Top Ten Video Game Shield Wielders

up [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back noble warriors to weapons month five i'm the green scorpion and last week you all survived my psychic assault and in rpg rules this would mean that it's your turn to attack but lucky for me i've got the perfect form of defense the shield simple elegant sometimes not so elegant it can be made of anything and comes in a variety of shapes and sizes from wrist mounted bucklers to human height towers often paired with a one-handed melee weapon shields accompany the loadout of some of the greatest fantasy heroes this might allow the character to block attacks deflect projectiles there might even be a shield bash move but for many the shield is simply an accessory the sidekick to the sword or a lance but for today we want to shine a light on fighters whose movesets revolve around these adamant artifacts they might even use it as their only weapon your captain americas and your steven universes some say the best offense is a good defense some say the best defense is a good offense but these 10 champions don't have to choose we'll be looking at creative uses of the weapons but expect a few old standbys to crop up using spikes or sharp edges to gore enemies throwing the shield and bouncing it back with impossible physics or the classic charging star just to steamroll your way through that's imaginary shield fighting 101 but you'll see people get far more inventive than that and so obligatory flame shield joke for if you don't like my picks let's buckle down these are the top 10 video game shield wielders a tale of souls swords and shields eternally retold i'm gonna go all out at one point i thought everyone on this list would exclusively use shields like general sal from sly three or kadira from indivisible but there is a class of fighter for whom though they use another weapon to strike the shield really stands out characters like dark souls looking glass knight or link fortunately link did not crack my top 10 so i get to live another day got that reference out of the way let's move on to another sword and shield blondie cassandra alexandra made her debut in soul calibur 2 meant mainly to replace series mainstay sophitia who was unavailable for plot reasons sophia had fought with a short sword and shield so cassandra took over that athenian style but sophia was added back for the home console version of soul calibur 2 and the sisters essentially became echo fighters of one another cassandra struggled to differentiate herself in future installments such as soul calibur 4 where her moveset now heavily features her butt but after taking soul calibur 5 to rethink her life choices cassandra returned for soulcalibur 6's dlc as more than just a clone the idea being that she would still use the same weapons but with a heavier focus on the shield whereas sophitia favored the sword you'd think that this would make cassandra more defensive but it's actually the opposite that saucer is now just another blunt instrument that cassandra can use to start combos this leaves her exposed more often than not but it also lends itself to a much more aggressive play style it's also worth noting that cassandra's weapons are blessed by hephaestus greek god of the forge this used to mean that her weapons were just unbreakable but now they come imbued with lightning cassandra also gets a shield throw which returns to her for no apparent reason electromagnetism i guess and her super combo turns this into a game of air hockey with her enemy as a heavily bruised goalie while she's easily the more headstrong and less reverent of the sisters known for cursing her own patron deity cassandra still embodies the shield in her brass yet protective nature her reason for setting out was to take up sophia's task for her and when sofitio returned to the fray cassandra accepted a supportive role in her quest she even hoped timelines would prevent her niece and nephew's fate in soulcalibur 5. decanonizing that game is about as heroic as it gets cassandra has always been the aegis for her family even if she goes about it in her own heavy-handed way am i even using these right well i won force fields the shields of the future in the 22nd century i don't want to still be carrying around a big bulky bulwark give me a device that can project some sort of plasma to separate me from a hail of bullets coming my way then maybe i can put link on any list i want and for the record yes i know i brought that on myself shut up this is the core strategy of the enigmatic shadow broker while other space criminals in the mass effect milky way deal in arms drugs or armed drugs the shadow broker makes his living off the sale of information collecting secrets from all the top powers in the universe and selling them to the highest bidder making sure no side ever gets too much of an advantage so that he can continue profiteering from the resulting conflict there are many layers of security at play here most importantly his anonymity only his top agents actually know where the broker is and even they don't know who or what he is past that he has an army of enforcers but when you finally get to him in mass effect 2's dlc he's oh dear lord he's a big boy aside from his massive physique and trusty blaster he's prepared with a personal force field around his body as well as a more traditional laser shield it's transparent like a riot shield so he can observe your