Before there was Oblivion with guns, there was Resident Evil 4 without guns. More so than with respect to even its emphasis on crowd control, dynamic difficulty scaling or abundance of contextual carpal tunnel generators, God Hand’s arguably most reminiscent of its spiritual cousin in terms of how forward-thinking it is.
An action game likes convenience. To be able to jump in and fight what you want, when you want with as little fluff as possible’s part of why DMC’s Bloody Palace (or equivalents) became a genre mainstay, why Bayonetta 3’s revamped chapter select system is probably the single most underappreciated feature of 2022 and why the not-infrequent complaint about Nioh having a level select menu is so mystifying. Play enough games from when this family tree was still in its relative infancy and you’ll likely realise how easy it is to take such features for granted, which is why it's so cool that God Hand had something like the Fighting Ring so early on in the genre’s history.
A practice area coupled with all sorts of bespoke combat encounters you can tackle and/or fail any number of times, totally free of consequence, would be a natural fit for any action game, but it’s especially great for God Hand because of how its equipment system works. There’s not just a litany of attacks at your disposal, each with their own distinct properties and niches, but you can also equip any of them in any order and assign them to any button. It’s an unprecedented degree of customisation that might’ve otherwise been overwhelming without an area like this, and which I’m not sure’s been matched before or since. The likes of The Wonderful 101, God of War 3 and DMC5 might let me switch from one weapon to any other in any order, but not even they let me build a moveset out of pimp slaps if I feel like it, purely because I can.
The draw of experimentation that comes with this is hampered a bit by certain rough patches – for example, multi-hit attacks occasionally feel disincentivised in a way that doesn’t seem intentional because of how frequently enemies block and counterattack as the difficulty level increases (especially on Hard where you’re permanently at the highest), while low profile moves which dodge enemies’ high attacks for some reason don’t avoid jumping grabs – but what helps keep the combat malleable despite these is the counterhit system. Interrupt an enemy or boss’ attack with one of your own and they’ll varyingly flinch, be stunned, get juggled or launched, even if none of those properties work on them normally. It creates an engaging sense of back-and-forth and ensures you’re never completely strapped for options no matter how suffocating the situation you find yourself in or which moves you've equipped, especially when taken in tandem with being able to cancel any of Gene’s attacks at any point with one of three different dodges (which, provided your thumbs can remain intact, is also particularly helpful for circumventing the aforementioned issues with multihit attacks).
On that point, God Hand’s handling of defence is something more games could probably stand to learn from. The Great Sensei is a sink or swim moment in this respect and, in my view, the embodiment of what makes it shine, stringing together high attacks, vertical attacks and crowd control in blistering succession that demands you have an iron grip on each of Gene’s dodges and what they’re for like no boss before or after him. He would still be infamously difficult because of all this in a vacuum, but I think part of why he’s such a challenge also stems from how many other games with real-time combat systems treat their (often singular) dodge as a one-size-fits-all invincibility bubble and how tough it can be to break the conditioning that that sort of standardisation instils. Lost Judgment is another 3D beat-‘em-up which plays excellently, but despite being 15 years God Hand’s junior on platforms multitudes more powerful, it can’t help but feel comparatively primitive whenever Yagami “evades” a sweep kick by ducking his head. In contrast, God Hand’s more nuanced combination of side/backward dodges and bobbing & weaving reminded me loosely of Soulcalibur, which on top of its counterhit system makes one wonder how much other action games might benefit from leaning into their common ground with fighting games.
Not all of God Hand’s boss fights or enemies utilise its mechanics equally well, the final boss in particular running the risk of jettisoning the player’s goodwill into the bin, but some scattershot ups and downs are to be expected when your game is so bonkers at every turn. It speaks to how entertaining its stages manage to be, both conceptually and in design, that you end the game with no further mechanics than what you start with and it never once feels stale. There’s an inherent excitement that comes with cramming so many clowns, demons, cowboys, Venetian canals, floating pyramids and other seemingly disparate ideas that you don’t know what to expect next; while some might be surprised at the fact that he considers Resident Evil 4 to be the opposite, it’ll likely shock nobody that Shinji Mikami feels that God Hand is the game with the most amount of himself in it. What results is no doubt chaotic, but more than worth looking past the imperfections of for experiencing what’s essentially his and a bunch of other loveable goofballs’ collective personality transcribed onto a disc, which also happens to be perhaps the only game that feels like an interactive version of an action film’s fight choreography.
If you happen to still have a PS2 lying around, I can attest that the ~80 gamerbux that used copies of this bad boy go for are worth it. You may not be you know who, but you’ll feel like it by the end.
An action game likes convenience. To be able to jump in and fight what you want, when you want with as little fluff as possible’s part of why DMC’s Bloody Palace (or equivalents) became a genre mainstay, why Bayonetta 3’s revamped chapter select system is probably the single most underappreciated feature of 2022 and why the not-infrequent complaint about Nioh having a level select menu is so mystifying. Play enough games from when this family tree was still in its relative infancy and you’ll likely realise how easy it is to take such features for granted, which is why it's so cool that God Hand had something like the Fighting Ring so early on in the genre’s history.
A practice area coupled with all sorts of bespoke combat encounters you can tackle and/or fail any number of times, totally free of consequence, would be a natural fit for any action game, but it’s especially great for God Hand because of how its equipment system works. There’s not just a litany of attacks at your disposal, each with their own distinct properties and niches, but you can also equip any of them in any order and assign them to any button. It’s an unprecedented degree of customisation that might’ve otherwise been overwhelming without an area like this, and which I’m not sure’s been matched before or since. The likes of The Wonderful 101, God of War 3 and DMC5 might let me switch from one weapon to any other in any order, but not even they let me build a moveset out of pimp slaps if I feel like it, purely because I can.
The draw of experimentation that comes with this is hampered a bit by certain rough patches – for example, multi-hit attacks occasionally feel disincentivised in a way that doesn’t seem intentional because of how frequently enemies block and counterattack as the difficulty level increases (especially on Hard where you’re permanently at the highest), while low profile moves which dodge enemies’ high attacks for some reason don’t avoid jumping grabs – but what helps keep the combat malleable despite these is the counterhit system. Interrupt an enemy or boss’ attack with one of your own and they’ll varyingly flinch, be stunned, get juggled or launched, even if none of those properties work on them normally. It creates an engaging sense of back-and-forth and ensures you’re never completely strapped for options no matter how suffocating the situation you find yourself in or which moves you've equipped, especially when taken in tandem with being able to cancel any of Gene’s attacks at any point with one of three different dodges (which, provided your thumbs can remain intact, is also particularly helpful for circumventing the aforementioned issues with multihit attacks).
On that point, God Hand’s handling of defence is something more games could probably stand to learn from. The Great Sensei is a sink or swim moment in this respect and, in my view, the embodiment of what makes it shine, stringing together high attacks, vertical attacks and crowd control in blistering succession that demands you have an iron grip on each of Gene’s dodges and what they’re for like no boss before or after him. He would still be infamously difficult because of all this in a vacuum, but I think part of why he’s such a challenge also stems from how many other games with real-time combat systems treat their (often singular) dodge as a one-size-fits-all invincibility bubble and how tough it can be to break the conditioning that that sort of standardisation instils. Lost Judgment is another 3D beat-‘em-up which plays excellently, but despite being 15 years God Hand’s junior on platforms multitudes more powerful, it can’t help but feel comparatively primitive whenever Yagami “evades” a sweep kick by ducking his head. In contrast, God Hand’s more nuanced combination of side/backward dodges and bobbing & weaving reminded me loosely of Soulcalibur, which on top of its counterhit system makes one wonder how much other action games might benefit from leaning into their common ground with fighting games.
Not all of God Hand’s boss fights or enemies utilise its mechanics equally well, the final boss in particular running the risk of jettisoning the player’s goodwill into the bin, but some scattershot ups and downs are to be expected when your game is so bonkers at every turn. It speaks to how entertaining its stages manage to be, both conceptually and in design, that you end the game with no further mechanics than what you start with and it never once feels stale. There’s an inherent excitement that comes with cramming so many clowns, demons, cowboys, Venetian canals, floating pyramids and other seemingly disparate ideas that you don’t know what to expect next; while some might be surprised at the fact that he considers Resident Evil 4 to be the opposite, it’ll likely shock nobody that Shinji Mikami feels that God Hand is the game with the most amount of himself in it. What results is no doubt chaotic, but more than worth looking past the imperfections of for experiencing what’s essentially his and a bunch of other loveable goofballs’ collective personality transcribed onto a disc, which also happens to be perhaps the only game that feels like an interactive version of an action film’s fight choreography.
