It's because he werewolf flexes out of his human flesh and transforms into a raccoon monstrosity abomination, so he needs room for his claws to wolverine those who would stand in his way.
In case this blows up and people start commenting: yes i know his hands are skin-colored in the NES games, that was a color limitation. also im specifically counting when hes in his MAIN outfit, because he can be bare-handed in odyssey as well, but not by default
