Gunblade (weapon type)

Gunblade ( in Final Fantasy VIII or in Final Fantasy XIII) is a recurring type of weapon in the Final Fantasy series, first appearing in Final Fantasy VIII. Originally designed by Tetsuya Nomura, a gunblade is a fusion of a sword and a gun. The Final Fantasy VIII gunblades do not fire projectiles, but later versions in other games, like in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XIII, work as both a gun and a blade, although seem to work more as guns with blades rather than swords with firing mechanisms. One of the most iconic weapons in the Final Fantasy series, the gunblade is presented in association with warrior-type characters in Final Fantasy VIII. Later games would expand upon how gunblades play into their world.
==Profile==
In Final Fantasy VIII gunblades have a blade with a firing mechanism built into the hilt, the barrel running inside a part of the blade. They are mostly used like normal swords, but triggering a round causes the blade to release a targeted explosion as the weapon passes through an opponent to boost damage.
In Dissidia Final Fantasy, Squall Leonhart's use of the Revolver is refined beyond the normal slashes seen in Final Fantasy VIII, incorporating the use of the gunblade's recoil for a unique combat style. Using the Heel Crush and Rough Divide techniques, Squall triggers a round while holding the gunblade behind him, the recoil propelling him forward. Using the Solid Barrel and Beat Fang techniques, Squall thrusts the blade into the enemy, triggers a round (which also damages the enemy), and the recoil of the shot pushes the blade back, where Squall immediately thrusts again, repeating the process several more times. In Final Fantasy VIII Squall wields his gunblade two-handed, but in Dissidia Final Fantasy he often uses the weapon with one hand.
The combat styles demonstrated for gunblades capable of projectile firing (as seen in Final Fantasy XIII and the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII) alternate between ranged and melee combat with the favored style depending on the gunblade used. For example, the Velvet Nightmare is more adept for ranged combat than melee.
Final Fantasy XIV introduces several gun hybrid weapons, such as the gunhalberd, gunhammers, gunbaghnakhs and gunshields, which use a halberd, grappling weapon, hammer or shield bases, rather than a sword base. As of the Shadowbringers expansion, the Gunbreaker job introduces gunblades more in the vein of Final Fantasy VIII, defining itself from similar Garlean weaponry through the use of enchanted cartridges to produce magical effects. In general the job's weaponry, abilities and gear design are themed after Squall and Seifer.
==Appearances==
===Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children===
Yazoo and Loz use two ornate gunblades called the Velvet Nightmare. Despite being officially considered gunblades, they don't appear to possess any notable cutting ability though they have a blade running along the top of the gun barrel, and a smaller blade along the bottom forming the front end of the trigger guard.
===Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-===
Various copies of Genesis wield gunblades, swords capable of firing bullets and rockets. They first appear during the attack on Junon and can be encountered on missions. There are two varieties of this gunblade, as its appearance degrades in the same manner as the clothing worn by the Genesis copies, thus more degraded copies use a variant with faded coloring.
===Final Fantasy VIII===
The weapon's debut appearance, the gunblade is the weapon of choice for Squall Leonhart and his rival, Seifer Almasy. It is a sword with a firing mechanism, such as a pistol (as with Seifer's Hyperion), or revolver (as with Squall's weapons), which serves as the blade's hilt. Despite its name, it cannot be used as a gun, meaning it does not fire projectiles, and can therefore only be used in melee combat, making it more like a gun supplementing a sword than a blade supplementing a firearm, e.g. a bayonet on a rifle. The firing of the gunblade's rounds induces a tremor in the blade causing it to deal additional damage to whatever it strikes.
In battle, one must press while the party member is striking to pull the trigger. If successful, the hit will be critical, multiplying the damage by x1.5 (as opposed to x2 for regular criticals). Triggering the gunblade is the only means of performing critical hits for its users. With Seifer, using this technique is slightly more difficult than with Squall because he attacks faster. If the player set the gunblade to auto, it will sometimes miss. Squall and Seifer are the only ones who can use a gunblade in combat, while Laguna Loire uses one in a dream sequence minigame, and mentions he trained with one in his early years as a Galbadian soldier.
Gunblades have 255% accuracy, making misses impossible even with the Blind status.
There are seven gunblade models available for Squall plus the model used by Seifer.
List of gunblades:
*Revolver
*Shear Trigger
*Cutting Trigger
*Flame Saber
*Twin Lance
*Punishment
*Lion Heart
*Hyperion
===Final Fantasy XII===
Gilgamesh has a knock-off of the Revolver gunblade among his collection of legendary weapons. Like his swords, it is slightly different from the original, having an image of a chocobo on the blade instead of Griever and lacking the chain.
