Sharky, Kratos never gets unlimited health. No secret item in the history of God of War makes it so Kratos can't die.

Oof.

Should I have done a breakdown as to how Link would win in ever scenario? I mean, letsdance basically said "all Links combined", there's a lot to go over....

If you didn't notice. I was making fun of this thread. Its two fictional characters. Its like who would win. Jesus or Budda. We will never know the answer.

BTW I am not saying Jesus or Budda are fictional. Believe what you wish I say.

You were trolling the whole time?

I didn't notice... because people were being equally silly and being DEAD serious.

Also I couldn't disagree more.  I'd say it's very possible to tell.

I mean, if asked who would win in a fight... He-man or Archie from the Archie comic books... it'd be silly to say we'd never know because they're fictional.

All you need to do is compare what He-man can and has done, vs what Archie can and has done. 

It's the same premise here... Archie actually has more of a chance then Kratos if you give Link the triforce.

Also, as for Jesus vs Budda?  Compare Jesus and Buddha's abs, that's all you need to know.

All right, fine. Last word on the subject, then I'm gone from this topic and there won't be anything else to say from me.

The fight has been outlined as being between a combined version of all Links and Kratos from God of War 3, though it's not clear what point in God of War 3 this is referring to. We're going to assume just before the final battle, so Kratos has all upgrades and weapons possible. I don't think that's fair: I think it would be more interesting to pick a single Link and argue about that. But we're not doing that, because the OP says we aren't. This is all Links combined.

All assumptions here are based on in-game narrative and canon: no NG+-only abilities which owuld change the narrative, no glitches, nothing like that.

I am not counting the Triforce: that would not be fair.

It needs to be noted here that all primary attacks made by either fighter are blockable: every blow of the Blades of Chaos, the Nemean Cestus, the Claws of Hades, the Nemesis Whip, and even the Blade of Olympus can all be blocked - try them ou on a Satyr in Chaos Mode if you want proof of that. Similarly, as anyone who fights a damn, dirty Darknut knows, all of Link's primary attacks are blockable. The sword beam from the first game (which explodes) and several items are unblockable, but in general Kratos will be able to block against Link as well as Link blocks against Kratos. The only unblockable moves coming from these two are going to be in the form of magic spells for Kratos (I'm not sure if some of these are blockable or not) and certain items for Link.

Both have big advantages here in that Kratos is able to grapple to tear away and break some items, but Link has an instant death blow that does exactly what it sounds like. Neither of these matter. When fighting enemies of any strength whatsoever, Kratos has to weaken his enemies considerably before he can grapple with them - otherwise the enemy will throw him off, escape his grasp, or even injure him. This is not true of Satyrs, but they are exceptions rather than the rule. Link, similarly, cannot just insta-gib Kratos out of nowhere, because the enemy has to lie prone long enough for him to perform his attack, which Kratos is not likely to do unless he is already dead.

So it's not going to be somethign stupid and short and un-fun. This is a fight. It would play out like a fight. So we got to measure these two up. So let's measure them up.

Strength

When people talk about strength feats for Kratos, they're going to refer to one of two feats: holding up the hand of Cronos, or throwing the Colossus of Rhodes. I'm going to talk about both of those.

The thing about holding up the hand of Cronos is that Kratos doesn't actually do that - I'm not saying that scene never happened, that would be stupid. I'm saying that the way Cronos hit him, it was impossible for Kratos to actually be crushed. Put your palms together - no matter how hard you press or how you position them, there's always going to be an air pocket between them. When Kratos is pushing up against Cronos's hand, he's not actually holding up the weight of Cronos's entire hand - he's pressing against Cronos's very malleable palm to give himself enough room to pull out the Blade of Olympus and get his stab on. The difference here needs to be pointed out, since Kratos had so much trouble moving a single finger of Gaia's severed hand.

So the Cronos thing isn't what people assume it is. What about the Colossus of Rhodes? Ain't no question what happened there. So how strong does that make Kratos?

Well, first it needs to be acknowledged that Kratos was a lot stronger when he threw the Colossus than he is in this fight, since he still had some of the power of a god. That said, he still did do it, so we need to consider how much strength that took.

