Prelude[]
One Punch Man vs Final Fantasy! When catastrophe strikes, these two heroes prove you don't have to be all-metal to prove their mettle! But which is the stronger heavy metal hero?
Description[]
"Genos vs Barret Wallace" is a What If Death Battle created by LukeTime128. It is his seventh What If Death Battle. It features Genos from the anime/manga series "One Punch Man" and Barret Wallace from the video game "Final Fantasy VII".
Introduction[]
Wiz: As a Cyborg myself, I can confirm that we are the cornerstones of sci-fi society - some of the strongest and most influential fictional characters wouldn't be the way they are if not for their cybernetic enhancements.
Boomstick: (sceptical) Oh really now? Well, why don't we see how good they REALLY are?
Wiz: Of course! Genos, the S-class Demon Cyborg of One Punch Man.
Boomstick: And Barret Wallace, the original leader of AVALANCHE in the world of Final Fantasy. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyse their weapons, armour and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle.
Genos[]
Wiz: When monsters from space and the depths of the ocean threaten the lives of innocents on a daily basis, there needs to be a large assortment of heroes to protect the common man.
Boomstick: And when those monsters get a little too ridiculous, the Hero Association bust out heir strongest fighters, the S-class heroes. Or Saitama. Mostly just Saitama.
Wiz: Anyway, one of S-classes most capable just so happens to be Saitama's apprentice - Genos, the Demon Cyborg.
Boomstick: "Most capable"? Then why does he always get beat up?
Wiz: Don't let Genos'... mediocre on-screen win-loss record fool you. He's way tougher than you'd think. After his family was killed and his home destroyed at the age of 15, Genos was found by robotics genius Dr. Kuseno, who gave him cyborg powers in order to take down the monster that destroyed his home.
Boomstick: Because if you're going down the "vengeance" route, why not add in a sci-fi detour? Thanks to his new robo powers, Genos can take down evil corporations by himself with no effort, and was in the middle of taking one down when he first encountered Saitama, the One Punch Man himself.
Wiz: Upon witnessing Saitama's absurd, overpowered might for the first time, Genos declared that he would study under Saitama to reach new levels of power, all the while fighting for the sake of justice.
Boomstick: Yeah, good luck with that. When the whole point of your master's character is to be ridiculously OP compared to everyone else, trying to reach his power is kind of... impossible.
Wiz: Well, Genos might not quite be at Saitama's level, but he's far from dead weight in a fight. He was able to reach S-class instantly upon applying to the Hero's association after all. Thanks to his cyborg enhancements, Genos is incredibly strong, able to lift a truck with little effort and rip apart a cliff face with his bare hands.
Boomstick: That explains the super crazy power behind his Machine Gun Blows. But Genos is no boxer; when he enters a fight with some really scary monsters, he busts out the Incineration Cannons.
Genos' Incineration Cannons activate and fire.
Boomstick: Oh, you thought the Iron Man repulsor blast thing was cool? Genos has even bigger cannons tucked away in his Arms Mode just in case any duck monsters show up and he fancies a Chinese.
The screen shows turns away from Genos to show Wiz and Boomstick, with Wiz's robot arm being replaced with an Arms Mode Incineration Cannon.
Wiz: Genos also comes equipped with multiple other weapons, such as arm blades...
Wiz's arm blade slices Boomstick's beer can in half, causing him to squeal in fear.
Wiz: ...arm lasers...
Wiz shoots lasers from his arm, that barely miss Boomstick's face.
Wiz: and electricity-enhanced Rocket Punches
Wiz fires an electric Rocket Punch and strikes Boomstick in the face.
Boomstick: Hey! What's the big idea?
Wiz: Remember John vs Jack? I haven't forgotten yet, Boomstick.
Boomstick: Oh screw you!
Wiz: Heh heh. Anyway, while Genos may be absurdly powerful, his losses seem to outnumber his wins more often than not. Luckily, as a cyborg, Genos has received multiple upgrades to counter any foe that may have an advantage over him.
Note: Many of Genos' losses seem more plot-scripted than any real sign of weakness. Though Genos underestimating his opponents does seem to be a running trend, implying he struggles at actually finishing fights.
