As a game animator that did some HEMA... sometime you'll sacrifice a lot of realism in favor of readability and getting a strong silhouette. I view it more as "dance" art than martial art haha. I'm well aware that most of these move are ridiculous. And the over commitment is often used for the sake of gameplay to give a window of vulnerability... which you would definitely not want in a martial art XD Also... to be honest... HEMA moves are designed to be hard to read, which kind of hinders gameplay in some cases. In most case you want your arms close to your body to protect them, which really makes for a shitty, but efficient silhouette. So games get really noisy with monsters and FX, so over the top animation really convey the actual state of your character. But yeah; not great as an educational tool and definitely spreading bad tropes to the "uninitiated".
It also depends on how the game is built. Most combat games are rudimentary in design while other games have complexity in each attack, mechanic, and/or animation. Fighting games are more reactive than real life combat; while, combat like Devil May Cry or Monster Hunter has tactile use layered on top of the basic premise in combat.
That still doesn't excuse the characters being unable to wield their own weapons properly. Overcommitment to have a gameplay vulnerability is one thing. Animating it so it shows the characters incompetent in their chosen weapons is entirely different.
Using the 2H 'swords' in Genshin Impact actually feels a lot more like using a giant club, while playing. Probably because there's no blood/ cuts. You're just repeatedly beating your enemies until they stop existing.
@@anderrall1925 You run around beating people to death with giant clubs a lot, huh? Your parents most have been pretty cool to let you smash people to death with sledgehammers. Is that how you pick-up the ladies despite the thick neck-beard?
You point out how their stance in broken at some points and that enemies can hit them in that moment, and that is right. Some of those attacks, specifically the last in the chain, have quite a bit of end lag and enemies can hit you in game, also about the spinning you are also right. In game if you hit the enemies with the spin you will stagger them, at least some enemy types, but if you don't hit them they can hit you while you are with the back at them, interrupting you and of course damaging you.
I find it kind of funny that most guides for these characters stress that the first thing you need to learn is how to cancel the animations to prevent the final strike that creates the opening in a way that let's you start a new attack chain immediately. Which of course also means that players that know what they're doing generally avoid bashing their swords into the ground.
My pet peeve is that Genshin Impact is obviously trying to do the same thing that Monster Hunter does with its Great Swords in regards to the slam attack, yet the Genshin Impact great Swords are not nearly as massive as the ones in Monster Hunter are, which is why it looks so dumb.
If that's the attacks have such big openings (the ones that slam the ground and take forever to recover from), wouldn't they just.... not use those attacks or wouldn't they be considered bad/suicidal techniques? I guess if health doesn't work the way it does in real life, it might be considered worth the trade?
@@Elluem the health thing can be a factor, but don't forget that the player chooses to use those attacks, they are there just as an option for the player and an experienced player won't let themselves be staggered by those attacks. Also, if such an attack would connect with a target in real life, chances are you won't need to worry about defense right away, it is only a problem when they miss.
One problem with striking the ground even with a somehow-indestructible sword is that such a sudden stop would most definitely transfer a good bit of shock into your arms, and I'm sure that wouldn't feel good.
The thing is that the game doesn't have a proper target mechanic unless it's a range weapon, so you kinda have to assume the ground strikes were supposed to be hitting the enemy
Considering these characters can get smacked 20+ times by an axe double their size and still be alive, post-impact vibrations is relatively nothing in comparison.
@@20thcentury_toy That's an interesting thought. Practically, it is a very efficient way to end a chain of attacks as it clearly tells the player this is the grand finale. Nothing is as final as this - hitting an enemy or not.
That makes me wonder, on her first cutscene, she threw her sword then summoned it back to her and I think Diluc does that as well which makes that into a canon ability, not just a way to cheat the animation. Do you think their weapons don't take damage because they are literally summoning a brand new one?
@@ProxyDoug No. I don't think so. They only have 1. You equip them with 1 weapon that you upgrade multiple times so it wouldn't make sense to have them materialize other ones from thin air. Plus I think weapons (at least 3 star ones) do canonically require repairing from a blacksmith and from what I remember there are no mention as weapons being unbreakable. Also that happens when any character stops attacking. The weapon just teleports behind their back. It's the same one, it just can move around through space.
@@Manudyne it's a kind of construct for vision holders i bet, since you know- the civilain can't do the weapon spawn thingy. so yeah, if it were a construct then it will never break- once it breaks you just spawn it entirely new anytime. Nier automata thingy, Otto can also do the same by spawning multiple divine keys from thin air, his divine key has those properties.
Idk about dark souls, but in monster hunter a greatsword technique has the user polevaulting using the sword after slamming it to the ground, just look up "true charged slash"
to be fair, quite a lot of the dark souls greatswords or ultra-greatswords, rely more on their impact than their cutting power, not saying it doesn't irk me a tad, but most seem like they can probably handle it, or wont be as effected in combat compared to the smaller swords.
Funny thing exactly about Genshin Impact: the adult characters with a claymore all know how to use those things, while the younger characters spectacularly fail everywhere. And with some of them it's actually stated in the profiles that they are mostly still trying to learn it and are not at all proficient in wielding those things. Especially Razor, who is just flying around with his sword dragging him most of the time. Also, only the younger characters go into spinning mode when you use their charged attacks, all of the adults actually swing their weapons, because they can actually handle them. Still way over the top so that it looks good, of course, but I think it's pretty interesting that those with a lot of experience are animated at least somewhat believable, while all the others just swing it around and hope for the best. You can btw see that with others weapons too, even if it's not that easy to spot with those.
Imagine if they turned that into a gameplay mechanic instead. You have older characters who have training and experience. Who fight more effectively(better moveset, stamina, toughness) and have little to no magic and a younger group who have far more magical abilities and raw power but a shitty move set and tired or die easily You could probably do a lot with that concept
@@buddingdufus Then almost no would use the longer character..... you could balance by having the vets have lower stamina (age working into physical fitness) and the younger have higher stamina but each move drains their stamina faster because they have no idea how to just their weapons efficently
@@PJDAltamirus0425 good point, that would work very well. Thanks also what do you think about characters in to middle. Some magic and some combat abilities they interest me the most.
I'd actually love to see a game where the sword canonically wields itself, and the fighter just hangs onto it like a glorified tassel and gets brutally thrown around with every strike, but can't let go.
Have it be similar to a rage game at first, where you struggle to guide the blade around (you playing as the blade, like a Hand Simulator-level of frustration, lmao) until it becomes easier later on.
I mean, technically speaking that's kinda the case with the hunters in Monster Hunter, at least when it comes to the great sword, charge blade, and switch axes. They're literally only using their strength and body weight to get those weapons moving in the first place. The shear mass and weight of said weapons is what does much of the work. It's really hilarious seeing your hunter--supposedly a super human who's capable of wielding such a massive sword and can take a lot of punishment from deadly monsters--being thrown around in the air by the great sword's charge combo.
It would be interesting to see a vídeo about your opinion on Genshin's weapons designs. Also, you are somewhat right, canon wise, the characters that don't use the claymore really well is because they didn't have proper training. Razor (the wolf kid) is this game's equivalent of Tarzan. And Noelle (the maid) is freakishly strong, but she is still training to become a knight. The weapons are somewhat magical, but not indestructible, it is canon that the characters need to go to the blacksmith for weapon maintenace. (Not a game mechanic, just lore).
hm... related to maids... freakishly strong... wants to be a high-class warrior someday... seems familiar. infact this reminds me of the color indigo, and Toby Fox.
This video actually made me think far more highly of Genshin's animations, since I didn't realize how well the attack animations lined up with the character's history and backstory until skall picked up on some of their attributes from their attack patterns. Out of all the playable claymore users currently in Genshin, Beidou probably has the most actual combat experience, so it makes sense as to why her style is the most realistic. Diluc is a formally trained warrior, but, he's also the exact kind of person who would try to push himself by trying to wield a two-handed sword in one hand. Razor can barely handle a claymore since he was raised by wolves. Noelle is mainly a maid but since she has a bit more training than Razor she fights a little better. Xinyan is a rock and roll musician, so it does make sense that her style is a bit odd and fairly showy. Chongyun most likely hasn't fought much, since he's an exorcist who ghosts just run away from anyway; he values hard work and development of the physical form rather than relying on his Vision (basically magic stuff, for those who are unfamiliar with genshin), and he also kind of has to be stoic and composed, so it makes sense that his fighting style would resemble the flowing, stylized, and essentially meditative styles of martial arts found in China (and also he's pretty obviously Chinese influenced and from a Chinese inspired region). This continues on with characters that were released after the video skall reviewed. Eula is another formally trained warrior, and her fighting style, while entirely impossible for a normal human to execute, does flow together nicely, has a really weird, but still theoretically function guard in the middle of it, and she doesn't overexert herself during it. It's very showy and seems inspired by courtroom dance, which does make sense, since Eula is a noblewoman who would have learned that, and in her backstory, it's explained that she did, and that she incorporates one of the dances she learned into her fighting style. Along with Diluc and Beidou, she's also one of the 3 claymores that don't spin during their charge attack. Sayu, on the other hand probably handles her sword the worst out of all the claymore users, which makes sense because she's tiny and it's explicitly stated in game that she needs to use her vision to even lift her weapon. Every swing nearly knocks herself over, and at the end of her normal combo she teleports a short distance up into the air to use her weight and her sword's weight to deliver a downwards chop. The fact that she uses a claymore doesn't really make much sense, but the way she uses it does. In retrospect, this is kinda obvious, and since I used to main both Beidou and Razor, I'm not sure why I didn't pick up on the detail behind the animations until now. Looking at animations from other weapon classes, they all have similar details, but, I think they're the most readable with claymore.
"This is a sword, it's got an edge." Uh, actually no. That WAS a sword and it HAD an edge. But as far as the guard with the sword held WAY behind, I actually approve in a 3rd person game. The swords are so big they would cover up too much of the screen otherwise.
Did you know... the Japanese are rather small and thus would create artwork reflecting that reality. I don't know if what you said is racist, I'll let the idiots of Reddit and Twitter decide that.
