Cloud Strife (クラウド・ストライフ Kuraudo Sutoraifu) is the main protagonist in Square Enix's role playing game Final Fantasy VII. His appearance is marked by spiky blonde hair, dark clothing, and his Buster sword (an unwieldly-looking sword with a distinctive, oversized blade).

He has reappeared in other Square Enix games, including Final Fantasy Tactics, Ehrgeiz, Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Itadaki Street Special and as a secret racer in Chocobo Racing. He reappears in a CGI movie sequel, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Last Order: Final Fantasy VII and other spin-offs in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. In addition, a 2D sprite of Cloud occasionally makes an appearance on the loading screen of the PlayStation version of Final Fantasy IV.

Although he is loved as well as hated by many, Cloud is undeniably one of gaming's most recognizable and popular icons today.

Backstory

In the small town of Kalm, Cloud tells the party the story about how he went back to Nibelheim as an eager first class soldier and how he ventured through the Nibel Mountains with his friend, Sephiroth, and his childhood friend and guide, Tifa Lockhart. When Sephiroth got to the Nibel reactor, he found out about the perverse experiments that Hojo was running on humans, turning them into monsters. Sephiroth found a door with the words 'JENOVA' written above it; wanting to find out more about Jenova, Sephiroth returned to the Nibelheim Mansion. Cloud followed him back, where Sephiroth went insane reading about the Jenova project (Jenova was a monster that had wiped out the old race of the Ancients). Sephiroth was born of a woman (Lucrecia) injected with Jenova cells. After reading for days, Sephiroth came out saying that he "needed his mother (a.k.a Jenova), and that together they would rule the planet." Then he set fire to Nibelheim, killing nearly everyone and progressed to the reactor, where Jenova was being held. After following him to the reactor, Cloud's mind went blank. He couldn't remember what happened. This story was later confirmed to actually be the memory of his SOLDIER friend, Zack.

The real story, revealed to Cloud and Tifa as they floated through the Lifestream, tells of how Cloud was actually a lowly Shin-Ra soldier (not to be confused with the elite SOLDIER) and that Zack was the first class SOLDIER. Cloud followed the group through the mountains and to the reactor, but had to wait outside and guard Tifa. When Sephiroth isolated himself in the basement library/lab, Cloud was one of the grunts who helped search for him, but it was Zack who found him. Cloud survived the massacre of the village and followed Zack (who wanted to stop Sephiroth) and Tifa (who wanted to rescue her father) to the reactor. Cloud arrived at the reactor to find Zack and Tifa injured. Cloud boldly picked up his fallen comrade's sword when Zack asks him to and confronts Sephiroth. Sephiroth stabs his sword Masamune at Cloud, injuring him. Using Masamune, which has impaled him, Cloud lifts Sephiroth and throws him into the Mako. Then he blacked out.

They were left alone and unconscious until Hojo (a Shin-Ra scientist) took them and experimented on them by injecting them with Jenova cells, but they escaped, courtesy of Zack. (Cloud developed Mako Poisoning because of Hojo's excessive experimentation). They hitched a ride on the back of a farmer's truck and Zack decided that as soon as they got to Midgar he would become a mercenary. Since he didn't want to leave Cloud alone, he asks Cloud to be his partner. Cloud is too affected by the Mako poisoning to react. When they got off, Shin-Ra Soldiers find them and Zack was shot and killed while Cloud is abandoned to die. While Cloud is still lucid, Zack narrates his life's story. Cloud listens to all that was told and absorbs some of Zack's memories, fused them with his own.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII, Cloud is living in grief over the death of Aerith. He has been affected by a disease known as "Geostigma", which is an effect caused by a natural eliminary reaction to the inherent unnatural Jenova cells. This is why Cloud's left arm is cloaked in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children; to hide the disfiguration. Children affected with Geostigma have been taken captive by a trio of men: Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, who consider anyone with Geostigma or Jenova cells to be their "siblings". They planned to manipulate the children's energy and strike back at the planet which had been causing the ailment, in turn giving Cloud the role of saving the children. As Tifa states early in the film, Cloud must once and for all find that incredible strength he found during the final battle of Final Fantasy VII to save the future. This conflict is the basic plot element in the film, as Cloud comes to various conclusions as well as reaffirmations from his friends. Eventually coming to terms finally, Cloud gives it his all in the end to show the villainous trio his true power. Cloud is featured with his new motorbike called "Fenir" which features a sword rack built into the side of the motorbike He is also seen performing the Limit Break "Climhazard" on Bahamut, as well as other Limit Breaks throughout the movie (he uses every single one of his limits except for one move, Meteorain), such as the Omnislash.

