History Main / SwordBeam

* In ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam Reborn'', many previously melee-focused suits such as the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Epyon]] can send [[LaserBlade beam saber]] slashes flying at enemies as their 'charged shot' attack. The best example is probably the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Susanowo]] piloted by [[CharClone Mister Bushido]], which has a charged LimitBreak consisting of an enormous horizontal beam-slash the width of the screen that flies nearly to the edge of the game's draw distance. It is basically instant death to any {{Mook}}s caught in its path and will usually bring enemy aces or Mobile Armors to their knees.

* Excalibur in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' gets these as part of his Exalted Blade power.

[[CoolSword Swords]] [[{{BFS}} are]] [[KatanasAreJustBetter awesome]]. [[HeroesPreferSwords For a hero worth their salt, they are practically a requirement]]. But there's one tiny little flaw: [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight a complete lack of range]]. Now, how would your OneManArmy hero be able to routinely face and prevail over entire groups of enemies packing (cross) bows, firearms or ranged magic? Well, [[SwordAndGun there]] [[BowAndSwordInAccord are]] [[MagicKnight many]] [[RetractableWeapon ways]] [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks around]] depending on your setting, but there's hardly anything that is a more distilled RuleOfCool than Sword Beams.

* The PS2 Shinobi reboot has the Ninjutsu spell Kamitachi, which grants your sword crescent shaped homing beams fired from your sword.

*** Samurai get access to several Enpi as their basic projectile attack that allows them to continue chipping away from a safe distance. Their second stage Iaijutsu technique, Tenka Goken, fires off several around them and Hissatsu: Guren firing a flurry of cuts in front of them.
*** Level 50 Gladiator/Paladin enemies in beyond get access to an exclusive attack called Sanguine Blade that cleaves everything in front of them with an extremely wide crimson sword beam. The only way to avoid it is to get behind them before they finish casting.

*** Certain high-ranking Garlean officials use sword beams. This appears to be a function of [[MixAndMatchWeapon Garlean-model gunblades]], as Garleans are unable to manipulate aether on their own; in ''Stormblood'', [[spoiler:Fordola rem Lupus]] doesn't use the technique until she receives a Garlean gunblade, and a scene in ''Shadowbringers'' has [[spoiler:Gaius Baelsar]] change cartridges when using different sword beam attacks.
*** Dark Knights have the "Flood of Darkness"/"Flood of Shadow" attack, which launches a pulse of darkness from their sword.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'', Reinhardt has an ability called ''Fire Strike'' which does this, except with a [[DropTheHammer huge hammer]].

* More than one Ultramen from the ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' have this ability, including [[Series/UltramanGaia Gaia and Agul]], [[Series/UltramanMax Ultraman Max when equipped with the Galaxy Sword]], ''Series/UltramanMebius'' with his Brave Form's Blade Shoot and Blade Slash, [[Series/UltramanGinga Ultraman Victory]] in his Knight Form using his Knight Timbre, ''Series/UltramanOrb'' via Orb Calibur, and ''Series/UltramanZ'' using Beliarok's Deathcium Slash.

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'' Erza's Morning Star Armor's special attack Photon Slicer.
* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' Saber's [[InfinityPlusOneSword Excalibur]] can be used to unleash an enormous [[PillarOfLight beam of energy]] capable of [[PurposelyOverpowered annihilating anything in its path]]. [[spoiler:It is used during ''Literature/FateZero'' to literally [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punch out Cthulhu]]]]. Naturally, this ability takes an immense amount of energy to use and she can't spam it, especially when she's getting mana from Shirou. Gilgamesh's own sword ([[StormOfBlades the only one he actually wields, that is]]), Ea, is pretty much the same thing but more powerful. It's the only Noble Phantasm to be classified as "Anti-''World''", which means Gil can pretty much never unleash its full power for fear of an EarthShatteringKaboom, [[SuperpowerLottery not that he needs to]]. Even on its weakest setting, it can match the aforementioned sword with ease.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Medabots}}'', the [[FinishingMove Medaforce]] takes this form when used by Rokusho, as does Sumilidon's [[DiagonalCut Extreme Shadow Sword]]. In the RPG, a sword wave is the general form of [[LimitBreak Medaforces]] for Kuwagata types.

* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' has the Shinmei Ryū Hidden Technique, ''Zanmaken: Ni no Tachi'' [[spoiler:"In Celebration of my FirstKiss with Ojou-sama Special"]] (spoilered part of name courtesy of Jack Rakan, natch). When Rakan demonstrated it, the crescent-shaped energy projectile it produced bypassed all of Negi's DeflectorShields and damaged the building behind him before finally slicing a giant floating rock some distance away behind that in half.

* ''Anime/SailorMoon''! Sailor Uranus's second attack, Space Sword Blaster, sends blades of energy using her talisman weapon.

