Anyone else... kind of want DRK to get new standing/running animations?

[Alacran]

It's only awkward because it's not featured in more games and anime these days. Artist tend to go for more fanciful and "cool" looking fighting techniques, however even with the Abyssal/ Dark Magic skills Dark Knight's use, i find it very comforting that an iconic weapons such as the great sword was given such a unique and historically accurate style.







and it's still used to this day.



Hope it stays that way.

[YojimboM]

Cloud's stance is a regular longsword "neutral" stance. The only reason he can do it is because the buster sword is light as a feather due to it's material and almost legendary status.

I'm just dropping in to say that the Buster Sword is actually extremely heavy and only the Mako-infused SOLDIERs are capable of wielding it. It was passed down from Angeal (whose father made it for him) to Zack then Cloud, and all of three started out dragging the thing on the ground because of how heavy it was. Most of the official descriptions of it state that it's "heavier than a sword has any right to be" or that it requires "Herculean strength" to wield.

For the OP: The current DRK combat stance is fairly close to the realistic stance and posture that a person wielding a zweihander or two-handed sword would use. Most swings were done from either a low stance or off the shoulder, if they were ever swung at all.

[Shurrikhan]

Even though he's a Final Fantasy character, I wasn't really suggesting to "copy Cloud". Rather, I just think the stance looks a lot more natural for SUCH massive swords.

To be fair, you couldn't leave any but the most realistically sized of DRK's weapons in that stance, either. The low hanging guard puts more strain on your right arm, true, but it's every bit as able to keep the sword steady and better able to easily draw a heavier weapon into a cut (especially a diagonal blow) than a simple middle guard.

The only stance you could realistically maintain for larger of DRK's weapons from is the same stance one would use for carrying it in general -- resting against the pauldron, similar to a rifle-hold. And once using a mere standard greatsword/spadone/montante/zweihander, the difference is irrelevant, except in that the hanging guard better flows into the strikes for which long blades tend to be optimal. The point of DRK's stance isn't to hold an enemy at range through intimidation of a unfettered thrust; it's to take off an appendage or two as soon as the enemy dares to attack.

tl;dr: No, it's the proper and more physically optimal stance for what large weapons do. And once you get into the fantasy realm of 10+ kg blades, it's irrelevant, because neither stance would be useful.

[Terin]

It still just looks incredibly awkward to me. The running animation in particular sucks. I feel like the sprinting animation should be the running animation, and maybe the sprinting animation should either be sprinting with the sword held in one hand (like they're overcome with adrenaline and rage), or pulled even further back, maybe dragging along the ground.

[dinnertime]

The DRK drawn weapon pose is a reference to Dark Knight Cecil in FFIV. Sure it looks strange because it's not so common than what we see in media but nevertheless it's a type of way to hold a sword.