How do you think the gunblade functions anyway?

[Asaelion]

I'm sorry to have taken such a long break from this thread, it seems it has evolved a lot from when I posted.

Anyways, now that it has been proven that a projectile is not shot from the gunblade, we can focus on what the "shock" going through the blade is. I believe -that as I said earlier- the "bullets" in the chamber are some form of compressed energy. When the firing pin hits the cap of the shell, the energy is released through the blade, with the blade acting as a guide for the energy to wrap around.

The energy that comes out of this shell varies depending on the gunblade. Squalls particular model has a large blade to deal with his heavier caliber shells, while Seifers has a smaller more manuverable blade and so smaller caliber bullets.

I hate to join in with the "gang up" on Heero but if the developers said that the Gunblade fired no bullets then it officially fires no bullets, no matter what our observations might be. In the real world Heero and everybody else who supported the projectile side would have a valid arguement from observation. However since we can directly and realistically contact the "creators" of this world, it is their creation and so follows their physics, unlike the real world where we can't really "contact" our creator and so have to rely on empirical observations.

[Heero Yuy NWZC]

it's kinda late man. this thread has been over for pretty much a month. sry to dissapoint u, try looking at some other threads, ok?

[S.A.M.]

from wikipedia:

"A Gunblade is a sword with a pistol or revolver embedded in the blade. The layout of such a weapon differs from a rifle with a bayonet in that the edged component has an integral barrel, rather than being attached to the end of the barrel. In essence, the gunblade has a pistol to supplement a sword, while bayonet is a blade to supplement a rifle. The gunblade does not fire projectiles, despite its name. Triggering a round in the gun chamber sends a shockwave through the blade, increasing the damage potential to whatever the blade strikes at that moment (confirmed by the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, an official publication of Square-Enix). This enhanced strike requires perfect timing by the user, making this weapon difficult to master and use effectively."

[Cookie]

since i joined these forums about 75% of posts have been negative towards ff. if you dont like it GO AWAY! the gunblade is a good weapon and it doesn't need to be questioned because you are all supposed to like the game.

[Big D]

from wikipedia:

"A Gunblade is a sword with a pistol or revolver embedded in the blade. The layout of such a weapon differs from a rifle with a bayonet in that the edged component has an integral barrel, rather than being attached to the end of the barrel. In essence, the gunblade has a pistol to supplement a sword, while bayonet is a blade to supplement a rifle. The gunblade does not fire projectiles, despite its name. Triggering a round in the gun chamber sends a shockwave through the blade, increasing the damage potential to whatever the blade strikes at that moment (confirmed by the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, an official publication of Square-Enix). This enhanced strike requires perfect timing by the user, making this weapon difficult to master and use effectively."

Yep, that's what it says in the FAQ at the top of this forum

[The Last Oath]

When the bullet is fired it explodes onto the enemy and sends shockwaves and vibrations for extra power

[Iceglow]

The Gun-blade was a real historical weapon. It was introduced to the world in the age where guns were taking over from swords as the main weapon of war and later became a smaller detachable "sword" or knife called a bayonet. What the original historical gun-blade looked like was simply a rifle or musket with a blade running below the barel along the full legnth from the trigger guard out extending past the barel in to a stabbing point. The weapon was used as a sword once the enemy either closed too close to be able to shoot or if absoloutely neccessary. It was however a large unwieldly weapon that proved difficult to use as a mistake gripping your gun-blade to shoot with it would mean that the blade took your fingers off also a soldier carrying a gun-blade had to be careful not to shoulder the weapon backwards if in a hurry or sleep deprived due to the high risk of injury. In the end the Gun-blade was declared a failure especially since most officers or soldiers would lack the stregnth needed to swing the weapon as a sword in a melee for long (the weight of the weapon and difficulties in handling it of course meant that the Gun-blade whilst superior to the sword if equipped to a big enough unit was not accurate as a rifle and was used in close range combat more than a "sniping" style of combat) and whilst only used in a few battles with pirates (maybe a few european wars too but I don't remember studying any or hearing of them) it was soon surpassed by technological advancement and the development of the modern day bayonet (based on a rather flimsy rapier style long sword called the Yatagan). I believe it's service in the world was limited to under 20 years and since rifles were expensive and hard to produce they seem to have recycled most of the Gun-blades in to rifles however I believe that a few of them still exist in museums.

That the Gun-blade was used as the main weapon of final fantasy viii is interesting. Both Squall and Seifer carry them however they are not based on traditional styles or techniques of using them. However there is one traditional thing that comes through and was lost by Squall (or leon as he called himself in kingdom hearts) in kingdom hearts was the fact that the rifle or gun part of the weapon was used in close range. Maybe in Final Fantasy VIII he and Seifer used the weapon in what would be considered pointless range since the weight of the sword would do more damage in melee combat (try shooting someone in the torso or cutting his throat with a sword, tell me whats more effective when they have a sword swinging at your head). Average range of the shot ideally would have been 20 - 30 yards then charging the disarrayed enemies and clubbing them with the blade part of the weapon in a melee. So I suggest that the theory that their barels appear either off to the side of the blade or along the top (though I don't quite agree with the theory of the Revolver firing from the tip of the blade as it seems quite thin I offer no new contradictions to this it's only a game.) is more correct than any "Vibrating blade" theory which in my eyes is a load of steaming cow manure.

[rubah]

I'm gonna shoot you all with gunblades ifyou don't stop reviving discussed-to-death topics.