Okay, maybe he can lift the stones without the gloves, I might have forgotten about that... but: FFS, this is a toony universe with toony graphics! Just because the stone is as big as link, doesn't mean it represents a rock as big as his full body height. Else link would be a midget, given his big head and tiny legs. Given that, I assume the rock he barely lifts without the gloves is actually just a larger stone, some 20 kilos or so at max in weight, maybe 50. Just what a normal person could lift.

If it was only smaller than a atlas stone (atlas stones can be from 150-250-500 to more) than why would they incorporate such large stones in every game after? You do know link has lifted larger objects before this game even came out right? This game came out in 1991, the comics were before this game, link in the first zelda game he moves what looks like mini mountains in Loz when he gets the bracelet. Link has always been shown lifting large things with magic, strength and enhancers:

Not even ten tons can break steel chains, steel chains can be used to drag bulldozers, the bracelet snaps than easily and flys ganon like 100 feet:

(Did you catch the part link jumped over a 50 feet wall with no enhancers?)

If you watch further here, link blasts a hole in the ceiling over a 100 feet high, link could have just brought the whole castle down doing sword beams:

(So much for the myth link cant fire anything out of his protection state)

With crazy durability jumping through walls as if he was the incredible hulk:

All of this is way before link to the past, never seen a human in my life do these kinda things...have you? Link has done tons of things in the comics before link to the past, link has done tons of strength feats in the manga, tons of strength feats in the animated series, pretty sure he is proven to be superhuman at base before most of his enchantments take play, what seems to frustrate cloud fans Is that:

1.) They dont know anything about the history of Link.

2.) They take only clouds story persona of super soldier and apply it to your average no feat farm boy. (Any one who says it that way will think the soldier out classes a farm boy)

That is the main problems. Cherry picking or building your own version of link with literally nothing in his arsenal, and then you wanna give cloud all things he usually doesnt use canonically (like materia) then you wanna highlight the bullet timing, the 100 feet jumps, the cutting debris ect, thats like all cloud has, like 4 show cased feats, link has over a 100 show case feats that shows he is superhuman. Cherry picking and ignoring the basics. What people wana do is make up this idea that if you take away all links gear that he is some weakling cloud will dispatch in ten seconds, yet what they never do is, apply it both sides, if you take away all his arsenal, then take away all clouds mako enhancement and sword, link will still pulverize cloud, at base, with basic equipment or both having access to everything in the their games/cinema.

Then. Are we talking about the both of them doing a battle or a weight lifting contest? Because being able to lift heavy stones is not such a hot skill to have in a real battle. Besides the fact that there might be no large heavy object to pick up and throw nearby, ever seen a weight lifter win against a martial artist in a fight?

Me neither. Because the weight lifter good at lifting up heavy objects, not beating the crap out of martial artists. While the other is still pretty competent taking on weight lifters instead of other martial artists.

If one has titanic strength and durability, and the other at base is just a 80 pound twig with no fighting skills or even experience. then I think the stats will show link a superhuman level person at base will win regardless of what excuses you can come up with. Link is lifting rocks that are bigger than atlas stones like nothing, as a kid...his adult version would be much stronger as shown in ocarina he transitioned from moving 1 ton blocks from the deku stage. to 10-100 ton blocks in the forest temple. Cloud is not a martial artist.

Now, lets leave the topic of superhuman strength aside. Even IF I WOULD accept the fact that we go without any normalization, we forget about the toony nature of the Zelda universe, and even if we let Link use all his neat gadgets.... we are not talking about something super useful in combat BECAUSE Link has never shown he is actually able to use this superhuman strength in combat.

And I still strongly object to Link being anything other than at average human strength without gadgets, and your assessments of the usefulness of said gadgets.