Other Appearances

Final Fantasy Tactics

In Final Fantasy Tactics for the PlayStation, Cloud is one of the playable characters. Cloud is accidentally pulled into the world of Ivalice by an ancient machine called the Celestial Globe, which was activated by Ramza Beoulve in Goug Machine City, but before then he was floating in the middle of an ocean in Final Fantasy VII. He wanders off, and eventually ends up in Zarghidas Trade City, where another familiar Final Fantasy VII character Aeris is seen being sexually harassed by street thugs who suggest that she sells her body instead of flowers. Cloud gets aggravated, decides to get involved and demands that they take their hands off her, the hero then decides to draw forth in hand-to-hand combat. The weaponless Cloud is saved by Ramza, who had followed him. Cloud decides to join Ramza's force. Cloud's weapon of choice is the Materia Blade, which can be acquired by going to the volcano at Bervenia using the 'move-find item' skill. This weapon allows Cloud to use the Limit Skills found originally on Final Fantasy VII, and while the weapon can be equipped on other Knight class characters, its lacking power compared to some of the other blades in that game (Defender, Save the Queen, and Excaliber, to name a few) make it a fairly unstrategical choice. While Cloud joins Ramza's party at level one, and thus is quite weak for the late stage in the game at which he is recruited, if built up to a more suitable level he becomes a solid fighter with incredibly destructive, albiet slow charging special moves.

Ehrgeiz

Cloud is a playable character in the PlayStation version. In the game, he has no storyline, just fighting and minigame events. Along with Tifa, they are the only two characters that can have a costume change.

Kingdom Hearts

In Kingdom Hearts, Cloud appears on the Olympus Coliseum world. He wears a claw and a cloak similar to that of Vincent Valentine and has a black demon wing growing out of his left shoulder (meant to offset Sephiroth's black angel wing growing out of his right shoulder). Cloud has been hired by Hades to kill Hercules, but fights Sora as a prerequisite. When this fails, Hades sets Cerberus on Cloud and Sora, who are only saved by Hercules' timely intervention. After this, Cloud goes on to compete in two of the Coliseum's battle tournaments: the Hercules Cup (on his own), and the Hades Cup, where he teams up with Leon (Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy VIII). Cloud is commonly believed to be searching for Aerith during the game, and in Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix (the extended version of the game, only available in Japan) it is revealed that he is also searching for Sephiroth, whom he is later seen battling in the "Showdown of Fate" video. It is very likely that Cloud had been searching for both; his search for Sephiroth was to find the darkness, to clear it so he would be able to see his light. His light is meant to be Aerith. Cloud's appearance in Kingdom Hearts is merely a cameo, and there is no mention of significant details from Final Fantasy VII, such as Jenova or SOLDIER.

Cloud continues his role in the series in the GBA sequel Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as a boss and, later, as a card for the protaganist, Sora. He will also appear in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts II in his Advent Children attire, with a much more detailed and in depth story; his role as a mercenary for Hades will be passed on to Final Fantasy X character Auron. He is seen standing back to back with Squall (Leon) fighting the Heartless. Tetsuya Nomura also cites that there will be a side story in Kingdom Hearts II featuring Cloud and involves the theme of light and dark.

Itadaki Street Special

In Itadaki Street Special, Cloud is one of the playable Final Fantasy characters.

Last Order: Final Fantasy VII

Cloud is one of the main characters in the Last Order: Final Fantasy VII. This OVA shows Cloud in two events that were shown in flashbacks in Final Fantasy VII; one at Nibelheim, and the other escaping from Shin-Ra with Zack.

Final Fantasy VII Technical Demo for PS3

The 2005 E3 saw the release by Square of a non-interactive video, featuring the introductory sequence from Final Fantasy VII (formerly pre-rendered for playback on the PlayStation and other formats) running as a realtime-generated 3D-visual on the forthcoming PlayStation 3 hardware. The video followed the original sequence faithfully, from the initial starfield pan through the scenes of Midgar, until the arrival of the locomotive, whereupon a modified conclusion features Cloud performing a more aerobatic leap to the platform to end aiming an enigmatic expression down the barrel of the camera lens. Both Aerith and Cloud are rendered in a near-photorealistic style more akin to current pre-rendered CGI sequences. In keeping with the current trend in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, both Cloud and Aerith are designed in a simmilar style to their Advent Children incarnations.

Omnislash

Omnislash is Cloud's last and most powerful Limit Break in Final Fantasy VII (in Final Fantasy Tactics he reappears with a even more powerful attack called the "Cherry Blossom"). It takes great effort in the game to obtain this move, but its great damage and number of hits are of great help when fighting some of the bosses in the game.

Omnislash is securely the most damaging attack of the game, surpassing even the mighty Knights of the Round summon, for it hits a total of 15 times (however, various other moves, such as Barret's Ungarmax Limit and Comet 2 combined with Quadra Magic, can hit more times and therefore can theoretically deal more damage than Omnislash). Each of them may deal as much as 9,999 damage, which is the maximum value the game allows. They add up to a massive total of almost 150,000 damage.