Enjoyed the video, but some comments on why it is that way. 1. Maid girl (Noelle) spinning her sword like a spinning top of death is because she's not formally trained. Part of her story is that she relies on her canonically absurd strength to get the job done, and lacks finesse and/real world fighting experience. Also her blade is enhanced because she was breaking normal weapons, so yes, her sword is (nearly) indestructible lol. 2. The girl with the spikey clothing (Xinyan) isn't primarily a fighter, she's more a musician. 3. The reason they spin around like a spinning top is because, in-universe, they're just relying on brute strength and the mass of their large swords to do the fighting for them. 4. The one eyed lady (Beidou) and red head (Diluc) are either used to fighting a lot and/or formally trained is why they swing theirs around with wide. 5. The sword animations are the same, but two handed weapons also include blunt weapons (like a kanabo or something to that effect), so could be a blade or blunt weapon being slammed into the ground. While not perfect, their experience ties into their fighting styles.
It's even funnier with Noelle, cause she's canonically incredibly strong, which means she could probably handle a giant sword easily, which means that the sword she's using is made to be too heavy, in order to fight with it like this.
@@max.s5202it's not a matter of weight, it's a matter of balace. No matter how strong you are, if your center of gravity is past your feet you will lose balance.
@@KnightLincoln The fact that Skyrim has come out 10 years ago makes me kinda hope that they're going all-out with TES6. But it's Bethesda, i can't trust them since the trainwreck of '76.
Oh, like World of Warcraft that has greatsword, axes, and hammers all held at the base? Love seeing moon elf males holding a huge hammer or axe in the ox guard.
That’s why I’ve always enjoyed Siegfried from SoulCalibur; although he uses an oversized sword, his gameplay is based on using the flow that the sword itself generates and switching stances instead of brute strength. Still fantasy but a very realistic one at that.
Even his alter ego in the form of Nightmare still retains that flow (though the fantasy elements make it less important so it can convey how much of a monster he is within the lore)
It also helps that he sometimes uses those stances to block or avoid incoming attacks and that he can switch between each of his stances freely to confuse his opponents.
Used to love Siegfried in SC3 (I think it was 3) for this reason. Fighting with him almost looked like dancing, even more so than with Tira the way his movements transitioned between each other.
Tbh I was disappointed that Sayu's claymore is smaller than everyone else's. I wanted to see a short narcoleptic child wielding a comically large spoon- sword I mean sword.
What is a shovel but a comically large spoon? And shovels, as demonstrated by combat during WWI are viable weapons, so a giant spoon could be functional weapon
@@dragonfell5078 The dwarven warlock in The Weekly Roll comic uses a sharped shovel. Ok, it's a normal-sized, flattened shovel blade with a small handle, but it counts! Obligatory "SPOOOON!"
Curiously enough, in-game the weapons are indeed indestructible (there's no "repairing" feature). But in-lore, they can be damaged; Noelle herself destroyed several by mere usage due to her strength.
In defense of Razor, he isn't a trained swordsman. The boy was literally raised by wolves, the fact he can speak at all is because of some deified spirit that also took him in.
@@AuraArondight I also was talking about learning to talk and cook(Mondstadt hash browns) and I just now remembered he was actually referencing the "Purple [probably "teacher", not sure]" when talking about that bloodstopping wolfhook properties to save the wolf in "those other black wolves" quest that ends up in first Boreas fight. So yes, I don't remember anything about his swordsmanship being mentioned at all as well
Skall: 'STOP HITTING THE GROUND" In defence of the fighter, in actual combat there ideally will be an enemy positioned somewhere between the sword edge and ground to "catch" the sword.
To be fair, they seem to have tried to over exaggerate the slow heavy commitment swings of the greatsword to make it have a distinct playstyle compared to the sword or spear. Using a claymore character in the game, you can end up getting hit in the middle of your attacks much more often due to long and high commitment each swing is, but in return you can keep enemies staggered and reeling from consecutive hits. Had the game not used weapons as basically different classes, they might not have had such over exaggerated swings and such. Also, Noelle might be petite, but she's at least wearing some armor. She's the only at all armored combatant in the game (well, a couple more have shoulder guards). It's not practical armor, no, but I'll take it over the leotards most other people are wearing. Also lore wise she's among the physically strongest characters for whatever reason.
Yeah she has the strength to use the sword, but she clearly doesn't have the weight. She also doesn't even seem to be trying for skill. Really she should be a hammer character. Which is why i use Hammers.
@@Merilirem She's not nearly as clumsy as Razor, who is supposed to be wild and untrained. Noelle isn't a trained soldier though, so it's a bit fair if she doesn't have refined technique. As for hammer, there's no such weapon type. The claymore weapon class does have a club weapon though, and it was a common weapon to use on hear early in the game.
@@TheEmperorGulcasa I know, i just forgot what it was called. She's the only character i actually liked in Genshin, which is why i don't play it anymore. Gacha's are only fun when you have character to collect and play with.
Personally, I'm tickled by the giant swords in Monster Hunter being canonically NOT indestructible. You gotta repair those bitches so often it could actually lose you the battle.
Monster Hunter is a peculiar exception because in this world, despite being fantasy, there is no explicit magic powers, so weapons (which are made from monster parts and not some wacky arcane sht) can wear off since they can't be enhanced with magic.
I prefer when a character wielding a BFS is either explicitly strong enough to do so because of training (and it shows physically) or is capable of doing so magically (and it's somehow explained). Skinny waifs swinging greatswords need some sort of justification. At very least, I really want to see more characters at least look like they have martial training if they're wielding infantry weapons.
Genshin explanation to them being able to weild such chunks of metal is their Vision, a sort of gift of gods that gives them ability of using the visions element as well as enhancing their physical capabilities. The most extreme example to it is Sayu who was not shown in that showcase, she is little girl type of character who somehow able to carry a bfs that is the size of her body. And in game there is several instances of them "explaining" why she is able to use it, and it all mostly thanks to the upper mentioned Vision. And i would love to see him freak out over a child who comedically being dragged around when she swings it, but hey at least she doesn't SLAM it in the ground like all others, that's a plus, i guess?
Case in point: Berserk's Guts. He's built like a brick shithouse and the only swords he's ever used, since he was six years old, have been as tall or taller than him. Massive blades are all he knows, and he absolutely has the physique to wield them.
This game's dev doesn't even let half of the characters wearing proper clothes for combat or even daily life. Properly built bodies seems like something out of this world to them.
The irony is that the first thing he critics is Noelle, who we know that goes trough an insane training regime, so yeah maid girl swinging a BFS makes sense.
As someone who has spent an unhealthy amount of time playing Genshin, I have personally always hated the shorter characters’ Greatsword animations. However, most of the playable characters are canonically just random people who suddenly got magical powers, and ran with it, so I can kind of accept it. Also, yes, all of the weapons are magical, as they all give boosts to stats and have various effects that are beyond realistic expectations for a standard weapon.
Suddenly? Nah, I don't even play Genshin that much but in accordance with what I've read from the NPCs, ''visions'' (the orbs that allow you to do magic) are only granted by the gods to those who have shown special dedication to something they do, just like every character with a ''vision'' is passionate about something they do, even simple stuff like cooking. I've even found some npcs working their asses off in order to impress the gods and maybe get a ''vision'' from them. But, yeah, bc of the kind of life they live, some of them haven't gotten proper training with weapons.
@@tuazulyrojoeljean Yes, suddenly. The characters are granted their visions by the gods based on their aspirations and passions, but the gods do so arbitrarily, giving some characters visions and others nothing with seemingly no distinctions whatsoever. Characters can work for their whole lives desperate to obtain a vision, while others will obtain one early in life because they got really passionate about reading books. There is no preparation involved in obtaining a vision, as it is entirely dependent on the whims of the gods, so how is what I described inaccurate?
I think the real issue is that why on earth would you use a weapon which you can clearly not use? OR more specifically it feels really wrong to fight like this, as a player. I didn'tp lay this game, but Dark Souls and Monster Hunter also has this. Incredibly slow attack that carry the character too. That's not good. (In Dark Souls I ended up using a spear and then the spiderleg sword)
@@occultnightingale1106 Well, basically, because they've been chosen not bc their aspirations and passions, but how they carry them out. Those who get the ''vision'' are those who stand out in the thing they do (and quite frankly, that's not being a random person) and they're chosen bc is their passion or an ideal of it is that leads them, not the mere desire for a ''vision'', that's why all the others fail. There are many dialogues about that in the missions of the last expansion. Edit: What I read in the dialogues goes kinda like this, is not at all exactly, but the idea is the same: ''They (the chosen) have a powerful «vision» about what they want, that's why the gods grant them ''vision'' orbs. Those who are working bc they want to get a ''vision'' have no «vision» at all, just the desire of it.
To play devil's advocate: Most of the characters who go spinning with their blade also can produce a magical shield to protect themselves. Maybe that means that they do now have the same need to keep their stance closed up and protected. That being said, it's clearly all for aesthetic purposes. And since that sword is supposed to be heavy, the "Ground slam" is to show the power of the hits.
If you’re annoyed with genshin, you’ll go crazy over dark souls’s hollows using Great Sword (btw I know he has and I’m in agreement with Skall over everything)
1:08 in Noelle's defense her lore states that Noelle is superhuman. She once lifted a merchants carriage in one hand, all other kinds of swords break in her hands because they cannot withstand her strength and so on.
Prospect for ya, imagine a game with a skill tree system. Your character starts with all this flashy bull shit and the bosses in the beginning maul you with competent swordsmanship. As you progress and level up your character, the flashy crap decreases instead of increasing, and as you become more skilled your swings get faster, cleaner, and more precise
I think it would be cool if the flashy shit had its place sometimes. Wolves, giant rats, and malnourished cannibalistic bird-men don't exactly have the most conventional stances. Winding and binding is good against other armed combatants; smacking the ground is good against creatures that crawl...on the ground.
Having those characters stumble during their attack animations is just funny. Weird thing is, those swords are shown to be weightless in-game. When they're not attacking, they hover behind the characters backs, and some animations show the characters twirling them effortlessly.
Maybe they are just that weightless if you carry them but gain their weight as soon as you engage in battle. Because a weightless sword wouldn't be a good weapon at all, it wouldn't do ANY damage at all because f = m * a and if you enter a 0 as the mass you will get a 0 for the force, meaning no damage can ever be delt by a weightles weapon.
Someone should come out with a game where the sword skills in the animation start out poor like this, but get better as the character gains more experience.