Boomstick: He's got sensors to track super speedy opponents, adhesive gel to slow them down or even stop them from moving at all, and boosters in his hands and feet that let him fly around! Man, we sure Genos isn't just anime Tony Stark?
Wiz: Genos' enhancements may be strong but trust us, we're only scratching the surface. Dr. Kuseno was kind enough to work multiple different versions of Genos' cyborg arms, letting him equip whatever he needs whenever he needs. On top of his already mentioned Arms Mode, Genos also has G4 arms based on the G4 battle robot, whom Genos defeated. These arms enhanced his physical power even further, with him being able to destroy foes he previously struggled against with relative ease.
Boomstick: Kuseno's been upgrading his arms for a while now, and now he's stronger than ever! At his base power, he could create an explosion worth 1.77 kilotons of force. And since he's only gotten stronger, this is nowhere near his limit now!
Wiz: Genos' sensors and reactions have allowed him to keep up with Speed-O'-Sound Sonic. Don't let the name fool you; Sonic is much, MUCH faster than sound. For example, he's contended with other S class heroes like the Tornado of Terror and Flashy Flash, both of whom have speed feats measuring in the millions of miles per hour.
Note: Speed-O'-Sound Sonic likely isn't faster than Flashy Flash, given how the latter's speed is close to Relativistic while Sonic has not proven to be this fast. However, both Sonic and Genos can still react to Flashy Flash's movements, as well as Saitama's, who is apparently even faster. ONE has stated that a fight between Sonic and Genos would end in a draw, supporting this.
Boomstick: Damn! And speaking of Flashy Flash, Genos has even kept pace with him in a fight - off-screen, of course, but still pretty freaking cool.
Wiz: Thanks to his recent upgrades, Genos is stated to be capable of holding off a Dragon-level threat. In One Punch Man, threat levels are used to measure a monster's threat level. And Dragon level, being the second highest, is capable of threatening multiple cities single-handedly. This is also consistent with statements from ONE, the creator of the series, who claims that Genos is powerful even among other S-Class heroes.
Note: Power levels in One Punch Man are not particularly consistent for measuring power - they show a monster's threat level to humanity rather than their power. For instance, Goketsu was more powerful than fellow Dragon level Bakuzan, even though they share the same classification. However, Genos is still at least as strong as the lower level monsters in Dragon level at the very least, given his increases in power.
Boomstick: And the craziest part about Genos' power? It can't even kill him! Genos' armour is built to protect against electricity, acid and intense heat, he barely feels pain thanks to being mostly metal, and can just let his limbs get cut off because they'll come right back to him! Genos once got shot with his own blast and just took it like a champ, so assuming his toughness increases at the same rate as his power, he should be crazy tough as well!
Wiz: But don't get the wrong idea. While Genos is incredibly powerful, remember that he's still lost way more battles than he should have at this point. Genos tends to focus on saving others and leaving his opponents only half-beaten, which doesn't tend to serve him well.
Shows Genos mostly melted by Deep Sea King's acid.
Boomstick: Oh SHIT! Oh, it's ok, he got better eventually.
Wiz: And while Genos may be strong, he unfortunately runs on a limited power supply. The Core that powers his body can run out without a due rest, and if it's destroyed, Genos' robot body will cease to function.
Boomstick: Which kinda sucks, since that's most of his body.
Wiz: But even so, Genos has more than earned his rank as an S-class hero. Who knows, maybe one day Saitama may have to watch out for his greatest pupil challenging his power as the World's Strongest Man. Or... part-man, I guess.
Genos: Your target may be King, but I know a man who's even stronger than him. And I am stronger than you.
Barret[]
Wiz: The Shinra Electric Power Company serve as the main driving force of the early plot of Final Fantasy VII. A corporation fuelled by seemingly megalomaniacal power, they seeked to use Mako energy from the planet's life force to power the homes of millions, making profit all the while.
Boomstick: Yep, sounds about right for a scrubby Disc One big bad. One of Shinra's targets was the coal mining town of Corel, where they tried to convert the town from using coal to power their homes to using Mako energy instead. Don;t know which is worse for the environment, but hey, worked out all right for them.
Shows Corel burning down.
Boomstick: Oh... never mind.
