God Hand

I decided to give God Hand another shot, and this time I appear to be stumbling in the right direction. Like I mentioned before, the game has little in the way of explanation for ... well, pretty much everything. So the story is still fairly nonsensical (which isn't helped by awkward voice-over translations). But I'm getting more of a feel for how the game is played.

As it turns out, the level-up meter that goes up when you land hits, and down when you get hit, is not your level - it's the enemies' level. So as you do well, the game becomes more difficult, and as you get hit, it becomes less difficult. In theory, anyway. It's not an especially effective system, but it makes things interesting.

Something that is important to get the hang of is the technique/shop system, because the moves you start out with are super-weak. Keeping up with more and tougher enemies requires you to buy new and more powerful moves. You earn money, conveniently enough, by beating guys up; and you get huge bonuses for minigames, which, so far, have included a rigged boxing match and the Street Fighter-style challenge of beating the shit out of a minivan.

It's pretty quirky, but I'm not sure what else I can say about it at this point. Except that the music really needs to be switched up, because I get tired of it quick (unlike another pretty quirky game).

Progress: Stage 1: Secret Warehouse Carnival