How do you get ahead in the overcrowded cosplay market? Simple: get your s*** together months before the game is even released.

DeviantArt user Laitz is is one such early bird, having already constructed a life-size replica of the weapon used by Noctis, the central character of Final Fantasy XV. That's what we call preparation.

And by the look of it, this sword was many months in the making. Laitz didn't just provide an images of the finished product, but also the many, many stages of development.

The blade itself might look like shiny metal, but the body of the sword is actually constructed from hand-carved wood. A metal sword of that size would immediately snap the wrists of anyone but The Mountain.

In order to get the blade to this state, Laitz had to shape a massive assortment of components and then fix them all together. If you look at the box in the top right hand corner you can see the mass of wooden pieces laid out next to one another. What followed was a priming and paint job of epic proportions that ended up looking something like this:

Et voilà! One incredibly oversized sword that probably won't cut anything in two, but will absolutely cleft your enemies' egos in twain.

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