puzzled look as you try to figure out how you're going to even hurt this guy it even repels biotic attacks so you can't psychic him to death either long range won't work since even when his reflective field is down he'll just hide behind his crimson light shield and return fire and if you try finding him in medium range he'll go full rhino on you and slam you into a sandwich using the wall and the shield as bread you're basically forced to fight close range a terrifying prospect when you remember how yolk this guy is broker is a member of the yag a pre-spaceflight alien race that have been blacklisted by the rest of the galaxy after they brutally massacred the first diplomats to visit them he takes out one of your party members in a single blow and manages to hold his own against liara to sony our amazing psychic space cell from last week as well as the galaxy's greatest million dollar cyborg zombie commander shepard at the same time and even then he was more than a match for them since they had to resort to short-circuiting his tech to cause a concentrated explosion in order to kill him if that's what it takes to bring you down you have a pretty good operation going forget shadow broker more like shepherd breaker [Music] we've recently seen a rise in pokemon taking up arms surfed has a lance and talian has a rifle and multiple pokemon come with their own shields sableye was our first choice with his giant gem but that's only in the mega form a bit too situational aegis carries a shield and for bonus points is a sword but i think we need to honor the shield pokemon of pokemon shield the legendary popper samacenta along with zashian these ancient heroes of galar take arming pokemon to a literal extreme as in you actually give them a weapon to hold and they use that weapon you don't actually see that too often on a zone samacenta is a majestic fighting type doggo but hand over the rusted shield and samacento will restore to its former glory the crown shield and integrate it right into its own beautiful mane and i know most people prefer zashian over samacenta myself included i mean it's great gray wolf sith but that's the thing it's great gray wolf sith or repeat kuromaru i've seen this kind of thing before but a giant canine wearing a sacred eska chin like a bib this yeah this is a new one you could say it's more like armor akin to the medieval practice of barding cavalry but the front plate is able to shift forward in a way that retains that quality of the original weapon despite looking like a face insert photo op at a carnival combat wise sama santa's glow up does it a lot of favors with the new added steel type samacenta keeps the same number of three weaknesses but goes from three resistances to eight two of them being times four advantages plus an immunity of poison so already it's doing wonders then you have the dauntless shield ability raising its already impressive defense stat by one stage its special defense isn't half bad either and with a decent attack for a legendary it can take advantage of a number of hard-hitting moves like close combat or if it already knows iron head the hold item will upgrade it into behemoth bash a mighty blow that doubles in power against dynamaxx enemies making it an effective godzilla killer and if zama sent a new king shield i probably would have ranked it five spots higher i know that's aegis slash's signature move but aegis legend zashian both learned sacred sword and that used to be the unova musketeer signature move come on samosanta is literally using a king's shield the shield that belonged to the king why are you playing favorites game freak zenta is a good boy too all right let me just check my watch here and yep rhyme time baby xenoblade chronicles may be a single player game but its combat is reminiscent of mmorpgs in that spirit ryan is the ultimate tank lugging around his signature weapon the gun lance it's called that but really it's neither a gun nor a lance more of a giant iron slab with a built-in box cutter standard issue in the colony 9 guard apparently though i can't see any of these npcs doing what ryan does and ryan was never all that committed to that job anyway at least not as committed as he is to his best buddy shulk little guy wants to go on a revenge quest across the known world and ryan's like yeah man i'll just drop everything road trip ryan and shulk's bromance translates right into their team's synergy thanks to ryan's many abilities that draw aggro while he's taunting shul can get bonus damage with his backslash and if shulk can inflict break on a target ryan can follow up with wild down to topple them keeping them from attacking for a moment while he is specially suited to help shulk rein's a great tank for any composition just maybe include a healer in there because ryan's gonna be withstanding a lot of damage but with auras to lower enemy damage rage to deal back spike damage anchor chain to hold on to aggro shield bash to daze the foes he's already toppled guard shift to block every attack at the cost of his own movement and last stand to recover from a fatal blow not to mention a slew of crowd control abilities ryan can hold the line and snuff the competition like a bunch of jokers this is not a man this is a fortress with legs [Music] when yacht club games first started developing shovel knight they had a character in mind simply named beloved who would serve as the hero's love interest the gallant gardener