What makes a greatsword great?

I’m a Massive Sword Man. Once I roll a brand new character in a recreation that provides me the choice to swing a giant sword, I’ll do no matter it takes to get that massive sword straight away, regardless of the fee.

In Elden Ring, meaning sprinting — woefully underleveled — into the hellish, blighted wastes of Caelid and sneaking previous mobs of rotting zombies and gigantic mutant canines to plunder the caravan that holds the greatsword.

The greatsword in Elden Ring is impractical. It’s taller than your character. It swings in painfully sluggish arcs, draining enormous chunks of your stamina bar. It requires a whopping 31 factors of power to wield correctly. Carrying its weight means making sacrifices, like unequipping shields and armor.

It’s a weapon for fighters who’re single-mindedly, obstinately decided to hit as exhausting as they presumably can, penalties be damned. Identical to the sword it’s based mostly on! The large iron swords in each FromSoftware fantasy recreation pay tribute to the Dragon Slayer — the inconceivable weapon carried by the protagonist of Berserk. As mangaka Kentaro Miura describes it, the Dragon Slayer “was too massive to be known as a sword. Huge, thick, heavy, and much too tough. Certainly, it was a heap of uncooked iron.”

Picture: Liden Movies/Crunchyroll

Mass is necessary to me. Remaining Fantasy 7’s Cloud Strife additionally wields an iconic outsized sword, however he swings it round effortlessly — even twirling it one-handed earlier than sheathing it on his again. It appears cool, but it surely by no means feels BIG.

However in Berserk, the load of the sword is consistently emphasised. Its blacksmith was ridiculed for making such a vulgar, unwieldy weapon. The Dragon Slayer sat in a storage shed awaiting a Guts: the one man who is robust, offended, and cussed sufficient to swing it. It’s not straightforward for him, although. He trains tirelessly and develops a fight model that each accounts for and depends on the weapon’s unattainable bigness.

Good video video games with greatswords discover intelligent methods to counsel this impracticality. Sure, it will be bodily unattainable to choose this sword up, not to mention swing it… however should you might, you’d must do it like this. In FromSoftware’s video games like Elden Ring, you see this consideration within the animation and results.

Every assault begins with a deliberate wind-up. Your character crops their ft, and also you see the hassle transfer upward from the bottom by their physique as they twist their knees, hips, backbone, after which shoulders, till they’ve lastly generated sufficient torque to get the huge blade transferring.

After it sweeps its 270-degree arc, it crashes again into the earth and sends mud and rocks flying. Swinging it again the opposite route takes the identical monumental effort. On the finish of a combo, your character methodically hefts the blade again onto their shoulder.

The weapon makes up for its glacial tempo with huge vary and harm. A single horizontal swing can simply reduce by an entire crowd of smaller enemies. The even slower vertical swings can fully crush an armored goal.

Nice greatsword.

Anybody searching for a higher greatsword must jump over to Monster Hunter. Because the title implies, it’s a franchise about looking monsters, and its cartoonish logic dictates that larger targets require larger weapons.

Within the very first entry of the Monster Hunter collection, Capcom established an uncompromising precedent of heaviness for the flagship weapon. Even when your hunter is standing nonetheless, you sense the load of the greatsword of their fingers. They brace their legs in a large stance, and you’ll see their again straining to remain upright. It’s an ergonomically disastrous technique to maintain a giant sword, but it surely sells the hassle of brandishing it.

If you assault, your hunter steps again with their lead leg and lets the sword fall onto the bottom behind them, earlier than they heave and hoist it into an enormous overhead swing. The wind-up of every slash lasts a full second, and the blade stays lodged within the earth for one more second afterwards. Two seconds doesn’t sound like an enormous time dedication, however in a online game the place your targets are in fixed movement, it appears like a lifetime.

The weapon’s most iconic maneuver was added within the second era. In the event you can imagine it, wielding it was even slower. Charged slashes deal far more harm, however they require your hunter to plant their ft and stand immobile for 3-4 seconds. The facility amassing within the assault is illustrated with a glowing aura that flashes brighter with every successive second, till it reaches its most.

Right here, Capcom establishes the maddeningly rewarding metagame of Monster Hunter’s Nice Sword. Your foes are giant however extremely cell monsters who won’t wait politely till you cost up. To get essentially the most out of your greatsword, it is advisable place your self not the place the monster is, however the place you expect they’ll be in 3 seconds.

You’re going to whiff so much.

However you’ll even have a variety of enjoyable. Each single assault appears like a giant wager, and whenever you get it proper, it feels nice. The sport rewards you with huge harm, and the monsters will flinch and reel away like they’ve been sucker-punched by somebody their very own dimension.

The greatsword would evolve over subsequent releases. In Monster Hunter: Generations, Capcom would add an “adept” preventing model that might improve weapons mobility, and a “valor” model that might permit the hunter to soak up a monster’s assault whereas charging their very own, additional rising their harm output.

However the greatsword wouldn’t obtain the head of its bigness till Monster Hunter World. It launched the “True Charged Slash,” a method that may solely be accessed after two cost slashes in a row (or by a couple of different combos of maneuvers). That’s a complete windup of round 9 seconds. However they make it definitely worth the wait.

The animation actually feels just like the builders taking the greatsword to its logical excessive. After the already huge dedication of the primary two assaults, the hunter pivots on their foot and hoists the sword over their shoulder.

Their physique glows with energy and bounces of their stance to point they’re able to explode into movement. As soon as the blade is in movement, the hunter holds on for pricey life, and the sword swings them.

The hunter follows the load of the primary slash in a cartwheel and instantly raises the sword for the climactic influence. For the time being it connects, the Monster Hunter deploys a bull salvo of feel-good results. A prolonged hit pause, a burst of blood, a screen-splitting slash impact, digicam shake, and a thunderous sound.

Due to the ponderous setup, you’re going to overlook extra true charged slashes than you hit. However I believe that is part of the massive sword fantasy. It’s an influence fantasy, however at its highest, it’s additionally an effort fantasy. Yeah, we wish the power to swing the massive sword, however we additionally need the dedication and grit to do the troublesome factor. To battle with the unattainable sword day after day, understanding we are going to get higher at it, however it is going to by no means, ever, ever be straightforward.

That’s why I really like a giant sword.