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

Bara_no_Hime

New member
Sep 15, 2010
3,646
0
0
crimson5pheonix said:
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.
**opens mouth**

**closes mouth**

That was exactly what I was going to say.

OT, sort of: technically speaking, if the revolver bits work, all they'd need to do is put in blanks and get the same result. I don't think it would really do much, but then the random vibration thing never made much sense in the game either.
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
15,489
0
0
With respect, ehhh...

When you talk about the ridiculousness of Cloud's sword, we can understand because it's a BFS. However, even so, it's clearly functional. Giant cutting edge on one so, you on the other, slam down on enemy, done. Squall's sword? Heh heh heh heh... A poorly-conceived trigger system on a sword that requires split-second timing to light it up and do extra damage... What? Come on. There are better ways to set your sword on fire. Making that mess ain't it. Further, despite all groaning at FF13, at least Lightning's gunblades ARE gunblades. FF8 was a big distorted mess of bad ideas...

(Yes, I know the whole Squall Is Dead theory. Interesting, but it doesn't make the game better for me.)
 

Gottesstrafe

New member
Oct 23, 2010
881
0
0
FalloutJack said:
With respect, ehhh...

When you talk about the ridiculousness of Cloud's sword, we can understand because it's a BFS. However, even so, it's clearly functional. Giant cutting edge on one so, you on the other, slam down on enemy, done. Squall's sword? Heh heh heh heh... A poorly-conceived trigger system on a sword that requires split-second timing to light it up and do extra damage... What? Come on. There are better ways to set your sword on fire. Making that mess ain't it. Further, despite all groaning at FF13, at least Lightning's gunblades ARE gunblades. FF8 was a big distorted mess of bad ideas...

(Yes, I know the whole Squall Is Dead theory. Interesting, but it doesn't make the game better for me.)
Let's not forget how laughably impractical it was to use a pistol grip as a sword hilt. My god, how does Squall not wrench his shoulder every time he attempts to swing that thing? Lightning's gunsword is WAY more practical with it's butterfly knife construction, hell even when it comes to Cloud's buster sword my only complaints were that the grip was too short for what is essentially a sharpened steel I-beam fashioned into a zweihander and that he swings it like a rapier.
 

newwiseman

New member
Aug 27, 2010
1,325
0
0
FFVIII is the only PS FF game I don't own. I even own Chronicles with the shit Chrono Trigger port where the menu takes a minute to open outside of battle. I'll be the first to admit that FFVIII is shit. But as shit as 8 is the gunblade is cool.
 

Mahorfeus

New member
Feb 21, 2011
996
0
0
When it comes to Final Fantasy, practicality goes out the window. Get that shit out of here. Why use an unwieldy weapon that functions through absurd applications of magical pseudoscience? Because it looks kool cool. For the love of god, just look at the clusterfuck of a weapon that Cloud uses in Advent Children.

At any rate, asides from the corridors and the fact that the tutorial essentially spanned over two-thirds of the fucking game, FFXIII was not all that bad. Far from the worst Final Fantasy game. Honestly, out of the ones I've played extensively, I'd give that award to FFII.

I see FFVIII ragged on a lot, but I actually liked the battle system, the Junction system, the Draw system... well, maybe not the Draw system. Ironically, the card game was the one part I didn't really touch.
 

Kaimax

New member
Jul 25, 2012
422
0
0
LarsInCharge said:
Why were you arguing on YT? Do you have a pain fetish?
It was actually pretty civil at first, until he starts being defensive by insisting that Leon in KH is "canon" to the Final Fantasy series, just because he thought he saw Leon using the Gunblade to shoot things from afar.
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
15,489
0
0
Gottesstrafe said:
FalloutJack said:
With respect, ehhh...