would battle the enchantress to defeat her only to find his beloved was the enchantress her body possessed by evil and the knight would be forced to bury his beloved with his own shovel pretty morbid but yacht club games soon decided that rather than a dainty damsel in distress they wanted a woman who was shovel knight's equal and so shield knight was born she's still a straight up damsel but at least it's implied that she was pretty cool beforehand sporting a pair of asymmetrical shields one body size and one travel size shield knight's design has more thought put into it than i first surmised you know how plague knight is a plague doctor a historical figure that has become better known in recent years with all the covet memes but at the same time was a pretty unique cultural basis for a character similarly shield knight is inspired by the skelvemir or shieldmaidens the term used for female viking warriors they didn't exclusively use shields that's just what they were called and shield knight takes the term a bit more literally actually there's some debate between archaeologists that the shield maidens really existed but they certainly appear in mythologies such as the bringhill deer and the bolsan sagas these tales would often interchange the heroines to either be shield maidens or valkyries lady riders of asgard who chose what warriors would have sent to valhalla and that's why shield knight has these wings on her helmet she's a valkyrie and that's awesome that said plague knight spectre knight and king knight were great choices for the dlc adventures but i always wanted a shield night story maybe a sequel and her sub weapons could have incorporated more of that norse influence but let's look at what is rather than what could have been though she's awol for most of the original journey she helps her shovel bae in the final battle against the released entity of the enchantress blocking attacks that otherwise would have been unavoidable and using the flat on her shield as a platform for shovel knight to use to reach his target she also appears as a flashback boss inspector of torment an awesome moment that's slightly sullied by how easy it turns out to be the last shield night your greatness just wasn't meant to see the light of day until the king of cards dlc where yacht club just casually added a smash bros style battle mode shovel knight showdown shield knight might be my favorite character in this side attraction the big shield blocks everything she can charge to safely close distances she can throw out the disc and leave it there indefinitely until she's ready to call it back to her and though you'd think this would make her vulnerable remember she still has that sidearm to perform the buckler blow which is basically her version of the dust knuckle there's still a well of hidden potential here just waiting to be on earth but after all the digging that's happened since the game's original release we can finally see that little glint and it is stunning magic and shields an odd match-up but one that works quite well in games like dungeons and dragons shields are generally too heavy for wizards to hold while spell casting but in other systems they might be a valuable way to cover your squishy body while performing incantations the shield might even make a good canvas for runes many will bring up vexin from kingdom hearts who takes forever to kill with his constant ice spells and floating blue blockade but vexin leans a bit too heavily towards the magic side for me kinda falls flat as an actual shield fighter well maybe if he did anything worthwhile in kingdom hearts 3 i feel differently it's ok vex you still got top 10 cryomancers and no one will ever be able to take that away from you but for a more kinetic form of shield casting look no further than samurai showdown hailing from china we have wu rihyan and she brought a shield to a swordfight this metal bowl serves as the conduit for many elemental spells and for an interesting reason wu rihyung is a master of feng shui wait that thing where you rearrange your furniture in a certain way for a happier life well that may be our modern take on it but feng shui goes back centuries as a form of chinese spiritualism a practitioner becoming one with the environment by balancing the elements around them the term feng shui literally translates to water wind and involves controlling your surroundings by a metaphysical standard as described on well this symbol right here that's not just a weapon wu's holding it's a feng shui compass and with it she can shift around the elements to her liking she doesn't even look like she's actively fighting most of the time she's either vibing or actively avoiding combat but as a result she sets traps of growing roots she can call upon lightning cause fiery explosions or shoot chunks of ice and if the setting is just right she uses her compass to summon a divine dragon who decides this room would look a lot better if her opponent weren't in it i am in love with this concept a quirky zoner with the ancient buddhist power of nope i don't even mind that she's well tragically low tier and i don't think she minds it either just so long as she can survive her japanese vacation i do hope they bring her back in future installments fighting games tend to introduce newbies like this and then forget about them in the sequels in favor of old standards you know hakan from street fighter 4 zvay and soul calibur 5 creative