“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.”

“That’s not to say combat in The Elder Scrolls games isn’t basically pretty good.” I’m going to say it. Combat in The Elder Scrolls isn’t good.

Swords are the medieval equivalent of a six-shooter. They're both iconic for their time periods, they're both sidearms, they both have subtle intricacies that make the difference between master and student, and they're both weapons that will be on hand once shit hits the fan.

This is a glorified "While you were partying, i studied the blade!"

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." A very fitting scene to get your point across! Great video!

I remember watching a friend play Skyrim and thinking, "Am I missing something? This combat looks terrible!" ...That's it, that's the whole story.

Sekiro feels like a movie without taking away control from the player, the back and forth is perfectly balanced, the bosses have so many cool moves that can usualy be countered in 3 different ways. Jedi felt so boring after Sekiro

Swords were *not* that expensive historically. Spear-armed troops almost always had a sword by their side as a back up, from the ancient hoplites to samurais. Simply put, the longer reach of a spear makes it (usually) a better arme-blanche than a sword. The advantage of swords is that (with very rare exceptions) you can wear them about your daily business, in a civilian or military context. A sword is to spear what a revolver is to a rifle. No lord or gentleman wants to hold a spear all day everyday, but wearing a sword for self defence or simply as a status symbol is practical and was popular. It's because of that popularity that swords became cool and associated with war heroes; its the same reason why the Wild West conjures up pictures of revolvers and not shotguns.

Everyday is a good day when Millard posts a video.

IMO, Sekiro has the best sword-fighting combat system of any game I have ever played. I like the fact that Elden Ring will be essentially a Souls game, but I hope they incorporate a few Sekiro mechanics.

I’ve just picked up ghost of Tsushima for the first time and I’m really enjoying the sword gameplay in that. Difficult but rewarding and when I lose, it’s my fault

Abyss Watchers is definitely one of the most memorable fights in any game I've played.

"satisfyingly lethal but fail to keep that feeling going." thats the feeling ive never been able to put into words about a lot of games but never knew what it was. "difficulty" isnt a trait anymore because games do it just to do it. its not interesting in any way, difficulty has to have that aha moment of satisfaction

The amount of times I was waiting for Monster Hunter to get mentioned is incredible (especially the Great sword). That game has this with 14 different weapons and give weight to them making them feel powerful, though the slowness of the GS really drills home that the weapon is a heavy damage tool by making the player focus on having every hit count and looking for the best opening to strike (and not just hacking and slashing) forcing you to 'dance' with the creature and it makes the combat very satisfying

sounds like someone's well-versed in the S-word!

Surprised you didn't mention the combat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Also, Hellish Quart is an Early Access one-on-one fighter that's trying to replicate historical sword duels.

Omg im so glad you brought up Bushido Blade, I played dozens and dozens of hours of that game against my dad as a child. I never hear that game never get credit or recognition as an early pioneer to high stakes swordplay in games. It's actually pretty impressive how subtle the swordplay was for a system like the PS1. It had a spiritual successor in Kendo:Way of the Sword for PS2, which is fantastic btw, but It's a shame no series has sought to recreate that level of intense combat in a multiplayer fighting game (other than 1 strike on switch/steam, but that game is highly reductive and lacks the same level of depth and tension imo).

Sekiro's combat is absolutely fantastic. No game has made the feeling of swords clashing so perfect.

Great video as always! Though regarding the gladius (from Wikipedia): The stabbing was a very efficient technique, as stabbing wounds, especially in the abdominal area, were almost always deadly.[19] However, the gladius in some circumstances was used for cutting or slashing, as is indicated by Livy's account of the Macedonian Wars, wherein the Macedonian soldiers were horrified to see dismembered bodies.[20] Though the primary infantry attack was thrusting at stomach height, they were trained to take any advantage, such as slashing at kneecaps beneath the shield wall.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is how... I love the Bushido Blade and Nidhogg shoutouts!

11:32 You know that feeling when the script is perfectly written and the video is perfectly edited? Yeah. Nice one, Adam.

Whilst you were going to parties and having friends, *I* was mastering the blade. Learn my ancient and forbidden techniques for yourself if you dare by making a donation to the Shrine of The Architect: www.patreon.com/ArchitectofGames Alternatively, wade into the unending war of lost souls that is Twitter Dot Com and duel it out with russian bots and people who are weirdly into bitcoin for unclear reasons: twitter.com/Thefearalcarrot

Warden with a sword: I'm a master of ... shoulder bash.