The Colossus of Rhodes and the Statue of Liberty were roughly the same size, so we can get a weight estimate from looking at the Statue of Liberty - which weighs about 225 tons. The Colossus of Rhodes was made from a lighter set of materials, particularly in that it had a wooden frame instead of a steel one, but we'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say that Kratos threw a body that weighed 225 tons.

Link's most prodigious feat of raw strength is picking up and throwing those big stone obelisks with the Golden Gauntlets in Ocarina of Time. I did the math earlier - assuming a radius of 2 meters and a height of 10 meters, the things weigh 336 metric tonnes. If only (only!) 7 meters tall, then they weigh 235 tonnes - and Link still hurls them ~a hundred meters, in some cases hard enough to shatter them as if they were made of glass.

Link's strength with the Golden Gauntlets, at the low end, is comparable to Kratos with some of his god-powers left over - at the high end, he's actually much stronger.

Kratos without the powers of a god is considerably weaker than Kratos with the powers of a god, which should be reflexive, but is proven clearly when he gets smashed by the Colossus's death throes. Based on this simple "deadlift and throw" comparison, we can arrive at the conclusion that Link is a lot stronger than Kratos is. It's not perfect, but it should be a pretty good indicator.

Speed

Generally on foot Kratos and Link have comparable speeds - they duck, dodge, roll, and dodge with roughly the same alacrity, particularly with Twilight Princess Link. Kratos dodges best with the Blades of Exile, but he still dodges well with the other weapons too. Both of them can turn their dodges into attacks, but these attacks are blockable. Link might have a slight advantage here in that his dodges can take him directly behind his enemy, but we'll leave that alone for now.

In terms of sheer footspeed both of them are comparable, but both of them have items that enhance that speed: the Sandals of Hermes and the Pegasus Boots. The speed granted by these two items is comparable, and results in the two doing similar devestating but blockable battering-ram attacks. The primary difference between them is that the Sandals of Hermes can only work in a straight line and function over a very short distance: the Pegasus Boots in Link's Awakening can be used to change directions on a whim and can be used over an indefinite distance. If, for some reason, this turns into a scenario where one of them has to chase down the other one, Link is going to win out whether he's creating the distance or closing it.

Mad Skills

This is where things start to get important - both, in general, are very good at killing things much larger and scarier than themselves. Giant dinosaurs, living statues, sea monsters, dragons, enormous animal people, cyclopes, giants - you name it, and between these two it has been killed horribly. The real question here isn't about their ability to kill shit so much as their ability to kill opponents their own size.

It's important to note that Kratos can counter the majority of attacks, even some he can't block, but that in order to do that he has to be able to see them coming - Link, like Kratos himself, doesn't really telegraph most of his attacks enough to be countered reliably. Unless Link uses a lot of the Jump Attack, counters aren't going to com into play here very much. Still, Kratos does have other skills, like the ability to switch weapons mid-combo, that could be prettyi mportant!

In terms of dueling skills, Link's are probably the more specialized - the Shield Bash often hits through blocks, and stuns the enemy for the Helm Splitter, and Link's dodge is tailored almost solely toward getting in behind the enemy and murdering them. The Mortal Draw, while incredibly powerful, will not comee into play here - Kratos's far superior range in melee combat guarantees that. In general when it comes to raw skills I'd give it to Link, if only because his skills are more specialized toward one-on-one dueling.

Weapons

Oh lawdy. This is where it gets complicated. I'm only listing weapons here that don't use mana:

Kratos seems to have perfectly knowledge of how to use all of his weapons, as if each of them has that knowledge inherent to the weapons themselves. I don't know if that matters. He naturally has the Blades of Exile, which are magical blades that grant him prodigious strength and grant him an enormous reach advantage in melee combat. The Claws of Hades have a similar reach advantage, but are noticeably slower than the Blades and have their primary advantage in their ability to summon souls rather than in straight-up combat. The Nemesis Whip is again a lot like the Blades but it's electric, tends to be better for crowd control, stuns more easily, and does slightly less damage one-on-one. The Nemean Cestus is pure brute power, sacrificing the reach advantage for some seriously ramped up damage potential. The Cestus is still blockable, but they hit like a truck.

As the last of his primary weapons, Kratos has the Blade of Olympus, which he fuels with the power of his own rage - we'll assume he comes into battle with a full Rage of Sparta meter, but since the Rage of Sparta isn't replenished by combos there's no way for him to replenish it.

