n’ mighty skull-cracker and “Range Stance” extends the main blade on chains, which is useful for sweeping the bad guys off their feet at a distance. All very nice, we’re sure.

But the real meat of the comes in the reader Q&A after the main blog, in which we find out that the game will last between 12-15 hours if played straight through and that the storyline was developed with a longer ‘arc’ than can be told in a single game – in other words Heavenly Sword #2’s a cert if #1 sells well enough. Mat also announces that there’s no jump button in the game, which is perplexing given that a great deal of combat seems to take place in the air – it’s because “HS is a cinematic action adventure and not a platform game”, he says, poutingly.

And finally, in answer to the vexed question of demo availability Mat states with encouraging confidence: “I can confirm that we are, of course, going to be releasing a demo for Heavenly Sword… and soon! This will be downloadable via the Playstation Network…so keep an eye out for this in the very near future… and I mean very near future!”

Let’s hope he knows what he’s talking about. He’d better get his skates on, though, as the game – which was still a PS3 exclusive the last time we looked – is currently scheduled for September release.