God Hand - WHY HAVEN'T YOU PLAYED THIS GAME YET!? God Hand - Why Haven't You Played This Game Yet!?
My introduction to you (and my first review to reach a god like almost 5000 words -I try to stick to 2000-3000 but this made me believe in heaven for awesome games):
So back in the day when I was so believing of the internet and what critics had to say about games in magazines and their websites, I thought God Hand was REALLY a 3/10. It's been 7 years since 2006 and I finally decided to try God Hand after suddenly remembering it while looking around on forums when someone randomly brought up "God Hand." The game has been on PSN since 2011 and I always kept telling myself, "I'll buy it, it's only 10$," and two years later, I finally got on it. Now I "Dragon Kick" myself into the Milky Way, wondering why I never rented or even BOUGHT the game when I first saw the cover of a guy getting a fist right through his mouth to the back of his head.
God hand is a big whopping 9 out of 10, not a 3 out of 10 game, don't listen to any bad comments about the game... they are all false as it is the person's own fault for making the game too hard for them to play. This game doesn't joke around when it wants to tell you how bad you suck at games. Want to become a god? Get to Hard Mode on God Hand, beat it, and then try something like God of War and watch how you breeze through it.
Depth: 9
God Hand is hands down, the best 3D brawler I've ever played and allows for so much freedom and customization in however you want to brawl your enemies. What makes God Hand so epic and amazing is the gameplay and difficulty in its entirety as well as having no limits to what may appear in the game. What God Hand brings you is a game simply about brawling and Clover Studios certainly concentrated on nothing but that before Capcom shut them down, in other words, "They went out with a big bang," as many would say.
You are allowed to choose Easy or Normal mode from the start, as well as an unlockable Hard mode, and from there, the amount of suffering you must endure is already decided. All of the depth is within the game itself, there aren't any extra modes, or any hidden features, all of it is in what they give to you inside the game. In fact, God Hand really embraces the style of the classics beat em' ups like Final Fight and Streets of Rage, while at the same time mixing Street Fighter, Fist of the North Star, Devil May Cry, Kung Fu Hustle, and plenty of Anime, Japanese, and Kung Fu movie references. As I said, all this game centers on is the heart of battle which includes the battle system and difficulty...with the addition of gambling and little mini-games from time to time.
The gameplay literally offers a 3D third person, camera fixed behind the back, awareness and radar dependent, ever changing in game difficulty, reflex based, move set customizable, combo, dodge, counter hit, and cancel frenzy, classic beat em' up style, brawling. These are all the little features you get to work with for the combat and trust, you will have lots of fun.
Throughout the game, you must battle your way through generic grunts of all kinds, similar to the classics, and fight mini-bosses and big bosses. At first, the move set you start with is literally all you need until you need to upgrade the power of those moves, however, you can change your entire move set to any of the moves you buy and collect. Yes, you can actually make a drunken fist fighting style, or just make your own all together, which I will get into a little later. With the power of Gene's God Hand, you can literally send foes into orbit, or even kick them in the balls if you want. There are plenty of strategies to learn and combos to create, and you can even train against a dummy between stages. Aside from making money after each chapter and during each stage, you can also gamble and strike it rich, or fight in the Extreme Fighting Arena. Of course, what beat em' up is complete without weapons to pick up and use on enemies, such as sledge hammers , umbrellas, rocket launchers, katanas...or the classic pipe. There's even some little mini-games, challenges from demon fairies, and small puzzles to solve. With all these features, you'll be having a lot of fun making enemies fly into walls (or orbit) and grovel for mercy...for a long time.
The move set customization in the game allows you to change all of the attacks in the "Techniques" menu; which are your Square button link combo (the automatic combo in beat em ups), and the Triangle and X button, which also include back inputs as well as a back input for square. In all, there are 6 sections to customize, the link combo ranging from 4-6 attacks, and the other five available buttons and combinations, and believe me, it's enough. There are 114 techniques, though, some of the moves are upgrades that go up from 1-4 levels of strength, making about 70-80 techniques which is still a ton of moves. You can choose any move you want to use in your move set whether it is slow and crazy looking, or fast and weak. These techniques are all punches and kicks, but some have different properties such as: Launch, Juggle (two forms of juggling), dizzy , guard break, unblockable, evade high attack, and charge, as well as hidden effects sweep and knock over. There are also additional moves that stem from running, being grounded, and launching your enemy high into the air for a move like a Shoryuken. It's really up to you how imaginative you want to be with your combos and moves, but just make sure you can actually pull it off with how difficult enemies can be.
