“Hundreds of joystick destroyed and tears shed due to the rage induced by this game“
SabahanBoi, 2021
Source: Hiroaki, pelukis
I still remember back in my school days, every time its my turn with the PS2, God Hand published and made by Clover Studio is one of the game I spent most of my time with in front of the screen
We were looking for new games to play at that time after just bought the new console. We picked up God of War 2, and just a few brackets away from it, I saw that God Hand CD case, featuring a hand with peculiar tattoos and someone’s face, akin to being frightened from being hit by that hand on its cover. Definitely the best purchase we made at that time
Me and my siblings love fighting games, Tekken, King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Smackdown, we played em.
But God Hand, ho boy this one is one doozy game
The gameplay, its difficulty, how the A.I. changes depending on how well you perform, is very new to me in a fighting game at that time, and it definitely earns its love among those that love challenging games like this
PLOT
Source: Clover Studio
God Hand starts in a world where Angra, the Demon King, wrecks havoc across the world with his demon spawns. But he was thwarted by a man wielding the power of god in his hands, banishing him into exile.
The people, grateful that the Angra’s threat had subsided, bestowed upon the man the title of Godhand. Legend states: “Although the man is long since gone, a single clan continues to this day to defend the Godhands, and the power held within. Those who possess this power are capable of becoming either god or demon.”
godhandcapcom
Fast forward to the present time, Olivia, one of the descendent of the clan that are tasked to protect the God hands, ran away from the clan together with the right hand of God hand, after Azel, the major antagonist in this game, murdered the whole clan to claim the left God hand for himself, turning himself into the Devil Hand
Eventually Olivia’s escape came to an end, when she was haunded by a group of bandits that are actually demons in disguise, tasked to retrieve the remaining God hand in Olivia’s possession. This is where, our protagonist, Gene, makes his appearance in the story.
Gene, a drifter with keen sense of justice, of course came to her aid after he sees her get tangled with the bandits. Although, being mortal, he’s no match for the demons disguised as human bandits, and was severed of his right arm in the squabble. After this incident, Gene woke up to find the right hand of God is now in place of his severed arm, granting him the power to stood up to the unnatural enemies he has to face, from humans with fighting prowess, to demons that shed its human form after being beaten
Yes, its a cookie cutter of a plot any two bit writer can come up with. But the main appeal of God Hand comes from the comic relief, humorous scenes, and its combat gameplay, and trust me, its lit
Look at these moves
STORYTELLING
Usually in a game with this kind of plot of protagonist facing of against a demon king, filled with action and combat, one would expect the game to be full of serious tones, badass one liners, and a somber, serious faced protagonist throughout the game, kinda like Kratos from God of War
God Hand however, has its light playfulness with comic relief characters, parodies of real world characters, while still delivering an experience of badassery of beating the living hell out of Gene’s enemies that comes in his way
One minute you fight against thugs, the next you tango with a pair of guy ballerinas, after that some BDSM clad chick, suddenly you face aand then midget super sentai squad, and just before you think you’ve seen it all, a wrestling champion, gorilla
Overall, the scenes and enemies presented to you offer a lot of ease of the tension of a game that was meant to be serious. One minute you were battling hoards of enemy goons and demons spawns, and to take a break you take a walk to the casino, where the side attraction keeps you busy from your main objective
You can play those slot machines, pokers, and after you’re tired of losing your money, you can go outside and do the real gambling game: Chihuahua racing
The best side mission of God Hand: Chihuahua racing 😀
GAMEPLAY & COMBAT
In first playthrough, players will play as normal, learning the mechanics, and figuring things out on how to outmaneuver the enemies and beat the game. Second playthrough, you start to test the waters, running on pure adrenaline, on ways of wombo combo plant your enemies to the curb with over-the-top strings of attacks and powers imaginable to style on your opponents
That’s right, that’s where the joy of this game lies: How to beat your opponents in style. Kinda reminds you of that one game franchise about slaying demons, doesn’t it?
Devil May Cry 5, Capcom
THE DIFFICULTY
The difficulty mechanics of God Hand is very distinguishable from normal games. Some games do so by arbitrarily give more health and damage to enemies giving the illusion of harder difficulty, but in God Hand, its doing none of that
The difficulty option itself, which are Easy, Normal and Hard, doesn’t affect the game much. What’s most important is the Difficulty Level, noted by the rightmost widget with the skull picture and the “LV” description on it. This is the parameter that determines the difficulty of the enemies, which changes depending on how well you are. Hit more, dodge more, the meter fills, and vice versa if you do them poorly
The Difficulty Levels and their intrinsics are listed in this God Hand Wiki
Basically speaking, the more well you play, the enemy will become harder to beat. They attack faster, counter attacks more often, they do new moves that they never do before to throw you off, and some attacks might not stagger them as they used to in lower LV
LV Die is what separates true God Hand players from the normies. The spike in difficulty from LV 3 and LV Die is so staggering, you’ll be dying a whole lot. And I mean, a WHOLE WHOLE LOT
It’s gonna be tough, it’ll be challenging, but for those with the perseverance, will find the true joy of this game once they manage to go to LV Die and play well in it
The Basics
Gene’s movements takes the tank control approach: Moving and turning the way he faced with left analog stick and can dodge attacks with right analog stick, dodging left and right, backflipping backwards.
He attacks with the other buttons, but that’s not all, these attack buttons and inputs are changeable, allowing you to put together your custom made combos and power attacks to beat your opponent, from over 100 moves, each from various martial arts school. Including boxing, karate, capoeira, drunken boxing, and street brawling
Pick and choose your attack combos to beat your enemies in style
Roulette Wheel
Pressing the R1 button reveals a slot, called Roulette Wheel, containing a whole set of Powerful Moves that are capable of disrupt, heavily damage, and basically, send your enemies flying. When you press the button, the whole world turns slow, and you can then pick and choose a power move that consumes Roulette Wheel orbs, ranging from Dragon Kick, 100 Punch, Discombobulator, to the classic, classic, Ball Buster
Apocalyptic Beatdown: Unleash the Godhand!
The more you hit your opponents, the more your Tension Meter fills up, to a point where your hand starts to glow. This is the indication that your God Hand is ready to be unleashed upon your enemy. At this state, Gene hits harder, and twice as fast, and the best of all, your music themes plays throughout the time your God Hand is unleashed, enhancing the ass whopping experience even more
With all of these elements put together, no wonder God Hand become one of the cult classics for difficult games, and I’m definitely one of them
SEQUEL?
We all love to see our favorite game to get a sequel, with potential to have better and fun experience from its predecessors. Sadly, God Hand was Clover Studio’s last game before the studio had to shut down, with most of their key members left for studios like PlatinumGames, where you can see some remnants of God Hand tropes and mechanics in some of their titles
It may be wishful thinking, but there was one tweet from Hideki Kamiya, one of Clover Studio’s former key members back in 2020. With a rough translation from Google, it states:
God hand is Mikami-san, Capcom quit myself, I want to make a sequel super, I have never done a producer or I have no ability. Is a publisher, not a Tencent umbrella, but a Platinum Games …
…And 10 years later you’ll be tweeting….
Hideki Kamiya, 2020
If I wanna try and guess what he wish to say from this translation, it seems like he wants to do a game with more freedom of creativity, without other outside interference from game companies. Maybe he means he might do it when he goes indie?
Conclusion
God Hand is a game without a huge reception among many, but it has become a cult classics all across fans of challenging games and still being talked and discussed about in forums till this day
My little wish is that, more people will come to find this old gem of a game in the future, and who knows, perhaps get a sequel in the not-so-near future, or near, whichever it’s gonna be 🙂
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