Hey Skallagrim, love your vids! I was wondering if you have a video about how you would go about improving ancient weapons if ever you were teleported to the past with your current knowledge. Just curious about your thought, whether changing certain aspects of a sword, axe, etc. Just thought it would be interesting to watch. Cheers!
"one hell of a telegraph swing than anyone would be able to evade or otherwise respond in combat" as a Tekken player who is in violet ranks with more than 1800hrs into T7 (and who knows how many hours into 1,2,3,4 and 5). I can confirm guys...that I still get my ass destroy by some random Bryan's snake edge that comes out at 29 frames.
The playable characters are randomly granted magical powers that makes them op in the world. It's actually canon that most of them have almost no combat experience or training and have regular jobs.
They clearly know how to fight, powers can't compensate training. They just need smaller swords. Its bad enough to be waifu beta cartoons but also having a bigger sword than the intended audience is worse.
Having ridiculous power an enhanced strength bestowed on you an then given an otherwise absurdly big blade, axe, flaming chain thing, etc an told "this is your primary weapon an your own now." Honestly won't work in real life if thats all you have an your seriously got NO other abilities. In which Skall is kinda right. Game's gotta game though I guess. Magic ex Machina is most of these people's only real chance since I imagine most them also aren't gonna be the sort to learn an pick up what they need to be doin quick enough for their magic new abilities to become more enhancers to developed abilities an much less a crutch thats barely keeping them alive vs enemthat usually an probably know what they're doin most the time
@@officermeowmeowfuzzyface4408 a kid raised by wolves who can barely read and write suddenly is an expert in sword fighting for you??? A child with some powder too?
One thing I love about your analysis is pointing out how telegraphed and easy to avoid Noelle’s overhead swing is, because it’s actually a bad move to use in the game itself. Everyone either dashes away or uses her elemental skill/burst to interrupt her combo and prevent her from using that overhead swing. So it’s not just visually bad, it’s mechanically bad.
I love these types of videos every once or twice in a while (maybe even more), specially since it seems you enjoy making them as well... keep being awesome...
This is hilarious! I'd genuinely love to hear you roast the attack animations for the other weapon types in the game: Polearms, Swords and Bows (minus the 'Catalyst users', who are essentially like mages using magical books or orbs and the like so I guess they would get a pass)
Nah Skall should totally analyse the quality of their use of books and trinkets as weapons. Compare and contrast with Jackie Chan, since he's probably used a book in a fight somewhere...
Part of the reason the "Hitting the ground" thing doesn't bother me in fantasy is because you're fighting such unbelievably big creatures. You kind-of need to put all that force into attacks if you're going to slash through literal giants. It would be nice if we could see fantasy characters react more to what they're fighting and changing their fighting style to react, but in lieu of that, what would be overcommitting makes sense.
Ive been playing genshin since launch and ive talked about this to my friends several times, though they dont see anything wrong with the animations at all lol. That said I dont personally have a problem with some of the characters having shitty technique. The thing is, most of the characters aren't martial arts masters or anything. Some of them are knights or pirates yeah, but others are apprentices, cooks, musicians who just picked up a weapon for basic self defense against monsters because the world is PLAGUED with them. So yeah, canonical noobness lol. Like the maid character canonically has super strength but shitty skill lol. Though the ONE time ive complained about the animations is the wolf boy(Razor) who I really thought should have been using a normal sword instead of a claymore. Fits his build much better, I really dont like how he bounces up when he does his last hit
Interestingly, you actually caught on to a couple elements of the game just based on the animations: most of the weapons are magical and/or extremely durable, so some ground-slamming wouldn't do them any harm, and all the playable characters have at least some degree of enhanced strength. Also, both of these points are relevant to the backstory of Noelle (the maid girl at the start), as she's inexplicably strong even without her Vision - precisely why is never touched upon - and she was always wearing out swords during training, specifically not due to poor form but because normal steel couldn't keep up with her swings. An unfortunate example of the animations not matching the lore, I suppose - she's actually a highly skilled fighter, if inexperienced compared to many other characters, so it's a pity her animations don't really convey that.
what I like about your discriptions especially at the end is you are one of the only channels who will suspend their disbelief for a second and explain “if there is magic involved then no slamming the ground is great” I love hearing both sides on it because with the way they were pounding the ground that way its almost like they are trying to slam the ground as a area attack so I also would assume magic which people usually shrug off as “not real” but magic honestly is just science so far in the future we have no idea how to explain in.
Weapon slamming is a pretty popular trope here in Asia. It either complements with sending out a shockwave on a slam or a forward shockwave to emphasize on the power of the attack. I'm fine with it if the size of sword is Monster Hunter or Berserk size but for those swords shown in the video are just comical to see it being slam.
The only game I've played where the "massive heavy weapon with the huge windup and weight you can barely control" worked was The Surge, and that was because all of the big weapons are huge, unbalanced construction tools repurposed as weapons, and combat with these heavy weapons is more about leaping around in sets of cybernetic powered rigs. The weight and momentum and awkwardness of the massive weapons makes sense.
On the topic of too heavy weapons: What are the pros and cons, if you could change the weight of your weapon at will? For example changing the weight of the knecht kriegsmesser to anywhere between 0.5 kg and 5 kg? Even mid swing. For other weapons like spears or maces as well.
Basically whether it's a benefit or drawback depends entirely on how well you can time and control it. If you can control it well it's all positive, as you can always change the weight of your weapon to your best advantage (i.e. much lighter when you need to move it faster, much heavier right at the point of impact before it can slow down). If you can't control it well, then yeah.
If you can increase the mass for a brief moment right on impact, that would be very useful. Basically that's what swordsmen try to do anyway by engaging the legs and core muscles to drive a cut with as much of their body weight as possible.
I would love to see you do a video on the Soul Calibur series, because those games actually have some pretty good and proper attacks (even with the wacky fantasy elements implemented!)
would love to see how he reacts to other fights/fighting styles in anime or games, perhaps though with a wiki page open or someone in a call with him that knows the lore to explain context Fate and RWBY are the first to come to mind with different fighting styles
question i'm curious about the answer to: if there was an enchantment to 'lock' a blade's sharpness; making it never dull but making it impossible to sharpen, what would be an optimal range for it? Would it be different depending on the blade? If you do decide to answer: while i'd be fine with technical terms regarding it i'd like it if there was an included example range like 'can cut through X but not through Y' since i'm a layman.
Yeah actually, I’m not much of an expert on sword fighting but I’m good at thinking so I can still help on that front. First off if something is too sharp the you can cut molecules in the air and particles which is Very bad so even if you could get an edge like that you wouldn’t want to. And that the sharper something is the less impact you going to feel when cutting. So the easier it is to cut the more impact you lose. There are a plenty of techniques where you hold the blade and I know that swords develop to combat whatever armor is popular. But I don’t remember a lot of the examples. But the answer is definitely yes and for different parts of blade as well. Also technology like that would change the way people designed swords. Unfortunately I don’t know enough to tell you exactly how.
If you could make a blade indestructible, then there would be no reason not to go for a monomolecular edge. The only obstacle to weapon edges and their use is the material itself.
Soul Calibur is a weapon based fighting game that doesn't have this issue though it does have other tropes, I think it would be great for you to analyze some of the fighting techniques. Some character suggestions would be;"Cervantes", "Siegfried", "Xianghua", "Astraroth", "Raphael",and "Amy"
This makes me want to see more genshin weapon and fighting stuff! Tangentially I would love to see shad rant about the bow characters effortlessly maintaining full draw
I see the bow in game have very weak draw weight and rely on magic arrow to do damage, normal bow attack in game only goes around 25 meter and drop down. Hilichurls Treasure horder and Nobushi crossbow probably have more draw weight. you comment make me realise that Mondstadt and Liyue didn't have common archer in their army or never have been seen before.
When using a Greatsword in game you're using it on monsters. Not other fighters looking for openings. Fast enemies do take advantage of the openings. Even the big swing is usually on a thick hided beast that's already stunned by the first initial hits.
Also, from a game design perspective the "so heavy it drags them off their feet" is just a good visual representation of a slow weapon. Since you need varying attack speeds for gameplay diversity and balance, and it wouldn't look as interesting to just have the same animations but they play out slower. Much like having the super lithe and young characters wielding them, it's not very realistic, but if reality was entertaining we wouldn't need video games.
Hey Skal, thanks for another great video. I'd love to hear your opinion on the swordfighting in "Ghost of Tsushima". Yeah, I know you don't practice japanese swordsmanship, but there are some general things that are similar accross all swordarts, as we are all just human beings, with a limited way to move efficently, swinging a sharp metal bar. :)
Lol. Now I want to see an anime where the villain just uses real fencing and exploits all the silly openings in an anime crew's flashy styles. The epic young hero has to learn how to really use a sword in order to fight him.
The whole slamming swords into the ground thing really reminds me of Devil May Cry 4. Even one of the combos in that game is slamming the sword rapidly onto the ground.
I really lile listening to your pet peeves I do find it entertaining. And it's about Genshin Impact what I would define as a casual game, as you said if the weapon doesn't break you can safely slam it into the ground and the game has kind of magic which still doesn't make sense lore wise(eg. weapon appear out of thin air, what is this? FF15?) and I really like Claymore user charged attack Diluc style it's soooooo cool I'm glad that you also like that.
7:33 game-mechanically, that flourish actually seems to be the most important part of that move, since it totally throws off your timing expectations for blocking/parrying/dodging, or however you defend yourself in the game =D
As a Genshin player I was hoping to see a video like this someday. The animations are very over the top and stylized and you pretty much nailed it. The two characters that look like they know what they're doing are more skilled than the others. The last one is also more of a "martial artist" than a fighter. In game you also mostly fight monsters.
I want a Skallagrim-expy character to end up in a video game now. He would have the ability to instantly counter spin attacks, and would pay reduced maintenance costs on his weapons.
Curious how you would see Sayu's attack animations (one of the most recent claymore characters)...I am no expert so I could tell if they are good, bad or what.