concepts that just need a bit more balancing well rihyung is all about balance come on just give her a charging star and she'll be topped here in no time i've never seen shield knight or ryan summon a dragon out of their shields come on get on woo's level speaking of ancient china as we've mentioned in previous countdowns the dynasty warriors series is a retelling of the novel romance of the three kingdoms which in turn is a retelling of about a hundred years of chinese military history and in all three we find the indomitable sao ren and that's pronounced sauren not kauren in history sao ren is a major badass serving in the eastern han dynasty under his second cousin sao tsao over his tumultuous career as a general sao ren proved himself to be especially dangerous in defensive battles keeping high the morale of his men holding off sieges far longer than could be humanly expected winning counter attacks against outnumbering invaders and even charging outside of his walls to personally defend smaller battalions he eventually retired with the title of grand marshal which is just about the highest honor available it's a bit of a crime that he's hardly mentioned in the novel but dynasty warriors 4 represents him with dignity as a well-armored sage and man of the people south's backbone and moral compass in warriors 4 and 5 sauren brandishes his famous shield as well as a double-bladed spike that he can swing around like a short sword this might look like he's duel wielding but i'd consider them two halves of the same weapon the spike able to slide right into the face of the shield and protrude at the side this allows sauren to fight with versatility keeping the droves of enemy soldiers at arm's length or thwart close-up attacks if his shield armor is occupied he can even launch the blade from his shield like a harpoon gun only for it to reload into the shield because video games and on horseback the blade extends even farther out for maximum distance not a fan of unnecessary bloodshed ren often tries to disable foes with the same swing he uses to parry their blows knocking them prone for a good nap unfortunately both ren's fighting style and character take a hit in the subsequent games warrior 6 swaps out his shield for a double-sided trident and 7 gives him a clumsy old flail that's just wrong even when his shield is returned to him in 8 his contribution to the way army is more tell than show seriously this is a grand marshal here show some respect oh well underwhelming sequels can't take away the memories of good times i know all dynasty warriors characters can solo the population of new jersey nothing special it's like what the [ __ ] is this who does this [ __ ] but given the history tactics and aplomb of sauren i think he wears it better than most whether you pronounce it sour cow this man is a beast no matter how you slice it i what yep that's right you're getting a small bonus entry today because well i messed up this script was done like done done recorded i announced this video's release in three days wham bam thank you ma'am then to relax i decided to watch some old fighting game videos and how the hell did i forget about roast beef strudelberg i mean rismith stridberg the awesome swedish vampire hunter from melty blood fighting with a holy shield called gamaliel that you can disguise as a cello i am so mad at myself of her getting this one gamaliel has a giant spike running through it similar to how sao ren uses his shield giving rees-viv an oppressive amount of reach she can even channel her spirit through that spike to fire a bullet capable of felling the darkest creatures of the night or impale her opponents and launch them across a screen reese biff missed the ranking not because she doesn't deserve it not because of any rule or caveat but because i realize my oversight too late and there's not enough time to change the whole script around so what do i do well if i hadn't forgotten she would probably rank just above sao ren for me i mean they have pretty similar move sets except reespiv has a bit of an edge due to her ability to perform awesome shield combos in a fighting game but then everyone else would get knocked down a rank which seems unfair to cassandra at number 10. so you know what i'm giving respect the honorary three and a half spot and let me just say that i am deeply sorry lady stridberg as a woman of the church i hope you'll forgive me [Music] normally i'm hesitant to put a character too high on these lists if they use a variety of weapons besides the main one but there's room for exceptions especially if we're talking about hades the best thing to happen in 2020 i fell in love so hard with this game i suspect aphrodite might be involved our hero zagreus unliving demigod and son of the titular hades switches between six main weapon types in his many many attempts to escape the underworld and he's incredibly proficient with all of them spears swords goddamn railguns total expert but at least he's restricted to one per run so his mastery with each infernal arm is a pillar unto itself translation if he only had his shield zagreus would do just fine wielding aegis the same shield forged by chaos and once used by zeus to fight the titans zagreus turns an immovable object into an unstoppable force shield punch check this swing actually deals a good bit of knockback so you can pin small enemies to the walls until their health depletes charging star check he can