* In ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats'' Speedy Cerviche's Cat's Eye Slash is a [[DualWielding two-sword]] variant.

* ''{{VideoGame/Deltarune}}'': Susie, the team's {{Fighter|Mage Thief}}, is capable of doing this by using, in a twist, her ax. Her main Magic ability, Rude Buster, makes Susie swing her ax in the air, launching a purple energy crescent at the target; the spell eats up a large chunk of TP[[note]]Tension Points[[/note]], but also deals a lot of damage — even more than her already fairly beefy normal attack.

* Several characters from ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' are capable of firing beams out of their bladed weapons.
** Given [[Creator/{{Koei}} their relation,]] some ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' do this as well, as well as other characters across all their other titles.

* The ''Film/{{Hook}}'' game for Sega Genesis had a power up that allowed you to do this.

* Kai Leng in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. The N7 Slayer Vanguard in multiplayer that comes with ''[=ME3=]: Earth'' DLC features the Biotic Slash ability, which allows you to fire biotic {{razorwind}} from your sword.

* Shulk's Monado Purge art in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1''. It's more useful for its secondary effect of disabling the target's auras then it is for its damage, though.
* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'', Phonton Saber users can learn this as a battle art, Longswords have something like this too though it requires the player to be at a closer range to the enemy

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VideoGame/BlossomTalesTheSleepingKing'': This classic attack from ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' makes its appearance. However, you only get it ''very'' late in the game, and as usual, it only works at full health.
* ''Franchise/FateSeries'':
** ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'':
*** {{Excalibur}} the Sword of Promised Victory, Saber's weapon, can release blasts of destructive power capable of annihilating entire buildings with ease and could wipe out a good chunk of a city if mis-aimed. Due to flawed summoning and Shirou's low prana capacity, Saber cannot use this attack freely. ''Literature/FateZero'' and ''VideoGame/FateExtella'' reveal that it's powerful enough to destroy [[spoiler:a literal Cthulhu and an alien superweapon powerful enough to defeat ''gods'']], and in the latter entry it can also fire smaller beams of lights combined with [[BlowYouAway explosions of wind]].
*** Caliburn, a lost Noble Phantasm that once belonged to Saber before she broke it, has a similar if less powerful attack. [[spoiler:When Projected by Shirou and wielded together with Saber, the resulting wave killed Berserker ''seven times'' (Berserker has ResurrectiveImmortality and had seven lives at the time).]]
*** [[spoiler:Excalibur Morgan has a similar power, except PaintItBlack fully applies. Since Saber Alter is also hooked up to a nigh infinite source of mana, she can spam it and show off just how devastating it really is. In ''Fate/Grand Order'' during the Shinjuku chapter, it was strong enough to vaporize the large cloud of fragments from a meteor that would have destroyed the planet.]]
*** Ea the Sword of Rupture[[labelnote:*]]often [[IAmNotShazam mistakenly called "Enuma Elish"]] after its [[{{Invocation}} activation phrase]][[/labelnote]] is a [[ForgedByTheGods god's tool]] that Gilgamesh acquired. Fully powered its beam can [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy planets]], but Gilgamesh [[IAmNotLeftHanded refuses to use it against unworthy opponents]] and against those worthy he only uses a fraction of its power.
*** The attacks of Berserker are so powerful that the wind following the swings of his gigantic sword cuts whatever is standing even a meter away.
*** The Jewelled Sword of Zelretch is one of these in the hands of Tohsaka Rin, which draws in mana from all Rins across parallel universes to unleash waves of mana comparable to a fully-released Excalibur. And ''spam'' it.
** ''VideoGame/FateExtra'':
*** Gawain's Excalibur Galatine is considered a sister sword to Excalibur, and has a similar beam attack. The difference is that this one is [[PlayingWithFire fire-based]] and at full power it's claimed the beam reaches about 13 kilometers.
*** [[VideoGame/FateExtella Altera's Sword of Mars]] fires multi-colored lasers for several attacks, though the actual "beam" used for the Noble Phantasm Teardrop Photon Ray is more comparable to a KillSat in appearance.
** ''Literature/FateApocrypha'':
*** Siegfried's Balmung fires a teal-colored wave of energy that carries [[TheDragonslayer anti-dragon properties]]. At its full power, it can match up against Karna's Brahmastra Kundala, a massive fire spear with ''nuclear weapon'' capability labelled as an Anti-Country Noble Phantasm.
*** Mordred's Clarent Blood Arthur is similar to Saber's Excalibur, but replace "golden light" with "blood-red lightning". At its full potential, Mordred mused she could destroy a whole ''mountain'' with it during the Camelot chapter of ''Fate/Grand Order''.
** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'':
*** Lancelot's Arondight-Overload, though it differs from the normal sword beams used by fellow Knights of the Round Table. Lancelot stores the energy within Arondight to turn it into an ultra-powerful ''slash'', then releases the energy while he's cutting through the target to deal maximum damage.
*** Miyamoto Musashi's Rikudou Gorin saves the beam attack for her finisher after slicing the shit out of her target with a four-armed summoned Buddha.
*** Okita Souji Alter's Zekken fires a black and gold beam from her katana that's classified as ''Anti-World'' because it can even destroy things that are otherwise invincible.
*** Lostbelt Chapter 6.5 Traum released a slew of mobs intended to be the Generic Servants on the backs of the Class Cards. The Generic Saber, of course, fires a sword beam for its Extra attack. It could be a reference to the joke below, given that these Servants represent the very base of their class.
** And these are just the actual Saber-class Servants who have these. A Drama CD jokes about the overuse of this trope with Sabers by declaring that Sabers must be able to shoot beams. In actuality though, there are about as many Sabers who don't shoot beams as there are that do.
* The "Grubberfly's Elegy" Charm, the reward for doing Papa Grub's sidequest, from ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' allows for this It creates a shockwave-shaped blast from the tip of the Kight's sword, and does 50% weapon damage. It can be stacked with "Quick Nail" for BeamSpam. However, it only works at full HP (but this can be cheated with Lifeblood charms, which grant temporary HP).
* In ''VisualNovel/MarcoAndTheGalaxyDragon'', Gargouille can project a giant blade of energy from her sword Coelacanth. She uses this to bisect one of Astaroth's warships when it interrupts a baseball game.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* While the Sword of Protection ''can'' fire lasers in ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' (as well as fixing miscellaneous articles of First One technology, [[MorphWeapon shifting shape]], turning things into unicorns, and healing people), Adora -- who is pretty ripped even when she ''hasn't'' [[SuperMode transformed into an eight-foot goddess of war]] -- only actually does it on rare occasions, generally preferring to just smack people with the flat of the sword to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. [[spoiler:In the final season, she tends to use it a lot, but usually against something non-organic.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'' and ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011'', the Sword of Omens can shoot an energy bolt for its chosen wielders, by pointing it at the intended target and screaming "Hooo!"

