Why isn't Zanba usable by female HUs?

[dataDyne]

I think Chainsawd would have gone to prove your point more than a lite metal sword surrounded by photon(which is light particles).

Idk, Chain Sawd looks pretty light! All the weight in Red Sword is in the blade, like Zanba, whereas Chain Sawd's weight is in the handle.

You're right, though. I didn't imagine I'd see a change like this on suggestion/reason alone. Clio was odd at first but also welcomed by others and doesn't seem odd at all now. I'm just surprised at the sheer amount of "no" votes stemmed from desire for a vanilla experience. One which doesn't affect most people's game, mind you, considering HUnewearl only accounts for 9.32% of the playerbase (atm).

 

[Peanut]

Spoiler

No.​

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Had these sketches done weeks ago. I didn't think that topic about this very subject would pop up now.

Haha this has me rolling

 

[Nikki]

Idk, Chain Sawd looks pretty light! All the weight in Red Sword is in the blade, like Zanba, whereas Chain Sawd's weight is in the handle.

You're right, though. I didn't imagine I'd see a change like this on suggestion/reason alone. Clio was odd at first but also welcomed by others and doesn't seem odd at all now. I'm just surprised at the sheer amount of "no" votes stemmed from desire for a vanilla experience. One which doesn't affect most people's game, mind you, considering HUnewearl only accounts for 9.32% of the playerbase (atm).

You'd think it's lighter but there's gotta be sturdy enough to hold its weight, and it houses a motor to drive the chain.

 

[dataDyne]

You'd think it's lighter but there's gotta be sturdy enough to hold its weight, and it houses a motor to drive the chain.

In terms of leverage, this is much easier to hold. The load is closer to the fulcrum so the effort needed at the end of the blade is quite low. With Zanba or Red Sword, the load is in the blade so the amount of effort needed at the fulcrum (handle/base) is much higher.

 

[Xemni]

I always enjoyed how PSO locked items to specific classes or genders. I always figured it was a way for them to push an experienced player into thinking about their choices and builds, or a way to push newer players into playing the game over again to try out the other items.

It seems like a decision on Sega's part that fit with the rest of the decisions behind their game. I mean, this was a game where you had to really think about the name of your character if you didn't want to get stuck with bad drops.

There also appears to be a history on the weapon. The name "Zanba" likely comes from the sword "Zanbato" Which was a massive sword that was used by anti cavalry in China, and Japan. Knowing that, you can take "Zanbato" and see that various MALE anime and video game characters through many series' and games have all used a "Zanbato". Female examples were very sparse. In fact, digging through a bit more information, I found that the reason for this is because of the lack of upper body strength that females were believed to possess. You can see this with the Naginata, where they had to design a lighter variant for females known as the Ko-Naginata.

While I'm sure this information isn't really any thing you'll consider as a concrete reason as to why female characters can't wield the weapon, I just figured i'd share some history as to what could be the influence behind Sega's decision to make it male only, as I think its quite clear the sword in game is based off the swords used in their military, those hundreds of years ago.

Something I also found interesting, is the effect on Zanba is "Berserk", and Guts in the anime "Berserk" wields a massive Zanbato. Not really related to the Gender discussion, I just found this interesting ; )

 

[dataDyne]

While I'm sure this information isn't really any thing you'll consider as a concrete reason as to why female characters can't wield the weapon, I just figured i'd share some history as to what could be the influence behind Sega's decision to make it male only.

This was interesting! While I'm still baffled at this, I'm always happy to hear different reasons as to why this could be. However, according to @Aleron Ives;

...because Sealed J-Sword is only usable by males in V2, so after Sega opened it to both sexes in GC, they moved the female ban to one of the new GC swords, instead.

This could very possibly be the (lame) reason it is the way it is. The logic of putting a female ban on a much more attainable weapon as opposed to a semi-uber is lost on me, though =.=;

 

[Xemni]

His reason might honestly be why they designed the Zanba in the first place. Taking the weapons historical back ground, and more modern cultural use, its probably likely that during development, since they were making the J sword more accessible, they were tasked with the design and creation of the weapon to fill the J swords shoes.

It may seem like a lame choice, but I think they did it to give each class and gender something interesting to pursue. Male hunters with Stag and Zanba, ect , female hunters for things like the Real Neis, Vivienne, Parasols, Last Swan, ect. There are tons of examples floating through the game. Last I checked, I think females got more exclusives than males as well. I could be wrong, I don't really play much PSO anymore d: I just happened to have been curious about the state of the game, and saw your post.

I didn't design the game, but I can see valid reasons behind the choice, for the sake of replayability, and to get you to try different classes, which may or may not be archaic now, considering the only people largely playing this game, have been playing it for like 20 years now?

 

[dataDyne]

I didn't design the game, but I can see valid reasons behind the choice, for the sake of replayability, and to get you to try different classes, which may or may not be archaic now, considering the only people largely playing this game, have been playing it for like 20 years now?

Absolutely! Given the weapon's possible background it does draw a certain theme. I guess my issue was with the weapon's description alone and that, unlike the weapons you named, it doesn't give reason to suspect as to why only males can wield it. Your points are duly noted

 

[Aleron Ives]

There also appears to be a history on the weapon. The name "Zanba" likely comes from the sword "Zanbato" Which was a massive sword that was used by anti cavalry in China, and Japan. Knowing that, you can take "Zanbato" and see that various MALE anime and video game characters through many series' and games have all used a "Zanbato". Female examples were very sparse. [...] I think its quite clear the sword in game is based off the swords used in their military, those hundreds of years ago.

Give this man a cookie.

GameCube Zanba texture header:

 

[Xemni]

Haha, I guess I didn't do to bad for an hour of googling, and digging through wiki's.

 

[GHOSTS]

Because female Hunters are a joke and it's the game's special way to tell you to pick HUcast and DF everything. Duh.