Gaming-Age have an interview with Heavenly Sword developers Ninja Theory. In it they talk about what the game involves, and how it pushes PS3 hardware.

Combat is our biggest area of gameplay. The combat engine has been in development for well over two years. You can fight using three sword stances which you can switch between on the fly to create your own combos. You can use all enemy weapons against them. You can use objects in the scenery to throw and smash, you can blow up masses of enemies with cannons and so on. Physics has been integrated into combat so that you can smash people into objects or sweep debris into enemies. You can fight one-on-one against supremely skilled enemies, fight against dozens of tightly choreographed enemies, or against armies of thousands. There are also some amazing and outrageous combat set-pieces which have no precedent in games or films. This a real next-gen combat engine that would never be possible on current gen consoles.