What Makes Sword Designs Ugly (also: Fixing Them!)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Fantasy weapons especially in video games come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and styles... from realistic to ludicrous, and everything in between. Some of them are cool looking, some are intricately ornamented, and some are, well... hideous. Obviously whether you like or dislike a particular design is largely subjective opinion. However, there are more objective considerations in art design as well that can make or break aesthetics.
This is the condensed, edited form of a livestream in which we talked about a number of examples to figure out exactly what makes them unappealing (or at less appeal to fewer people than they could). I also photoshopped a few of them to see how much they can be improved with fairly simple changes to proportions and the position of certain elements.
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#skallagrim #fantasy #swords
It's honestly hilarious looking at swords in fiction and seeing how many of them are just objectively better if you compress it along one axis.
yeah, but when designing this type of stuff, you need to think about camera and distance it will be seen as well (in case of games)
Like that Skyrim mod that makes all of the game's weapons look more realistic lol. I'm pretty sure all they did was lower than calorie intake for a few weeks and they look so much better lol. Still the same kind of length, just not morbidly obese
@@ShieldSniper And also character models. Look at World of Warcraft. If the weapons in that game were realistically proportioned, it would look strange in the hands of such exaggerated characters.
@@ShieldSniper I completely understand your argument for ridiculous weapon designs fitting ridiculous world design buuuuuuut the camera one is irrelevant, unless the sword is being used as a sniper rifle; you don't need a truck-sized sword blade in order to see it in a reasonable combat situation.
@@tommeakin1732 the mod actually elongates most of the as well, specifically the hilt.
Which, in many cases, just looks bad in a different way.
Ironic how the sword skall said “it touches your soul without permission” is a sword that literally Keeps the wielder alive through chaos magic, basically degrading his soul by forcing him to see death for centuries… spot on analyzing there skall!
I guess this is a win for the designer then
You dont get that's the point of the sword it corrupts the soul of everyone just by looking at it
@@Sonofsun. I believe it, I can feel my soul turning darker by the moment.
Therapist: the swordstika isn't real, it can't hurt you
Skall: *creates swordstika*
*Gay pride swordstika
Some Hindu's are looking at that and going - what is wrong with it ?
@@90lancaster I mean, I think they'd still agree it looks hideous, at least XD
@@90lancaster German folk enthusiasts, not knowing their Hakenkreuz can get corrupted even further after what funni mustache man did, crying tears of blood after they saw the swordstika
@@eyeballpapercut4400 not just german enthusiasts, buddhism lovers are also tainted since they have the Manji symbol. It’s not the same symbol but people cant tell the difference.
"it touches your soul inappropriately, without consent" That one got a chuckle out of me 😁
T-shirt material!
That sword got a mental attack attribute.
I died laughing
Tragically a very appropriate sentiment for Square Enix weapon designs.
I wanna love the idea of a sword transforming into an assault rifle, _but they made it look so bad for no good reason_
Skall doesn't understand that's the 0oint the demon kind wants to corrupt your soul just by looking at his sword
swords that don't look sharp drive me insane
Great sword from Monster Hunter comes to mind.
Right, they're just ornate clubs lol
I agree, especially if they're portrayed as cutting like a hot blade through butter.
As garbage as the series is (and as much as people specifically hated this part), I like what Berserk 2016 did with the Dragonslayer, making it *DING* when Guts hits someone with it. The idea they tried to sell being that he's a monstrously powerful man, wielding a weapon that is more of a massive hunk of sword-shaped iron than an actual sword.
It's massive, and there's no way anyone should be able to wield it.
It's so thick, there's no way it could cut.
And yet, he swings it with one hand. And it indeed doesn't cut, he just hits with enough force to smash THROUGH flesh.
wait , it wasn't CLANG ?
@@HuyNguyen-jl7go yeah, I guess it was
I like how Skall starts by fixing the sword (like the title implies) but then just give up and decide to make them worse.
My biggest pet peeve in fantasy sword designs, is when the blade is super thick.
Like, it's a sword. It's literally defined by its blade, as such, it should have a blade thickness that actually makes sense for cutting/thrusting.
If you want to make it 5 inches thick, just design a club.
