Cloud Strife theme by PSPMAN07
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| Cloud Strife | |
|---|---|
| Final Fantasy character | |
 Cloud Strife artwork by Tetsuya Nomura for Final Fantasy VII. | |
| First game | Final Fantasy VII (1997) |
| Created by | Yoshinori Kitase, Kazushige Nojima, Tetsuya Nomura, Hironobu Sakaguchi |
| Designed by | Tetsuya Nomura |
| Voiced by |
|
| In-universe information | |
| Weapon | Buster Sword |
| Family | Mother - Claudia (Deceased) Father - Unknown |
| Home | Nibelheim |
Cloud Strife (Japanese: クラウド・ストライフ, Hepburn: Kuraudo Sutoraifu) is the protagonist of Square Enix's (previously Square's) role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII (1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024) & the animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005). He acts in a supporting role in other Compilation of Final Fantasy VII titles, and is featured in several other games in the wider Final Fantasy series. He has also made guest appearances in various titles outside the franchise, such as the Kingdom Hearts series by Square Enix and Disney and the Super Smash Bros. series by Nintendo.
Cloud was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, a character artist for the Final Fantasy series, whose role expanded during the title's development to include supervision over Cloud's personality. Yoshinori Kitase, director of VII, and Kazushige Nojima, one of the game's events planners, developed the story and wanted to create a mysterious character who acted atypically for a hero. After VII, Nomura redesigned Cloud for Advent Children, giving him a more realistic appearance alongside new weaponry and a new outfit. For Remake, the team aimed to adapt his classic design for a more realistic artstyle.
Cloud has garnered primarily positive reception from critics, and has been described as one of the most iconic video game protagonists. He has also been cited favorably as an example of complex character writing in video games, as one of its first unreliable narrators and for the game's depiction of his mental disorder. Additionally, he is seen as a messiah figure in both the game and film for opposing Sephiroth's schemes and supported by his allies.
Concept[edit]
In contrast to Final Fantasy VI, which featured multiple "main characters", Square's staff decided in the beginning of Final Fantasy VII's development that the game would follow a single identifiable protagonist.[1] In Hironobu Sakaguchi's first plot treatment, a prototype for Cloud's character belonged to an organization attempting to destroy New York City's "Mako Reactors".[2] Kitase and Nomura discussed that Cloud would be the lead of three protagonists,[3] but Nomura did not receive character profiles or a completed scenario in advance.[4] Left to imagine the stories behind the characters he designed, Nomura shared these details in discussions with staff or in separately penned notes.[4] Frustrated by the continued popularity of Final Fantasy IV's characters despite the release of two sequels, Nomura made it his goal to create a memorable cast.[3] The contrast between Cloud, a "young, passionate boy", and Sephiroth, a "more mature and cool" individual, struck Amano as "intriguing", though not unusual as a pairing.[5] When designing Cloud and Sephiroth, Nomura imagined a rivalry mirroring that of Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō, with Cloud and Sephiroth representing Musashi and Kojirō, respectively.[6]
Kitase and Nojima developed Cloud's backstory and his relationship to Sephiroth.[7] While drafting the game's scenario, Nojima saw a standing animation created by event planner Motomu Toriyama that depicted "Cloud showing off".[4] The animation impressed Nojima and inspired the idea that Cloud had developed a false persona.[4] This later led Nojima to create Zack Fair, a SOLDIER whom Cloud aspired to be like, to expand on the mystery of Cloud's past.[8] Nojima left the unfolding of events regarding Cloud's identity unwritten,[8] and Kitase was unaware of the significance of Zack's addition until playtesting.[4] Kitase reviewed Nojima's scenario and felt that Cloud, who was neither single-minded nor righteous, offered a fresh take on a protagonist.[4] The love triangle between Cloud, Tifa Lockhart, and Aerith Gainsborough was also viewed as novel for the series.[4] Nojima likened Cloud and Tifa's relationship to one of friends since nursery school, and compared Aerith to a transfer student arriving mid-term.[4]