Wiz: Believing the people of Corel were responsible for recent attacks on Shinra property, the mega corporation retaliated with violent force. Many of Corel's residents died, with only a set few survivors escaping the carnage. Little did Shinra know that this decision would change the world's fate forever. Enter Barret Wallace.
Boomstick: Barret was one of the few survivors of Corel's destruction, with his family and best friend Dyne being killed in the chaos. As Barret was one of Shinra's supporters during their occupation of the village, he was ostracised and attacked, and fled with Dyne's daughter Marlene to the much larger city of Midgar - the home of Shinra HQ. This was where his desire to take down the company that ruined his life began. And holy hell does he have the weapon to do it with!
Wiz: While Barret escaped the conflict, his arm had been badly damaged in the process. Naturally, he decided the best possible way to fix his injury was to make it a robot arm instead! Truly a wise individual...
Boomstick: Yeah yeah, whatever, but Barret's too cool for a lame, generic arm like Wiz. His arm is a freaking Gatling Gun!
Note: In Advent Children, Barret's arm has shown the ability to morph between a normal arm and a machine gun arm. This does not appear t be the case in the base game, and it is unclear how he switches weapons otherwise.
Wiz: As one of the stronger weapons wielded by the AVALANCHE crew, Barret's gun arms are versatile and extremely powerful. Barret is one of the physically strongest AVALANCHE members after all, he wields many kids of robot arm weapons to prove it.
Boomstick: Like a drill arm, a laser cannon, some giant scissors, a rocket-powered boxing glove, and even a giant bazooka! This guy packs a robo punch from any distance. And then there's his ultimate weapons - the Max Ray and the Missing Score!
Wiz: Both guns are of magical creation, and it shows. The Missing Score in particular is considered Barret's strongest weapon, able to deal massive damage when equipped with Materia.
Barret: Materia is basically concentrated Mako life energy that grants Barret or whoever uses it magic powers. Unfortunately, Barret's too cool to be a super scary mage, so he... kinda sucks at it. It doesn't hello that most of the cast stopped using Materia after the events of the game, so what magic can Barret actually use?
Wiz: Luckily, spin-off games answer that question for us. In Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade, Barret is shown wielding Earth and Lightning Materia. As this is the only Materia we've seen him using, this is our best guess at his preferred magical inventory.
Note: Using Materia generally decreases physical damage. As Barret's stats, dialogue and weaponry indicate a preference towards this kind of damage, it is unlikely he carries many Materia on hand anyway besides Earth and Lightning.
Wiz: But aside from moving the earth and smiting with lightning, Barret can do a lot more with the planet's Spirit Energy.
Boomstick: Awh hell yeah! It's time to talk about those wacky Limit Breaks! Barret can fire giant fireballs, giant grenades, and giant Kamehamehas to blow up whatever the hell he wants! With Mindblow, he can drain energy from his foes, and with Angermax, he lets loose a stream of gunfire to mow down bad guys in seconds! Whew... what a great stress relief.
Note: It is unclear if Barret's Limit Break Hammer Blow is a guaranteed one-shot. As an instant death tool, it seems to be an insta-kill weapon, but the lack of explanation and inconsistency of its power leaves the answer ambiguous.
Wiz: But none of these compare to Barret's ultimate Limit Break; Catastrophe.
Barret uses Catastrophe on a Malboro, one-shotting it.
Boomstick: ...Ok Wiz, I admit it - cyborgs are better than normal people.
Wiz: A giant golden beam that leaves only a trail of death in its wake, Catastrophe's power is absurd, equal to approximately 12.5 regular hits. Even on weapons as powerful as the game-breaking Missing Score, this is by far Barret's power at its absolute limit.
Boomstick: And that's a shit-ton of power! As we said before, Barret is one of the team's strongest members, eve among people like Cloud Strife, who can create a giant crater in metal worth 16,000 psi.
Wiz: Barret has also shwon to be physically stronger than Tifa Lockhart, who can lift up giant monsters like Diamond Weapon with ease. Given Diamond Weapon's colossal, if inconsistent, size and assuming a metallic composition given what's available, Barret is strong enough to lift around 4677 tonnes.
Note: Barret doesn't have a technique that lets him lift objects like Tifa, but since Barret's physical strength stat is higher, this statement is more likely to be true than not.
