Quote Originally Posted by Tsiron View Post
Hey that's not too bad! Reminds me of the Garo PLD weapon, actually... if only that were available to SAM, especially since it's got a scabbard and there's no Garo weapon for the Job, either...

Yeah I'm kinda with you on the designs they picked (in general), feels like a lot of them were things that were already in-game one way or another?
Thanks. There was a bit of a time crunch in coloring the line art, so the yellow parts aren't as "metallic" as I would like. I submitted this final version with less than a day left on the deadline. In my head, the sword doesn't match the GARO aesthetic at all. I probably should have drawn little diagrams pointing to the color channels and explaining the bright yellow parts are supposed to be gold metal furnishings, and that the red parts (including the crystals) would be where the dye goes. I would've dyed the red parts blue but I was trying to be respectful of the original design for Lightbringer, or at least how it appeared in FFXI. As far as I can tell, that was its most recent appearance in the franchise, though I have only ever played VI and XIV.

Visually I was thinking the final version should resemble the Heavy Metal Longsword, a very elegant but "subdued" look next to relic weapons. But looking at some of the winners, maybe that was the wrong way to go and I should have tried to include particle effects that resembled SAM's "moonlight" abilities like Gekko, Mangetsu, and Midare.

I also probably should have included the layered image in the margins, showing how the sword fits into the sheath perfectly and that little diamond shape on the crossguard slots into the "arch" in the scabbard like a glove. You could click and drag the two image layers and actually "draw" the blade in the editor, lol. The scabbard in both images is ever-so-slightly wider than the blade, specifically cut out and laid over each other and measured to fit.

Honestly I'm just deeply saddened that this sword will never see the light of day, because my Ishgardian knight character would've looked cool as hell wearing it. I have this whole head-canon about how it's the sword equivalent of Happy Gilmore's putter, basically a two-handed PLD weapon made for a knight to use SAM techniques. I don't really have any interest in the parasol sword or the regular katana, and the latter honestly feels like we would've gotten the exact same design as a 7.0 relic weapon anyway. But they're both more refined than mine, especially since the parasol submission included a whole-ass 3D model.

Guess I'll keep using Katana of the Fiend because the gold and blue looks nice with my cape and my chocobo barding.