gun blade??

[sephiroth23]

squal almost never used his gunblade it would have just been as good if it wuz a sword! does anyone else get what i mean?

[TheAbominatrix]

You're the one in controll of how much Squall uses the 'gun' part of the blade. You have to use R1 (I think) at a certain time to get him to fire it at the enemy. He doesnt use it in the FMVs because he's fighting a human at the time, and doesnt want to kill him.

[Big D]

If you look closely at the opening FMV, Seifer fires his gunblade just when he's about to slash Squall. If he fired just an instant later, he'd have blown Squall's brains out completely.

[Wightraven]

And if he would've done that, Big D, FFVIII would have been a much better game.

[Silent Warrior]

Wow, it seems someone likes FF8 even less than I do! Respect!

[~*Crystal*~]

Big D I think that in the opening FMV Seifer used his Limit Break. If you try it out in the Dollet mission you'll see that fe first casts some sort of fire-spell and then attacks with the gunblade.

That's just my opinion though, I could be wrong...

Whoops sorry, I just realised what you meant and you're probably right.

Please, use the 'Edit/delete' button rather than double-posting. ~ Big D :)

[Big D]

In the opeining FMV, there are Limit Breaks flying everywhere. Squall uses a furious Renzokuken to overwhelm Seifer's defence; Seifer counters with a Fire Cross fireball, and Squall finally strikes back with Rough Divide.

[eternalshiva]

er.. If you watch carefully, just as Squall is about to strike the enemy, you press R1 and the Gun blade shoots. It's the same thing for all the Characters to get a boost in attacks. It's tricky though! ;p

[Erdrick Holmes]

The bullet launches out of the top of the blade. So basiclly the blade slices the carcus of the enemy then a bullet is fired into the gaping wound, sounds pretty deadly.

I did some thinking on it and I figured that the gunblade requires you to have some good upper body strenghth to use, and a heavy blade would help to, if you have a too light blade and really powerful bullet shot you better brace yourself or esle the blade could swing back and cut your head off.

[PhoenixAsh]

Actually there's a lot of debate on that.

I remember someone suggested that maybe recoil is the point of the gunblade, firing the sword down faster.
It all cam about because Squall's apparently doesnt have anywhere for bullets to leave.

[Erdrick Holmes]

You ever noticed that Squall never runs out of bullets? I mean when I played this for the first time and I got normal ammo i thought it was ment for the gunblade.

[crono_logical]

Originally posted by eternalshiva
er.. If you watch carefully, just as Squall is about to strike the enemy, you press R1 and the Gun blade shoots. It's the same thing for all the Characters to get a boost in attacks. It's tricky though! ;p It only works when you attack with Squall and Seifer. The trigger only does anything for Irvine during his limit, and does nothing for everyone else.

Unless maybe it's a bug in the US version? :p Certainly doesn't work in the PAL version :p

[Erdrick Holmes]

In the US version if you press R1 just as Squall strikes the enemy it does more damage and you hear a gunshot sound as well. And in the Renzokuken limitbreak you hit R1 whenever the meter on the bottom says 'trigger' or you can just be lazy and set the limit break onto gunblade auto.

[crono_logical]

Yeah, that was what I was referring to, and happens in the PAL version - it works for both Squall and Seifer, since those two are the ones with gunblades. But not the other characters :p

[Radje]

Where exactly does the bullet come out from?

[Erdrick Holmes]

Theres a chamber on the top of the blade. If I had a picture I'd show you.

[Doomgaze]

Revolver's barrel opening (http://eyesonff.com/ff8/screens/disk1/01-17.jpg)

[benn]

Erm, actually, you're wrong. In the PAL version, it not only works for Seifer and Squall, but also for Zell and Quistis. With Zell, you push trigger, just after the first ounch has hit, and with Quistis, I'm not quite sure of the exact timing, but I have 'triggered' with her before.

ben.

[Mo-Nercy]

The little indent thingy on the side of the Revolver isn't a gun barrel. Bullets come out of the top I think.

Here is Seifer's Hyperion, clear picture of where the gun is there.

[Big D]

Originally posted by ben
Erm, actually, you're wrong. In the PAL version, it not only works for Seifer and Squall, but also for Zell and Quistis. With Zell, you push trigger, just after the first ounch has hit, and with Quistis, I'm not quite sure of the exact timing, but I have 'triggered' with her before.

ben. What you call 'triggering' for those characters is simply the result of a critical (i.e. 100% accurate) hit. It happens now and then, more often if the character's 'Hit' stat is high.