Gene has the power of a god in his right arm and with it, you can perform three vital skills that'll help you throughout the entire game, Roulette, the circle command (Pummel, Grab, Spank, etc), and God Hand Mode. The Roulette which is customizable just like the techniques, allows you to slow down time in game to choose an overpowered super move to use on your enemies, such as Bruce Lee's "One Inch Punch." The God Hand moves cost one to three God Hand orbs depending on their level of strength but will easily do a huge amount of damage to bosses and probably kill most enemies in the game. The circle command appears usually after you stun an enemy, when an enemy is on the ground for you to stomp them, when escaping a sticky situation and countering, or when they grovel before you (which could lead to getting hit in the balls if you not fast enough.) At this time, you can deal a chunk of damage to an enemy or boss through an automatic move like a German suplex, a pummel type attack that prompts you to press all the buttons as fast as you can (which sometimes references to the Hyakuretsu-ken from Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken), or an escape type move that can actually prompt you to use the analog stick or the circle button for a counter. Last, the God Hand mode allows you to be invincible for the duration of your Tension gauge while making all your hits unblockables and counter hits. Using all these techniques will certainly help you win against the hardest bosses, but to win without it would make you legendary.
Another great feature to this game are all the gameplay mechanics that play a huge part in your fighting style. When you first play, most people noticed how you can't move the camera around you and you can only see around you by rotating Gene left and right, or using the 180 degree turn-around button, similar to Resident Evil's fixed camera. The combat will at first feel very clunky and you'll find yourself feeling completely defenseless to enemy attacks, while you also discover the right analog stick is only used for dodging. However, the game is made this way purposely because it is a incredibly hard core game that has a lot of fighting game mechanics, thus to actually make the gameplay smooth, you have to cancel like a maniac. By cancelling, you actually skip the animation of a move, sometimes in its start up before the attack or after the hit in its recovery frames. For example, nearly all of the attacks in the game can be dodge cancelled, meaning between your attacks, you can flick your analog stick and perhaps spam the move over and over for continuously fast amount of damage. Cancels include canceling moves into other moves of different buttons, weaving, sidestepping, back flipping, and forward dashing. Canceling moves to create some incredible combos not only keeps you invincible at times (when you dodge cancel), but also really show how smooth the gameplay is (as well as customizing your move set to be as smooth or clunky as you want it to be.)
The funny part about God Hand is that the game is fair in every way and gauges your ability as a gamer. In the game, there is a difficulty level which rises from level 1 to level die having 4 levels in all. If you take hits depending on the type of hit you take (the stronger hits or crotch shots being the worst), your difficulty level will decrease, where as if you are keeping the offense up, never getting hit, and taunting your enemies, the difficulty will rise. The game gives it to you short in simple, you are a god, you rock, you're okay, or you suck. As Total Biscuit stated in his video, "God Hand - Why We Can't Have Nice Things," the game throws no surprises or cheap death traps, and if you die, it's your own fault and not the game's...If you are a god, then prove it. There is no blocking in the game, only dodging which allows you to be invincible or avoid certain attacks, while also increasing the difficulty gauge. By playing on the higher difficulty levels, the game actually rewards you greatly giving you more gold to spend after each chapter, better drops from enemies (possibly), and also allowing you to experience the full combat mechanics. The difficulty feature is honestly very awesome as enemies change their play style and even work together, while also making the damage they do unforgiving. I'll explain more about the difficulty of the game, but it's no joke that this is probably the god father of giving birth to some of the very difficult games we have today.
Between parts of stages, you are able to go to the Casino to gamble your money away to games like Blackjack, Slots, Video Poker, and Poison Chihuahua races. It's all a matter of luck, but just make sure to avoid video poker...that game is rigged but rewards are very high (chances are incredibly low which I tested through save states.) Aside from making more gold, you can also get tickets from the slot machine upstairs in the casino to get more techniques or more gold which come from luck based treasure chests. With your gold, you can purchase techniques, some of which appear in stages, god hand moves, or upgrades to increase your square combo link, health, god hand orbs, or tension gauge. There is also the arena where you can actually trial moves in your move set before buying them, or fight in the Extreme Fighting Arena. The Extreme Fighting Arena allows you to face off against bosses you've previously fought or a small amount of enemies to a swarm of enemies, all under certain difficulties sometimes with time limits or different circumstances such as having a ton of weapons to use.
