Zack vs. Cloud: Who's Stronger?

Well I would have to say tentatively Cloud is the stronger of the two. This is only because he does defeat Sephiroth in the end one on one after fighting SIN Bahamut and the Remnants. However there are some points that are difficult to compare such as whether or not Zack's bullet time is superior and before people start complaining about it there is a scene where Cloud is actively deflecting bullets in Advent Children rather than just holding the sword up. The difficulty in the comparison is that Zack was dodging many bullets from many gunmen where Cloud was deflecting a single gunman. However because Cloud also has a disadvantage in that he was on a motorcycle at the time and did not have his full range of motion to dodge. I am going to say the active deflection of bullets as in not just holding the massive sheet of metal known as the buster sword in front of him is good enough to give him a close in the gap of speed between him and Zack.
The actual moment Cloud becomes stronger would probably be Advent Children when he is cured of the geostigma.
 
While it is too bad Zack Fair was not a PC in FF: Dissidia, I am pretty sure Cloud is the stronger of the two, especially with the new weapon. Zack is still my favorite of the two, but he fought Sephiroth much earlier than Cloud's final battle, and villains have a tendancy to get stronger as time goes on.
 
Last edited:
I feel this thread would have looked good with a poll.

After reading everything i wrote in 2008 and all the things other people wrote, i came up with a single conclusion...there's no way to tell for certain who is better, although in my opinion Cloud is still more powerful, and even the lowest mind can see that pretty much all of Cloud's acomplishements were considered garbage in a clear favour of Zack's.

Simply put Zack was owned by a weaker version of Sephiroth, while Cloud while battling against a not full powered Sephiroth was able to held his own as well...so yeah as far as Sephiroth is concerned there should be no doubt who did better.
 
I would have to saaaaay.... Cloud. Yeah, Cloud. I love Zack and all, but he wasn't able to defeat Sephiroth. And although he is stronger emotionally, Cloud would kick his doupa. Butt just barely.
 
Simply put Zack was owned by a weaker version of Sephiroth, while Cloud while battling against a not full powered Sephiroth was able to held his own as well...so yeah as far as Sephiroth is concerned there should be no doubt who did better.
Click to expand...

You're not looking at the full picture here though. When Zack fought Sephiroth he was not at his peak, he didn't get his double dose of Jenova cells and mako until after Nibelheim. Then there's the factor that while the Advent Children Reunion Files confirm that Sephiroth does not see Cloud as a threat and therefore he used no effort on him, Hojo confirms in Crisis Core that Sephiroth viewed Zack as a wrothy SOLDIER opponent, in addition to Sephiroth wanting to kill all humanity as quickly as possible.

How Zack and Cloud did against Sephiroth is not a fair comparison, as Sephiroth went full force against Zack when Zack was not in his prime, and he wasn't really trying against the strongest version of Cloud. Post Nibelheim Zack and AC Cloud are probably combat equals.
 
I believe Zack was the stronger one, if not for him, Cloud would not have survived, the first Sephiroth wouldn't have been stopped when cloud was powerless, and the men at Midgar outskirts would have taken Cloud if not for Zacks sacrifice, Zack never failed, and fought in the outskirts with the strength of a thousand men. Zack certainly had limitless power that was tragically cut short by foul play.
 
I believe that Cloud is presently the stronger one. He has been through a whole lot since Zack's Death. He went through the events of FF VII and then had to find his true purpose in Advent Children, which strengthened his resolve. Plus, he has a stronger sword, The Last Tsurugi. Zack died prematurely in my opinion. He could have definitely become stronger than Cloud had he been still alive, although him still being alive might have changed FF VII history as we know it.
 
SOLDIERis1337 said:
You're not looking at the full picture here though. When Zack fought Sephiroth he was not at his peak, he didn't get his double dose of Jenova cells and mako until after Nibelheim. Then there's the factor that while the Advent Children Reunion Files confirm that Sephiroth does not see Cloud as a threat and therefore he used no effort on him, Hojo confirms in Crisis Core that Sephiroth viewed Zack as a wrothy SOLDIER opponent, in addition to Sephiroth wanting to kill all humanity as quickly as possible.

How Zack and Cloud did against Sephiroth is not a fair comparison, as Sephiroth went full force against Zack when Zack was not in his prime, and he wasn't really trying against the strongest version of Cloud. Post Nibelheim Zack and AC Cloud are probably combat equals.
Click to expand...

