Final Fantasy VIII's Gunblade Gets the Man at Arms Treatment

[StewShearerOld]

Final Fantasy VIII's Gunblade Gets the Man at Arms Treatment


Squall's Gunblade has been made into a real world weapon thanks to the efforts of the fine folks at Man at Arms.

While Final Fantasy VII's Buster Sword pretty much broke the mold when it came to ridiculous weaponry, Final Fantasy VIII provided its own contender with Squall's iconic Gunblade. The lovechild of a sword and a revolver, it was awesome, silly and beloved by the game's many fans. In turn, the stupendous sword-smiths at <a hef=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131285-Sephiroths-Masamune-Sword-Forged-In-Man-At-Arms>Man at Arms have received countless requests to see the Gunblade made reality.

Requests that <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/man%20at%20arms>the team finally fulfilled in its most recent video. Beginning with a 3D rendering, they then used a computerized plasma cutter to cut the weapon out 3/16" chromoly steel. With the fantasy blade now given rough form they used a Bader belt sander to smooth out the metal's finish. Following that, they again returned to the computer to create a stencil for Squall's famous Griever symbol which was then transposed onto the Gunblade itself with a Bridgeport CNC mill. This was followed up by giving the weapon an actual edge and heat treating it.

With the main blade portion of the weapon completed, the smiths then took to creating the gun portion of it. This involved creating several other custom pieces including a cylinder and hammer which were added on to the sword portion. The final touch was to create a Griever pendant to hang off of the sword just like in the game. Needless to say, the end result was just as spot on as the team's <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130934-Fire-Emblems-Falchion-Sword-Recreated-on-Man-at-Arms>previous projects. Granted, it doesn't actually fire bullets like the game version, but it's probably still the most realistic replica we're going to get without someone exploding a finger or two.

Source: <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GgijhlKbSc>AWE me


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[crimson5pheonix]

To be fair, the original gunblade didn't "fire" bullets either. It just used the explosion of the shell firing to vibrate the blade as it was cutting. Minor bit of trivia for one of the worst FF games.

 

[Agayek]

Every time I see these videos, I'm struck by an incredible urge to hunt down the people involved and throw money at them until they give me whatever they made in that video.

I may have a problem

 

[mad825]

Minor bit of trivia for one of the worst FF games.

Ugh. Are we seriously going to keep on saying this when even FFXIII nearly drove SE into bankruptcy? Or when FFXIII is one of the most derivative games one the market? I mean ffs, FFXII was and still is over hyped.

To be fair, they never even mentioned it was meant to be fired like a gun but rather to some extent it looks like one.

 

[El Luck]

Minor bit of trivia for one of the worst FF games.

Ugh. Are we seriously going to keep on saying this when even FFIX nearly drove SE into bankruptcy? Or when FFXIII is one of the most derivative games one the market? I mean ffs, FFXII was and still is over hyped.

To be fair, they never even mentioned it was meant to be fired like a gun but rather to some extent it looks like one.

9 nearly drove them in to bankruptcy? linkage please, never heard that'n before. But yeah I do agree, 8 gets a bit of a bad rap. I enjoyed it..mostly.

 

[mad825]

Minor bit of trivia for one of the worst FF games.

9 nearly drove them in to bankruptcy?

Soz, got the Roman numerals mixed-up. You'd think they've been made redundant by now.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Minor bit of trivia for one of the worst FF games.

Ugh. Are we seriously going to keep on saying this when even FFIX nearly drove SE into bankruptcy? Or when FFXIII is one of the most derivative games one the market? I mean ffs, FFXII was and still is over hyped.

To be fair, they never even mentioned it was meant to be fired like a gun but rather to some extent it looks like one.

I'm going to need a link on that IX statement as well. IX is still my favorite main series FF game.

Mistakes happen.

I'm not saying there aren't worse FF games than VIII. But VIII was terribad.

 

[Sanunes]

Minor bit of trivia for one of the worst FF games.

Ugh. Are we seriously going to keep on saying this when even FFIX nearly drove SE into bankruptcy? Or when FFXIII is one of the most derivative games one the market? I mean ffs, FFXII was and still is over hyped.

To be fair, they never even mentioned it was meant to be fired like a gun but rather to some extent it looks like one.

I'm going to need a link on that IX statement as well. IX is still my favorite main series FF game.

Mistakes happen.

I'm not saying there aren't worse FF games than VIII. But VIII was terribad.

VIII was probably the Final Fantasy game that broke me, for it was the first really bad Final Fantasy game I played. It also holds the distinction of being the only Final Fantasy game that I bought that I never finished because of how the enemy and player leveling worked. Since then there have been other disappointing Final Fantasy games for me, but this one was at the very least my first experience with one I didn't finish.

 

[Kaimax]

I'm not saying there aren't worse FF games than VIII. But VIII was terribad.

What made FF8 Bad to me, besides the cringe worthy story, is the F-ing Draw System with the whole Junction system in tow. Made the whole gameplay based on numbers....I hate numbers....

OT: Yeah, too bad that they can't replicate the functions of the "Real" Gunblade.