The mini-games and challenges included come from demon fairies or certain parts of the game. The challenge fairies usually make you fight difficult enemies under a time limit, or even destroy cars like you would in Street Fighter! The other mini-games and challenges you come across in the stages are at times things like punching cannon balls back to a ship in the correct button order to destroy a ship mast, or saving villagers from the grunts in the game for a special cut scene and rare treasure. Saving villagers on special cut scenes, or even in general, is very important as your gold will be deducted for not doing so. After all, they reward you with healing items, gold, and even techniques for saving them...so find the goodness in your heart and help those innocent villagers, you have the power of god after all.
After beating the game, you can reload your clear file for a fresh, new game plus on the same difficulty in which new moves are unlocked and all moves are purchasable, there are new costumes to wear, jukebox CDs to collect, and the last arena challenges unlocked. It's certainly worth playing this game a second time to use the new moves which are incredibly powerful and to finish collecting anything you haven't finished collecting. There are also a few hard mode unlockables too.
Story : 3
The story behind God Hand...or rather the script writing is absolutely terrible and stupid, and this is done purposely for humor. The story itself takes place in a post-apocalyptic, demon infested, Wild West, which goes on to travel to other various locations. The post-apocalyptic demon infested idea is almost a reference to Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken which pretty much takes place in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by the rules of the strongest fighters triumph over the weak, and the demons which are in human form in God Hand are no different; bullying on villagers and women, killing them, just because the demons want to take over and show how weak the human species is. I won't spoil the important pieces of the story to you as I explain the basics. Gene, the main character, has a right arm known as the God Hand which contains the power of a god, and with him on his journeys to fight the demons is Olivia, whom threatens to axe off his God arm if he go to deal with the locations infested with demons trying to kill humans. Cleaning up town by town, he has become known for his god hand and is to be captured (at first killed) and brought to the leader of the demons, who doesn't like that someone is trying to put an end to his plans. That's all I can really explain for the most part.
Throughout the game, you'll come across racial and controversial parodies and stereotypes of race, sexual orientation, pop culture, etc. There are also plenty of anime, cartoon, movie, video game, japanese, and kung fu references, which include references to the power rangers, famous martial arts moves and styles, quotes, Japanese dialogue such as Onegaishimasu (Please), and a lot more. There's also a lot of sexual content regarding BDSMwith most of the female villains in the game. When Clover Studios made this game, they were going out with a Big Bang, and a Big Bang they did, being unafraid of making silly jokes, parodies, and plenty of other things. Though, as I mentioned, the actual story and scriptwriting is purposely terrible and a little generic. This is because Clover Studios really wanted to concentrate on the gameplay mechanics that really make this game what it is, and brawling is EXACTLY what God Hand is all about, so story really doesn't matter at all to the game in all honesty. The fact that there are so many parodies and silly scenes is another thing that makes this game so great that not only does the gameplay not want to hold back, but the things you see in the game don't want to hold back either.
Difficulty & Controls: 10
God Hand is without a doubt, amongst the the most difficult games ever created and the hardest 3D brawler, Gene himself even tells you "You've got quite a pair" for choosing Hard mode in the game. What makes God Hand so difficult is that even the people from IGN who had to put the game on easy mode only played for an hour, unable to get past the first stage, before giving up. The idea is, if you don't try to experiment a bit, have never played hardcore fighting games in your life, rage quit at continue screens, and never think outside the box to leave your comfort zone...you'll get your butt kicked so hard you'll be at the point of tears. Even I at first, playing it pretending to myself that I've never played Street Fighter 3 or Bayonetta, got my butt kicked terribly in normal mode 20 times before trying easy mode and slowly understanding the system.
It's okay to choose easy mode especially if you've never played a game like Devil May Cry 3 on a hard core level because this game will really give you a spanking like never before when you first play most likely (even if Gene asks if you really need someone to hold your hand.) The game may insult you for not playing at a higher level, but if you let it get to you just to go for the higher difficulty, then it's no different than a person yelling at the screen when they see the continue screen. On easy mode, the difficulty will rise no higher than level 2 unless you do arena challenges...or use a codebreaker. Enemies won't kill you easily, but even on level 1, at first you'll die pretty fast because your health bar without upgrades tiny and the damage dealt to you is pretty powerful, especially when fighting a demon. The idea is to get used to dodging "the right way," knowing when to break their guard, learning when to attack and how to cancel, and learning how to read your enemies' telegraphs.
