Talk:Monster Girl Quest: NG+ (Ecstasy)/@comment-26047404-20150127061507/@comment-5844115-20150509110553

Pretty much all weapon styles have advantages and disadvantages.

In the case of pole arms, it's that they're huge - in cramped spaces, like dense woods, in-doors, or even in old towns (some historic towns had backstreets that had less space than modern hallways), pole arms become unwieldy. They're also a pain to carry around if you don't plan on using them, and in chaotic combat, once battle formations broke down and everyone is in one huge pile, you can't properly attack either. That's why both the Swiss Guard and the Landsknechte, both specialising in halberds, had backup weapons for those circumstances. Once it got chaotic, the Swiss Guard used daggers or hand-and-a-half swords, the Landsknechte used short swords.

It should also be noted that there are two main kinds of dual wielding: The common one is with one main and one off hand. This is the "block with one, attack with the other"-style. This is actually pretty effective, especially if your off-hand "weapon" (which, no matter what form it takes, is used more like a shield, and includes such things like "cloaks" and "bucklers" - a buckler is a shield that has to be actively used) is light enough to not hinder your movement. But then - there are more than enough combat styles that remind people: "A free hand is a weapon". With a free hand, you can grab. When you can grab, you can twist, disarm and throw. You can't do that with a dagger. And if someone is foolish enough to get to close, a shield to the face is rather effective, too.

The other style, with two "proper" weapons, favouring neither, is very, very uncommon. It's also usually restricted to very light weapons. It should also be noted that Musashi (the Japanese poster boy for dual-wielding), made this style famous *after* the time of warring states, and it only became really used after the times of constant war had ended. And this in a land where every Samurai walked around with two weapons as a sign of status.