Yeah it's basically Train Slash that has a guaranteed ability to hit the entire front row, vs spears who will throw out damage randomly with Multi Thrust. Spears has the potential to do more damage with up to 4 attacks but it could also do 2, it could also target enemies you don't want it to. Multi Thrust deciding to use all its attacks on the one enemy that has physical immunity like the skele leader for example completely wastes a turn.
Swords are probably the most reliable. You can decide exactly who you're hitting and they can use normal attack builds better. Since everybody starts with some normal attacks, it's nice to have the chance to double hit with them when you run out of skills.
Spears are the most versatile, being able to target the backrow, though they don't get the chance of multiple hits on their normal attacks, meaning once they run out of Multi Thrust, their damage potential drops a bit vs swords. Multi Thrust can also be spread out randomly by clicking it from your ui window instead of targetting an enemy, or all focus on one enemy until its dead or you run out of attacks, making it decent at mob killing and boss killing.
Hammers are the best CC with Impulse that can potentially stun the entire enemy team. They have some accuracy issues though, especially against flyers. Pretty much anybody using hammers wants to build some extra accuracy with items or skills, which could take away from other stuff. Their boss slaying move has a massive accuracy penalty and it would suck to have it miss.
Shortswords are the ones that are really fucking questionable. Damage wise, you have to rely on normal attack builds and their complete rng chance to multi hit. They get a bit better late game when you have high crit/stun and normal attack 4, but it's still a gamble. It's kind of like normals have a chance to use Multi Thrust that can't target the backrow. I don't really recommend them if you have other options, it's kind of the weapon type you use because you aren't allowed the better options using that class.