Elden Ring: How NOT to Use a Greatsword...

Big two-handed swords to crush monsters and inflate your ego are all fine and good... but when does it go too far? When the heap of metal is so overwhelmingly bulky and heavy that you can only handle it by smashing it into the ground and can't recover in time to defend against counter attacks?

Bah, humbug... Might as well go all the way, speed be damned! You just need to grab a shield so you can protect yourself while awkwardly dragging your mighty paddle around with one hand, right? RIGHT? :D

Yeah, so... Obviously the dark fantasy world of Elden Ring / Dark Souls is not exactly designed with realism in mind (although the animations are actually surprisingly immersive). But it's still a good opportunity to talk about how such weapons worked in real life, and to poke some fun at the game's over-the-top designs for fun and entertainment. So put on your over-thinking cap and let's delve into it.


Relevant videos:

Yes, Giant Swords Existed, BUT...

How Greatswords Beat Pikes in Battle - Or Did They?

Viking Two Handed Swords? - History vs. Fantasy

*** Sources ***

MOONLIGHT GREATSWORD Full Moveset Showcase

ELDEN RING: All Weapons Available In The Network Test

Elden Ring Weapon Moveset Showcase – Greatsword

Elden Ring Dismounter Curved Greatsword Drop Location and Move Set Demonstration

Ruins Greatsword Showcase

Elden Ring Sacred Butchering Knife Location and Move Set Demonstration Anastasia Weapon Mount Gelmir

Matt Galas - HEMA - Montante Solo Drill - 64 Cuts

Montante demonstration by Zequalszero

International Montante Symposium 2018 - Montante, Schlachtschwert, Great Sword and more

Montante demonstrated by Emile Anderson

*** Music ***

Intro song:
"Illuminate" by Vindsvept
Used with artist's permission

"Spirit Waltz" by Horrorpen
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (CC BY 3.0)

Outro:
"Highland Storm" by The Slanted Room Records
Used with artist's permission

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#eldenring #darksouls #weapons

[JohnNathanShopper]

Skall in his natural “ACKCHUALLY” state.😊

[KaelusVonSestiaf]

Funnily enough, you can actually do the 'snapping turtle' ingame. Spears and thrusting swords are allowed to attack while holding your shield up, so you get to cover up your front with the shield, while throwing out pokes. Amazingly useful, unless you're fighting something so big and strong that it blows right past your guard and breaks your stamina in one hit or something.

[cgillis]

Skall seems to have forgotten the fourth guideline:
"If the sword looks cool, ignore the other guidelines and go smash that jagged hunk of steel into some skulls."

[silverblade]

Skall: "What would compell you to pick up such an absurd weapon?"

Tarnished: "I want to kill or at least stagger everything I manage to hit."

[AWanderingSwordsman]

To be fair this a series where stabbing someones shield a few times with a knife causes them to have a violent hemorrhage and explode blood out of their chest. Where somehow the bleed effect is most useful against heavily armored and shielding foes.

Also mildly sad you didn't speak of the powerstanced colossal sword moveset.

[victorycry]

Honestly, the attack animations in the Dark Souls games always made you feel like your character has no idea how to use a weapon, regardless of your real life knowledge on this stuff. I remember using the Halberd in DS1 and seeing my character sort of wobble forward during its lunge attack, and it looked so weird that it made me think I would get less awkward animation if I leveled my stats higher.

The Dark Souls games are all about making the player feel like they can't stand up to the challenge the game throws at them before they finally just do it and walk away with a sense of pride. So I wouldn't be surprised if having animations like this was done for a reason along those lines; to purposely make the player feel less skilled. Elden Ring's crazy magic attacks sort of go against that philosophy though, so...

[amiitojsingh]

To be fair, the Guts greatsword isn’t even a sword. It’s a massive piece of sharp iron that just decimates anything in the way lol

[ibrokemykeyboard]

There’s a great sword in the game that’s made of other swords melted together. Like the iron throne but a sword. I’m sure it’s moveset it’s 100% realistic.

[-Bile-]

I think the implication has always been that the characters do big, beefy swings like that because they just have to. The added physical resillience characters gain from using souls/blood echoes/runes is so great that anything besides a full bodied swing with your weapon (massive or otherwise) has a negligible effect. Thats the lore explanation, anyway. The gameplay explanation is the animations are made like that so they will be easier for the player to see and predict. The animations are designed to convey alot of information to the player, which they need to be able to dodge properly.

[turdmanjones]

I think you nailed it on the head as to why they have to make these animations for the bigger weapons so clumsy especially the greatswords, pair that with reaction time and input delay over a video game, if they were as fast as you could make them "realistically" there would be no reason to use anything else as you said, they would have a huge advantage over most other weapons in the game. As for the comically huge weapons in the game.... well its a game and its fun to give things a meaty wack with a huge ass weapon lol. Most enemies you fight in this game or any of the souls games are not humans or even thinking humanoids, but rather mindless creatures (some of which are huge) that just want you dead so lots of the negatives of this stuff doesnt quite apply as much or in the same way. That was my over analyzing of your over analyzing. I love these types of

[FarmHonor]

Skall should really look at the Knight’s Greatsword moveset. It has a similar moveset to DS3’s Hollowslayer Greatsword. I’m honestly not surprised that the Knight’s Greatsword is so often overlooked though because you have to farm it from any one of the stronger Knight-type enemies.

[spartacus]

You should check out the Grafted Blade Greatsword. It's a sword made of swords. Imagine picking up the Iron Throne and swinging it at dudes. This game is awesome.

[habzuAQ]

Have you looked at the moveset of the "Banised Knight Greatsword"? Its light attacks actually looks more controlled compared to the other great swords i think

[DGFTardin]

The creator of Dark Souls is a massive Berserk fan. Elden Ring even has a direct reference to the sword graveyard that is in the manga, as a memento to Kentaro Miura, creator or Berserk, who passed last year.

[smileyfacism]

Something I've always wanted to see you review was the two-handed attack pattern for the banished knight sword. They don't slam their sword into the ground like a maniac, and seem to have each swing stop in a ready stance for the next strike.

[jurtheorc]

This makes me interested in seeing Skallagrim take a look at more Elden Ring weapons and how both the enemies and the Tarnished use them.

[dovahkiinhowey]

I like how Elden Ring (and souls in general) has a balance of realistic medieval weapons and armor as well as fantastical anime-esque stuff. I usually just stick to the realistic stuff and it's nice to have that option!

[Nerobyrne]

9:40
Well, you see, the reason this weapon is curved is because it's just a giant version of a knife designed to cut herbs.
I have such a knife. It's curved so that you can rock it back and forth across a cutting board. To do this, you place your hands exactly like they do in that sequence.

[Kyrious]

The swordsmanship mod makes Elden Ring combat a lot more fun for me.

It doesn’t perfectly fix the issues with swordplay. After all it’s stuck using the animations of the game. However being able to block and parry with my two handed sword is so much nicer.

I no longer need a shield to block attacks with a greatsword because of how bad the blocking was previously.

Anyone who likes more believable swordplay I definitely recommend installing that mod!

[asdfdsa]

"What compels you to pick up a huge hunk of metal?"
I'm strong as heck and it hurt enemy bad.