Boomstick: Hell CLoud's supposed to be even stronger again! As a Mako-infused human, he's comparable to Zack Fair. Zack has fought against Bahamut Fury, who could fly across the solar system in seconds!
Wiz: The scene's presentation makes it difficult to measure Bahamut Fury's speed, especially since Bahamut forms are frequently shown to posses space-warping powers, but Bahamut Fury's speed seems comparable to relativistic light speeds.
Boomstick: So in other words, really freaking fast. While Barret started off as your average rebel, his adventures quickly got crazy as hell, fighting Sephiroth in order to save the planet from destruction, and even surviving Sephiroth's Super Nova.
Wiz: Sort of; for some strange reason, the extended, worldwide release of Final Fantasy VII changed Super Nova's properties, meaning that it can't actually kill the party. It's hard to deduce why, but as we've already established in Sephiroth's Death Battle appearance, Sephiroth uses the attack by teleporting the party to the explosion. Since it is incapable of dealing fatal damage, it is likely that he simply teleported them back out again before the explosion killed them. Probably a sadistic trick, but... yeah, this move's really weird.
Boomstick: Well either way, not instantly dying from a supernova is still pretty badass. You do NOT want to get in this guy's way.
Barret: (voiceover) When I'm through, there won't be a single sucka standing!
Shows Barret using Angermax to kill several enemies.
Pre-fight[]
Wiz: All right, the combatants are set and we've run the data through all possibilities.
Boomstick: It's time for a DEATH BAAAAATTLE!
Fight[]
A grey, dark sky hung over the city of Midgar. The new resurgence if the old Shinra corporation had set up base in the city - remnants of the old group who sided with the liked of Heidegger and Scarlet were attempting to restart the electric power company's malevolent deeds.
Gunfire rung through the city as the civilians nearby ran if fear. The panic and chaos did not go unnoticed by a young man, standing on the pavement of one of the city's major streets, his metal arms glowing with energy as he sensed that evil was at work.
Genos: Hm... more villains. Only natural, given the state of this place.
Genos headed down the street, parallel to the panicking civilians as he searched for the source of the carnage. The Hero Association had deployed him to the city due to reports of crime and terrorism. Though these were normally standard ground for C-class heroes, the technology at stake in this city could easily elevate the threat to Dragon-level if left in the wrong hands. This was nothing to be taken lightly.
Deeper in the city slums, several Shinra grunts opened fire at their attackers, but were quickly dispatched with little effort. Unable to flee, they could only watch and fire in vain as they were all gunned down. Once the chaos had settled, Barret Wallace was left standing among the corpses of the evil Shinra soldiers.
Barret: Damn Shinra! We take you out, save the world, and this is how you suckas pay us back? All this for dirty money? To hell with you!
Genos: Freeze, creep. You're under arrest.
Barret turned to see his opponent standing atop the rubble of the collapsed Shinra base, aiming an Incineration Cannon at him. Barret didn't recognise this strange man, but his robotic form and hostile stance made it clear that he was a serious threat.
Barret: The hell are you? You with the Shinra?
Genos: I am Genos, the Demon Cyborg and S-class hero rank 14. You are under suspicion for posing a major threat to the safety of mankind. Come with me, or I will not hesitate to use lethal force.
Barret: What are you talking about? You tryin' to mess with AVALANCHE? Screw you!
Barret opened fire on Genos, deeming him an enemy and likely ally of Shinra. Genos was unfazed, however, easily flipping over the gunfire and sustaining no damage.
Genos: Very well. (charges Incineration Cannons) Expect no mercy.
Fight!
Quickly getting over the shock of his attack failing, Barret opened fire again with his arm-mounted Gatling Gun, as Genos returned fire with two blasts from his Incineration Cannons. The suppressing gunfire dealt little damage to the cyborg, however, while the Incineration Cannons created a large explosion that consumed Barret's location.
The smoke obscured his opponent's movements, so Genos' sensors were used to track his foe. Barret wasn't badly damaged by the attack, and had backed away to create distance, equipping a Materia into his new weapon - the Microlaser.
Barret: Catch this, fool! Thundaga!