I like your rants because you often consider the fantasy side of the game/movie/whatever. You consider what you can and puts aside what you cannot aplly real life logic to. A very well done video as always!
just gotta point out about that one maid character, since her whole schtick was that she hits so hard anything but claymores quickly fall apart when she uses them
God I'm so torn, I love Genshin's animations, as an exemplary form of filling an animation with so much character whilst keeping the moves readable in such frantic combat. but god do I also love Skall nitpicking fantasy and getting irate over it! All things considered, I absolutely agree, and adore Genshin and its animations at the same time. Sort of a Win win, I guess!
Love your videos Skall. Local alaskan here who gets weird looks practicing sword on snowmen. Sure it can rust my blade but if it's gonna be freezing for 7 months I might as well slay the men of snow and have fun. Just so everyone knows I do clean, dry and oil after every use.
At least in Noelle's story texts, she kept breaking the weapons given to her, so the blacksmith made her a massive sword that's sturdy enough. Which also kind of implies that the weapons are capable of breaking? Apparently her earth element also reinforces the weapon. Noelle can also create a shield that provides 360 degree coverage even when attacking, so at least for her, leaving openings isn't an issue. Though they could've just taught her not to bash the sword at random things if they kept breaking that fast. None of that applies to the other Claymore characters, though all Claymore weapons are probably as sturdy as Noelle's. Every weapon in the game also seems to be magical in some sense, as they can teleport and hover behind the characters' back and disappear too. Some characters even put away their weapons by tossing them into the air, and they just reappear on their backs. None of this is explained in the lore, and even basic iron weapons do this.
on the part of beidou she's quite adept at parrying and casually retreat from any of her motions and over-commitments into a defensive stance where she shields herself with the power of lightnings and will obliterate you if you took the bait and attacked her.
I feel like anime (and anime-esque media) uses the "small character that's actually strong" trope so much that it's almost expected. The more surprising alternative would be having a physically strong character that actually looked the part.
It's a whatever trope, the problem is anime takes it and runs 100 miles with it; ie the tiny girl in a maid outfit, heels and swinging a 30 ft hammer or whatever. It was interesting the first time, but the umpteenth character with that style has gotten annoying.
"how is this tiny prepubescent boy supposed to handle this frickin sword?!" Hey cut him some slack ok, Kid's literally raised by wolves. His whole special move is literally a 『ＳＴＡＮＤ』clawing the enemies even.
I'd love to see your take on one handed swords! There is an animation that teleports you behind the enemy during the combo, wonder how practical that is in real combat? Also, I think in canon, no character actually uses the greatsword? I remember bows and swords on the manga, but no big swords.
Well, that's assuming if the weapon keeps its force and momentum when teleporting IRL. Though, because teleportation just isn't possible right now, there's no way of figuring out how practical that attack would be. Would be effective? If the opponent is caught off guard and cannot react in time, then it could be very effective as long as the opponent isn't wearinga shield on their back, or a chest plate that covers their back as well.
Not really guts is said to be inhumanly strong and he also uses the dragonslayer with one hand sometimes let me remind you the sword that is said to be a hunk of metal that no human could lift guts uses with one hand which is ludicrous.
@@KratosisGod Pretty sure from my recollection, it's when he uses his cannon to nring the momentum to swing it as such. I'll agree it's silly to an extent, but at least Guts trained his whole life to wield heavy weapons.
and it was portrayed as exceptionally big from the start. and everyone is surprised by Guts wearing it so it's far from common it that world, which I like
Tbf it has its odd quirks as well and i'd argue that Golden Age Guts is the most realistic one, but the Dragonslayer is badass so it gets an free pass.
I think Skall would find the One Handed Sword characters a bit more interesting. The prolonged Claymore animations where they swing their weapons rapidly are called “Charge Attacks.” Each weapon has a different type. One handed swords release a three slash burst, which looks pretty slick with the rest of their form. Also, no sword slamming.
That goes for both player characters and enemies. A lot of combat actions are much slower in games just to let players react to them better. Like the vulnerability after many attacks that are much longer than they'd be in real life. In a game, that allows for that reaction time, which also has to be balanced to be reasonably easy (depending on game, naturally). In games like these where enemies won't attack immediately when you show an opening, that extra bit of time makes it so you have to actually consider timing for your attacks to a greater extent. Game balance > realism.
Dude I need you for planning weapon choreography. I also like when certain weapons are used the way they're supposed to be used and wielders of said weapons work with them not against them. In a battle to death, it's all about being effective none of that danceplay.
Hey skall You should do a video about how swordfighting and HEMA in general would change if humans had anime-esque abilities. Like what if we could jump forward 20 feet in a second? Or have super powerful strikes with skinny Boi arms? Etc.
I like to think there's a world where a guy with a spear stands atop a legion of maid corpses, simply because he keeps stabbing them as soon as they over commit, and the maids refuse to understand that swords aren't used like baseball bats.
You brought up an interesting question there. If you can take 5+ hits and keep going like a lot of fictional characters, how would that change your fighting style?
As a game animator that did some HEMA... sometime you'll sacrifice a lot of realism in favor of readability and getting a strong silhouette. I view it more as "dance" art than martial art haha. I'm well aware that most of these move are ridiculous. And the over commitment is often used for the sake of gameplay to give a window of vulnerability... which you would definitely not want in a martial art XD Also... to be honest... HEMA moves are designed to be hard to read, which kind of hinders gameplay in some cases. In most case you want your arms close to your body to protect them, which really makes for a shitty, but efficient silhouette. So games get really noisy with monsters and FX, so over the top animation really convey the actual state of your character. But yeah; not great as an educational tool and definitely spreading bad tropes to the "uninitiated".
That's some good insight there, I'll keep this in mind when I get around to animating my character in games
Yeah after playing dark souls III for over 500 hrs, overswings and unrealistic animations in games don't bother me so much any more.
It also depends on how the game is built. Most combat games are rudimentary in design while other games have complexity in each attack, mechanic, and/or animation.
Fighting games are more reactive than real life combat; while, combat like Devil May Cry or Monster Hunter has tactile use layered on top of the basic premise in combat.
That still doesn't excuse the characters being unable to wield their own weapons properly. Overcommitment to have a gameplay vulnerability is one thing. Animating it so it shows the characters incompetent in their chosen weapons is entirely different.
@@shawnwolf5961 Razor was raised by wolves, so it makes sense why he doesn’t know how to swing a sword.
"stop spinning!"
Palpatine: "gggooood,gggoood,let the hate flow through you"
AAAAAAAARGHHHH
Another long lost story the Jedi selfishly locked away and refused to share...
Spin to win intensifies.
SPEEEEEEEN!
"I'll try spinning, that's a good trick!"
Using the 2H 'swords' in Genshin Impact actually feels a lot more like using a giant club, while playing. Probably because there's no blood/ cuts. You're just repeatedly beating your enemies until they stop existing.
You lived a pretty sheltered life and overprotected by your parents if you believe beating someome with a "giant" Club would produce no blood or gore
@@anderrall1925 didn’t know that people are supposed to get beaten by 'giant' clubs every once in a while, but ok.
Because Debate club is an original weapon for claymore users
@@monzurazaz4265 even a normal,Club,Mace,sledgehammer would make a mess of a persons body if beaten repeatedly
@@anderrall1925 You run around beating people to death with giant clubs a lot, huh? Your parents most have been pretty cool to let you smash people to death with sledgehammers. Is that how you pick-up the ladies despite the thick neck-beard?
Skall: 'STOP HITTING THE GROUND"
Game: "lol this isn't Genshin SLICE, bro"
Oh so that's why
i feel bad but i'm grinning! this is actually a smart pun^^
genshin slice would be more fun
@@potatokilr7789 Yeah but it doesn't the same IMPACT, ya know?
...I'll take my leave. XDD
Im curious to see how he would react to Eula's attack animation.
You point out how their stance in broken at some points and that enemies can hit them in that moment, and that is right. Some of those attacks, specifically the last in the chain, have quite a bit of end lag and enemies can hit you in game, also about the spinning you are also right. In game if you hit the enemies with the spin you will stagger them, at least some enemy types, but if you don't hit them they can hit you while you are with the back at them, interrupting you and of course damaging you.
Rather nice attention to detail with the spin. The first caviat to the moves is pretty common with games and for a good reason.
I find it kind of funny that most guides for these characters stress that the first thing you need to learn is how to cancel the animations to prevent the final strike that creates the opening in a way that let's you start a new attack chain immediately.
Which of course also means that players that know what they're doing generally avoid bashing their swords into the ground.
My pet peeve is that Genshin Impact is obviously trying to do the same thing that Monster Hunter does with its Great Swords in regards to the slam attack, yet the Genshin Impact great Swords are not nearly as massive as the ones in Monster Hunter are, which is why it looks so dumb.
If that's the attacks have such big openings (the ones that slam the ground and take forever to recover from), wouldn't they just.... not use those attacks or wouldn't they be considered bad/suicidal techniques?
I guess if health doesn't work the way it does in real life, it might be considered worth the trade?
@@Elluem the health thing can be a factor, but don't forget that the player chooses to use those attacks, they are there just as an option for the player and an experienced player won't let themselves be staggered by those attacks. Also, if such an attack would connect with a target in real life, chances are you won't need to worry about defense right away, it is only a problem when they miss.
One problem with striking the ground even with a somehow-indestructible sword is that such a sudden stop would most definitely transfer a good bit of shock into your arms, and I'm sure that wouldn't feel good.
The thing is that the game doesn't have a proper target mechanic unless it's a range weapon, so you kinda have to assume the ground strikes were supposed to be hitting the enemy
Maybe it would... if you're into that sort of thing.
Considering these characters can get smacked 20+ times by an axe double their size and still be alive, post-impact vibrations is relatively nothing in comparison.
@@20thcentury_toy That's an interesting thought. Practically, it is a very efficient way to end a chain of attacks as it clearly tells the player this is the grand finale. Nothing is as final as this - hitting an enemy or not.
Eula: *literally throws greatsword INTO the ground*
Skall: 👁️👄👁️
That makes me wonder, on her first cutscene, she threw her sword then summoned it back to her and I think Diluc does that as well which makes that into a canon ability, not just a way to cheat the animation.
Do you think their weapons don't take damage because they are literally summoning a brand new one?
@@ProxyDoug No. I don't think so. They only have 1. You equip them with 1 weapon that you upgrade multiple times so it wouldn't make sense to have them materialize other ones from thin air. Plus I think weapons (at least 3 star ones) do canonically require repairing from a blacksmith and from what I remember there are no mention as weapons being unbreakable.
