Blade

Blade is the common name given to the Metal Blade series of Swords. Claymore and Greatsword used to be common names for the same weapon series, but these began to fall out of favour after the english release of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword and are no longer in widespread use.

Blades were introduced in Fire Emblem: The Genealogy of the Holy War as an alternate to the Metal Sword series with increased might but also increased weight and decreased accuracy. However, it became apparent that the swordspeople in Genealogy tended to have more than enough Skill and Speed to render the drawbacks of the Blades effectively meaningless, and so in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 only the Iron Blade was included.

Steel and Silver Blades returned in Fire Emblem: The Sword of Seals, and have remained extant since. They have attempted to balance the weapons by increasing weight further and by making them harder to acquire; whether this has worked or not is debatable.