Panzer Paladin

This was a pretty fun action platformer. While the platforming is a bit on the simple side the game borrows a bit from several classic titles like Zelda II, Mega Man and Castlevania. I loved the old anime style ccharacters and cutscenes and had fun with the weapon mechanic. The checkpoints are spacced out way too far apart for my liking, a simple mistake can cost you a lot of time as a result.

I really wanted to love Panzer Paladin, but it’s hard to recommend because of how frustratingly unbalanced it can be. The checkpoints are spaced far apart, and activating one requires sacrificing a weapon, which often feels more punishing than rewarding. I also wish the weapon system had been expanded further, as it never quite reaches its full potential. The final stage was where the game completely lost me. I even lowered the difficulty to Easy, but it did little to reduce the frustration. The level is packed with instant-death hazards, and the long stretches between checkpoints make every mistake feel unnecessarily punishing. By the time I reached the final boss, my patience had run out. It’s a shame, because there’s a lot to like here. The retro presentation, soundtrack, and core gameplay all show real promise. Unfortunately, the excessive difficulty and questionable checkpoint design overshadow much of what makes the game enjoyable. One final disappointment: the trailer showcases the game on a CRT display, yet the game itself doesn’t support a native 4:3 aspect ratio. For a title that leans so heavily into retro aesthetics, that feels like a missed opportunity.

Remembered being excited for this game, starting it, and then not finishing it, so I revisited it to see what my problems were. I played through on Hard, both the standard mode and the "Remix" mode. The main problem is that while the weapon gimmick is fun on paper it feels like the rest of the game is being held prisoner by it to make it make sense, and it usually results in completely lopsided levels of challenge depending on what it's asking of you. You have an enormous health bar in this game, likely to warrant the usefulness of healing abilities and buffs, but because you can stockpile these healing and buff abilities it means damage is basically never what killed me past the first 2 stages or so. The average enemy attack will do anywhere from 5% to 10% of your total health and random weapon drops from enemies will often have healing effects that recover much more than that, or attack and defense buffs which are easily pocketed to make tough enemies a joke. This makes any level design setup involving only enemies (including every boss fight, EVEN THE FINAL BOSS) to fall completely flat. They attempt to remedy this by putting enemies near instant-death traps so they can…

Steel guards ancient hope Every weapon tells a tale Heroes forge their path

I've tried to start playing this game multiple times, and the same thing kills my interest every time. The checkpointing system in this game is straight up bad. These are some sizable levels and there are only three checkpoints in each level: one at the very start, one in the middle, and one before the boss. Plus, you have to sacrifice one of your weapons to even activate it for some reason. I really hate this kind of punishment because you could do something as simple as fall into a pit by accident, likely from one of the various grapple section over bottomless pits they want you to do, and be sent really far back into the level. Oh, and there's a lives system on top of that as well, so you get booted from the level if you make too many mistakes as well. I work long hours, come back tired, and I don't have time want to bother with games that have time-wasting mechanics like these anymore. It's a shame because I love the presentation, and there are so few mech games which make the pilot playable to give you that sense of scale and power that a mech provides. However, I don't think I can finish this one, at least not now.

Think Castlevania’s classic whip action mixed with the charm of Shovel Knight. Toss in that vibrant, colorful Mega Man aesthetic and its classic 'choose your own boss' setup, and you've got this beautiful, super fun nostalgia trip.