Buster Sword



The Buster Sword (バスターソード) is weapon that first appeared in Final Fantasy VII and has since appeared in several other games in the series. It is Cloud Strife's trademark weapon, and was wielded before him by Zack Fair and Angeal Hewley. The Buster Sword serves as an iconic image for Cloud and Final Fantasy VII due to its massive size and is wielded by Cloud in most of his appearances.

Design
The Buster Sword is classified as an enormous broadsword. From tip to handle it is approximately five to six feet long with a single-edged blast approximately a foot wide. Two holes are in the sword near the handguard, which is a gold-silver color, and the handle is long enough to be gripped with both hands. In subsequent Compilation of Final Fantasy VII releases, the sword has an ornate swirl design on the handguard and engravings on the back end of the blade.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
When the Player Turk is infiltrating Icicle base with Zack Fair, he wields the Buster Sword.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-


The Buster Sword's origins are revealed for the first time in this game. Angeal Hewley is the sword's original owner, whose father had the blade forged for Angeal when he joined SOLDIER. His parents borrowed a large amount of money for the sword and Angeal's father worked as much as he could to pay back the debt, eventually falling ill and passing away. Angeal decided to take care of the sword in his father's memory, and uses it as little as possible to avoid it being damaged, instead fighting with a standard SOLDIER sword.

When Zack is forced to destroy Angeal when he transforms into Angeal Penance, Angeal entrusts the Buster Sword to him as a symbol of his honor and dreams. Zack uses the blade more frequently than Angeal, but swings to hit it with the blunt edge to avoid damage to the edge. When Zack is gunned down outside Midgar, he passes on the Buster Sword to Cloud, telling Cloud he is his living legacy, proof of his life.

Final Fantasy VII
The weapon's first appearance in the series, the Buster Sword serves as Cloud's default weapon. The weapon is unique in that it cannot be sold or Thrown, due to Cloud using it in cutscenes and minigames. The Buster Sword has a base power of 18 and a base accuracy of 96%. It has two Materia slots linked together.

In the load menu for Final Fantasy VII, the Buster Sword appears suspended over the ground surrounded by a black background.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Sometime after Final Fantasy VII, Cloud abandoned the Buster Sword, placing it on the cliff where Zack died as a memorial to him. In the two years between the game and film, the sword has rusted heavily and is covered in dust. In place of the Buster Sword Cloud wields the Fusion Swords, which when connected take on the silhouette of the Buster Sword.

During the end of Advent Children Complete Cloud moves the sword to the Sector 5 Church, polished from its rusting in the wasteland.

Final Fantasy IX
A weapon similar to the Buster Sword can be found in a weapon shop in Lindblum. If Zidane inspects it, he will give a reference to "a guy with spiky hair" who wielded a sword like it.

Final Fantasy X
The Buster Sword is a dummied out weapon that was intended to be used by Tidus. It can only be viewed by examining the game's internal data, and then hacked into the game for Tidus to use. Behaving in a similar manner to Angeal and Zack, Tidus attacks with the sword's blunt edge.

Final Fantasy XII
Gilgamesh uses a fake Buster Sword, along with many other iconic swords from other Final Fantasy games. The kanji character on the sword means "replica," or "fake," and has four slots instead of two.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance


The Buster Sword is a sword-class weapon that can be wielded by the Soldier, Warrior, and Dragoon classes. It has 35 power, 5 defense, and teaches the ability Mindbreak to Soldiers and Warriors, and Wyrmtamer to Dragoons.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift


The Buster Sword re-appears as a weapon for the Soldier, Warrior, and Dragoon jobs, as well as the new Spellblade job. It no longer teaches Wyrmtamer to Dragoons, but teaches Blood Prince to the Spellblade.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
The Buster Sword appears as Cloud's weapon in his normal outfit. Because Dissidia's character designs are based on the original games, the Buster Sword retains its simpler design from Final Fantasy VII and does not feature the more elaborate features seen in Advent Children and Crisis Core. Bartz is able to use the Buster Sword during some of his moves when he mimics Cloud.