===Final Fantasy XIII===
The gunblade (dualweapon in Japan) transforms between gun-mode and blade-mode. Lightning uses her gunblade for both melee and long-range, and during the battle against Havoc Skytank, she only uses the gun mechanism as the target is otherwise out of range. Lightning's gunblade has a holster that swings behind her for the weapon to rest. In the web novelization Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-, Sergeant Major Amodar mentions that Lightning's initial weapon, the Blazefire Saber, is a weapon only used by the most skilled soldiers.
List gunblade types/models:
*Blazefire Saber
*Flamberge
*Axis Blade
*Enkindler
*Edged Carbine
*Razor Carbine
*Lifesaber
*Peacemaker
*Gladius
*Helter-Skelter
*Organyx
*Apocalypse
*Hauteclaire
*Durandal
*Lionheart
*Ultima Weapon
*Omega Weapon
*Godslayer (dummied)
====Final Fantasy XIII-2====
Lightning wields the gunblade Overture bestowed to her by the goddess Etro. The weapon goes unnamed until the sequel. The gunblade, like her previous weapon, has engraved writing in Etro script: Gladius in turba aetern a induratus vincula inserepabilia rum, which translates to "The blade forged in everlasting chaos shall cleave the unbreakable chain".
While her previous weapon was kept in a holster slung from her belt, Lightning's new gunblade can be summoned and dispelled whenever she desires. The Blazefire Saber returns in DLC, wielded by the version of Lightning experienced in the Coliseum. As in the previous game, gunblades will only use the gun mechanism when fighting an out-of-range enemy, such as Chaos Bahamut in Academia 500AF.
====Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII====
Lightning can obtain the Blazefire Saber and Overture, provided the player has a save file from Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2. All weapons are close-range, and thus the gunblades only function as swords.
===Final Fantasy XIV===
Various different types of gunblades appear throughout the game. For player characters, gunblades primarily serve as the weapon of choice for s. These gunblades function similarly to those seen in Final Fantasy VIII, using magicked ammunition to increase the power of their slashes. According to Radovan, these gunblades are the original models invented by the hrothgar of Bozja, wielded by and named for Gunnhildr's Blades, the royal guard of Queen Gunnhildr. Gunblades became the in-universe root of the word "gun", coined because the Allagan Empire's then-new firearms had firing mechanisms reminiscent of gunblades; recursively, because Bozja repurposed gunblades to literally shatter the Allagans' guns with the force of their blades, their wielders became known as "gunbreakers". Notable s include the and the Final Fantasy VIII .
Distinct from the Bozjan gunblades are those used by the Garlean Empire. While believed to be derived from the original gunblades, their function is different, with the firing mechanism serving more as a proper firearm rather than being used to enhance the strikes of the blade, allowing them to serve as both melee and ranged weapons. Garlean gunblades are seen as a status symbol in imperial society and typically only wielded by officers. 
Garleans are also fond of using other gun-weapon hybrids. Such weapons have included gunhalberds, gunbaghnakhs, gunhammers, and gunshields. Gunhalberds are the most similar in function to Garlean gunblades. Gunbaghnakhs seem to incorporate a shotgun into their design, while gunshields forgo a gun entirely in favor of rocket launchers. Gunhammers are the most outlandish, as instead of a projectile component they are fitted with a rocket booster on the head of the hammer, which is used to increase the force of their swings. Zenos Galvus later switches from using katanas to a scythe outfitted with a gun barrel at the blade's base.
The from Final Fantasy XIII appears as Lightning's weapon in the crossover event Lightning Strikes, and is obtainable by players as a reward for the event or from the Mog Station. However, as gunbreakers were not in the game when the event occured, it is considered a for use by s and s, and has no gun mode. Conversely, s have access to gunblades such as the and the , but do not possess a melee attack.
===Final Fantasy XV===
Lightning's Blazefire Saber is a DLC weapon for Noctis. It is a short sword, and thus operates the same as a regular sword; the gun mechanic is not used. Initially, it was one of the few weapons whose model was used for hanging animations; point-warping with most weapons simply showed the default Broadsword model. This was updated in a patch, and now all short sword models appear in hanging animations.
===Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008)===
Squall Leonhart wields his Revolver in combat and switches to the Lion Heart in his EX Mode. Outside of his Renzokuken EX Burst, the player cannot trigger rounds manually. Instead, the mechanism is incorporated as part of Squall's attack style, called Relentless Revolver. When attacking Squall uses the recoil from a triggered round to drive the blade back after attacking and quickly move into position for a second attack, allowing him to use powerful multi-hit combos that hit several times in rapid succession. Because of the way gunblade is used to achieve optimal performance, the weapon is considered an old-fashioned and difficult to use in comparison to regular swords.
As a Mime, Bartz uses Squall's Revolver in some of his attacks. Manikins of the two use crystalline versions of the Revolver, colored respectively to match their user.
In addition to wielding the Revolver and Lion Heart in battle, the Revolver, Twin Lance, Punishment and Lion Heart appear as Squall's exclusive weapons.
====Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy====
Lightning wields the Blazefire Saber in battle and exchanges it for the Omega Weapon in her EX Mode. As in Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning uses both the weapon's sword and gun forms, quickly switching between the two while attacking to combine close and long-range tactics, such as firing a barrage of gunfire then diving in for a sword slash. Squall continues to use the Revolver and Lion Heart, and Bartz uses both the Revolver and Blazefire Saber when performing some attacks, but he only uses the sword form of the Blazefire Saber. Manikins of the three use crystalline forms of their users' respective gunblades in battle.
The Revolver, Twin Lance, Punishment and Lion Heart return as Squall's exclusive weapons. As with Squall, many of Lightning's exclusive weapons are named after her Final Fantasy XIII gunblades—the Blazefire Saber, Axis Blade, Flamberge, Enkindler, and Omega Weapon.
====Dissidia Final Fantasy NT====
Gunblades appear as weapon skins. Squall can equip the Revolver, Cutting Trigger, Twin Lance, or Sleeping Lion; and Lightning can equip the Blazefire Saber, Omega Weapon, and Overture. Lightning's play-style no longer uses the "gun" mechanic, only the "blade".
Since Bartz's moveset has been changed based on the job system of Final Fantasy V, he cannot copy Squall's gunblade and attacks.
====Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia====
Gunblades return as usable weapons. The models used by Squall and Seifer are categorized as greatswords, while the ones used by Lightning are listed as swords. Depending on the weapon type, other characters may equip them as long as the weapons are not branded Unique (which means that the weapons can only be used by their original owner). New original gunblade models (such as Imperial and Blasting Edge) are added in the game.
List of gunblades:
*Revolver
*Twin Lance
*Fury Blade
*Cutting Trigger
*Shear Trigger
*Organyx
*Blasting Edge
*Hyperion
*Imperial
*Dreadnought
*Blazefire Saber
*Flamberge
*Overture
===Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade===
Several gunblades from previous entries in the series appear as weapons of the sword class, such as Lightning's Blazefire Saber or Squall Leonhart's Revolver. Classes that get a bonus when wielding swords, such as the Red Mage or Dark Knight, will also get a bonus when using a gunblade. Gunblades are typically powerful weapons and most of them rank as SR or SSR weapons.
===Final Fantasy All the Bravest===
Two of Lightning's gunblades appear, Blazefire Saber and Omega Weapon, but classified as katana. Katana can be equipped by the Warrior, Red Mage, Blue Mage, Onion Knight, Firion, Terra, Celes, Zidane, Tidus, Ashe, and Lightning. Squall and Seifer wield the Revolver and Hyperion in battle when attacking.
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
Gunblades are classified as swords. Currently all released gunblades have rarity of 5.
===Mobius Final Fantasy===
==Similar weapons==
While the following weapons are not officially considered gunblades, they share many of their characteristics.
===Compilation of Final Fantasy VII===
====Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-====
Wutai troopers wield halberds with gun barrels built into the handles, and can flip them around to fire bursts of gunfire. The halberd comes in several color schemes to match the user's armor, and stronger Wutai soldiers wield halberds with additional reinforcements to the weapon.
====Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-====
Rosso the Crimson's weapon is a bow-like double-bladed sword with a gun built into its handle. Weiss the Immaculate wields a pair of rifles with katanas built into the barrels. At least one of the Restrictors uses a pair of automatic sub-machine guns with blade attachments.
===Final Fantasy XII===
The Ras Algethi gun appears to be based on the Final Fantasy VIII Lion Heart with aspects of the Revolver's design. Though classified as a gun and thus only being used in ranged combat, it bears a large blue blade running along the length of the barrel, a wing design on the hammer, and a handle similar to the Revolver with a chain and wing emblem attached to the end.
===Final Fantasy Type-0===
Soldiers armed with gunblade-like weapons appear. The weapons appear to be based on rifles and bear a large blade extending from the barrel like a bayonet.
