“Well, you know what they say — Either you’re perfect, or you’re not me.”

\- Perfect Cell, Dragonball Abridged 

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Before we start, I simply wanted to say that this is a friendly discussion and having differing opinions is alright. The main goal here is to reach out to new players, showcase these characters to them, and give them an insight into what they can expect from them.

Today, we have two of the most broken characters in the game.

One deals insane damage while the other is immortal.

We'll be talking about their pros and cons and showcasing where they dominate. Honestly, both of them are frontliners. Clearing entire floors is their entire playstyle, and calling them "overpowered" is the understatement of the century. They're both brutally broken, and at times, it feels like cheating altogether. With that being said, let's start our discussion with a character that's basically impossible to die from.

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RUTHVEN

Skills are:

1. Efflorescence - Depending on whether you hold or tap, it can either deal a combination strike that inflicts lifesteal or a one-shot AOE nuke that activates a DOT on enemies, also inflicting lifesteal.

2. Torment - Depending on whether it’s held or tapped, it sends out an orb that deals a single-target nuke and then AOE, or you possess the target and continuously steal life from them.

Passive: Hitting enemies with normal attacks or skills will grant additional lifesteal and proc whatever lifesteal items you have.

P.S. He also has a transformation that adds to his stats.

Pros:

\- He's brutally immortal. He deals so much lifesteal, it's not even fun anymore. If you die while playing Ruthven, I wouldn't even say it's a skill issue. I'd call it a severely unfortunate event that you somehow died using a character that basically has six different types of lifesteal. 

\- His base stats from the start of each run are ridiculously enormous. Being from the Ophiculum, he has access to more stat buffs than normal characters, with chakra, chakra passives, soul realm, and skill upgrades. He starts the game off being ridiculously powerful.

\- It often feels like his skills are never on cooldown. Either he has insanely high cooldown reduction, or holding down his skills reduces their cooldown long enough for you to cast the other skill again. You really have no use for cooldown items.

Cons: None that I can think of, honestly...

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GINZO

His skills are:

1. Hiken: Shooting Stars - A skill dash.

2. Hiken: Tsukikage - Holds your sword up for a deflect and follows up with a slash projectile.

3. Hiken: Heirloom Katana - A combination strike.

Pros:

\- He performs well with whatever build you give him, and his skills are easy to learn. Any character in this game requires you to memorize and understand which soulboon upgrades and item builds best suit them. Ginzo is uhh... somewhat like that. Every item in your arsenal fits well with him. Even if you somehow mess it up and build a full inventory of Vengeance Fetter effects, he'll still benefit from it since his skills cover the majority of the item effects in the game.

\- Soulboons benefit him drastically. There are soulboons that enhance his entire playstyle. Where he starts off as slow and unassuming, he quickly turns into a monstrous character that can clear every floor with ease. Soulboons like Bloomscatter turn your first skill into a multi-hit skill that procs item effects and increases your damage, and the soulboon "Add Movement Distance" doesn’t just scale horizontally, but also vertically. Murakumo gives two more charges to your skill 1, circumventing the issue of cooldowns entirely.

The result? A multi-hitting nuke that has no cooldown, procs every item effect in your inventory, and clears the floor.

\- He's free. You get him at the start of the game, and he's an insanely good character to start with. Even if you don't like him, give him some respect. Plus points for being a bro. 👊

Cons:

\- Slow start. As I've said before, his skills are basic and aren’t as flashy compared to Ruthven. Hell, back then, I thought Gerard was a better character than Ginzo.

\- The high cooldown is also a problem.

\- Very reliant on the soulboon: Bloomscatter.

\- Investment. If you're not too keen on investing in a character, you're not going to enjoy him to the fullest. 

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Personal Experiences:

\- Ruthven just clears entire runs with ease. I really notice how high his lifesteal is. It's nearly impossible to die even if I just stand there spamming basic attacks.

As I'm writing this, I just recently discovered from other redditors that Ruthven actually struggles in Rift, and I played him there. It felt so easy.

I couldn't die against Eye Guy; Red Knight did kill me with his nuke, but that was thanks to my arrogance (HAHA), and I dominated Butterfly and Gahana Dharo. His gameplay felt so smooth; I cleared entire minion waves. He simply DOMINATES, even at the start of the run.

Now, we go to Ginzo.

I'm telling you this again. If you're not too keen on investing in characters, he's not for you. But if you're like me and we started off with Ginzo, 

you and I both know how absolutely broken and overpowered he is. 

He’s been there since day one. 

You used him to one-shot small-time enemies with that tiny little dash.

You faced bosses without understanding soulboons, just swinging and hoping for the best until you eventually learned builds, timing, and synergy.

You invested in other characters because Ginzo carried your runs and funded your progress.

And over time, you didn’t just play him—you mastered him.

His rhythm, his spacing, his mobility… all of it feels like second nature now.

I know I pointed out a lot of his flaws, but that comes from respect. I used Ginzo long before I ever touched Ruthven, and I know exactly where he struggles.

But above all else?

He’s still one hell of a one-shot hero.

Ginzo DOMINATES entire floors in one dash, procs so much DAMAGE it's ridiculous, and enemies didn't have time to even DEAL a sliver of damage. He deals so much damage in a single skill cast that I had to switch my Sixrealms from Embrittlement to the same Sixrealm I use for Akaisha just to give it a challenge.

Ginzo simply clears minion waves, one-shots Eye Guy, Knight, and Butterfly. And when all is said and done, I didn't even notice I defeated Dahana.

There's a clear winner in this.

And that's the samurai that has always been on your side from the start.

Winner is: 

GINZO

A true samurai.

A day-one brother.

A floor-clearing HERO.

And the character who proves that sometimes, the strongest character is staring you at the face since you installed this game.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

GINZO VS RUTHVEN. who's the better Character?