Star Wars Zero Company (2026) - An experience unlike any other ever in my life

 

Developer: Bit Reactor

Publisher: EA

            I have to say at first that I absolutely love turn-based tactical strategy games like XCOM, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (which is the best FF game), Fire Emblem, WH40K: Chaos Gate (the original and the remake), and many others. Despite my rocky relationship with the Star Wars franchise, which I have long given up on (The Force Awakens was 11 years ago, dear lord…), from the previews and trailers, this looked like something right up my alley. It has unit progression, base management, tactical turn-based combat, and, okay, so it is set in the Clone Wars, which is my second-most-favorite era in this universe. So, avoiding comparisons with XCOM is impossible, and I, for one, believe that even the developers wanted the comparisons themselves, since the name of this game (ZCOM) can't be a coincidence.

            Immediately, I was hit by the abysmal performance. I got this game for PC, started playing, and despite the fact that I was really enjoying the story and characters (which shocked me the most), the constant stuttering, crashing, freezes, and overall state of being unplayable forced me to refund the game. I mean, what was I expecting? It's another UE5 nightmare. I slept on it, and the next day I decided to get it on my PS5. It was more expensive, but something about this game really drew me in. So, I got it and started playing. I was horrified to find that the performance on the PS5 was only slightly better than on PC, even though the stability was better (over my 18-hour playthrough, I crashed only 5 times).

            The setting is very familiar to me, and despite my reluctance, Star Wars still pulls on my heartstrings, especially when the music swoons and the hairs on my arms stand up. The story started very well and remained gripping for the 18 hours that I played. It kept developing, there were interesting twists and turns, and overall, I was shocked by how little it was full of tropes and boring clichés, which is something this franchise has become filled with over the past decade and more.

            Most of the characters were very well done and interesting. The new cast is great. Hawks feels like the best combination of Mal Reynolds/Han Solo, Trick has a personality apart from the usual “I am a clone,” the Mandalorian is a bit dry but has excellent charm and humor, and the rest are great too. I was surprised by how many times I heard DC Douglas in this game, but, as always, he is a master of his craft and it was great to hear his voice. There is one familiar face that appears in the middle of the playthrough, and if you saw any trailers for this game, you know who that is. I was let down, however, that even though he was voiced by one of my favorite actors, Matt Lanter, he was made to look like the movie version, not the TV show version, which was just awkward. Yes, obviously I am talking about Anakin.

            Well, to start with some of the negatives, the user interface is horrible. Nothing is clear, it is all confusing and hard to read, and trying to discern which ability does what without reading tooltips is impossible. In XCOM (any of them), you can look at the icon and know immediately which is what. Whenever you have to play with any sort of elevation (roofs, hills, etc.), it is very difficult to order your units around without messing up.

            The flow of the combat itself is also not very good. It is very slow. And you cannot skip or speed up any of the animations, which take forever. I was missing XCOM 2's zip mode after one hour of playing.

            There are sections where the game suddenly switches into a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective, and you are supposed to explore and look around, but it's all just a hallway with nothing interesting in it, and I wish these sections were just remade as quick cutscenes. They only grind the already slow game to a halt. Once again, you cannot skip, you cannot make things move faster. If you play turn-based tactical strategy games for the gameplay (which I mean, come on), then these are not high on the list of priorities.

            So, XCOM is great because you can play it 10 times and every time you will encounter something new. ZCOM has every level handcrafted, which means there is very little random generation and you will barely see anything new. I played missions on 6 different planets and they all seemed like they were on the same one. The story also remains the same throughout playthroughs. No branching choices or decisions. The characters play the same too, although, to be fair, you can change their specialization, but their core talent remains the same. Which means, that after you play this game once, you have seen almost everything there is to see. Furthermore, there is very little incentive to use different units because there is no fatigue mechanic. Let me explain.

            In XCOM (and others), units have morale, which decreases every time they take part in battle, which forces you to rotate squads and effectively means you cannot use the same units all the time. There is no such thing in ZCOM. The only reason why you would use someone else rather than the same four units is injuries (which you gain every time a character is downed). Which I never received in combat. I got injuries in some of the non-combat missions, but that happened only twice. This brings me to my other point.