I know the focus on the video is on man to man sword fighting, but I want to mention the long sword class from monster hunter. It executes really well on the "flowing warrior" fantasy, with the combination of parries, dodges, and openings needed to succeed, as well as the "larger than life" fantasy with some of the special moves (like jumping straight up and slashing down). At higher levels of skill, it literally becomes a dance with the monster, anticipating moves and exploiting openings.

I always get surprised at how much I enjoy "basic" combat in game with more possibilities. If a game really pulls out the great feeling of just "block/parry/dodge/strike", I could very well to only that the entire game and enjoy every second of it. Like in Ghost of Tsushima, I might have all these cool Ghost tools, but why in hell would I try any of them when just parrying and slashing opponents just at the right time is so satisfying to do? Same with games like Sekiro, I don't wanna do the cool dancy move I learned or use prosthetic tools, just give me that "cling cling" of chaining deflections and attacks, and I'm all set. Probably why I never dared go into a DMC game or things like that, all those fancy combos aren't for me

Beating Sekiro is my greatest achievement to date... That game made me feel lower than the regular enemies... I have multiple mental breakdowns during the play through but its all worth it in the end... Now I can beat it without even dying once.. I haven't played any DS yet tho.

For Honor gets a whole section while Mordhau is only granted a 3 second cameo 😭

Swords in the middlages were a lot more common though as they were primarily self defence weapons. Like a simple handgun today in the US

Video isn't finished but had to comment to come to the defence of Curse Rotted Greatwood! It's not just a big damage sponge, it's a fight where you're constantly having to attack a different part of it because the eggs burst, giving an organic difficulty curve to the fight as you'll naturally go for the easy targets first before having to attack harder spots, finishing with the hand

Loved the Deep Rock Galactic grind rails during the sign off lol

1:36 "Erotic Edelgard Fanfic" I see you. I feel you.

You wrote this so well that Bushido Blade came to mind, 5 seconds before you said it

Hey, this was great and really entertaining. A bit surprised there wasn't more Ghost of Tsushima, though. Especially when they added a difficulty level that makes both you and your enemies more lethal (making fights more realistic).

Your points remind me of why I love Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, a VERY underrated game.

1: Rock and Stone 2: did you rickroll us with a fake music credit at the end there?

Mashing doesn’t really work if you play fallen order on a higher difficulty, which I highly recommend as it makes all the other powers a lot more useful and fun to implement

0:53 "The Gladius was exclusively used for stabbing" It was used across an empire for 600 years and probably taught by 10,000s of different instructors. It's exceptionally broad and clearly an effective cutter as dozens of cutting tests on KZfaq will attest to. The idea that it was only ever used for thrusts seems absurd to me.

Sekiro is the best sword fighting game till date. You cannot beat the fantastic gameplay mechanics. The posture mechanic just elevates the game to a whole different level.

Imagined: Elegant sword fight between two skilled expert soldiers Reality: Two drunken farmers charging one another with pointed sticks

Mikiri Counter in Sekiro is actually a completely optional ability. While much more difficult, all thrusts can be parried and it actually deals a TON of posture damage. It is unblockable, but the point is to get so good you never block and always parry. You also can run out of the way which sometimes leaves enemies open after a whiff. Great video!

I'm always happy to hear people talk about Furi. Just a great game that didn't receive the love it deserved.

"Feats of skill" - shows Giant Dad. - based -

A gladius is primarily for stabbing, but can cut quite well. Swords are a secondary like a pistol. Also greatswords likes Zweihanders were used as main weapons on the battlefeild. A knight in full armor might use a sword because he doesn't need a sheild and take a lot of hits or your a man at arms and oh crap your spear broke tine to draw your sword and keep fighting.

Kaladin Stormblessed would like a word regarding spears.

Ok, but can we please get a video game where the main character uses a spear, and just a spear? Because I like them more than swords.

Halfway through this video, I thought to myself "If he doesn't mention Furi, I am definitely going to call him out" So... Good job.

There's a reason why I modded Skyrim to have vastly increased damage per attack, for both me and the enemies! Mods for juicier combat sounds and blood effects really complete the package.

"Europe has Excalibur" Ah yes, Excalibur, the famous all European tale about some guy in England.