In addition to this, Kratos also has a magical fiery bow with infinite arrows that can light the enemy on fire (doy), the severed head of the Sun God which can be used to dispel some enchantments and is able to blind enemies while dealing damage from sheer radiant heat, and the aforementioned Sandals of Hermes. I think I'm forgetting something here, but if I am then it's because whatever I'm forgetting wasn't useful in combat.

Link, on the other hand, has primarily the Golden Tempered Master Sword.

The Master Sword is a blade empowered by the gods specifically to vanquish evil and combat the powers of the Triforce when wielded by an evil hand - in Link to the Past its metal is reforged by dwarven blacksmiths to be more effective in combat and it is enchanted by the Queen of the Fairies to be more effective still, leaving it considerably more deadly to mundane enemies tthan it had been before. It's not clear if the Master Sword would kill Kratos because he's evil at heart at any given point in God of War 3, but we can assume that it would be able to rend his flesh like any other piece of steel and that thanks to the blessing of the gods it's effectively unbreakable. Also, when Link's at full health, he can fire off explosive beams of energy out of his sword, which are not blockable but can still be dodged.

Link's other weapons would take forever and a day to list but i'm goign to try to give an idea of them.

Link has his bow and arrows, including the ability to turn money into arows (effectively giving him 10079 arrows to work with), he has a variety of bombs, both normal and self-propelling, the ability to combine arrows and bombs into missiles with all the speed of normal arrows, a ball and chain which is comparable to the Nemean Cestus and doubles as a shield, an unblockable magic staff that doesn't drain mana and sends out a wave of magic that sets the target on fire, various boomerangs that can summon the wind or travel for untold distances and will always return to him (while stunning any enemy they hit), a shovel (for digging), various hammers of differing sizes and properties (the Skull Hammer is nearly the size of the Barbarian King's Hammer, and the Fairy Hammer can actually be larger and doesn't require Link to swing it with his arms), a staff that makes blocks that explode, special enchanted holy silver arrows that do ridonculous amounts of damage (I can't rememberi f they one-shot everything in the game but they one-shot a lot of things), the aforementioned Pegasus Boots, psycho killer bees he keeps in bottles, a grappling hook, a hookshot, two hookshots with claws on the ends of them, various shields which reflect sunlight and magic and fire and so forth, a magic leaf that shoots wind, on and on and on and on. Link has a lot of weapons! Some of them are unblockable. Some of them don't even require him to hold them. Some of them he doesn't even have to attack with them directly. The advantage here goes to Link.

Magic

Things become more exaggerated and terrifying here.

It should be noted that unless Kratos is carrying an item that he never uses in canon (which he is not, ini this discussion) he can't recover his magic, so he has a very limited number of uses of them. Link, on the other hand, can have three days worth of magic with every drink of Chateau Romani, and during that time period he has infinite magic. Outside of that he's able to replenish his magic every time he drinks ab lue or green potion, but with Chateau Romani his magic is effectively unlimited.

Kratos has four magics, here: the Army of Sparta, the Soul Summon, the Nemean Roar, and... whatever the Nemesis Whip's magic is called, it's basically Cronos's Rage from God of War II. Of these, I believe the Army of Sparta and the Nemesis Whip's magic are unblockable, and do considerable damage, thoguh the primary use of the latter is that it stuns the enemy. Every single soul summon is blockable or dodgeable, and the Medusa Summon's petrification powers could actually be turned back with any of the Mirror Shields. The Nemean Roar is blockable, I thinkn, but even if it isn't it's still dodgeable since it only hits in a cone of damage rather than with an all-angles attack like the Army of Sparta. The primary purpose of Kratos's magic is in dealing damage and temporarily shunting away damage dealt by his enemies, since it grants temporary invincibility.

Link's magic is somewhat different.

The biggest difference here is that Link has several spells or items that do nothing except grant him invincibility. Nayru's Love makes him immune to damage while still having him recoil from impacts, the Cane of Byrna makes him invincible without the vulnerability to blows of force, and the Magic Cape makes him invisible, intangible, and invincible. None of these affect his ability to attack, but he cannot be harmed while using any of them. Nayru's Love has to be recast every minute or so, but the Cane of Byrna and Magic Cape last as long as his magic meter does - which would essentially be forever, in this fight.