            I started this game on Normal, with Ironman mode and Permadeath enabled. And the game is too easy! It was extremely boring. Every turn, my units would do the same thing, and it just became a slog to get through. After about 10 hours, I switched to Hard, and the game became much more enjoyable. I actually had to think and use different tactics, but I still only ever used the same four units while everyone else was chilling back at base. Ironman mode means you are only playing on one save file, cannot save manually, and can only ever reload that one save.

            Also, as if they were more inspired by Fire Emblem than XCOM, there is very little point to using custom characters. In ZCOM, you get 7 hero units who have their own looks, voices, abilities, and, of course, play a huge part in the story. You can also create 13 other custom characters, including little R2-D2 copies. There is no point in any of these, since the game has the maximum squad size set strictly to four (not upgradeable), so you don't ever even use the other 3 story hero units, let alone the other 13 custom characters.

            This game also has an obligatory timer for its campaign, and I just have to wonder why? There was a similar mechanic in XCOM 2 and, if I remember correctly, nobody liked it there. When Firaxis launched the expansion War of the Chosen, they reworked the timer so that you could just safely ignore it and play the game at your own pace. So, why are we going back to this?

            I was in Chapter 9 (out of 14), playing a mission during which you are supposed to get into a spaceport, get some data from a console, and then retreat back to the beginning of the mission. Meanwhile, there is a slow-moving red area behind you that is bombarded every turn by off-screen “ships,” and you do not want to be caught in it because it will damage your units.

            So, what happened was that there was an enemy unit that had a reaction to getting hit by my Hawks. This reaction was called “drain,” which meant that effectively the enemy ran over half the map straight to my guy, sucked out all his action points, and stunned him for a turn. I was worried. The red zone where the ships would fire each turn was coming closer, but I still had at least 1 more turn, since Hawks was stunned well outside this red zone. He would have to move out next turn. I could do it, sure, it would be hairy, but not impossible.

            So, I ended my turn.

            The off-screen ships fired, the red zone behind my party exploded, I got an achievement, and a giant GAME OVER screen appeared. I could only press X, which booted the game back to the main menu, and I only had the option to start a new game. My entire campaign progress was gone, and there was nothing more to do.

            I nodded my head, ejected the disc from my PS5, repackaged it, and went to return it to the store. Later, I looked it up, and I was not the only one who had this bug happen to them. The developer's response to this issue was “to not play on Ironman mode and reload a previous save.”

            Well, that's useless.

            Nothing like this ever happened to me, ever. I could not finish this game (twice!) from beginning to end. I believe a zero out of ten is for something that just does not function, does not work. Even the worst game gets at least 1 point.

            In the end, it is very poetic that Zero Company gets 0/10 from me. Hell, at least I can use the money to buy the upcoming Blood of Dawnwalker.

Resident Evil: Requiem

General impressions

        As a standalone Resident Evil game, it’s alright. Without Leon’s inclusion, I would consider it a subpar, mediocre title full of plot holes and nostalgia bait. With Leon, it becomes a slightly above‑average, memberberries‑heavy experience. There are only two areas where you can actually explore and enjoy the classic survival‑horror elements you’d expect from Resident Evil. The rest is dominated by forced walking sections, narrow hallway exploration, and an oversaturation of scripted animations. By my third playthrough, I was groaning.

        That said, I did enjoy many of the references that weren’t tied to previous RE games—similarities to recent movies like The Gorge or Barbarian, and even The Walking Dead comics (Leon’s hatchet use is almost identical to Rick’s zombie‑dispatching panels). These nods were fun.

Story and characters

        This is the weakest part of the game. Grace as a protagonist simply doesn’t make sense. Leon is fine, but just like in the RE4 remake, he’s written far too seriously. His one‑liners rarely land, and there are very few of them anyway. After Death Island, which was silly but at least fun, I thought we were getting Leon back on track.

        The story and characters feel directionless. Or rather—they clearly want to be serious and dramatic, but Leon’s quips are inserted almost as an obligation. Returning franchise characters are extremely underutilized; they might as well not be there. The ending teases more returning characters for no real narrative reason, clearly to sell DLC.

        The amount of nostalgia bait is overwhelming: bosses, lines, locations—almost half the game is recycled from older titles. There’s very little originality. The retcons are plentiful too, which I’ve sadly learned to accept in modern media that relies heavily on what we loved 20–30 years ago, while simultaneously rewriting it to fit a new narrative.

Gameplay

        As mentioned, when the game gives you a classic open map with puzzles and enemies, it shines. Unfortunately, there are only two such areas. The rest is essentially a hallway simulator à la FFXIII, with forced dialogue and slow, scripted animations.