Neither gloves nor whips fire bullets, I'm afraid. Occcasionally, though, they land a particularly heavy blow, and the screen flashes white, accompanied with a different sound to signify this. Same for all the characters.

[benn]

I understand what critical hitting is, and I don't use the word 'triggering' to refer to bullet-like activity. However, if you try it with Zell, you will see. Either that, or I was very, very lucky.

ben.

[eternalshiva]

Well, I do it all the time... I have trouble with Selphie cause her weapons mess me up but you can "trigger" them * I understand what you mean Ben * i don't have the PAL version of the game but i pull it off with all the other characters...

[nanakixiii]

You guys are forgetting something: Irvine and Laguna.
They're weapon can also be "triggered." Didn't they say it in the game or something?

[Zild]

Originally posted by Big D
If you look closely at the opening FMV, Seifer fires his gunblade just when he's about to slash Squall. If he fired just an instant later, he'd have blown Squall's brains out completely.

I think this belongs in the thread about Seifer being evil as well, Big D ;)


It's been a long while since I played, and I don't have the game with me, but...

I believe Squall's gunblade is actually more like two blade, with a space between them for the bullet to pass.

Squall's rounds are held in a chamber very much like that of a real-world revolver. This not only answers the "where do the bullets come from?" question, but also begins to answer the "why doesn't he run out of bullets?" question. Assume that the revolver component has 6 rounds in it. When he runs out, that section probably pops out like real revolvers, he points the blade up to eject the empty cases, and then he puts another six rounds in with a speedloader - a device which holds six rounds in a circle, so that they can all be loaded in one quick move. I've read about this is books and seen it in films, it can be done very quickly... Besides, don't forget they spend all that time just standing around during battle!

I am pretty sure triggering only works for Squall and Seifer, because (a) Quistis says so in the game and (b) I believe you can actually turn Squall's trigger to auto, just like his limit break? I may be wrong on that one though... I think, if you turn it to auto you always hit with the bullet, but never score a critical hit, which I believe even Squall can normally. The bullet normally does around 50% extra damage (although this changes with different weapons, I believe) whilst a critical hit does 100% extra damage. So, if Squall hits with the bullet and it is a critical attack, how much extra is that?!

As an additional note, when Squall fails to hit with the trigger, the visual effect is basically a slash. When he hits, it is a slash and a very big explosion, as well as a different sound effect (or more correctly, an additional sound effect - don't you have to pull the trigger part-way through the slashing sound?)

This, along with the GF boost thing (which I'm not a huge fan of) are things they apparently added to keep you less bored in the battles. Didn't make up for the drawing process though!

[Anubos]

I always just put it on auto asap.

And radje

in your sginature, Are you wanting to be a blitzball player or do u mean what u said u want to be an actual blitzball? ;p
j/k just given ya a hard time

[Zild]

Originally posted by PhoenixAsh
I remember someone suggested that maybe recoil is the point of the gunblade, firing the sword down faster.
It all cam about because Squall's apparently doesnt have anywhere for bullets to leave.

If Squall's gunblade has no place for the bullets to leave, it can't generate a recoil! We know this from Neweton's second and third laws of motion...

A small bullet pushing away from the gunblade at high speed would make the much-heavier gunblade move away from the bullet at a much slower speed. This is recoil. However, if there is no place for the bullets to leave, then this cannot happen! And if the blade is supposed to be pushed into the enemy as a result, then any bullet that did come out would be heading in Squall's general direction!

Al Bhed³ - you said that the bullet appears to come out of the top of Seifer's Hyperion... I think you are wrong, and that with the hyperion the bullet passes down the length of the blade (it does appear to be rather thick). The hole at the top is probably just for ejecting empty cases. In fact, I'd like to take a look at the intro again to see if you can see the empty case ejecting when Seifer uses his gunblade against Squall...

[Big D]

You can see it clearly. Evidence suggets that gunblades fire their bullets at the side of the blade, not down the centre; however, both Seifer's and Squall's weapons have a 'notch' at the end of the blade, which would be large enough to accomodate a barrel opening.

Edit: Actually, I've recently started playing through the game again and I've spotted something that might provide a clearer explanation:

When Seifer attacks the Timber TV studio, he attempts to take Deling captive. When he's restraining Deling, he's holding his weapon to Deling's throat - but the blade is facing outward, away from his hostage. The 'gun' portion of the weapon, however, is pointing straight at Deling's head. This this is some of the strongest evidence yet which supports the belief that gunblades fire bullets from down near the base of the blade... Seifer's Hyperion is kind of like a semi-automatic pistol with a blade attached to it.