Also that happens when any character stops attacking. The weapon just teleports behind their back. It's the same one, it just can move around through space.
@@Manudyne it's a kind of construct for vision holders i bet, since you know- the civilain can't do the weapon spawn thingy. so yeah, if it were a construct then it will never break- once it breaks you just spawn it entirely new anytime. Nier automata thingy, Otto can also do the same by spawning multiple divine keys from thin air, his divine key has those properties.
@@linnen_elm Agree
@@linnen_elm actually civilians can do it as well. the wannabe knight by the training dummies in monstadt could disappear her sword as well
Skall: "Stop slamming swords into the ground!"
Me: For the sake of your own sanity, never play Dark Souls 3. :p
Idk about dark souls, but in monster hunter a greatsword technique has the user polevaulting using the sword after slamming it to the ground, just look up "true charged slash"
Join a fight club and all you hear is
*clank*
*shuffling of armor*
*clank* *clank*
to be fair, quite a lot of the dark souls greatswords or ultra-greatswords, rely more on their impact than their cutting power, not saying it doesn't irk me a tad, but most seem like they can probably handle it, or wont be as effected in combat compared to the smaller swords.
I think it's forgivable if someone slams the Fume Ultra Greatsword into the ground a lot.
cant hear you over the sound of my FUME ULTRA SICK FUCKING SWORD OF DESTRUCTION slamming my opponents into another dimension.
Funny thing exactly about Genshin Impact: the adult characters with a claymore all know how to use those things, while the younger characters spectacularly fail everywhere. And with some of them it's actually stated in the profiles that they are mostly still trying to learn it and are not at all proficient in wielding those things. Especially Razor, who is just flying around with his sword dragging him most of the time.
Also, only the younger characters go into spinning mode when you use their charged attacks, all of the adults actually swing their weapons, because they can actually handle them.
Still way over the top so that it looks good, of course, but I think it's pretty interesting that those with a lot of experience are animated at least somewhat believable, while all the others just swing it around and hope for the best.
You can btw see that with others weapons too, even if it's not that easy to spot with those.
Imagine if they turned that into a gameplay mechanic instead. You have older characters who have training and experience. Who fight more effectively(better moveset, stamina, toughness) and have little to no magic and a younger group who have far more magical abilities and raw power but a shitty move set and tired or die easily
You could probably do a lot with that concept
@@buddingdufus Then almost no would use the longer character..... you could balance by having the vets have lower stamina (age working into physical fitness) and the younger have higher stamina but each move drains their stamina faster because they have no idea how to just their weapons efficently
@@PJDAltamirus0425 good point, that would work very well. Thanks also what do you think about characters in to middle. Some magic and some combat abilities they interest me the most.
yeah, I figured it's a very deliberate choice by the animators to make the younger ones that way to make appear that you're young and inexperienced.
Changing gameplay based on character differences is neat.
I'd actually love to see a game where the sword canonically wields itself, and the fighter just hangs onto it like a glorified tassel and gets brutally thrown around with every strike, but can't let go.
Well then. I’ll take that idea.
Have it be similar to a rage game at first, where you struggle to guide the blade around (you playing as the blade, like a Hand Simulator-level of frustration, lmao) until it becomes easier later on.
...That's technically Sayu, tho.
Umbra from The Elder Scrolls
I mean, technically speaking that's kinda the case with the hunters in Monster Hunter, at least when it comes to the great sword, charge blade, and switch axes. They're literally only using their strength and body weight to get those weapons moving in the first place. The shear mass and weight of said weapons is what does much of the work. It's really hilarious seeing your hunter--supposedly a super human who's capable of wielding such a massive sword and can take a lot of punishment from deadly monsters--being thrown around in the air by the great sword's charge combo.
It would be interesting to see a vídeo about your opinion on Genshin's weapons designs.
Also, you are somewhat right, canon wise, the characters that don't use the claymore really well is because they didn't have proper training. Razor (the wolf kid) is this game's equivalent of Tarzan. And Noelle (the maid) is freakishly strong, but she is still training to become a knight.
The weapons are somewhat magical, but not indestructible, it is canon that the characters need to go to the blacksmith for weapon maintenace. (Not a game mechanic, just lore).
hm... related to maids... freakishly strong... wants to be a high-class warrior someday... seems familiar. infact this reminds me of the color indigo, and Toby Fox.
@@blakethesnake6686 Maybe she likes milk and uses too many towels, too.
In game low tier weapon look very real if minus thickness like the protagonist weapon Dull blade is literally fancy Bastard sword.
This video actually made me think far more highly of Genshin's animations, since I didn't realize how well the attack animations lined up with the character's history and backstory until skall picked up on some of their attributes from their attack patterns.
Out of all the playable claymore users currently in Genshin, Beidou probably has the most actual combat experience, so it makes sense as to why her style is the most realistic. Diluc is a formally trained warrior, but, he's also the exact kind of person who would try to push himself by trying to wield a two-handed sword in one hand. Razor can barely handle a claymore since he was raised by wolves. Noelle is mainly a maid but since she has a bit more training than Razor she fights a little better.
Xinyan is a rock and roll musician, so it does make sense that her style is a bit odd and fairly showy. Chongyun most likely hasn't fought much, since he's an exorcist who ghosts just run away from anyway; he values hard work and development of the physical form rather than relying on his Vision (basically magic stuff, for those who are unfamiliar with genshin), and he also kind of has to be stoic and composed, so it makes sense that his fighting style would resemble the flowing, stylized, and essentially meditative styles of martial arts found in China (and also he's pretty obviously Chinese influenced and from a Chinese inspired region).
This continues on with characters that were released after the video skall reviewed. Eula is another formally trained warrior, and her fighting style, while entirely impossible for a normal human to execute, does flow together nicely, has a really weird, but still theoretically function guard in the middle of it, and she doesn't overexert herself during it. It's very showy and seems inspired by courtroom dance, which does make sense, since Eula is a noblewoman who would have learned that, and in her backstory, it's explained that she did, and that she incorporates one of the dances she learned into her fighting style. Along with Diluc and Beidou, she's also one of the 3 claymores that don't spin during their charge attack.
Sayu, on the other hand probably handles her sword the worst out of all the claymore users, which makes sense because she's tiny and it's explicitly stated in game that she needs to use her vision to even lift her weapon. Every swing nearly knocks herself over, and at the end of her normal combo she teleports a short distance up into the air to use her weight and her sword's weight to deliver a downwards chop. The fact that she uses a claymore doesn't really make much sense, but the way she uses it does.
In retrospect, this is kinda obvious, and since I used to main both Beidou and Razor, I'm not sure why I didn't pick up on the detail behind the animations until now. Looking at animations from other weapon classes, they all have similar details, but, I think they're the most readable with claymore.
@@lorscarbonferrite6964 whyd you wrtie an essay this was a equius reference reply section
I'm personally indifferent to genshin, but seeing skall triggered makes my day.
I didn't understand quite why until I got to the part when he was triggered.
😁😁😁😂😂
Cranky Viking always make me smile
"This is a sword, it's got an edge."
Uh, actually no. That WAS a sword and it HAD an edge.
But as far as the guard with the sword held WAY behind, I actually approve in a 3rd person game. The swords are so big they would cover up too much of the screen otherwise.
"They're basically all malnourished kinds"
Oh my god, this man just destroyed all anime in a single sentence
It's sad how low the source of the Manly Phone Call has fallen.
🤣🤣🤣
More like 3/4 of anime. The other quarter are all muscleheads whose abs have abs (DragonBall for example).
Did you know... the Japanese are rather small and thus would create artwork reflecting that reality.
I don't know if what you said is racist, I'll let the idiots of Reddit and Twitter decide that.
This just in, asian game company bases character designs on Asian bodybuilds.
Enjoyed the video, but some comments on why it is that way.
1. Maid girl (Noelle) spinning her sword like a spinning top of death is because she's not formally trained. Part of her story is that she relies on her canonically absurd strength to get the job done, and lacks finesse and/real world fighting experience. Also her blade is enhanced because she was breaking normal weapons, so yes, her sword is (nearly) indestructible lol.
2. The girl with the spikey clothing (Xinyan) isn't primarily a fighter, she's more a musician.
3. The reason they spin around like a spinning top is because, in-universe, they're just relying on brute strength and the mass of their large swords to do the fighting for them.
4. The one eyed lady (Beidou) and red head (Diluc) are either used to fighting a lot and/or formally trained is why they swing theirs around with wide.
5. The sword animations are the same, but two handed weapons also include blunt weapons (like a kanabo or something to that effect), so could be a blade or blunt weapon being slammed into the ground.
While not perfect, their experience ties into their fighting styles.
It's even funnier with Noelle, cause she's canonically incredibly strong, which means she could probably handle a giant sword easily, which means that the sword she's using is made to be too heavy, in order to fight with it like this.
This also carries over to most anime games, such as Kingdom Hearts.
Also beidou: kick her swords up by the blade in a combat move
@@max.s5202it's not a matter of weight, it's a matter of balace. No matter how strong you are, if your center of gravity is past your feet you will lose balance.
If hitting the ground triggers you, i like to see your reaction to use the sword as a mining pick.
great swords are definitely one of the best for mining in this game. xD
Meanwhile in Ningguang: ''I used the rock to destroy the rock''
Lmao
My pet peeve is when two handed sword has same moveset as two handed axe.
Or with a warhammer like in TES. I really hope they animate different movesets for each weapon type for the next game.
@@davidresetarits5616 I doubt they will.
Dark souls
@@KnightLincoln The fact that Skyrim has come out 10 years ago makes me kinda hope that they're going all-out with TES6. But it's Bethesda, i can't trust them since the trainwreck of '76.
Oh, like World of Warcraft that has greatsword, axes, and hammers all held at the base? Love seeing moon elf males holding a huge hammer or axe in the ox guard.
Would love to see you talk about the one handed swords and spear fighting styles in this game as well.
Yes yes we need more
imagine skal talking about zhongli's charge attack
This! It needs to happen!!
@@imamms7097 imagine he saw Zhongli fcking kick the spear and let it SPINNING
That’s why I’ve always enjoyed Siegfried from SoulCalibur; although he uses an oversized sword, his gameplay is based on using the flow that the sword itself generates and switching stances instead of brute strength. Still fantasy but a very realistic one at that.