        Grace is supposed to represent survival horror, and Leon is supposed to represent action. But if you have half a brain, you quickly figure out how to kill or avoid enemies as Grace, and the horror evaporates. With Leon, it’s just more enemies, more ammo, more shooting. He can upgrade weapons with attachments, but they barely make a difference—nothing like the upgrade systems in OG RE4 or the remake.

        Grace’s “blood crafting” feels weak and unnecessary. I used it in my first playthrough, again for the achievement, and then ignored it entirely.

        The game is also very short. My first playthrough took seven and a half hours, fully exploring everything and reading all notes. After three playthroughs, I had every achievement. Meanwhile, I have over 100 hours in RE4 Remake and still haven’t completed all achievements.

Overall

        It’s a very mixed experience. I enjoyed the true Resident Evil‑style maps and the references to media outside the franchise. But the game is too short, too easy, offers little payoff for its buildup, and leans far too heavily on nostalgia.

        If you’re a casual fan or someone who has only played the remakes, this game might work for you. But for me, the biggest sign of how weak the storytelling and characters were is that, after finishing it, the main question I had was not Where is the story going next, but: Who is Leon married to?

        6/10. Slightly above average.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (2017)

 

        Yakuza Kiwami 2 runs in a new Dragon Engine, which is very fresh, fluid and has somewhat silly ragdoll physics, which reminded me of good old Bethesda games. However, apart from those, there are no similarities here. While it was not as good as Yakuza 0, it is still a fantastic game that I thouroughly enjoyed. Once again, I will not be spoiling the major story beats in this post, even though I will be describing some of the new characters and some of the situations they find themselves in. 

        Right off the bat I was happily surprised by the new UI, the gameplay, the movement fluidity as well as the beautiful graphics of this game. I do not really care about graphics, however I feel like it is worthwhile to mention when they are outstanding in a series. Some people have expressed the opinions that Zero and Kiwami 1 did not look good, I would disagree. I am used to playing vanilla Morrowind, so my bar for graphics is not that high. In any case, the fresh new design is not where the new stuff ends, however. The game also has a revamped leveling system, which I also really like. While I enjoyed the new leveling system in Kiwami 1, it felt very similar to Final Fantasy X, which while maintaining a wide grid of skills and abilities, it really just presented an illusion of choice, because you could not really pick what you wanted (kind of like the sphere grid in FFX). Here, in Kiwami 2 that is not the case. The levelling system is very robust and full of choices. You can level up base attributes as well as focus on specific moves and proficiencies. There are also "overworld" upgrades which help you sprint for longer, gain more XP, eat more food before you become full, etc. Kiwami 2 truly is the most RPG of the three Yakuza games that I played (being Zero and Kiwami 1). From what I gathered online this is very similar to what those are in Yakuza 6. 

        As far as some of the other content is concerned, I have to say that unlike the first Kiwami, the substories in this one do not suck. The first Kiwami had very boring and same-y substories where everyone was trying to scam Kiryu and these got old very fast. Also, the cabaret management mini game comes back, even though you are playing as Kiryu in this game, it is still fantastic and the story has a very nice twist near the end. 

Ever since Yakuza 0, I always felt like Butters from
that one episode of SP during cabaret management.

        Alright, so without spoiling too much about the story of the game, I would love to at least try and describe the characters in this game. My experience with the Yakuza series so far has been that it is very story and character driven, while the gameplay itself (while good) is secondary. And oh boy, the characters in this game are amazing. 

        I am (finally) starting to really like Kiryu and I get now why do people love this dude so much (Majima is still my favorite character). Kiryu is even more mature, more responsible, he really is the stoic chad by now. No longer relying on the Tojo clan or Shintaro Kazama (his father figure), Kiryu is finally his own man in this game. As far as original characters go in media go, he really is very the stereotypical good guy. He always tries to do the right thing, he is not afraid to beat someone up in order to help people. He is also not afraid to do some really weird shit for strangers - I mean whatever you get down to during substories really is super weird (and I am all here for it). Kiryu's reactions to adult men in diapers being fed milk is priceless (ok, this substory does kind of suck, but in a good way). 

