Heroes in fiction are often granted a magic sword, and video games are no exception. While special guns are arguably more common, games have given players the chance to wield many great blades throughout the medium's history. From The Legend of Zelda to Xenoblade Chronicles, there many excellent swords to consider.
However, only a few can said to be among the most unique. Whether it's due to their design, powers or storyline significance, these stand above the rest. Here are the five most special swords in gaming.
No list of great gaming weapons is complete without the Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda. The Blade of Evil's Bane isn't just the best tool for cutting down the forces of evil. It's also an incredibly versatile weapon that can break curses, destroy magical barriers and benefit from several enchantments and augmentations. Its design is simple but practical, and the additions more recent games made to its lore have helped it stay relevant throughout the decades.
The Master Sword is interesting because it's one of the few weapons with an explicitly good alignment. In a medium full of evil and dangerous artifacts, there's something consistently reassuring about knowing that Link's familiar blade cannot be used for wicked purposes. It may lack the raw power of the other weapons on this list, but there's a reason it's remained so iconic throughout the years.
The Legacy of Kain was one of gaming's best-written franchises, and its storytelling made the Soul Reaver one of the medium's most interesting weapons. The Reaver's power to drain victims' blood and souls makes it an ideal weapon for the series' titular vampire anti-hero, and the sheer range of elements it can be enchanted with gives the blade a lot of versatility. However, this forbidding flamberge's greatest strength is its power to shatter fate.
In a world where destiny is rigged, the Reaver's power to induce temporal paradoxes is the only reliable means of asserting one's free will. While it cannot travel through time on its own, the sword's disruptive quality means there's always a scramble for the Reaver whenever it appears. All this combined with several games' worth of revelations about its true nature and purpose, ensures those who witness Kain's story will never forget his sword.
Fire Emblem is full of great weapons but sixth game's eponymous Binding Blade is the best of the bunch. The sword is the strongest of the Divine Weapons, a group of armaments forged with magic powerful enough to slay dragons. Unfortunately for the world, their might didn't stop there. The collective strength of the Weapons destroyed the balance of nature: ushering in an apocalyptic winter that forced the dragons into human form and disrupted the seasons themselves.
Despite this catastrophic power, the Binding Blade is not inherently evil. The sword simply reacts to its wielder's emotions and adjusts its power accordingly. This allows it to protect users, heal their wounds and even allow them to incapacitate foes without killing them. While its design is a bit simple compared to other Fire Emblem swords, its empathic quality and vast range of abilities makes it by far the most impressive.
A sword that's also a time machine is instantly intriguing, but the Eternal Sword from the Tales Series is all that and more. With the power to split planets, warp dimensions and rearrange the fabric of history, it's not just your average endgame weapon. Being this powerful means it's understandably a rare sight throughout the series, with the player seldom getting to wield its full might, but it's always a game-changer whenever it shows up.
The sword has seen several wielders, and taken about as many forms, but its most iconic appearance is the violet claymore from Tales of Symphonia. It was also in this game that the sword was first used by a villain, being held by the evil Yggdrasil and used to enforce his warped vision of an equal world. Reclaiming the blade is no easy feat, but its power is the only thing that can reunite the shattered world and give its suffering people hope.
Gaming has yet to see a sword more powerful than the Monado. Debuting in Xenoblade Chronicles, this shapeshifting blade has a myriad of different abilities. It can destroy machines, provide super-speed and protect others from harm, but its most iconic gift is the power to peer into the future. The Monado's chosen can see the passage of fate, and use that knowledge to lead their people to a brighter tomorrow. Better yet, this only scratches the surface of its limitless potential.
All of this sounds like a fancy endgame sword, but the Monado is the first and technically last weapon the player will use throughout the series. The entire game revolves around the hero Shulk and his mastery of the blade, and his growth as its wielder is directly tied to the player's progression curve. This gives the Monado a sense of character and development that other magic swords just don't have, which in turn makes the revelations regarding it all the more shocking. It may not be the most practical-looking sword, but in terms of what it can do, there's no contest. Once the Monado's power is fully-realized, even the gods cannot stand in its way.
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