On the normal level, your meter can rise from level 1 to level die, and on level die...you can die in one to three strong hits and probably 4 pummel hits depending on the enemy and your health bar. Demons will pretty much take off half of a maxed health bar or more depending on what type of demon you fight..and bosses...yeah, avoid attacks from them at all costs. Level 3 is the hard level in which enemies are pretty powerful, start using new attacks, team up a lot more or attack you all at once while surrounding you, and, defend and react to you better than they would any level below. it's honestly most fun to fight on level 3 until you fully learn the system and enemies to fight on level die which is when you challenge hard mode, the permanent level die.
In God Hand, you control gene by moving forward, double tapping and holding forward to make him dash and run, pulling back to move backward, and rotating him left and right with the analog stick similar to Resident Evil. This is not really used as much anymore because many consider it bad controls but for God Hand, it works perfectly somehow, though it'll be difficult to adjust to. At first you'll be trying to turn Gene to an enemy behind him with the left analog stick, but then you'll get used to pressing L1 for the 180 degree turn and everything will feel a lot better. The attack buttons are mapped to the Square, X, Triangle, Circle, and R1 buttons: Square being used for link combos, X and Triangle for other attacks in combination with holding back also (square included), Circle for conditional special attacks, and R1 for the God Hand Roulette. Once again, the control scheme may feel weird at first but the idea of it is to allow for quick button input similar to fighting games, and once you adjust to it under the difficult circumstances, you'll really enjoy it. Next is the R2 button for God Hand mode which acts can be seen similarity control wise as the devil trigger from Devil May Cry being mapped to a shoulder button, and L2 for taunts which is there to be spammed so you can increase the difficulty level easily. Last is the right analog stick: forward being used for weaving to avoid any high attacks, left and right for side stepping to avoid overhead or non-lock-on attacks, and backwards for back flipping for a good amount of invincibility against splash attacks while distancing yourself (though I don't recommend it too much unless it is a splash attack or unevadable the other three ways, forward dashing being another.) The right analog stick not being camera control since the camera is fixed may confuse many once again, but it's actually better this way being used for dodging as it allows for incredibly quick movements and one thumb dodge cancelling.
The difficulty to the game may be god like, but it's nothing you can't handle as proven by many who have played the game and beaten it, and having god like power and getting your butt kicked wouldn't look good after all. The difficulty as I mentioned feels great because when you finish the game, you feel all the tension you've built up avoiding enemy attacks a countless amount of times relieve itself. The controls as I've mentioned may seem strange at first, but trust me, you will adapt to it and you'll grow to really love it.
Addictiveness: 9
Once I started the game, I couldn't stop playing. My friend wanted me to play El Sword with him, I chose to beat God Hand first, then he came over, I chose to show him God Hand and get him hooked on it. Playing this game and having that freedom to make your own move set and combos is a ton of fun, and if you are looking for a way to fill your need for action and difficulty similar or greater than Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, look no further, God Hand will save you. Want to play something besides a fighting game but has the hard core fighting game aspects? Play God Hand. Want something ridiculous in presentation and god like in difficulty,? Play God Hand. Want to have many continue screens? Play God Hand.
I am still playing this game trying to best Normal mode again at a higher level skill and Hard mode at the same time and it's a little hard to stop once you've become used to combat mechanics. The worst part is once you've beaten it one way, you end up trying to challenge yourself to using a different move set to defeat enemies and you eventually reach a state of complete experimentation. Some of your time will also be spent at the casinos or the arena trying to make money or beat some incredibly tough challenges, the last one being the most insane. Luckily, this game makes you experience a lot of game over screens because in a way, that's telling you to take a break and come back to it later; but you want to keep trying from the save point you created at beginning of the chapter because you want the big reward! The game does want you to be persistent, but it also wants you to take things slowly to understand the system at first. It may be addicting, but for myself, whenever I've had my fill of beating bullies up, I gave it a rest or I had enough will power to stop myself.