When you talk about the ridiculousness of Cloud's sword, we can understand because it's a BFS. However, even so, it's clearly functional. Giant cutting edge on one so, you on the other, slam down on enemy, done. Squall's sword? Heh heh heh heh... A poorly-conceived trigger system on a sword that requires split-second timing to light it up and do extra damage... What? Come on. There are better ways to set your sword on fire. Making that mess ain't it. Further, despite all groaning at FF13, at least Lightning's gunblades ARE gunblades. FF8 was a big distorted mess of bad ideas...

(Yes, I know the whole Squall Is Dead theory. Interesting, but it doesn't make the game better for me.)
Let's not forget how laughably impractical it was to use a pistol grip as a sword hilt. My god, how does Squall not wrench his shoulder every time he attempts to swing that thing? Lightning's gunsword is WAY more practical with it's butterfly knife construction, hell even when it comes to Cloud's buster sword my only complaints were that the grip was too short for what is essentially a sharpened steel I-beam fashioned into a zweihander and that he swings it like a rapier.
Possibly you mean a saber? I have been informed that the rapier is thrusting weapon.
 

Kyrian007

Nemo saltat sobrius
Legacy
Mar 9, 2010
2,564
647
118
Kansas
Country
U.S.A.
Gender
Male
Ajarat said:
XenoScifi said:
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.
See I've never understood that point about the draw and junction system. The Junction and Draw system was to me obviously an attempt to simplify and whittle away the grind, excess palaver, and the materia system that were the only real drawbacks to VII. You had to fight a couple hundred or so fights to level up materia, and you had to do that for each piece of materia, and I had dozens of materia by the time the game was over... grind, grind, grind, grind... for thousands and thousands of combats. On the other hand, in VIII I could draw a spell 300 times in 5 or 10 minutes in 1 fight and NEVER HAVE TO DRAW THAT SPELL AGAIN. Effectively meaning you only had to A: fight creatures that had a spell you didn't, and B: you only had to fight them ONCE. Adding to that the fact that you could play the game at any pace because the difficulty scaled; FFVII not only reduced the excessive grind in VII, they very nearly ELIMINATED the tedious grind in a FF game. That turned a kids game (because only kids have that much spare time) into a game for adults with responsibilities, jobs, and social obligations.

I was in college when VII came out, and I barely had time to finish it back then. After joining the work force as an adult it would take me YEARS to invest the kind of time it would take to finish a game like VIII. Whereas I can retrogame for a couple of months and bang out a playthru of VIII.
 

YingDerpington

New member
Apr 23, 2012
201
0
0
FalloutJack said:
Gottesstrafe said:
FalloutJack said:
With respect, ehhh...

When you talk about the ridiculousness of Cloud's sword, we can understand because it's a BFS. However, even so, it's clearly functional. Giant cutting edge on one so, you on the other, slam down on enemy, done. Squall's sword? Heh heh heh heh... A poorly-conceived trigger system on a sword that requires split-second timing to light it up and do extra damage... What? Come on. There are better ways to set your sword on fire. Making that mess ain't it. Further, despite all groaning at FF13, at least Lightning's gunblades ARE gunblades. FF8 was a big distorted mess of bad ideas...

(Yes, I know the whole Squall Is Dead theory. Interesting, but it doesn't make the game better for me.)
Let's not forget how laughably impractical it was to use a pistol grip as a sword hilt. My god, how does Squall not wrench his shoulder every time he attempts to swing that thing? Lightning's gunsword is WAY more practical with it's butterfly knife construction, hell even when it comes to Cloud's buster sword my only complaints were that the grip was too short for what is essentially a sharpened steel I-beam fashioned into a zweihander and that he swings it like a rapier.
Possibly you mean a saber? I have been informed that the rapier is thrusting weapon.
one of the more modern terms for saber is actually a cut-and-thrust sword used in fencing thats sort of based off the cavalry saber (when I practiced fencing years ago I was told that the "fencing saber" was technically a rapier) so rapier could still refer to such a weapon, though that's unlikely.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
Legacy
Oct 29, 2010
18,157
2
3
Country
UK
Wow that is the first weapon that isn't a mash up of two or more weapons from the new team!