The lightning blast struck Genos before he could dodge, knocking the cyborg back into a large building's outer wall. The crater left in the wall from the impact was quickly struck again with multiple laser blasts, wounding Genos further. Not that this was enough to faze him, however, as he escaped the onslaught and prepared his counter attack; using his own Arm Lasers to fire upon Barret.
The former leader of AVALANCHE barely dodged the first attack, but was immediately hit by the second, staggering him and leaving him open to more attacks. Eventually, Barret was knocked over, slowly recovering as Genos closed the distance.
Genos: Machine Gun Blows!
The barrage of rocket-powered fists struck Barret in quick succession. Every blow was a serious one, immense pain flowing through Barret's torso until a final electric Rocket Punch sent him backward into another building.
Genos: Target eliminated. Focusing exclusively on long-range won't get me anywhere, I'd better make note of this for future reference.
That "future reference" would come in handy soon enough - Barret was far from down for the count. Leaping from the wreckage of building, Barret thrust forward with his new weapon - the Drill Arm.
Barret: I ain't done with you yet, sucka! Face the pain!
Genos held his arms in a defensive stance to block the attack, but Barret's force was too great. The attack pierced Genos' guard, forcing him backward and letting Barret follow up with another attack with his Lightning Materia, causing his foe to back away. Pain coursed through Genos' body; his opponent's offensive strategy was taking its toll on his body, and he felt his power decrease. Faced with limited options, he quickly equipped his Arms Mode, preparing to strike Barret head-on.
Genos: Incinerate!
The fiery blast sped toward Barret, as the giant man countered with another Materia - this time, Earth Materia pulled a chunk of concrete from the grey road, absorbing the force of the blast. Genos was undeterred by his opponent's resistance, using his Arms Mode to destroy the block of concrete, before trying to resume his assault.
However, Barret had used the time that the defence had given him to switch to his Max Ray. But that wasn't the only problem Genos faced, as green-blue energy flowed through Barret's body; Barret was charging a Limit Break.
Barret: Fool! I've faced way worse than you before! Dodge this!
The Big Shot completely annihilated the ground where Genos stood, but he was no longer standing there - taking to the skies by using the cannons on his arms to fly. Firing a few more blasts from his hands, Genos flew over Barret, as his opponent retaliated with explosive rounds, all of which missed his flying opponent. His anger growing, emotion fuelled Barret's Limit Power, allowing him to launch a Grenade Bomb at the flying Genos, only for his opponent to easily dodge the explosive and punch Barret in the face, the attack forcing him off balance.
As Barret was staggered, he was left open to another onslaught of Machine Gun Blows, which launched him across the concrete ground, his body scraping across the road. But Genos was not yet finished in his assault, pursuing the man with the machine gun arm and hacking him across the chest with an Arm Blade. Blood seeped from Barret's chest, as a Lightning spell launched Genos off of him.
Genos landed on his feet, using his strength to reverse his momentum and sprint towards Barret once more. However, Barret had no intention of letting him get any more hits in. When Genos looked upon his foe once more, the Missing Score was equipped, decked out with a full eight Materia slots. Magic coursed through the weapon as Barret aimed his ultimate weapon.
Barret: End of the line, fool! You messed with the wrong guy!
Another Limit Break was used against the Demon Cyborg - this time, streams of gunfire struck Genos' torso as Angermax halted his advance. The attack was far stronger than Genos had expected it to be, tearing into the shirt that he wore, and the metal body underneath it. Desperate to avoid meeting his end here, Genos fired a blast from his left Incineration Cannon, knocking Barret off balance and ending the Limit Break.
Both combatants had been exhausted from the duel - Genos noticed that his power had run low, meaning that he needed to end the battle now or face serious repercussions. Barret wasn't doing much better - though the Missing Score wasn't damaged, he didn't have any Cure Materia on him, and Genos' Incineration Cannons had scorched his skin, leaving him in great amounts of pain.
Pain that fuelled his Limit Break. His Ultimate Limit Break. He decided - this was ending now.
Barret: Hey sucka! I pity yo' sorry ass! 'Cause you don't even know what you started!
Blue-green Spirit Energy from the Lifestream flowed from the ground into Barret's body, and then into the glowing Missing Score. Barret aimed the literal hand cannon into the ground, firing a blast of energy that launched him into the air. The gun's barrel glowed a golden light, a sign of Barret's limits being pushed.