If you happen to still have a PS2 lying around, I can attest that the ~80 gamerbux that used copies of this bad boy go for are worth it. You may not be you know who, but you’ll feel like it by the end.
On a random day in 2005, after binging a few Quentin Tarantino flicks and a couple of Fist of the North Star chapters, Shinji Mikami looked at his masterpiece that was Resident Evil 4 and said "What if RE4 but Kenshiro and Tarrantino fr" and God Hand was born (This is my headcannon).
God Hand was a game I was ready to drop in the first 2 - 3 hours of playing as I was struggling with some of the earlier bosses and didn't wanna give myself an aneurysm while barely making it out of every fight that I've died to multiple times. But then I looked at the huge following this game had and saw all the singing praises, and I wanted to be a part of that camp too. So I decided I wasn't gonna be a little bitch boy and try to properly figure out how this game works.
When the game clicks, it finally CLICKS and you feel like a boxing god (intentional with the title?), but at the same time no matter how good you get the game will just get harder thanks to it's dyanamic difficulty system, just one of the mechanics borrowed from RE4. Unless you spend a good chunk of your life playing this game, it will remain challening no matter what. This is honestly, quite one of the hardest games I have ever played. Keep in mind though the game is also one of the fairest games I have ever played. I don't think I've ever died once thinking it was the games fault. Everything done by the enemy is clearly telegraphed and you are given a window to deal with it in multiple ways. And when you die, the checkpoints are mostly frequent bar a few exceptions, and it's generous enough to give you all of your health back when you die.
In regards to fairness and difficulty, the way it's hanlded here makes you not wanna put the controller down because as opposed to other what is considered to be "hard" games like Souls games, while challenging, are pretty punishing usually sending you back a bit if you die at a bossfight, and at the risk of losing some of the experience you gained. God Hand is hard hard in the sense where you need good reflexes and awareness for every single fight, but also very fair because of it's generous checkpoints. In a souls game, there are plenty of ways to cheese things if you're at a wall, but here you cannot cheese at all. It's just you and your skill, and you aren't getting past a point until you get better. Best way to put it, this is a discipline simulator.
When this game was initially released, the game was mostly overlooked by critics due to the criticism of the combat not being robust. This is far from the truth about the combat and to put it, God Hand's combat was way ahead of this time. What we have now as modern God Of War over the shoulder combat, which has endless praise from critics, was clearly inspired by God Hand. Similar to Resident Evil 4, God Hand employs the same control scheme where it is an over the shoulder tank controlling game, with not much control over the camera. This was highly ambitious for an action game back in the day, where action games were mostly 3rd camera-pulled-away types of games. It works really well in God Hand as the right stick is now used as it's dodging system, which is implemented insanley well.
God Hand is not an offensive based game where it's about pulling the best combos you can. In fact, there really aren't much button combos here.. 90% of the time you will be just mashing the square button to the tune of your preset combo. God Hand's gameplay is mainly defense and crowd control focused. 1 on 1 fights are pretty straight forward and purley defense focused. In these fights you are dodging attacks and retaliating when there is a window of opportunity, wheras if you put more than one enemy in a fight, the strategy has suddenly changed and it's about positioning yourself in a way where you don't get blindsided or stockpiled. Crowd fights are more about putting yourself in a position where you can get into a 1 on 1 with a enemy for a moment, before going back to controlliing the crowd again. Once the game systems click, you will be dodging and taking out baddies one by one like a champ.
The game isn't perfect, there were moments that kinda sucked for me, like that one section with the big claw machine. Moments like these are few and far between, but when they come it kills the momentum you have.
Apart from the gameplay, the setting and style reminds you of a Quentin Tarantino movie which brings immesne charm to the whole package. There are so many goofy cheeky moments that bring a laugh out of you in between all the chaos, it makes getting through the hard moments so much more worth it just to see these goofy scenes.
By the end of the game I felt like I had just conquered a mountain. Despite at the beggining feeling like this is game I probably couldn't finish, I made it to the end and had so much fun while doing it. I am now apart of the God Hand cult and "I love it".
God Hand was a game I was ready to drop in the first 2 - 3 hours of playing as I was struggling with some of the earlier bosses and didn't wanna give myself an aneurysm while barely making it out of every fight that I've died to multiple times. But then I looked at the huge following this game had and saw all the singing praises, and I wanted to be a part of that camp too. So I decided I wasn't gonna be a little bitch boy and try to properly figure out how this game works.
When the game clicks, it finally CLICKS and you feel like a boxing god (intentional with the title?), but at the same time no matter how good you get the game will just get harder thanks to it's dyanamic difficulty system, just one of the mechanics borrowed from RE4. Unless you spend a good chunk of your life playing this game, it will remain challening no matter what. This is honestly, quite one of the hardest games I have ever played. Keep in mind though the game is also one of the fairest games I have ever played. I don't think I've ever died once thinking it was the games fault. Everything done by the enemy is clearly telegraphed and you are given a window to deal with it in multiple ways. And when you die, the checkpoints are mostly frequent bar a few exceptions, and it's generous enough to give you all of your health back when you die.
In regards to fairness and difficulty, the way it's hanlded here makes you not wanna put the controller down because as opposed to other what is considered to be "hard" games like Souls games, while challenging, are pretty punishing usually sending you back a bit if you die at a bossfight, and at the risk of losing some of the experience you gained. God Hand is hard hard in the sense where you need good reflexes and awareness for every single fight, but also very fair because of it's generous checkpoints. In a souls game, there are plenty of ways to cheese things if you're at a wall, but here you cannot cheese at all. It's just you and your skill, and you aren't getting past a point until you get better. Best way to put it, this is a discipline simulator.
When this game was initially released, the game was mostly overlooked by critics due to the criticism of the combat not being robust. This is far from the truth about the combat and to put it, God Hand's combat was way ahead of this time. What we have now as modern God Of War over the shoulder combat, which has endless praise from critics, was clearly inspired by God Hand. Similar to Resident Evil 4, God Hand employs the same control scheme where it is an over the shoulder tank controlling game, with not much control over the camera. This was highly ambitious for an action game back in the day, where action games were mostly 3rd camera-pulled-away types of games. It works really well in God Hand as the right stick is now used as it's dodging system, which is implemented insanley well.
God Hand is not an offensive based game where it's about pulling the best combos you can. In fact, there really aren't much button combos here.. 90% of the time you will be just mashing the square button to the tune of your preset combo. God Hand's gameplay is mainly defense and crowd control focused. 1 on 1 fights are pretty straight forward and purley defense focused. In these fights you are dodging attacks and retaliating when there is a window of opportunity, wheras if you put more than one enemy in a fight, the strategy has suddenly changed and it's about positioning yourself in a way where you don't get blindsided or stockpiled. Crowd fights are more about putting yourself in a position where you can get into a 1 on 1 with a enemy for a moment, before going back to controlliing the crowd again. Once the game systems click, you will be dodging and taking out baddies one by one like a champ.
The game isn't perfect, there were moments that kinda sucked for me, like that one section with the big claw machine. Moments like these are few and far between, but when they come it kills the momentum you have.
Apart from the gameplay, the setting and style reminds you of a Quentin Tarantino movie which brings immesne charm to the whole package. There are so many goofy cheeky moments that bring a laugh out of you in between all the chaos, it makes getting through the hard moments so much more worth it just to see these goofy scenes.
By the end of the game I felt like I had just conquered a mountain. Despite at the beggining feeling like this is game I probably couldn't finish, I made it to the end and had so much fun while doing it. I am now apart of the God Hand cult and "I love it".
i've been thinking about my relationship with art, and my thoughts at the moment are that what i want in a piece is to feel something. it's not only about being entertaining, it's about catharsis. it's about feeling extremely happy or deeply miserable. it's about having the teeth grinding, the foot tapping, the head scratched. it's about going insane over the details. i want to feel alive. maybe it's a sick thought. maybe i should just live my own life, but i can guarantee, i've been living my own life a lot! much more than i would like to, sometimes.
all the games i've finished this year so far (very few) were a good time, some of them were amazing, really thought-provoking like anodyne 2, but none of them hit me like a truck. until GOD HAND.
