God Hand (Hard New Game+

Описание: Before this stage, I buy Side Swipe, God Hook, and a bunch of Puppy Pizzas. God Hook was probably not the best choice for the first move in that combo, so I'll probably go back to Godly Straight instead. It's easier to cancel when using Side Swipe on demons and still packs a decent punch for stage 2.

The pizzas seem self-explanatory, but believe it or not, I actually didn't put a priority on those until fairly recently. It wasn't until an unrecorded practice run that I realized just how useful it is to have nearly maxed tension early on. Makes things so much easier when you can carry around enough tension to bail yourself out at almost any time.

Side Swipe was another recent change and I find it really interesting. I had read on Kung Pao Fu a while ago that it totally wrecks blue and green demons, but I never liked the move because of how awkward and slow it is. It turns out that it's just one of those moves that is far better on Hard than it is on Easy. After seeing what it did to a few demons, I was hooked.

Comments on each part:

2-1: If it ever looks like I'm struggling with the buttons, it's probably because I am. I sometimes brainfart and forget to let go of down before attempting Drunken Twist, at which point bad things happen. God Hook didn't help matters because it comes out slower than a jab or straight.

Also, I should note that female enemies are usually my first target in any fight that I don't unleash for. This is simply because slap attack is impossible to shake out of and I'm incredibly bad at seeing it coming. It's best to get rid of them first and then worry about the guys.

2-2: Standard stuff here. I'm considering adding the fairy challenge to the route (probably to replace the car challenge). The extra gold would definitely make life easier in case the game is stingy with gold drops.

2-3: Wow, I totally screwed up the first part. Also, I hate skinny goons. This is another way that Drunken Twist shines though, because it prevents them from dodging all the freaking time.

Going up the stairs for the crane was something I picked up from Enraiharuka (I think) a long time ago and it's much safer. I'm aware that this is meant to be a speed run of some sort, but dealing with a bunch of ankle-biters when you're just trying to wreck the crane is extremely annoying.

The face door thing was something I learned while playing around on Easy mode fairly recently. It seems that if you're really close to a wall before you toss a weapon, it won't break. This works consistently on face doors and the crane, but I've seen it happen rarely on some enemies. The easiest example seems to be the rosary elite in 1-5, if you want to try it.

2-4: Note to self: Don't try to restore tension on that whip lady. She dies too quickly and Felix works better anyway.

2-5: I buy Chain Yanker before this part (heh, no villager for me) simply because I hate Conchita. She's somewhat reasonable if you stay close to her, but I just feel more comfortable knowing I have a backup plan. I'll likely do away with that shop visit in future runs, but I'll still buy Chain Yanker at some point.

2-6: Ah yes, the part where the game teaches you to hate the automatic lock-on. It's not a big deal here though, because I'm not suicidal enough to break the door down right away. This should be easy to do if you beat up the whip lady before jumping up and hide in a corner for the skinny to pass by, but the problem would then be tension.

If you leave the Three Stooges fight with a full bar, it's not a problem. That wasn't the case this time though, so I preferred to beat up the enemies around the door and Yes Man Kablaam spam it for Elvis 2. I'll need to try skipping that next time.

By the way, I haven't the slightest clue what the mohawk guy outside the building was thinking. I've never seen an enemy jump up for no reason and then STAY there. The jumping isn't uncommon, but why did he just stop doing anything at all?

2-7: I hate skinny goons and Elvis' ground pound is ridiculous on DIE. I dodge it less than half the time, simply because the thing lasts 16 frames from start to hit. 16 freaking frames. That's not even fair.

Seriously, why is it that you can duck Belze's version of that attack but not Elvis'? They either messed up on Belze or just really wanted to make you hate Elvis.