Axes have a similar issue. Sure there are axes with fairly broad heads, but those are typically log splitting axes rather than axes designed as weapons. Again, if you want to design a thick "Axe" just design a hammer.
When it comes to video games theres actually a good reason for that, cause sometimes you're not always gonna be up close to the weapon and the character so it's a way to make the weapon more visible from far away
@@Gacho39 counter argument, elden ring. Well-designed, realistically proportioned weapons, that you can see from a distance.
The are often more like a bludgeon that cuts a bit.
@@tokaygekko5135 Graphical fidelity really helps in that regard. Also the fact that you generally don't need to identify a specific weapon and if you do, the person wielding it will be bright red.
“That thing was too big to be called a sword.
Too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough, it was more like a large hunk of iron.”
― Kentaro Miura
But yeah, you're right.
That moment when skal realizes he's making a swastika....
It was perfect.
Is this based?
Im a training concept artist. One of the reasons designs like these can come into existence is because we try to design interesting and new silhouettes coz things that are realistic tend to have very simple silhouettes and shape language.
It is difficult to find that right middle ground but it is possible. You have to choose what to exaggerate and when to exaggerate, etc
I personally prefer leaning more into realism and pushing the finer decorations. I don't like all the big random spikes and over excess decorations
Indeed, but the purpose of interesting silhouettes is being readable. Unlike 4:05. 15:13 in contrast is pretty boring, which isn’t good either.
A solid real world design principle is "form follows function". There's also parsimony, using as little material as possible (real world economics being what they are). Even within those modest restraints you get things like the flamberge, the kukri, and ornate wire basket hilts.
The other extreme is making a thing "interesting" for its own sake with no regard for function.
Maybe being a Buddhist biases me toward a Middle Way but I find interesting yet practical designs far preferable.
@@noobatredstone3001 I mean theres a silhouette with clear visuals (e.g. sword: blade, handle, cross guard, pommel). Then theres a silhouette thats just "different" if you get me (e.g. spikes everywhere)
@@markfergerson2145 Exactly! In an essay I wrote for University, I quoted a concept artist's variation of the form follow function principle where once youve established the function can you then design the form. And the best resource to reference is real life because I am an artist and not a weapon smith so I dont know what an optimal blade proportion is but real life blacksmiths in history have already worked it out so I quote them when designing 😂
Yes, you can make it interesting without exaggeration, even sometimes less is more as an example the lightsaber is for me one of the greatest recent hits, of you taking real life Katanas, Sabers and Rapiers, but using this energetic sword idea without souring the conventions that make this design work, including lightsabers are so accurate that even they suffered from this exaggeration.
17:04
Lol skall almost drew the forbidden windmill, saved himself by claiming less symmetry is better.
Okay, the forbidden windmall is what i shall call it from now on. love it. lol
I am glad it seems more fantasy games now-a-days are implementing a combination of historically accurate, and practical fantasy designs. I also enjoy the occasional wildly over the top fantasy weapon, as long as it looks slightly functional.
@Imperator Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus At least Warhammer depending on who's doing it has acceptable designs, now MMOs kill me, I'm glad it's not all of them but there are many.
@uNnHkP8mza _FUGS has entered chat_
I like the blend present in FFXIV. You may have the ultimate sword that looks like some rainbow demon cocoon with a sharpened edge on it, but you can glamour it to look like a sensible, ordinary bastard sword if you want.
I’ve noticed this too, and I’m definitely not mad at it. It’s okay to have ornate or detailed designs (hell there are even historical examples of crazy designs) but at the very least, make it functional
Meanwhile, Monster Hunter in the corner is busy sticking animal parts onto a steel beam.
Either make it simple or make it mechanical
Cuz mechanical melee weapons are cool
Yes, I have played Bloodborne
I'd buy that pimp cane for a dollar
Bloodborne weapons are sweet. I want to make a saw cleaver when I get into forging. I also want to make the loaded ax from sekiro.
*TONITRUS TONITRUS TONITRUS*
May I interest you in the humble chainsword? It's exactly as it sounds - A sword, but with a chainsaw blade
@@Sammy9262 I'll buy your entire stock!
