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.
Development was supervised by Shinji Mikami, best known for the Resident Evil series of games, and was produced by Atsushi Inaba. The game was developed by the team responsible for Resident Evil 4. God Hand was first announced in April 2006 along with the use of a small teaser page on the Clover Studio website. Defeating enemies at higher Difficulty Levels earns the player more bonus points at the end of a stage. Also, enemy attack strength increases as the levels increase at level Die a fully maxed out player character can be killed in a few hits. On levels three and Die, the enemies will attack regardless of the camera position. During levels one and two, the enemies will not attack the player unless they are in his line of sight or he is attacking them. The bar consists of numerical levels one through three with a fourth level designated "Die" being the highest overall. If the player deals a large number of unanswered attacks to their enemies, then the level will increase. If the player gets caught up in a flurry of punches and combos, the level will drop. While in combat, the player can monitor a "Difficulty Level" bar that dynamically adjusts to how much damage the player is dealing or receiving. By using various stat boosting items, the player can increase the size of his Tension Gauge to hold more power. In this state he is completely invincible and all of his attacks increase in both power and speed. When it reaches a set amount, the player can remove the bracelet from Gene's arm to temporarily unleash the God Hand. The player can also evade attacks, taunt, use tension boosting attacks, or find cards within a stage to increase this bar. As the player strikes and defeats enemies, his "Tension Gauge" goes up. These moves are limited to a number of "Roulette Orbs" that the player can increase by collecting "Skull Cards" found throughout each stage.Īnother gameplay mechanic in the player's arsenal is the God Hand itself. More powerful abilities in God Hand can be utilized in the player's "God Reel" (or "Roulette"), a roulette wheel that contains moves that the player chooses. There are over one hundred moves in the game for the player to choose from basic jabs and punches to drunken-style and capoeira martial arts. Square allows the player to chain multiple attacks at once. The player can manually assign any attack (punch, kick, etc.) they wish to Triangle, Square, and X buttons. Four dodge moves are mapped to the directions on the right analog stick. Using this button allows the player, as Gene, to jump up ladders, pick up items, and use special attacks that can only be used when the enemy is in a dazed or in a tired state. The player must manually turn around using a button, and all actions outside of basic attacks are performed via a context sensitive button. God Hand is a 3D action game in which the player moves in all directions, attacking with the face buttons and using special moves. With most of her family killed by the demons, Olivia meets and joins Gene on his journey. Although he often appears outspoken and macho, he has a keen sense of justice and is accompanied by 19-year old Olivia, a descendant of a clan who protects one of the God Hand and fled. The game's protagonist is Gene, a 23-year old fighter who has one of the God Hands, that sought after by a group of demons.
A clan of humans was established to protect the God Hands that said that anyone who possesses them will be "capable of becoming either god or demon."
The man was then given the title of "God Hand" by the people he saved. A man holding the power of God within his arms defeated Angra, sending him into exile once again. Long ago, a fallen angel became the Demon King Angra and tried to destroy the world of humans using an army of demons and spectres.