Einhander - Squaresoft's Underappreciated PS1 Classic
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Today we shine a spotlight on Square's genre-defining PlayStation shmup Einhänder. One of my favourite PS1 games and a title that deserves a lot more love. Let's check out this underappreciated PS1/PSX/Playstation classic.
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If you want to check out more, here's a playlist of my Obscure & Forgotten PS1 games series, featuring all released volumes so far.
Playlist Link: • Obscure & Forgotten PS...
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Music from this episode
Final Fantasy 7 - Midgar Theme
Sonic Adventure 2 - Aquatic Mines
Jet Set Radio - Humming The Baseline
Hotline Miami - Daisuke
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late - Menu Theme
Einhander - Madness
Einhander - Street
Einhander - Shudder
Einhander - Bloody Battle
Einhander - Silence
Einhander - Badlands
Einhander & Final Fantasy is Copyright and Property of Square Enix
#Einhander #PS1 #HiddenGems
This game absolutely deserves a HD remake or sequel.
I agree. A lot.
The most we got was a cameo of one of the bosses for the gummi ship segments in Kingdom Hearts 3.
I need it on Switch.
Amen
Even just a remaster would be nice. Clean up the PS1 Warbly textures, add some anti-ailising, increase the resolution, add higher res 2d assets and it's good to go.
The references in KH3 were more because the director and most of the staff who did Einhander were tasked with making the Gummi segments. Really absolutely beautiful when a studio lets its creators be self-indulgent, even if just slightly.
Bro when i got to that part of the gummi cruise i almost cried that boss fight brought back so many memories and ptsd from playing that game
Fun fact, the rap segment of the "Shudder" track is actually a stock track used by a few more games, most notably Street Fighter 3: Third Strike in it's basketball minigame theme.
That makes me wonder if that is why the game has never made it to any digital retailers or allowed any reboots: No one can get the rights to the original music.
Edit: specifically the stock tracks
Einhander blew me away as a kid. Such a great game and barely anyone has even heard of it
I got one for Christmas.
20 years late, it's amazing.
22:22 Clearly the pilot did not died, he was MIA. That ending with the footsteps give the hints to a possible sequel as well.
(Not happening though)
I cried myself in the store as a kid to have my mom get the einhander when I saw the disc cover because it was really cool. Guess those tantrums was worth it since this was the best shooters i've played
😅😅 worth it to play it + price appreciation now. Most copies in good condition are $100+ and sealed copies are $500-600. I regret not buying a sealed copy like 5 yrs ago!
The game was directed by an ex-Konami dude who'd worked on Gradius II and Xexex, a man who knew what exactly what he was doing.
Einhinder was a hidden gem. It was perfect: gameplay, graphics, music, sound effects, presentation, secrets, and FUN!
I remember playing this old game on a PS1 sampler disc.
This review nails everything about this amazing game! Good work sir, love to see Einhander getting the recognition it deserves.
Appreciate the comment! Thanks for watching :)
Only had the demo version, but I replayed it a ton as a kid.
The one thing that was missed: secret weapons! Those were amazing finds when I stumbled across them.
Einhander is basically Contra with spaceships. It's amazing!
This is easily one of my favorite console games of all time. I lucked out and had a demo disc with this lovely title on it. It only featured the first level, but I was instantly hooked. I managed to save up my rupees to pick up a used full copy a couple years later. I used to have a college radio station show and I'd play at least 1 or 2 tracks from the OST every Friday night, for years.
I let a friend borrow that copy I had, but lost touch with them. I found out years later that they sold all of their ps1 games to a gamestop or something. Likely for mere pennies. So sad! I did get another copy and one with a jewel case and manual this time. Sadly again, I let another friend borrow that one and... haven't seen it since. I should go hang with them again and get it back. XD
Me too! The demo disc i had it on was from freaking Pizza Hut! I also remember Ape Escape being on there!
The 90s were wild!
I had a Toys R Us demo disc. Never actually got the game, but I decided to just get an emulator. The game is now really expensive to get.
I no shit had this happen to my dad, and he held a copy of this as collateral.
I practically inherited it and it's why i like mecha.
man this is one of the most memorable game I've ever played on PS1. I remember there are alternate routes you can access on the stages. I love this game to the point that this is my very first Rick Roll experience checking out if Einhander II rumors were true back in the day.
My dude I feel your pain on all those PS1 Square games we missed out in the PAL region. It's just brutal haha
criminally underrated
Played this as a kid for YEARS. Loved it even though I could barely get past the spider tunnel thing. I think water level was the next one.