Graphics: 6
God Hand's graphics are not spectacular and are in fact, pretty bland at many points. Once again, all Clover Studios wanted to bring to us was the awesome gameplay, so putting more time into making stages look better wasn't really an option. The characters actually look a lot better than the stages all together in fact and this might be because the developer wanted the player to solely focus on the combat, and if so, he did a good job.
You go through the Wild West, a Circus, Caves, an Italian based stage, a desert based on the middle east possibly, and more. As I mentioned, the actual stage design on the stages is basic, but manages to get the job done and keep you focused on gameplay. In fact, you'll hard notice the stage graphics and realize the map design is pretty good with getting from point A to point B. There are optional areas that you can go to in stages which usually tend to be alternate path ways and inner rooms and houses which mean that you can miss items or skip enemies. When turning camera near walls, walls above the bottom frame disappear for a good purpose, as to keep the camera from getting caught as well as keeping you aware of enemies near the walls you can't seen behind necessarily. Sometimes, you really don't need good graphics to make the ultimate game.
The characters and character design as I mentioned look a little better than the stages. I'm not saying they look totally incredible and are designed well graphically though, but they do stand out more. What's funny is, the important characters are designed the best with their own facial actions and what not, while villagers who are not as important story-wise, have a little more of a basic design and all look like each other...yet the ones in cutscenes have quite a standout personality. The character clothes designs are actually parodies on whatever reference they are dressed in and the role they play. Gene, Azel, Olivia, and many of the grunts (especially the ones with mohawks) actually look like they popped out of Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken universe almost. In this way, they actually look pretty cool and of course, stand out more than the stages, especially the big demon boss designs.
Sound: 9
God Hand has some really awesome music that goes with the game's stages and boss fights. For instance, the first area taking place in the Wild West features the main them, Gene's Rock-A-Bye which plays similar to what you'd here for an upbeat wild west theme while also sounding very much like Hawaii Five-O. There are plenty of songs that perfectly suit the character or stage, even one of the Boss themes having a reference to Elvis's voice because the boss's name is Elvis.
The sound effects in the game are pretty cool and well done, giving off that impression that all your blows are pretty strong or fast. It also acts as a way to know what kind of hit you get on your opponent such as if they block or if you pissed them off after taunting or juggling them. The game also cheers you on for leveling up in difficulty and pretty much does the opposite for leveling down. They also do a bell ring sound effect for if you or the enemy get hit in the balls, which is always fun to here.
The voice acting on the other hand is kind of a mixed bag. The voice actors sound funny, ridiculous, and mimic the part of which they parody in silly ways. However at the same time, the fact that most of it is silly voice acting might not really catch the attention of too many people and outright sound embarrassing. It's all done in fun though, especially the one part where Gene mocks the midget power rangers.
Overall: 9.1
Unfortunately, there is no game like God Hand and only Bayonetta, by Platinum which used to be Clover Studios, makes references, does some ridiculously awesome scenes, and has less limits than the norm, as a call out to God Hand. What keeps this game from being a perfect 10 or even a 9.5 is the obvious bland graphics and terrible story, even if it is on purpose. Had there been more time before Clover Studios was shut down, they might have spent the remaining time adding even more moves and probably making the graphics and story a little better.
Regardless, God Hand is an incredible over the top game and is severely underrated by critics. It's these kind of games that actually need the spot light and to show that games can really be epic not just by gameplay but what happens in that game. Seriously! What game lets you send people into orbit or send people flying into walls from a mile away!? What game lets you create your own move set based on a huge amount of kung-fu, boxing, pimp slapping, or all sorts of other moves!? Wrestling games let you make moves based mostly on wrestling moves while including a few other techniques and even a reference to Ryu's street fighter moves at one point, but not as much as this. What game allows you to really quickly dodge cancel attacks together...aside from Bayonetta which comes from the same creators? What game makes fun of many things in pop culture and actually gets localized for America? WHAT GAME CHANGES DIFFICULTY ON THE FLY DEPENDING ON HOW WELL YOU PLAY IN-GAME TO TELL YOU HOW GOOD OR BAD YOU ARE AT THE GAME!?
Only God Hand...On playstation network for 10$, Ebay, or if you're lucky enough to find it in gamestop.
Graphics
6 Sound
9 Addictive
9 Depth
9 Story
3 Difficulty
10
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