Genos saw the attack and realised the immense danger it posed. The attack was far too powerful to dodge, and to strong to block. He only had one option - to parry it. Equipping his Arms Mode, Genos charged his own energy blast from his giant arms, the power of his Core flowing into them, putting all he had into one (hopefully) final attack.
Genos: Power at maximum output. This was over before it started...
Both cannons aimed directly at the other's barrel, ready to fire. After a brief pause the two golden beams of Catastrophe and the Incineration Cannon let loose, neither holding an edge over the other. The street around them was torn apart by the latent force, the concrete ground beneath Genos rupturing as both attacks only increased in power as the struggle went on. Until, eventually, it all reached it's climax.
The force of both beams created a giant explosion, engulfing both combatants completely, along with the street they stood on, and even the whole district that they fought in.
...
A large crater formed in the city of Midgar, destruction never seen since Sephiroth's attempts at worldwide destruction. In the centre of the giant crater, only Barret stood. Smoke billowed around him, as debris from the destroyed buildings was flung across what remained of the district. Exhausted, Barret looked at his right arm. The Missing Score had sustained massive damage from the overflow of Spirit Energy, and the blast had wrecked it's function as the Materia that was placed in it slowly fell out of the slots they were once placed in.
At this point, Barret couldn't bring himself to look around. The destruction caused from his fight with Genos was greater than he had wanted - was he really any better than the Shinra for this? Knowing that thinking like that wouldn't get him anywhere fast, Barret took his first few steps away from the wreckage he had sought to avoid.
At least, he tried to.
Looking down, Barret realised that he couldn't move his feet - they were covered in a black, sticky gel that stopped him from walking away from the chaos. That's weird, he thought, how did this happen? Barret received his answer soon enough.
Before the pain truly managed to set in, Barret saw the silver blade pierce through his chest. Unable to understand what was happening, he could only yell in agony, before a second blade struck his throat, silencing him. Bleeding, but with the Adhesive Gel keeping his feet in place, the former leader of AVALANCHE died standing up, his wrecked arm serving as a metaphor of the fallen hero he had become.
Genos barely stood himself - the blast was taken with little dignity as the Core in his chest was ruptured. Though he was able to finish his opponent with the little energy he had left, Genos knew he didn't have long before his body shut down. Sending a distress signal to the Hero's Association, Genos barely had time to assess the severity of the damage. Though it was worth the cost to stop the Dragon-level threat, he just hoped the Hero's Association would see it that way.
K.O.
Genos lied down, taking shelter under some debris as his power shut off.
Analysis[]
Boomstick: Damn… that was beautiful… and pretty freaking awesome…
Wiz: This was by far one of the hardest of our matches to decide. Both Barret and Genos have very awkwardly defined limits, meaning that tons of research was required to figure out who would come out on top in various fields.
Boomstick: Like speed! Both Barret and Genos could reach light-based speeds, with Genos being able to track Speed-o’-Sound Sonic and Flashy Flash, while Barret could contend with Bahamut Fury. Thing is, we can’t really measure how fast either Flashy or Bahamut really are with concrete accuracy. Given what’s available, Flashy is probably light speed, or at least pretty close to it.
Wiz: Barret, meanwhile, has dodged light-based lasers, and Bahamut Fury could cross planets in short time frames. Given what we see of Fury’s flight across Neptune, it makes the trip in just 2 seconds. Though the dragon seems to be further away from the planet, thus making it slower via the altered presentation, for the sake of the argument let’s keep it at a speed of 24,622,000 m/s – the speed needed to cross Neptune in 2 seconds.
Boomstick: That’s just under 10% light speed, which would probably make him slower than Genos. But since Genos is clearly much slower than Flashy, who we can’t actually prove is 100% light speed, the speed comparison as a result was hard to decide.
Wiz: However, Genos’ Adhesive Gel rendered this a non-issue, giving himself the edge via stopping Barret’s movement entirely. In fact, Genos’ unique abilities were one of his major advantages in this fight, since he had access to all of his options at once, while Barret had to switch out – something he’s never actually shown doing in combat.
Note: Genos’ Adhesive Gel has restrained opponents that are likely physically stronger than Barret before. While Barret could feasibly escape, his options to do so were limited relative to Genos’ options to finish him off.