To those who are wondering who are the new group and what happened to the previous team, they didn't renew their contract and had moved onto other works now so they hired them as the replacement.
 

SwimmingRock

New member
Nov 11, 2009
1,177
0
0
Gottesstrafe said:
Let's not forget how laughably impractical it was to use a pistol grip as a sword hilt. My god, how does Squall not wrench his shoulder every time he attempts to swing that thing? Lightning's gunsword is WAY more practical with it's butterfly knife construction, hell even when it comes to Cloud's buster sword my only complaints were that the grip was too short for what is essentially a sharpened steel I-beam fashioned into a zweihander and that he swings it like a rapier.
Which is baffling, considering pistol swords actually exist. They could've used known, functional designs and given the weapon more variety by implementing the different kinds. But then those games are set in fictional worlds, so maybe that was a design choice.
 

Combustion Kevin

New member
Nov 17, 2011
1,206
0
0
so, doesn't the cylinder part of the weapon cause a major structural flaw in the weapon? it would break in half as soon as you'd hit something sturdier than a wooden board.
 

Ruisu

Enjoy the Silence
Jul 11, 2013
190
0
0
Scarim Coral said:
Wow that is the first weapon that isn't a mash up of two or more weapons from the news team!
Except, it kind of is. lol
 

Kaimax

New member
Jul 25, 2012
422
0
0
RealRT said:
And they still didn't make the Soul Reaver? Come on!
Not the same team Bro.

They made the Gunblade it's because it falls right into their Job description for this "Reforged Show" Combine 2 existing weapons into 1.
 

RealRT

New member
Feb 28, 2014
1,058
0
0
Kaimax said:
RealRT said:
And they still didn't make the Soul Reaver? Come on!
Not the same team Bro.

They made the Gunblade it's because it falls right into their Job description for this "Reforged Show" Combine 2 existing weapons into 1.
Well I was talking about Man-at-Arms in general. They made so many swords and still no Soul Reaver. That's lame.
 

Gottesstrafe

New member
Oct 23, 2010
881
0
0
FalloutJack said:
Possibly you mean a saber? I have been informed that the rapier is thrusting weapon.
YingDerpington said:
one of the more modern terms for saber is actually a cut-and-thrust sword used in fencing thats sort of based off the cavalry saber (when I practiced fencing years ago I was told that the "fencing saber" was technically a rapier) so rapier could still refer to such a weapon, though that's unlikely.
Yeah I was trying to reference the fencing sabre, must've used the words interchangeably by mistake. Although a cavalry saber or the one used by NCO USMC looks light enough for easy use anyway, so I guess the distinction is kind of moot.

SwimmingRock said:
Which is baffling, considering pistol swords actually exist. They could've used known, functional designs and given the weapon more variety by implementing the different kinds. But then those games are set in fictional worlds, so maybe that was a design choice.
Most likely, yes. Nomura went on record saying that he designed the thing during a time when he was really into silver accessories. I'd still prefer a practical design first seeing how it's mainly used as a sword. A gun barrel along the back of the blade would look practically the same and be way more ergonomic. Hell, how cool would a gunblade that is essentially a condensed gunlance from Monster Hunter be?

Combustion Kevin said:
so, doesn't the cylinder part of the weapon cause a major structural flaw in the weapon? it would break in half as soon as you'd hit something sturdier than a wooden board.
I know right? There's a reason people don't hit things with the barrel of the gun (aside from warping the barrel making the gun useless I mean). You should see Seifer's gunblade. It's essentially a semi-auto pistol with a longsword bayonet. That guy's upper body strength is amazing!
 

iniudan

New member
Apr 27, 2011
538
0
0
Britpoint said:
Well VIII is my second favourite Final Fantasy, the Junction system is the one of the best customisation systems in any Final Fantasy
I personally think it is the worse, as it push you toward not using most magic, so the game decay into pressing attack and limit break, as the GF animation just take way too long for what they do. But I don't dislike the game, as I actually enjoy the world, even if a bit dopey.