From dark deep space, giant weapons, including swords, lances, and hammers, falling into Earth's orbit, trailed across the sky and pierced their way through historic locations all around the world. As a declaration of war against mankind, the Parthenon, atop the Acropolis of Athens, was first to be cut through by an ominous blade. Upon impact, each of the weapons opened a breach in the fabric of reality and unleashed legions of gigantic demons.
In anticipation of such unforeseen Earth-threatening events, the International Security Council formed Gauntlet, a science committee developing very sophisticated defense technologies. Gauntlet discovers that denizens of the Netherworld can only be defeated by their own weapons. Spirit Weapons are forged with spirits of the dead and humans can’t carry them without becoming corrupted by their evil energy... However, a machine would be immune to demonic corruption! Gauntlet recommissions Flame, a former rescue operations android, to become a Squire. She takes control of Grit, the last remaining Paladin unit — a state-of-the-art suit of power armor capable of wielding Spirit Weapons.
To arms! Overseeing operations from aboard the Avalon, their flying headquarters, Gauntlet is ready. The showdown between mankind’s technological prowess and the powerful forces of the occult has begun! It's up to Flame and Grit to defeat all the sinister Weapon Keepers and the diabolical commander Ravenous.
Panzer Paladin is a retro-style action-platformer developed and published by Tribute Games. It features simple to use swordplay mechanics and Flame pilots Grit to fight huge demons by using their own weapons against them. Swordplay being the core of the game mechanics, you as the player can equip and use any weapon dropped by defeated enemies, attack or block, aim high or low, use weapons advantageously through a rock-paper-scissors style weapon type system, and cast spells by breaking weapons. Weapons are abundant in every level, so the player is encouraged to use them profusely. Grit is the main way to fight enemies, but players can also eject and control Flame, the small-but-swift Squire pilot. Flame uses a laser whip to attack enemies, swing across gaps, and even recharge the Paladin’s energy. The player as Flame and Grit must crush the demonic conquest on Earth.
General Tropes
- Animesque: Between the human characters' big eyes, Flame's turquoise hair, and the slick shaded pixel visuals, the game wouldn't have looked too out of place during the OVA boom of the 80s and early 90s.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: The first boss of the tutorial level you face seems to be Wendigo, only for an ax to come flying and slice him down the middle. Cue the Horseman appearing immediately afterward. This is because the Horseman is a good guy. Wendigo was the real Weapon Keeper, but was cut down by him so to test Flame and make sure she doesn't become corrupted by the Spirit Weapons. This is also averted in Remix Mode, where Wendigo gets a proper boss battle instead of being cut down by the Horseman.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: The demons can be destroyed by their own weapons.
- Big Bad: Ravenous, being the leader of the invasion who spawns his hordes of demons to attack Earth.
- Bird People: Ravenous and several of his minions appear to be avian humanoids.
- Boss Corridor: Every boss fight is preceded by a checkpoint and a foreboding banner with an R on it. The Horseman's banner is similar, but has an H instead.
- Breakable Weapons: Every weapon has a durability meter that causes it to break upon depletion. The player can also choose to break their weapon deliberately in order to cast various spells. Fortunately, even if the player runs out of weapons, they can still use Grit's fist and Flame's whip to damage enemies.
- Co-Dragons: The Weapon Keepers, each serving as a captain in one of Ravenous's 11 legions of demons.
- Creator Provincialism: Tribute Games is based in Canada, so naturally the tutorial level is set there.
- Doppelgänger Spin: Lilith, the boss of the USA level, will sometimes split herself into four. The real Lilith will throw daggers at you.
- Everybody Hates Hades: Three of the boss battles are against death or death-related gods Mictlantecuhtli, Anubis, and Charon.
- Fallen Hero: Blaze, Flame's predecessor, fell victim to the corrupting influence of the Weapons and became the Putrid Paladin. If Flame takes and keeps Ravenous's spear for herself, she, too, will suffer the same fate.
- Good All Along: The Horseman is actually an enemy of Ravenous, dedicated to protecting the balance of the cosmos. The reason he appears in midboss fights if the player's Spirit Burden is too high is because he is trying to keep the Weapons' corrupting influence from overwhelming you.
- Last-Second Ending Choice: The ending you get depends on whether you choose to keep the weapon that Ravenous leaves behind after his defeat, or break it (or leave it behind as you meet up with the Horseman).
- In the bad ending, Flame falls to the temptation of Ravenous's spear under the belief she's safeguarding the Earth, and fights with the Horseman. As the last scene shows, he loses, and Flame and Grit become the new leaders of Ravenous's forces.
- In the good ending, the Horseman warns Flame that if mankind builds more Spirit Weapons, he'll return, before leaving and taking the collapsing Inverted Tower with him, ending the eternal twilight caused by it. Flame then leaves Gauntlet with Grit to become construction builders.
- The Magic Versus Technology War: On one side, we have demonic invaders hell-bent on claiming Earth with their mystical weapons. On the other, an android and Humongous Mecha duo made from Earth's technology, and humanity's hope against the demons.
- Mirror Boss: The Putrid Paladin serves as a late-game boss, and is essentially a boss version of the player, utilizing the same moveset. Meanwhile, the Final Boss, Ravenous, begins his fight acting like a combination of the regular shield-wielding mooks and Grit/Putrid Paladin, albeit larger and with a couple of extra attributes to make it tougher.
- Mundane Utility: In the good ending, Grit's size and strength are used for construction to help rebuild the Earth.
- On-Ride/On-Foot Combat: While you're mostly expected to play as Grit, you occasionally have to eject Flame and play as her to make certain areas accessible or reach a teleporter to bring Grit over. That said, apart from your (possible lack of) skill level, you can technically play through the entire game as just Flame, though she's naturally comparatively frail.
- Our Demons Are Different: The invaders come from an alternate realm called the Netherworld, which is a nod to the biblical Hell.
- Recurring Boss: The Weapon Keeper named the Horseman will show up to fight the player if they collected too many weapons in each level. This is because he's actually Good All Along, trying to make sure that Flame doesn't become corrupted like Blaze, who became the Putrid Paladin.
- Retraux: Twice over. The games graphics are a love letter to classic NES games while the artsyle is designed to be reminiscent of classic anime from the 80's and early 90's. The album cover from the Powerglove rendition of the main theme
does its own take, calling to mind the "westernized" artworks from the same time period. - Shout-Out:
- The photograph of pre-corruption Blaze resembles how April O'Neil appeared in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) cartoon.
- The scene where Grit leads four turtles through a sewer in the good ending's credits scene should look familiar to people who know about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Both this and the above were intentional Production Foreshadowing for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, the next project by Tribute Games.
- Some of the weapons the Horseman can drop include a Nintendo Switch Joy-con, Gut's sword, and what seems to be a paddle with the 1-Up icon from the NES Mega Man games.
- Supervillain Lair: The Inverted Tower, which is a Shout-Out to Mega Man's Wily Castles, is the main setting for the second act of the game.
- Sword Plant: To activate a checkpoint, Grit needs to slam a weapon into it business-end-first.
- Temporary Platform: Of both the "suddenly collapse from under you" type and of a unique type where they explode after a few seconds.
- The Unfought: The Wendigo in the normal story, as he's the bait in the Bait-and-Switch Boss with The Horseman. Averted on Remix mode.
- Warm-Up Boss: The Horseman is the boss of the Canada level, which is the tutorial for the game.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Weapons have a corrupting influence on mortal wielders. Blaze fell victim to this influence, and if Flame keeps Ravenous's spear, she will too.