Though it's a tiny thing, I would like to add that while you're definitely not wrong about medieval weapons on the battlefield; polearms, spears, and bows making for the dominant weapons throughout history before gunpowder, swords were a little more common than you let on. Useful as sidearms or whenever you aren't fighting in a massive pitched battle and don't want to lug around a big stick with no sheathe Your point is still correct and the video is fantastic just thought I'd say that.

Bummer. I was expecting to see the brand new and poorly named Hellish Quart on here, even though it's still in development. It's a surprisingly accurate HEMA simulator with Bushido Blade- style deadly combat.

Step one to creating a great sword fighting game is to do your research on swords. Swords were a very useful military weapon, so much so that every single military on the planet until WW2 used them. They allow your archers to have melee capabilities, they allow your phalanxes and pike squares to have a useful weapon if their spears are bypassed, they allow your cavalry to have a backup if they need to fight when they stop or if their lance breaks. Sometimes, they were even used as a primary weapons by some troop types, be they early modern cavalry sabre or Landsknecht Schlachtschwert. Swords aren't that much more expensive than equivalent weapons. About the only place and time where their cost was prohibitive was migration era Europe, and even then, once you realize that scramseax (or other regional war knife of choice) is basically a gladius in different guise, they were everywhere. We have actual high medieval price lists showing us that swords that weren't fancy were dirt cheap. Gladius is a cut and thrust sword. We know this because Vegetius (author of De Re Militari) keeps whining about how soldiers prefer to cut with it. And also because you can take one out for a spin and cut with it pretty well. Gladius arguably wasn't the primary weapon of Roman armies, pila were, whether thrown or used as spears. Either way, it was the shield that really dictated their tactics. Swords happen to be pretty useful for one on several people fights, at least according to people who were using them. Silver and Musashi give advice on how to use sabre and katana in that situation, and there are several treaties that suggest that the montante was meant primarily as a bodyguard sword to be used as crowd control. Guns came along in 1400, spears and bows remained in use until Napoleonic era, and guns didn't fully overtake swords in all roles until WW1. Swords were used in batles all the time. There are legal documents proving this, usually in form of knighting or donation letters. There are also diaries, eyewitness accounts, songs and so on and so forth. Swords as status symbols... well, yeah, that one is true, albeit only some swords.

Thank you for all your videos! They've been great for years and only seem to be getting better lately! Definitely my favorite current KZfaq channel

4:40 "...until you are effortlessly dodging, parrying, etc.." yeah ... .. . i never got there

i remember hearing that swords were self defense weapons for most people

So this is why Furi's The Edge fight is so good. It was always my favorite Edit: when talked about that fight in Metal Gear Rising that also holds true for The Edge Oh you talked about Furi, nice

I think this might be my favourite of your videos. It's so good. Well done!

Out of all the Bosses I've faced, Genshiro had to be the most satisfying one to defeat. As a Souls Veteran, the transition from rolling to parrying was hard. As such, Genshiro forced me to finally transition to the expected way of approaching Sekiro.

Please let Mordhau be mentioned, best Sword Combat in any game I've played

As all always awesome video. It always seems like you, design doc and game maker’s tool kit always release something right on time to help keep me motivated and give me another perspective of some game design.

Amazing content as always! I hope to use the stuff I learn from your videos to help me in my future career of creating my own video games

4:25 excuse me?? I beat Ishin by oiling him up and lighting him on fire. I'm still proud of this 2 years later!

I'm afraid you really missed the mark on Fallen Order. The easy modes for that game were designed to allow the player to ignore mechanics. You have to make use of almost all of your kit to thrive on the high difficulties as enemy will simply no-sell X mashing.

Love ur vids, the world of gaming feels so overwhelming sometimes and you help demystify it

For a second I thought this was going to be about player-versus-player fighting games, but I can see how a lot of the "feel" of swordfighting would get translated well into fighting games all the same. Samurai Shodown is a particularly fantastic example of this, where its slow pace and *punishing* damage really create the feel of a samurai duel where one decisive stroke could end the battle in the blink of an eye.

I was hoping to see the Hellish Quart mentioned, since it seems to be a spiritual successor to Bushido Blade.

>:( Swords are overdone, where my spear wielding protagonist games at?

