God Hand

God Hand
European box art
Developer(s)	Clover Studio
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Designer(s)	Shinji Mikami (director) Atsushi Inaba (producer)
Composer(s)	Masafumi Takada
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	JP September 14, 2006[1] NA October 10, 2006[2] PAL February 16, 2007
Genre(s)	Beat 'em up
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	CERO: B[1] ESRB: M (Mature 17+) OFLC: M PEGI: 16+
Media	1 DVD

God Hand (ゴッドハンド, Goddohando^?) is a video game developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was released in 2006 in Japan and North America and in 2007 in PAL territories. Capcom announced just days after the game's North American ship date that it would dissolve Clover Studio, making God Hand the developer's final game released.^[3]

The game is a fantasy/sci-fi-themed comedy beat 'em up that combines traditional gameplay elements of the genre with new features such as knocking enemies into the sky and a new counter system.

Gameplay

God Hand is a 3D action game in which the player moves in all directions, attacking with the face buttons and using special moves. The player must manually turn around using a button, and all actions outside of basic attacks are performed via a context sensitive button.^[4] Using this button allows the player to jump up ladders, pick up items, and use special attacks that can only be used when the enemy is in a dazed or tired state. Four dodge moves are mapped to the directions on the right analog stick. The player can map any attack (punch, kick, etc.) they wish to Triangle, Square, and X. Square allows the player to chain multiple attacks at once.^[4] There are over 100 moves in the game for the player to choose from including basic jabs and punches to drunken-style and capoeira martial arts.

More powerful abilities in God Hand can be utilized in the player's God Reel (or God Roulette), a roulette wheel that contains moves that the player chooses.^[5] These moves are limited to a number of Roulette Orbs that the protagonist Gene has collected throughout the level in the form of Skull Cards.^[6][7] Some moves require Gene to have two or three orbs, while a good deal of them only require one. Some moves send Gene's opponents flying into the stratosphere while others are simple punches or kicks to specific bodyparts. Another move in Gene's arsenal is the Godhand itself. As Gene strikes and defeats enemies, his Tension Gauge goes up. Gene can also evade attacks, taunt, use tension boosting attacks, or find cards within a stage to increase this bar.^[6][8] When it reaches a set amount, Gene can remove the bracelet from his arm to unleash the Godhand. In this state he is completely invincible and all of his attacks increase in both power and speed.^[5] By using various stat boosting items, Gene can increase the size of his Tension Gauge to hold more power.

While in combat, the player can monitor a Difficulty Level bar that goes up and down depending on how much damage the player is dealing or receiving.^[5] If the player gets caught up in a flurry of punches and combos, the level will drop. If the player deals a large number of attacks to their enemies, then the level will increase. The lowest level is Level 1 with the highest numerical level being 3, and the highest overall being Level DIE.^[7] During Level 2 and below, the enemies will not attack Gene unless they are in his line of sight or he is attacking them. On level 3 and above, the enemies will attack regardless of the camera position. Also, enemy attack strength increases as the levels increase; at Level DIE a fully maxed out Gene can be killed in about 6 hits. Defeating enemies at higher Difficulty Levels earns the player more bonus points at the end of a stage.^[5]

Additional techniques can be found in stages in the form of technique scrolls. Techniques and roulette moves also can be purchased or sold at the game's shop, Barely Regal, which is found on the map screen.^[4][9] Also accessible from the map is a casino, which contains a number of minigames including slots, blackjack, poker, chihuahua racing, and a fighting arena.^[9]

Plot

Setting

The backstory of God Hand reveals that long ago, a fallen angel became the Demon King Angra and attempted to destroy the world of humans using an army of demons and spectres. A man holding the power of God within his arms defeated Angra, sending him into exile once again.^[10] The man was then given the title of "Godhand" by the people he saved. A clan of humans was established to protect the Godhands. It is said that anyone who possesses them will be "capable of becoming either god or demon."^[10]

Characters

Within the game, the player takes on the role of Gene, a 23-year old fighter who has one of the Godhands, which is sought after by a group of demons. Although he often appears outspoken and macho, he has a keen sense of justice.^[11] Gene is accompanied by nineteen-year old Olivia, a descendant of a clan that once protected the God Hands. With most of her family killed by the demons, she fled with one of the Godhands, entrusting it to Gene upon meeting him.^[11]

