Sword Man

Sword Man (ソードマン) is a combat Robot Master that was built by Dr. Wily to use an ancient sword that he stole from a museum. Unfortunately, Sword Man's sword was way too heavy, so the upper part of the body was fitted with an anti-gravitational device, and as such, both the upper and lower halves of his body can act independently of each other to improve his balance.

His main attack is Flame Sword, an attack that envelops his sword with flames for extra damage. Sword Man can also attack by spinning his upper part rapidly to cut enemies, and drops heavy statues. His stage from Mega Man 8 is a Cambodian temple-like area shown located somewhere in Central Asia, but would be more southeast on the Asian mainland.

Strategy
The battle can be either easy or hard with or without his weakness. Sword Man has a number of attacks:


 * Fire Slash - When Sword Man does that attack, he will try to attack Mega Man. Mega Man cannot attack him when he's doing that.


 * Flame Sword - Sword Man will attempt to stop Mega Man with this attack. Mega Man must stay away from his path.


 * Quake - When Sword Man jumps, a giant version of a Kao de Kahna will drop. Mega Man must slide to avoid it.


 * Body Strike - When Sword Man jumps, Mega Man must be fast to jump carefully and avoid it.

When Sword Man's health is below 50%, he will place his sword on the ground and do a Fire Column. Mega Man cannot hit him when he's doing that.

Voices
Intro:
 * "I'm Sword Man."

Taunts:
 * "Let's make this a fair fight."
 * "I won't hold back."
 * "I'll do my best."
 * "Nothing personal, but I've got orders."

Attack Shouts:
 * "Body Strike!"
 * "Flame Sword!"
 * "Fire Slash!"
 * Overdrive Attack: "Huuuh!"

If Mega Man completely avoids Fire Slash attack:
 * "Impressive."

Cries:
 * "Urragh!"
 * "Not yet." (if hit by Water Balloon while using Overdrive Attack)

Death:
 * "Nice shot."

Mega Man &amp; Bass CD data


Stage enemies
Enemies in Sword Man's stage.
 * Mid Boss: Gearna Eye
 * Batton M64 (Bubble Bat)
 * Batton Mommy &amp; Petit Batton
 * Fire Metall
 * Kao de Kahna
 * Kao ga Mehda
 * Kao na Gahna
 * Succubatton

Other appearances
Although Sword Man hadn't made a formal debut in the Mega Man comics serial by Archie Comics, the sword used by Dr. Wily in the short circuits section of Issue 36 bore a strong resemblance to that of Sword Man's.

Trivia

 * During Capcom's Robot Master design contest for Mega Man 8, Sword Man was one of three robots created using a pre-made design template supplied to fans (Clown Man and Search Man were the others). Sword Man's template was known as "Katana Robot."


 * Sword Man is one of the first robot characters to possess a noticeable accented voice (British), alongside Colonel (whose voice is coincidentally provided by the same voice actor who did Sword Man) and Iris.
 * Sword Man was one of two Robot Masters from Mega Man 8 to receive a toy in the form of Bandai's Mega Armor model kit series, the other being Tengu Man. The model is not separated at the waist, instead closing the two halves together.


 * In the Mega Man: Anniversary Collection's version of Mega Man 8, Sword Man's voice files are bugged, raising his pitch considerably. Many other robot masters, especially in wily stage 4 is suffering same problem.