17:47
mmm yes, the Windmill of Friendship and Tolerance
I feel like Red Queen (10:13) was poorly represented, so I'm going to explain the exhaust further. I understand that this is all in good fun and in no way take issue with Skalls assessment.
Red Queen has a grip resembling a motorcycle handle because it has an engine in it that can charge up to 3 bursts of energy. The fire is a BYPRODUCT of these bursts, not the intended function. These bursts are used to enhance the momentum of the blade, increasing it's contact force, cutting power, and speed. In game it is swung in wide, flowing, circular patterns and the bursts are usually powerful enough to fling the user across the battlefield. It is no way a practical weapon IRL, I just want it to have a fair shake in it's inspection.
All of that, with the added note that even as ludicrously strong as Nero is, that weapon drags him around when he swings it. Like a little nod to videos Skall, Shadiversity and others have done about giant sword physics. Almost none of what Nero does with Red Queen is meant to look controlled, let alone precise.
Which is like the only time I can think of that a fantasy sword wielded by a character with super strength got that treatment.
*Also* , the chonky exhaust bits are an implied refit: the original design was much more streamlined.
It still needs to be magical because there is no way to fit an actual functioning engine into such a small space (especially without compromising the entire weapon's structural integrity).
@@Skallagrim Yeah, I'm not arguing that point. I just wanted a better description than "it shoots fire." Love your content, man. Glad you got to see what I had to say.
@@Skallagrim it WAS made by a demon worshiping cult so it might be magical in some way
@@Skallagrim DMC is basically a fever dream. Almost every weapon is magic, so it makes sense in context. Totally impractical in real life, but the entire world is basically a giant comic book.
People say: "fantasy swords don't have to be practical, they just have to look cool", and yet Lord of the Rings' practical and elegant sword designs are still some of the coolest in any fantasy series I've ever seen.
Always a +
Props to the Lovecraftian/Boschian horror symbolizing the algorithm, and the knights whose weapons symbolize the ways in which you conquer it.
It's actually a modified version of the black beast of Arrrggghhh from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. :)
@@Skallagrim You mean the Aaaarrrrgorithm beast?
Yeah yeah I'll see myself out, but not before switching the animator's heart pills for tictacs
Me when most people "fix" other people's art: "How dare you."
Me when Skallagrim "fixes" other people's art: "No, no. He's got a point."
Very good, Kronk!
Because he has an objective point unlike everyone else who changes something they just don't like
Damn Skall, you use a lot Pornsite references. Makes me wonder how you know them so well... Greetings from Germany ✌️♥️
I really enjoyed this video. The photoshop redesigns were very nice
17:04
Yep, that's the only way to do a german sword
I think the most important general rule is that the pointy bits should point away from the wielder unless they WANT to stab you for some sort of blood magic battle masochist reason.
17:52 FOR GOD SAKE, JUST USE A STICK, STICK IS GOOD YA KNOW
18:40 🗿 why?
I liked the fix jobs here. Not perfectly designed, but made serviceable with minimal redesigning. Just shows that some designs take it one step too far, instead of 20 (like the two last ones, geez).
Hah Caius' sword was always hilariously dumb to me. He stabs someone with it at some point and I was like "welp, now you have a body permanently attached to your sword because that isn't coming out!"
Just wait several weeks between stabbings 😋
Caius hopping on one foot, trying to dislodge the recently stabbed individual by kicking his chest while pulling the sword with both hands
@@zyriantel9601 all while the dying victim screams for mercy.
It's kinda always the same corrections. Make it slimmer and remove the serrations. And remove self-poking spikes.
Secret to designing the perfect sword according to videogame designers
Step one: put spikes on it
Step two: put MOAR spikes especially if they point towards the user
Also make it big, big blade and big spikes = powerful apparently
Make it W I D E
Make it thiiiiiiiikk!
Another important thing is to add spikes to the spikes.
it should also have a cutting edge the width of a small dog, don't forget that, it's key
The changed sword at min 6:14 was a huge improvement.
Most designers don’t know how a sword would function. But everybody knows how guns function, that’s why you don’t see fantasy firearms with barrels pointed at their user.
Most of the shit designs happen because the creators don’t know better. So I don’t accept “I think it’s cool” as a valid counter.
