YMMV / Einhänder

• Accidental Aesop: The last mission of the game has you going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against your comrades and superiors, since you survived a suicide mission where you were supposed to die. A YouTube commenter said it best: If you don't want people to commit treason, don't ask them to fight all of your enemies by themselves and then try to kill them afterward.
• Awesome Music: "Shudder" is generally considered the best song, but the whole soundtrack is fairly good.
• Cult Classic: Einhander has gained quite a cult following. While it isn't as popular as SquareSoft's RPG works, it gained a following due to being a surprisingly good Shoot 'Em Up that isn't an RPG game. Yet it isn't completely forgotten as the player's ship appears as a Mirage in World of Final Fantasy, a boss in Final Fantasy XIV named "Einhander" uses its gunpod mechanic, and The Schwarzgeist itself appears in Kingdom Hearts III as the Superboss for the Gummi Ship segments. One of the playable Gummi ships you can find plans for is an Endymion fighter.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Flash, a secret unlockable gunpod, is quite simply the best weapon in the game. And once you get it, you can select it as a starter gunpod in a new game.
  • The Grenade and Python also qualify, both arguably the most powerful gunpods in terms of damage per hit. However, the Python is shot out in a rather randomly arranged string, making it hard to hit enemies and thus Awesome, but Impractical.
  • The Astraea Mk II. This fighter is identical to the Astraea Mk I, but has 9999 rounds of ammo for any gunpod it picks up or starts with. Getting this fighter is difficult since you need to clear the game on hard difficulty without continuing (you can die multiple times without wasting a continue though). Combine that with the Flash mentioned above or the Juno, and you can tear through anything and everything with ease.
• Nightmare Fuel: The bad ending, which shows the pilot's cracked helmet and the words "Game Over" as this ominous music plays.
• Older Than They Think: Einhander is not Square's first foray into the Shoot 'Em Up genre, that honor goes to King's Knight. However, Einhander is their most fondly remembered Shoot-Em-Up.
• Shocking Moments: At the time, nobody expected Square to create a Shoot 'Em Up, despite their previous effort with King's Knight. But quite unlike that game, this one was much more successful and more well known, even going as far as to have a boss be featured in Kingdom Hearts.
• That One Attack:
  • Sturmvogel has a particular attack in its first phase where it fires several cluster bombs into the air that slowly rain down. These bombs explode into a Spread Shot of 6 directions if damaged or if they hit the ground, causing tricky to avoid bullet storm regardless of whether you destroy them or not. At the same time, it also fires a dual stream of rapid bullets from its head while they're landing, making things even dicier.
  • Sturmvogel's second phase has a particularly troublesome attack where it fires a Macross Missile Massacre of large homing missiles. These missiles have a surprisingly high amount of HP which makes them tough to destroy and they're fired out in a rather random spread while homing in somewhat erratically, making it hard to evade.
  • Hyperion has two forms of Homing Lasers. One of which is the slower blue one that homes in consistently and relentlessly for some time, while the other is the faster red one which homes in on you, slows to a crawl for a short duration (while still homing in), then flies quickly in the direction it was moving in while attempting to curve slightly towards you. Individually, the red one isn't too hard to avoid, but the blue one is far trickier to dodge. However, the worst part is that Hyperion can and will tend to use both types together in one attack phase which becomes a huge chore to evade.
• That One Boss: Schwarzgeist is considered the toughest boss in the game as it has one of the smallest weakspots in the game (the midsection that fires out the laser spray), a lot of health if you don't hit said weakspot, and several troublesome attacks. The orange laser spray from the midsection hits huge areas of the screen with small safe spots. The top section can fire Homing Lasers, a Spread Shot, and a shot that fires more shots. The top hatch spawns a fast homing device that explodes into a Spread Shot if you destroy it (if it's right in your face, tough luck). The three "legs" all use a Macross Missile Massacre. He also has these shield-like Attack Drones that actively put themselves between your shots and it, have a good bit of health, fire fast lasers at you, and can even cooperate with the boss in a Reflecting Laser attack. Only the "legs", the top hatch and the shield things are destructible, and if you destroyed the top hatch, you have to face Monitor right after (which is easier but tricky, and if you die to it you have to face Schwarzgeist all over again).
• That One Level: The second half of stage 5, after beating the miniboss. It's so filled with enemies and bullets that if you don't destroy them in time, you'll be swamped all over!
• Scrappy Weapon: The Vulcan, which has attack power no different from the standard machine gun on all the fighters save the Endymion Mk-3, but is everywhere throughout the game. It's better than no gunpod at all, but it can be annoying if you accidentally pick one up and replace something that was stronger.