God Hand: Beaten.
Almost beat the final boss in one go, but he got me just as his health was down to one combo left. Sad part? That would have been a win if I didn't use Home Run God instead of Crescent Kick (700 power instead of 900) like I wanted. Took me about another 4 attempts to beat him. Cute fight, only cause its one case where you WANT Demons to show up given how much they fail there (granted, makes sense plot wise!), and they always drop SOME power up; even a simple Cherry helps and such. First go against him, the second Demon dropped a 2 Roulette Charge item, so that was nice. The winning run, the second demon dropped a TP Recharge...when I was 80% to getting one level up (I had enough TP for 2 God Hands at max), so basically used it then, fought a little while, it was getting close...*TP Bar becomes Yellow, activates God Hand, beats him down, he falls into pummel mode while God Hand is still active, splattering commenced*
Anyway, the game is about as unforgiving as you can get. Granted, no real penalties for dying (in some cases, you get rewarded, as dying = instant full health, and you ALWAYS start with at least 1 Roulette slot; if you have more, it just starts you off with as many as you got to the check point with, so yeah), barring the fact that you'll have to redo some stuff if you didn't hit a check point, so in the end its just a lot of trial and error (mostly error <_<; ) until you eventually win.
Plot scenes were a riot. Gene...take the humor side of Yuri, and make a character based entirely around that. God Hand's plot lacks anything in the way of seriousness 90% of the time, so this works. Olivia...a bitch who can pull a hatchet out at any given moment. Though, I must say, nice how they portrayed her relationship with Gene as more of "two siblings who don't really get along AT ALL, but work together regardless" instead of a love interest. A love story wouldn't really fit God Hand, so yeah, glad hey went that route, also cause it leads to more silliness. Elvis...is Elvis. Shannon...ah...Crazed Nympho. Old Man was a total lamer, ditto to Devil Hand, but I guess you need SOME seriousness in there for foil of the silliness. Just about every single sub boss, despite each having at most two scenes, were great always amusing (be it a PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING GORILLA reading a newspaper while waiting for a bus (or did he just get off of it? either way, it definitely involves a bus <_<), to the Power Midget Five (yes, that's exactly what it sounds like; Midget Power Rangers) to master swordsmen who is making a dramatic entrance out of a random door from nowhere...but manages to trip over the door frame anyway...yeah...)
Why did I analyze the God Hand cast? I don't know. But they're generally hilarious either way! The scenes are worth seeing in some manner (I take it the LP shows them <_<?)
One way to look at it? Take Devil May Cry 3, but then realize you can never become nearly as stylish or over the top as that game, so everything you take out of style, you shove into the humor department. That's God Hand's scenes.
As far as a game play comparison? Take Final Fight, make it 3D, give some character customization, add in a Devil Trigger-like aspect, and make the game harder, and it only gets EVEN HARDER if you're good at the game...and you have GOd Hand. So really, its like Final Fight with a shit load of steroids pumped into it, and a slight dose of DMC <_<.
Overall, fun game. 7/10 material? Something like that. No, its not another Devil May Cry 3, but its still fun enough.
Edit: Elfboy, as far as Thief's worth in the early game?
Its pretty bad there too. Damage is completely lacking, though his durability isn't bad (gets a lot of the same equips Warrior does), and gets free weapons, which is an incentive to using him (plus how raising a Thief pays off once he starts getting good stuff in Amur and after, but you saw that first hand <_<.) Just thought I'd remind you or something.