Dragonslayer from Berserk is supposed to be a ridiculous design.
Cloud has super strength so he can use the Buster Sword.
Key Blades are godly artifacts that defy reality.
Daedric Weapons are made from chaos and instability so their shapes make no sense but they still function ignoring their form.
All of those terrible weapons at least have justifications for their designs in their universes, and they make a lot of sense.
I understand that daedric weapons are made of chaos but I will straight up refuse to wield them in game no matter how strong they are because I hate how they look. I will gladly settle for ebony as long as I don’t have to put my hand on the spike trap that is a daedric blade. (At least in Skyrim. In morrowind im usually fine with them especially when conjured)
Everybody knows how guns function the same way as they know that you're supposed to "hit them with the pointy end". I've seen so many hideous firearms with grips that'd be downright maiming to the user, missing sights, painfully sharp stocks, random holes in the barrel, extra fluff that looks like it adds 2kg to the weight etc., basically everything that you see in this video and more.
True. It's not like weapons need to be 100% realistic in fantasy games, but many of the designs are so outlandish and gargantuan that it makes them look ridiculous. Another thing I have an issue with is how many spikes/pointy edges designers often put in a sword's blade without realizing that in reality this would only make them stick in enemy armour after every slash lol. Also the whole point of the guard in a sword is to protect your hand from enemy strikes, if the guard is too wide it would leave your hand exposed and if the guard is too narrow it would restrict your hand's mobility and even hurt it.
@@hm-dq5sq thats fair and i totally get rule of cool, the only issue is that cool is subjective and frankly i dont think daedric weapons actually look /cool/ so they dont get that pass from me. in my humble opinion daedric weapons in skyrim are butt-ugly and resemble something you'd find in an edgy teens bedroom hanging on the wall like a trophy even tho its actually made of plastic. I don't look at them and go "oh this looks cool but i wont use it because its unrealistic" i go "oh this looks dumb as shit and i dont wanna have to look at it the whole time im playing bc itll just make me feel like a dorky edgelord."
Meanwhile I have no problem with the daedric stuff in morrowind because it looks dope and i dont think ive ever even asked myself if the cool daedra-face shields are practical because they're so fun and neat.
tl;dr rule of cool trumps realism but runs the risk of people not actually finding it cool, while realism may be boring but everyone understands it
@@hm-dq5sq my ass. anyone can design something cool, it takes more effort to combine cool and practical. Dark Souls has been doing this, along with adding ridiculous weapons as well.
In many games I deliberately stick to the Lvl. 1 weapons because they are so besutifully simple and IN THIS simplicity lies the beauty 💪😌🙏
This. FFXIV Dark Knight blades (Inspired by berserk) are oversized 2-handers. So far so fine if they weren't as THICC as a whole leg... Always keep the slim ones. Looks the most usable
Half my Skyrim Mods were swords and armor. Because everything above the Iron Sword in Vanilla is BS.
I ended up with a lot of Witcher models...
theres something kinda soothing about fixing ugly weapons
When you were talking about "shape overload," it occurred to me that Final Fantasy kinda has both ends of that spectrum, even with both examples being ridiculous. Obviously the overload end is Caius's ... _thing_ ... from FFXIII, which I'm not going to defend at all except to say that it's the weapon of a deranged immortal and thus reflects his condition (in the same way that the Sparda sword reflects the fact that Sparda the character is a demon and viscerally horrifying on various levels), and Odin's weapon from the same games similarly reflects its wielder's status as Not Human / Not Entirely Real. The other end is the Buster Sword from FFVII, which has a grand total of maybe 2 shapes if you count the handle. Also ridiculous, also somewhat justified in-universe (it's a sword made for ludicrously strong super-people to use on ludicrously durable targets), but a much simpler design.
And it has little slots for the designated magical macguffins of the setting to fit into, and said macguffins are small enough to be carried in one’s pocket, so it can be magical or mundane on the whim of the wielder without sacrificing the urgency of combat - just duck behind a wall and slap some materia on your sword, like how you’d reload a gun but with slightly less steps.
Of course, being Square Enix, of course they don’t do that, so this practical application is fanon only.
