Games with Intelligent Weapons

[Acrux]

Are there any games that use intelligent weapons in an interesting way? Obviously there's Lilarcor in BG2, but other than providing "wow so random" dialogues now and then, doesn't really do anything (I've heard that Wrath of the Righteous has something similar).

I'm curious if there are any games that actually make use of intelligent weapons in the old ways: contesting against the weapon for fights or maybe having to build a relationship with the weapon to get it to do what you want.

[Oyster Sauce]

Skippy is an Iconic variant of the Arasaka HJKE-11 Yukimura in Cyberpunk 2077.

A weapon that's easy to fall in love with, but difficult to trust. "It" speaks to the user using its unique weapon AI. Regina Jones won Skippy in a poker game from a techie called "Danish." It was later stolen from her and eventually ended up lying next to a corpse in a back alley.

When picking it up, you are asked to choose between one of two fire modes:

Puppy-Loving Pacifist (Limbs Only Mode)
Stone Cold Killer (Headshot Only Mode)

After each neutralization, Skippy will tally how many kills V has committed versus how many incapacitations. Once the count of murders or incapacitations reaches 50, Skippy will initiate a dialogue. If kills reached 50 before incapacitations, Skippy will permanently switch to "Puppy-Loving Pacifist". If the player incapacitated 50 enemies first, Skippy will give the player some choices. If "Killing is wrong" is chosen Skippy will stay in or change to "Puppy-Loving Pacifist". Skippy will change to or stay in "Stone Cold Killer" if "I don't know" or "I'm not having a conversation with my gun" is chosen.

Skippy can sometimes make decisions on his own. Some of the random actions he performs can be:

Firing at enemies without user input (especially from stealth).
Firing when switching to aim-down-sight outside of combat.
Making all projectiles miss enemies for the rest of the combat encounter.

Later on (can be about eight in-game days after Skippy automatically switches/locks its firing mode), Skippy will ask to be returned to Regina Jones, starting the side job Machine Gun.

Some time after completing Machine Gun, Regina will contact V asking them if they want Skippy back, albeit without the AI, as she sold it back to the previous owner.

[rusty_shackleford]

Deadfire. Didn't like it, felt like a "wow remember when BG2 had an intelligent weapon?!"
Dungeons & Dragons Online has sentient weapons — sort of, it's the gem in the weapon. There's even different gems with different personalities.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Aselia the Spirit of Eternity Sword: all party members are bonded with an Eternity Sword which grants them powers, but is trying to take control of them. Once their mind stat reaches 0 (Mind stat reduced every time that party member kills someone in combat and you will be killing hundreds, also mind stat reduced when drawing upon the sword's power for special attacks, is mainly recovered by capturing enemy towns), the party member is consumed by their sword. In the main story, there are IIRC two stat check sections where the protagonist's sword, Desire, tries to take control of him and you need to have high mind to resist it.

[asf]

you need to fight the ******* inside the weapons to get better stats in kings bounty if that counts

[Valter]

Skippy is an Iconic variant of the Arasaka HJKE-11 Yukimura in Cyberpunk 2077.
Skippy can sometimes make decisions on his own. Some of the random actions he performs can be:

Firing at enemies without user input (especially from stealth).
Firing when switching to aim-down-sight outside of combat.
Making all projectiles miss enemies for the rest of the combat encounter.

That sounds maddening lmao. Might keep an eye out for this next playthrough

[J1M]

Are there any games that use intelligent weapons in an interesting way? Obviously there's Lilarcor in BG2, but other than providing "wow so random" dialogues now and then, doesn't really do anything (I've heard that Wrath of the Righteous has something similar).

I'm curious if there are any games that actually make use of intelligent weapons in the old ways: contesting against the weapon for fights or maybe having to build a relationship with the weapon to get it to do what you want.

I once sketched out ideas for how a player could play as an intelligent animated weapon (TTRPG). The basic idea was that you would have to be equipped by another player and you had a movement speed of zero but could attack on your turn. Advancement meant gaining more damage and also flexibility in terms of the enhancements you provided the other player. Functionally it was obfuscated training wheels for a TTRPG class because the decision space was smaller on a turn.

