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Legendary loot in video games comprise of some of the most unique and rare items which can be collected by the players. In large open-world RPGs, these pieces of gear are obtained after completing long arduous quest lines or after collecting them from various areas across the map.
They serve as rewards for players, which they can proudly equip and feature as a statement of their actions.
However, not all legendary weapons or armor in video games are made equal. Sometimes, all the work and effort put into completing a series of quests or into collecting these armaments, end up feeling like it was for naught, as the weapons or armor received turn out to be quite disappointing.
There might be for a number of reasons, either resulting from lackluster stats or performance from the items received, or just looking like plain uninspired, unworthy of being worn by the all-powerful protagonists.
Whatever the case might be, here are five examples of legendary weapons and armor in video games, which were ultimately disappointing.
Note: This article reflects the writer's opinion.
5 subpar legendary weapons and armor in video games
1) Moonlight Sword - Dark Souls
To make it clear from the start, the problem with the Moonlight Sword from Dark Souls is not with the weapon itself.
As a legacy item, it appears in nearly every video game from developer FromSoftware, and is one of the most powerful weapons in them. Most recently it was available in Elden Ring, renamed here as the Darkmoon Greatsword.
First of all, the way to get this weapon itself is quite a ridiculous task. During the boss fight with Seath the Scaleless in Dark Souls, players are required to cut off its tail, which is a monumental task for two reasons.
For one, this is difficult to do as Seath has some AoE attacks which can immediately kill players if they are not careful enough. Secondly, they need to strike the dragon’s tail near a certain spot while he is moving around in a circle.
This is generally possible using a sword, and thus players with a dexterity or strength build will have a nice chance at it.
However, once the deed is done, and players have the sword, it is revealed that it needs a ridiculous stat requirement to wield. Along with 16 strength and 10 dexterity, players will also require 28 points in intelligence, which is generally considered a sorcery build.
Without any way of respec-ing in Dark Souls, this means that most players with melee builds will miss out on using this weapon, at least until New Game Plus. This was remedied in Dark Souls 2, 3 and in Elden Ring, where players could reasasign their attributes by using a special item — which meant they could switch builds at any time.
2) Ancient Nord Armor - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Skyrim is full of rare and unique armor sets that players can amass and collect throughout the video game. Some of the best armor sets, both in look and functionality, are available via the side quest lines, with the best example being the Nightingale Armor from the Thieves Guild story.
Another story arc that the Dragonborn can partake in is the Companions, which is a group of battle-driven warriors. At the end of this questline, players will gain access to the Skyforge, a legendary furnace where they can create some unique items. It is here that forging the Ancient Nord Armor, worn by Nord Warriors of old, can be created.
Despite its cool Nordic and Scandinavian aesthetic, this set is quite lackluster in every other area. This armor has the same defense rating as a piece of Iron armor and has no additional perks or enchantments available on it. Players can literally create a better armor set by forging some base Daedric Armor and enchanting it using an arcane enchanter.
3) The Horizon - Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3 is a first-person shooter video game, and is the third in the series, developed by Gearbox Software. The main feature of this video game series has always been its diverse assortment of guns and the fun gunplay. Borderlands 3 ups the ante by quite a lot, introducing over 1 billion different gun combinations that players can use.
Like most RPGs, these weapons are classified into different rarity, ranging from common, all the way up to legendary. One such weapon from the S tier is the Horizon shotgun, created by the Tedicore manufacturing company, which is a homage to the 1997 movie called, Event Horizon.
This shotgun has a special skill that creates a singularity (or black hole) when thrown and shot at. However, this skill itself falls apart as singularities in the game have a habit of not working properly.
While in theory a singularity should suck in nearby enemies, the range and gravitation are not as effective. When compared to guns which become running turrets when thrown, this video game weapon falls apart.
4) Pilgrim’s Set - Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was released in 2018, by developer Ubisoft, and it saw the video game series' biggest dip into the RPG genre yet. With an expansive open world set in ancient Greek, this game had a ton of weapons and armors to discover and collect.
Once such armor is the Pilgrim’s set, which is supposed to be a call back to white and red outfits from the previous games.
This set is somewhat of a chore to collect in itself, as the different parts are scattered about the map, and hidden in enemy strongholds. They exist across five of the different regions found on the map and players need to travel to each of them to obtain this set.
After all this hassle, one might expect a nice looking outfit similar to Ezio or even Altair from the older video games in the series. What this set actually resembles is if Ezio and Altair hit upon hard times and had to resort to a hobo lifestyle. Its cumulative perk is quite useful though, for those who enjoy stealth, at the cost of looking like vagrants.
5) Sohayamaru - Nioh 2
Nioh 2 from developer Team Ninja, is a difficult video game, no doubt about tha. As a Soulslike, this series has gained enough reputation to be comparable to the Soulsborne games. Similar to FromSoftware titles, there are many legendary items and weapons in Nioh 2’s lore, one of which is the Sohayamaru.
This fabled blade is said to be a sword that can cut down daemons and can only be crafted by defeating enough enemies. Players seek this sword, which leads them to the different bosses, defeating whom takes them one step closer to obtaining the sword.
This is finally done after a certain point in the story, and players are handed this mythical weapon of legend.
The catch is that it is only used to deal finishing kills to enemies via pre-rendered cutscenes and can never be actually wielded by the player in combat. It's almost like the video game doesn’t trust the player with an all powerful weapon, which is frankly an insult.