In early scripts, Sephiroth would have deceived Cloud into thinking that he had created him, and he had the ability to exert control over Cloud's movements.[9] As in the finished game, Cloud would discover that Shinra's experiments and his own insecurities had made him susceptible to Sephiroth's manipulation.[9] Cloud would have also somehow injured Tifa prior to the game's events, leaving her with memory loss of the event and a large scar on her back.[10] Kitase rejected a proposed scene written by Masato Kato involving Cloud and Tifa walking out of a Chocobo stable the morning before the final battle, with Tifa following only after checking around.[4] Kitase found it "too intense" and Nojima described the proposal as "extreme"; however, Kitase maintained a toned-down scene written by Kato depicting the night before, which has Tifa speak a risqué line of dialogue before a fade to black.[4] According to Nojima, none of the staff expected that the scene, despite "the line in question", "would be something so important".[4]
Nojima wanted to write scenes in such a way that players themselves could decide what Cloud was thinking.[11] Nojima used Cloud's foggy memories as a device to provide details about the world that would be unknown to the player but considered common knowledge to its inhabitants.[12] To emphasize Cloud's personality, event planners repeated elements they found interesting, such as Toriyama's standing animation and Cloud's use of the phrase "not interested".[4]
In retrospective, Nomura and Final Fantasy VII Remake co-director Naoki Hamaguchi have described Cloud as a "dorky character".[13] According to Nomura, although post-Final Fantasy VII titles featuring Cloud have emphasized his "cool side", "in the original game, Cloud had many comical or lame moments".[14] Nomura believes that the reason Cloud became popular with audiences is due to the impact his personality made on Nojima's scenario.[15]
Designs[edit]
In addition to testing models ported from Square's 1995 SIGGRAPH demo, Nomura and several other artists created new characters, including an early design of Cloud.[2] Sakaguchi, impressed with Nomura's illustrations and detailed handwritten notes for Final Fantasy V and VI,[16] tasked him with designing Final Fantasy VII's main characters.[17]
Nomura's notes listed Cloud's job as magic swordsman (魔法剣士, mahō kenshi).[10] Cloud's design underwent several revisions.[18] Nomura's first draft of Cloud featured slicked-back black hair to contrast with the long silver hair of the game's primary antagonist, Sephiroth,[19] and to minimize the model's polygon count.[20] However, to make Cloud stand out more and emphasize his role as the game's lead protagonist, Nomura altered Cloud's design to give him spiky, bright blond hair.[21] Nomura also made Cloud taller than he appeared in the SGI Onyx demo,[2] while a discarded iteration drawn "more on the realistic side" depicted Cloud with a taller head and body and more muscular physique.[18]
Yoshitaka Amano, who handled character illustrations for previous Final Fantasy titles, painted promotional images for the game by taking Nomura's "drawings and put[ting his] own spin on them".[22] According to Amano, because of the hardware limitations of the PlayStation, the platform Square had settled on for Final Fantasy VII, characters could not be rendered realistically.[23] Amano thought that Cloud's baggy pants, which taper at the bottom, reflected a "very ... Japanese style", resembling the silhouette of a hakama.[5]
Early renditions of Cloud's weapon, the Buster Sword (バスターソード, Basutā Sōdo), depicted a smaller, thinner blade.[15] Variations included additions such as a small chain connected to the pommel, magnets securing the blade to Cloud's back,[10] and a more detailed design that resembled a "Western-style sword".[18] The Buster Sword's blade grew in subsequent illustrations,[24] and Nomura called it "the Giant Kitchen Knife", envisioning it as unrefined steel.[24] Square's staff conceived of a minigame involving Cloud driving a motorcycle at the start of the game's development,[25] and Nomura's illustrations included Cloud riding a "Hardy-Daytona" (ハーディ＝デイトナ, Hādi-Deitona), a Shinra motorcycle based on a real-life motorbike, the Yamaha VMAX.[26]
Further development[edit]
Advent Children characterization[edit]
