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Hah, these little favoritism pieces are so easy for me to write, and I have fun with them too, so bleh. Anyhow, most times you run through that same, familiar gamut of weapons that appear in almost every single RPG you play. The one-handed long sword (usually wielded by your main character), the spear, the trusty staff of the magic users, the bow and arrow, the two handed sword, gloves with metal and/or spikes for the hand-to-hand combaters, and for your long distance fighters, the gun/s or the throwing knives. There's variations of these, of course, but they're what you expect to see at some point in game play. Occasionally, maces, flails, discs, and hammers make appearances as well. But it's always kind of fun when you get a character with an unusual, or at least unorthodox weapon for battle. And yes, I will list some of my favorites now.
Playing Shadow Hearts: From the New World is what really got me started on this editorial. I've favored Ricardo, my Spanish mariachi character, since I read the character bios. He takes Lucia's place from the last game in that he is the main support magic caster, which he does by playing songs on his guitar. Hey, this is Shadow Hearts we're talking about, so I can go with it. I wasn't sure how he would perform physical attacks with a guitar though. Would he just smash enemies over the head, a la El Kabong style? I really wasn't expecting the neck of his guitar to pop open and reveal a modified shot gun built into the instrument. An insane weapons/string instruments expert must have created this thing, as it also packs a flamethrower and a rocket launcher. You'll find this notion ridiculous or awesome, or both, as I did.
I play several free MMOs, one of which is FLYFF. Not my favorite, but it's got an interesting world and cute characters. I chose the job class of acrobat, the speedy ranger/assassin types. The weapons of this class are the bow and arrow (obviously), and the unexpected Yo-yos. "The hell?", I thought to myself when I was first reading about it. I knew even before creating my character that I wanted to use the yo-yos, just because they looked so interesting in practice. They're about the size of dinner plates, and the character holds one in each hand, throwing them out alternatively to strike the enemy before reeling them back in. Yo-yos allow for long distance attacks, though shorter than the bows. The benefit is you don't have to buy arrows for ammunition. This sort of weapon makes me wish for a whole line of toy based weapons in a game, come some point, like what was in American McGee's Alice.
Lulu from Final Fantasy X used dolls and stuffed animals as her weapons. In my opinion, this method was perfected by Geppetto from Shadow Hearts: Covenant, and his puppet Cornelia. Geppetto could make Cornelia mimic his movements for attacking and spells, though she sometimes seemed to have a will of her own. She and Geppetto are the best offensive magic users of the game, and you would gain special spells by obtaining new outfits for Cornelia. Cornelia was much more lively than Lulu's dolls, patting Geppetto's shoulder worriedly when his HP got too low, and jumping up and down victoriously at the end of a battle. You couldn't help but think of her than more than just a doll.
Wakka's blitz ball was both funny, and actually raised interesting notions of "dodge ball" style battle techniques. Squall's gunblade was a fun combination of two normal weapons into something new, yet surprisingly functional. And I have nothing but love for the ball and chain of Twilight Princess, since apparently I have a thing for smashing walls and trees into tiny bits. It just goes to show that if you can spin it the right way, anything can be used for smashing heads in. I'm just going to wait and see when someone wields a signpost in a fight. Oh wait, someone has.
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