Boomstick: But even with these advantages, the main draw of this battle was sheer power. Genos wouldn’t stand a chance if he couldn’t match Barret’s strength and overwhelm his durability. Barret was likely stronger than Genos via lifting Diamond Weapon, but since their both long-range fighters by default, it wasn’t gonna be that simple.
Note: Tifa can only lift Diamond Weapon via her Limit Break. Limit Breaks are defined as pushing their users beyond their physical limits – with this in mind, Barret’s physical strength edge over Genos was likely not as notable as it first appears.
Wiz: So, we had to look at some if the threats Genos and Barret could overpower. While Barret was able to take on Sephiroth with the help of AVALANCHE, it is very clear that Barret’s power doesn’t come close to Sephiroth’s. Official statements back up the idea that nothing in the world of Final Fantasy VII is as strong as Sephiroth, and significantly weaker foes have posed a serious threat to Barret and other characters’ safety.
Boomstick: Hell, scaling Barret to Cloud is tough as well; he’s shown to be quite a bit stronger than the other members of the party, and is deemed the only one strong enough to fight a weakened Sephiroth. Hell, toughness aside, Cloud basically has every statistical edge over Barret. Not that the big guy was weak though, since he could fight the Weapon Kaijus and come out victorious.
Wiz: Well, it did take the party multiple attempts to finish off Ultimate Weapon, and the best they could do against Diamond Weapon was stall for time until the Sister Ray could take it down. So it’s clear that this laser is stronger than the party’s combined damage output. Based on the information prvided about this giant Mako Cannon, it's strong enough to destroy an entire city with a single blast - the same kind that took both the Diamond and Sapphire Weapons down.
Boomstick: That's insane! Given the blast radius and considering how strong the Mako Cannon needs to be to cause as much destruction as it can, it'd need to hit with a force of hundreds of megatons! How could Genos top that?
Wiz: Simple - Genos is an S-class hero, one of their best, in fact, and is stated to be able to fight a Dragon-level threat on his own.
Boomstick: Yeah, sure, Genos probably knows more about his own abilities than anyone, but is this really accurate? Well, he's grown a hell of a lot stronger than he was when he fought the Deep Sea King, a Demon-level threat. According to One Punch Man established canon, a Demon-level threat is a threat to a city and its people, whereas a Dragon-level threat is a threat to multiple cities. Normally, one S-class is needed to take down a Demon and multiple are needed to take on a Dragon, so the scaling seems pretty consistent.
Wiz: With this in mind, Genos seems just as capable of dealing with the same powerful foes that Barret has, and likely has a higher damage output. In addition, Genos is tough enough to survive his own damage output, further implying he could tank most of Barret's attacks. And keep in mind, we're comparing Genos to most of Barret's party working together.
Note: The Weapons are supposed to protect the planet from world destroying threats, but there's no implication that this means that tey are equal to planet busters. In addition, there are 5 Weapons and it's highly unlikely that the party could contend with all of them at once.
Boomstick: Whoa. This was intense. Barret was far from outclassed though - he's technically more experienced and his Materia gave Genos a lot to think about, but his hot-headed attitude doesn't really work well against an analytic fighter like Genos. Fighting smart was never Barret's favourite strategy, preferring to go all out Leeroy Jenkins with his gunfire.
Wiz: True. And while Barret's Limit Breaks helped him contend with Genos' power, these were only temporary. Since Barret's arm guns were outclassed by Genos' Incineration Cannons in sheer power, at least barring the Missing Score, Genos had plenty of space to maintain control over the fight.
Note: Mindblow drains magical energy; there's no implication that it does the same for the energy that powers Genos, which is not magical. Even if it did, using Mindblow once wouldn't drain enough energy to turn the fight in Barret's favour, and it would take multiple Limit Break uses that would limit his ability to damage Genos before he was overpowered.
Wiz: This was an incredibly close duel, and there were multiple times where it seemed Barret might take the win in our research. But in the end, Genos' power was must too much for Barret to contend with.
Boomstick: Barret may not have missed the score, but he stood Ge-no-s chance.
Wiz: The winner is Genos.
Next Time Haiku[]
Fate chose these heroes
Humble heroes of the light
Destined to protect