History VideoGame / Einhander

* AxCrazy: The ape MiniBoss of Stage 5, Ausf. A Gestell, attacks your char like a deranged monkey: it frequently tries to swat the player's ship, and if knocked down, throws a crate at the player (similar to [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong a certain ape]]). Befittingly enough, the background music when you fight it is called "Madness".

** The Spreader can fall into this. Like the grenade, it is one of the two weapons that can shoot backwards; they are the only two weapons that can effectively fight the Stage 3 Boss, Gustaff, who is prone to try shooting you from behind. Also, like the Cannon example above, getting real close to the enemy can result in some terrifying rates of fire. Even better, nearly the entirety of Stage 4 includes massive amounts of mooks and later, tight corridors, a role that a spread-shot weapon is really suited for.
** The Grenade gunpod. It does the most damage-per-shot out of all the weapons in the game, but it has an arcing projectile and hence, slightly more difficult to land accurate shots with. Then again, due to its low ammo, it's better used on bosses and mini-bosses anyway, and so accuracy is much less important. One more thing, though; it can fire backwards too, which is real handy to fight Gustaff with (see above).

* CollisionDamage: Double-subverted. Your ship does not get destroyed when you contact a hard surface, but will if you continue pushing into it.

* DeadlyWalls: A {{downplayed}} version. See the CollisionDamage example above.

* GunsAkimbo: The first SubBoss, Greif. The Astraea fighter allows the player to wield two gunpods simultaneously.

* GratuitousGerman: Meanwhile, German becomes Earth's global language. Starting with the federation being called "Gesetz" (German for "Law")...

* ItsUpToYou: Subverted. While the intro animation only shows a single fighter, Selene actually sent a team of fighters. You can assume that they're off doing their own thing while you do yours.

* PacifistRun: It's possible to play through much of the game without ever firing a shot, especially when most bosses will [[VillainExitStageLeft eventually retreat]]. [[spoiler:The exception is the Hyperion, however, as it will eventually fire an unavoidable WaveMotionGun blast.]]

* PrecisionFStrike: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlzgsW6cIC8 Shudder]], one of the boss themes, has ''two''. This is especially jarring considering pretty much no Square games have had them, and also the fact that ''the game is rated E''. The part of the song in question is actually from [[http://www.inspirationsounds.co.uk/mp3-demos/masterbits-rapsody-vocals-2.mp3 something else]] (Warning, contains multiple F-Bombs!).

* RhymingWithItself: "Shudder" rhymes "black man" with "Dutch man".

* WeaponizedExhaust: The rocket chase sequence on stage 6. Touch the exhaust and you're fried in an instant. It also fries mooks too. The PlayerCharacter has this too -- every time you change speed, you fire out a burst of exhaust which can actually do very decent damage to anything unlucky enough to be behind you.

--> ''"Received a telegram from Hyperion: Enemy threat removed by your heroic attempt. The battle pattern of the latest E.O.S. unmanned fighter has been completed according to the data from your battle record. For your meritorious deed, [[spoiler:you are honored to be selected as the target of the last E.O.S. test. Congratulations. After your death, you will advance two classes and be awarded the sirius decoration. [[ArcWords Glory with the Moon. Mercy on the Earth.]]"'']]

A UsefulNotes/PlayStation 1 side-scrolling ShootEmUp from Creator/SquareSoft. The player takes the role of an anonymous fighter pilot sent by the moon nation Selene to fight its war [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression against Earth's forces]], raiding its only city (called Sodom in the Japanese version). Initially armed with nothing but a weak machine gun, the fighter can nevertheless grab weapons called gunpods from enemies, including [[BoringButPractical plain old cannons and missile launchers]] as well as [[AbnormalAmmo a lightning gun]] and [[LaserBlade energy sword]]. What follows is a single small fighter [[OneManArmy cutting a huge swath through huge installations defended by endless numbers of aircraft and turrets.]]

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Salamander can best be described as a "Stingray submarine with arms that hangs onto monkey bars", a tail that can [[HotBlade heat itself into a swinging blade]], and it has a kickass WaveMotionGun-esque water cannon that can make even Franchise/MetalGear RAY green with envy.