Scythes in Games

[Pyro Paul]

As for the whole "kung fu bla bla farming implements yadda yadda" nonsense, that's a myth that is perpetuated by martial arts instructors and poorly dubbed movies. All weapons were developed with the intention of being weapons. Nobody ever picked up a trowel and thought "oh look! I can use this as a weapon! I'm going to dig the crap out of those bad guys!"

incorrect.

most weapons are developed from tools when farmers beset by raiders/pillagers/bad things turned to their tools and litterally said 'Oh look! i can use this as a weapon!'

almost every weapon melee weapon in existance has its orgin in tools.

 

[Pyro Paul]

I give you the Hoe of Destruction!

i won't lie, for a minute there i thought you where talking about the blonde.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

As for the whole "kung fu bla bla farming implements yadda yadda" nonsense, that's a myth that is perpetuated by martial arts instructors and poorly dubbed movies. All weapons were developed with the intention of being weapons. Nobody ever picked up a trowel and thought "oh look! I can use this as a weapon! I'm going to dig the crap out of those bad guys!"

incorrect.

most weapons are developed from tools when farmers beset by raiders/pillagers/bad things turned to their tools and litterally said 'Oh look! i can use this as a weapon!'

almost every weapon melee weapon in existance has its orgin in tools.

To be fair, a weapon is a tool. A great many weapons can, in fact, be leveraged for purposes other than warfare with little effort. A spear that is suitable for killing a man can be used for hunting as can any of a variety of bows. Any of a variety of axes meant for combat can also serve adequately as a wood clearing implement. In truth, of the weapons of antiquity, you only find a single type of weapon that was built from the ground up to kill other people: the sword. It makes a poor chopping tool, a poor clearing tool, an inadequate prying tool and a lousy hammering tool. But it does have the key advantage of being incredibly flexible on the battlefield, a feature that earned it the title of the queen of weapons.

 

[kitolz]

To be fair, a weapon is a tool. A great many weapons can, in fact, be leveraged for purposes other than warfare with little effort. A spear that is suitable for killing a man can be used for hunting as can any of a variety of bows. Any of a variety of axes meant for combat can also serve adequately as a wood clearing implement. In truth, of the weapons of antiquity, you only find a single type of weapon that was built from the ground up to kill other people: the sword. It makes a poor chopping tool, a poor clearing tool, an inadequate prying tool and a lousy hammering tool. But it does have the key advantage of being incredibly flexible on the battlefield, a feature that earned it the title of the queen of weapons.

You'd think that a phallus shaped weapon would be called the king of weapons instead.

 

[Abbyrose07]

Haseo from .hack//GU has multiple weapons he can use, one being Scythes...I've always thought it was his best weapon out of the three...imo.

 

[Zeraiya]

You forgot the scythe from Darksiders :O That was an awesome scythe...

EDIT: Nevermind...

Darksiders 2 is going to be awesome

 

[thedoclc]

*Snip*
So yes in fantasy, no in Total War. The death symbolism, of death as the great harvester before whom all are cut down as so much wheat in the fall, pretty much guarantees it'll show up from time to time. Also, just the choice to use a scythe immediately tells you something about the character in universe. Instant characterization for the visually oriented or just plain lazy.
*Snip*

Total War... You mean that game with Roman ninjas and shield-less Spartans? I love the series, but they don't always follow realism and occasionally give in to the urge to put silly units in.

Relatively speaking. Total War, when compared to whatever passes for realism in games today, is practically an anal-retentive smarmy history grad student yelling at folks at the SCA for mixing 11th century blade cross-sections with 13th century pommels. Sure, they occasionally work in some silliness, but compared to almost every popular title I can think of, the TW series is very conservative and very strict.

Yes, niche titles may try even harder to follow historical data, but they are niche titles for a reason. I like rule of cool, damn it, and so do most gamers.

