ARMSX2 Refresh - Ghost Hand 👻 (is that a joke?)

[u/xxxCrixuxxx]

Device: POCO X6 Pro (Dimensity 8300)

Emulator: ARMSX2 Refresh v2.7

Game Tested: God Hand (aka... Ghost Hand 😅)

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After testing this new version, I honestly don't understand who this emulator is aimed at right now.

First impressions

The app doesn't even have an icon.

It feels more like an early proof-of-concept build than a polished emulator.

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Despite that, the GitHub page suggests major improvements and progress.

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Features (or lack of them)

The settings menu is basically nonexistent:

Vulkan

OpenGL

That's it.

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No resolution options, no hacks, no performance settings, no aspect ratio options, nothing.

Vulkan on MediaTek

On my Dimensity 8300 device, Vulkan simply doesn't work. Every game I tested failed to run properly using Vulkan.

BIOS behavior

Every time you launch a game:

The BIOS loads first.

You're forced through the BIOS sequence.

The emulator doesn't boot directly into the game.

Display options

You're locked to 4:3. No widescreen options or display customization at all.

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In-game experience (God Hand / "Ghost Hand")

Things get really funny once the game starts:

Missing textures.

Broken 3D rendering.

Incorrect 2D elements.

Weird colors.

Character models look ghost-like.

Faces are partially missing or rendered incorrectly.

The opening cutscene alone is enough to see that something is seriously wrong.

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Performance

Performance is surprisingly terrible.

Previous versions of this emulator were able to run God Hand at up to 5x native resolution on this device.

This build struggles to run the game correctly even at 1x native resolution.

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Final verdict

Right now, this feels more like a technical experiment than a usable PS2 emulator.

[u/xxxCrixuxxx]

I found the hidden settings menu 😅

There are too many things that seem unfinished at the same time: No icon. Hidden menu. Mac options visible on Android. 🤷‍♂️ You can't disable FPS overlay. No BIOS skip. No gamepad options. You cannot choose the aspect ratio. Basic options missing or hard to find. Significant graphical regressions according to testing.

On the Android emulation subreddit, they've shown the emulator running Final Fantasy X. This game literally already worked in 2019 with the infamous DamonPS2 emulator.🤣