The Buster Sword is also an equippable weapon usable only by Cloud obtained in Destiny Odyssey VII-1. It is a Level 1 Greatsword that gives +4 ATK.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
The Buster Sword is once again used by Cloud in both his default and "Steady Light" outfits. It also appears in Cloud's downloadable costume, his Kingdom Hearts look, where it takes on the loosely wrapped appearance it has in Kingdom Hearts. Bartz still wields the blade again in his mimicked moveset, but due to changes in his moveset he only uses it in one move as opposed to the original two. As in Dissidia, it is also an exclusive weapon for Cloud, and can found in his chapter of the 013 story. However, its stats have been increased to Attack +22 and Defense -2.

Non-specific appearances
Since the Buster Sword is Cloud's default sword, the non-specific appearance of this sword is directly related with the appearance of Cloud in other games, like Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring, the Itadaki Street Series, and Chocobo Racing. The exception is in Final Fantasy Tactics, where Cloud is disarmed until he acquires the Materia Blade at Bervenia Volcano, a sword that looks like the Ultima Weapon.

Kingdom Hearts series
Cloud wields a Buster Sword wrapped in bandages when he fights in the Olympus Coliseum.

The Keyblade Metal Chocobo vaguely resembles the Buster Sword, as it is a long, heavy, metal weapon based upon long reach and powerful attacks with two holes in the blade near the hilt. It is won by defeating Cloud in the Olympus Coliseum, and appears in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded.

8-Bit Theater
In the Epilogue, when Fighter and Black Mage realize they are lost, the Buster Sword is seen along with the Revolver in "Akbar's Not Useless Tools" shop.

Monster Hunter
A weapon called the Buster Sword appears in the "Monster Hunter" game series. While it more greatly resembles a cleaver, it bears the same overall design.

Fallen Sword
The Buster Sword appears in the online game called Fallen Sword.

Development
In The Reunion Files for Advent Children, Tetsuya Nomura stated his original vision of the Buster Sword was unrefined steel, and he referred to it as "the Giant Kitchen Knife". Concept sketches of Cloud show a very different sword, being of normal size with a small length of chain at the end of the handle. A magnet on the suspender on Cloud's back was used to hold the sword in place.

In early footage of Advent Children, before the Fusion Swords were designed, Cloud fights Kadaj wielding the Buster Sword, shown with the swirl design on the handguard but not the blade etchings. The fight is identical to a portion of their battle in the completed film, albeit slowed down considerably.

Crisis Core Limited Edition PSP
A limited edition PSP Slim was released along with Crisis Core in Japan; The console bundled with the game, as well as a Buster Sword wrist strap. Only 77,777 units were available and all of them sold in one day. A similar bundle was also released in Europe, but lacked the Buster Sword wrist strap.

Final Fantasy Play Arts Action Figures
In 2007 Square Enix released Final Fantasy VII Play Arts figures. Cloud's figure comes with the Buster Sword; its design is that from the original artwork, rather than the updated design from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. The deluxe set that comes with Cloud and the Hardy-Daytona also includes the Buster Sword.

In 2009 Square Enix released Crisis Core Play Arts figures, Zack's figure including the Buster Sword. Unlike the Buster Sword in the Final Fantasy VII Play Arts figures released two years earlier, the Buster Sword Zack carries is the updated design from the Compilation.

Also in 2009 Square Enix released Cloud and Sephiroth as Kingdom Hearts Play Arts figures, Cloud's including a bandaged version of the Buster Sword.

Trivia

 * A full-scale model of the Buster Sword was built to celebrate at the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete press screening party in the Sony Building in Tokyo.
 * When Zack has the Buster Sword on his back the blade's sharp end is facing down, while Cloud has the sword's blade facing out possibly for a quicker use of the blade itself.

Panzerschwert Buster Sword