For Advent Children, Nomura agreed to direct the project largely because of his attachment to Cloud's character.[27] Although Nomura stated that Cloud was a more positive character in Final Fantasy VII than in Advent Children, he did not believe that such an "'upbeat' image of him is what stuck in the minds of the fans", and the script was written to explain why Cloud returned to a state of mind "consistent with the fans' view of him".[28] Nomura describes Cloud's life as peaceful but, hurt by the losses he experienced during the original game, one which he grew scared of losing.[29] Blaming himself for things outside of his control, Cloud, Nomura elaborated, needed to overcome himself.[30] In contrast to other heroes, who Nomura sees as typically possessing character defects amounting only to quirks, he believed Cloud's weakness to be humanizing.[31]
Nojima viewed the theme of the story as one of forgiveness, which he believed required hardship; by taking up his sword and fighting, Cloud struggles to achieve it.[32] Nojima sought to establish Cloud's withdrawn personality by depicting him as having a cell phone, but never answering any calls. He originally intended for Aerith's name to be the last one displayed in the backlog of ignored messages that appear as Cloud's cell phone sinks into the water, but altered the scene because it "sounded too creepy".[33] The wolf which Cloud imagines "represents the deepest part of Cloud's psyche" and "appears in response to some burden that Cloud is carrying deep in his heart",[34] vanishing at the film's end. Nomura cites one of the film's final scenes, in which Cloud smiles, as his favorite, highlighting the lack of dialogue and Cloud's embarrassment.[35] The scene influenced composer Nobuo Uematsu's score, who grew excited after coming across it in his review of the script, commenting on the difficulty players who had finished Final Fantasy VII would have had imagining Cloud's smile.[35]
Nomura sought to make Cloud's design distinctly different from the other characters.[24] About thirty different designs were made for Cloud's face, and his hair was altered to give it a more realistic look and illustrate that two years had passed since the game's conclusion.[36] The staff attempted rendering Cloud based on the game's original illustrations, but concluded that doing so left his eyes unrealistically big, which "looked gross".[37] Further revisions were made to Cloud's face after completion of the pilot film, which featured a more realistic style.[38] In contrast to his hair, Cloud's clothes were difficult to make in the film.[39] After deciding to give Cloud a simple costume consistent with the concept of "clothes designed for action", the staff began with the idea of a black robe, eventually parring it down to a "long apron" shifted to one side.[36]
Cloud's weaponry was based on the joking observation that because his sword in the original game was already enormously tall, in the sequel, he should use sheer numbers.[40] Referred to as "The Fusion Swords" (合体剣, Gattai Ken) during the film's development,[41] early storyboard concepts included Cloud carrying six swords on his back,[40] although the idea was later modified to six interlocking swords. While the idea wasn't "logically thought out" and the staff did not think that they could "make it work physically", it was believed to provide "an interesting accent to the story".[42] Cloud's new motorcycle, Fenrir (フェンリル, Fenriru), was designed by Takayuki Takeya, who was asked by the staff to design an upgraded version of Cloud's "Hardy-Daytona" motorcycle from Final Fantasy VII. The bike got bigger as development continued, with Takeya feeling its heaviness provided an impact that worked well within the film.[43] In the original game, Cloud's strongest technique was the Omnislash (超究武神覇斬, Choukyūbushinhazan, lit. "Super-ultimate War-god Commanding Slash"). For his fight against Sephiroth in the film, Nomura proposed a new move, the Omnislash Ver. 5 (超究武神覇斬ver.5, Choukyūbushinhazan ver.5), a faster version of the original Omnislash. The staff laughed at the name of Cloud's move during the making of it, as Nomura was inspired by a sports move from Final Fantasy X, whose protagonist, Tidus, explained the addition of a more specific name would make people more excited.[44]
Themes expanded upon in the director's cut Advent Children Complete include Cloud's development with links to other Final Fantasy VII media in which he appeared.[45] To further focus on Cloud's growth, Square decided to give him more scenes when he interacts with children. Additionally, the fight between Cloud and Sephiroth was expanded by several minutes, and includes a scene in which Sephiroth impales Cloud on his sword and holds him in the air, mirroring the scene in the game where he performs the same action. The decision to feature Cloud suffering from blood loss in the fight was made in order to make his pain feel realistic.[46]