Red Queen is dumb. but it's awesome. Sparda tends to look weirder depending on the iteration, but something interesting about it is how it's a more straight/simple blade with organic matter grown around it turning it from this sleek, simple longsword with an ornate handle into this mess of a one edged greatsword with flesh and bones jutting out
I did want to say, I don't remember it looking quite *that* cancerous in-game. And its original design was much sleeker. Though still kept the "this was grown, not forged" aesthetic.
@@Pyre it is the model from 5 which has the handle kind of twisted/deformed as well, in prior games the parts that are from the original Force Edge are less deformed
then again it might just be due to time and damage that it looks like that in 5 and cleaner in games that take place before
@@tehuselessguig3138 If I recall correctly, Devil Sword Sparda also unfolds into a scythe-like form for some attacks as well.
@@Foxxie0kun yup it does
*as he edits the FF13 sword to make it worse* skall... skall.... stop.... you are making a swastika.... skall...
Regarding the Troll Knight's Sword, here's what an Elden Ring troll knight looks like: eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Elden-Ring/troll_knight_3.jpg
The guard still is a bit of a waste but this weapon was _not_ designed to be wielded by humans and some deciding factors probably were magical (Glintstone, the blue crystal) or political (they're slaves) in nature rather than functional.
At least, it looks reasonably well proportioned when wielded by the intended user.
Actually, Troll Knights are not slaves, as the sword description says: "Called into service when the Queen invoked an oath they swore, the trolls are treated as true knights of Caria, and fight arm in arm with their human comrades."
Simplicity is the golden rule.
Decorate it, sure. Add some interesting little details.
But the base design has to at least be practical.
K.I.S.S is the golden rule in engineering as a whole keep it simple stupid same applies to weapons of course ;)
it should always be more impressive than what you can remember but should at least be able to remember the outline in basic geometric shapes
Couldn't agree more. Even games that have simple menus and battle mechanics tend to over design weapons and armor for the sake looking cool, looking at Elder Scrolls (Skyrim) as well as Dragon Quest series.
Darksiders' Chaoseater intensifies.
In terms of shape, at least. It's got a load of faces engraved on the blade and i can't recall every specific one of them --there's a broad, wailing human one on the middle part, some smaller wailing heads above and a more demonic-looking bitey one at the tip-- but make a silhouette out of it, and you will recognize it immediately.
In part thanks to some pieces of damage the blade has suffered over time, like the broken ring pommel and a vertical slit at the point that ends in a smaller circle.
Middle ground for me is the golden rule.
I have always actually kinda liked the design of caius sword aesthetically. In a train wreck in slow motion and can't stop looking at it kinda way 🤣
The one at 16:30 would be hard to swing. Imagine trying to swing it out to hit someone. The weight of the other blade on the other side would make it almost impossible. And if you do manage to get a swing then you will hit yourself at the same time you hit your opponent due to the small handle to blade ratio, unless you go for a hit angled at the side but in that case the blade would just bounce off your opponent.
I do have to say, the first design does look like if you were to Mordschlag with it, it would be quite devastating to whoever's on the receiving end. Multiple points of blunt impact on the guard.
10:14
The Blue Queen handle is a motorcycle handle, and Nero Revs it to build up energy in it's engine.
This is not a believable sword in anyway, but it's cool
Didn't realise there was a colour switch for Red Queen lol
@@beleth57
Look, i haven't slept in 24 hours
Yeah I personally really like red queen's design. It's a bit wacky, but not over the top. Also the blade shape is pretty neat.
The reason it has that engine like addition is to add more cutting power against thick demon hide
For a game as wacky as Devil May Cry, I'd say it's pretty believable. Nero is lacking his Devil Bringer in DMC 5 and was at best a half-demon that Dante never fought seriously in DMC 4 so he needs that extra oomph to make up for his short comings.
When he realizes what he made at 17:03 fucking cracked me up xD
3:18 could that be the inspiration for the moollight greatsword
that's what i think
skall calling the red queen "magical" triggered me something fierce
hes not *exactly* wrong but still...
Look none of us want to call *anything* that can be traced back to Agnus "magical", but...
Your redesigned of the last sword (before you made in uber ugly) reminds me of Lu Bu's weapon from Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires
Yeah. That was also the only DW game where he wasn’t the go to character (that went to SSX who became an arrow machine gun) Sure, he lost his range, but the trade-off was that he also looked stupid.