GOD HAND makes you feel extremely happy, deeply miserable, with your teeth grinding, your foot tapping, your head scratching... pretty much at the same time! it's commonly known as a very difficult game and it's not an impossible one, but it does require you full commitment. starting with learning the controls: when action games were about swords and guns, with fast-paced movement, GOD HAND was about throwing punches while moving in tank controls. it's all about positioning, a 1v1 it's already a difficult task, but a 2v1? a 4v1? does not help when your crowd control movements are slow as hell! but don't be confused: GOD HAND is not a slow game! actually, if you can't keep up, you will pretty much ended up cooked lol, you have to adapt to the rhythm of the fight. it's all about learning and once you learn, it's about going wild.
and it's not a flashy game. you throw punches. real punches. punches that hit, than you can feel when it hits. GOD HAND it's a dudes rock game but every single dude is rocking on you (in a not-homosexual-way (unfortunately)), and you got rock on them instead. GOD HAND it's a videogame that loves action games. it's a videogame that recognizes the masculine archetypes about the action genre in overall media and at the same time it honors it and it also makes fun of it. GOD HAND is very "manly"! i mean, having blackjack and poker and dogs races as a way to make money makes me think that shinji mikami and the team are either the funniest guys ever or the most heteronormative of all time! and it's very funny either way.
what really matters is that GOD HAND is a videogame that made me feel everything, and in a year that is definitely NOT being my year, with a lot of work and study and personal problems as well, making me sometimes lost my interest in my favorite hobby, it reminds me how great videogames can be and how i can always just punch a son of a bitch when it needs to. you better watch out mf!!!
all the games i've finished this year so far (very few) were a good time, some of them were amazing, really thought-provoking like anodyne 2, but none of them hit me like a truck. until GOD HAND.
GOD HAND makes you feel extremely happy, deeply miserable, with your teeth grinding, your foot tapping, your head scratching... pretty much at the same time! it's commonly known as a very difficult game and it's not an impossible one, but it does require you full commitment. starting with learning the controls: when action games were about swords and guns, with fast-paced movement, GOD HAND was about throwing punches while moving in tank controls. it's all about positioning, a 1v1 it's already a difficult task, but a 2v1? a 4v1? does not help when your crowd control movements are slow as hell! but don't be confused: GOD HAND is not a slow game! actually, if you can't keep up, you will pretty much ended up cooked lol, you have to adapt to the rhythm of the fight. it's all about learning and once you learn, it's about going wild.
and it's not a flashy game. you throw punches. real punches. punches that hit, than you can feel when it hits. GOD HAND it's a dudes rock game but every single dude is rocking on you (in a not-homosexual-way (unfortunately)), and you got rock on them instead. GOD HAND it's a videogame that loves action games. it's a videogame that recognizes the masculine archetypes about the action genre in overall media and at the same time it honors it and it also makes fun of it. GOD HAND is very "manly"! i mean, having blackjack and poker and dogs races as a way to make money makes me think that shinji mikami and the team are either the funniest guys ever or the most heteronormative of all time! and it's very funny either way.
what really matters is that GOD HAND is a videogame that made me feel everything, and in a year that is definitely NOT being my year, with a lot of work and study and personal problems as well, making me sometimes lost my interest in my favorite hobby, it reminds me how great videogames can be and how i can always just punch a son of a bitch when it needs to. you better watch out mf!!!
Aside from seeing its cover pop up in a few of Dunkey's videos, I knew next to nothing about God Hand going into it, but seeing its immensely high average rating on Backloggd and the reviews that were exclusively just quotes from the game kept me curious about what the game was actually like. Although I have played through a few of Shinji Mikami's games in the past (with the original Resident Evil 4 being one of my favorite games), there was so much about God Hand that made his other games feel tame and restrained in comparison, so when I found out that this was essentially his passion project, it totally made sense to me. Although it took me a bit to fully grasp everything about the game and its mechanics, I immediately fell in love with God Hand once everything clicked, and it was one of those games where I spent practically every waking moment thinking about how amazing it was.
God Hand is going to be celebrating its 17th anniversary later this year, and I don't think that a single game has come out in all that time with a combat system that even comes close to the one that is present here. This game's in-depth and hectic combat system is one that blends seamlessly with its high difficulty curve, as customizing your combos with new moves from several different martial arts means that you're constantly trying to find ways to take enemies down effectively while also trying to dodge as many attacks as possible. When you kill an enemy in God Hand, you practically send them into another plane of existence, as all of the moves both look and feel satisfying to execute thanks to their pure, raw aggression, with the pummels, stomps, suplexes, and spankings being especially fun to pull off with their flashy animations and use of button mashing. Despite how tough it can be at times, God Hand never felt outright unfair to me, as the lack of any real secret to being good at the game other than just knowing its ins and outs meant that every victory, no matter how small, felt immensely rewarding. This especially applies to the boss fights in God Hand, as the cranking up of the game's fast pace and focus on reaction time and positioning leads to some of the hardest, most pulse-pounding, and exciting boss fights I've ever seen in a video game.
In my eyes, the gameplay alone was enough to make God Hand an all-timer for me, but it also managed to stick the landing in so many other ways that I ended up loving the game even more than I could've imagined. Even with its challenging combat, God Hand practically never takes itself seriously, as its quirky brand of absurdist comedy made it so that my encounters with poisonous chihuahuas, punk rockers, and boss fights against lucha libre gorillas never felt out of place alongside the slapstick-heavy action, over-the-top storytelling and lovably campy voice acting. The game's stylish art direction made all of the environments and enemy types feel very memorable, with the major boss fights looking especially striking in their scaly, hellish designs. The music for each of the game's stages are all immensely catchy, and they also fit the tone and atmosphere of each stage really well. God Hand also allows you to gamble in between stages in order to potentially get closer to getting that next upgrade, and not only are the more conventional card games like blackjack and video poker already fun and laid-back to play, but you also get the opportunity to bet on chihuahua races, and while I lost money every single time I played that minigame, I still found it quite fun. There's no doubt in my mind that God Hand is one of the very best games I've ever played, and while there are still a ton of character action games that I still want to play, I don't think that any of them will be able to get any better than this.
God Hand is going to be celebrating its 17th anniversary later this year, and I don't think that a single game has come out in all that time with a combat system that even comes close to the one that is present here. This game's in-depth and hectic combat system is one that blends seamlessly with its high difficulty curve, as customizing your combos with new moves from several different martial arts means that you're constantly trying to find ways to take enemies down effectively while also trying to dodge as many attacks as possible. When you kill an enemy in God Hand, you practically send them into another plane of existence, as all of the moves both look and feel satisfying to execute thanks to their pure, raw aggression, with the pummels, stomps, suplexes, and spankings being especially fun to pull off with their flashy animations and use of button mashing. Despite how tough it can be at times, God Hand never felt outright unfair to me, as the lack of any real secret to being good at the game other than just knowing its ins and outs meant that every victory, no matter how small, felt immensely rewarding. This especially applies to the boss fights in God Hand, as the cranking up of the game's fast pace and focus on reaction time and positioning leads to some of the hardest, most pulse-pounding, and exciting boss fights I've ever seen in a video game.
In my eyes, the gameplay alone was enough to make God Hand an all-timer for me, but it also managed to stick the landing in so many other ways that I ended up loving the game even more than I could've imagined. Even with its challenging combat, God Hand practically never takes itself seriously, as its quirky brand of absurdist comedy made it so that my encounters with poisonous chihuahuas, punk rockers, and boss fights against lucha libre gorillas never felt out of place alongside the slapstick-heavy action, over-the-top storytelling and lovably campy voice acting. The game's stylish art direction made all of the environments and enemy types feel very memorable, with the major boss fights looking especially striking in their scaly, hellish designs. The music for each of the game's stages are all immensely catchy, and they also fit the tone and atmosphere of each stage really well. God Hand also allows you to gamble in between stages in order to potentially get closer to getting that next upgrade, and not only are the more conventional card games like blackjack and video poker already fun and laid-back to play, but you also get the opportunity to bet on chihuahua races, and while I lost money every single time I played that minigame, I still found it quite fun. There's no doubt in my mind that God Hand is one of the very best games I've ever played, and while there are still a ton of character action games that I still want to play, I don't think that any of them will be able to get any better than this.
