Survey: This Is The Most Impractical Video Game Sword, According To 16% Of People

In the right hands, a sword can be a powerful tool. A legendary sword owned by King Charlemagne, for example, once crowned kings. Overseas and centuries later in Japan, swordsman Miyamoto Musashi translated his unparalleled sword-wielding ability into a career in the arts.

For a video game protagonist, meanwhile, skill with a blade is not just important for political or social good, but can make a difference when the entire world is at stake.

That said, swords in video games are not always designed with usefulness in mind. A video game protagonist is arguably first and foremost a product. So, rather than equip their protagonists with weapons devised to best vanquish evil, designers will more often than not prioritize coolness or plot over practicality.

SVG recently conducted a survey in order to find out which sword video game fans think is the least practical of all. Though it didn't rank first, a surprising choice nevertheless received approximately 16% of fans' votes: Link's Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda series.

At first glance, the Master Sword is pretty standard in appearance, at least as far as fantasy video game swords are concerned. Its blade isn't too large and its overall size isn't unwieldy. It looks more than capable of cutting things. That said, its impracticality is not the result of its physical design, but rather how it manifests throughout the Zelda franchise.

The Master Sword's first major appearance was in A Link to the Past, in which it was the only tool capable of defeating the villainous Agahnim. Link couldn't simply take the sword with him upon finding it, however. Its very use hinged upon a prolonged quest to acquire three pendants locked away in perilous dungeons. In Breath of the Wild, in which Link must traverse a maze and obtain enough heart containers through various dangerous means to wield it.

The Master Sword is a wholly useful tool, but an impractical thing to obtain in the first place. This impracticality may have earned the sword's 16% fan vote.

The two swords fans agreed were most impractical, tied with approximately 20% of the vote each, were Cloud's Buster Sword in Final Fantasy 7 and Raiden's blade from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The reason for the Buster Sword's impracticality is simple: it's comically, unrealistically huge. In Raiden's case, while his blade is more than capable of cutting, Raiden himself has been the a fairly controversial character in both Revengeance and prior appearances.

Fans decided that next most cumbersome sword of all was Sora's Keyblade in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Contrasted with the Master Sword's immediately sword-like design, the Keyblade, as its name suggests, more closely resembles a key. Video game magic seems to be the best explanation for how key-like teeth could possibly cut through enemies.

With approximately 13.5% of the vote is Nightmare's Soul Edge from the Soulcalibur series. Like Cloud's, Nightmare's sword is simply gigantic.

Finally, 12% of votes were for an "Other" category. Responses generally specified not having an answer whatsoever, though one user did specify "the cheap plastic one in my kids room" as their pick. In all fairness, that sword, while not from a video game, is likely very impractical.