Link also has offensive magic: the fire rod and ice rod freeze and burn enemies, respectively, while Din's Fire is an unblockable wave of fire that incinerates everything around Link. The Bombos Medallion is like Din's Fire on a much larger scale, being something like a contained series of explosions that fill up an enormous area. The Ether Medallion is like the Bombos Medallion, only it freezes everything in an area. The Quake Medallion is like the former medallions, only it turns enemies into turnips. Turnips.

Din's Fire, the Medallions, and Nayru's Love all freeze time when being cast.

Link also has magically enchanted items that drain his mana (if it can be drained): most notable are his magic arrows, particualrly the Light Arrows, which in their strongest incarnation (Wind Waker) can one-shot anything that isn't Ganon, reducing them to incongruent particles and light.

There's more, but there's the relevant stuff. Kratos's magic is powerful, but Link's is usually more powerful, more varied, and not limited by his mana pool.

Items

Stuff gets even worse here.

Kratos has the Golden Fleece, which allows him to block and counter most attacks - probably including Link's magical arrows an possibly even the Bomb Arrows if Link aim directly at him - and Icarus's Wings, which allow him to glide in all situations and fly if there's a sizable updraft. he can also breathe underwater. He doesn't carry much extraneous equipment outside of this.

Link differentiates himself firstly in that he has recovery items - the aforementioned Chateau Romani, blue potions that refill all of his health and mana, soup that has two servings per bottle and refill all of his health and double his attack power until the next time he takes damage, and bottled fairies that will revive him to full health if he should happen to die. The number of bottles he has varies from game to game - if we go with the highest available I believe it's six, while if we go with all combined it's more like two dozen.

In addition to this, Link has a feather thatt allows him to jump as high as Kratos's double-jump, a cape that allows him to fly, an ocarina that lets him control the flow of time, an hourglass that lets him stop time altogegther while he acts freely, a mask that makes him the size of a Titan (while retaining his speed and his sword, differentiating him from Cronos), a mask that makes him unnoticeable (though this can be dispelled with something like the Lens of Truth or Head of Helios), various masks of differnt effects, the ability to turn into a Zora, Deku Scrub, Goron, or Wolf, and lots of other things.

In addition to this Link possesses the Four Sword, which allows him to split into four perfect full-strength copies of himself.

In the end

In the end Kratos is up against a guy who can turn invincible, invisible, intangible, gigantic, and into stone at will. A guy who has infinite unblockable explosive, freezing, and turniping magic, A guy he would have to deplete the health of five times in order to kill him. A guy who's more specialized toward single combat than he is, who can hit hrough the Golden Fleece, and who can avoid or walk through every single attack Kratos has. A guy who's stronger than he is, who can move faster than he can, who can take more punishment than he can. A guy with more adventuring experience than he has, and more giant-monster-killing experience than he has. A guy with a lot more dueling experience than he has. A guy whose weapons are tailor-made to kill evil histrionic lunatics.

And Kratos has to fight FOUR OF HIM.

Link takes this, by my estimation.

Now I'm done. No more posts from me in this topic!

I'll just lazily cosign what Khuurtra said and do the same.  It's REALLY silly to think Kratos would win.

It REALLY isn't fair... and that's not a slight at Kratos at all, as there are plenty of characters that could beat them both. Like Giygas from earthbound for example or Goku from pretty much any dragon ball game.

I would have never expected this thread to have so many posts! :D

To summerize my opinnion on this thread:


Kratos vs. Link, fists only: Kratos easly wins this one IMO. Kratos could pull Link's head from his shoulders like he did to Helios in 5 seconds.

Kratos vs. Link, weapons only (Blades of...vs. Link's sword of any kind): Agian, Kratos easly wins. He has much better skill with weapons, he fought more than 20 undead soldeirs at the same time, his kill count is 10 times bigger... Link doesnt stand a chance here IMO

Kratos vs Link, magic only: This one easly belongs to Link thanks to his huge number of magical items, dont need to explain anything.

Kratos vs. Link, magic and weapons: This is a though one but im gonna have to give Kratos this one, mostly because of the fact he can switch from weapon to weapon and from magic to magic in less than a second.

Kratos vs. Link, overall winner: Kratos IMO