Mark got me playing GOAT Hand again. I've been taking mental design notes as I play, so I figured I might as well turn mental notes into actual notes. Esp since not many people are talking about God Hand's design
Unlock-A-Beat-Em-Up
God Hand's designed in a very similar way to Resident Evil 4 (and 5) in that it takes a lot of 2D beat 'em dynamics and adds a layer that gates your access to them. It has the throwing-enemies-into-enemies dynamic (& hitting enemies into enemies), it has grouping (pummels, juggles, air kicks), it has a huge emphasis on selectively keeping enemies stunned and away from the action via knockdowns, and it has situational usage of iframes to dodge attacks and stay in safety, among other things. All of these are locked behind specific pre-requisite actions though (guard breaks, counter hits, knockdown, dizzy states), like how Resident Evil 4/5's beat 'em uppy elements are locked behind getting limb & headshots and precise positioning.
Gameplay is split into regular gameplay (movement, normal non counterhit moves) and specific moments of interest which are highly rewarding enemy or game states that players have to quickly recognize and capitalize on. They also often double as reprioritization mechanics. The regular combat is a pretty straightforward Punchout-esque action-response type of game, it's in the moments of interest that God Hand truly shines.
These moments of interest are :
- [Enemy guarding] - the most basic one with 2 responses. Guard break or bait a reversal & punish.
- [Post-guardbreak stun] - enemy's in a pretty lengthy stun state that powers up your moves, so you can kick forward, knock down, launch or keep attacking for faster stun buildup.
- [Counterhit opportunity] - counterhits max out your move properties and let you do whatever you want to enemies as long as you know how to punish them with the right move. Leads to most states below.
- [Enemy in the air] - juggle or kick forward, do a kick loop if enemy's near a wall, depends on enemy weight.
- [Enemy has fallen] - kick the enemy into the air, charged punch launch them or go for a stomp (and some situational moves).
- [Enemy near wall] - go for wall splat kick loops
- [Enemy is dizzy] - the enemy becomes your toy letting you do basically anything described above along with going for grab attacks, pummels being a particularly interesting one because they produce real hitboxes and can hit nearby enemies instead of merely doing damage to the single enemy.
Enemy types complicate this (unless you're on lvl die where they mostly become pretty uniform outside of attacks & weights) because the presence of weaker enemies gives you free access to the more interesting properties of your moves instead of gating them behind counter-hits, making weaker enemies act as resources. Weapons, items & demon spawns complicate this even more and create basically non-stop reprioritization.
Do You Dream of Being The God Hand? Interlinked.
God Hand's a fairly reactive game - the game constantly throws out these really discrete, specific moments of interest at you, almost like action prompts, and learning when and how to capitalize on them is the bulk of the game. Because these prompts are clear, you get that addictive almost parry-esque prompt-response gameplay, but without the drawbacks (being braindead).
What elevates it is how most things connect and feed into each other. That's where you get to really start flexing your decision making. Notice an enemy guarding with the corner of your eye? Go for a guard break, now dash around them and kick them into the crowd, stunning a bunch of guys. See an enemy revv up a combo? Counter hit that motherfucker, as he's in the air wait a sec until enemies come closer, do a juggle on a group, then launch them all at a wall. Once they're there, run towards them, kick them in the air and hopefully keep the loop going. Layer 1 of getting better at the game is simply getting access to the beat 'em up elements & recognizing them when they pop up, layer 2 is learning how to more effectively capitalize on key situations and how to more proactively create them.
The fact that your responses to prompts lead into new prompts and then back to neutral, and the fact that enemies react to almost everything including an enemy gently tapping them as they fall, means these prebaked responses have some real meaning to them.
The takeaway from God Hand's design IMO is that it's not enough to just have a variety of responses to attacks - they have to lead to something meaningful beyond that. It's not about the 3 dodge system, it's not about the custom moves, it's not about resource spam, it's not even about counter-hits. The beat 'em uppy interactions are the soul of the game.
Applying It
Let's say you have a parry. Instead of thinking about the parry in terms of what the player can do to the enemy, think of it as a small building block in a broader gameplan. What can a successful parry against 1 enemy help you do against the 3 enemies standing nearby?
This is where 2D beat 'em up move properties come in. The parry can unlock or enhance your attack hitstun temporarily. It can knock down enemies you hit. It can be a counter/reversal which lets you throw enemies into other enemies and knock them all down/group them. A parry follow-up can have a real hitbox which would let you damage all enemies nearby. Then you can expand it - what if the parry turns the enemy into a ticking time bomb AOE that you can use against other enemies? The sky's the limit.
Or skip the parry and just make a 2D beat 'em up.

