*INTRODUCTION*
God Hand is a 3D beat-em-up saga from Clover Studios via Capcom. It is
unique in its quirky humor, precise gameplay and self-adjusting difficulty.
I managed to put about 40 hours into this game. I plan on beating it on hard
mode one of these days. It's worth picking up. The goal of this FAQ is to
answer questions that troubled me during my first trip through the game. It
will break down individual moves in terms of power, speed and cost.
*LEGAL*
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for
personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise
distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on
any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited,
and a violation of copyright.
*CREDITS*
Thanks to Clover for creating this engrossing teeth-gnashing experience. I
shouted and squeezed my controller in frustration, but I never felt like
giving up. I'm glad there are still developers who know how to make a game
difficult without letting it get too frustrating.
Thanks to gamefaqs.com posters sephirosuy, Animerox and mikeburnfire for
taking the initiative and filling the vacuum with useful FAQs for this
game.
Thanks to Rikiya, my Japanese friend hailing from Tianjin, China, for
introducing me to this game. Rikiya crashed on my couch in Guangzhou
for three weeks and alternated with me on our trip through the English
version. I promise I'll get around to explaining the silly-ass story
line to you later on, Rikiya!
*METHODOLOGY*
I gathered information from this guide by beating the game, going to
practice mode and timing all the different moves available. I timed
ten iterations of each move, then divided the final time by 10 to
limit the impact of my very human reaction time. I rounded to the
tenths-of-seconds. To calculate the damage-to-time ratio, I divided
the damage of each move by its duration. The dividend is the theoretical
amount of damage the move deals per second. Since special attributes
of moves are unquantifiable, I've left those as side notes.
*LEGEND*
GB - Guard Break (stuns enemy long enough to land a free hit)
LNCH - Launch (sends enemy flying backward, taking with him others in his path)
CHRG - Charge (holding down the button increases the length and strength of
this attack, possibly rendering it unblockable)
JUG - Juggle (sends enemy into the air, where you can air combo him)
UNBLK - Unblockable
EH - Evades High Attacks (this attack ducks under high attacks, thus is safer)
STUN - Stuns enemy (provides a longer interval during which you can land free
hits)
HEAT UP - Boosts your God Hand bar, allowing you to go into God Hand Mode
sooner
RANGE - Longer range attack
() - Values in parenthesis indicate the attributes of a move that is cancelled
after it connects but before it finishes. This is accomplished by
flicking the right analog stick to the left or right after impact.
*ANALYSIS*
For building an optimal chain combo, it's best to look at the D/S column. The
best moves in the game in this respect are God Straight and God Upper, with
God Hook and God Jab taking 3rd and 4th place. This means, assuming you've
beaten the game and unlocked the Godly Moves, and have the money available,
the optimal 4-string combo is:
God Straight -> God Upper -> God Hook -> God Jab
This combo will deal 50+50+38+33 = 171 damage in 0.5+0.7+0.8+0.6 = 2.6 seconds
It's important to note that when not in God Hand mode, a lag of roughly one
second exists between combos. So really it's more like 3.6 seconds.
As I said before, the special properties of moves and the general quirks
surrounding enemy blocking behavior should weigh in on your ultimate decision.
In some of the videos I've seen on line of people playing Hard mode (the Kick
Me Challenge videos are amazing) they use moves which according to the chart
above should be pretty mediocre. Who's to argue with success? It all comes down
to finding combo strings and individual moves that work for you. Hopefully this
data can help toward that end.
*INTERESTING FINDINGS*
- Although jabs seem like they should be faster, straights are actually faster.
They deal more damage, too.
- Right Roundhouse 3, if cancelled with a side dash, is the most powerful
move in the game. If not cancelled, the move is rather mediocre. Thus, it
probably wouldn't make for a good inclusion in your combo. I always assign
this as a stand-alone command in case I'm really in a tough spot. It hits
enemies while they're down, stunning them and allowing you to do it again
indefinitely. It's simply so powerful it's cheap.
- The Sushi item that expands your combo one or two moves is a double-edged
sword. It's good if you're wanting to postpone the inter-combo 1-second stall.
It's bad if you're in God Hand mode because it means your strongest move will
hit only once in five or six moves, lowering your overall damage/second ratio.
Once a move is assigned to a sushi-expanded slot, you can't unassign it. Your
God Hand mode combo will always be slightly weaker than it would have been. So
I recommend against buying the sushi.
- I couldn't find any difference in move duration in situations where I
alternated between left-handed and right-handed moves. The frames for these
moves seem to be static, so linking several right-handed shouldn't affect the
overall execution time.
- Mach Jabs and other multi-strike moves are often quite powerful.
Unfortunately, enemies tend to only eat one or two hits before they start
blocking, and only block one or two hits before they start parrying. These are
best used in combos while in God Hand mode. I often change my combos back and
forth during play.
- The presidential bunch (101) has only modest damage stats, but I have yet to
see a serious player play without it. After obtaining it during the first Elvis
boss fight, I kept it assigned throughout the game. The heat-up property is
invaluable.
- I didn't break down the monetary cost/benefit of each move, but if I did,
you'd clearly see that the Fist of God and Invincible fist are hardly worth the
time you'd put in at the blackjack tables.
*SUGGESTIONS?*
If you have any comments or suggestions about this FAQ, please email me:
michaelqlarson at gmail dot com. Thanks for reading!