block as many projectiles and attacks as he wants until he's ready to crash into and through his enemies shield throw that's a texas-sized check right there bouncing it like a chakram off of multiple targets it does mean that you have to wait for it to return before you can attack again but zack's sprite dashes are usually enough to keep him safe in the meantime and if that were all there was to it prince zed would have easily made the top ten but then there's the plethora of ways to upgrade aegis on any given hell tour daedalus enhancements can increase the number of bounces on the shield throw or provide stronger charging options and like any of the other weapons aegis attack and special can be blessed by whatever random assortment of gods decide to help z-man today from dionysus's concussive hangovers to demeter's wintry slowdowns also worth noting that athena mostly grants shield-like boons that deflect projectiles whether you have aegis equipped or not so you can technically shield without your shield or have more shield per shield with your shield equipped finally there's the various aspects unlocked in the late game the infernal arms are known to transform when they appear to different heroes throughout history but with some titans blood the prince can revert aegis to the form it took for zeus giving it a crazy aoe tornado when thrown or he could take the og aspect of chaos that multiplies the shield into multiple discs when thrown then there's the fourth aspect that gives the shield a form it will have in the future for a certain beowulf with this large targe you can load your magic bloodstones in it to give more magical properties to the charge attack this is probably the single most variable shield on this list and i think we can justify this even if aegis isn't zagreus's only weapon because i don't think any one of the infernal arms stands out as his main tool much of the game depicts zagreus with his sword as it's the first weapon you have unlocked but in game there's no special emphasis put on the blade personally aegis is my favorite weapon to use having a measure for every situation i'll still switch it up from time to time to get those darkness bonuses and variety as the spice of life but the underworld is plenty spicy already and aegis is a spice of success [Music] i'm not as limber as i used to be well you i cannot remain people have been asking me to include characters from smite for a long time i haven't played a whole lot of it but fans can finally rejoice their prayers have been answered by cobra khan mayan god of the mountains maybe not the god you'd normally pray to for this sort of thing but hey i was looking through the wiki and when i saw this guy with two tower shields it definitely piqued my interest in myth kabur khan and his brother zipakna were the sons of the hellgod vukup kaki and they basically functioned like the titans in greek myth or the yotans and norse enormous boastful giants zepak now would build mountains and copper khan would break them down and their want on destruction was enough for the main pantheon to put out a hit sending the hero twins to kill him by offering poison food i guess when your target smashes mountains for a living you have to resort to some cheap tactics copper khan's back in smite to show that he won't stand for such foul play copper khan falls under the vague umbrella of support gods with an aura that reduces damage to nearby allies but other than that copper khan mostly supports by disrupting opponents and being a really hard man to kill if there's no one around for him to support well he'll do just fine by himself thank you very much with refraction shield coppercon shields gain protection stacks while they take damage and he can burn those stacks to stun enemies with a massive metal clap he can also enrage himself to move faster ignore slows and roots and deal even more stuns and he can drum those shields on the ground to create tremors dealing steady damage in a large area and slowing enemies trying to escape this is often done in big team fights to add dps to your side but it also makes a great farming tool or an execution move if combined with his ultimate when using tectonic shift five stalagmites erupt from the earth in an arc formation blocking entry or escape so essentially copper khan can use his metal shields to create a much larger stone shield which can either protect his team from damage or more often boxes opponents in and subject them to more tremors gotta love watching your enemies squirm as they try to decide whether it'd be better to try and break through the wall or double back and risk moving closer to you i love a good support but honestly throw that strat out the window copper khan makes a good early game lane bully if you build damage the strategy falls off by level 7 if you haven't spent your kill gold wisely but by that point you've effectively shielded your team against failure coppercon's kit is all about halting the enemy encouraging coppercon to take attack so that he can return them two-fold all with two tower shields i'm sorry i'm always gonna be excited when a weapon master uses two of something hey ryan you know that full body ton of steel you lug around could you maybe try and carry two of those no that's okay after all we can't all be mountain gods i'll admit sometimes my number one spots are too easy to guess if you know much about league of legends you know that there's this big