History Main / HeroesPreferSwords

** In ''FinalFantasyVIII'', the creators apparently weighed the convention of a sword against the practicality of firearms and came up with the "Gunblade," a sword with a pistol-like handle that nevertheless functions almost identically to a normal sword; the trigger merely produces a shockwave in the blade, to cause extra damage. Oddly enough, there was a ''real'' gunblade (a sort of rapier with a pistol for a hilt) that the French made. It's unsure how well it would have worked. A pistol-sword was invented for the American Civil War, as well; these were too cumbersome to see much use. During World War II, the Japanese made very limited use of a sword with a pistol for its handle. It did not function particularly well as a sword or a pistol.

** In ''FinalFantasyXIII'', Lightning uses a gunblade, but it actively transforms between gun and sword modes.

** His vastly cooler friend Dave Strider, however, uses a [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana.]]
*** Which is, unfortunately, [[SubvertedTrope a cheap piece of shit.]]
*** The sword he's got now [[InfinityPlusOneSword isn't.]] Its not a Katana, though.

*** The 15th century longsword was a very effective weapon against armoured opponents, and had evolved into a form specifically designed for such opposition.

* For many years, there were very few swords -- limited to wakizashis, which used the same animations as knives -- in the {{Fallout}} games, though plenty of guns. The series' melee weapon of choice was the [[DropTheHammer Super Sledgehammer]] or PowerFist (with spears and knives early on). Then along came the third game and that brought a sword.
** Could this be related to the fact that Fallout 3 is built on the {{Oblivion}} engine, which was rife with swords?

* In {{Arcanum}}, swords are a fairly common class of melee weapon, ranging from the delicate and magical Filament Sword to massive two-handed weapons. On the other hand, one could just use axes, daggers, or maces for the entire game. And that's without going into the bow or gun options.

** If you're going for "but he can use this too" than about half of the protagonists in the Tales series fits in that category. Cless and Stahn can both use halberd or axe-like weapons. More than 80% of the time though, they are probably going to be using swords.

** And in the first two games, anyone could use the weapon they wanted: knifes, hammers, a lotus wand, the Longinus Spear... as long as it did't require an specific alignement or gender (Yes, only women can use whips).
* Every main character in the first four ''{{Wild ARMs}}'' games uses guns. In fact, most characters tend to use some form of firearm as a result of the series' Wild West theme. While sword-users do exist (Raquel in ''Wild Arms 4'', for example), they're not leads and tend to be treated more like [[ImprobableWeaponUser Improbable Weapon Users]].
** However, note that while Ashley Winchester of ''{{Wild ARMs 2}}'' technically carries a firearm, he only ''uses'' it as one during {{Limit Break}}s; his regular attack relies on the gun's [[{{BFS}} ridiculously oversized bayonet]].

** In ''FinalFantasyVIII'', the creators apparently weighed the convention of a sword against the practicality of firearms and came up with the "Gunblade," a sword with a pistol-like handle that nevertheless functions almost identically to a normal sword; the trigger merely produces a shockwave in the blade, to cause extra damage. Oddly enough, there was a ''real'' gunblade (a sort of rapier with a pistol for a hilt) that the French made. It's unsure how well it would have worked. A pistol-sword was invented for the American Civil War, as well; these were too cumbersome to see much use. During World War II, The Japanese made very limited use of a sword with a pistol for its handle. It did not function particularly well either as a sword or a pistol.
** Zidane in ''FinalFantasyIX'' uses knives (although he also has the option of using [[DoubleWeapon double-bladed lances]] -- including his ultimate weapon).

** In ''FinalFantasyXII'', your characters lack preset main weapons and can learn to use a wide variety of melee and ranged weapons. Standard swords are merely a versatile but otherwise fairly generic set of weapons, much like in the real world. Yet, even here, the main character's starting weapon is a sword. Also, the main antagonist only uses a sword in certain cutscenes. His main offense is his fists.

