GT25's Battle Series: Link vs. Sora
Link, Hyrule, and any related material is owned by Nintendo Co., Ltd. Sora, Destiny Islands, and any related material is owned by Square Enix Holding Co., Ltd and the Walt Disney Company.
Kon'nichiwa, and welcome to the latest matchup of the Battle Series. This series is to find out who would win in a theoretical battle to the death by comparing two warriors from multiple universes. This time, for the fifth episode, I'll see who would win a battle between the Hero of Hyrule and the Chosen One of the Keyblade. I will measure these two warriors by measuring their weapons/powers, strengths/weaknesses, abilities, foes, battlefield experience, battlefield strategy, and physiology. For this episode, due to their multiple video game appearances, I will be using their appearance in "Ocarina of Time" and the original "Kingdom Hearts", so let's just jump into their histories.
History of the Warriors
Originally raised as one of the Kokiri without a fairy, Link was summoned by the Great Deku Tree through Navi to break a spell over him. Upon freeing the dying Great Deku Tree from the curse, Link was told about the Triforce and told to get to Hyrule Castle. When he arrived, Link met up with Princess Zelda and she sent him to collect three Spiritual Stones in order to enter through the Door of Time in the Temple of Time along with using the Ocarina of Time.
Once he did this, he travelled seven years into the future using the Master Sword and was sent by the Sage of Light to cleanse the land of Ganondorf's evil by awakening the Sages to seal Ganondorf in what used to be the Sacred Realm. After he defeated the evil in the Forest Temple, Link was told by the Deku Sprout that he was a Hylian raised as one of the Kokiri after he was orphaned.
Link would continue to travel back and forth between the two time periods using the Master Sword and Ocarina of Time in order to bring peace to Hyrule by awakening the Seven Sages. Once he had awaken the Seven Sages, Link confronted Ganondorf and engaged him in battle before defeating him and Ganondorf was sealed in the Dark Realm. After being sent back to his own time by Princess Zelda, Link travelled to the courtyard of Hyrule Castle to warn her of Ganondorf and the future events that would unfold.
Living on Destiny Island for most of his childhood, Sora was quickly thrust into new worlds as the wielder of a Keyblade. After meeting up with Donald Duck and Goofy, two of the King's best friends, the Keyblade Wielder soon embarked on going to the other worlds to close the Keyholes of the individual worlds as well as making new friends that he encountered in the other worlds. However, upon reaching Hollow Bastion, his friend Riku from Destiny Island quickly took the Keyblade away from him and left with Donald Duck and Goofy who were forced to under the king's request.
After entering the castle, Sora was able to regain the Keyblade from his friend that had turned to darkness. However, the Keyblade wielder was forced to fight against his friend calling himself "Ansem, Seeker of Darkness" that wanted to find the Kingdom Hearts itself. Once he regained his human form after becoming a Heartless, Sora went back to Hollow Bastion to seal the final Keyhole before going to the End of the World and going up against "Ansem".
Once he was defeated, "Ansem" is destroyed by the Kingdom Hearts itself and Sora along with King Mickey seal the doorway that was opened. After the worlds started to restore themselves, Sora promised his friend Kairi to return back to Destiny Island as soon as he finds Riku and King Mickey.
Physiology
Link is a Hylian male in his mid-teens and early twenties, but was a kid ten years of age to early-teens. Hylians have the appearance of a human, but their ears are more like an elf's ears. Link is in an extreme physical condition, being able to perform backflips with ease and best opponents in sumo-wrestling.
Sora is a human male from Destiny Island in his mid to late-teens in a good physical condition, being able to jump around and last several minutes against foes without getting tired.
Verdict: Not much to discuss in this category, since Sora is a human and Link, even if he isn't a true human, still has many attributes of a human with no advantage against his foes. While they are in get condition for their respective age, I believe that they would be the same if they were same age. No edge will be given to either warrior for physicality.
Foes
Link has fought multiple enemies that have their own strengths based on where they are, such as water-based enemies in water dungeons and fire-based enemies in fire dungeons. At the end of these dungeons, Link would fight a creature, like Gohma and Volvagia, which will try to kill him and would also fight a being before the end of the dungeon, like Lizalfos and Dark Link, which will try to stop him before Link reaches the final creature in the dungeons. However, none of his foes are as tough as Ganondorf, who is able to transform into Ganon to better fight against his foes.
Sora has several enemies that he has to fight to get to the Keyhole of a World, mainly the Heartless that are the foot soldiers of his enemies. Many of the Heartless that Sora fights have multiple types depending on the World he is on. When it comes to those who lead the Heartless, Sora usually finds the Villains from the individual world leading them against him.
Verdict: This doesn't have anything to do with the final outcome, but this is the only one to not really matter, so why not? Anyway, considering the boss battles that the two usually get into, I'm going to side with Sora for a slightly more memorable rogue's gallery.