In the game's final battle, Cloud and Sephiroth square off. Cloud's limit break bar rapidly and unstoppably fills, and, regardless of whether or not one has gained the move prior to this, allows the player to perform Omnislash regardless of whether if you have obtained it from Gold Saucer (no other commands can be selected) or not. Despite the fight's cinematic nature (Sephiroth can attack Cloud, however the attack will not be fatal, and Cloud will automatically counter-attack with a fatal slash, due to Sephiroth possessing only 1 HP), the scene is incredibly popular with fans, and is probably the definitive use of Omnislash. This scene may represent many things as well, one of the most popular theories for why Cloud is so powerful and Sephiroth so weak in this final battle is that the battle is mental, and Cloud having found his own strength has no need for Sephiroth's corruption any longer.

In Kingdom Hearts, Sephiroth has his own version of Omnislash in the Platinum Match of the Olympus Coliseum.

This move is also a sleight in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, where Cloud makes a guest appearance in the Coliseum world.

In Advent Children, Cloud uses a new form of Omnislash ('Omnislash v.5' according to translations) which causes his sword-assembled-sword to split up and attack.

Trivia

• One of Cloud's well-known (albeit embarrasing) moments in FFVII included having to disguise himself as a woman to infiltrate a brothel in order to go along with Aerith to save Tifa. This situation has become a common running gag among fandom, refered to in fanart and even hentai doujinshi.
• Cloud has already won a GameFAQs character battle in 2003, defeating Link in the finals. He fought his own "rival", Sephiroth in the final match as well. This created some controversy over the fact characters such as Link, Sephiroth, and Cloud are so highly popular that the likleyness of them being beaten in this competition is slim at best, making a rather boring and predictable situation. This recent year in 2005 however, previous winners of the competition are put into their own miniature competition for a time in order to give the other characters a chance. This is testament to how popular and well known Cloud is, to the joy and chagrin of countless people.
• In the online comic 8-Bit Theater, Cloud appears in two early episodes, when he's trying out to be a Light Warrior with Fighter (i.e. Final Fantasy I). He's extremely pathetic, even by the comics very pathetic fight-wise standards, when he attempts to summon gods, it takes him a very long time and he only summons a white Chocobo that proceeds to stand on a nearby roof and utter "wark". He is also too feeble to hold his rather large sword, which would've gotten him the job (due to Fighter's love of swords) if he had been able to wield it.
• As Cloud is a highly popular icon in the gaming world and pop culture in general perhaps, Cloud is one of the most archtypical characters to either compare characters to, or flat out parody. Various North American commercials have poked fun at Final Fantasy VII due to its huge popularity by inputing an obvious parody of the character with a really badly drawn anime look and oversized sword. Presumably an attempt to draw in attention by poking fun at a popular icon, its usually to no avail or ignored entirely. As mentioned Cloud is considered an archtype in gaming today. There have been many characters associated with being very similar to this character. Although he has many differences and its arguable, Squall Leonhart of Final Fantasy VIII is said to have many similarities to Cloud in terms of storyline and persona, namely their aloof and relatively anti-social personality early in the game which blooms into something else as the game progresses. It can be argued however that Squall's development is considerably different, but the similarities are undeniable. Cloud's angsty but powerful persona isn't the only thing, since then as well almost all RPG characters with spikey hair are at least once referred to as having "Cloud Hair", and anyone with a big sword has a "Cloud Sword".
• The love of Cloud's life has been a subject of debate for years. The game presents a scenerio where Cloud stands between Aerith and Tifa, and receives a fair amount of affection from both. Within the game itself the player is presented with the opportunity to warm up to one of the other, or none as well. Depending on how you treat either woman, a scene in the Gold Saucer will be affected where Cloud will go on a short date or outing with either Aerith, Tifa, Yuffie, and in a rare case (and much to the ridicule of countless) Barret. Since then however, although it is obviously up to the player's interpretation, the canon outcome is fiercely debated. Many feel that Tifa is from the beginning, the true love of Cloud's life as she is there from the very beggining and helps Cloud through all his ordeals with Aerith being merely a guide for Cloud's heart. Many others however, see the game's ambiguous ending as a hint that Cloud deeply loves Aerith. Cloud says, while with Tifa in an attempt to escape the final area of the game with everyone, "An answer from the Planet... the Promised Land... I think I can meet her... there." Upon saying this cryptic line, Tifa's face lowers in a look of defeat. Many believe this to be proof that Tifa feels she'll never be able to compete with Aerith's memory. It is shown in Advent Children however, that Cloud does care for Tifa highly...but it does seem that Aerith is the part of Cloud he'll never be able to let go of in the form of ghostly visions. This is one of the most debated aspects to Cloud's character. Most agree however, that Cloud had feelings for both women.

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