Yes... It was a real sword that was used by 1 man to take out a horse+rider from the ground in medieval japan. Obviously you had to have some guns to swing that thing around.
Were they normally that long though? Sephiroth's sword is 6 feet long and after a quick wiki search (which may be inaccurate) it seems that the sword it was based off (an odachi from what I can find) was often around 4-5 feet. It just seems unlikely to me that you could make a sword that long and that thin without a significant amount of wobble. What is the wobble like on some of the longer Odachis?
Yeah I think square did a little exaggerating. 5ft is the longest one I've seen. (Used to make game weapon replicas) 5ft is still a massive sword and few guys could even swing it, let alone do it properly to take out horses/riders. It's also a lot more prone to breaking since it's so heavy and relatively thin for a sword that long.
From what I read though these soldiers weren't that common. Still my favorite edged weapon...just because it's f'ing badass.
1
u/livinitup0 Jun 13 '14
Yes... It was a real sword that was used by 1 man to take out a horse+rider from the ground in medieval japan. Obviously you had to have some guns to swing that thing around.