Resident Evil 4 is one of the most important games of all time, everyone knows this and why that is; it is essentially, the first "modern" game as we think of them. And a brutally difficult question you will inevitably have to ask after experiencing a landmark title like that is of course, well, how do you follow that up? If you want a simple answer, Resident Evil 5 is probably your best bet. If you want the real answer, its God Hand.
If Resident Evil 4 is ushering in the modern age of games, then God Hand feels like a celebratory send off to a now bygone era. I doubt anyone would've known that at the time making it, but considering we're only just now returning to this style of game over fifteen years after the fact it harkens completely true. God Hand was made in a relatively short development period, very obviously using design elements and ideas directly from Mikami's now magnum opus and creating something so completely different out of it. It reminds me a lot of Majora's Mask funnily enough more than anything in that regard; taking one of the most influential games of all time and using that framework to tell something completely new and fresh. All of that is to make God Hand sound very legitimate and classy, and in some regards, yes; it absolutely is. But its also fucking God Hand; maybe one of the most batshit, off the wall experiences that we got of the sixth generation.
This is the kitchen sink of action video games. Absolute ridiculous nonsense, and absolutely revels in it. Capcom during this era were pumping some of the best action games ever made during this time, and God Hand truly does feel like a grand last minute after-party. It controls oddly, but when it clicks (and it takes like five minutes for it to) your life is never the same again. Everything is snappy and responsive, stylish and cool, and so intensely customizable and yet; simple, its stupidly impressive. This game is hardcore as hell, and while "this project couldn't be made today" usually makes my eyes roll, I'll say it for this. Playing this game geniunely makes my hands sore, and I don't care for even a second. It is absurdly addicting, every punch and kick has that over the top weight that makes you feel like a God among men. The game is hard, stupidly so, and why wouldn't it be after Devil May Cry 3 was such a landmark title for Capcom; but when you play well, you feel like you're on top of the world.
The absurdity of this game also seeps well into the games concepts too. What it lacks in environments, it makes up for by doing every gaudy over-the-top decision Capcom made and then some in this game. The first thing that happens in this game is Gene complaining to his partner that a bunch of mooks he is about to beat up are sexier than her; and then youre literally kicking them across the entire map not even a minute later. Trying to explain what happens in this game wouldn't do it justice; it knows what it is and it probably knows you love every second of it, and yeah, I do, and clearly everyone else does too.
This is one of those pieces of art that in the moment, it feels like the greatest thing to ever exist. And obviously, God Hand is not the greatest game of all time; but fuck it, maybe it should be. My hands hurt while writing this after beating the final boss of the game and I couldn't be happier.
If Resident Evil 4 is ushering in the modern age of games, then God Hand feels like a celebratory send off to a now bygone era. I doubt anyone would've known that at the time making it, but considering we're only just now returning to this style of game over fifteen years after the fact it harkens completely true. God Hand was made in a relatively short development period, very obviously using design elements and ideas directly from Mikami's now magnum opus and creating something so completely different out of it. It reminds me a lot of Majora's Mask funnily enough more than anything in that regard; taking one of the most influential games of all time and using that framework to tell something completely new and fresh. All of that is to make God Hand sound very legitimate and classy, and in some regards, yes; it absolutely is. But its also fucking God Hand; maybe one of the most batshit, off the wall experiences that we got of the sixth generation.
This is the kitchen sink of action video games. Absolute ridiculous nonsense, and absolutely revels in it. Capcom during this era were pumping some of the best action games ever made during this time, and God Hand truly does feel like a grand last minute after-party. It controls oddly, but when it clicks (and it takes like five minutes for it to) your life is never the same again. Everything is snappy and responsive, stylish and cool, and so intensely customizable and yet; simple, its stupidly impressive. This game is hardcore as hell, and while "this project couldn't be made today" usually makes my eyes roll, I'll say it for this. Playing this game geniunely makes my hands sore, and I don't care for even a second. It is absurdly addicting, every punch and kick has that over the top weight that makes you feel like a God among men. The game is hard, stupidly so, and why wouldn't it be after Devil May Cry 3 was such a landmark title for Capcom; but when you play well, you feel like you're on top of the world.
The absurdity of this game also seeps well into the games concepts too. What it lacks in environments, it makes up for by doing every gaudy over-the-top decision Capcom made and then some in this game. The first thing that happens in this game is Gene complaining to his partner that a bunch of mooks he is about to beat up are sexier than her; and then youre literally kicking them across the entire map not even a minute later. Trying to explain what happens in this game wouldn't do it justice; it knows what it is and it probably knows you love every second of it, and yeah, I do, and clearly everyone else does too.
This is one of those pieces of art that in the moment, it feels like the greatest thing to ever exist. And obviously, God Hand is not the greatest game of all time; but fuck it, maybe it should be. My hands hurt while writing this after beating the final boss of the game and I couldn't be happier.
This is a video game.
This, is a video game.
This shouldn't have to be said. But ever greater grow the perverse incentives which have led astray this nubile young artistic medium, trying desperately to please the tastes and desires of a growing audience who want video games to be something else. To enjoy God Hand, you have to be a fan of VIDEO GAMES. If this experience turns you away, perhaps you've been lying to yourself that you actually like video games in the first place. Maybe you're the problem.
God Hand doesn't give a shit. God Hand is a game. God Hand will make no attempts to reward or please you through any way other than the satisfaction of play. Mastering a system, making it your own, and overcoming hardships through pure intrinsic reward and intuition. When you play God Hand right, it's like a symphony in your hands.
From a gamefeel standpoint, the words that come to mind are raw, snappy, crunchy. This game is proof that simple is better. Write a system, and trust the player to deal with it. ( And throw in some incredible audio design feedback to top things off )
More games used to be this way. Perhaps it was merely a consequence of an era where developers simply didn't know better, Pandora's box hadn't been opened, they were blissfully ignorant of the power in their hands. But modern devs understand now how to fine tune and cheat gamefeel to be friendlier to the player, ease them into success, give them an edge. What they fail to recognize however is that sometimes that power is best left unused, a temptation of sin that's so hard to ignore when you're overly concerned with playtesting, metrics, and broadening your audience.
When you're so eager to over-engineer your gamefeel, it eventually leaves your game evoking words more akin to gummy, sticky, or prescriptive. Particularly now in taking a step into the past, God Hand is just so refreshing. Animations play, hitboxes clash, and you deal with the consequences.
I had a far better time with it then I expected to have. The game's sense of humor, fantastic cast, and novel surprises were just icing on the cake which kept any part of this game from feeling stale or dull. Even the sometimes excessive repeated content didn't detract to much for me, as it often served to give me an opportunity to display how much I'd grown at playing the game by dominating a once imposing threat in seconds flat.
This game never stops expecting MORE from you. The scenarios are built at your expense, and almost any moment of quiet or reprieve where most games would seemingly step off the gas, God Hand takes the opportunity to sucker punch you, up the ante, lay on the pressure, and let you know that you need to stay on your toes.
This is how you demand mastery. Take the rough stone that is the player, apply enough pressure, and a diamond will come shining out the other end. A game SHOULD expect you to actually be good at it in order to succeed, shouldn't it? If your goal isn't to be good at something, why are you even playing? God Hand understands this implicitly. Having one of the best mirror matches in any game makes it clear what they valued, here.
The only things I could really find to complain about playing God Hand was that the auto-lock-on was occasionally a bit disagreeable, the camera could have benefitted from backing out in a few fights, and that the game ends a bit abruptly. I would have killed for a more bombastic "mine is the drill that will pierce the heavens!" style ending that turned things up to 11, but what is there is serviceable enough.
I laughed, I cried, my wrist hurts. Sounds like any good session of chain yanking to me. What more is there to say?
This, is a video game.
This shouldn't have to be said. But ever greater grow the perverse incentives which have led astray this nubile young artistic medium, trying desperately to please the tastes and desires of a growing audience who want video games to be something else. To enjoy God Hand, you have to be a fan of VIDEO GAMES. If this experience turns you away, perhaps you've been lying to yourself that you actually like video games in the first place. Maybe you're the problem.
God Hand doesn't give a shit. God Hand is a game. God Hand will make no attempts to reward or please you through any way other than the satisfaction of play. Mastering a system, making it your own, and overcoming hardships through pure intrinsic reward and intuition. When you play God Hand right, it's like a symphony in your hands.
