I WANT Strelok to win. Though it pains me to say it, he is NOT an uber-powerful, hyper-accurate demigod. He's just a fast, strong human with experience surviving in the Zone.
Tidus, on the other hand, is a speedy lightning bruiser with a sword that can slice through the skin of gods the devil without much trouble, let alone the armor of a regular human.
This does beg the question: what species are the various final fantasy characters? In the games I have played, Most, if not all, of the characters appear to be human, but it is never explicitly said. You speak of Tidus as if he is completely superior to humanity, yet as far as I can tell, he is not far from human, if at all.
And with one mod, he also gets to deal with Zombies (which make a LOT of noise), mutated cats, and other assorted nasties that got removed from SoC, not to mention the fact that with the SAME mod he has to weather multiple emissions.
We're not dealing with mods here, although that does sound awesome.
Well, it's the Oblivion Lost mod, which returns things to SoC that were cut, so technically OL is more feature-complete than SoC and therefore more viable as a rubric to measure Strelok with.
It's the version that was released, that the version that was originally intended to be released, that we are considering.
I just wanted to say something, have people completely forgotten Tidus' ability to use a Blitzball as a deadly weapon? It is one of his Limits in FF10. So he actually can have a form of medium ranged weapon. I also do believe he'd be carrying around Mega Potions, and some other equipment, so he would be capable of recovering.
I was not aware of this attack. How big is a blitzball? Using it in a densely vegetated area might prove to be more dangerous to tidus, as if it is large it would not be able to go far before rebounding. As for the other FF items, I know how the FF item system allows characters instant access to countless items, and thus I would want to limit such things.
[Strelok] survived the horrors of the X-Labs by himself, survived an exploding truck hit by pure electricity, most likely get shot multiple times, survive a tripmine exploding right from under him (Although with medical help), and other fecking horrors.
As I understand it, he was only able to survive such things because of immediate medical attention.
I haven't played that particular FF game, but if I recall correctly, it's not uncommon for highly trained individuals to be "bosses" in FF-verse, of the kind that it takes the entire party significant efforts to defeat. In this case, Tidus would be alone against such a boss, and one without a pattern of attacks. Even if you count Strelok as a mediocre boss (he's not an Eldritch Abomination, even if he defeats things that could qualify as such on a daily basis), Tidus is in for a very hard fight, one he might not have the resources to last through.
I would discourage that sort of thinking. If the final fantasy battle mechanics were the best for this competition, we would stat up all of the contestants, and use the FF battle system to determine the winner. One can easily place too much emphasis on how well each contestant performs in their own battle system. The closer to real life the battle system is the more we can trust it. FF has a very unrealistic battle system, so I'm avoiding translating bits of it into this competition, preferring non-battle events instead. Stalker has a more realistic (though some parts are still extremely unrealistic) battle system, so his accomplishments are easier to translate into this competition (though only some of them).
Strelok would win this in only a few seconds with high-level gear. Give him the Tunder 5.45 and a Combat Chaser (switching weapons isn't perfectly fast but he can do it while moving in a second or two), let him wear the SEVA suit. He's basically guaranteed to win, and that's without anti-Rupture artifacts preventing Tidus' sword from harming him. I would lump "Magic" under "Anomalies" since they basically function the same way (reality fizzling out a bit). Strelok gives Tidus the More Pewpew Less QQ treatment, and that's Gee Gee. If you want to give him optimized equipment for the situation, a full load of the highest-ranked anti-rupture artifacts while he's wearing the Exoskeleton will make him nearly invincible. Ever felt like knife-fighting a Pseudogiant? Now you can!
Once again: I will not accept that, out of all the contestants, Strelok somehow chooses Tidus as the one to optimise his equipment for.
So, let's try to hash out what equipment each character would have. My first impressions would be this:
Strelok:
wearing either a SEVA suit or an exoskeleton. Probably the SEVA suit, as it offers protection from lots of unusual forms of attack.
As for weapons, I imagine that he would have a rifle (for medium to long distances), a shotgum for close distances, possibly a sidearm and probably a knife. A grenade or two would also be likely. As for artifacts, I'm not going to accept any arguments that he would load up on artifacts that would specifically defend against Tidus. I imagine that he would have health and endurance boosters instead.
Tidus:
His main weapon would be the caladbolg, as it is the most powerful. However, since its effectiveness is tied to his health, he would almost certainly bring a backup weapon. This backup weapon would not neccessarily be the most powerful one - they all have special abilities, and I would need someone more well-versed with the game to suggest which one he would go for. The shields, too, have no clear superior example.