Generally I found that it was just a whole lot easier to make use out of some character's unique weapons than others. I've noticed that every character starts with a pistol or machine pistol, and something(s) else that is unique to them. My personal preference rankings goes as follows:
Tied for first/second I have Piers and Ada. They both have their starting pistols as rapid fire, which is always a plus, but they also have the most useful uniques. First, we have Piers' sniper. That thing is pretty much a magnum with a scope. To even start with a sniper is just something in itself, those are usually mid-game weapons, so it's like wow. Then we have Ada's crossbow. This thing packs such a punch, that it can smash all the armor off a Napad in one shot. Both the sniper and the crossbow also have great quick-shots, which can petty much kill any regular enemy in one shot, and send stronger ones flying back so you can deal with them later.
Third, I would place Jake's melee. The reason is, once you lock on with it, you can just jump around and pummel all the enemies in the room without really even trying. It's a great fighting tool, and a way to conserve ammo. Just don't try to lock on to and pummel anything with some mass to it, or it'll backfire on you.
Fourth, I would put Helena. Her hydra packs some good rolling quickshots that can get 1 hit kills, but sometimes it bugs out and the roll doesn't activate. Also, shooting it regularly is pretty ineffective: it has pretty much zero range, and the recoil is such that after one shot, you'll be aiming at the ceiling. Not only this, but it takes so long to reload, that after the 3 shots are used, i don't even bother with it until the respective battle is over, preferring other guns instead.
Fifth, I would rank Sherry. Her stun rod is very fun to watch and quite theatrical, but i find it of little use in real combat situations, especially against enemies armed with guns. I rarely ever find myself charging into a hail of bullets to get a nice stun on an enemy. Her three round burst mode on her pistol is unique and fun, but also pretty useless in my opinion. I feel like i can actually get off more rounds faster if I have it on semi-auto and just rapid fire it using my own finger. Basically Sherry's stuff is the funnest, which is why she lands here.
Sixth I put Chris. I actually feel that his knife and Leon's are the same amount of useless. As I stated in Sherry's, I very rarely ever find the need to use a melee weapon, especially since most of the enemies in this particular campaign shoot projectiles. Also, you can melee while holding a firearm, which makes the knife much less important than it was in RE 4 and 5. Sure the knife lets you do a powerful knock-back melee after 1 hit, where as normal hitting lets you do it after 2 hits, but that's only going to save you a second of time and one block of stamina, not very much. The reason I am putting Chris sixth and Leon seventh, is because of the other unique weapon he has besides his knife, the assault rifle. An assault rifle is common to all the campaigns so it's not so special in itself, but starting with one on the first level is definitely a plus.
Seventh, Leon. My feelings on Leon's knife are mirrored from what i wrote above about Chris' knife, but I think his other unique, the duel pistols, are the worst of all. Frankly, I didn't even know if those were supposed to be advantageous or detrimental. Since pistols are semi-auto anyway, you get no increase in rate of fire. The advantage of the duel pistols is pretty much twice the ammo capacity, which means that you have to reload half as much. The disadvantage, is reduced accuracy and increased recoil, which means you'll miss twice as much. You see the problem now? I'd rather have twice the percentage of my one pistol's bullets hit a target than half the percentage of two pistol's bullets. The latter would only serve to waste bullets.
Tied for first/second I have Piers and Ada. They both have their starting pistols as rapid fire, which is always a plus, but they also have the most useful uniques. First, we have Piers' sniper. That thing is pretty much a magnum with a scope. To even start with a sniper is just something in itself, those are usually mid-game weapons, so it's like wow. Then we have Ada's crossbow. This thing packs such a punch, that it can smash all the armor off a Napad in one shot. Both the sniper and the crossbow also have great quick-shots, which can petty much kill any regular enemy in one shot, and send stronger ones flying back so you can deal with them later.
Third, I would place Jake's melee. The reason is, once you lock on with it, you can just jump around and pummel all the enemies in the room without really even trying. It's a great fighting tool, and a way to conserve ammo. Just don't try to lock on to and pummel anything with some mass to it, or it'll backfire on you.
Fourth, I would put Helena. Her hydra packs some good rolling quickshots that can get 1 hit kills, but sometimes it bugs out and the roll doesn't activate. Also, shooting it regularly is pretty ineffective: it has pretty much zero range, and the recoil is such that after one shot, you'll be aiming at the ceiling. Not only this, but it takes so long to reload, that after the 3 shots are used, i don't even bother with it until the respective battle is over, preferring other guns instead.
Fifth, I would rank Sherry. Her stun rod is very fun to watch and quite theatrical, but i find it of little use in real combat situations, especially against enemies armed with guns. I rarely ever find myself charging into a hail of bullets to get a nice stun on an enemy. Her three round burst mode on her pistol is unique and fun, but also pretty useless in my opinion. I feel like i can actually get off more rounds faster if I have it on semi-auto and just rapid fire it using my own finger. Basically Sherry's stuff is the funnest, which is why she lands here.
Sixth I put Chris. I actually feel that his knife and Leon's are the same amount of useless. As I stated in Sherry's, I very rarely ever find the need to use a melee weapon, especially since most of the enemies in this particular campaign shoot projectiles. Also, you can melee while holding a firearm, which makes the knife much less important than it was in RE 4 and 5. Sure the knife lets you do a powerful knock-back melee after 1 hit, where as normal hitting lets you do it after 2 hits, but that's only going to save you a second of time and one block of stamina, not very much. The reason I am putting Chris sixth and Leon seventh, is because of the other unique weapon he has besides his knife, the assault rifle. An assault rifle is common to all the campaigns so it's not so special in itself, but starting with one on the first level is definitely a plus.
Seventh, Leon. My feelings on Leon's knife are mirrored from what i wrote above about Chris' knife, but I think his other unique, the duel pistols, are the worst of all. Frankly, I didn't even know if those were supposed to be advantageous or detrimental. Since pistols are semi-auto anyway, you get no increase in rate of fire. The advantage of the duel pistols is pretty much twice the ammo capacity, which means that you have to reload half as much. The disadvantage, is reduced accuracy and increased recoil, which means you'll miss twice as much. You see the problem now? I'd rather have twice the percentage of my one pistol's bullets hit a target than half the percentage of two pistol's bullets. The latter would only serve to waste bullets.