Remake handling[edit]
In the making of the fighting game Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Nomura stated that Cloud's appearance was slightly slimmer than in Final Fantasy VII because of the detail the 3D of the PlayStation Portable could give him. While also retaining his original design and his Advent Children appearance, Cloud was given a more distinct look based on his Final Fantasy VII persona.[47]
Cloud's initial redesign for Final Fantasy VII Remake was initially more different than the original, but was later altered to more closely resemble Nomura's original design.[13] Early on in Final Fantasy VII, Cloud crossdresses in order to find Tifa, and Nomura noted this event was popular with the fans and reassured that the remake would keep this part. On the other hand, the character designer stated that their final design was not decided yet.[48] Kazushige Nojima worked on making Cloud's interactions with Tifa and Barret natural. Despite fear of the possible result, Nojima also wanted players to connect with the character once again.[49] Kitase further claimed that in the remake they aimed to make Cloud more inexperienced and informal than in Advent Children, due to him not being fully mature.[50]
Co-director Naoki Hamaguchi noted that since the original game offered the option for the player to decide Cloud's interest in a female character, he wanted the remake to retain this in the form of an intimate conversation when splitting from the main team.[51] The theme song "Hollow" is meant to reflect Cloud's state of mind, with Nomura placing high emphasis on the rock music and male vocals.[52]
Voice actors[edit]
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The original Final Fantasy VII did not have voice acting. For the Ehrgeiz fighting game, Kenyu Horiuchi voiced Cloud in the arcade version and Nozomu Sasaki voiced him in the home console version.[53] Since Kingdom Hearts, Takahiro Sakurai has been the Japanese voice of Cloud, with Teruaki Sugawara, the voice director at Square, recommending him to Nomura based on prior experience.[54] Nomura had originally asked Sakurai to play the protagonist of The Bouncer, Sion Barzahd, but found that his voice best suited Cloud after hearing him speak.[54] Sakurai received the script without any accompanying visuals, and first arrived for recording under the impression that he would be voicing a character other than Cloud.[55] For Advent Children, Nomura wanted to contrast Cloud and Vincent's voices because of their similar personalities.[56] As a sequel to the highly popular Final Fantasy VII, Sakurai felt greater pressure performing the role than he did when he voiced Cloud for Kingdom Hearts. Sakurai received comments from colleagues revealing their love of the game, some of them jokingly threatening that they would not forgive him if he did not meet their expectations.[55]
During recording, Sakurai was told that "[n]o matter what kind of odds are stacked against him, Cloud won't be shaken".[57] Sakurai says that while he recorded most of his work individually, he performed alongside Ayumi Ito, who voiced Tifa, for a few scenes. These recordings left him feeling "deflated", as the "exchanges he has with Tifa can be pretty painful", with Sakurai commenting that Cloud—whom he empathized with as his voice actor—has a hard time dealing with straight talk.[58] Sakurai says that there were scenes that took over a year to complete, with very precise directions being given requiring multiple takes.[59]
According to Sakurai, Cloud's silence conveys more about him than when he speaks. While possessing heroic characteristics, Sakurai describes Cloud's outlook as negative, and says that he is delicate in some respects.[55] A fan of VII, Sakurai had believed Cloud to be a colder character based on his original impression of him, but later came to view him as more sentimental.[54] After the final product was released, Sakurai was anxious to hear the fans' response, whether positive or negative, and says that most of the feedback he received praised him.[55] While recording Crisis Core, Sakurai felt that Cloud, though still introverted, acted more like a normal teenager, and modified his approach accordingly. Cloud's scream over Zack's death left a major impression on Sakurai, who says that he worked hard to convey the emotional tone of the ending.[55] Sakurai has come to regard Cloud as an important role, commenting that Cloud reminds him of his own past, and that, as a Final Fantasy VII fan himself, he is happy to contribute.[55]