Sounds more like you just wanna ignore that link has more advantages. If link can lift a mid tier giant over his head with one hand, I think link would do to cloud what hulk did to loki:

Forest temple adult link:

No power gloves, no handy glove, no silver or golden gauntlets, no titan mits, no anything...just raw strength:

So lets just agree to disagree in the strength department. And lets agree on this being of secondary importance in combat.

As to the master sword... what makes you believe you need a master sword to beat ganon? Because this is the lore in Zelda? Why shouldn't there be a being in FF7 that can beat ganon? Maybe there are powers in the FF7 universe that, normalized, are just as effective against a ganon normalized as the normalized master sword (yes, I use normalized a lot. Without normalizing things, we cannot compare it anyway). Maybe that being is Cloud (he is the main hero of the game after all... I am sure IF ganon would appear in FF7 and IF Cloud still would be the main hero, he would be one of the prime candidates to beat him (if not for a story event and secondary character and not Cloud actually getting rid of gannon).

Thats just how it is written, you cannot bypass the rules in chess just as same as the rules applied with superman not being able to eat kryptonite. If you dont have ganondorfs weak stuff, you cant kill him, there is no mentioning of sephiroth needing a divine element to beat him, if he can be killed by a single combo by an ordinary sword, he is not all powerful.

Link goes through entire armies one shotting people:

In another scene he one shots an entire army on a bridge:

Zack got killed by a platoon. Cloud is not vastly more powerful than zack.

Why exactly should the master sword be so overly powerful against cloud? Given that we don't know how the baddies in Zelda compare to the baddies in FF7 (which, at least visually, look way more impressive), we cannot really gauge the power level of one in comparison to the other.

The fully equipped link with all his gadgets was enough to finish off all the bosses in Zelda... but would they still be such hot stuff if thrown into the FF7 universe? Or would they be more like normal grunts in the starting zone? completly outclassed by the higher level FF7 enemies?

First off its not that impressive compared to what other true swordsmen who can tank stuff an dish out stuff too like dante, raiden, kratos ect, link one shots in the animated series alone over a 100 monsters, ranging from 100 foot tall giants, 50 ton giant crabs, armies of moblins and skeleton knights, and three shots a dragon twice as big as bamahmut with only sword beams. Nothing is impressive in FF7 AC other than clouds movements. If link was in FF7 universe with the romani magic milk, you could solo every enemy or boss by his combo of protective enhancing, it would be like link has a unlimited supply of heros drink, clouds protect and shied magic materia do not offer him invulnerability, they just lessen the damage, link on the other hand is untouchable in several ways, only hero drink is the thing that makes cloud untouchable for 2-3 turns and he doesnt have a size reality warping bag like link has to fit even more than he has pockets so no 99 hero drinks, no 99 mega lixers, just what ever he can carry. Links usual bosses are no more smaller than the omega weapons, sure cloud and his team beat them, but they used a team, sure cloud could solo one if he reaches lvl 99 but how did cloud reach lvl 99 in the game? By team effort, he gets stronger along the way with the help of his friends in battle, this is obvious in the bahamut fight,cloud couldnt even reach bahamut and the team had to catapult him up, link is nearly always solo.

And as for the master sword, its not just a weapon against ganon, it enhances the abilitys of the bearer, heres link first getting the master sword:

How the master sword looks like in combat outside game mechanics:

http://www.zeldacapital.com/Zelda%20Comics/A%20Link%20to%20the%20Past%20Comics/Chapter%206%20-%20A%20Fool%20in%20the%20Shape%20of%20a%20Tree/page%201.jpg

http://www.zeldacapital.com/Zelda%20Comics/A%20Link%20to%20the%20Past%20Comics/Chapter%206%20-%20A%20Fool%20in%20the%20Shape%20of%20a%20Tree/page%202.jpg

http://www.zeldacapital.com/Zelda%20Comics/A%20Link%20to%20the%20Past%20Comics/Chapter%206%20-%20A%20Fool%20in%20the%20Shape%20of%20a%20Tree/page%203.jpg

Doesn't look like an ordinary sword now does it?

