Dual wielding

[Blxz]

The only time I could imagine duel wielding being nice/cool looking is duel daggers, hilt up. The nice slash stab attack would be nice.

Otherwise the purity and grace blah blah, of the single sword/katana is very nice to watch.

[xinsavior]

As for Musashi...
http://www.harkavagrant.com/history/musashi.png

First off, let me just say that you are AWESOME for bringing up Musashi.

Secondly, I will admit that I have an infatuation for duel wielding, though it's not the end of the world when a game doesn't have it. It's just the idea that you are able to masterfully attack and defend with two blades and the (usually) awesome acrobatics that duel wielding displays in video games and movies (though who knows how much of it was actually used by duel wielders).

I will say though that usually the off-hand weapon was a shorter blade, like in Musashi's case which I think it was a wakizashi if I'm not mistaken. Like pointed out earlier by Kamos again, the off-hand weapons were mainly used for defense and rarely were used in actual battlefield combats, though I'm sure if they were ever used no one would ever intentionally miss a chance to end the fight with their off-hand weapon.

... That's my schpeal on this topic. I'm XinSavior, and that's my big picture on this topic. (Sorry, been watching WAY too much The Big Picture on The Escapist)

[1337]

I will say though that usually the off-hand weapon was a shorter blade, like in Musashi's case which I think it was a wakizashi if I'm not mistaken. Like pointed out earlier by Kamos again, the off-hand weapons were mainly used for defense and rarely were used in actual battlefield combats

That's not exactly it. The second sword (called wakizashi in most cases like you said) actually serves as a way to show that you are a samurai or of high rank. Most even had that sword sealed with a cloth.

That's the main reason for a wakizashi.

Now obviously you can also use it during combat too (especially indoors), but most would use it as replacement if the first snaps, not dualwielding actually. Notable exceptions are already mentioned.

edit: forgot, the wakizashi was also used for seppuku

[xinsavior]

Huh... I didn't know that the wakizashi indicated rank... I always thought it was just the number of swords you had in general.. (just got a weird image of a samurai with 4 sheathed katanas on both sides of his waist... hahaha

And I had also forgotten that it was used for seppuku.

And lastly, my guy must be REALLY high ranked, he's got like 20 swords in his bag

[Blxz]

Samurai was a class of people. So bearing the 2 swords was a badge of membership...so to speak.

[Prezo]

In a more general light dual wielding weapons was almost only ever used in an actual combat style with a shorter blade in the off hand, this blade could be used to block strikes or to parry strikes you blocked with your main hand, it was pretty much a replacement for the use of grapples in single sword combat.

the most successful (in that it was used the widest) style of dual wielding was the Florentine style which used a main gauche in the off hand (essentially a dagger) and a rapier in the main hand, this was especially useful because you can't parry much more than another rapier with a rapier (a broadsword or equivalent would likely just break it [provided it was made of the same material]), funnily enough this was the style that was prominent with the Portuguese (I think) when they were in the oriental area and was extremely effective against the Japanese fighting styles

mind any of that could be factually incorrect as I drudged that up from memory I didn't actually go and research it just for this post, although I'm tempted to now