Even his alter ego in the form of Nightmare still retains that flow (though the fantasy elements make it less important so it can convey how much of a monster he is within the lore)
I actually never thought of this. You are completely right. Even in the very first Soul Caliber game this has been true.
It also helps that he sometimes uses those stances to block or avoid incoming attacks and that he can switch between each of his stances freely to confuse his opponents.
It rare to see a soul calibur fan these day
Used to love Siegfried in SC3 (I think it was 3) for this reason. Fighting with him almost looked like dancing, even more so than with Tira the way his movements transitioned between each other.
Tbh I was disappointed that Sayu's claymore is smaller than everyone else's. I wanted to see a short narcoleptic child wielding a comically large spoon- sword I mean sword.
What is a shovel but a comically large spoon? And shovels, as demonstrated by combat during WWI are viable weapons, so a giant spoon could be functional weapon
@@eazy8579 By Jove, you're a genius! It's perfect!
Never underestimate spoons:
th-cam.com/video/9VDvgL58h_Y/w-d-xo.html
@Eazy8
It would certainly hurt more.
@@dragonfell5078 The dwarven warlock in The Weekly Roll comic uses a sharped shovel. Ok, it's a normal-sized, flattened shovel blade with a small handle, but it counts!
Obligatory "SPOOOON!"
Good think Skall didn't see Eula's animations, those might actually give him an aneurysm.
"Vengeance will be mine!"
Eula probably.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Are you sure? I think her tights might distract him enough so he will not care that much
Funny that the game has a character called End User License Agreement.
Hahaha, she swings that thing one handed as if it were weightless. He would absolutely lose his mind.
Curiously enough, in-game the weapons are indeed indestructible (there's no "repairing" feature). But in-lore, they can be damaged; Noelle herself destroyed several by mere usage due to her strength.
Well, it probably depends on the weapon. I doubt Noelle would be able to destroy The Unforged
Meanwhile MC's Dull Blade is still standing strong.
Dull Blade is the strongest weapon in the game.
@@CursedSword770 while Gouba was God, shown MC holding Skyward Blade
Imagine breaking a 5 star weapon you sold your kidney for
In defense of Razor, he isn't a trained swordsman. The boy was literally raised by wolves, the fact he can speak at all is because of some deified spirit that also took him in.
And there's also a theory(albeit kinda weak one) about Lisa finding and teaching him, mostly based on similar DEF debuffing abilities
@@SneakyTogedemaru I think that's mostly in regards to his vision, not his swordsmanship.
@@AuraArondight I also was talking about learning to talk and cook(Mondstadt hash browns) and I just now remembered he was actually referencing the "Purple [probably "teacher", not sure]" when talking about that bloodstopping wolfhook properties to save the wolf in "those other black wolves" quest that ends up in first Boreas fight.
So yes, I don't remember anything about his swordsmanship being mentioned at all as well
@@SneakyTogedemaru grand master varka teached razor
Defused spirit? Wasn’t it varka?
Skall: 'STOP HITTING THE GROUND"
In defence of the fighter, in actual combat there ideally will be an enemy positioned somewhere between the sword edge and ground to "catch" the sword.
To be fair, they seem to have tried to over exaggerate the slow heavy commitment swings of the greatsword to make it have a distinct playstyle compared to the sword or spear. Using a claymore character in the game, you can end up getting hit in the middle of your attacks much more often due to long and high commitment each swing is, but in return you can keep enemies staggered and reeling from consecutive hits. Had the game not used weapons as basically different classes, they might not have had such over exaggerated swings and such.
Also, Noelle might be petite, but she's at least wearing some armor. She's the only at all armored combatant in the game (well, a couple more have shoulder guards). It's not practical armor, no, but I'll take it over the leotards most other people are wearing. Also lore wise she's among the physically strongest characters for whatever reason.
This is literally just copying Gutts from Berserk, it has been used a ton of times, and it's just cool
Yeah she has the strength to use the sword, but she clearly doesn't have the weight. She also doesn't even seem to be trying for skill. Really she should be a hammer character. Which is why i use Hammers.
@@Merilirem She's not nearly as clumsy as Razor, who is supposed to be wild and untrained. Noelle isn't a trained soldier though, so it's a bit fair if she doesn't have refined technique. As for hammer, there's no such weapon type. The claymore weapon class does have a club weapon though, and it was a common weapon to use on hear early in the game.
Ayaka also has plate armor. But both Noelle and Ayaka's armor jiggles.
@@TheEmperorGulcasa I know, i just forgot what it was called. She's the only character i actually liked in Genshin, which is why i don't play it anymore. Gacha's are only fun when you have character to collect and play with.
Personally, I'm tickled by the giant swords in Monster Hunter being canonically NOT indestructible.
You gotta repair those bitches so often it could actually lose you the battle.
Monster Hunter is a peculiar exception because in this world, despite being fantasy, there is no explicit magic powers, so weapons (which are made from monster parts and not some wacky arcane sht) can wear off since they can't be enhanced with magic.
Beidou mains: our time has come
Kicks Claymore.
Come at us bro.
Hit Me!!(FYI not an M).
I prefer when a character wielding a BFS is either explicitly strong enough to do so because of training (and it shows physically) or is capable of doing so magically (and it's somehow explained). Skinny waifs swinging greatswords need some sort of justification. At very least, I really want to see more characters at least look like they have martial training if they're wielding infantry weapons.
Do you mean „skinny wifes“ or „skinny waifus“?
Genshin explanation to them being able to weild such chunks of metal is their Vision, a sort of gift of gods that gives them ability of using the visions element as well as enhancing their physical capabilities.
The most extreme example to it is Sayu who was not shown in that showcase, she is little girl type of character who somehow able to carry a bfs that is the size of her body. And in game there is several instances of them "explaining" why she is able to use it, and it all mostly thanks to the upper mentioned Vision.
And i would love to see him freak out over a child who comedically being dragged around when she swings it, but hey at least she doesn't SLAM it in the ground like all others, that's a plus, i guess?
Case in point: Berserk's Guts. He's built like a brick shithouse and the only swords he's ever used, since he was six years old, have been as tall or taller than him. Massive blades are all he knows, and he absolutely has the physique to wield them.
This game's dev doesn't even let half of the characters wearing proper clothes for combat or even daily life. Properly built bodies seems like something out of this world to them.
The irony is that the first thing he critics is Noelle, who we know that goes trough an insane training regime, so yeah maid girl swinging a BFS makes sense.
As someone who has spent an unhealthy amount of time playing Genshin, I have personally always hated the shorter characters’ Greatsword animations. However, most of the playable characters are canonically just random people who suddenly got magical powers, and ran with it, so I can kind of accept it.
Also, yes, all of the weapons are magical, as they all give boosts to stats and have various effects that are beyond realistic expectations for a standard weapon.
Suddenly? Nah, I don't even play Genshin that much but in accordance with what I've read from the NPCs, ''visions'' (the orbs that allow you to do magic) are only granted by the gods to those who have shown special dedication to something they do, just like every character with a ''vision'' is passionate about something they do, even simple stuff like cooking. I've even found some npcs working their asses off in order to impress the gods and maybe get a ''vision'' from them.
But, yeah, bc of the kind of life they live, some of them haven't gotten proper training with weapons.
@@tuazulyrojoeljean Yes, suddenly. The characters are granted their visions by the gods based on their aspirations and passions, but the gods do so arbitrarily, giving some characters visions and others nothing with seemingly no distinctions whatsoever. Characters can work for their whole lives desperate to obtain a vision, while others will obtain one early in life because they got really passionate about reading books. There is no preparation involved in obtaining a vision, as it is entirely dependent on the whims of the gods, so how is what I described inaccurate?
some but the kingdoms give there soldiers powers…
I think the real issue is that why on earth would you use a weapon which you can clearly not use?
OR more specifically it feels really wrong to fight like this, as a player. I didn'tp lay this game, but Dark Souls and Monster Hunter also has this. Incredibly slow attack that carry the character too. That's not good. (In Dark Souls I ended up using a spear and then the spiderleg sword)
@@occultnightingale1106 Well, basically, because they've been chosen not bc their aspirations and passions, but how they carry them out. Those who get the ''vision'' are those who stand out in the thing they do (and quite frankly, that's not being a random person) and they're chosen bc is their passion or an ideal of it is that leads them, not the mere desire for a ''vision'', that's why all the others fail. There are many dialogues about that in the missions of the last expansion.
Edit: What I read in the dialogues goes kinda like this, is not at all exactly, but the idea is the same: ''They (the chosen) have a powerful «vision» about what they want, that's why the gods grant them ''vision'' orbs. Those who are working bc they want to get a ''vision'' have no «vision» at all, just the desire of it.
Skall came in hot, got me laughing, and kept me laughing. Well done.
To play devil's advocate: Most of the characters who go spinning with their blade also can produce a magical shield to protect themselves. Maybe that means that they do now have the same need to keep their stance closed up and protected. That being said, it's clearly all for aesthetic purposes. And since that sword is supposed to be heavy, the "Ground slam" is to show the power of the hits.
If you’re annoyed with genshin, you’ll go crazy over dark souls’s hollows using Great Sword (btw I know he has and I’m in agreement with Skall over everything)
Just wait for great knife
Like when the character is casually wielding a sword larger than him with one hand.
he made a video about that actually /watch?v=HXGns-R8KkM
Oh in dark souls I can't think bec I'm too focused on not being killed by everything
In ds3 while you are hollow, and at very high hollowing, your character's hands feckin' strech and disclocate joints when you use heavier weapons : D
I love that even your rants are still quite chill and make reasonable concessions for stuff like fantasy materials or peculiarities of animation.
1:08
in Noelle's defense her lore states that Noelle is superhuman. She once lifted a merchants carriage in one hand, all other kinds of swords break in her hands because they cannot withstand her strength and so on.
Prospect for ya, imagine a game with a skill tree system. Your character starts with all this flashy bull shit and the bosses in the beginning maul you with competent swordsmanship. As you progress and level up your character, the flashy crap decreases instead of increasing, and as you become more skilled your swings get faster, cleaner, and more precise
Oh, I think that really could be interesting, I would like to see it.
