Any Singleplayer Games with Good Swordplay?

[Glongpre]

For something different I will say Shinobi on the ps2 because it is just fun.

But seriously, Ninja Gaiden Black.

I will say that the Witcher 2 really doesn't have that great of swordplay, it is average. Frankly, it can be a little frustrating in a bad way. But I will still play the shit out of it, because the story is great.

 

[Weaver]

Try the Jedi Knight series. The lightsaber combat was really good!

 

[babinro]

The best swordplay in a game I've played has to go to Red Steel 2 for the Wii.
Excellent game albeit to hard for me to beat.

Any of the NES Ninja Gaiden games are a lot of fun but probably aren't quite what you're looking for since there's no block/parry. He just happens to use a sword as his primary attack. Loved beating those game as a kid with plenty of time on his hands, lol.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Any and all of the Ninja Gaiden games...ok, except 3. Razor's edge is ok, but go with the earlier ones.

Also, dragon's dogma has excellent combat. I like playing as an archer, but the fighter class has sword and shield.

 

[Drizzitdude]

Also, dragon's dogma has excellent combat. I like playing as an archer, but the fighter class has sword and shield.

I hate you, I was literally thinking "oh hey I have something I can contribute to this until I saw you, the LAST REPLY in my search to make sure it hadn't been pointed out already.

But yeah, Dragon's Dogma is probably my favorite rpg at the moment, the combat is just fantastic.

Also I would recommend Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Great game with very seamless combat that transitions from melee to ranged without any hitches. ( on the pc you may have to run it in a fake windowed mode due to some weird optimization issue) I would recommend playing it co-op, but it isn't required by any means.

Favorite sword is a tough one, While I definitely love Red Queen and Rebellion from devil may cry, I have to say I like any ornate straight edged sword. Something that looks like a weapons a knight would wield or an excalibur type deal. THings like astora's stright sword from dark souls or chrysamere from the elder scrolls.

 

[PBMcNair]

Another vote for Dark Messiah, excellent swordplay, and you can go back some other time and try magic or stealth. The kick is sometimes wierdly powerfully though.

Favourite sword in gaming, its a tie between the Shiskebab from Fallout 3, for being the only craftable weapon that seems like something people might actually invent(and its on fire), and the Topsiders Honour from Dragon age: Origins. It's harder to pin down exactly why I like the topsider, I think its just because it's one of the weapons I like everything about; backstory, quest, effects and even design.

 

[Auron225]

If you have a PS2 you might want to check Shinobido: Way of the ninja. It's the best ninja game ever made, and swords fighting is awesome. You can't just go around murdering everybody. It takes practice and tactical approach. Ubisoft should take a hint or two from that game and incorporate some of it's combat aspects into Assassin's Creed if you ask me.

Yes. Yes. All of the Yes.

This game is freaking awesome Not often I see someone who actually knows it - its highly underrated.

 

[WhyWasThat]

Pick up Ninja Gaiden Sigma for PS3.

 

[jamail77]

Since nobody has said it yet I'm going to. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It's not the deepest game or the hardest, gameplay or otherwise, and I doubt even for the time it was the only game to have swordplay, or at least gameplay, quite like that. But it was the first major Zelda game I played (I played a GameBoy game my brother borrowed from a friend, but I don't remember much about it and wasn't very entertaining) and damn did I think it was something special. I still think it's a great game. I love the dodging and attack mechanics and the variety of things you can do with your sword and in addition to your sword. I have to admit since you mentioned it that I don't think there's any parrying mechanics however. Anyway, I love the agility and ability Link has that I had found lacking in other sword fighting games at the time I played and some, but definitely less, afterwards.

In some other swordplay games, you feel heavy and unable to do much besides VERY basic slashes and blocks. Skyrim is a good example of this. I didn't play much of it as I don't own it, but of what I played swordplay was basic. I understood why of course, both in Skyrim and in certain games with characters that are expected or required to feel like that, but that's the kind of thing I'm thinking of. Star Wars games also fall into this trap sometimes though the Jedi Knight/Dark Forces series was simple enough but advanced enough at the same time to make me feel awesome especially Outcast and Academy.

Favorite sword? No idea.

 

[lapan]

Die by the Sword - It's very dated, but you wont get much more precise sword movements in many games.

 

[joest01]

Oh, I forgot to name my favorite sword. It is of course the beam katana in no more heroes. specifically the blood berry!