* [[VideoGame/BlazBlue Jin Kisaragi and Hakumen]] have this as a super. One is actually a wave of cold from his sword (Jin), whereas the other is played straight (Hakumen).

* The red haired adventurer Adol Christin of the ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' series can shoot cutting arcs of wind starting from Ys 7.

* In this case, it's energy bolts from Wakandan spears in ''Film/BlackPanther''

** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'': The Fokka enemies can project sword beams from their blades in the same manner as Link.

* ''Fanfic/{{Boldores and Boomsticks}}'': Weiss and Blake repeat the combo they did in the main ''RWBY'' entry below against a flock of Nevermores.

* Phaedra's Blade Blaster in ''[[Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic III]]''.

* Sage and Nyanza can pull this off via CombinationAttack in ''Fanfic/RWBYSecondGeneration''.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' had the sword spin move which, when combined with magic, gave off a circle of energy that expanded beyond the range of the sword and damaged enemies. Not the classic Zelda sword beam, but still...

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' is the first 3D Zelda game to have this as a regular ability. The Skyward Strike can be used at any amount of health, though the sword has to be raised to the sky to charge up for use, leaving Link vulnerable to possible injury. The beam can be shot off vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and as a tiny bullet using a thrust, or used to power up the SpinAttack, extending its range. The charge time is reduced throughout the game as the Goddess Sword is upgraded into the Master Sword, and becomes practically zero in [[UnlockableDifficultyLevels Hero Mode]]. Notably, during the final fight against [[spoiler:[[GreaterScopeVillain Demise]]]], the battle takes place in a pocket dimension that deprives Link of the ability to use the Skyward Strike until the second phase, whereupon he charges the Master Sword with ''[[BoltOfDivineRetribution lightning]]''.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' is the first 3D Zelda game to have this as a regular ability. The Skyward Strike can be used at any amount of health, though the sword has to be raised to the sky to charge up for use, leaving Link vulnerable to possible injury. The beam can be shot off vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and as a tiny bullet using a thrust, or used to power up the SpinAttack, extending its range. The charge time is reduced throughout the game as the Goddess Sword is upgraded into the Master Sword, and becomes practically zero in [[UnlockableDifficultyLevels Hero Mode]].

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' is the first 3D Zelda game to have this as a regular ability. The Skyward Strike can be used at any amount of health, though the sword has to be raised to the sky to charge up for use, leaving Link vulnerable to possible injury. The beam can be shot off vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and as a tiny bullet using a thrust, or used to power up the SpinAttack, extending its range.