| Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 08:30 am So here's on nobody cares about. |
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One thing I miss about playing so many videogames is it gave me tons to write about. Not that I often would, but I have a jonesin' for writin' tonight and not much to elaborate on beyond my own introverted confusion. Or has this note already reached that point?
Let's talk about God Hand. It's extremely goofy and Japanese without any of the slickness seen in Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, so that turns off the vast majority of people. It's a brutally difficult action game, which turns off the level-grinding Japanophile crowd. And it's a game that makes fun of itself without explicitly stating as much, which throws off reviewers who are used to receiving pamphlets explaining to them how a game should be played and approached (*cough*IGN). Only a select few action fans gave the game a chance and fell in love, but even that works to the game's disadvantage; from an outsider's perspective, I'm sure we all look like we've jumped onto the underdog bandwagon, acting more impassioned than we should about a game simply because no one else loves it. I promise you, that's not the case for me.
First, let's talk about exactly what makes this game so funny, and so confusing. A big part of the self-referential humor lies in the graphics. The polygon models themselves are rather good, but animation is sometimes stiff, sometimes exaggerated. Buildings fade into nothingness after getting plowed down, showing no debris. Most of the backgrounds are entirely static. Colorful powerups like oranges glow from the corpses of your fallen enemies. Anyone who's spent time with action games in Ye Olde Arcades should be familiar with this sort of thing -- that strange, yet endearing mix of high-and-low production values (Gauntlet 64 is an immediate example). God Hand does it's best to emulate the arcade experience visually.
At least, that's my interpretation. Is it possible that all of this was simply the result of lazy programming? Well, I guess it's possible...but these are the guys who made Okami and Viewtiful Joe. They don't slouch on the visuals. It's my belief that God Hand is essentially an intentional "B-game", made to seem low-budget and amateur in particularly ironic ways. I suppose Clover Studios hoped everyone would get the joke without being told, or perhaps Capcom's US branch failed to communicate the humor. At any rate, most reviewers did not get it, did not laugh, and ultimately subtracted points for unprofessional graphic design. Because, hey, that's what you do when something doesn't look like it was made in Hollywood, right?
As for the more obvious funny-funnies, your mileage may vary. You'll battle midget Power Rangers, a succubus who can transform you into a chihuahua, an obese, gaudy demon named Elvis, and a man wearing an orange tiger-striped vest who learned to kick people to death by watching lots and lots of Kung Fu movies. I thought it was pretty goddamned hilarious, in part because it fully embraces the more groan-inducing moments. The story's style of humor is consistent, so there's plenty of reasons to crack a smile if you can cope with the game's flair.
Now, let's get on to the game itself. Did I mention it's super difficult? Here is a game that has no problem whatsoever raping you. In a merciful way, I suppose. God Hand constantly measures your play ability with a visible "Level" shown at the bottom left hand of the screen. The better you play, breaking enemy blocks and dodging attacks, the higher the Level. As the Level raises so does enemy skill and power, and so do your rewards (powerups, money, etc). Let me say it again -- the game scales its difficulty up or down on-the-fly based on your own abilities. You start kicking the game's ass, it's gonna start kicking your ass. It's rough, but it's a great, new, and as-yet un-imitated method of encouraging player improvement. Think of playing "Hard Mode" in Ninja Gaiden where you can use all of your previously-earned upgrades and abilities. This is the antithesis of that.
Even bosses are affected by the game's active Level. And there are alot of them. The most common bosses technically aren't bosses at all, but they can really fuck you up. Seemingly randomly, horrible demons will raise from the corpse of an enemy. When this happens, it's definitely an event -- the screen darkens, distorted music plays, and the effects remain until you trounce the demon. I believe there is a method to whatever causes this, but it's been too long since I played God Hand to recall. Anyhow, these guys can very quickly clear any distance between you and them, have long-range attacks, and hit harder than most normal enemies. You get a great bonus when you kill them, but if you're particularly unlucky they'll show up before you've finished off the rest of a group of enemies. Or, worse yet, multiple enemies in a single group could become demons. One scripted area of the game has these demons appearing from every single enemy you kill. I made a mad dash for the exit, and have no shame for it.
True boss encounters are much tougher. Without going into the specifics of individual encounters, the most notable thing would be that you do fight multiple bosses at once. In fact, the first boss encounter in the game is actually two bosses, plus a bunch of croneys taking up space. Shortly thereafter, I believe Stage 3, you have an encounter where you take on three different boss characters one after the other. They each have unique, particularly tricky fighting styles. The next time you encounter this trio, you fight all three at the same time. That's fucking hardcore right there. No punches are pulled, and there's a fantastic sense of satisfaction as a result -- God Hand does all the things other actions games wish they were brave enough to emulate.
This wouldn't mean a thang without a solid gameplay system intact, yeah? God Hand is pretty unique there, too. The camera is RE4 style, behind-the-back. The blind spot behind you back is alleviated by a quick-turn and a radar that shows who/what is surrounding you at any given time. It's a strange choice at a glance, but mandatory for the more intense enemies -- a camera facing forward allows you to see every twitch and twist your enemy makes so you know what type of attack to expect. See, unlike Devil May Cry, you don't dodge most attacks my simply jumping out of the way, nor is it similar to God of Wars that have you leaping ten feet in a direction to avoid danger. You can't jump. The right analog stick controls your dodges, which have you shifting left, right, back, or ducking to narrowly avoid strikes. This keeps you in the enemy's face at all times, and ensures the game follows a reflex-based play style rather than pattern memorization. Like I've been saying, it's intense.
Your own attack are important, too. There are well over 100 different attacks you can purchase, and each one is mapped to one of the four face buttons. Seems like a small number for immediate use, but they all have different power ratings and effects; some attacks stun enemies, others can cancel out a foe's blocking stance. They can all be comboed together with varying degress of effectiveness. Indeed, you can break the game if you so choose, creating a select few infinite combos that most enemies cannot escape. I've only seen these combos performed on youtube, and chose not to play that way myself. It's all about the challenge.
Then you have the God Attacks, which can be performed after playing well enough to charge up your, uh, God Meter. You can guess what these are -- particularly flashy attacks that do more damage than usual, and may have additional effects on enemies. Ultimately, this combat system is closer in depth to a one-on-one fighting game than most brawlers. Gotta be careful what you choose, though -- one God Attack is simply a kick straight to the crotch, but if you try it on a female enemy they'll only laugh and get a free hit in on you. If you don't think that's funny, I imagine you're going to be a depressingly humorless individual come age 40.
So that's about all of the important stuff. I could cover the story/cutscenes which are entertaining if not particulary substantial. I could talk about the soundtrack, which has a couple of playful gems mixed in. Maybe I could say some more bad things about the dreadful IGN review, which called the game a simple button-masher and suggests they didn't play past the first two levels (practically guaranteeing it was only attempted on Easy Mode). But, nah, you get the idea. I really love the game, it's unique and was definitely one of the better games I played in 2006. I'll wrap it up with a youtubes video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyfbtSyX3mc
The guy playing is pretty good. Pay attention as he raises the game's level all the way up to "Die" mode, the maximum. Also be aware that what's shown is the very first Stage of the game. |
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