Panzer Paladin brings wild weaponry to some great action, asking you to think on the fly before your giant hockey stick breaks because you’ve smashed it over a centaur’s head.
Now, this title is a solid experience filled with big robots and bigger demons. The levels are varied, the monsters are creative, and smashing things just feels really good. What elevates it into something unique and special is the game’s weapon system. You can pick up dropped weapons from defeated monsters, each of which has a different reach, durability, and damage amount. You can carry a bunch of them all at once, so it’s on you to decide how many swords, knives, and hammers you want to lug out.
What adds to the weapon choice is that you can destroy a weapon purposely to get a special bonus from it. Maybe you get a health or damage boost. Maybe it does a large blast that damages nearby areas. This means you’re not just looking at ranges and damage types, but also thinking about when to break your weapons purposely. However, this lowers the amount of tools you have to fight with, potentially leaving you swinging your fists at a dragon. Weapons aren’t exactly super durable to begin with, though, so sometimes it’s smarter to break something rather than fight with it. Also, you can keep an eye on the durability meter, pausing combat to snap a weapon at the last second to get the most use out of it.
All of these little features had me continually analyzing my weapon states and combat situations throughout the game, weighing my options as I rushed through fast-paced monster throwdowns. It’s a game that encourages continual strategy adjustments, keeping me engaged on a couple of levels above brainless enemy bashing. I loved how I was always looking for ways to make the most of my weapons, and in boss fights, how this element had me struggling to find the best methods to survive based on my random selection of weapons (and their oddball bonuses). You don’t fall into a single attack strategy because the weapons and their bonuses are constantly changing, making for a game that you can get familiar with, but also stays new on each run.
Panzer Paladin is great fun, offering some great stage and monster designs that keep you curious about what’s going to happen next. It’s the thoughtful weapon system that kept me on my toes throughout the game, though. It forced me to shift my plans often, or see what things were possible based on the random tools I’d grabbed, making every stage run feel new. It kept me compelled to come back and play some more, making it one of the most satisfying action games I played this year.
Panzer Paladin is available now on the Nintendo Switch and Steam.
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