Substory: Be My Baby

        Sayama is another new character who really hits all the tropes of a japanese female character, but it never gets to the levels of Garnet from FFIX and she actually becomes pretty interesting. What I found out throughout my years of playing video games is that rarely do female characters from Japanese media become something else other than eye-candy or plot devices. It is very rare for a female character to truly be interesting (in Japanese media). See Agrias from FFT, if you want an example of a badass lady. So, Sayama was really surprising. Even though when she entered the story, I really rolled my eyes and could not get into it. She starts as a badass strong independent lady cop, who becomes extremely vulnerable and feminine the second the meets Kiryu. Cue the eyeroll. In any case, once the game's story developed, I really liked her relationship with Kiryu and the Yakuza. And that is pretty much it without spoiling it. I liked how she overcame some of the stereotypes and despite never beating others, her story still tucked on my heartstrings. 

        I must also mention Ryuji Goda, the main antagonist of this game. I think I love him even more than Kuze from 0. He is setup as a foil to Kiryu - both have the Dragon moniker in the yakuza world and while Kiryu mostly wants to be left alone, Ryuji wants to rise to the top just like Kiryu did in the previous game. Unlike most of his compatriots in the Omi Alliance (a rival yakuza to the Tojo Clan), Ryuji is an honorable dude who wants to win, but in the fairest (and most direct) possible way. There are some other minor antagonists in the game who kidnap Haruka, an orphaned child that Kiryu is taking care of in order to curry favor with Ryuji and the way Ryuji reacts is priceless. It also cements him as the main antagonist who is above petty tricks and underhanded tactics. I love this guy. 

        There is also a lot of returning characters. It seems I am forever cursed with the presence of Yakuza Columbo Date. For many scenes whenever he appears I keep asking the question, why is he still here? I understand that he forms a bond of friendship with Kiryu in later games (and eventually, while playing Yakuza 8 I did finally warm up to him), but his inclusion in most of the main story makes little sense to me. I have to mention that I did love the relationship between Kiryu and Daigo, who has also become one of my favorite characters in the franchise. 

        All in all, I really loved Yakuza Kiwami 2. The Majima saga was terrific, even though short, Ryuji is my favorite other character (with Kashiwagi), the relationship between Kiryu and Sayama was fantastic and I loved that we actually got to see it happen and develop, unlike the one with Yumi, who barely has any screen time in the first game. I was not bothered at all by the new Dragon Engine, unlike most players when I was looking up the reception online. I liked this game very much! For me, this was a very solid 8/10. 

How I made Cloud's Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII Remake

Foamsmithing: the Buster Sword 

        I have been an avid fan of Final Fantasy VII for some time now and even though I have to this day some serious reservations regarding the Remake that came out in April 2020, it was amazing to see (almost) everyone again, to see Midgar and to be able to (kind of) explore it. I also loved (most of) the new designs of old existing things, such as the Buster Sword. I enjoyed how they combined the new design from Crisis Core and Advent Children where the sword had new intricate details near the Materia slots, even though I was never a fan of the gold shiny bling they added around the cross guard. In Remake they brought back the old sturdy riveted cross guard and I fell in love with this new look. 

        It would not have been possible without my good friend Trolo (IG: Trollometer) who really showed me how to work with advanced power tools and helped me figure them out. I also consulted a fellow Cloud enjoyer (and an amazing cosplayer) called Halcy from Latvia (IG: Halcynda), who really always responded whenever I had questions and was curious how they approached which part. 

      Anyway, I made the Buster Sword from Remake (along with the rest of Cloud's costume) and I figured it could be fun detailing in this blog post how I went about it. This post will start with more on the writing part and slowly as I get into the process, I want to gradually involve more and more WIP pictures. 

I have used this as a starting reference.

        The wikipedia uses a pretty alright picture for the remake Buster Sword which I used as an early reference, however as soon as I got to details, I had to download the game, unlock free photo mode and make my own 4k screenshots. Still in the planning stage, I decided I wanted the sword to be magnetic and to also have actual holes for the materias that I could insert inside and take them out anytime I wanted. 

            The core of the sword would have to be wooden then. I would also have to somehow figure out the how the magnet would work. Even though I love to plan things, when I am not sure I tackle each complication on a step by step basis. This was pretty much my approach when crafting this sword. Back to basics then. First, I measured a 180cm tall piece of wood and using an electrical saw cut out what the core should look like. I also used a circular drill to make the holes for the Materia slots. 

