There is no known glitch or exploit in God Hand that appears in the actual game on real hardware that is off limits. If it can be done in legitimate gameplay on unmodified hardware/software it is allowed.

Due to DECosmic recently picking up the game and posting a time I have taken a more recent look at the game's behavioral differences between running off of a HDD vs running on disc. Due to some noticeable anomalies that would cause disparities in RTA between methods of playing the game it became necessary to implement loadless times.

Because of the nature of video editing being used to determine final times in speedruns I will be doing "Speedrun Moderation Transparency Stream" broadcasts on my Twitch channel when performing this task to show the exact process and to alleviate any concerns as to the fairness of the process.

Timing works as follows: For both RTA and Loadless the first frame of the run is on the first frame that the open book intro for the first stage appears and on the very first frame that Goldberg no longer has HP. Removals for loadless include all solid black frames (hope this would be obvious) and the entire Stage Results screens (due to inconsistent hangs when unlock notifications are displayed while playing on disc).

Finally, it is worth noting at this time that there remains a possibility that some of these disparities are not just HDD vs disc but also PS2 model differences. Should new issues arise the timing rules will be adjusted accordingly so that fair competition is guaranteed for all who are involved.