[yangg]

I played a bit of Gujian3 (one of the 1st first CN witcher-type game that I've interacted with) long time ago; I think it has interaction with sword spirits and even some quests involving sword spirits where you fight the weapon spirit or talk; never finished the game at that time cause the translation was awkward.

[Tweed]

I liked Cynicism in Icewind Dale.

[SpellSword]

► In Rogue Trooper I think you have AI chips stored in your equipment, including your rifle.

Haven't played it myself so I can't say if they use it in an 'interesting way'. But I think your equipment talks with you constantly, so maybe that counts?

Edit:

... other than providing "wow so random" dialogues now and then, doesn't really do anything.

In that case, probably not.

[logincrash]

I think an intelligent weapon is gonna be annoying if it ever refuses to obey you.
If there's even a chance that it won't fire or do damage or however the **** a sword can disobey you, it's getting sold/scrapped/tossed to rot at the bottom of the inventory.

[Tweed]

Does the sword familiar in Symphony of the Night count? It becomes a usable weapon after a certain level and gains some powerful techniques. Of course, it takes forever to level the familiar and it can't gain more levels while it's acting as a weapon. It's also not terribly useful as a familiar since it follows Alucard around slaying "Slash!" and "Slice!" but does neither, instead spinning lazily in a circle where an enemy used to be about ten minutes ago.

Okay, maybe it's not that great of an intelligent weapon.

[Valter]

Oh right, Wrath of The Righteous had a sentient weapon "companion" that was essentially an ancient adventurer that got cursed, but the devs gave him 0 spotlight besides personal quests so I actually forgot he existed. Really bad way to do it.

[The_Mask]

Mandatory Lilacor mention. For being 1-dimensional in what it wants.

[Manny V]

Forspoken

[Norfleet]

Are there any games that use intelligent weapons in an interesting way?

No, all the people who are making intelligent weapons do interesting things are working for Anduril or fighting in Ukraine.

[Tweed]

Until I looked it up just now I didn't realize Cynicism could be upgraded. If you bring an emotion: hope scroll to that wizard guy in the village he can upgrade the weapon to Gloom, at which point it stops insulting you constantly.

[UltraFan123]

Oh right, Wrath of The Righteous had a sentient weapon "companion" that was essentially an ancient adventurer that got cursed, but the devs gave him 0 spotlight besides personal quests so I actually forgot he existed. Really bad way to do it.

Yep.

What made it even worse is the fact that you only get that sentient weapon as a branch off from the quest of Woljiff, one of the most annoying companions that I always skip in my own playthroughs.

So yeh, WotR's implementation of that feature was terrible.

[DrSneed]

I've been given intelligent weapons by DMs in tabletop games before, and they promptly forget about them in the next session.

Oh right, Wrath of The Righteous had a sentient weapon "companion" that was essentially an ancient adventurer that got cursed, but the devs gave him 0 spotlight besides personal quests so I actually forgot he existed. Really bad way to do it.

Yep.

What made it even worse is the fact that you only get that sentient weapon as a branch off from the quest of Woljiff, one of the most annoying companions that I always skip in my own playthroughs.

So yeh, WotR's implementation of that feature was terrible.

That's not true. You can go to that area without recruiting Woljif. You just won't be able to get to the guy in the basement.

[Norfleet]

Mandatory Lilacor mention. For being 1-dimensional in what it wants.

I thought we were talking about INTELLIGENT weapons. Lilarcor is an idiot.

[Acrux]

I guess you can add Stardew Valley to the list now.

[NezahualDoomer]

I think Nioh 2 had a mechanic like that but you would have to go through New game++ cycle or something to unlock them and also tolerate that Nioh 2 is trash.

[DecadeRiptide]

Oh right, Wrath of The Righteous had a sentient weapon "companion" that was essentially an ancient adventurer that got cursed, but the devs gave him 0 spotlight besides personal quests so I actually forgot he existed. Really bad way to do it.

Yep.

What made it even worse is the fact that you only get that sentient weapon as a branch off from the quest of Woljiff, one of the most annoying companions that I always skip in my own playthroughs.

So yeh, WotR's implementation of that feature was terrible.

@dolor is this true?