Battlefield Experience
Starting from a young age, Link went head-on into the Great Deku Tree to stop him from dying and succeeded, despite the Great Deku Tree still dying. The young Hero of Time would go into other dungeons to find three jewels before accessing the Temple of Time and, upon pulling the Master Sword from its pedestal, travelled seven years into the future. After going into the future and aging when travelling through time, Link went to cleanse the temples of the Sages before going up against Ganondorf and his transformed form Ganon while he was fighting alongside Princess Zelda.
After his home Destiny Island was attacked, Sora attacked the Heartless after gaining the Kingdom Key and went to another world when trying to get his friends. After being found by Donald and Goofy, the three continued to go to different worlds to fight the Heartless and their leaders to stop them from destroying more worlds.
Verdict: For this one, it's a tossup on which warrior gets the edge. For Link, he started from an early age and manage to fight his way through dungeon after dungeon all on his own. On the flip side, Sora has gone up against multiple types of the Heartless and their leaders while he had help from his allies. Seeing as this is a one-on-one fight, I would give Link the edge due to his early start and having fought more foes on his own.
Strengths/Weaknesses
Link is extremely strong, being able to push blocks many times his size and large boulders either with gauntlets or not as well as being able to best others in sumo-wrestling. The Hero of Time is also able to master multiple fighting forms to better fight against his foes along with being a master swordsman. While he is an extremely good sword fighter, Link is usually defenseless without a sword or an item.
Sora is strong in his own right, being able to fight against multiple foes and take them out with very little difficulty using his Keyblade or his magic. He has also been able to take out some of the strongest Disney villains and hold his own against other Keyblade users. However, should he loose the Keyblade, Sora would be utterly helpless.
Verdict: This is a tricky category to call, as both Link and Sora are able to best or even hold their own against foes of similar caliber. However, both of them can be rendered defenseless without their weapons. While Sora would have Donald and Goofy to back him up in combat, Link would always have another weapon to fall back up. However, considering that Sora would be on his own for this analysis, then both warriors are back at an even state. Neither Link nor Sora get the edge for this category.
Battlefield Strategy
When in battle, Link would usually just swing his weapon to quickly take out foes in order to move on to his next foe. However, when he has to fight against a stronger foe, the Hero of Time will quickly lock onto a weakness the foe has and will attack it using his weapons. Considering how much this tactic works for Link, it seems this strategy works out for his needs.
When battling against his foes, Sora would use his magic spells to weaken and kill his foes before smacking them with his Keyblade. While this may seem time consuming, this strategy has helped Sora out when fighting against powerful foes. However, this is usually done when he is with allies to help him out.
Verdict: Both warriors have a tendency to use brute force to take out their foes before using some strategy in the fights. Sora tends to use his magic spells in order to weaken or kill his foes, while Link will use his weapons to exploit a weakness his foes have. However, considering that Sora has had back-up when fighting, Link does have a slight advantage against the wielder of the Keyblade. Link gets a slight edge for targeting a foe's weakness, but only because he's use to taking on foes by himself.
Abilities
Unlike most of the people in Hyrule, Link is able to use magic spells granted to him by the Great Fairy of Magic in order to give himself an advantage against foes. By using Din's Fire, Link can surround himself with a dome of fire that can harm, stun, or kill any enemies nearby as well as light any nearby torches. The Hero of Time is also able to warp from one place to another by creating a warp point using Farore's Wind. Finally, Link can use Nayru's Love to surround his body in a diamond-shape shield for a substantial amount of time to prevent damage. It has the advantage of being instantly activated on command and only deactivates when it wears off.
While not a powerhouse when it comes to magic spell, Link has various other abilities that he has gained through his adventures. When he removed a black rock from in front of a cave using the Golden Gauntlets, the Hero of Time was given enhanced defense from the Great Fairy of Courage. However, arguably his greatest ability is the Spin Attack, where he holds his sword behind him before spinning around to take out multiple enemies at once.
Being a wielder of the Keyblade, Sora has several magic spells that he can perform using his weapon. The first is Fire, which allows him to launch a fireball that has slight homing properties from the tip of the Keyblade. However, a fast-moving target would be harder to hit at longer ranges due to the wide flight arc. Another is Blizzard, a spell that launches a burst of ice crystals in front of the caster that will spread to hit multiple targets.
For dealing with enemies at longer ranges, Sora can use the spell Thunder to send multiple bolts of lightning down on a target area to take out groups of opponents. When he needs to get past an enemy constantly attacking him, Sora can use the spell Time to stop his foe and any nearby foes for a very short time to take them out. Sora can also lessen the hits he takes using the spell Aero to create a barrier of winds for the time the magic spell is active.
Apart from his magic abilities, Sora is also able to use his own abilities like the Slap-shot, where he hits multiple foes with a wide arc and an upward thrust to finish it off, and the Vortex, with which he closes the distance between him and nearby enemies with a powerful spinning attack. A notable feat that Sora can do is actually throw the Keyblade at his opponents and it returning to his hand using magic.