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, and while it's not a single-player game, Blade Symphony [http://store.steampowered.com/app/225600/] might be worth having a look at. It's still early access but is a game seemingly dedicated to fun swordplay involving tactics, skill and depth with what seems to be a small variety of game modes. The interesting part is the Steam Workshop support that could likely lead to some clever, interesting and/or entertaining community driven additions.

By putting sword play front and centre and building a game around it, it is bound to be much more interesting and involved than even the most expansive melee combat mechanics in a AAA game, for example. It does kinda have a "Warframe" look to it, in terms of both aesthetics and execution. Various character types and combat styles, different weapons and one presumes some form of personalisation/levelling up process could make for an interesting combat simulator if nothing else.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Not often I see someone who actually knows it - its highly underrated.

That's because it's one of those games that was released at the end of the last console generation. All the focus was on the new Xbox 360 and the developers had no plans on making a next-gen version of it. So it went sort of unnoticed.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Way of the Samurai as a series gets high recomendations here.
I can recommend Way of the Samurai 4.

You start off with a sword style you barely know, and work to master it through combat. You can pick up more sword styles to learn along the way.
With time, and effort you can even create your own sword style based off stances, and moves you've learned, and points aquired.

Combat isn't limited to swords. Spears, unarmed combat/claws/knuckledusters, and firearms (they're hardly game breaking) also can be learned.

Swords come in a variety of flavors from jitte, kitchen knives, ninja swords, katana, nodachi, european rapiers, great swords, etc.

Most weapons can be disassembled into component parts, and made into new, potentially stronger weapons. The only weapons that can't be disassembled are jitte, kitchen knives, hand to hand weapons, and firearms, pretty much.

Weapons can be improved upon pretty extensively provided you have the time, materils, and money.

There's dozens and dozens of weapons to be collected in game. Not all are easy to get, or find. If you don't like any of them, as I said, you can build your own from parts of other swords.

Difficulty can be adjusted from easy to one hit kill, but even at low difficulties there's some powerful moves that one should learn to avoid.

When connected to the internet other player's characters can appear in your game as AI, and they might have some excellent weapons.
You can even run into old save versions of your character(s) and duel them.

Swordplay aside, it's full of some Japanese Wackiness, has really nice charcter customization, multiple story paths, side quests, dlc, love interests, the ability to start then defend your own sword school, and it's a pretty charming game all around.
Even if you just wanna screw around, and get into fights it's pretty fun.

Bushido Blade is an old, worthwhile series that seriously needs a reboot.


There's some old 2d fighting games worth mentioning in the Samurai Shodown (not a typo) series, and The Last Blade.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Also, dragon's dogma has excellent combat. I like playing as an archer, but the fighter class has sword and shield.

I hate you, I was literally thinking "oh hey I have something I can contribute to this until I saw you, the LAST REPLY in my search to make sure it hadn't been pointed out already.

But yeah, Dragon's Dogma is probably my favorite rpg at the moment, the combat is just fantastic.

Also I would recommend Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Great game with very seamless combat that transitions from melee to ranged without any hitches. ( on the pc you may have to run it in a fake windowed mode due to some weird optimization issue) I would recommend playing it co-op, but it isn't required by any means.

Favorite sword is a tough one, While I definitely love Red Queen and Rebellion from devil may cry, I have to say I like any ornate straight edged sword. Something that looks like a weapons a knight would wield or an excalibur type deal. THings like astora's stright sword from dark souls or chrysamere from the elder scrolls.

Aww no worries! The more people who post about Dragon's Dogma, the better! I had to put Dogma down b/c I was obsessed. I was on my 3rd play-through and I haven't even touched Dark Arisen yet. I am a die-hard fan of that game.
You know, I agree with LoTR War in the North as well. I actually enjoyed that game. Pretty sure I played it on the 360. The thing that I really like about War in the North is that multi-player is split screen. Super fun.

 

[exxxed]

God, I just watched the messiah gameplay, and that was awful.
Not that it wasn't good, but that it was so good that the fact that there's no sense of impact and flailing comes into it pretty easily and the lack of feedback just ruin it.

Indeed, well you can blame it on the period it was released in .

Great game either way, and if I may say, you kind of overreacted.

Good day!

 

[spartandude]

Not quite swords, but have you given Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy a try? Ok its lightsabers rather than swords but the 'sword play' is very simple and yet very refined and somewhat deep at the same time.