The thing is that i personally believe that Sephiroth supressing his true battle power against Cloud still was much more powerful then the Sephiroth Zack faced, the Sephiroth Zack faced was weaker then Bizzarro and Safer Sephiroth who in turn are weaker then AC Sephiroth according to the directors, also somehow Cloud also received a boost in battle power according to Sephiroth, when he asks him where did he found that streght, which indicates Cloud is also more powerful then he was, combine that with his duel against Sephiroth in AC and the duel Sephiroth had with Zack, i still personally believe Sephiroth showed much more of his new powers against Cloud like the ability to fly around and use his powers to colapse entire buildings and so on, and even if that was a supressed Sephiroth, Cloud was able to keep up with him showing the raw power to hold his own against that same Sephiroth.

So that's why i believe Cloud is superior, although i do admit that oficially it's impossible to state who is stronger, it either falls on your own interpretation of the events that transpired or to personal favouritism in my opinion.
 
Also remember Zack has a lot more experience than Cloud ever did. Additionally like I said in a prior post he was definitely not up to his usual standard when he fought Sephiroth. He did just fight Bahamut and Kadaj's remnant group. Also I personally think that at the end Sephiroth fought Cloud with his full strength because it just wouldn't make sense to hold back if your opponent is better than you thought he was.
Additionally Sephiroth did get a lot stronger after Last Order when he absorbed a whole bunch of Mako energy. I mean he did fall straight into a big pool of Mako.
 
I go with Zack on who's stronger, though for the record, to be fair Sephiroth, had he not been so cocky, would've kicked both their asses tewaming up
Right now, Zack is making an appearance in BBS, I'd rofl if he as a 16 year old (me thinks) if way stronger than the KH version of clous (who as of KH2 would be 22.)
 
Zack would kick cloud's behind at any time of the day and any where

Zack killed Angeal in combat by himself, defeated Genesis in combat and defeated Sephiroth in combat too (cinematic shows zack getting battered by sephiroth after you beat him)

Cloud only manages to kill sephiroth in CC by suprise and he had two other fighting with him in FFVII

Zack defeated more 1st Classes so he is stronger
 
It depends
Zack defeated Genesis, Cloud defeated Sephiroth, wich of these two is stronger.. hymm dunno, really i dunno ;pp
 
Real deal

Actuily, I know for a fact that Zack is stronger, think about at the end of crisis core, when zack killed genasis , cloud could of never have done that, and actuily zack didint have jenova cells untill neer the end of crisis when hojo exparamented on them, zack only had high mako in his body

cloud got a double wammy, high mako and jenova cells at the same time, and developed mako poisen

[cloud was created the same way sephiroth was, but cloud was a failed exparament]

the reson cloud stabed sephiroth and got away with it is simply because sephiroth didint want too hurt cloud, because they are the same

and if you played crisis core, you know that zack gave sephiorth a good whoopin

and in ff7 cloud has zacks spirit making him stronger, all so the jenova cells helped tremendisly. he all so got half the skills he has from zack, and the others from the jenova cells fuseing from sephiroths, and all so, the jenova cells make you for get your memory and reform them, thats why cloud that he was in soldire first class, and their was an old japanese anime show about ff7 and that all so proves zack is stronger,

i hoped this helped


myspace.com/sexymagicman
 
I find these kinds of threads to essentially be disguised popularity polls. It is the same as saying 'who do you like more? sailor venus or sailor mars?'. If we are going to compare their strengths, as with all comparisons there needs to be a basis (AKA level playing field). In this case it would be without any materia, or items, would be assuming each can use limits at will, and assuming that each was at his peak performance and not simply set at points in time where one was clearly stronger than the other (crisis core). here lies the problem, we have no concrete evidence to judge their abilities or statistics. we can rack about who killed how many summons/monsters/bosses or genesis/sephiroth, or argue about zack's years of experience over cloud, or cloud's rapid gain in strength over the course of FFVII, or how zack managed on his own while cloud had party members, etc. etc. - what does all of this prove? nothing, really...(it does prove that we have too much time on our hands). if we want a fair comparison of combat, we have to pit them against each other. at that point we get into stats...my point is, by the time any one side is decided the victor, the world will have burnt over from the dying sun.

tl;dr: i like zack more...but cloud is cool too.
 