"It touches your soul inappropriately without your consent".
Were you reading a Wikipedia entry on my mother in law's hobbies?
it is from a final fantasy game and yet still somehow manages to look ludicrously impractical in-setting. it has an eyeball in it's crossguard. it has an angelwingsanddemonclaws motif.
I would not be remotely surprised if "it touches your soul inappropriately without consent" is part of it's item description.
On the sword at 2:30
I think that if it is a small dagger, then increasing the size of the pommel might make it look less odd
Final Fantasy has the ugliest weapons I ever seen. I don't understand people who like the "buster sword", it's hideous.
These kinds of channels are really helpful for me as a writer and beginner artist that wants use weapons in stories, but is overwhelmed by all the knowledge out there. I have a jumping point and know what direction I can look begin to into next. Thanks.
Lightning's sword design is good if you noticed it's like a hook sword and the hook design look's cimilar to a horses head not mention the spiked like design has a feather and lightning like design,it seems like design is to be a replacement for Cloud's 7 Tsurugi swords when it comes to dual wielding not to mention that the giant weapon is made for Lightning's summoning.
I feel like before I watch for me its noise.
Im not a realist whose gonna be a dick towards fantasy ideas, hell I dislike greatswords half the time in MH yet also like them for the idea of (Big dmg number hit that I can block with.) so I dont mind the typical block design or winglike but when it has to much "noise" I tend to dislike it. (Grafted greatsword in Eldenring kinda fits this but I also get that its on purpose in that case)
Overwhelmingly same. Elaborate or even silly is one thing, but once there's so much visual noise the thing is hard to look at? Nah.
@@Pyre funny enough some concept artist I believe have a rule for this problem where the eye needs rest/space areas in the designs to keep it nice while achieving the end goal shape
I love fantasy MMORPG. But I must admit, when it comes to sword designs, I hate visual overload.
I don't care if it is the rarest, epic legendary sword. Visual overload hurts my brain and soul. So if I there is an option to cover up the weapon using a different skin, I would do that.
Is it just me or is this video reuploaded? I remember like a week ago receiving a notification of a new video with a similar tumbnail and when ai went to your channel i couldnt find it
16:45 man this was so funny, “I fixed it” lol.
How disappointing, you didn't try and fix the FF13 mess.
6:30. Congrats, you just reinvented the claymore.
Best thumbnail. lmao
Skall….I have an amazing idea, have a series where people send you their fantasy concepts that are strictly supposed to be fantasy in a game…and you take it and redesign it to be practical without changing its pieces like you did in this video …I’d watch you reassemble concepts all the time it was very entertaining
The penultimate implement looked like a cross between kpinga and a swastika...
I think one of the reasons swords in video games are so big is because they are few centimeters long on your screen, an if you want to see them better - they must be wider than normal (and also longer than normal).
I enjoy that stream, it was great!
16:03 it does look nice though.. the shapes are actually grouped in a way that does not overload the picture. Can’t argue with it being ridiculous though lol
Fantasy swords look like gas station cigarette lighters.
Question about fantasy swords or more accurate sci-fi.
In Warhammer horus heresy and 40k the space marines called the world eaters.
Where known to mimic their leader Angron who was a gladiator and attach a chain to their axehandles and wrap the chain around their arm.
In real life would that offer any advantage or be practicle In any way or would it asking to get your arm hurt?
If you are not kratos, attaching a weapon to your arm via a chain is not a good idea
The way angron, kratos and co attach them, no, other than getting the chain stuck when you are transitioning between swings or from swing back to a guard, pull or counter.
Angron back in his Artificer Armour tho just attaching power axes with chains to the attachment point of the swap between regular vs power gauntlets tho would be really nice in cases he goes raging simply due to a single bitchslap from him effectively being 4 elephants and 12 hippos covered in spikes and shot up with drugs compressed to a torso sized hand.
allways remember that videogame swords are meantr to be thiner than they are represented. usually developers made 'em so thick for mechanic visual reasons, no aesthetic ones. we need the sword to be seen great from all angles and in fast movements, so a sword as thin as is suposed to be will be lost sometimes in frenetic gameplay. game slike dark souls and for honor are specially faulty at this, trying to be very realistic in their desings but having swords that sometimes feels like a bat. If we could look up at original concept art for that swords i'm like 75% that they are meant to be thiner. When analyzing videogame sword, always remember that probably they are trying to represent a thiner one, the thiknes is somewhat a "ludonarrative dissonance" and the artist intent is never a sword that thick.
