God Hand

• You will die a lot. Don't worry, there is a minimal penalty for dying (you go back to the last checkpoint, having to refight some enemies and the gold you get at the end of the level will be lower. You keep every bit of gold you found before you died, your life gauge gets refilled, and your tension and roulette orbs goes back to what they were at the checkpoint)

• R2 lets you use the God Hand when you have enough tension. Use it frequently when you think you're in trouble because that's what its there for. Don't hoard it like FF players hoard Elixers then never use them.

• Fighting multiple enemies at once is one of the biggest killers in the game. If possible fight one enemy at a time. If there's a group of enemies waiting for you, throw something at one of them or taunt from a distance to try and draw one of them away from the group towards you.

• Don't miss Yes Man Kablam behind the chair in the first boss room. It builds up tension for using the God Hand and its great to use against dizzied enemies. After hitting an enemy push up on the right analog stick to replace the long cooldown animation with a quick duck (you can do this with a lot of different moves and its incredibly useful)

• Angry bosses act like they are a level higher so you better let them cool off a bit.

• If an attack looks a little too low to be ducked, it might still be ducked, unless it is a weapon coming down on your head.

• Armed enemies have very few attacks and you can let them come at you while you are ducking.

• Keep ducking when fighting demons and let them take some swings before you attack.

• Side-step and punch a couple times when surrounded and run when there are too many at once.

• Jump attacks wear down enemy numbers and so does running out of their territory.

• Read the instruction manual to learn how to perform the free moves. Do not neglect them.

• The forward dodge works against many attacks that look they should still hit you. Go with trial and error.

• Left Jab, Straight, Guard Breaker, and High Side Kick are some of the best moves in the game despite the fact that they're among the very first moves you start with.

• High Side Kick and High Cross Kick have the Launch property even though the game doesn't label them as such. Also Hand Plant Kick evades high attacks.

• Moves that have the Evade High Attack property in general kick ass.

• Never give up! You can do it!

• Watch for Circle Button Actions. All of the circle button actions make you invincible EXCEPT STOMP. beware, you can still be smacked up while stomping!

• Chain Yanker > Ball Buster. Use Chain yanker, then Yes man Kablaam, Dodge left/right, Kablaam again, then as soon as you hear that second Kablaam connect Mash the Circle button for the special action. This is an Amazing way to generate TP. I've heard some (2 I think) bosses are dizzied long enough to allow for FOUR kablaams then circle.

• Run Away! sometimes making a Tactical retreat is the best course of action. Lots of thugs are dumb enough to stop chasing you. You can even play keep away with some foes and Taunt them to fill your TP meter. Go in for the kill when you can unleash the God hand.

• Don't Eat the Sushi. It sounds like a good deal, but it makes your God hand mode combos weaker; You simply don't use your most powerful attack in the combo as often.

• You can pull enemies in a group one at a time using thrown crates and weaponry, or Taunting if the other foes are far enough away from the one you are taunting.

• Circle prompt attacks increase in power if you press all the shape buttons at once.

• Don't bother with stomp unless it is on lone midgets or putting out fires.

• Start on Easy.

• Abuse free moves.

• Punch people.

• You get a full recovery after beating Azel. Use those orbs and duck when he does his finger flick. You can also duck-dodge his fireballs at close range. You can double click right when he does that shockwave burst and get between the pillars of flame.

• Dodge. Then do it some more. Experiment with moves to find a combo setup that you are happy with. You can cheese the hell out of the game by dodge-canceling if you want to.

• As far as setting up combos and whatnot, I usually set high-hitting moves to triangle, guard-break to X with a low-hitting powermove to down(whichever direction)+X, fast hitting moves on square and a crowd control move to down(whichever direction)+square. I dont like using the dodge-cancel stuff so I dont worry about basing my combos around using it.

• It has a serious learning curve so be patient. You will find that almost all of your deaths will be caused by your own mistakes. Overcoming harder parts is incredibly satisfying.

• You have extra moves that are only mentioned in the manual. Learn them cos they're great for crowd control. After a while chaining low roundhouse kick, heel drop and mid-air roundhouse kick together will become second nature.

• When a pummel prompt turns up, mash all the face buttons and not just circle.

• The boss at the end of the first stage has a treasure chest behind his throne. In it is the Yes Man Kablam, a great move for farming tension on stunned enemies. Use the duck-dodge to cancel out of the long winddown time.

• Left Jab, Straight, Guard Breaker, and High Side Kick are some of the best moves in the game despite the fact that you start with them.

• About the sushi (square combo extenders) - you can take off moves from the fifth and sixth slots at any time so there's no downside to buying them. A 4-move combo is more efficient but you should always have a 6-move combo just cause it's more fun that way. The first sushi gives you Low Kick 1 (it sucks) but buying the second sushi will give you Left Roundhouse which rocks in stage 1.

• Determining which dodge will avoid which enemy attack is often trial-and-error so just experiment with it.

• Hand Plant Kick (bought in stage 4) evades high attacks even though the game doesn't say so, making it incredibly cheesy.

• Don't worry about dying because it doesn't really carry any consequences with it. You'll be rewarded with less money at the end of the stage but there are other ways to make up for it and you're not required to buy everything anyway. If you die with no roulette orbs you'll actually come back with one so there's a benefit.

• Barrel Roll Kick, Forearm Smash, and Palm Smash always launch enemies no matter what. The first of those isn't that great but the other two are gold.

• As mentioned already, you have innate moves that own. Remember that Reverse Sweep is worse than your innate duck+triangle sweep, so don't bother equipping it. When you dizzy enemies and they are alone, watch how much time they take to recover and try out a long enough combo before using a prompt.

• Enemies can have attacks that make it look like it will hit you, such as Belze, but can be avoided. Experiment with ducking and dodging attacks that could hit you. I think all head chop attacks will hit you if you duck.

• Buying health items will restore your health to full.

• The stomp prompt is worthless and will make you vulnerable to being hit.

• Learn how to dodge-cancel most moves to get more hits in and shorten recovery time. Some moves will never be hastened.