The thing is that i personally believe that Sephiroth supressing his true battle power against Cloud still was much more powerful then the Sephiroth Zack faced, the Sephiroth Zack faced was weaker then Bizzarro and Safer Sephiroth who in turn are weaker then AC Sephiroth according to the directors, also somehow Cloud also received a boost in battle power according to Sephiroth, when he asks him where did he found that streght, which indicates Cloud is also more powerful then he was, combine that with his duel against Sephiroth in AC and the duel Sephiroth had with Zack, i still personally believe Sephiroth showed much more of his new powers against Cloud like the ability to fly around and use his powers to colapse entire buildings and so on, and even if that was a supressed Sephiroth, Cloud was able to keep up with him showing the raw power to hold his own against that same Sephiroth.
Click to expand...

I see where you're coming from, but you're also forgetting that post Nibelheim Zack is stronger than pre Nibelheim, he has double the Jenova and mako after that.

Think of it this way. Genesis is considered Sephiroth's combat equal, and post Nibelheim Zack owned Genesis while he was connected to the Goddess materia and the lifestream itself, then curbstomped him in his normal human form. I'd say Zack would fare the same against AC Sephiroth as Cloud did, assuming Sephiroth uses the same skills and effort.
 
Genesis was not Sephiroth's combat equal, if you remember Sephiroth took on both Angeal and Genesis without breaking a sweat in the training room. Sephiroth was always the supurior one. Genesis did gain a bit of power before the confrontation but it probably wasn't as much as Sephiroth got from the life stream since he spent seven years in it. Though who knows what else he got from the life stream when he was cured. Could be he lost a lot of power with the removal of the Jenova Cells or the power from the cells could have been replace with another power. The characters strengths keep fluctuating so you can't really do who's stronger as they're from different parts of the story. Though I belive all the chars have surpassed Zack at some point. I'm of the opinion that Cloud is on par with Genesis after CC. Don't think Genesis gained and strength during his sleep after CC. Cloud may not have a wing but I think he taped into a different kind of power. Something Genesis may be able to tap into but Sephiroth never will. And I don't think Sephiroth got stronger in AC, I just think he took Cloud seriously, even if he was still cocky. I believe Sephiroth is already at his peak and it's only his attitude that is hindering him.
 
They both would deal maximum damage. It would depend on who was better equipped with materia during the battle and who had a better battle strategy, and a little bit of luck. It's a video game so FMV scenes of battle and movies don't have much effect on the amount of damage they actually deal. They would deal 9999 damage and have 9999 hit points. Stop thinking of them by feats they accomplished. They are video game characters and its all about stats, and they would both be maxed.
 
Last edited:
Genesis was not Sephiroth's combat equal, if you remember Sephiroth took on both Angeal and Genesis without breaking a sweat in the training room.
Click to expand...
Genesis IS Sephiroth's combat equal, seeing as how the creators say flat out in the CC complete guide:

Genesis Rhapsodos

Age: Around 25
Weapon: Rapier
Hometown: Banora Village
Voice Actor: Gackt Camui
A SOLDIER 1st Class who possesses combat abilities that rank equal to Sephiroth’s, and who adheres to his own personal aesthetic. He takes pride in the handsome figure he cuts, his magnificent fighting style and the enthusiastic popularity it garners him, however he does not like mingling directly with people, and only opens himself up to his companions Sephiroth and Angeal. But after the day he suddenly disappeared with a large number of 2nd and 3rd Class SOLDIERs, he is at the forefront of a rebellion against ShinRa.
Click to expand...
When an official source says something, it's inarguably true.

As for him fighting Genesis and Angeal, watch the entire fight. When Genesis stops playing around he gives Sephiroth a good run for his money and the fight is only stopped by Angeal interfering. Sephiroth is physically stronger than Genesis, but his magical talents make up the difference.
 
Last edited:
Keyword rank, doesn't mean they're as good as Sephiroth's just that they're in the same rank. Yes he gives Sephiroth a good run but Sephiroth still wasn't taking the battle seriously. It is said multiple times in FFVII and CC that Sephiroth was the best.
 
Last edited:
Keyword rank, doesn't mean they're as good as Sephiroth's just that they're in the same rank. Yes he gives Sephiroth a good run but Sephiroth still wasn't taking the battle seriously. It is said multiple times in FFVII and CC that Sephiroth was the best.
Click to expand...

No, read it again, gamegeeks. It doesn't say they are the same rank, it says Genesis' combat abilities are equal to Sephiroth's. Sephiroth is the most famous, but Genesis is his combat equal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top