Just enjoy the rule of cool
I think it would be cool if the flashy shit had its place sometimes. Wolves, giant rats, and malnourished cannibalistic bird-men don't exactly have the most conventional stances. Winding and binding is good against other armed combatants; smacking the ground is good against creatures that crawl...on the ground.
Having those characters stumble during their attack animations is just funny.
Weird thing is, those swords are shown to be weightless in-game.
When they're not attacking, they hover behind the characters backs, and some animations show the characters twirling them effortlessly.
I wouldn't be surprised if they had different animation teams for combat vs story.
Maybe only vision barrier have that ability as we see other normal npc actually need to carry weapon on themselves.
Maybe they are just that weightless if you carry them but gain their weight as soon as you engage in battle. Because a weightless sword wouldn't be a good weapon at all, it wouldn't do ANY damage at all because f = m * a and if you enter a 0 as the mass you will get a 0 for the force, meaning no damage can ever be delt by a weightles weapon.
@@derschattenpoet In "F=m*a", being weightless doesn't mean "m=0", it means "a=0", because of we're ignoring gravity.
@@DarkSoulSama The formula for acceleration is based off of velocity and time, not gravity.
Someone should come out with a game where the sword skills in the animation start out poor like this, but get better as the character gains more experience.
Kenshi
At least I'm pretty sure
@@themanthemyth4522 Well the animations don't really change but you get new moves, more attack speed and defend better as your skills go up indeed :)
I've wanted this in a game for so long.
Ooh, that'd be interesting.
Hey Skallagrim, love your vids! I was wondering if you have a video about how you would go about improving ancient weapons if ever you were teleported to the past with your current knowledge. Just curious about your thought, whether changing certain aspects of a sword, axe, etc. Just thought it would be interesting to watch. Cheers!
"one hell of a telegraph swing than anyone would be able to evade or otherwise respond in combat"
as a Tekken player who is in violet ranks with more than 1800hrs into T7 (and who knows how many hours into 1,2,3,4 and 5). I can confirm guys...that I still get my ass destroy by some random Bryan's snake edge that comes out at 29 frames.
“It was too big to be called a sword. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was a heap of raw iron”
Where is that from again?
@@robinrehlinghaus1944 Berzerk description of the Dragonslayer
Gutz is the ultimate chad massiveswordsman
I love how skall basically frothed when he saw the spin attack
The playable characters are randomly granted magical powers that makes them op in the world. It's actually canon that most of them have almost no combat experience or training and have regular jobs.
Like Klee, she is just a little girls and the stronger warrior in town
They clearly know how to fight, powers can't compensate training. They just need smaller swords. Its bad enough to be waifu beta cartoons but also having a bigger sword than the intended audience is worse.
Having ridiculous power an enhanced strength bestowed on you an then given an otherwise absurdly big blade, axe, flaming chain thing, etc an told "this is your primary weapon an your own now." Honestly won't work in real life if thats all you have an your seriously got NO other abilities. In which Skall is kinda right. Game's gotta game though I guess. Magic ex Machina is most of these people's only real chance since I imagine most them also aren't gonna be the sort to learn an pick up what they need to be doin quick enough for their magic new abilities to become more enhancers to developed abilities an much less a crutch thats barely keeping them alive vs enemthat usually an probably know what they're doin most the time
@@officermeowmeowfuzzyface4408 a kid raised by wolves who can barely read and write suddenly is an expert in sword fighting for you??? A child with some powder too?
Imagine how long most people would last in that situation. Bet most of them aren’t even used to the sight of their own blood.
One thing I love about your analysis is pointing out how telegraphed and easy to avoid Noelle’s overhead swing is, because it’s actually a bad move to use in the game itself. Everyone either dashes away or uses her elemental skill/burst to interrupt her combo and prevent her from using that overhead swing. So it’s not just visually bad, it’s mechanically bad.
I love these types of videos every once or twice in a while (maybe even more),
specially since it seems you enjoy making them as well...
keep being awesome...
This is hilarious! I'd genuinely love to hear you roast the attack animations for the other weapon types in the game: Polearms, Swords and Bows (minus the 'Catalyst users', who are essentially like mages using magical books or orbs and the like so I guess they would get a pass)
Nah Skall should totally analyse the quality of their use of books and trinkets as weapons. Compare and contrast with Jackie Chan, since he's probably used a book in a fight somewhere...
AH yes, genshin, a game where swords should've been claymores and claymores be a giant slab of steel
3:23 - that reaction :D
Part of the reason the "Hitting the ground" thing doesn't bother me in fantasy is because you're fighting such unbelievably big creatures. You kind-of need to put all that force into attacks if you're going to slash through literal giants. It would be nice if we could see fantasy characters react more to what they're fighting and changing their fighting style to react, but in lieu of that, what would be overcommitting makes sense.
Ive been playing genshin since launch and ive talked about this to my friends several times, though they dont see anything wrong with the animations at all lol.
That said I dont personally have a problem with some of the characters having shitty technique. The thing is, most of the characters aren't martial arts masters or anything. Some of them are knights or pirates yeah, but others are apprentices, cooks, musicians who just picked up a weapon for basic self defense against monsters because the world is PLAGUED with them.
So yeah, canonical noobness lol. Like the maid character canonically has super strength but shitty skill lol.
Though the ONE time ive complained about the animations is the wolf boy(Razor) who I really thought should have been using a normal sword instead of a claymore. Fits his build much better, I really dont like how he bounces up when he does his last hit
I wouldn't mind seeing you react to all the other charas and how they use their weapons in genshin impact :o
I'm an animator and I concur: those animations are very nice.
Same
Interestingly, you actually caught on to a couple elements of the game just based on the animations: most of the weapons are magical and/or extremely durable, so some ground-slamming wouldn't do them any harm, and all the playable characters have at least some degree of enhanced strength. Also, both of these points are relevant to the backstory of Noelle (the maid girl at the start), as she's inexplicably strong even without her Vision - precisely why is never touched upon - and she was always wearing out swords during training, specifically not due to poor form but because normal steel couldn't keep up with her swings. An unfortunate example of the animations not matching the lore, I suppose - she's actually a highly skilled fighter, if inexperienced compared to many other characters, so it's a pity her animations don't really convey that.
soooo by that logic why use a sword instead of a club or an axe, much more power
"Malnourished kids, fat guy sarcasm" I laughted
what I like about your discriptions especially at the end is you are one of the only channels who will suspend their disbelief for a second and explain “if there is magic involved then no slamming the ground is great” I love hearing both sides on it because with the way they were pounding the ground that way its almost like they are trying to slam the ground as a area attack so I also would assume magic which people usually shrug off as “not real” but magic honestly is just science so far in the future we have no idea how to explain in.
Weapon slamming is a pretty popular trope here in Asia. It either complements with sending out a shockwave on a slam or a forward shockwave to emphasize on the power of the attack. I'm fine with it if the size of sword is Monster Hunter or Berserk size but for those swords shown in the video are just comical to see it being slam.
it would be interesting to see you react to weapons in the Monster Hunter games. I always felt that, while wildly unrealistic, they 'felt right'.
His opinion is that they are so far past impractical that it swings to amazing
The only game I've played where the "massive heavy weapon with the huge windup and weight you can barely control" worked was The Surge, and that was because all of the big weapons are huge, unbalanced construction tools repurposed as weapons, and combat with these heavy weapons is more about leaping around in sets of cybernetic powered rigs. The weight and momentum and awkwardness of the massive weapons makes sense.
On the topic of too heavy weapons: What are the pros and cons, if you could change the weight of your weapon at will? For example changing the weight of the knecht kriegsmesser to anywhere between 0.5 kg and 5 kg? Even mid swing. For other weapons like spears or maces as well.
Basically whether it's a benefit or drawback depends entirely on how well you can time and control it. If you can control it well it's all positive, as you can always change the weight of your weapon to your best advantage (i.e. much lighter when you need to move it faster, much heavier right at the point of impact before it can slow down). If you can't control it well, then yeah.
If you can increase the mass for a brief moment right on impact, that would be very useful. Basically that's what swordsmen try to do anyway by engaging the legs and core muscles to drive a cut with as much of their body weight as possible.
I would love to see you do a video on the Soul Calibur series, because those games actually have some pretty good and proper attacks (even with the wacky fantasy elements implemented!)
would love to see how he reacts to other fights/fighting styles in anime or games, perhaps though with a wiki page open or someone in a call with him that knows the lore to explain context
Fate and RWBY are the first to come to mind with different fighting styles
question i'm curious about the answer to: if there was an enchantment to 'lock' a blade's sharpness; making it never dull but making it impossible to sharpen, what would be an optimal range for it? Would it be different depending on the blade?
If you do decide to answer: while i'd be fine with technical terms regarding it i'd like it if there was an included example range like 'can cut through X but not through Y' since i'm a layman.
Yeah actually, I’m not much of an expert on sword fighting but I’m good at thinking so I can still help on that front.
First off if something is too sharp the you can cut molecules in the air and particles which is Very bad so even if you could get an edge like that you wouldn’t want to. And that the sharper something is the less impact you going to feel when cutting. So the easier it is to cut the more impact you lose. There are a plenty of techniques where you hold the blade and I know that swords develop to combat whatever armor is popular. But I don’t remember a lot of the examples. But the answer is definitely yes and for different parts of blade as well. Also technology like that would change the way people designed swords. Unfortunately I don’t know enough to tell you exactly how.
If you could make a blade indestructible, then there would be no reason not to go for a monomolecular edge. The only obstacle to weapon edges and their use is the material itself.
As a Genshin player, i doubt the developer even know what they're doing other than make everything looks cool so...
I mean, that's what the weebs care about. The developers know exactly what they're doing.
specifically on Noelle: her animations are amazing because she clearly cannot use the greatsword. and THAT IS ACTUALLY CANON IN THE STORY.
Soul Calibur is a weapon based fighting game that doesn't have this issue though it does have other tropes, I think it would be great for you to analyze some of the fighting techniques. Some character suggestions would be;"Cervantes", "Siegfried", "Xianghua", "Astraroth", "Raphael",and "Amy"
This makes me want to see more genshin weapon and fighting stuff! Tangentially I would love to see shad rant about the bow characters effortlessly maintaining full draw
I see the bow in game have very weak draw weight and rely on magic arrow to do damage, normal bow attack in game only goes around 25 meter and drop down. Hilichurls Treasure horder and Nobushi crossbow probably have more draw weight.
you comment make me realise that Mondstadt and Liyue didn't have common archer in their army or never have been seen before.
if shad see Mondstadt wall with no ladder inside he probably loss his mind over how stupid they're.