For the remake of Final Fantasy VII, Sakurai found Cloud more difficult to portray than his previous performances. He re-recorded his lines multiple times, and credited the voice director with guiding him.[60] Nomura elaborated that the remake's interpretation of Cloud has a distinct personality; he attempts to act cool, but often fails to do so and instead comes across as awkward, which Nomura asked Sakurai to reflect in his acting. Another challenge for the developers was finding a suitable voice for the teenage Cloud seen during flashbacks. In order to better match Cloud's rural upbringing, they decided to hire a child from a rural area rather than an established actor, and ultimately went with 13-year-old Yukihiro Aizawa.[61][62]
In most English adaptations, Cloud is voiced by Steve Burton, who was first hired to voice Cloud after a Square employee saw his role in the 2001 film The Last Castle.[63] Burton's work as Cloud in Advent Children served as his first feature-length role, an experience he enjoyed.[64] Calling the character a rare opportunity for him as an actor, Burton describes Cloud as having a "heaviness about him".[65] Burton says he is surprised when fans recognize him for his work as Cloud, whom he has referred to as "[one of the] coolest characters there is", and considers himself lucky to have voiced him.[64]
Although Burton expressed his desire to voice Cloud for the remake of Final Fantasy VII, he was replaced by Cody Christian; Burton thanked Square for his work, and wished Christian luck.[66][67] Christian said that he was honored to portray what he described as an iconic character, and vowed to give his best performance.[68] He also commented on Burton's previous work, stating, "Steve, you paved the way. You made this character what it is and have contributed in shaping a legacy".[69] Christian used Burton's works as an inspiration for his portrayal of the character.[70] Teenage Cloud was voiced in English by Major Dodson.[71] For the next installment, Christian said that that the character differed from Remake as he aimed to explore more his sensitive side like his past or intimate relationships he is often involved.[72]
Appearances[edit]
In Final Fantasy VII[edit]
Cloud is introduced as a mercenary employed by AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group opposed to the Shinra Company, and who claims to be formerly of SOLDIER 1st Class, an elite Shinra fighting unit.[73] Beginning the game with the placeholder name "Ex-SOLDIER" (元ソルジャー, Moto Sorujā), Cloud assists AVALANCHE's leader, Barret Wallace, in bombing a Mako reactor, power plants which drain the planet's "Lifestream". Despite appearing detached [74] and more interested in the pay of his work, Cloud demonstrates moments of camaraderie, such as prioritizing Jesse's security over his escape during the Mako Reactor 1's explosion.[75] Players can choose to interact in a friendlier manner with AVALANCHE's members.[76] After being approached by his childhood friend and AVALANCHE member, Tifa Lockhart,[77] Cloud agrees to continue helping AVALANCHE.[78][79] Cloud encounters Aerith Gainsborough, a resident of Midgar's slums, and agrees to serve as her bodyguard in exchange for a date.[80] He helps her evade Shinra, who are pursuing her because she is the sole survivor of a race known as the Cetra. During the course of their travels, a love triangle develops between Cloud, Tifa and Aerith.[81][82]
Following the player's departure from Midgar, Cloud narrates his history with Sephiroth, a legendary member of SOLDIER and the game's primary antagonist, and the events that led to his disappearance five years prior. Cloud joined SOLDIER to emulate Sephiroth, and explains that he would sign up for a "big mission" whenever they became available, as the conclusion of Shinra's war with the people of Wutai ended his chances for military fame.[83] Sephiroth started questioning his humanity after accompanying him on a job to Cloud's hometown of Nibelheim and discovering documents concerning Jenova, an extraterrestrial lifeform and Sephiroth's "mother".[84] This ultimately led to Sephiroth burning down Nibelheim. Cloud confronted Sephiroth at Mt Nibel's Mako Reactor and was believed to have killed him, but Cloud dismisses this as a lie, as he knows he would be no match for Sephiroth. He is troubled with the fact that although he most likely would have lost the fight, he lived after challenging Sephiroth.