I think there's a couple of things going on. Firstly, you can have decoration that enhances that thing or overwhelms it. It's similar to makeup in that times and cultures and people will disagree on where the line is. But there IS a line. Gaud is sometimes also used to cover poor design up.
Second, you have expectations. You can be flexible in them, but they're still expectations. If they're not met, you don't know what it is you're looking at. It confuses.
If you've got BOTH going on, they may not multiply, but they may not cancel ether.
That one design (you know, the one where Context Sensitive gave you a good handle), I think that would work even better if you stipillate that the narrower bit is actually blunt as a defencive area and where you can safely put your hand for half-swording.
18:24 - yay, the sword with the eye that someone sharted into, since it's got an obvious case of pink eye. Might be the only sword with a yeast infection in the world. Unique item.
I like how the last "sword" has a little spike on handle just to punish anyone dares to use it.
Imagine a bossfight against an absolutely hideous sword more hideous than you can possibly imagine
Just got my bronze sword lol . noice
The red queen is absolutely beautiful
Surprised nobody has mentioned how good the background song skal uses when fixing the sword is
I'm somewhere between frustrated and delighted by how *good* some of these look purely by making their proportions more 'actual sword-like'.
Also, now more people can share my pain about Caius' sword. I'll defend the 13 series on a lot, but that...thing. It hurts me.
6:00 I actually liked that pointy point.
Video game logic: "This weapons more powerful, it's got jewels in it."
I have no idea what the obsession with suuuper wide blades are. I find them incredibly ugly. The spikes I get it, they look cool and edgy, but the blades as wide as the characters legs that is holding it are just plain ugly in my opinion.
Videogame artists can put a lot more design details on wider blades, thus making them more unique looking to the player. It also makes those details more easily noticeable from the player's POV, as they're bigger, mostly for bragging rights in multiplayer games (I hate that) or cool screenshots I guess.
I think this is probably a "leftover" trend from the early days of 3d graphics (N64, PS one era) when the limited pixel counts, low resolutions and low quality textures made designing a unique-looking sword more challenging than nowadays.
Only as wide as a leg, how about the whole body? The only design I would ever do is to also mock the concept by making the user use it as a shield.
In Final Fantasy XIV, the level 50 blacksmith quest requires to forge a longsword for a pro gladiator. The design is surprisingly simple yet elegant. If you find the footage on TH-cam you'll see that the sword looks rather fictional.
Since you mentioned the "maharana pratap" sword at 3:30, and if my keen editing-eyes detected what I thought they saw, it looks like you edit out the swords introduction. Does this mean you realized in post the historical accuracy of this swords claim to maharana pratap is in question and edit that part out in post?
If so, Might wanna do a short video on that sword. I don't remember you covering it before.
The last one should have the "intentionally ugly" label from the carcass sword applied because it's clearly intentionally chaotic and you could still figure out how to hold it.
I'd say that the penultimate thing was worse. Its shape is all over the place and even if you split it, the handle is positioned in the weirdest of angles. I think making it an asymmetrical shuriken-like thing actually provides it with better grip.
the design at 15:00 is fantastic, it's clearly a Dwemer sword from TES (whether official or not idk) and it's more fancy than the usual approach to said swords while also being more sleek and proportionate, I fucking love it.
Although I'e prefer a one-handed blade witb a short handle, the lack of a proper hilt wouldn't be fun on a 2hander which makes a shield unusable.
Fictional "Swords" would just be Projectiles fired from a spelljammer's magitek Railgun. CMV.
the round handles of the devil may cry are supposed to be motorbike handles I'm sure, obviously twisting won't help your edge alignement lol
the fancy golden sword is a reshape of skyrim's dwarven sword in case you didn't catch that
"It touches your soul inapproriately and without consent"_ Skallgrim, 2022.
