Einhänder
| Einhänder | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Squaresoft |
| Publisher(s) | Squaresoft, SCEA |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation |
| Release | November 20, 1997 (Japan) April 30, 1998 (NA) |
| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Einhänder (アインハンダー) is a scrolling shooter game released by Squaresoft (now Square Enix) in 1997 and arguably the most successful non-RPG game produced by the company.[citation needed] The name Einhänder is German for "one-hander", referring to a sword that can be wielded with one hand. It also likely refers to the single manipulator arm slung beneath the bellies of Einhänder fighters, which is used to operate the auxiliary gunpods.
IGN voted Einhänder as the greatest 2D Space shooter of all time.[1]
The in-game music is a mix of different styles of electronic dance music, composed by Kenichiro Fukui.
Storyline
There was a time in the era of great chaos, when the Earth and the Moon were at war with each other...
A daredevil from the moon piloted a bizarre aircraft... It was feared. And because of its shape called...
Einhänder.
In the year 2245, the war between the Earth and the Moon rages on. The lunar city of Selene's advanced technology gave them an advantage early in the war, but Earth's greater population and resource base turned the conflict into a stalemate. In response, Selene began sending advanced one-man tactical fighters on suicide missions against Earth. These Einhänder fighters repeatedly broke Earth's defenses, and in time their name became a synonym for the god of death.
The player takes on the role of an anonymous Einhänder pilot during his first, and most likely last, mission. The date is December 12, 2245, when the pilot enters the imperial capital's airspace.
A note about anonymity: In the Japanese version of the game, the gallery contains pictures of two Einhänder pilots, Ralph Cunningham and Myriem Cleve. Ralph is shown wearing a regular pilot uniform, which assumes him to be a pilot of the Einhänder. Myriem is shown wearing a regular jump suit with the Selene insignia, an indication that she may be the pilot of the Astraea Mk. II (Unknown Fighter Type II).
Gameplay
The player chooses from five different fighters (three are standard, two are secret), each requiring a different fighting style.
Each of the standard fighters is equipped with a default machine gun and a manipulator arm. Unlike other scrolling shooters, Einhänder does not feature power ups that improve the player's default weapon (except for one of the secret fighters). Instead, the player can use the manipulator arm to steal detachable enemy weapons, called gunpods, once the enemies carrying them have been destroyed. Gunpods have a limited amount of ammo, and are discarded once the supply is used up. Luckily, they are very common, so the player can pick and choose the gunpods best suited to his or her current situation.
Gunpods can be switched between an overhead and below-the-belly position, causing them to fire at different angles (the Vulcan gunpod, for example, fires straight ahead while in the overhead position but at a 30 degree angle in the bottom position), or in certain cases, backwards. Together with the variety of gunpods available, this allows for a large number of creative strategies.
The fighter can also maneuver at four different speeds, adjustable by the player.
The game offers three difficulty settings: Easy, Normal and Hard. The Japanese version contains Free mode (with unlimited continues but scoring disabled), excised from the US version.
For its age, Einhänder is graphically very impressive. Fighters and enemies are represented with polygonal models instead of sprites. While much of the fighting takes place in two dimensions, the camera often dramatically pans to the side during a boss fight or while entering a new area, and enemies can maneuver out of the player's line of fire and into the foreground and background, giving the impression of 3-dimensional space. Pre-rendered full motion videos are sometimes used to illustrate pivotal scenes in-between stages.
The different fighters
Standard fighters
- Astraea FGA, Mk. I - This fighter is capable of equipping two gunpods at a time and firing them simultaneously. When two gunpods are equipped, the one on the top position replaces the default machine gun. Gunpods on the top position of the Astraea always fire horizontally (or vertically for the Hedgehog), unlike on the Endymion fighters. The Astraea is widely considered the most challenging of the three standard fighters to use, because not all Gunpods are suitable for replacing the machine gun, and the player is relying on weapons with limited ammunition. However, in the hands of a capable player, the ability to fire two gunpods simultaneously can be devastating, and opens up the possibility for some interesting strategies.
- Endymion FRS, Mk. II - This is the lead fighter of the game. This fighter can store up to three different gunpods and freely switch between them, but only one can be equipped and fired at a time. Perhaps due to the ease with which a player can stock up ammo, this craft will gain less ammo from a single pickup then the other two ships.
- Endymion FRS, Mk. III - This fighter can only equip one gunpod at a time. However, it also comes equipped with a powerful double machine gun as the standard weapon. Firing the gunpod simultaneously will fire the machine gun. This ship is presented by the game as suitable for beginners, thanks to its strong default weapon and simplified arms setup.
Secret fighters
- Unknown Fighter Type I - Also known as "Die Schabe", German for cockroach, this fighter is one of the tiny police cars used by Earth forces in the early levels. It does not have a manipulator arm like the other fighters, but picking up gunpods powers up its machine gun, and can alter the firing pattern. The more gunpods the fighter collects, the faster and more powerful the gun becomes. This fighter is unlocked by collecting fifteen or more special bonuses in one session of the game.