When using a Greatsword in game you're using it on monsters. Not other fighters looking for openings. Fast enemies do take advantage of the openings. Even the big swing is usually on a thick hided beast that's already stunned by the first initial hits.
Also, from a game design perspective the "so heavy it drags them off their feet" is just a good visual representation of a slow weapon. Since you need varying attack speeds for gameplay diversity and balance, and it wouldn't look as interesting to just have the same animations but they play out slower. Much like having the super lithe and young characters wielding them, it's not very realistic, but if reality was entertaining we wouldn't need video games.
But 2h sword isnt slow xd
Just use some common sense in game design
What is balance when a stick does better dps than a club?... If only Genshin had Honkei's depth in combat. It's missing a few core mechanics.
@@nihillon2064 It's slower than a one handed sword, or a lighter two handed sword that isn't 1.5× the users body length (and possibly mass)
I'm just impressed that they animated in the swords throwing the smaller characters around.
Great intro, always love that little extra creativity.
Hey Skal, thanks for another great video. I'd love to hear your opinion on the swordfighting in "Ghost of Tsushima". Yeah, I know you don't practice japanese swordsmanship, but there are some general things that are similar accross all swordarts, as we are all just human beings, with a limited way to move efficently, swinging a sharp metal bar. :)
Lol. Now I want to see an anime where the villain just uses real fencing and exploits all the silly openings in an anime crew's flashy styles. The epic young hero has to learn how to really use a sword in order to fight him.
Don't forget the trope of fighting in ludicrously high heels. This would have Jill Bearup raging.
The whole slamming swords into the ground thing really reminds me of Devil May Cry 4. Even one of the combos in that game is slamming the sword rapidly onto the ground.
I mean, Mihoyo does take a huge inspiration from DMC, so I can see why
I forget which character has it, but one of them has basically the same animations as Nero and Ayaka's animations are just Vergil's.
Yeah that would be Nero's move. Apparently it's supposed to reflect his character in that game.
@@TheSpongyMallard That would be Razor. His basic combo might as well be Red Queen Combo A.
Not to mention he has a Stand that attacks with him.
Hey Skall, how would you rate the fight animations in Samurai Shodown?
I really lile listening to your pet peeves I do find it entertaining.
And it's about Genshin Impact what I would define as a casual game, as you said if the weapon doesn't break you can safely slam it into the ground and the game has kind of magic which still doesn't make sense lore wise(eg. weapon appear out of thin air, what is this? FF15?) and I really like Claymore user charged attack Diluc style it's soooooo cool I'm glad that you also like that.
7:33 game-mechanically, that flourish actually seems to be the most important part of that move, since it totally throws off your timing expectations for blocking/parrying/dodging, or however you defend yourself in the game =D
As a Genshin player I was hoping to see a video like this someday. The animations are very over the top and stylized and you pretty much nailed it. The two characters that look like they know what they're doing are more skilled than the others. The last one is also more of a "martial artist" than a fighter. In game you also mostly fight monsters.
I want a Skallagrim-expy character to end up in a video game now. He would have the ability to instantly counter spin attacks, and would pay reduced maintenance costs on his weapons.
Curious how you would see Sayu's attack animations (one of the most recent claymore characters)...I am no expert so I could tell if they are good, bad or what.
I like your rants because you often consider the fantasy side of the game/movie/whatever. You consider what you can and puts aside what you cannot aplly real life logic to. A very well done video as always!
"This is a sword. It has an edge!"
"Had" an edge Skall. Had.
just gotta point out about that one maid character, since her whole schtick was that she hits so hard anything but claymores quickly fall apart when she uses them
God I'm so torn, I love Genshin's animations, as an exemplary form of filling an animation with so much character whilst keeping the moves readable in such frantic combat.
but god do I also love Skall nitpicking fantasy and getting irate over it!
All things considered, I absolutely agree, and adore Genshin and its animations at the same time.
Sort of a Win win, I guess!
Love your videos Skall. Local alaskan here who gets weird looks practicing sword on snowmen. Sure it can rust my blade but if it's gonna be freezing for 7 months I might as well slay the men of snow and have fun. Just so everyone knows I do clean, dry and oil after every use.
At least in Noelle's story texts, she kept breaking the weapons given to her, so the blacksmith made her a massive sword that's sturdy enough. Which also kind of implies that the weapons are capable of breaking? Apparently her earth element also reinforces the weapon.
Noelle can also create a shield that provides 360 degree coverage even when attacking, so at least for her, leaving openings isn't an issue.
Though they could've just taught her not to bash the sword at random things if they kept breaking that fast.
None of that applies to the other Claymore characters, though all Claymore weapons are probably as sturdy as Noelle's.
Every weapon in the game also seems to be magical in some sense, as they can teleport and hover behind the characters' back and disappear too. Some characters even put away their weapons by tossing them into the air, and they just reappear on their backs. None of this is explained in the lore, and even basic iron weapons do this.
Also for Razor he was literally raised by wolves. no one taught him how to use a sword
@@camelshoe If you read his character story he actually got taken in by Grandmaster Varka who taught him how to use one.
@@tentacool5799 Ah i see, i have not leveled him up to have known that thanks!
@@camelshoe cheers!
on the part of beidou she's quite adept at parrying and casually retreat from any of her motions and over-commitments into a defensive stance where she shields herself with the power of lightnings and will obliterate you if you took the bait and attacked her.
I feel like anime (and anime-esque media) uses the "small character that's actually strong" trope so much that it's almost expected. The more surprising alternative would be having a physically strong character that actually looked the part.
and bigger = slower. Real pound for pound muscle would mean they should be faster right?!
It's a whatever trope, the problem is anime takes it and runs 100 miles with it; ie the tiny girl in a maid outfit, heels and swinging a 30 ft hammer or whatever. It was interesting the first time, but the umpteenth character with that style has gotten annoying.
I guess you never watch Dragonball Z, Berserk, Fist of the north star, Baki the grappler, Jo jo' B A, Hajime no ippo, Vinland saga...
"how is this tiny prepubescent boy supposed to handle this frickin sword?!"
Hey cut him some slack ok, Kid's literally raised by wolves. His whole special move is literally a 『ＳＴＡＮＤ』clawing the enemies even.
For someone raised by carnivores, the boy barely got meat on his bones.
I was raised by humans, where's my anthropomorphic punchy ghost?
@@Lethargy514 that's the bane of a lot of artists, drawing muscular characters.
@@Lethargy514 it's an anime style game, every or almost every single one male character have big muscles
@@Lethargy514 years of Salmonella will do that to you
Been a fan of yours for years now and your content has only increased in quality. Always good stuff 👌
I'd love to see your take on one handed swords! There is an animation that teleports you behind the enemy during the combo, wonder how practical that is in real combat?
Also, I think in canon, no character actually uses the greatsword? I remember bows and swords on the manga, but no big swords.
Well, that's assuming if the weapon keeps its force and momentum when teleporting IRL. Though, because teleportation just isn't possible right now, there's no way of figuring out how practical that attack would be. Would be effective? If the opponent is caught off guard and cannot react in time, then it could be very effective as long as the opponent isn't wearinga shield on their back, or a chest plate that covers their back as well.
Guts with his Dragonslayer is a MUCH better example of a man wielding a giant sword. IMO
Not really guts is said to be inhumanly strong and he also uses the dragonslayer with one hand sometimes let me remind you the sword that is said to be a hunk of metal that no human could lift guts uses with one hand which is ludicrous.
You meant the kid guts?
@@KratosisGod Pretty sure from my recollection, it's when he uses his cannon to nring the momentum to swing it as such. I'll agree it's silly to an extent, but at least Guts trained his whole life to wield heavy weapons.
and it was portrayed as exceptionally big from the start. and everyone is surprised by Guts wearing it
so it's far from common it that world, which I like
Tbf it has its odd quirks as well and i'd argue that Golden Age Guts is the most realistic one, but the Dragonslayer is badass so it gets an free pass.
I think Skall would find the One Handed Sword characters a bit more interesting.
The prolonged Claymore animations where they swing their weapons rapidly are called “Charge Attacks.” Each weapon has a different type. One handed swords release a three slash burst, which looks pretty slick with the rest of their form.
Also, no sword slamming.
I say telegraph actions in games is ok because it let the players to “feel” the character intents in their strikes.
That goes for both player characters and enemies. A lot of combat actions are much slower in games just to let players react to them better. Like the vulnerability after many attacks that are much longer than they'd be in real life. In a game, that allows for that reaction time, which also has to be balanced to be reasonably easy (depending on game, naturally). In games like these where enemies won't attack immediately when you show an opening, that extra bit of time makes it so you have to actually consider timing for your attacks to a greater extent. Game balance > realism.
Dude I need you for planning weapon choreography. I also like when certain weapons are used the way they're supposed to be used and wielders of said weapons work with them not against them. In a battle to death, it's all about being effective none of that danceplay.
Pointed rants have their own entertainment value too.
Thanks for making my day!
Hey skall
You should do a video about how swordfighting and HEMA in general would change if humans had anime-esque abilities.
Like what if we could jump forward 20 feet in a second? Or have super powerful strikes with skinny Boi arms? Etc.
Wait. You’re saying summoning a purple werewolf spirit to fight isn’t in the historical manuscripts?
Well, depends how old the game is and whether you consider the tutorials and game guides historical manuscripts :p
I like to think there's a world where a guy with a spear stands atop a legion of maid corpses, simply because he keeps stabbing them as soon as they over commit, and the maids refuse to understand that swords aren't used like baseball bats.
Well I like to think that these type of people will get to nowhere refusing the "fantasy style sword fighting" trying to be realistic over a "fantasy"
“They don’t have the build to wield such a weapon”
Guts: *nods in approval*
You brought up an interesting question there. If you can take 5+ hits and keep going like a lot of fictional characters, how would that change your fighting style?
Also, Beidou (the woman with the eyepatch) canonically won a 1v1 vs a giant Sea Serpent *before* she had any magical power.