From a gamefeel standpoint, the words that come to mind are raw, snappy, crunchy. This game is proof that simple is better. Write a system, and trust the player to deal with it. ( And throw in some incredible audio design feedback to top things off )
More games used to be this way. Perhaps it was merely a consequence of an era where developers simply didn't know better, Pandora's box hadn't been opened, they were blissfully ignorant of the power in their hands. But modern devs understand now how to fine tune and cheat gamefeel to be friendlier to the player, ease them into success, give them an edge. What they fail to recognize however is that sometimes that power is best left unused, a temptation of sin that's so hard to ignore when you're overly concerned with playtesting, metrics, and broadening your audience.
When you're so eager to over-engineer your gamefeel, it eventually leaves your game evoking words more akin to gummy, sticky, or prescriptive. Particularly now in taking a step into the past, God Hand is just so refreshing. Animations play, hitboxes clash, and you deal with the consequences.
I had a far better time with it then I expected to have. The game's sense of humor, fantastic cast, and novel surprises were just icing on the cake which kept any part of this game from feeling stale or dull. Even the sometimes excessive repeated content didn't detract to much for me, as it often served to give me an opportunity to display how much I'd grown at playing the game by dominating a once imposing threat in seconds flat.
This game never stops expecting MORE from you. The scenarios are built at your expense, and almost any moment of quiet or reprieve where most games would seemingly step off the gas, God Hand takes the opportunity to sucker punch you, up the ante, lay on the pressure, and let you know that you need to stay on your toes.
This is how you demand mastery. Take the rough stone that is the player, apply enough pressure, and a diamond will come shining out the other end. A game SHOULD expect you to actually be good at it in order to succeed, shouldn't it? If your goal isn't to be good at something, why are you even playing? God Hand understands this implicitly. Having one of the best mirror matches in any game makes it clear what they valued, here.
The only things I could really find to complain about playing God Hand was that the auto-lock-on was occasionally a bit disagreeable, the camera could have benefitted from backing out in a few fights, and that the game ends a bit abruptly. I would have killed for a more bombastic "mine is the drill that will pierce the heavens!" style ending that turned things up to 11, but what is there is serviceable enough.
I laughed, I cried, my wrist hurts. Sounds like any good session of chain yanking to me. What more is there to say?
God Hand is a defensive beat-'em-up. That's not to say you can't run up and attack enemies whenever you want (you can try), but the game's bread-and-butter is juggling and launching enemies into other enemies and you need counter-hits and whiff-punishes to do this. An enemy that's just whiffed an attack can't dodge/block anything you do during the cool-down, so that's a good time to get in a juggle-move. Anything landed as a counter-hit (when you land an attack during an enemy's attack during gaps in their combos or before the hits land) will carry its full launch-properties and max juggle-height over. You'll want to launch enemies too because you're not surviving crowd-fights otherwise. Your last option is guard-breaks, which are unreactable at the peak of the game's dynamic-difficulty. You'll have to fish for them instead, which is completely unviable outside of 1 on 1 fights. It's a game that rewards patience and understanding, and it asks you to pay close attention to learn its systems on your own and expects you to go to the lab with the training-dummy. In a word, the game is 'inaccessible'.
The game is also by no means perfect. It's plagued by myriad cheesy-strategies. There's nothing stopping you from cancelling High Side Kicks as you lure enemies over 1 by 1, nothing stopping you from using Roulette moves to skip entire encounters, nothing stopping you from abusing Chain Yanker and Yes Man Kablaam to be fully stocked on tension to be invincible as often as possible, but you'll only be souring the experience by doing so.
I'm giving it a 5/5 because I am absolutely the target-audience, but also because I feel like even with its resurgence in popularity among a small niche from recent exposure it is still not appreciated in full for what it is. It will not cater to those who like the freedom of expression of Devil May Cry and the scattered sub-genres spawned from that release, but it is one of the premiere action titles ever made.
The game is also by no means perfect. It's plagued by myriad cheesy-strategies. There's nothing stopping you from cancelling High Side Kicks as you lure enemies over 1 by 1, nothing stopping you from using Roulette moves to skip entire encounters, nothing stopping you from abusing Chain Yanker and Yes Man Kablaam to be fully stocked on tension to be invincible as often as possible, but you'll only be souring the experience by doing so.
I'm giving it a 5/5 because I am absolutely the target-audience, but also because I feel like even with its resurgence in popularity among a small niche from recent exposure it is still not appreciated in full for what it is. It will not cater to those who like the freedom of expression of Devil May Cry and the scattered sub-genres spawned from that release, but it is one of the premiere action titles ever made.
"Dragon Kick your ass into the Milky Way!"
Pure action, physicality, and hand-to-hand obliteration. The feeling you get when you perfectly line up your tailor-made combo, juggling an enemy into the air only to hit them with a high kick and send them flying is pure elation. By the end of the game on my 10th attempt at the final boss I was expertly avoiding moves and getting jabs in to perfectly execute Double Shaolin, moving into God Hand mode right into pummel. It's honestly everything you could ask from a game and more. Absolutely brilliant.
Pure action, physicality, and hand-to-hand obliteration. The feeling you get when you perfectly line up your tailor-made combo, juggling an enemy into the air only to hit them with a high kick and send them flying is pure elation. By the end of the game on my 10th attempt at the final boss I was expertly avoiding moves and getting jabs in to perfectly execute Double Shaolin, moving into God Hand mode right into pummel. It's honestly everything you could ask from a game and more. Absolutely brilliant.
claramente feito pra mim esse jogo, bom demais tá maluco, únicos pontos negativos são a câmera que se tivesse lock-on seria bem melhor e o pico de dificuldade extremo no final do jogo, no geral é divertido e engraçado pra caramba
imagine working at clover studio in 2005, you lean over your co-workers shoulder to see one of the most beautiful cel shaded open worlds ever, flowers everywhere, a luscious white wolf running in the wind.
then you check out what someone else is working on and they're programing a spanking qte...
then you check out what someone else is working on and they're programing a spanking qte...
The best and most unique action game that I've ever played. It's like playing a cartoon for adults.
THIS GAME IS FUCKING KINO! KICK ASS, BUILD YOUR MOVES, GET REMINDED OF FOTN, LOOK AT CUTE RENDERS OF OLIVIA, IT'S FUCKING GOD HAND, IT'S INSPIRED BY RE4 AND IT DESERVES A PROPER REMASTERED PORT, NOT REMAKE, REMASTERED PORT, MAKE IT HAPPEN CAPCOM
That above was the review I put in 2023, by that point I had gotten all the way to final boss back in 2019-2020 but couldn't beat him no matter how many tries and decided to give up on the game temporarily...hence the shelved status.
Now, as for February 16, 2024. I BEAT GOD HAND WOOHOO! And everything I previously said still applies and only so much fucking more! I love this game to bits goddd what a good piece of kino this is. Mmm-mm. I decided to start over from scratch...I had attempted this before and gotten up to Elvis 1 but not only PCSX2 had it's issues on my previous laptop but I wasn't feeling it.
This time I went back and decided what the hell, let's explore EVERYTHING besides the super optional stuff in the casino area. Afterall, I'll need all the strength I can get to beat up the final boss this time. I played much better this time and game felt easier (also helped that I played on Easy this time unlike Normal back then...or was that also on Easy?).
I arranged a better moveset, especially rapid hitting short animation stuff. Played just much more conciously with all that. Made better use of God Hand and the roulette moves. Paid attention to how hard they hit. And would you believe my previous playthough didn't have a single guard break? I had no idea those were a thing I think, I might've done 'em on occassion but I never though to simply move it to triangle instead of make it a button combo till now (especially helps that I'm playing on a Keyboard and Mouse)
Moving from controller to KBM also helped. Cuz I started this game as a PSN title on PS3, then continue with PCSX2 back then with controller....and now with a KBM as it's much more comfortable for me.
I also made sure every villager was saved and did all the fairy challenges too since I had a better idea on what to do...that familiarty of the game before and my love for it also helped.
I love those Olivia renders, who bathes with an axe? Crazy bitch!
Posion Chihuahuas are pretty cool. They're sorta like this game's Chao...though much like Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, I didn't really care for the racing stuff much. But I atleast checked it once in my 2020 playthrough.
Also can you believe Gene missed out of MVC3 cuz of Amaterasu? What kind of a god screws over another?! Damn you dog, bring him back!