The wooden core with Materia slots

        Afterwards, I took what 10mm HD foam I had left and cut the general shape of the buster sword from the tip to the hilt twice. I wanted to have the sword's base layer be at least 20mm thick. While at the same time, I did not wish for it to be overly big to minimize the weight that the magnet would have to carry. After that I also made a very small canal where the reclining edge of the Buster sword should be. This was in order to help me find it the edge easier in the future. In any case, the foam plates went onto the wooden core next.

Basic shape of the sword consisted of two 10mm EVA HD foam plates

        One of the tools I used a lot during this build was the belt sander. It has such a weird name that is so forgettable to me that whenever I speak to anyone, I always confuse it with the circular saw. To be fair, they sound very similar in Slovak (and Czech maybe too?). 

Testing which grit would be best for foam

        I have to thank my friend Trollometer very much for helping me figure this out. He knows all there is to know about power tools and was extremely patient with me. The belt sander worked fantastic for foam, even though it made an absolute mess. I worked with it in a garden of sorts, outside and had to hose down the foam dust after session. I could barely hose down myself though. I used hairy baby wipes for my arms, face, neck, etc. 

I used contact cement to glue these together.

        I was very afraid that the wood I used would be too heavy or too light for the foam and it would either be difficult to lift or the wood would bend with the foam and become too wavy. Thankfully, it was amazingly solid while not being too heavy. 

        So, I am firmly in the camp that you should cosplay whatever you want and however you like. It helps if your body type is similar to that of that character you are cosplaying, but it is not important at all. Body positivity (and overall positivity) is super important. With that being said, Cloud for me is very personal. I could write an entire study about how transformative it was for me, maybe some day. So, officially Cloud is 173 cm tall, which is exactly my height. The Buster Sword is officially 180 cm tall. I wanted to get it right, and I did!

Obligatory mirror WIP selfie.

        In an afternoon I used the belt sander to make the reclining edge for both sides, I tried to make it as even as possible. It was not important for me to get it smooth and looking very nice, because I was planning to cover it in a 2mm foam sheet later, anyway. 

The reclining edge was very important for the overall shape.

I have had a steady supply of non-alcoholic beer on hand.

        I was planning to create a smooth surface of the sword by hiding the rough 10mm plates in another 2mm thin sheets that would also have all the scratches, weathering and details on it. Before I did this however, I had to figure out the magnetic part of the sword. Originally I wanted to put one magnet inside the sword and another onto my harness. I got a suggestion from Trollometer to just inlay a metal sheet into the wooden core, which was a brilliant idea.

        Funny fact about the Buster Sword for every FFVII fan. Cloud and Zack wear it differently. 

        They both have it on their backs, but each one has it on a different side. Knowing myself I had to make sure three times that I am inlaying the metal sheet in the correct side. 

        I had simple metal plates from old computers or even a rather long metal sheet from... who knows where? I considered cutting an entire shape of the sword from metal. Which I did. 

Too heavy.

 

        Eventually, I decided against it, because while they were very light on their own, they added up and made it way too heavy. 

    

I decided to use a single sheet and cut the space for it into the wooden core.

        A single metal sheet would have to suffice and I put it just beneath the Materia slots, where it would make sense for it to be attached onto my back. 

    

I also used a carving tool to make it go easier.

        Once I was happy with how the inlaying would look, I used contact cement to glue it onto the wooden core and the rest of the foam around it. 

I let it dry overnight in this state, praying it would stick.

        And voila! It looks great and fits perfectly. The contact cement also worked its magic and made sure that the metal sheet stuck to the wood. 

Smoother than a Samsung smartphone.

        It was time to create the top layers and to do that, I had to make a fitting pattern. What I used for the base would not work, because this time the top layers would be divided into "top" and "bottom". With the bottom being what eventually becomes the reclining edge. The top would have to go over one side of the sword, then over the middle part - which was now 20 mm thick and then once again over the other side. I wanted this piece to fit perfectly, it would start near the beginning of the edge and end at the same place on the other side. For the pattern making process I will next include a series of photos with captions to better explain it all. 

I used a basic cloth patterning paper for this.

I traced the basic shape.

Then cut out the reclining edge.

I did the same for the other side, because despite my best efforts,
I knew that these sides were not 100% identical.

I added the extra space for the middle/top part of the sword.