==Non-Final Fantasy guest appearances==
======
Squall, under the name Leon, uses his trademark Revolver, sans the Griever etching as it had in Final Fantasy VIII. When charged up, the Revolver will emit an aura of blue energy, making it similar to the Lion Heart. Two are associated with Leon, the and the , the former taking its name from the gunblade and the latter being based on the Revolver in design.
===Parasite Eve II===
A gunblade appears as a weapon that the GOLEM type character No. 9 uses. Upon his defeat Aya Brea can use the weapon as one of her secret weapons if certain objectives are met. It is aptly named "gunblade".
==Other media==
An ability called Gunblade is used by Squall in Chocobo Racing, allowing him to use a Turbo Boost until he reaches first place.
The gunblade is mentioned in one of the possible questions in Captain Cryptic's Confounding Quiz in Final Fantasy XIII-2. The question, "Which celebrated movie introduced the gunblade, a now-popular toy among kids?" can be answered with "The Sorceress's Knight". This answer alludes to a movie in Final Fantasy VIII where Laguna Loire held a staring role as the knight Zefer wielding a Revolver gunblade.
In , wields a large, white bird-shaped rifle called the Guncleaver.
==In popular culture==
In the fanmade CG movie series, Dead Fantasy, Rinoa Heartilly wields a black gunblade called the Vanishing Star. It features a revolver gun component with dual triggers and a blade with a white feather and the words "Vanishing Star" inscribed upon it. An actual gun barrel atop the weapon's blade, as well as exhaust ports on the blade itself, suggest it can be used as a ranged weapon. On said gun barrel the words "All Existence Denied" are inscribed: a quote of Ultimecia in the final battle of Final Fantasy VIII. Rinoa wields it one-handed in a similar style to the Chinese Dao sword. When not in use it has a belt holster it can attach to on the wielder's hip.
In the Dion Rogers' Rinoa concept design, she wields a gunblade that has a shotgun handle and a Griever etching on the blade. It has been dubbed the "shotgunblade" by Dion Roger when commenting on the art's design.
Lightning's Blazefire Saber is on a weapons rack among other weapons and guns in a live action video commercial for PlayStation, titled "Michael" - PS3 Long Live Play. Lightning herself is listening to a story told by Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.
The "Igknight" archetype of monsters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game wield gunblades based on various types of real-life firearm with blade attachments. "Igknight Squire" in particular wields a weapon that highly resembles Squall's Revolver. The Japanese text of the cards explicitly refers to the weapons of the Igknights as gunblades.
There's also a piece of equipment in the popular Japanese MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2 called the "Gunslash". A balanced weapon, it can be used for both melee and ranged attacks, though the skills associated with it are mostly melee accompanied by a gunshot. It is a default weapon for beginners, but there are also stronger and rarer variants.
The character Fie Claussell from The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel series uses dual gun-daggers as her weapons.
In the anime Isekai wa Smartphone to tomo ni, the protagonist Mochizuki Tōya uses a shape-shifting gun/sword as his secondary weapon.
Digital Extremes' free-to-play cooperative shooter Warframe features two melee weapons that function similar and are directly referred to as Gunblades. Both the Redeemer and the Sarpa have ranged attacks, a Shotgun Blast and a small burst fire respectively. Their currently available stance modifications, High Noon and Bullet Dance, allow the player to execute a multitude of combinations of melee strikes and gunshots, chained together by various acrobatic maneuvers.
==Behind the scenes==
The gunblade was designed by Tetsuya Nomura for Squall's weapon in Final Fantasy VIII with the aim to make the battles more dynamic, the players needing to press a button at the correct time to deal a critical hit, and to give Squall an iconic weapon. Nomura designed Squall's gunblade during a time he was into silver accessories, but on thinking back he says it has a rather odd appearance.
For Final Fantasy XIII, the idea for Lightning to have a sword that can transform into a gun relates to the game's Eidolons, which can turn into vehicles, and the narrative's themes of transformation. Reasoning that if the summons could transform, the developers thought the weapons should be able to as well.
While it is assumed the gunblade models use specific bullets/shells to fire, only few examples of a "gunblade bullet" have been shown. In Final Fantasy VIII during the game's introductory credits the gunblade has shells in its case. In Dissidia Final Fantasy, whenever Squall uses a melee attack in EX Mode, bullet shells eject from Lion Heart's chamber.