Also if you want something equally as insane, awesome and in the digestable pack of just one game, I also highly recommend Asura's Wrath. Tho that one is more of an interactive anime mostly, it's still fucking awesome. That one I found uncomfortable to play without a controller though. It runs excellent on RPCS3, just make sure you get the Chapter IV DLC for the story to actually have an ending :/
Also the Widescreen and No Blur Patch for God Hand on PCSX2 is beautiful.
So once again, I'd love a Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD Edition Quality Remaster for this...please Capcom? Without Denuvo or Enigma DRM would really be appreciated
That above was the review I put in 2023, by that point I had gotten all the way to final boss back in 2019-2020 but couldn't beat him no matter how many tries and decided to give up on the game temporarily...hence the shelved status.
Now, as for February 16, 2024. I BEAT GOD HAND WOOHOO! And everything I previously said still applies and only so much fucking more! I love this game to bits goddd what a good piece of kino this is. Mmm-mm. I decided to start over from scratch...I had attempted this before and gotten up to Elvis 1 but not only PCSX2 had it's issues on my previous laptop but I wasn't feeling it.
This time I went back and decided what the hell, let's explore EVERYTHING besides the super optional stuff in the casino area. Afterall, I'll need all the strength I can get to beat up the final boss this time. I played much better this time and game felt easier (also helped that I played on Easy this time unlike Normal back then...or was that also on Easy?).
I arranged a better moveset, especially rapid hitting short animation stuff. Played just much more conciously with all that. Made better use of God Hand and the roulette moves. Paid attention to how hard they hit. And would you believe my previous playthough didn't have a single guard break? I had no idea those were a thing I think, I might've done 'em on occassion but I never though to simply move it to triangle instead of make it a button combo till now (especially helps that I'm playing on a Keyboard and Mouse)
Moving from controller to KBM also helped. Cuz I started this game as a PSN title on PS3, then continue with PCSX2 back then with controller....and now with a KBM as it's much more comfortable for me.
I also made sure every villager was saved and did all the fairy challenges too since I had a better idea on what to do...that familiarty of the game before and my love for it also helped.
I love those Olivia renders, who bathes with an axe? Crazy bitch!
Posion Chihuahuas are pretty cool. They're sorta like this game's Chao...though much like Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, I didn't really care for the racing stuff much. But I atleast checked it once in my 2020 playthrough.
Also can you believe Gene missed out of MVC3 cuz of Amaterasu? What kind of a god screws over another?! Damn you dog, bring him back!
Also if you want something equally as insane, awesome and in the digestable pack of just one game, I also highly recommend Asura's Wrath. Tho that one is more of an interactive anime mostly, it's still fucking awesome. That one I found uncomfortable to play without a controller though. It runs excellent on RPCS3, just make sure you get the Chapter IV DLC for the story to actually have an ending :/
Also the Widescreen and No Blur Patch for God Hand on PCSX2 is beautiful.
So once again, I'd love a Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD Edition Quality Remaster for this...please Capcom? Without Denuvo or Enigma DRM would really be appreciated
I haven't seen many games with as much depth as this. Peak gameplay
Cuando le digo a mi padre que no quedan cervezas
This game is fantastic. While the tank controls can take a little getting used to, once you get the hang of it the gameplay is the most fun and ridiculously fun combat in pretty much any videogame. The combat is tactile but also packs a punch. The ability to customize your moves allows for even more depth, with you being able to change out pretty much any move for another. The story, characters, and bosses are cool. I find myself coming back to this games just to experience the combat.
dog i hate it here so much. i'm minding my own business, poisoning random passerbys with my Pimpy Son Opp, when this guy with a fuck-off arm walks up and starts doing Rising Tackles on my boys. He kicked one of them in the nuts and a crowd cheered. we're in the middle of the desert. I hit him with a club and then he started crying and we all felt really bad. Where's Jagi man. this shit blows, I want to go home.
"Character action" has never done it for me. I feel the floaty combos and distant cameras really dampen the impact of combat. I'm so glad that we live in the timeline where instead of representing the future of the Resident Evil series, Devil May Cry became its own franchise. Resident Evil 4 was a game that Capcom attempted to make several times, before begging Mikami to come back to the director's seat, and even he scrapped a couple of false starts before he settled on the game he ought to be making. The change in camera was the big thing that players talked about, but it was the shift in focus and tone that really made Resi 4 so beloved by its biggest fans. Mikami had gained skill, establishing multiple complementary mechanics and tying that to a campaign, but he was also more confident in his own sense of humour and whimsy. Resi 4 was a game with a real sense of personality, but it was compromised by the pressures of the surrounding franchise, the publisher and the fanbase. For his next game, he'd disregard all these aspects and make it entirely for himself.
When I first played God Hand, it took about five seconds before I knew I loved it. It's very much built on the back of Resi 4, but makes no apologies for its eccentricities. It takes the weight and impact of Resident Evil 4's shotgun and puts that behind each punch. Resi 4 utilised the sensibilities of modern games just enough to adopt a mostly useless camera manipulation system to the right analogue stick, but God Hand foregoes those conventions entirely, tethering it to your critical dodge system. God Hand doesn't care about any other game. It's fully confident in what it's doing.
God Hand's vibe is a very divisive thing, and not something you can choose to opt out of, but a truly cultured mind will undoubtedly side with it. Its sense of humour comes from a very specific place. It's a deep affection for Fist of the North Star and low-budget 70s kung fu films, but there's so much fondness for late-80s and early-90s action games, too. It loves the ridiculous, digitised voice clips from Altered Beast and Final Fight. The greatest joy is when you encounter an absurd, one-off, late-game disco miniboss, and he hits you with the same audio clips as the standard grunts from Level 1. This is a game full of explosive barrels and giant fruit. Shinji Mikami started production on Resident Evil 4 trying to fulfil the obligation to make his scariest game ever, and by the end, he got so bored with that direction that he created a giant stone robot Salazar that chased you through brick walls. God Hand was the logical next step for him.
There's a focus to God Hand's ambitions that implies Clover really knew what they had with it. A few ridiculous bosses and minigames notwithstanding, the levels are typically fairly boxy and nondescript. All the attention is on the distribution of enemies and items. It's spectacularly un-fancy. Flat ground and big brick walls that disappear when the camera gets too close to them. It doesn't care. The fighting feels great, and we're having a great time with all these stupid baddies. Fuck everything else.
Your moveset is fully customisable. Between levels, you're given the opportunity to buy new moves, and apply them to your controls, either as specials tethered to a specific button combination, or even as part of the standard combo you get while mashing the square button. It offers players real versatility as they figure out their preferred playstyles, and what works for them, while trying something less intuitive can open you up to new approaches. There are quick kicks and punches that overwhelm opponents, heavy-damage moves that take longer to pull off, guard breaks, and long-range attacks that can help with crowd control. There are certain moves and dodges that are highly exploitable, and risk breaking the game's balance. Clover are aware of this though, and whenever they found a strategy that made the game boring, they made sure to penalise you for using it by boosting the difficulty massively whenever you try it.
That's the big feature. The difficulty. God Hand starts out really hard, and when the game registers that you've dodged too many attacks or landed too many successive hits, it gets harder. This was a secret system in Resi 4, but in God Hand, it's part of your on-screen HUD, always letting you know when you've raised or lowered a difficulty level. Enemies hit harder, health pick-ups drop less frequently, and attacks become harder to land. The game's constantly drawing you to the edge of your abilities, and if you die, you have to try the entire section again from the start. It never feels too dispiriting, though. You retain all cash you've picked up after you died, and you feel encouraged by a drop in difficulty. If you do well enough on your next attempt, it won't take long before the difficulty gets back to where it was. There's also some fun surprises for those who get good enough to maintain a Level 3 or Level Die streak for long enough, with some special enemy spawns and stuff. You feel rewarded for getting good, but never patronised or pandered to. Your reward is a game that felt as thrilling as it did when you first tried it.
It's the little eccentricities in God Hand's design that I really admire. Pick up a barrel and Gene will instantly shift his direction to the nearest enemy, eliminating any extraneous aiming bullshit, and pushing your attention towards the opportunity for some cheap long-distance damage. If an item spawns, it remains there until you pick it up, giving you the opportunity to save it for when you really need it, even if the backtracking route becomes a little ridiculous. Since the camera is so stubbornly committed to viewing Gene's back, they've implemented a radar system to keep track of surrounding enemies, and it makes little sense in the context of the scenario, but the game doesn't care about that stuff. It's another thing that makes the fights against gorillas and rock stars more fun, so run with it. Between each section of the game, you're given the opportunity to save, or warp to a kind of mid-game hub world, with a shop, training area and casino, which you can use to unlock better moves and upgrades when you need them most. You can gain money by taking the honest route and chipping away at its toughest challenges, or take the less honourable route with slot machines and gambling on poison chihuahua races. It's blunt, utilitarian, and it's entirely complementary to the way God Hand feels to play.