               After patterning and cutting it out, I also drilled matching holes into this new coat. I tried using the same circular cutting attachment for a drill and I got 3 out of 4 hole correct! Which is more than I hoped for. I had to fix the remaining one with kwik-seal (which is my favorite fixer for foam mistakes). 

This is the top layer patterned.

And now cut out.

        

You can see how I messed up the last Materia slot.

        Anyway, I was fast approaching that phase where it will be getting harder and harder to shape the sword itself, so I wanted to make sure it is as straight and narrow as possible. I decided to heat it up and once again press it tight with planks and holders. I let it be so over a couple of days, just to be sure. 

Let the Buster Sword rest for a spell.

        In the mean time, I started patterning the details around the Materia slots. These sort of drove me insane, not because they were difficult (which they were), but mainly because these details had to be mirrored on the other side and be exactly the same! As much as I tried, the two sides of the sword were not an exact 1:1 mirror, there were differences in centimeters. Something you would hardly notice, unless I would pinpoint it to you exactly. It drove me nuts, nonetheless. 

I drew the basic pattern in Corel Draw. 

        After making the basic pattern, I realized that these were layers and one was on top of the other. So, I started layering what I could see clearly. I had to boot up the game many times to check which part goes over which part and I really wanted to get it correct. 

Time to draw.

Time to cut.

        I finished what preparation and measuring I could and got to cutting out the parts from 2mm EVA HD foam. Sometimes I used tiny manicure scissors, especially around long, but tiny details. Wherever possible I helped myself with a heavy metal ruler. I also used scissors for another set of round holes for Materias - which would once again go over the existing holes.

Materia plates.

Scissors to the rescue.

I was pretty satisfied with the results.

        After several days, I figured it was time to get on with the main blade. I recovered it from the vice grip it was under and upon closer inspection I noticed that it was considerably more straight and narrow. 

        I started planning how I would wrap the top 2mm layer onto the base. I had to make sure that the top middle part would be glued first and it would stick as much as possible, because it had very sharp edges - the angles were supposed to be exactly 90 degrees on the top. 

The top layer is glued with contact cement.
The edges are a nice 90 degrees.

You can see the young Buster Sword taking first flight.

        I have tried my best efforts to explain how I went about the construction of the base blade, but I feel like the above gif explains it best. Next, I glued the sides. 

Here you can see what I meant about the 90 degree angle.

        In a very similar fashion to the top part, I made a pattern and then cut the bottom part. I could have made it from two separate pieces for both sides, so I did. I would make the edge itself a bit longer (3mm) and once both sides were sufficiently glued onto it, I would sand it away to make it nice and even. The tiny canal that I left between the black part of the sword and the chrome reclining edge is something I decided I would leave there intact as it demonstrates nicely where one part ends and another begins. 

The bottom layer of the base sword.

        After both sides were on, I used the belt sander to take away any unnecessary foam and make the edge look like it has been cutting and hitting monsters and robots. 

The belt sander surpassed all my expectations,
even though it made a mess.

        With the base blade finished, it was time to start planning how the details would fit onto it. They were all separate parts of 2mm foam and I had to get them exactly into the spots they were supposed to be. 

I was very relieved that the parts mostly fit.
I made adjustments where necessary. 

        The details were separated into layers, like I mentioned earlier, so I traced and cut the base layer first. 

Base layer of the details.

Now cut with the second layer of the Materia plates.

       Once again, I used contact cement to glue everything together. For the very tiny details I used superglue.       

This part had me nervous as hell,
because I was wrapping the details around the edges of the sword.

What I could do with contact cement, I did.
What I could not, I used superglue.

        My favorite part of every prop and costume I make are the tiny details that nobody either ever sees or they just do not know they are there. Such was the addition of this tiny "blade edge" detail in FFVIIR, that was not there in Crisis Core before. Why does SquareEnix always have to re-design everything?

        

It started slowly coming together.

Here, look at this detail,
you will never see it again, probably haha.

        I finished the main part of the blade in this way and it was time to start the rest of the sword, now with the guard. To offset the heavy blade, I wanted to compensate somewhat by making the guard from four layers of UHD 10mm EVA foam, which is much sturdier than the classic HD foam. I constructed it in a fashion that left space for the wooden core and I also marked where the additional details/rivets on the guard should be. 

I marked where the rivets on the guard should be.

Left some space for the wooden core.

Here you can see how many layers it was.

        For the outer shell of the guard I used simple 5mm foam sheets. I cut them out slightly bigger than the guard is, because it is supposed to have a lining. I simulated that with the sheets.

