Ahh but it does.

I believe you all are missing a few keys points of these swords' design.

Giving an assassin better range and the ability to hit multiple enemies at once is something I could see myself using, especially in tight quarters where enemies are bound to bunch up. I mean in a situation where you're about to initiate a sneak attack on multiple enemies in a very close quarters formation, as an assassin, would you rather have a weapon that would only be effective against one person at a time, albeit faster at charging and swinging, or a weapon that could swing at multiple people at one time with great damage and potentially give you a high alpha damage through the raijin's sheathed charging ability?

Gentleman, I'd always pick the latter.

My friend, these swords can do half of the things you seem to think only the nova knives can do.

They can multiple enemies multiple times, deal out just as much if not more damage, depending on which variation you get, and are extremely useful in assassinations, as there's no point of concealing weapons on a battlefield unless you're concealing your complete presence and that can be done with a cloak.

Yes, these blades are slower to swing than knives, but they pack a lot of punch for a weapon that can hit multiple enemies within one swing and with a larger range of damage than the shorter ranged knives. With the nova knife, you'd have to focus directly on one enemy at a time and be closer than ever to your enemy, which means you really have to come up with a new array of tactics. The plasma blades would need a new set of tactics as well but unlike the nova knives, as long as you position yourself correctly, you can hit multiple enemies at the same time and at a greater range. And if you didn't, you could continue swinging while in movement until your enemies down. Now with the raijin, you'd be able to pack even more damage with the charging feature, albeit a little slower to swing, most hits would kill the attacker in one strike.

You all seem to lack the taste for innovation, oddly enough, by believing these swords, which have been intended for combat use, are not to be use as intended.

There's nothing functionally wrong with the nova knives. I'm not arguing that they're the lesser weapon. They're clever and extremely potent. I would be an idiot to argue that these swords are just unarguably better than the nova knife.

What I'm saying is, it will grant a lot of potential for CQC situations that the nova knives couldn't offer. A few scenarios play in my head every time speak, as I try myself to argue the usefulness of the swords.

Imagine yourself cloaked in an underground bunker for a null cannon installation. You're infiltrating the objective to perform a bait and switch so that the enemy team at the other null cannons ease up their grip to come defend the contested objective. You know for a fact that it's not vacant and as you come into the room where the interface is located, you see three mercenaries guarding the interface at the center of the room in a triangle formation with enough space in between them that using nova knives would be extremely difficult. However, you packed a Plasma Sword in this fitting. After making sure no one else was in the room, or nearby, you lunge at the first mercenary, killing him in two swings. The other mercenaries quickly reacted but the one to his left was already clipped by the second strike, and was easily to kill with a flawless extra swing. Now the third one is trying to make a gap in distance as he realizes what's going on, but he's too slow and too close for the tactic to not be in vein. Within two strikes, he's dead.

You see, if you had nova knives this would be much more difficult. After taking the first enemy down, you would have died because you couldn't swing at multiple targets. Not only that, but even if you had killed the second one, the third merc would've been right outta reach and left you in a dangerous situation. I would've said that this would be impossible if it wasn't for the fact that some mercenaries are such proficient users of the nova knives that enemy a distanced enemy would be possible for a hit.

I mean, and that's not the only scenario.

Camping in a spot and waiting on multiple tangos to walk by in tight clusters and then cutting through their formation like butter.

Multiple assassins using stealth and coordination to take out about seven or more mercenaries mercenaries in a frenzy of confusion and death.

Sneaking up behind a sentinel and using the raijin's charge feature to break their armor down to the point that you would only need one swing or two to quickly dispatch them.

There's many ways it can be used.