Correct, that's when the game really begins to spike in difficulty... The water level is the worst!
Appreciate the comment and thanks for checking out the video :)
I guess I'm quite randomly asking but does anyone know of a good site to watch newly released series online?
@Darwin Roy I use FlixZone. Just search on google for it =)
@Samuel Lucca yea, have been watching on Flixzone for since april myself :D
@Samuel Lucca thanks, I signed up and it seems like they got a lot of movies there =) I really appreciate it!!
This is one of the games that I religiously play and finish at least once a year. Some games on my list are Castlevania SOTN, Dewprism, Gitaroo man (PS2), Ghostbusters (Genesis)
Imagine if Germany got this game back then. They wouldn't even have to find a translation online to understand the dialogue.
I want a remaster so bad... I had the demo on Ps1 and sunk thousands of hours in the demo when I was younger.
I was feeling nostalgic tonight so I decided to boot up the game on my emulator and then came to UA-cam and found this video. I feel exactly the same way about this game as you do and it absolutely deserves a spot in the PS1 Classics section of the PS Plus subscription. I would have no problem paying for the expensive tier just for this game if it got trophy support. Also, good job on your gameplay capture being in hard mode to truly show how freaking chaotic and brutal the gameplay can be. I have probably finished this game hundreds of times as I’ve been playing it since I was 11 back in 99.
I think I am the only person in Poland who was lucky enough to have had a copy of Einhander as well as Chocobo's Dungeon 2 in the 90's. I have no clue how I got my hands on either of these (apparently my dad had a friend who had an enormous weeaboo son) but they were my introduction to the world of Japanese media. Permanently embedding an idea in my mind that Squaresoft was _the_ company that made outstanding games with incredible visuals, music and atmosphere. I would've never been the person I am without these titles, they've influenced so many of my sensibilities as an artist. I am so happy to finally hear to someone talk about these games in great length, since I care for them a lot more than I do about FINAL FANTASY or other things that Squaresoft is predominantly known for. So thank you!
A couple of fun regional differences between the Japanese version and the western version (I've only extensively played the Japanese version, don't ask):
- the narrative black and white scrolling text from the attract mode and between cinematics is slightly different;
- Japanese version has a fourth difficulty, referred to as 'Free', with unlimited continues, but also no scoring system;
- the Earth's capital in the Japanese version is called Sodom, as opposed to Gesetz.
WHERE ARE ALL OF YOUR SUBS!?!? This video is some of the best quality content I've found on the entire platform in a long time, definite sub from me. Glory with the moon, mercy on the earth!
The year was 1999 and my friend bought the game and didn't like it, so he offered it to me for $20. Hands down, the best game I've played on the PS1 and I still have it in my collection.
I was introduced to this game in the way that most people were, and that was through playing the sampler discs for the PS1. It really is an underrated classic. I still have my copy of the sampler disc and PS1, and I enjoy playing the first level over and over again. I’d really like to play the full game, but it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever get my hands on a copy. At least I can play the game through an online emulator.
Pretty nice game, yes. As a German I especially enjoyed the german voice bits through out. Unfortunately I discovered Einhänder AFTER R-Type Delta and thus wasn't that much into it at the time.
As a huge Einhänder fan and one who made a fanfiction based on it back in 99, I greatly appreciate this! I’ve played this damn game consistently until 2005 then every other year still to now. I have YET to beat it on the hardest level with no deaths. However, that’s a challenge I’m still going to take m.
I used to spend the night at my best friend's house when we were kids and after playing til 2 am we'd crash with the music playing loud af. Used to burn into the tv lmao
It was the only rare ps1 game I owned, I managed to buy it for $30 around 2010. I personally didn’t care for the game’s attempt at a plot, but I did appreciate it for being a lot of fun to play.
The intro bleeps are class lol
I just turned 37 and I remember playing this game at my friend's house on his PlayStation 1. This game is awesome I was instantly hooked by the whole design of the ships we piloted, the graphics, story and soundtrack. It reminds me of another game I was playing around that time, Project: Horned Owl. A gun shooter by Konami🙌 that felt other worldly and gritty. The whole machine and moving parts feel... Ahhh, sweet nostalgia induced dopamine rush .... 👦🏽🎮 📺🎮🧑🏻
I never played the full game but I remember playing the hell out of the demo over and over
One of my favorite games ever. I don't know where my copy went but I still have my save 😂
I pretty much only play shmups nowadays, they are just what I enjoy for whatever reason. "It feels impossible until it's not" is a perfect description of most of them (at least the good ones).