Some gunblade models resemble the real-world pistol swords; weapons consisting of various swords with pistols or revolvers built into the hilt, originating from medieval Europe and the U.S Civil War in the 18th-century. Billy Kid actually used a knife with a hilt shaped like a gun's, called a knife gun.
==Merchandise==
Final Fantasy Master Arms include miniaturized replicas of both Squall's Revolver and Seifer's Hyperion.
The Lion Heart model is included in the Play Arts Arms set along with four other ultimate weapons.
Scaled replicas of Squall's and Lightning's iconic weapons have been featured with every figurine of the characters regardless of what media or game the figure is portraying.
==Gallery==
Crisis Core - Gunblade Render 2.png|Degraded Gunblade from Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-.
CC Wutai Weapon 1.jpg|Artwork of Wutai halberd from Crisis Core.
Crisis Core - Halberd (Variants).png|Variants of Wutai halberd from Crisis Core.
Rosso Bow Weapon Artwork.png|Rosso's double-bladed weapon from Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-.
Weiss Swords Artwork.png|Weiss's weapons, Heaven and Earth, from Dirge of Cerberus.
Revolver-ffviii-squall.png|In-game render of Squall's Revolver from Final Fantasy VIII.
FF8 Hyperion Render.png|In-game render of Seifer's Hyperion from Final Fantasy VIII.
Squall gunblade by SE.jpg|Master Arms Revolver.
Seifer gunblade by SE.jpg|Master Arms Hyperion.
Vanishing Star 1.jpg|Monty Oum's fanmade Vanishing Star.
Vanishing Star by montyoum.jpg|Artwork of the Vanishing Star.
Shotgunblade 1.jpg|Dion Roger Rinoa's Shotgunblade.
Blazefire Saber Transform-ffxiii-weapon.png|Lightning's Blazefire Saber transforming.
Squall Sketch.jpg|Squall from Final Fantasy VIII with gunblade.
YunaGunblade.jpg|Unused concept of Yuna with a gunblade for Final Fantasy X-2.
Lightning sketch.jpg|Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII with gunblade.
FFXIII-2GunbladeRock.jpg|Gunblade in-game in Final Fantasy XIII-2.
FFXIII-2 Gunblade in gun-mode.png|Gunblade in-game in Final Fantasy XIII-2.
FFXIII-2 Gunblade.jpg|Gunblade artwork from Final Fantasy XIII-2.
LRFFXIII Blazefire Saber.png|Blazefire Saber in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
LRFFXIII Overture.png|Overture in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
Gaius van Baelsar FFXIV Art 3.jpg|Gaius from Final Fantasy XIV with gunblade.
FFXIV Cid's Gunblade.png|Cid's Gunblade in Final Fantasy XIV.
File:Ff14sb-revolver-gunblade-render.png|Revolver in Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers.
File:FFXIV Gunbreaker Art.png|Artwork of a Gunbreaker wielding Lion Heart in Final Fantasy XIV.
File:FFXIV Gunbreaker Render.png|A Gunbreaker wielding Lion Heart in Final Fantasy XIV.
Dissidia-OmegaWeapon.png|The Omega Weapon in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.
Manikin-Revolver.png|Crystal Revolver used by manikins in Dissidia and Dissidia 012.
Manikin Bartz-Revolver.png|Crystal Revolver used by Bartz's manikins in Dissidia and Dissidia 012.
Manikin-Blazefire Saber.png|Crystal Blazefire Saber used by manikins in Dissidia 012.
Manikin Bartz-Blazefire Saber.png|Crystal Blazefire Saber used by Bartz's manikins in Dissidia 012.
Manikin-Omega Weapon.png|Crystal Omega Weapon in Dissidia 012, never seen in-game.
Revolver ATB (Battle).png|Revolver in Final Fantasy All the Bravest.
Hyperion ATB (Battle).png|Hyperion in Final Fantasy All the Bravest.
FFRK Revolver FFVIII.png|Revolver in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
FFRK Shear Trigger FFVIII.png|Shear Trigger in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
FFRK Cutting Trigger FFVIII.png|Cutting Trigger in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
FFRK Hyperion FFVIII.png|Hyperion in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
FFRK Blazefire Saber FFXIII.png|Blazefire Saber in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
FFRK Axis Blade FFXIII.png|Axis Blade in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
Keyblade-Lionheart.png|The Lionheart Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts, named after the Lion Heart gunblade.
SleepingLion.png|The Sleeping Lion Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts II, modeled after the Revolver.
==Citations==
de:Gunblade
pl:Gunblade
ru:Ганблейд (тип оружия)
 
Category:Weapon types