Verdict: This is a slightly difficult one to call, since Link has more abilities other than his Spin Attack and Sora has the same on his side. Since I can't cover all their abilities, what decides this category is magic, which Sora easily outranks Link based solely on the number of spells he knows. I will say that Link has more defensive options when it comes to spells, but Sora has more offensive spells that he can fall back on. Sora gets the edge for abilities based on his offensive magic.
Weapons/Powers
Link carries around many weapons to combat his foes, but none so iconic than the Master Sword, the Blade of Evil's Bain. This weapon is a double-edge arming sword with a hybrid hilt to allow someone to use it as a one-and-a-half sword as well as a one-handed sword. This blade can vanish evil and break curses that involve dark, powerful magic. When using the Master Sword, Link uses the Hylian Shield for his main defense and tends to use the shield when using other weapons.
The Hylian Shield can be switched for the Mirror Shield, which can reflect magic and beams of light from one source to another and allows for better defense. At long ranges, Link uses a Bow as well as various types of arrows, a boomerang, and a Hookshot to grab objects before bringing them back to him. The Hero of Hylian also uses the Megaton Hammer to smash boulders and smash in rusted switches along with Bombs to blow his opponents up.
However, should the Master Sword be knocked out of his hands, Link can use the two-handed Biggoron's Sword to quickly replace his trademark weapon. While the Biggoron's Sword can deal more damage than the Master Sword, it requires Link to use both his hands to hold and makes him using a shield impossible.
Sora has only one weapon of choice for his combat, that being the Kingdom Key and one of the many Keyblades. For this analysis, we will use the Kingdom Key as the set weapon. Like any other Keyblade, the Kingdom Key is effective against Heartless as well as Nobodies, Unversed, and Dream Eaters in later games and can lock or unlock doors as well as sealing or opening the barrier between worlds. However, the most well-known use of the Kingdom Key is to "lock" the Keyhole of a world, thus preventing the Heartless from attacking the heart of that world.
Despite all this, I have to agree with Skallagrim on YouTube about how impractical the Keyblade is. The main complaint about the weapon is the double knuckle guard that, along with making the "blade" being off center with the arm, can actually cause harm to the user. Should an opponent hit the front guard with enough force, then the rear guard will break the user's wrist or thumb. The breakage depends on what side of the arm the rear guard is.
When talking about the rear guard, it should also be said that it makes the "blade" slightly off center with the arm. If this doesn't sound important, then keep think about having an ax in your hand with the blade slightly off center with your arm. When you try to strike a foe in an overhand strike, the blade will simply glance off the foe and will not harm them.
For more information, go watch the video Skallagrim did about the Keyblade on "Fantasy Weapon Scrutinized" for a more in-depth analysis on the weapon.
Verdict: This is a simple decision. Link has several weapons to fall back on along with his magic, while Sora has a single weapon that, in the real world, would actually do more harm than good in a combat situation. Link gets the edge for this category.
Category Edge Recap
Physiology: Draw
Battlefield Experience: Link
Strengths/Weaknesses: Draw
Battlefield Strategy: Link
Abilities: Sora
Weapons/Powers: Link
Verdict: This is an unusual match-up, since these two have the same strengths and weaknesses as the other, yet have different ways of fighting their foes. Link tends to use multiple weapons against his foes while Sora tends to use magic spells against his foes. However, Link has an edge against Sora with his Battlefield Experience and Battlefield Strategy. While I thought this would be a good match-up, it's safe to say that this is actually a rather lop-sided fight in favor of Link.
Typically, Sora has the help of Donald, Goofy, and his friends from the multiple worlds to fight alongside him. However, against a foe on his own, Sora is easily able to be taken apart without any back-up. Link, on the other hand, has only needed help fighting against his foes when he fought against Ganon, where Princess Zelda helped him fight against the evil being. While I will say that Sora may be able to handle foes all by himself, Link has had more experience fighting on his own against his foes.
While one can say that Link can be overpowered by Sora's magic spells, Link has weapons to fall back on should a weapon fail as well as his defensive magic spells. However, I believe that Link's weapon collection would be able to bypass the magic spells of Sora. Should the Keyblade wielder use his magic spells against the Hero of Time while he has the Mirror Shield, then Sora will have to avoid being hit by his own magic. Unfortunately, the biggest problem that Sora would have to deal with is his own Keyblade.
Considering the problems that the Keyblade has already, all Link would need to do to end the match quickly would be to use either the Master Sword or Biggoran's Sword to hit the front guard of the Keyblade and then break either Sora's wrist or thumb. Once that is done, there's no doubt what the outcome of the match would be.
Possible Winner: Link
Please note that this is just my opinion. I know that some might think that Sora would win against Link, which is why this is called GT25's Battle Series, not so-and-so's Battle Series.
Have a hypothesized battle that you want to see? Leave the battle in the reviews or PM me and I will be happy to do it.