* In ''{{Earthbound}}'', most weapons are items such as [[ImprobableWeaponUser baseball bats, slingshots]], and [[KillerYoYo yo-yos]] (And lasers, for the MadScientist in the group). In fact, there's only one sword in the game, and it's the InfinityPlusOneSword to boot.

* In the original ''BreathOfFire'', Ryu could equip boomerangs, instead of swords. They were slightly weaker than his swords, but made up for that by hitting multiple enemies. (In fact, your [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity + 1 weapon]] is the Tri-Rang, which hits every enemy onscreen, instead of just those in the weapon's arc).
* ''SeikenDensetsu 3'' has 6 different characters for you to select as your main character. While each could potentially be the hero of the story, many fans favor Duran simply because he's the only one who wields a sword as his weapon.
* Averted in ''{{Growlanser}} II'', in which the main character Wein Cruz uses a scythe instead of a sword because his ring(which turns into the scythe) decided a scythe was the perfect weapon for him.

* The best weapons in the first ''[=~Baldur's Gate~=]'' game and its expansion are all swords. However, an enchanted war-hammer has them beat in the sequel; in ''Throne Of Bhaal'', a [[ItemCrafting constructible weapon]] called the Ravager halberd is, for sheer damage- and death-dealing capacity, probably the best weapon in the game. However, when you take it to be constructed Cespenar [[LampshadeHanging asks you if you're compensating for anything]], so the designers were presumably aware that carrying around a [[BladeOnAStick great big pole]] has just as many phallic implications as a {{BFS}}.

* Lenneth Valkyrie from ''{{Valkyrie Profile}}'' started with a sword, but could use bows as well, wich even was better for collecting combo points. In the aftergame however polearm, bow and Katana users became utterly useless.

* Toreros tend to use swords and spears, since guns wuld be [[strike:more merciful]] unfair.

* Anime example: CowboyBebop 's Spike wields a gun, in contrast to [[KnifeNut Viscious's]] [[UpToEleven katana]]

* ''AlterAILA'', like ''Wild Arms 3'', avoids this by giving every character some type of gun. (The main character's still comparatively "cool," however, as she's the only one who can [[GunsAkimbo dual-wield them]].)

* Toreros tend to use swords and spears, since guns wuld be more merciful, I mean - unfair.

From a historical perspective, swords were common, but not actually widely used weapons in most cultures. The sword was usually little more than a symbolic weapon, which is why it is so much more common in fiction, which in turn influenced later works. One of the most [[{{Egregious}} egregious]] examples is the knights, who quite often equated only having a sword to being "unarmed."

Given that a sword is a fairly useful melee weapon with a wide variety of uses (and historically, pretty much everyone who could get a sword would have one) this makes some sense. It does not make a whole lot of sense when there are modern firearms and other such weapons that would render swords obsolete as a primary weapon. However, the trope is occasionally justified by having swords deflect projectiles. [[{{StarWars}} *coughlightsabercough*]]

*** The one he's got now [[InfinityPlusOneSword isn't.]] Its not a Katana, though.

** Worth noting is that right before Serge obtains [[TheInfinityPlusOneSword the Masamune]] it turns into the Mastermune, a swallow. This is the closest Serge ever comes to touching a sword.

For whatever reason, dissidents seem to cluster around firearms and fighting barehanded. In fact, this trope is so widespread that it's probably more efficient to list the...

*Likewise, in the Homestuck story of ''MSPaintAdventures'', John Egbert dual-wields pogohammers as well, if only because that was the first weapon he could find.

***Which is, unfortunately, [[SubvertedTrope a cheap piece of shit.]]

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** Also, said games, specifically the {{Disgaea}} series, may tailor the characters specifically to wield a certain weapon even though the player still has a choice in the matter. Laharl usually has a much higher sword mastery, although he is fairly good with other melee-type weapons. It doesn't help that said swords have a really versatile set of attacks (Ranging from [=AoEs=] to range attacks to hard hitting close range attacks) and that in DisgaeaHourOfDarkness, the InfinityPlusOneSword, Yoshitsuna, boosts MOV, JM, range rivaling guns, and attack power that is far greater than the strongest axe. Later games tone it down so that the axe is still more powerful.