I really liked this video! I have heard some of the history of swords before, but not specifically in such a dedicated context before. Clearly a subject with a good amount to talk about, what with the long history of swords in myth and videogames alike. It was neat to learn about Bushido Blade's combat for me too, it's a rare as heck style of combat to see nowadays. Even Ghostrunner's 'everything is lethal' system is a bit more often seen. Great video overall! ^w^

so glad you brought up bushido blade, would love to see more fighters in that vein

"[the gladius] was exclusively used for stabbing, not slashing. . . " I really hate it when people try to state absolute facts like this. That idea is completely wrong, and gladii can definitely be used to thrust AND slash. There is literally no point in making a bladed weapon that never gets used for cutting.

Shammy and The Architect descended to our mortal plane on the same day What could this mean edit: AND IT MIGHT BE ABOUT SEKIRO I’m making stovetop popcorn tonight

Around 4:40 ish. And this is why I love VR games, is because you can make your own moves. You’re not restricted to a button press you’re only really restricted to your imagination

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy has a massive mod called Movie Battles that pumps the lightsaber combat up to 11 and makes it quite possibly the best ever representation of lightsaber combat in any game ever.

Helish quart is the best fencing game right now, cause most realistic and really enjoyable in 1 time.

14:35 I appreciate the monty python reference

I was waiting the whole time for a mention of Furi, one of my absolute favorites of all time

Great to see Bushido Blade mentioned, I played Bushido Blade 2 a ton on the PlayStation, it was great fun even if the bosses were infuriating.

5:00 what difficulty did you play the game on? i played the game and was damn near glued to both the parry and dodge buttons, and the force powers were my "oops" emergency button in a great deal of situations. i even felt towards the end that perhaps i hadnt set the difficulty high enough. i fought to the finish the frog boss the first time, and the time i actually beat him i felt i dodged more times than i attacked.

INB4 I await Shadiversity's response.

Wow, great video. Loved it

this is one of your best videos

I'm really surprised Kingdom Come Deliverance wasn't mentioned, given how much depth there is to its combat

Damn glad to see someone who i didn't think was interested in history actually is

Hiatorical fencer here. Good fencing games captures the soul of fencing, even if not the exact mechanics of it. A "real" sword fight is quick and thrilling and requires extremely good foundations and good reflexes. If a game captures that, you're basically set. Couple it with tactics based in movement and timing, and you have a perfect sword fighting game. Also, I suspect swords were in such high regard because of their difficulty of manufacture, and also that they are the only medieval weapon that was ONLY a weapon. All others are either used for hunting or as tools.

Awesome video!!

So would the game Ghost Of Tsushima count as a good example of sword game play?

Reject modernity, return to monke and most importantly watch Adam Millard:)

Despite what you said about swordfights in games working because they're nothing like swordfights irl (which is completely fair), the way you described bushido blade, it's actually pretty accurate (at least as much as I understand it having never played it). Swordfights irl are often like "dances" around each other, sometimes exchanging quick blows, until someone severs a tenden or hits a vital body part, in which case it'll be basically over. Exceptions of course exist because it's reality we're talking about, but I find it interesting that that game made this fun and accessible.

15:16 truly an excellent use of company time and resources right there. Employee of the month if I do say so myself.

So basically swords are awesome but have really steep learning curves.

I am very surprised, that there are no comments about Mordhau in this comment section

Love your videos!!