This is a great video, I've been watching your videos the last couple of days, they are all top notch.
Appreciate the kind words, thanks for watching! :)
I was thinking about the music and found this video in appreciation
I had always remembered this game from the demo disk until I actually played it fully
It’s bgm was amazing and it was always in my head until KH3 had Schwarzgeist as a secret boss and I literally remembered it completely (using the Endymion gumi ship to fight it plays Thermosphere as the bgm)
I wish they'd digitally re-release this game, physical copies are going for $300-$600.
Buy a japanese copy, mate. Cheaper and has a prettier cover.
I remember this game being so hard, it was my dad who finished this game. Man.. thise were the days. One of the best ps games we ever had back then.
Thanks very much for the video. I never knew there were so much in this game up until now. Thebalternate endings, unlockables, heck, even the lore itself is pretty interesting.
Freakin' love Einhander. Blew me away on release. Needs the HD treatment - would buy in an instant
Einhander is one of my most favorite games of all time. I still pick it up to play often on emulators between my phone and PC.
Loved filling my ps classic with some of these obscure non EU released titles. I'm not big into shmups but Einhander is such a cool game
Wow what a great review man! So happy I found your channel, I’ve been searching for a great video game essayist that talks about more obscure games for a while now. I learned a lot from this video, good job!
Really appreciate the comment, glad you enjoyed it :)
This is definitely an interesting one! It has a surprising amount of depth for a side scroller shooter that you just wouldn't expect! Kinda sickening it didn't get a PAL release, be a nice one to get! Brilliant review man!
Yeah it's a heartbreaker, but those who know really love it, so it's all about getting its name out there for more people to check it out!
Appreciate the comment, thanks as always for watching 😁
Wow! I just found your channel today and watched the 3 hour Namco video. I thought surely that's got to be it right? How many videos can someone produce that are incredibly long and feature high quality content? Then I clicked your name to see what other videos you have and...I'm speechless.
The answer to the question- How many feature length high quality videos can Sean Seanson create? Yes, all of them. Up-voted and subbed. ;)
Addendum- Einhinder was such a rare game in the US (when it was new) that my best friend and I drove all across the state of Florida trying to find it. We skipped school for a solid week with the goal of tracking down a copy of Einhinder and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. I found Tactics Ogre but we never found Einhinder. Finally, we had enough and wanted to play it so badly that we modded our PSX's with the Stealth Chip and burned copies of the game just to play it. The game is absolutely incredible and should be played by all. There are only three shmup's that I like better...Thunder Force IV (Genesis), Radiant Silvergun (Saturn), and Last Resort (Neo Geo).
Can't even fault your top three, all classics!
@@SeanSeanson
Thank you my good sir!
I. Love. This. Game. Back in the PlayStation days I just couldn't get in to games like I used to. I played FF7 and MGS and loved those, PE was cool, and Brave Fencer Musashi too ... but that was it. I couldn't find anything else to hold my interest but then I ended up with a Pizza Hut demo CD and on it was an Einhander demo. I played and replyed that demo so many times. Never played the full game and now I think I should. ❤❤
Graphics and overall presentation reminds me of Alien Soldier (Sega Mega Drive)
Oh, good shout!
Alien Soldier is a lot of fun too.
Might have seen this game once back in the 90s, but as for its soundtrack, that I discovered 3 years ago. What a wild ride it's been. Its atmosphere is similar to Starcraft and the cloud levels in Frogger 1 for the PS1 and PC. I love games that kind of carried that torch for me like Gradius V, Tekken 4, Gran Turismo 3, Mario Galaxy 1 & 2.
I had a demo disk that had the first mission on it and I played the heck out of that mission, sometimes I look it up in the Playstation store hoping it will randomly be added but no luck but I can dream and also Front Mission 3 was one of my favorite games when I was little, I would love to play both games again
The soundtrack for this game goes crazy
I remember playing a section of this on a demo disc. Pretty fun from what I remember
I want Einhander: Reborn
Dude, this is an amazing retro review! I actually never owned the game back in the day, but i did get to play Einhander on a Playstation demo disc. And I played it a lot! I know that first boss battle music very well haha =) Great work!