The game's primary antagonists are the Four Devas, a society attempting to resurrect the demon Angra. The group consists of Belze, the leader, who is very loyal to both Angra and his own demon heritage^[11]; Elvis, a very large demon that has adopted many "nasty human habits" and appears as an overweight yet heavily muscled Mexican man in a poor fitting white vest and pants, with a giant set of purple Buddhist prayer beads around his neck; Shannon, an extroverted and hedonistic demon who seeks human pleasures, and appears as a coquettish, lithe female in a maroon and yellow outfit, with candystriped horns and green tattoos; and Azel, also called the "Devilhand", a human that also possesses one of the Godhands and earlier joined the Devas to achieve his own goals.^[11]

God Hand also features a number of recurring minor enemies that Gene encounters on his journey. Mr. Gold and Mr. Silver are a pair of twin, extremely flamboyant homosexuals that work for Elvis. The Three Evil Stooges (Bruce, Conchita, and Felix) is the group responsible for cutting off Gene's original arm, and hound Gene throughout the course of the story seeking to retake the God Hand. Gorilla Mask appears as gorilla wearing a lucha libre wrestling mask and outfit, who is actually just a man in a gorilla suit. Dr. Ion is an android warrior sent by Belze twice to stop Gene. Ravel and Debussy are a rock duo who were originally aspiring musicians, they sold their souls to the demons in exchange for musical powers. The Mad Midget Five are a group of five midgets dressed in Super Sentai style clothing with playing card emblems on their costumes.

Development

God Hand was developed by the team responsible for Resident Evil 4.^[12] Development was supervised by Shinji Mikami, best known for the Resident Evil series of games, and was produced by Atsushi Inaba. The original idea for God Hand came about during a conversation between the two about the current state of action games; they found that many games in the genre at the time focused on the use of weapons and had gotten away from hand to hand combat.^[12][13] Originally, the game was to focus solely on "hardcore action" without much humor. However, after showing a trailer for the game at E3 which contained some comic relief, the team decided to integrate a large amount of comedy into the game based on the viewers' reactions.^[13] Inaba stated that God Hand is "aimed at hardcore gamers," which is shown in its hard difficulty.^[7] Unlike with their previous games Viewtiful Joe and Ōkami, the design team had no particular goal when designing the graphical style of God Hand other than that they wanted it to look more realistic.^[14] Although God Hand appears to share many elements with manga and anime such as Fist of the North Star and MD Geist, none were actually used as inspiration for the game.^[12]

There are a few differences between the North American and Japanese versions of the game. The Chihuahua Curry power-up was changed to Puppy Pizza. A free Roulette called "Pan Drop", which gives the user short-lived invincibility in return for taking some damage, was removed.^[4] Another technique called "Head Slicer," which allows the player to bloodlessly decapitate an enemy, was featured in the North American localization but not the Japanese version, most likely due to CERO censorship policies in Japan.^[4] A few signs were also changed.

Music

Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda from Grasshopper Manufacture composed the game's soundtrack. The score contains many throwbacks to older video game music, and is heavily influenced by 60's and 70's theme songs and other genres, including techno, rave, rock and funk. Takada was told by Mikami that due to the game's hardcore nature, the soundtrack should be composed to "relax things a little bit."^[15] Takada's score utilizes motifs in the game's boss battle songs because many of the them are fought more than once; Takada hoped that using different arrangements and orchestrations would remind players of older encounters with each boss.^[15] The soundtrack itself, God Tracks, is composed of 23 tracks and was packaged with the Japanese version of the game.^[16]

Reception

God Hand received mixed reviews from many magazines and websites. It currently has a 73 out of 100 on Metacritic and a 75% on Game Rankings.^[18][17]

Scottish television series VideoGaiden claimed the game to be one of the "best ever made". Independent PlayStation Magazine listed God Hand among the "11 PS2 Games You Need to Play (But Haven't)."^[28]

Video game writer Erik Wolpaw remarked in an interview, in regards to the rock song that plays over the end credit sequence: "...[the song is] one of the many reasons [God Hand is] so great."^[29]

In Japan, God Hand was listed as on Famitsu's Top 10 Reader's Most Wanted for a few weeks, although ultimately the magazine scored the game 26 out of 40.^[4][22] The game was the 5th best-selling game during the week of its release in Japan, selling about 60,000 copies.^[7][30] It was later re-released under the CapKore line of budget titles and the PlayStation the Best range.^[4][31]

References

External links

• God Hand at Capcom.com (English)
• God Hand at PlayStation.com (Japanese)