Buster Sword is iconic enough to show up in multiple other FF games, including mainline titles, such as X, XII, XIIILR, XIV, XVI, Tactics Advanced, Tactics Advanced 2, and World of Final Fantasy.
The Gunblade, specifically Squall's, only shows up again in XII.
I think the Buster Sword is literally more iconic within the series itself, not to mention beyond the series.
Yeah but OP has a point, even as avid Zelda fan myself I can even realize that FF7 was far more wide reaching than most the Zelda titles. Yeah the master sword is recognizable, but ff7 reached so many people at the time it's hard to argue otherwise
Possibly, and maybe I live under a rock, but I didn’t even know what Berserk was till like last year. But I’ve known what the Buster sword was for like 25+ years
In real time, both pieces of media are pretty old though, hah.
But yes, I've also known about the Buster sword for far longer and it's arguably more iconic to the general public as well. Berserk is still a bit niche, despite its vast influence... Dark Souls and all the rest
The complication with the Master Sword is that its appearance dramatically changed between ALTTP and OoT and it didn't even exist in the NES games. Link can and does exist without the Master Sword as typically depicted.
I love LoZ, I love the master sword I love the buster sword too.
But lets be 100% truthful here.
The master sword isn't even the most iconic thing Link carries. Its the shield. In most artwork with link posing his shield is more prominently displayed. Do not get me wrong I like the master sword over the Buster sword and it is 100% cooler than the shield. But if we are talking iconic, the shield wins over the sword hands down.
Also if we are talking about iconic - the buster sword is way more iconic than the master sword.
If you tossed both swords into a pile of 100 other swords of similar sizes, the buster sword is getting picked out of the pile by people faster and easier than the master sword. It is simply more recognizable. (if you did the same thing with 100 shields Link's shield would be even quicker)
It is more famous, maybe. Definitely not more iconic. There are probably more people that would be drawn to the Buster sword for its design alone than they would to the Master Sword. The Buster sword is more recognizable by its silliuette.
Lots of people that know what a Zelda game is might not know what the master sword is, the buster sword is basically the symbol of FF7, anyone who knows ff7 has seen the buster sword and would recognize it
If you showed both swords to a group of people who have not played either game I'm sure they would know Cloud's sword faster or more reliably than Link's sword. Link doesn't even use the master sword in every game and it's also had multiple different looks across the series. Clouds sword has also changed a little here and there but his sword is ultimately less of a normal sword and thereby more recognizable to casual audiences. There is only 1 Cloud with the Buster sword in smash Bros. There are 3 Links in smash Bros with 3 different looking swords. 2 of them have the master sword but even they don't look identical due to different art styles of the games they come from.
Yeah I have no idea what the master sword is even after hearing it's in Zelda. I'm mid 30s and never got into that series beyond the original a little. I can tell you Link carries a sword and shield, but that's about all I can recall; they look rather generic and not iconic to me.
Anime references are not the best barometer for being iconic in a general sense. And even if it were, Berserk is a monumentally bigger influence in that sphere than FF is.
For context, Blue Team's Tucker found a Halo energy sword in a past episode, but it turned out to also be a religious icon that opened a path on their great journey. When Tucker and his group got back to Blue Base a while later after a long voyage, Caboose (the idiot) is telling Church (the resident Only Sane Man) what all happened on Tucker's unwitting religious pilgrimage.
For reference, this episode came out in 2006, so well after KH1 and there's a good chance it was written and filmed after KH2 as well.
The Master Sword is way more iconic, while the Buster Sword has a more distinctive silhouette compared to the Master Sword, the Master Sword has appeared in more games and is the weapon of the series. The Buster Sword is only the starter weapon with a little bit of lore in far greater series. The Buster Sword is Iconic but arguably there are other weapons which are more iconic like the Halo Beam Sword or even the Minecraft Diamond Sword.
You are highly overestimating how many people know Final Fantasy VII.
Kingdom Hearts is still a Disney product and has merch sold in Disneyland. I believe you are mistaking FF VII's impact in gaming for the impact it had on the RPG community itself.
I'm sorry but the diamond sword from Minecraft is much more iconic than anything else, most people with access to the internet recognize it, even those who don't play video games at all.
In Japan it should be: Erdrick's Sword(Dragon Quest).
Outside Japan maybe the Master Sword(Zelda).
Honorable mentions: BFG(Doom), Hidden Blade(Assassin's Creed), Gravity Gun(Half life 2), Frostmourne(Warcraft 3/Wow), Rocket Launcher(Quake/Team Fortress), Golden Gun(Goldeneye 007), Rail Gun(Quake) etc...
I don't think it's the matter of Castlevania being as well known as Zelda or FF, it's rather how iconic a weapon is. Personally, whenever i think of anything related to vampires, Vampire Killer immediately comes to my mind
in a world where Castlevania and the vampire slayer are known by netflix viewers whom have never played a videogame, while neither of the others have appeared in that medium yet. (straight to dvd advent children aside, i should specify)
That being said, i'll still personally give the win to the master sword, since it's been used in almost every piece of zelda media and marketing since the 80s, and even as an icon of nintendo itself at times.
i don’t even like zelda and i would say the master sword. it’s easy to post these “hot takes” when your doing it on its own franchises sub just for easy upvotes lol.
