Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

Jade’s main goal in Beyond Good & Evil is to uncover a vast planet-wide conspiracy, so her primary weapons are actually her intelligence and her camera. In addition to being an investigative journalist, she’s also a skilled martial artist and a practitioner of yoga. She exercises stealth whenever possible, but there are situations where she inevitably has to contend with armed guards, killer robots, and hideous alien monsters. She arms herself with a literal stick at the beginning of the game, but soon acquires her trademark Daï-jo staff. Her athleticism allows her to effortlessly string together numerous attacks, and she can unleash tremendous waves of energy by swirling the staff in the air. Jade is also mindful of her environment, and will sometimes use her staff to thrust her foes into electrical gates to eliminate them.

Venom doesn’t technically fight with a staff, but I’m bending the rules to include him since it’s unlikely that I’ll make a list dedicated to characters who arm themselves with pool cues. Venom was orphaned at a young age and taken in by an assassin’s guild, but his reluctance to kill hindered his career growth. He might not be the best assassin, but he’s easily one of the most unique fighters in the Guilty Gear series. Venom uses various swinging and striking techniques, and often thrusts the cue forward as though his opponents were pool balls. In some cases, his opponents actually are pool balls. For reasons that are never adequately explained, Venom can transform his opponents into pool balls and use his cue to perform an instant kill on them. I’m not sure how that works, but there’s no arguing with results.

Leia Rolando’s intense love of sports and fighting competitions seems to conflict with her innocent appearance, but the dichotomy is ultimately the result of an unusual childhood. Leia fell ill in her youth and was encouraged to spar as a way of rebuilding her strength. Once she regained her health, she adopted a perpetually perky persona and was driven by a desire to become even stronger. She’s defined in battle by her elongated staff which improves her range and increases her attack power. Her incredible reach is ideal for creating distance, pushing enemies back, or catching foes before they’re able to cast spells. Her fighting style also puts a heavy emphasis on aerial maneuvers, and she uses precision strikes, clever positioning, and air juggling techniques to gain the advantage and keep the pressure on in battle.

The central premise of Suikoden involves 108 characters from different walks of life coming together to work toward a common goal. The idea is that each person is able to make a unique contribution to the party, and no one is necessarily more important than anyone else. In reality, Tir McDohl plays a much larger role than most of the party members. As leader of the Republican Army against Emperor Barbarossa, Tir is a required member of the party at all times. He is a quiet and reserved individual, but he’s a well-rounded fighter who can be effective up close or at a distance. He often faces opposition in the form of swords and arrows, so the fact that he saves an entire nation with a simple combat staff speaks to his proficiency with the weapon. Having 107 friends as backup probably has more to do with his success than his combat staff, but I digress.

The Dynasty Warriors franchise is full of legendary warriors, but Zhou Yu is mostly known for his brilliant mind. The famous military commander protected his lord’s territory in many conflicts, and he was generally seen as a voice of reason in his homeland. His reputation as a strategist lived on well after his death and his talents are praised throughout the land. He’s a seasoned swordsmen in his own right, but the elegance of a combat staff is a better fit for his refined personality. He swings his staff with grace and beauty, but there is also tremendous power to his strikes. He can deliver acrobatic blows, create powerful whirlwinds, or slam the staff into the ground in an explosion of flames. Although the staff naturally allows him to attack from a distance, he will occasionally use it to vault himself towards his opponents.

Many video games have had their own take on Sun Wukong from Journey to the West. League of Legends and Dynasty Warriors both had their own versions. Xiba from SoulCalibur, Monkey from Enslaved, and Capcom’s SonSon are based on him as well. This entire list could have been dedicated to Sun Wukong variants, but the SMITE version comes across as the most powerful. Sun Wukong can spin his staff around to damage nearby enemies, and he’s strong enough to create shockwaves by jumping down from the clouds and smashing the ground with his staff. The staff can also elongate itself and demolish an entire line of enemies as it comes crashing down to the ground. SMITE pits him against swarms of mythological deities, but Sun Wukong easily holds his own thanks to his mastery of his magical staff.

Billy and his younger sister Lilly grew up on as orphans and had to steal food in order to survive on the unforgiving streets of London. A chance encounter with a crime boss gave him with an avenue to provide for his sister, but he was never driven by greed despite living the life of a criminal. Billy arms himself with a sectional staff that can be split into three parts connected by a chain. He demonstrates amazing control of the weapon and draws from his experience as a pole vaulter to help him in battle. Inexplicably, Billy can create copies of his staff out of thin air. He can also set the staff ablaze in order to create powerful rings of fire. Lilly looks up to her older brother and tries to mimic his fighting style by using a laundry pole as a weapon. It’s an amusing site to behold, and also proves that somebody was inspired by Billy’s techniques.

Jade is the most interesting female ninja in the Mortal Kombat series, and her weapon is the most compelling as well. It appears to be a simple metal pole, but Jade is very creative in how she uses it. By throwing the staff like a boomerang, she turns it into a spinning instrument of death. She’s also known to uppercut her opponents into the air and impale them with the upright staff on their descent. Her brutality is put on display when she parades around with the head of her opponent on the end of the staff, but her lighter side is brought to life when she starts hopping around on the staff like a pogo stick. There are multiple ways that Jade can use the staff to decapitate her opponents, but it somehow seems even more dangerous when Jade’s ramming the staff into her opponent’s crotch with all of her might. I think I’d rather have my head cut off.

Kilik was left on the steps of a Chinese temple as an infant and trained in the art of staff-fighting from a young age. He was bestowed with the temple’s sacred staff, the Kali-Yuga, and learned to master its power after training for many years. Following an incident in which Kilik and his fellow monks were temporarily possessed by evil spirits, he set out on a quest to purge the evil within himself. Kilik is one of the few SoulCalibur characters that fights with a blunt weapon, but his staff is every bit as dangerous as a blade. The length of his staff allows for a multitude of long-range attacks and naturally keeps him out of harm’s way. This makes him the perfect character for newbies to use. Although he’s a humble warrior, Kilik’s fighting style is so flashy that it will make even the most clueless button mashers look like they know what they’re doing.

Litchi Faye-Ling is pretty much the perfect woman. Not only is she strikingly beautiful, but she’s also a brilliant scientist and a renowned doctor who runs a medical clinic and defends local townspeople from assaults. She’s a skilled athlete and a trained martial artist, and her fighting style highlights her flexibility and balance. By siphoning the spirits of the dead, Litchi is able to mentally control her staff from a distance. The staff thrusts forward with her punches, twirls through the air like a shuriken, and stands upright so it can be used as a jump-off point. The staff can also split into multiple sections to attack from multiple angles, and it can even shape-shift into a bizarre stick man that wildly flails about as it marches forward! No other character on this list exhibits more control over their weapon than Litchi. The girl really knows how to work a pole.