        I also marked on both the sword and the guard where the two should be connected, since either side would not fit.

There was also supposed to be another panel between the guard and the sword,
which I found out by carefully rotating Cloud in various poses in the in-game photo mode.

I used kwik-seal to make sure that all the connections were nice and smooth.

And made some small incisions to complete the lining details.

        It was time to make the rivets/studs that I marked on the guard - I searched for various objects I could use. I tried foam balls, or door stoppers. 

Too big, or too small. These were no good.

Finally, I found these furniture supports that miraculously fit exactly like I wanted them to. 

I assembled it all together. 

        Finally, I wanted to figure out how to make one additional detail that is between the guard and the leather grip - some sort of fastening. Instead of wracking my brain, I just took a 10mm EVA foam block and used a rotary tool to sand it out of it. I used the same approach for the pommel of the sword. For the final pommel piece, I used cosplayflex (which is very similar from worbla) and shaped it using a potato peeler. I decided to use cosplayflex, because I wanted the part on which I will be resting the sword the most to be sturdy and resilient. 

From left to right: guard fastening and wrap,
pommel cap and the pommel itself.

        For the leather grip I used a sturdy leather piece I had at hand, rolled it into a ball and then lightly dry brushed it with white paint to give it some weathering, as well as better match the references.

I did not put it on the sword yet, though.

I used my favorite primer for foam, Hexflex primer
 and covered the entire sword in three layers.

The Buster Sword also has a lot of weathering,
so I added that with a dremel and a cutting knife.

It took a while for all that primer to dry out.

        After priming, it was time to paint. I did not want to just paint all the scratches onto the sword (in addition to the weathering I already made), I wanted them to be real, actual scratches. I decided to use wax metallic paints (similar to a buff), which have an amazing shiny quality to them. I used a simple sponge to brush them on. Once that would dry, I would cover it with black acrylics and then just use a needle or a pin to scratch the black acrylic to make the scratches. 

        For the reclining edge of the sword, I combined sandpaper, more primer brushing and wax metallic paints to create a texture that would be similar to the in game references.

This is what the base color looks like.
It is all a wax metallic paint brushed on with a makeup sponge.

Here is the texture on the edge.
I gently brushed it wish sandpaper while priming and painting.

        
        The painting process was finished and I also ended up highlighting the edges and some of the details on the blade with more wax paints. Once again I used a makeup sponge, it is best for that kind of paint. 

I was very happy with how it turned out.
It had the right amount of metal, scratches and black that I wanted.

        After that I added the pommel and with a self-tapping screw I secured it. Then, it was time to seal it properly. I used a Valour clear coat with a gloss finish. I sprayed on 3 layers and then hanged the sword for a week to let it dry. 

        

It was drying for a long time.

        And that was finished! I wrapped the grip in the leather I had prepared. What surprised me initially when I was planning the grip is that unlike the Fusion sword (from Advent Children), the Remake Buster Sword has an oval shape, rather than round. Which is a nice detail, since most real life swords have a grip like that. 
       

Done!

What could I have done differently?

        

        As is the case with every project, even here once I got several parts finished I immediately realized I could have done it differently. Here are some of those ideas:

        Reinforced tip - I should have definitely figured out a way how to reinforce the tip, because right now it is just foam. And I had the Buster Sword fall once, the tip hit the ground for a second and immediately I had creaks and scars appear near it. Could have reinforced it with cosplayflex or even had the wooden core extend all they way to the tip.

       Better materias - I could have made the Materias themselves be a part of the sword, in a manner where the entire slot with the holes could have been taken out. That would require some sort of clasping /fastening mechanism and would need more time for planning. It is definitely something to consider for a next project like this. 

        Fire? Tifa is lightning, Barret is earth/poison, Aerith is ice, Red XIII is fire, but which element is Cloud? The original VII has no wind/aero Materia. This is a funny (harrowing) story, but during the painting process, you can see it in some of the pictures above, when the sword was on our induction cooking stove, I accidentally set it on fire. The induction panel made contact with the metal sheet inside and the whole thing just went up in flames. I immediately doused it, of course, but even the three seconds it was on fire made some outstanding damage to it. I repaired it, of course. Now I will never doubt which elemental Materia to give Cloud again in any future playthroughs. 

        Nothing else, I am happy otherwise!