 

[Bonecrusher]

scythes are incredibly impractical weapons because due to their length they are rather cumbersome, their weight is not well balanced and they don't even use the advantage the length could give them.
sure death uses one but he is fucking death, he is past the point of practicality.
So yeah, go for scythes as focusing items for mages and/or scifi weapons that shoot multi-colored flavors of lightning but as a practical weapon? no.

People find Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts "iconic", Lancer Assault Rifle from Gears Of War "iconic", those weird chain-blades from God Of War "iconic", but when we talk about scythes, it suddenly becomes impractical. Awesome.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

My God, some of the people in this thread seem so pissed off about scythes that they must have one stuck up their arses.

 

[teebeeohh]

scythes are incredibly impractical weapons because due to their length they are rather cumbersome, their weight is not well balanced and they don't even use the advantage the length could give them.
sure death uses one but he is fucking death, he is past the point of practicality.
So yeah, go for scythes as focusing items for mages and/or scifi weapons that shoot multi-colored flavors of lightning but as a practical weapon? no.

People find Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts "iconic", Lancer Assault Rifle from Gears Of War "iconic", those weird chain-blades from God Of War "iconic", but when we talk about scythes, it suddenly becomes impractical. Awesome.

personally, i think all those things are kinda stupid and impractical but since the god of war blades are magical blades on magical chains magically grafted onto an angry mans arms(see where i am going with this?) i am a lot more OK with those than with a chainsaw attached to an assault rifle.
and for the horned demon my death argument pretty much applies
also: iconic does not in any way, shape or form relate to practicality, iconic just means that you see the thing and immediately think of the game they are in, no matter how impractical.

 

[LucidNightmarez]

Most gamer's don't realy care if it's "impractical" in real life or not as long as it kick's ass in-game

And PS: How impractical would it be if you had a rifle empowering your swings (probably alot.. But thats not the point! It's still awesome >:I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYW2GmHB5xs

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

Hell even in D&D 3rd edition+ had Scythes with a crit multiplier of 4x. if you maxed it it would be 4d4 times 4. The Scythe is my favorite hand held weapon of all time and even one of my favorite bands based a song on it.. (of course it most likely was because of the lake Bodom massacre that was done with a axe, but still Scythes rule the universe).

Listen to the solos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuvxSb2Rq4w

 

[Solo-Wing]

Marluxia from the Kingdom Hearts series uses a Scythe.

He is pretty bad ass. I mean he WAS the final boss in Chain of Memories although that game was complete shit.

Also this dude. Not from any game but he is still a powerhouse badass god. I present Lord Death from Soul Eater.

Then again Soul Eater was all about the Scythes.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I know this has been necro but whatever I want to mention back in Guild Wars Nightfall there was a profession (Devish) that used Scythe as their weapon. It was pretty good due to its wide range hits meaning it can attack several enemies at once! Yeah the Dervish was an OP class so it got nerfed a few times.

 

[sageoftruth]

Well, there's Gordeau from the fighting game "Under Night In Birth". To make things extra cool, instead of carrying it on him, he just pulls in out of thin air whenever he need to swing it.

 

[Tayh]

I thought I'd seen this topic before.

Anyway.
I'm guessing most fans of the Scythe has never actually held one in their hand.
They are a terribly impractical and ineffective weapon. They are designed for cutting stationary and unarmoured wheat stalks, not people.

I've never seen it used in a serious manner in any of the media I consume(besides dual-wielding keen scythes in NWN 2 for the crit luls). I think that's more in the territory of anime and the like.

 

[Eddie the head]

I thought I'd seen this topic before.

Anyway.
I'm guessing most fans of the Scythe has never actually held one in their hand.
They are a terribly impractical and ineffective weapon. They are designed for cutting stationary and unarmoured wheat stalks, not people.

I've never seen it used in a serious manner in any of the media I consume(besides dual-wielding keen scythes in NWN 2 for the crit luls). I think that's more in the territory of anime and the like.

Yeah it's not a secret it's an impractical weapon. Reading though this even though it appears it's a secret it's mostly used by charters that represent death. The're harvesting souls. It's to make a thematic point not a practical one. It's not something death dose for pleasure, it's just a job.