Apprecaite the comment! Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching :)
Me also. ✊🔥💯
As a massive G police fan as a kid I remember looking at Einhander from afar in gaming magazines thinking how cool it looked....but then future cop came out and life was ok again.
Future Cop coming in with the 2 player co-op and sorting life out indefinitely.
I have to play G police again its been forever, love Future Cop LAPD as well, would be awesome to play COOP again.
I remember having a demo disc with this on it, and i played that demo more than another demo as a kid. I should attempt to play the full game.
Amazing review, thank you so much for taking the time!
Nice work, man. Excellent review!
Nice. I really hope Square revisits this.
This game is iconic!
I know that for myself, at the time, I wasn't a big shooter fan, and while I was intrigued about Einhander, Taito had released G-Darius around the same time, and if I was going to go for a game, it would be the more forgiving one that allowed you to fire kamehameha beams
very fair, plus shooting weird fish is fun
Very much so.
But I think the beam attacks drew my novice attention more. Sort of like a few years earlier, one of my friends got a Duo, and Blazing Lazers taught me that yes, there are shooters that can draw in a novice like fruit flies to cider vinegar.
I discovered Einhänder only like a week ago
Einhander era el Metal Gear Rising de PS1, and it was also the Dark Souls of shoot 'em ups
Einhander is straight up one of the greatest video games of all time. It's an absolute tragedy that Square Enix hasn't touched it at all save for a light cameo in WoFF. At least FF Tactics gets some half-decent spiritual successors, albeit none that come even close to surpassing the classic.
I heard about this game back in the nineties as I love the PS1, but being a PAL owner I never played it. Have a Japanese machine now though, so I think I’ll right that wrong. The soundtrack sounds incredible, like Wipeout 2097 quality. Hard to decide whether I love the Amiga or PlayStation more for game soundtracks, both have amazing examples.
I legit used to not beat the bosses as fast as I could, because I wanted to hear the banger tracks. (If you knew where to hit em, most bosses can be dropped in a few seconds with the right weapons)
I played a lot of it on the demo disk as a kid
I just found this channel trying to see if Small Soldiers for the PS1 was a good or bad game. I'm so glad I did!
I still have my original copy of the game and that soundtrack bops! I love Yoko’s stage theme the most
One of the best games. Maybe the best game.
Great game. My fav ps1 game
I played this demo so much. I never got to play the full game
Great game. Love getting the secret red fighter with the Wasp and Flash combo at 9999 shots.
It was crazy hard but worth it.
@5:57 the Riot is not the railgun of the game, that spot is reserved for the Flash. the Riot is an electrical shock attack weapon sir! how you got E-magnetic RAILGUN from LIGHTING BOLTS is beyond me 😅🤣
Still good to see this game getting the attention it deserves so thanks for making this sir!
I still play it from time to time 24 years later. Sadly, the CD died long ago.
Also to clarify the story at the end a bit.
--- Spoiler ---
- You recieved command from Hyperion the combat station which is the last boss.
- You are not alone. You came in squad and each time you died you just swap control to other ships that just follow up to your location (according to the manual in Japanese).
- The Moon expexted you to die in the process and all the follow up missions after the first one are improvised from your command.
- The rocket that the Earth launched contain a very powerful combat sattellite that rival the fire power of the Hyperion and it was launched as a desperate counter attack because of you destroying a large chunk of Earth forces.
- After you destroy Earth's combat sattelite, the Moon sent the EOS squad (unmanned fighter) to gift you one last glory: DEAD, so that all of your combat data will be use for the next batch of the EOS unmanned fighter program.
- YOU FUCKING SURVIVED your betrayal!
- 3 months later someone on the Earth surface repair and reequipped your ship and you flew back to the Moon to sent a FUCKING MESSAGE.
- The Hyperion (your commander) demanded that you throw down your weapons and surrender so you FUKCED HER UP (mind you, this is the strongest battle station the Moon has.. no, had).
- You proceed to fuck the entire Moon forces like you had done with the Earth forces (sadly, in cutscene).
- Both side had enough of your very passionate messages and end the war.
- You and your squadmates end the world war! (Bonus point if you never die)
- After the end credit: YOU STILL SURVIVE!!!
Shudder sounds like Metallic Madness from Sonic CD's edgy cousin and I love that about it. The rap sample even gets reused in Ape Escape: Primed & Pumped.
It is honestly so depressing how much of Squaresoft's library never made it over here. I get Japanese titles not leaving their native country, as localisation must've been a pain and it's the cost/gain ratio, but seeing stuff like Parasite Eve and Chrono Cross in full English and never releasing over here is gutting.