As it dost us all... the horror, the horror.... :)))
*I'm firmly in the, **_"Form follows Function",_** camp... Every design element should be there for a specific utilitarian purpose, whether they be ergonomic, for structural integrity, balance, etc...*
I prefer fantasy swords like Glamdring from LotR and Flamberge from Tales of Symphonia. Stylish, but still functional.
I don't like that you don't like Red Queen from DMC but I understand why. That sword is badass
5:21 Exactly what I was expecting you to point out the moment I saw it.
10:22 If yer gripe pertains to ergonomics or functionality, then it's coming from a place of objective technical analysis.
Dear Skullagrim, have you evaluated interpretations of Terminus Est (Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun)? A fantasy long sword with a mercurial metal hidden in the hollow blade; supposedly the fluid movement creates weight and momentum shifts during a swing. I'd love to hear your insights.
17min 3sec Small you nearly messed up worse than you realized...
Just sayin'
The starting theme makes me think of Fable 1, now all I can feel is a depressing level of nostalgia, I miss being 12yrs old and playing video games to my hearts content. My only regret is that I never branched out into other interesting games, instead I played almost the entire Assassins Creed series.
The third sword was similar to the leaf blade design of ancient times, I have often felt it should have a wide end to the handle for weight balance and functional for pulling out after stabbing motion. Putting visual with function without being to flash.
I haven't watched your videos for a while, so that youtube beast, and the knights Like and Comment and Subscribe, took me by surprise, but it was a good surprise. That is LOVELY.
11:19
"It's magic anyway"
"It could shoot fire out of whatever like *if there's magic involved you can literally shoot fire out of your ass* "
"Some kind of Geneva Convention's human rights violation."
About the hideous bladed monstrosity in the rough shape of a swastika. Yeap, that's a warcrime in every way imaginable.
My eye is always just drawn straight to the pierced/narrowed bit with IT'S GONNA SNAP _HERE_
Not gonna lie the first sword altered looks like the Daedric Longsword from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
Honestly, a simple cruciform longsword is beautiful. All these elaborate (stupid looking) fictional weapons drive me crazy.
I would like you to review more Dark Souls(series) and Elden ring weapons! There are a plethora or realistic and unrealistic weaponry in those games. Love your content And Happy Halloween! 🎃🕸🕷💀👻
I personally liked the previous game versions of Sparda (The Soul Edge looking organic sword from DMC V) Always felt like it just got really hideous when it got into V.
Please do this with TES V Skyrim Sword.For me let's say "Dawn" sword looks quite reasonable ,etc,but you have to see on your own.Please do.🙏🙏
It's not a sword, but while playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, one sidequest sent me into the local police department, and there, laying on a table, were a pair of tonfa-style nightsticks...
With basket hilt guards.
So, you take a weapon whose whole design is meant to be flexible, and you put a handguard on it which is rather well-known for _restricting_ how flexible you can be in a fight, in exchange for greater protection. Why? Why did we do this? In a world where cyborgs exist and can be (and are) powerful enough to kill you in mere moments, what does a basket hilt on a nightstick accomplish? Better to just leave it as a regular nightstick, you'll drop it all the same if a criminal with body augments cracks you hard enough across the jaw. Or tears your arm off, there's also that possibility.
I realize this opens up a question of, "why bother at all if cyborgs are so powerful?" and honestly, I have no good answer for that. Adam's melee weapons - the blades that pop out of his arms - only show up for lethal finisher moves, most of the time. He fights with guns and explosives and augment abilities otherwise, because there's really no point going hands-on with an opponent who could very well be augmented to punch like a charging rhinoceros and take hits like a tank unless you're about to end his whole career in one stroke.
The lore of Devil May Cry is actually pretty simple (simpler than say Kingdom Hearts) the fifth game has a synopsis of the previous four in it. As to Red Queen; it gets worse. The sword (in game) is actually created by humans that wanted to become demons to be used by a quarter human that was a discount Dante in the fourth game.
Sparda, personally the fleshy look it got in 5 I didn't like aesthetically, and I also had an issue with the skinny handle but I was surprised that you didn't see Rebellion or Devil Sword Dante or Yamato (which is simply a katana)