It's the consistency in tone and intention that completes the package. God Hand knows what it is, and how it feels, and it never betrays that. It doesn't obsess over lore or characters, but it really has fun in introducing new baddies and scenarios to put you in. And I really like its taste. I like that all the big bosses meet up at a secret hell table to exchange barbs between levels. I like the fight on an enormous Venetian gondola. I like the dumb, weird, repetitive soundtrack. The developers are world-class talents, and they just wanted to make a dumb, stupid, fun game.
I probably ought to give the soundtrack a little more credit. This is from Masafumi Takada, out on loan from Grasshopper Manufacture before he became a real gun for hire, working on Vanquish, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Danganronpa and Smash Bros Ultimate. He's great at elaborate, high-energy compositions, but his work on God Hand is some of his dumbest stuff. It's great. The constant Miami 5-0 surf rock, the warbling Elvis boss fight music, and the Flight of the Bumblebee guitar for the fight against a giant fly. He's having the time of his life on this one, fully liberated from the pressures to convey a consistent tone or atmosphere. It's stunning work, and he makes the correct call every time he has to write a new piece of BGM for God Hand.
Shinij Mikami is a bit of an enigma, and his work on Resident Evil has unfortunately typecast him as a horror director, but he's never expressed a real affinity for the genre. He was put into that position under an obligation to Ghouls 'n Ghosts' Tokuro Fujiwara, and the game he ended up making was full of corny heroes and giant snakes. The subject matter was a shock to audiences in the mid-nineties, but in reality, it wasn't that far removed from his work on SNES Aladdin. By my estimation, God Hand's the closest we've come to seeing the real Mikami through his work. He's made Resident Evil 4, and he wants to leave that behind him, but EA and ZeniMax kept dragging him back to his biggest hit.
God Hand feels like the only point in history God Hand could have happened, and it's pretty wild that it did in the first place. I mean, it makes sense that once you hand Capcom the Resi 4 Gold Master disc, they'll let you do whatever you want, but they were so rattled by the result that they fired all of their key talent and started making calls to Canada to produce Dead Rising 2. Confidence in Japanese development was at an all-time low after 2006, and the PS3 and Xbox 360 resulted in some of the most embarrassing entries in many legacy franchises. The PlayStation was born out of a SNES project, and that ethos was what drove the first decade of Sony Computer Entertainment. Afterwards, a new game proposal would not be greenlit without referencing the design of the latest Grand Theft Auto. The Konami, Namco, Square and Capcom that we have today don't reflect who they were in the nineties and early 2000s. To me, God Hand feels like the final page of that chapter. But, man, what a fucking statement to close out on.
When I first played God Hand, it took about five seconds before I knew I loved it. It's very much built on the back of Resi 4, but makes no apologies for its eccentricities. It takes the weight and impact of Resident Evil 4's shotgun and puts that behind each punch. Resi 4 utilised the sensibilities of modern games just enough to adopt a mostly useless camera manipulation system to the right analogue stick, but God Hand foregoes those conventions entirely, tethering it to your critical dodge system. God Hand doesn't care about any other game. It's fully confident in what it's doing.
God Hand's vibe is a very divisive thing, and not something you can choose to opt out of, but a truly cultured mind will undoubtedly side with it. Its sense of humour comes from a very specific place. It's a deep affection for Fist of the North Star and low-budget 70s kung fu films, but there's so much fondness for late-80s and early-90s action games, too. It loves the ridiculous, digitised voice clips from Altered Beast and Final Fight. The greatest joy is when you encounter an absurd, one-off, late-game disco miniboss, and he hits you with the same audio clips as the standard grunts from Level 1. This is a game full of explosive barrels and giant fruit. Shinji Mikami started production on Resident Evil 4 trying to fulfil the obligation to make his scariest game ever, and by the end, he got so bored with that direction that he created a giant stone robot Salazar that chased you through brick walls. God Hand was the logical next step for him.
There's a focus to God Hand's ambitions that implies Clover really knew what they had with it. A few ridiculous bosses and minigames notwithstanding, the levels are typically fairly boxy and nondescript. All the attention is on the distribution of enemies and items. It's spectacularly un-fancy. Flat ground and big brick walls that disappear when the camera gets too close to them. It doesn't care. The fighting feels great, and we're having a great time with all these stupid baddies. Fuck everything else.
Your moveset is fully customisable. Between levels, you're given the opportunity to buy new moves, and apply them to your controls, either as specials tethered to a specific button combination, or even as part of the standard combo you get while mashing the square button. It offers players real versatility as they figure out their preferred playstyles, and what works for them, while trying something less intuitive can open you up to new approaches. There are quick kicks and punches that overwhelm opponents, heavy-damage moves that take longer to pull off, guard breaks, and long-range attacks that can help with crowd control. There are certain moves and dodges that are highly exploitable, and risk breaking the game's balance. Clover are aware of this though, and whenever they found a strategy that made the game boring, they made sure to penalise you for using it by boosting the difficulty massively whenever you try it.
That's the big feature. The difficulty. God Hand starts out really hard, and when the game registers that you've dodged too many attacks or landed too many successive hits, it gets harder. This was a secret system in Resi 4, but in God Hand, it's part of your on-screen HUD, always letting you know when you've raised or lowered a difficulty level. Enemies hit harder, health pick-ups drop less frequently, and attacks become harder to land. The game's constantly drawing you to the edge of your abilities, and if you die, you have to try the entire section again from the start. It never feels too dispiriting, though. You retain all cash you've picked up after you died, and you feel encouraged by a drop in difficulty. If you do well enough on your next attempt, it won't take long before the difficulty gets back to where it was. There's also some fun surprises for those who get good enough to maintain a Level 3 or Level Die streak for long enough, with some special enemy spawns and stuff. You feel rewarded for getting good, but never patronised or pandered to. Your reward is a game that felt as thrilling as it did when you first tried it.
It's the little eccentricities in God Hand's design that I really admire. Pick up a barrel and Gene will instantly shift his direction to the nearest enemy, eliminating any extraneous aiming bullshit, and pushing your attention towards the opportunity for some cheap long-distance damage. If an item spawns, it remains there until you pick it up, giving you the opportunity to save it for when you really need it, even if the backtracking route becomes a little ridiculous. Since the camera is so stubbornly committed to viewing Gene's back, they've implemented a radar system to keep track of surrounding enemies, and it makes little sense in the context of the scenario, but the game doesn't care about that stuff. It's another thing that makes the fights against gorillas and rock stars more fun, so run with it. Between each section of the game, you're given the opportunity to save, or warp to a kind of mid-game hub world, with a shop, training area and casino, which you can use to unlock better moves and upgrades when you need them most. You can gain money by taking the honest route and chipping away at its toughest challenges, or take the less honourable route with slot machines and gambling on poison chihuahua races. It's blunt, utilitarian, and it's entirely complementary to the way God Hand feels to play.
It's the consistency in tone and intention that completes the package. God Hand knows what it is, and how it feels, and it never betrays that. It doesn't obsess over lore or characters, but it really has fun in introducing new baddies and scenarios to put you in. And I really like its taste. I like that all the big bosses meet up at a secret hell table to exchange barbs between levels. I like the fight on an enormous Venetian gondola. I like the dumb, weird, repetitive soundtrack. The developers are world-class talents, and they just wanted to make a dumb, stupid, fun game.
I probably ought to give the soundtrack a little more credit. This is from Masafumi Takada, out on loan from Grasshopper Manufacture before he became a real gun for hire, working on Vanquish, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Danganronpa and Smash Bros Ultimate. He's great at elaborate, high-energy compositions, but his work on God Hand is some of his dumbest stuff. It's great. The constant Miami 5-0 surf rock, the warbling Elvis boss fight music, and the Flight of the Bumblebee guitar for the fight against a giant fly. He's having the time of his life on this one, fully liberated from the pressures to convey a consistent tone or atmosphere. It's stunning work, and he makes the correct call every time he has to write a new piece of BGM for God Hand.