I've spent a number of years studying and training in the medieval martial arts of Liechtenauer and Fiore, which take longsword (here meaning a light-to-middleweight two-handed sword) as their central focus. There are some relatively popular channels, such as Skallagrim and Shadiversity that discuss the above, and other styles besides -- although I recommend taking them with a grain of salt, as I've found both tend to overextend into speculation in some matters, despite good intentions. The most generally useful channel for discussing swordplay is probably Schola Gladiatora by Matt Easton, who is a historical swordplay instructor in the UK. Okay, but video games. Coming from a background in historical swordplay (and therefore a corner of the martial arts world), I can't say any game has truly and satisfactorily emulated swordplay or related weapons fighting. To be fair, this isn't the intention of, say, Devil May Cry. That in itself is interesting, though, because Devil May Cry actually includes one of the missing ingredients -- one can parry enemy attacks with their own attacks. It can't be overstated how crucial this aspect of fighting with most steel swords is (at least those upwards of 60cm or so in blade length). When you attack, you actively push forward a defense as well, and one with kinetic force behind it. Although not represented in game mechanics, this is the logic behind the ending posture of the Ichimonji technique in Sekiro; to that game's credit, Ichimonji is granted a defensive aspect by recovering a significant amount of posture upon completion. This intersection between offense and defense is also hinted at in Metal Gear Rising, as blocking and parrying are bound to the light attack button. A codec conversation in-game confirms that, while Raiden is self-taught, he's influenced by Yagyu Shinkage-ryu, which was a prominent style of fencing in Edo period Japan. I've never had the pleasure of training in it, but from demonstration, it has a particular similarity with Liechtenauer's longsword, as both styles include single-tempo techniques that aim to parry the opponent and strike them with the sword in one motion. Dark Souls II has a particularly clear example of Liechtenauer-influenced animations in the Drangleic specific greatswords. When used two-handed, these greatswords have an alternative moveset, where the light attack represents Zornhau and the heavy attack represents Zwerchau, albeit in a compromised way meant to compromise with the needs of attack animations in the Souls games. Structurally speaking, games like Metal Gear Rising, Nioh, and Sekiro hit the closest mark. All of these games are based on attacks that try to earn advantage until you gain the opportunity to make a decisive strike. Although I previously described the existence of single-tempo techniques, they tend to be sensitive, and therefore being skilled in more conventional strategies remains important. The main strategy in most forms of historical swordplay is to work your opponent into the real-life equivalent of frame disadvantage, after which you can make an attack against a vital target while the opponent is unable to defend. As combat draws closer, the use of grappling, daggers, and shorter swords becomes common, although most swords are short enough to remain useful in a grappling situation. Including real-world swordplay in video games is definitely a significant challenge, given the difficulties already inherent in games development. Although no individual game does everything, most real-world aspects of swordplay are represented somewhere, and we lack a project to unify such mechanics into one sick swordplay game. If I held the reigns to an action game project, I'd be aiming to combine the structural combat elements of a game like Nioh with attacks that include blocking frames; the cost of an offensive parry could be represented by the likes of stamina, posture, or ki, or even just blockstun in the case of attacking into an opposing attack with greater advantage. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. There was really no short version of this post and it threatened to be longer. I'm a bit sorry, but not beside myself with grief.

imagine not talking about mordhau in a sword video about technique

a video about sword fighting in games and not even a mention to kingdom come deliverance? its progression its really note worthy and more games should take inspiration from that

Great video!

This is a good and interesting one, well done.

5:00 ok be honest Mr. GMT, did you never play Fallen Order on a higher/highest difficulty? Because that spam X shit absolutely does not work and force moves are incredibly important for staggering foes on higher difficulty levels. Does suffer a bit from the damage sponge thing though.

I gather that Ghost of Tsushima will be getting its own video then? :P This was a great essay... except the Fallen Order stuff, sorry. You can't by any stretch of the imagination just spam the attack button, you will get destroyed unless maybe if you're playing on easy? Unsure. But both parries and dodges are pretty mandatory for most of the game. "Cal's parry and dodge moves feel sluggish" It's because FO is animation-led, whereas something like Ghost of Tsushima for example is input-led. There's a learning curve because you have to press the input before you need it, it takes a while to learn the timing, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It feeds directly into the feeling of mastery you say the game doesn't provide, but I felt like I had genuinely mastered these mechanics by the end of the story, in a way no game had done for me again until Tsushima. The way you put "???" when the giant frog jumps tells me you may not have played much of this game tbh, because that's one of like 3? 4? attacks he can do. I will be the first one to criticize Fallen Order for copying Sekiro kind of poorly, and not having enough depth to its mechanics unlike the similar but superior in nearly every way Ghost of Tsushima. But yeah, if you played Fallen Order just spamming attack instead of chaining perfect dodges to refill your Force meter, timing your strikes through an enemy's vulnerable but brief attack animation, or throwing your saber behind an enemy only for it to cleave through him on its way back to you just in time to parry a blow from his friend... that's kinda your choice? The game definitely gives you those tools to juggle all together. Anyways, this really was an excellent video on one of my very favourite things, great job💜

Correction: The Roman Gladius was not exclusively used for stabbing. No variation of the Gladius was exclusively used for stabbing.

I love your videos, I keep learning new things on your channel. I've been dreaming of realizing an mmorpg with these ideas to make it more immersive, balanced, and fun. I'm still thinking of how I could merge blades and magic where it's almost realistic. Mage vs Swordsman or even Battlemages vs Magic Swordsman.