The only good thing is some of their stuff can be found on the US PS3 store, and with a bit of jiggery pokery, you can play these. It's how I played Parasite Eve for the first time for my review. But nowhere near enough games - including this one - were made available. Thank god for emulation. This just looks fantastic, and the intro to the boss at 13:36 sent genuine goosebumps down my arms.
Stick that in a trailer, and I bet us Europe peeps would've snapped it up. Fantastically covered! Tons more US-locked Square stuff for you to cover which I'd love to see ;)
Yeah we got shafted by Square quite a bit during that era. I'd like to think Konami and Namco giving us a few weird exclusives makes up for it but its really not the same 😅
@@SeanSeanson I can only think it was due to how many languages Europe covered - and the extensive localisation some of these titles may have needed. Doesn't excuse Bushido Blade 2 not coming out here though -_-
It wasn't even super consistent, as we got Saga Frontier 2 and Parasite Eve 2. Madness.
Still, as you say, we got some gems like Gungage and Poy Poy 2 to boast about!
2-D Shmups are a genre of games that I've wanted to love my whole life, but could never get into. As an adult, I realized why: Einhander was the first one I ever played, and I've always loved it so much, it's completely ruined the rest of the genre for me.
If another dev team can remake Crash Bandicoot. What's stopping another developer from taking the reigns? I would love to see a remake of this on the PS5.
I'm sure there are many dev's who would jump at the oppertunity in a Heartbeat. Never say never 👀
@@SeanSeanson Well, hopefully it happens in my lifetime lol.
great review, played it on my PSP more than 10 years ago
Just got recommended your channel, great video and keep up the content!
Love this game. Still have the disc somewhere
Square-Enix Music republished the Einhander soundtrack a while ago. I bought the CD and have it hanging on my wall in a shadowbox. Listen to it on nice headphones with a quality CD player! I recommend the Sennheiser HD600 and a Sony Discman D-25 if you can find one.
In the third stage did anyone else hear
Calling SL Beatrick
Full-grown flavorician
?
This game is amazing. I can't even remember when I first played it but I thought it was amazing and felt even better than Gradius III
Got my save since this day, but was never able to finish it.
Together with R-Type Delta and G-Darius, I consider it the best shmup on the PS1.
Just saw a playthrough of this (because I know I would not survive this game 😅) and something I notice are the mech designs for the bosses. Not all of the bosses are just random beefed up helis and rockets, almost all of them (especially the first boss) have distinguishable faces. The first one when you strip away its armor there's still a distinguishable face I can make out, those mechs have character and personality akin to the mechs in Evangelion. And considering what you said about the Moon being the bad guys I kinda felt bad for some of the bosses...? Anyways that's just an observation, the mech designs stood out to me more than any other shmups and yes, the soundtrack is a blood-pumping banger!
I had a demo of this game on one of those old school demo discs back in the day. We played the SHIT out of that first level 🥲
I played this game a bunch on a demo my playstation brought
...i was in such a quest to find this game.
i first experienced it on one of the many PS1 Demo Discs, and i was unable to remember it's name.
Their are a lot of indie devs make a lot of shoot ‘‘em up games specially now these days it’s just that triple AAA studios don’t make them anymore, only indie makes them.
thank you for this video, I played this A LOT as a kid, and actually never finished this game, due to its high difficulty, but still there were some times that I play this EVERYDAY, trying to get further and further, and whenever I managed to get to a new area or see new enemy, it was so exciting, now I wonder if I can actually finish this game finally, thanks for reminding me about this game, and after seeing some stuff I never saw "WAIT WHERE IS THIS? WHO IS THAT ENEMY?", I will try to play again, kinda skipped spoiler part of the video since was just seeing stuff I never saw but will watch again later fully.
Awesome review!
The rapping section of the soundtrack is soooooo 90s Japan 😄
nice video,We appreciate your efforts, thnks bro ;)
There are continues in the game. I still own this game even today. Good review though.
A game I want to play but never will I am god awful at shmups
I remember this game, i didn't have the full game it was on a ps1 demo game disc with other demos
Damn I just thought of my first AC name😂 Einhander
Underappreciated? Sorry but for us that were there when this game was released and enjoyed the shotter genre, this game was always a must have.
This title does deserve a modern remake or a sequel.
its criminal that this isn't available on modern hardware but then again knowing modern Square, they would fuck it up somehow...