Shinij Mikami is a bit of an enigma, and his work on Resident Evil has unfortunately typecast him as a horror director, but he's never expressed a real affinity for the genre. He was put into that position under an obligation to Ghouls 'n Ghosts' Tokuro Fujiwara, and the game he ended up making was full of corny heroes and giant snakes. The subject matter was a shock to audiences in the mid-nineties, but in reality, it wasn't that far removed from his work on SNES Aladdin. By my estimation, God Hand's the closest we've come to seeing the real Mikami through his work. He's made Resident Evil 4, and he wants to leave that behind him, but EA and ZeniMax kept dragging him back to his biggest hit.
God Hand feels like the only point in history God Hand could have happened, and it's pretty wild that it did in the first place. I mean, it makes sense that once you hand Capcom the Resi 4 Gold Master disc, they'll let you do whatever you want, but they were so rattled by the result that they fired all of their key talent and started making calls to Canada to produce Dead Rising 2. Confidence in Japanese development was at an all-time low after 2006, and the PS3 and Xbox 360 resulted in some of the most embarrassing entries in many legacy franchises. The PlayStation was born out of a SNES project, and that ethos was what drove the first decade of Sony Computer Entertainment. Afterwards, a new game proposal would not be greenlit without referencing the design of the latest Grand Theft Auto. The Konami, Namco, Square and Capcom that we have today don't reflect who they were in the nineties and early 2000s. To me, God Hand feels like the final page of that chapter. But, man, what a fucking statement to close out on.
This game made me Alexander the great, cus this is like the best action game I've played since dmc3. It has so much depth, the amount of customization you can put into your move set is so impressive and sick. The bosses are well designed and the enemies are all fun to fight. It's always fresh, new shit happening in every level with quaint gimmicks. The difficulty keeps ramping up and u know. Its awesome. It's kind of hard to review games you like. When it's a game i have problems with it's like whackamole, i hit the problem with a classic elkmane joke and make fun of it, and then i finish the review and rake in the backloggd likes. Alright alright ill keep this one short. This is also the funniest game ive played, ever. Cus like you can bet on chihuahua races and fill ur moveset with different pimp slaps, the credits have a poorly translated rock song with lyrics talking about the moves in the game and all the characters doing stock animated dances. It has personality and soul, but more importantly its fun and funny and good and awesome and shannon calls you puppy and like im not into that or anything but like yknow lets just say i save stated and kept losing to her on purpose for a few hours yknow what im sayin haha im just playing lol im just playing lol
Yes, I lied in my last review. I played God Hand before The Wonderful 101.
Actually, I played halfway through nine months ago and I stopped because reasons. It was one of the top-tier games on my shame list and now it's one of my favorites.
I did a lot of mental notes while I was playing then I came to the obvious conclusion that I don't need to review every game in my backloggd but this one was becoming so special to me that I can't help but comment (a little) about it. Surely one day I'll come back with a RE4R-ass-long review but for now, my two cents:
1. The last fight against Azel is the best in the genre
2. Counter hits fucking rules
That said, the male fantasy surrounding it, the discriminatory jokes, the fucking spanking prompt and overall characterization make me sure that God Hand could be defined with this meme. And I don't know how to feel about it.
(i'm not dissing mikami y'all, the person would be the game itself lmao)
Actually, I played halfway through nine months ago and I stopped because reasons. It was one of the top-tier games on my shame list and now it's one of my favorites.
I did a lot of mental notes while I was playing then I came to the obvious conclusion that I don't need to review every game in my backloggd but this one was becoming so special to me that I can't help but comment (a little) about it. Surely one day I'll come back with a RE4R-ass-long review but for now, my two cents:
1. The last fight against Azel is the best in the genre
2. Counter hits fucking rules
That said, the male fantasy surrounding it, the discriminatory jokes, the fucking spanking prompt and overall characterization make me sure that God Hand could be defined with this meme. And I don't know how to feel about it.
(i'm not dissing mikami y'all, the person would be the game itself lmao)
By the way, IGN itself debunked the infamous review. Let that sink in.
It's insane how they made literally the best videogame combat ever in 2006 with God Hand and literally nobody, not even the people who made it or own it, has ever made anything even resembling it ever since.
I played it again oops
everyone knows this game is great. I'm here to tell you WHY. the REASON, it came out great, not what makes it great.
Shinji Mikami is a game designer first, director second. RE1, REmake1, RE4, Vanquish and God Hand were conceived as things he'd seen or played that he HATED so much of how bad they were, he wanted to solve their issues with his own version of them in game form. He UNDERSTANDS games, he knows what makes games good and what makes them bad, and he is the KING of innovations because he has this eye for it.
the thing is, God Hand was one of the smallest, and more importantly, shortest, project he had done so far (with experience as a designer and director). It allowed him to not worry about expectations and just be creative and have fun. THIS is him being a director first and a game designer second.
and what's sad, is that he never got the chance to have that admosphere of development, that small scale project again, and fuck, HE WANTED to, he was PISSED how all his other pitches to smaller and simpler projects were rejected because people just wanted more RE1 and RE4 from him. a lot of his future and the things he did were because of his experience that he had in God Hand
the reason God Hand came out as a great game, is because mikami gave his all just once to want a chance to fully express himself.
but there is a good part of this story, and it is YOU can find more games like this RIGHT NOW!
THIS game is in the dictionary as THE synonym for weird, awkward and obtrusive. so take in Mikami's desire and EXPLORE WEIRD OBSCURE GAMES that you would never in A MILLION years expect to like, and don't just try them for an hour, give it them a real chance, because Mikami WANTED you to give him that chance before but unfortunately his art was too advanced for our time, but for other creators... the time is NOW!!!
Shinji Mikami is a game designer first, director second. RE1, REmake1, RE4, Vanquish and God Hand were conceived as things he'd seen or played that he HATED so much of how bad they were, he wanted to solve their issues with his own version of them in game form. He UNDERSTANDS games, he knows what makes games good and what makes them bad, and he is the KING of innovations because he has this eye for it.
the thing is, God Hand was one of the smallest, and more importantly, shortest, project he had done so far (with experience as a designer and director). It allowed him to not worry about expectations and just be creative and have fun. THIS is him being a director first and a game designer second.
and what's sad, is that he never got the chance to have that admosphere of development, that small scale project again, and fuck, HE WANTED to, he was PISSED how all his other pitches to smaller and simpler projects were rejected because people just wanted more RE1 and RE4 from him. a lot of his future and the things he did were because of his experience that he had in God Hand
the reason God Hand came out as a great game, is because mikami gave his all just once to want a chance to fully express himself.
but there is a good part of this story, and it is YOU can find more games like this RIGHT NOW!
THIS game is in the dictionary as THE synonym for weird, awkward and obtrusive. so take in Mikami's desire and EXPLORE WEIRD OBSCURE GAMES that you would never in A MILLION years expect to like, and don't just try them for an hour, give it them a real chance, because Mikami WANTED you to give him that chance before but unfortunately his art was too advanced for our time, but for other creators... the time is NOW!!!
So fun you almost forget that every other cutscene has something wildly offensive in it
I LIKE PUNCHING PEOPLE IN THE DICK
It cannot be denied that this game is GOAT'd in the hearts of many. This game fucking went for some crazy ass shit and succeeded. It may have flopped sales wise, and then there's that famous IGN review, but do not get it twisted; God Hand is a God Game.
This game was made by actual crackheads under the studio name of Clover. God Hand is a highly customizable beat 'em up that features Japanese absurdist humor mixed with over the top American media tropes AND gambling on poison chihuahua races. You THINK you don't care about poison chihuahua racing, but you will.
This game was made by actual crackheads under the studio name of Clover. God Hand is a highly customizable beat 'em up that features Japanese absurdist humor mixed with over the top American media tropes AND gambling on poison chihuahua races. You THINK you don't care about poison chihuahua racing, but you will.
voce sabe que o mundo é um lugar injusto quando esse jogo nunca recebeu uma continuaçao
que obra prima pqp esse jogo é incrivel e eu recomendo a todo mundo que tenha a oportunidade de jogar, uma reliquia de sua epoca e um dos melhores jogos de açao de todos os tempos
que obra prima pqp esse jogo é incrivel e eu recomendo a todo mundo que tenha a oportunidade de jogar, uma reliquia de sua epoca e um dos melhores jogos de açao de todos os tempos
IGN Pigs didn't see the vision
When you finish a game in a single sitting, you know it's good.
holy shit