Read the YT comments...boy some are just down right stupid and defensive with the whole "firing a bullet" thing. Some even insist that "The Gunblade does shoots bullets, because the barrel extends to the tip of the blade..."

Had to even point them to Squall's Move set in Dissidia to shut them up.

 

[Britpoint]

Well VIII is my second favourite Final Fantasy, the Junction system is the one of the best customisation systems in any Final Fantasy, and Squall, while a bit on the mopey side, is really cool! AND it has the best soundtrack with the possible exception of IX, *and* the gunblade is the coolest weapon ever. Except maybe a lightsaber.

So there, there's your contrary opinion. This was an amazing video doing justice to a brilliant weapon that featured in a simply incredible game. Nyuh ^_^

 

[LarsInCharge]

VIII had a decent story, the best side-game in FF history (Triple Triad), and the second worst combat (behind FFXIII). The In-Battle Mechanics were completely worthless, as players never had to do anything except use Summons and Limit Breaks. Magic was made entirely worthless simply by existing as your stats, and basic attacks were awful until the very end because only a couple weapons pierced.

 

[LarsInCharge]

I'm not saying there aren't worse FF games than VIII. But VIII was terribad.

What made FF8 Bad to me, besides the cringe worthy story, is the F-ing Draw System with the whole Junction system in tow. Made the whole gameplay based on numbers....I hate numbers....

OT: Yeah, too bad that they can't replicate the functions of the "Real" Gunblade.

Read the YT comments...boy some are just down right stupid and defensive with the whole "firing a bullet" thing. Some even insist that "The Gunblade does shoots bullets, because the barrel extends to the tip of the blade..."

Had to even point them to Squall's Move set in Dissidia to shut them up.

Why were you arguing on YT? Do you have a pain fetish?

 

[XenoScifi]

I enjoyed FF8. I liked the story and the card side games were fun. I will say I did not like the draw system.

 

[Glen Compton]

Okay yeah that was pretty cool!
I am disappointed in one sense. I never understood how the firing mechanism worked on it,and they didn't bother.
Is it just like buck shot out the sides?

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Okay yeah that was pretty cool!
I am disappointed in one sense. I never understood how the firing mechanism worked on it,and they didn't bother.
Is it just like buck shot out the sides?

The gun feature doesn't actually throw anything. The idea is that the explosion of a specialized blank makes the sword vibrate as it cuts.

 

[Agayek]

Okay yeah that was pretty cool!
I am disappointed in one sense. I never understood how the firing mechanism worked on it,and they didn't bother.
Is it just like buck shot out the sides?

If memory serves, the firing mechanism is supposed to turn the sword into a budget vibroblade. The discharge vibrates the blade at an extremely high frequency which makes it cut better somehow.

It's pretty much pseudoscientific bullshit, but I can kinda sorta see how it's supposed to work.

 

[Ajarat]

I enjoyed FF8. I liked the story and the card side games were fun. I will say I did not like the draw system.

The ONLY thing I didn't like about the game was just a small aspect of the draw system... in that it took so bloody long. I've spent a vast majority of the game just on drawing, juctioning, and rejunctioning than anything else, and I'm a bit of a completionist. Other than that, the game was just fine imho.
The first Final Fantasy that I never cared much for was FFXIII... I watched a friend play it (it was her first FF) and I was bored to tears with the constant clop-clop down the same-looking hallways for days on end... THAT was no story, no fantasy, and more akin to a nightmare to play. It's almost as if Square forgot what a GAME was at that point, something to play rather than a test of patience, which I've found is lacking in Final Fantasy titles as of late, even including FFXIV which is heavily derivative of all Final Fantasy titles as if they couldn't come up with anything original besides an unholy amalgamation of all titles.

 

[immortalfrieza]

I'm not saying there aren't worse FF games than VIII. But VIII was terribad.

What made FF8 Bad to me, besides the cringe worthy story, is the F-ing Draw System with the whole Junction system in tow. Made the whole gameplay based on numbers....I hate numbers....

Me, after the first run I preferred to just use gameshark codes to max everybody's stats and just enjoy the story and sidequests without having to worry about the whole junction system because of how tedious and boring it was. The card game in particular was the worst since it was practically mandatory to get the best weapons but an absolute nightmare to actually play because of how cheap most of the rules tended to be, ESPECIALLY Random.

However, I'd say the much more tedious and boring battle system of 12 was the only time I had any real issues with the Final Fantasy series (that and the MMOs, but that's another matter) because unlike FF8 it didn't have nearly good enough of a story or side stuff to make up for it. FF13 I consider to be a return to form aside from that "leader dies it's game over" part, but they really need to get with the program and just make the series an action RPG already.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I'll admit I'm a FFVIII fan, but all the post-SNES era FF's were kooky. After IV and VI being, IMO, the best as far as story goes there wasn't much that Square could have done. That being said I enjoyed VIII for its look, feel and strange mechanics. I liked it because it was different.
Now more OT: I cried a bit, that was beautiful. I've always been a fan of the look of the gunblade. I always wanted a functional one, but the likelihood of it being stable enough not to blow your hand off (or at least catch some shrapnel) was too great for one to ever be made to spec. Still if this is the best we can get, I am totally happy with it.