However, numerous visual and audio clues suggest the unreliability of Cloud's memory. Cloud will spontaneously remember words or scenes from his past, sometimes collapsing to the ground while cradling his head,[85] and appears not to remember things that he should, such as the existence of a SOLDIER First Class named Zack.[86] As Sephiroth begins manipulating his mind,[87] he takes advantage of his memory by telling him that his past is merely fiction and that Shinra created him in an attempt to clone Sephiroth.[88] Cloud learns he cannot remember things such as how or when he joined SOLDIER and resigns himself as a "failed experiment",[89] then goes missing. The party later discovers a comatose Cloud suffering from Mako poisoning.
It is revealed that Cloud never qualified for SOLDIER, and instead enlisted as an infantryman in Shinra's army. During the mission to Nibelheim, he served under Sephiroth and Zack and hid his identity from the townspeople out of embarrassment. Following Sephiroth's defeat of Zack at the Mt. Nibel Mako reactor, Cloud managed to ambush him and throw him into the Lifestream, and believed him to be dead. Both he and Zack were then imprisoned by Shinra's lead scientist, Hojo, for experimentation. Zack later escaped with Cloud to the outskirts of Midgar before Shinra soldiers gunned him down. As a result of exposure to Mako radiation and the injection of Jenova's cells,[90] Cloud's mind created a false personality largely based on Zack's, inadvertently erasing the latter from his memory.[91] After piecing together his identity, Cloud resumes his role as leader and silently expresses his mutual feelings with Tifa the night before the final battle. At the game's conclusion, Sephiroth reappears in Cloud's mind a final time, but is defeated in a one-on-one fight.[92]
In Compilation of Final Fantasy VII[edit]
Cloud appears in a minor role in the mobile game Before Crisis, a prequel set six years before the events of Final Fantasy VII. The player, a member of the Shinra covert operatives group, the Turks, encounters Cloud during his time as a Shinra infantryman working to join SOLDIER. The game portrays Cloud's natural talent for swordsmanship,[93] and recounts his role during Nibelheim's destruction.
In the 2005 animated film Advent Children, which is set two years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy VII,[94] Cloud lives with Tifa in the city of Edge along with Marlene, Barret's adopted daughter, and Denzel, an orphan affected by a rampant and deadly disease called Geostigma. Having given up his life as a mercenary,[95] Cloud now works as a courier for the "Strife Delivery Service" (ストライフ・デリバリーサービス, Sutoraifu Deribarī Sābisu), which Tifa set up in her new bar. After Tifa confronts him following the disappearance of Denzel and Marlene, it is revealed that he also suffers from the effects of Geostigma, and he responds that he is unfit to protect his friends and new family.[96]
However, after Tifa urges him to let go of the past,[97] Cloud sets out for the Forgotten City in search of the children. There, he confronts Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, genetic remnants of Sephiroth left behind before he diffused into the Lifestream completely.[98] Cloud's battle with Kadaj takes them back to Aerith's church, where Cloud recovers from his Geostigma with Aerith's help.[99] After merging with the remains of Jenova, Kadaj, resurrects Sephiroth. Cloud, having overcome his doubts, defeats Sephiroth once more, leaving a dying Kadaj in his place.[100] At the film's conclusion, Cloud, seeing Aerith and Zack, assures them that he will be fine and reunites with his friends.
Cloud appears in On the Way to a Smile, a series of short stories set between Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children. "Case of Tifa" serves as an epilogue to VII, and portrays Cloud's life alongside Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel. "Case of Denzel" relates how Cloud first met Denzel,[101] and was later adapted as a short original video animation for the release of Advent Children Complete, On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel.[102]
Cloud appears in a supporting role in the PlayStation 2 game Dirge of Cerberus. A year after the events of Advent Children,[103] Cloud, working alongside Barret and Tifa, lends his support to the ground forces of the