- Astraea FGA Mk. II - It is similar to the Astraea, but all gunpods collected by it start with 9999 ammo. It can only be obtained by completing the game on the hard difficulty using 3 continues or less.
Gunpods
Modular weapon pods carried by common enemies. Apart from adding to the Einhänder's firepower, gunpods are well-armored enough to withstand several hits, and can be used as a shield. Enemies carrying gunpods will use them against the player, but the weapons are less powerful in this mode.
NOTE: After collecting a gunpod and running out of continues or quitting the game, the player may begin a new game pre-equipped with that gunpod.
Standard gunpods
- Vulcan - The most common gunpod, the Vulcan is an auxiliary machine gun with a high rate of fire but low damage.
- Cannon - The second most common gunpod, the cannon has a low rate of fire but massive firepower. Cannon shots will pierce through unarmored enemies to hit multiple targets, and can destroy the armored hulls of ships in a few shots.
- Spreader - This shotgun-like gunpod fires five high-speed projectiles that spread out in a fan-shaped formation. In the top position, the gunpod fires backwards.
- Grenade - Fires slow-moving, but highly damaging grenades in a ballistic trajectory. In the bottom position, the gunpod fires backwards.
- Wasp - When in the top position, this missile launcher fires moderately powerful tracer missiles that can target and hit enemies in the foreground or background that cannot be reached with other weapons. When in the bottom position, it launches high-powered unguided rockets.
- Riot - A giant taser that fires at an angle and delivers an armor-piercing blast of electricity. It can be charged up, to a maximum of seven clips, to inflict greater damage at increased range.
- Hedgehog - This grenade launcher fires flares vertically. After impact or time lapse, the flares leave lasting explosions that continuously deal damage. It is intended primarily as a defensive weapon, creating a curtain of energy around the fighter.
- Blade - An energy blade similar to a lightsaber. It uses ammo continually while it is activated. The Endymion fighters (but not the Astraea) can slash behind them by switching the weapon between the top and bottom positions. Performing a downward-right maneuver with your fighter extends the blade to nearly full-screen length for a moment, while consuming more ammo than normal.
Secret gunpods
- Python - Releases floating chain mines. Moving the fighter while firing a round alters the flight path of the bombs.
- Mosquito - Powerful guided missile launcher. The missiles are manually controlled with the directional buttons, mimicking the movement your fighter.
- Juno - Heavy machine gun with immense rate of fire and damage; it is much more powerful then the Vulcan, but carries around half of the number of shells.
- Flash - A powerful rail cannon that fires extremely damaging, armor-piercing shots.
Special bonuses
There are three special bonuses in every level, which can usually be obtained by destroying special red-colored enemies and parts of the stage. They award the player with a point bonus and occasionally a rare weapon, such as the Flash gunpod; collecting 15 of them in a single game also unlocks the first secret fighter. Obtaining a special bonus can sometimes lead the player to secret areas of a level that he or she would not have visited normally.
Boss fights
Einhänder provides many challenging bosses that attack in creative and often unexpected ways to keep players on their toes. The Garnelle (Shrimp), for example, is a hover-tank that jumps and leaps to try and crash itself into the player's ship. Other bosses dive beneath the water to evade attacks, protect themselves with mobile shield generators or bounce laser weapons off reflector devices at the player.
Bosses often contain a main core and numerous other body parts which can be independently targeted and destroyed. Sometimes this is an important part of the strategy involved in defeating a boss; the gigantic Spinne (Spider) is notoriously difficult to destroy without first disabling the huge robotic arms it attacks the player with. Destroying a boss's various weapons may also disable certain attacks, change its attack patterns, or release a gunpod.
The appearance and movements of the bosses are also highly detailed. Robotic enemies flinch, stumble and crash as they take hits, taunt the player in German, or reel as body parts are destroyed.
There is a miniboss and boss for each of the seven levels except the last.
Symbolism
For a scrolling shooter game, Einhänder is rich with religious symbolism, using names from the Bible and Greek mythology.
Christianity/Judaism
In the Japanese release of the game, the capital city of Earth is called Sodom. Sodom and Gomorrah, in the Hebrew Scriptures, were two extremely sinful cities that God destroyed by sending fire and brimstone from heaven; similarly, the Selenian ships come from space to rain death and destruction on Earth. However, in the U.S. release, the capital's name was changed to Gesetz (German for "law").
Greek mythology
- Selene is the Titan goddess of the moon who fell in love with Endymion, a handsome shepherd, and begged Zeus to grant him eternal life in unconscious sleep.
- Hyperion, the final boss in the game, is a Titan who is the son of Uranus (sky) and Gaia (earth). He is also the father of both Selene and Eos.
- Eos (dawn) is the Titan goddess of the dawn. Near the end of the game, when the Einhänder pilot rebels against Selene, the player is swarmed by unmanned ships with the designation E.O.S.
References
- MMitchell's Einhänder Plot Analysis FAQ at GameFAQs' Einhänder page. (GameFAQs forbids direct linking to FAQs; an HTML version of the FAQ is mirrored here)