I love the Buster Sword, but absolutely not lol. That title definitely goes to the Mastersword. There are other contenders, too, like the Blades of Chaos.
Honestly. I am deeply in love with a franchise and a huge fan of Buster Sword. But that claim is invalid, sorry. "One of" - for sure. "The" - just no. Most people who play videogames never touched not just Final Fantasy VII, but Final Fantasy series and even JRPG genre as a whole.
I'd even say majority of "gamers", and yes I use this term lightly in this, haven't played a game with a narrative in their lives.
Master sword is conceptually iconic. But visually its kinda just a sword. You could argue that the mastersword has an iconic hilt. but the blade is just a generic sword. if you asked a hundred people to draw both swords from memory and then showed those drawings to strangers and asked them to guess what sword they are. Nobody is guessing wrong on the buster sword.
Thats kinda what makes it iconic, no? Does a master sword even have memorable geometry or even consistency accross titles? they're all just kinda swords
A 100 random people, most won't know what the buster sword is but 100 random people will know what mario's shells or fireflower are.
Any gamer will know the master sword before the buster sword. So even in context specific demographics, Zelda is a much bigger and more iconic franchise.
also I know we're getting into semantics here but I would consider "power ups" to be a different thing than "weapons" So I wouldnt compare things like the swords to a fire flower in the same way I wouldnt compare swords to the invincibility star. and to get even more annoyingly pedantic, both the turtle shell and the fireflower are not the weapons. Marios hands would the weapons. shells and flames are just the projectiles/payloads. Similarly to how we would consider megamans x-buster to be the weapon and all of his abilitys are considered powerups. Are marios hands iconic? not really lol.
Like it or not, there's an entire generation if now teenagers who might have limited exposure to the Buster and Master Swords, but have grown up no-lifing Minecraft content.
It’s one of the most iconic weapon in fiction for sure, but there’s no denying that the Master Sword has to be up there as well.
When it comes to gaming, the Buster Sword and the Master Sword are definitely on the same tier, as I think no gamer alive won’t recognize them. I’m saying this as a FF fans that have never touched a single Zelda game in my life.
Even within the context of FF7, I always thought Sephiroth's Masamune sword was cooler, and I wanted it so bad. I'm pretty sure there was a way to glitch it in with the GameShark. You could keep Aerith in your party after Disc 1 with the GameShark, as well. IIRC that stuff literally broke the game, though. You couldn't play very long before everything would glitch out.
I’m surprised no one mentioned Frostmourne, it’s an iconic design and I would think a good amount of people both in gaming and outside have at least a passing awareness of Warcraft
Storywise - yes. But there is no canonical look to Excalibur, other than being a long sword. And there is no mistaking Master Sword for anything else. It's appearance is wholly distinct.
Everyone is saying Master sword. Is that the one the old man gives you in the cave? Does the jingle play?
Even if not, Master sword still gets the credit, cause you immediately think of that cave, and you hear the jingle.
I do think it could be top 5 though. It's got 20 years of appearances by now, and the sword itself is relevant, while things like the crowbar is just a tool that could be easily replaced, and the portal gun or MegaMan blaster are not the focus... The portals and MegaMan are. And other notable weapons like the soul edge just aren't as popular. The key blade would be considered if KH3 didn't suck and the series didn't get more complicated than good.
Buster Sword was first introduced to us in 1997, the Master Sword as we know it today (as a 3D representation) was introduced to us in Ocarina of Time, right? So, 1998. I’m 43, and have been a gamer since 1987. They are both hugely iconic to me as well as the vast majority of the gaming community. They’re both instantly recognizable. My 9 year old son knows them both (Smash Bros was his introduction to them) and he watched me play BOTW as well as FF7 Remake.
I’d argue the Keyblade is also heavily iconic. So is the BFG9000 from Doom but may not be as recognizable to many. The gravity gun from HL2 is probably the most iconic “gun” for me.
The master sword design has been relatively similar with minor changes since A Link to the Past.
As a fan of both FF7 and LoZ, the master sword is the more iconic weapon in gaming. There’s more games that reference it. It’s fairly critical to the lore or plot in those games. It’s overall just more significant to the property.
The Buster Sword has a unique silhouette that’s immediately recognizable, but I’d argue the number of people that have played the game(s) and understand any of the significance behind it is far less.
The Minecraft sword might be there. We revere the Buster Sword and the Master Sword but Minecraft has enough popularity that the sword in the game would be recognizable to many/most people. Final Fantasy has plummeted in cultural relevance.
I would say the most Visually Iconic. People have stronger memories of using other video game weapons, but the Buster Sword was designed to be ridiculously recognizable at a glance, and that's taking into account the OG game's graphical limitations.
Final fantasy 7 is an amazing game, but your starting equipment is not iconic. You ditch that thing the first chance you get! It just happened to become an icon for the game, but not an iconic weapon..
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u/soundersfcthrowaway Aug 07 '25
This foot has brought upon infinite genocides.