Gunblades

Hey there,

okay so there are tons of threads discussing what Gunblades really are and what they do (basically, "do they shoot or not"). This isn't exactly one of them.

I am just really wondering why I see alot of people arguing that attaching sword to a gun would be totally pointless and actually contraproductive. The POV I see is that FF8 world has simply aggresive monsters all over the world map (perhaps read "everywhere humans don't live") and I think that it's much easier to cut something up than know every single vital point of every monster there is.

Perhaps that sounds a little confusing so let me put it in other words. A lot of people argue that sword are obsolete when guns come in the question. That is of course mostly right, because everyone knows that shooting a human to the head or heart is 99% likely to instantly kill them. But if you lived in world full of monsters, would you be really able to know where vital point of every monster is? I think it's just easier to cut it up whole thing than to shoot finite amount of rounds.

I'd like to first say that I have no issues with gunblades in the context of FFVIII. I think they look cool, and I'm able to suspend my disbelief for it.

Gunblades themselves would be hard to use for battle mainly for the recoil, I'd think. Also, I feel like the gun grip for a handle for the sword would make things a bit impractical, especially with the weight of the blade. I don't know much about swords and guns though, so I could be wrong. This could be why there are so few gunblade wielders in the world of FFVIII though.

As for using blades instead of traditional guns, I can see your point somewhat. I still think it's safe to say that a shot to the head would kill most all of the monsters in the game. Guns would also allow for you to fight monsters from a safer distance. Gunblades would be pretty useful though (assuming they work like FFVIII says it would work without issues of recoil and such) as the explosion will trigger more damage making it easier to immobilize enemies and kill them. You just have the added risk of fighting close range with some rather large enemies.

Well on the other side I can definitely see how it's safer to just shot down like idk T-Rex down instead of trying to 1V1 him with sword.

To be honest it's just that I personally don't see any reason why attaching a sword to gun would be of a dissadvatage in FF8 world. Sure you can shoot sh1t down but there will be always time where you face pretty weak enemy you better slice down than waste valuable shots.

Having the sword be so prominent is a bit strange though. Bayonets are a thing, and would make perfect sense, but gunblades are a little unwieldy. However, it makes sense enough in universe, I suppose.

I don't like the Gunblade, I don't think it really fits in with FFVIII's world. I think they could have made it fit in, but for such a unique item it gets very little text time.
I think they mention that only Squall and Seifer use it, and that it's quite an outdated weapon (Laguna flashback), so it makes me think why they even bother mentioning it, and don't just treat it like every other party weapon.

Well dunno compared to basically bare hands or a whip, I would take gunblade over anyday.

I think the gunblade is a difficult weapon to use. If we apply some real world logic to it: my replica gunblade is really blade-heavy and so being able to simply hold it can be a bit of a challenge. Knowing when to pull the trigger is tough too, especially if you ignore the fact that battles are turnbased and imagine them as occurring in real time.

You also would have to worry about rounds still if you want the benefit of the added damage you're supposed to get from the vibrating blade if that one image in the introductory credits of the game is anything to go by. Of course, that doesn't really get mentioned at all in the rest of the game so it might not really matter.

Guys, when you brought in Real Life™, you lost. All weapons, ranged, melee, or magic, do the same kind of damage: hit point reduction. That is why the T-Rexes do not eat the characters, why no one is shot to ribbons when fighting against men with machine guns, why you are not gored on the tusks of whichever huge beast, and why lungs are not seared/frozen when a person takes a huge spell to the face. Anything bad happen to you? It happens to your hit points. So as long as your damage modifier is high enough, use whatever holds your fancy; that will be the most effective weapon.

Gunblades are impractical weapons. One may need a gun, and one may need a blade, but not usually in the same breadth. When your gun barrel's underside is entirely blade, where do you put your hand to help steady the shot? When swinging your blade hard into an enemy, do you not think the gun assembly is going to hold up under all that jarring? There are better tools suited for the job than a Swiss army weapon, which a weapon tries to do multiple things, and poorly, rather than doing one thing well.

In the case that you argue that gunblades do not shoot: refer to the original poster, who talked about guns and swords. The vibrating gunblades are stupid too, but not worth more attention than this comment.

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Originally Posted by Madonna

Guys, when you brought in Real Life™, you lost.

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This.

I'll never understand why people feel the need to argue the logistics of a weapon in a game about teenagers who fight with monsters like Pokemon, fiends that come from the moon, ruled by an incompetent military superpower and being threatened by a time traveling sorceress that wants to compress time so she can be done with all these mofos and have some peace and quiet.

As for just a general weapon that goes from being a bladed weapon to a pistol, Power Rangers did it better.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Madonna

Guys, when you brought in Real Life™, you lost.

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This.

I'll never understand why people feel the need to argue the logistics of a weapon in a game about teenagers who fight with monsters like Pokemon, fiends that come from the moon, ruled by an incompetent military superpower and being threatened by a time traveling sorceress that wants to compress time so she can be done with all these mofos and have some peace and quiet.

As for just a general weapon that goes from being a bladed weapon to a pistol, Power Rangers did it better.

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Attachment 51584

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jiro

I think the gunblade is a difficult weapon to use. If we apply some real world logic to it: my replica gunblade is really blade-heavy and so being able to simply hold it can be a bit of a challenge. Knowing when to pull the trigger is tough too, especially if you ignore the fact that battles are turnbased and imagine them as occurring in real time.

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A Guan Dao is a difficult weapon to use, a Bat'Leth is a difficult weapon to use, a flail is a difficult weapon to use. A gunblade is like entering a fencing contest with your pants around your ankles and a pool noodle taped to your forehead. Don't be a jackass unicorn, buy a Bat'Leth and accept the Klingons as your master race. Qap'la!