Oranges to Apples, really....

More like giant water melon compared to the orange.

Seems simple enough to me. Cloud on a bad day can do like 100 damage easy and Link only has like what, 10 maybe 20 hits that he can take? And I don't think I've ever seen Link dodge anything reflexively. Clearly a one sided battle.

Not sure how this was such a confusing issue that results in such long posts and probably the most attached graphics since... well a long time.

Seems simple enough to me. Cloud on a bad day can do like 100 damage easy and Link only has like what, 10 maybe 20 hits that he can take? And I don't think I've ever seen Link dodge anything reflexively. Clearly a one sided battle.

Not sure how this was such a confusing issue that results in such long posts and probably the most attached graphics since... well a long time.

This damage is more game mechanic than anything, in that case titus can hit 99,999 and hit you 5x to clouds 1 titus in that case can one shot every character in the FF7 universe, would you also mind showing where is the attack point numbers when cloud is being butchered by sephiroth in advent children? Because I dont see 100 or 9,999 number poping out when cloud is being cut to ribbons by sephiroth.

Or how about when cloud was prostrate on the ground defeated and exhausted and had to be saved by Vincent valentine:

So you can see it, cloud cant handle multiple people at once, hes on the ground Ko'd saved by valintine, while link even without his sword can toss around giants:

Of course link dodges, or else how does he not get hit in the game, link has the superior speed here:

Speed = running distance in an amount of time

Dexterity = deflecting things with their hands

Agility = dodging things with their entire body

Link has the goron mask his running or rolling speed is double that of a horse, (no FF7 characeter runs faster than 30 mph on foot this is why cloud has a motorcycle), link has dodged pits light arrows, and if you played pits games you'd know he is hyper sonic in movement, agility, he has the bunny hood.

Of course pit is non-canon but this is the same link that dodges plasma attacks, lightning, and lasers in almost every game, again this is where you take cinema (clouds movies) and ignore the stuff link does in game play.

There is no confusion here, there is just a lack of knowledge. Show me one speed feat cloud has that matches link doing figure eights around a laser beam blast:

And then one shotting that same guy

Or how about these reflexes where link dodged super fast fairy when it was already a few inches from his face:

And then tanked a grenade point blank:

Then caught one of them, threw it back and it blew the guy up to bits:

Links strength can stop 100 ton metal bulls with his bare hands:

With the titans mits you can lift 100 ton metal blocks

Link could just bend the buster sword around clouds neck and tie a bow.

Cloud can take damage? Link can tank hits from ganon and ganondorf the wielder of tri-force of power, not to mention gets hit by bosses with each boss like 100-1,000 tons of force by the sheer size of them. Its funny you should mention reflexes, yet in the game no speed is even required, no fast pace thinking is even added in as the enemy's just stand there and wait for you to formulate a plan of attack.

Young links who can move around 1-5 ton objects

Link can manipulate and control the weather in various ways:

Song of storms x thunder medallion x magic flute = All combined basically calls forth a hurricane tornado lightning storm.

Fire rod x quake medallion x dins fire x gorons mask = a vulcan volcano exploding.

Lttp > Cloud

Oot > Cloud

A.L > Cloud

MM > Cloud

W.W > Cloud

Loz > Cloud

And a bunch more carnations can each solo cloud in one timeline.

Whats the biggest thing cloud could call? The summon Alexander:

Cloud could call all the summons, they would still be some 10-50 feet big, link can summon as well, the four giants, who would make Godzilla only up to his knees:

These giants even tower over clouds, thats easily 1,000 feet tall. These giants would step on all the summons like ants.

Young link at half clouds age was already at fighting skill and level of a commander of an army:

This all seems very pointless.

If you want to write about this sort of thing, a blog might be a better platform. Also, in the future, there's really no need to embed and image after nearly every sentence and you should refrain from posting multiple times in succession.