shield guy and you know that i absolutely had to talk about him somewhere on this list and now some of you are grumbling because obviously this is the only spot left well hey i haven't had a lead character on my list since cyborgs i think i've gotten pretty good at not leaning on it too much for ideas so stiff upper lip let's talk about braum the heart of the freljord to friends i am snowfall to enemies i am avalanche braum was added to the game in 2014 and they went hard on his lore hailing from the freljord gruntera's merciless tribal tundra braum's backstory is that of a folk hero like paul bunyan pulling trees from the ground to make bridges and chopping wood with his bare hands the kinds of feats that even in universe are probably exaggerated however his greatest tale is how he got his famous ram horn shield it was actually a door to a vault enchanted by orn to be unbreakable and impassable from the outside but braum heard the cries of a troll child who had snuck into the vault another way and was now trapped even braum's manly muscles couldn't penetrate the front entrance so he took the natural next step punching his way through the freaking mountain once inside he was able to help the troll out and open the door from the inside but his punching had disrupted the snow on the mountainside thinking quickly braum pulled the door off of its hinges and with his strength to hold it and the door's protective enchantment braum was able to save the village from an avalanche and he's been logging this gargantuan gateway with him ever since true to his past as a savior of the little guy braum plays as a support specializing in crowd control and keeping his teammates alive his basic attacks proc a concussive blows counter after 4 hits a target will be briefly stunned though importantly only the first of those hits has to come from braum if he goes out bopping every enemy on the head faster firing allies can build the rest of the counters to stun their targets so braum and a good ranger can slow down a whole armada with winter's bite braum can use the shield's defenses to shoot out an icy blast that also applies towards concussive blows stand behind me quickly maneuvers braum between his friend and the worst nearby aggressor even if it means hopping through terrain this synergizes beautifully with unbreakable activating the doors you shall not pass button to create a force field that reduces directional damage and completely negates the first projectile this is huge ash arrows draven axes yasuo tornadoes missiles lasers yellow cards your enemies ace in the hole utterly cancelled by braum's e finally there's braum's ultimate glacial fissure a big aoe knock-up that breaks the very ground he stands on by slamming his shield into it without even so much as a scratch befalling that ram's head if we stack braum's move list next to capricans from smite you'll see a lot of these same disruption moves and for the purposes of this list i do like caprican's ultimate a little more it has a grander effect in manipulating the field to box boxing enemies but braum's got that stand behind me slash unbreakable combo that wins it out for me apples and oranges i know but let me put it to you this way in my past videos i sometimes penalize league characters who were supports such as janna nami and tarik on their respective elements countdowns on those lists i just felt it important to be more offensive with your elements brahm is definitely a more defensive character than copper khan less able to take out opponents mano amano but this is shield wielders right defensive is kind of the point and besides his passive aura copper khan's not really watching out for his team neither character has that captain america shield throw but when you consider the most basic purpose of a shield to block an attack can anyone really top brahms unbreakable move i don't think they can since braum was added he's been a constant presence in riot's animated trailers and adverts fighting off evil hordes to outrun and then stop an avalanche in its tracks this is because this active support encapsulates one of the best aspects of playing a team game the big goddamn hero moment when rhine builds up enough aggro to distract an enemy just before it can finish off shulker fiora that feels amazing but when braum leaps across lane to shelter his team from a misfortune bullet spray that is downright heroic and you see braum doing this all over his appearances go back to his initial reveal [Music] next time you get my back that is everything about braum condensed into a single moment pure unadulterated teamwork and sure he relies on his team to do damage while he's preventing all harm but catch him in a dark alley and he'll show you that he's perfectly capable of punching your lights out solo i can't stress this enough he can negate most champions ultimate techniques with his non-ultimate technique also the shield works great as a sled that's an instant 10 coolness points right there braum is the shield wielder character perfected and if you don't agree with me here's the door i'm the green scorpion and thank you for watching week two of weapons month five next time all systems go [Music] you

Channel: The Green Scorpion

Views: 22,371

Rating: 4.9400883 out of 5

Keywords: The Green Scorpion, greenscorpion64, video games, countdown, let's play

Id: UXO0tq05_Ts

Length: 34min 10sec (2050 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021