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Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
North American cover art featuring the titular protagonist Nathan Drake in a jungle
Developer(s)	Naughty Dog
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)	Amy Hennig
Designer(s)	Richard Lemarchand Hirokazu Yasuhara
Programmer(s)	Pål-Kristian Engstad Dan Liebgold Travis McIntosh
Artist(s)	Bob Rafei Bruce Straley
Writer(s)	Amy Hennig Neil Druckmann Josh Scherr
Composer(s)	Greg Edmonson
Series	Uncharted
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3
Release	NA: November 19, 2007[2] AU: December 6, 2007[1] EU: December 7, 2007
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the first game in the Uncharted series and was released in November 2007 for PlayStation 3. The game follows Nathan Drake, the supposed descendant of explorer Sir Francis Drake, as he searches for the lost treasure of El Dorado with journalist Elena Fisher and mentor Victor Sullivan.

The development of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune began in 2005, and saw Naughty Dog altering their approach to development, as they sought to create a humanized video game that was distinct from their other entries, settling on an action-adventure game with platforming elements and a third-person perspective. The team regularly updated or wholly changed various aspects related to the story, coding, and the game's design which lead to delays. The development team found influence for many of the game's aesthetic elements from film, pulp magazines, and movie serials.

Extensively marketed as a PlayStation exclusive, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune received generally favorable reviews, with praise for its technical achievements, cast, characters, story, music, and production values, drawing similarities to blockbuster films. It faced some criticism for its graphical issues, short length, vehicle sections, and marked difficulty. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune sold one million copies after ten weeks of release. It was followed by the sequel Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in 2009, and was re-released on PlayStation 4 as part of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection.

Synopsis[edit]

Setting and characters[edit]

The central character of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is Nathan Drake (voiced by Nolan North), a renowned adventurer who claims to be the descendant of the famous explorer Sir Francis Drake. Together with his mentor Victor Sullivan (voiced by Richard McGonagle) and journalist Elena Fisher (voiced by Emily Rose), Drake embarks on a quest to discover the hidden riches of El Dorado.^[3]

Plot[edit]

Treasure hunter Nathan "Nate" Drake, accompanied by reporter Elena Fisher, recovers the coffin of his self-proclaimed ancestor Sir Francis Drake, having located it from coordinates inscribed on a family heirloom: a ring Nate wears around his neck.^[4] The coffin contains Sir Francis' diary, which gives the location of El Dorado. Pirates attack and destroy Nate's boat, but Nate's friend and mentor, Victor "Sully" Sullivan, rescues the two in his seaplane. Fearing Elena's reporting will attract potential rivals, Nate and Sully abandon her at a dock.

Nate and Sully discover an alcove that once held a large statue after following the diary to the indicated spot, and realize that El Dorado is not a city but rather a golden idol.^[5] They find a Nazi U-boat, which contains a page from Drake's diary showing the statue was taken to an island. However, mercenaries led by criminal Gabriel Roman (Simon Templeman), to whom Sully owes a substantial debt, and his lieutenant Atoq Navarro (Robin Atkin Downes), intercept Nate and Sully. Sully is shot in the chest and collapses, but Nate manages to escape, encounters Elena, and flies with her to the island.^[6]

On the way, anti-aircraft fire forces Elena and Nate to bail out and they are separated. After retrieving supplies from the wrecked seaplane, Nate heads toward an old fort to find Elena. After Nate is briefly captured by pirates led by his old associate Eddy Raja (James Sie), Elena breaks him free and they flee to the island's old customs house. After finding records showing the statue was moved further inland to the monastery, they find that Sully is somehow alive and accompanying Roman and Navarro.^[7] Nate and Elena find and rescue Sully who, having survived due to Drake's diary blocking the bullet, explains he was buying time for Nate by misleading Roman.

Searching through a mausoleum, Nate overhears an argument between Roman, Navarro, and Eddy, revealing that Roman hired Eddy to capture Nate and secure the island, with the reward being a share of El Dorado. Following Nate's escape, Roman doubts Eddy's abilities and ignores his claim that something cursed on the island is killing his men, leading him to dismiss Eddy and his crew. Regrouping, Nate and Elena find a passage leading to a treasure vault, in which they find the body of Drake, assuming that he died searching for the treasure. They encounter a terrified Eddy and a crew member, shortly before they are attacked by mutated humans who kill the crew member; despite Nate's efforts, Eddy is also killed when one drags him into a pit.

Nate and Elena escape and find themselves in an abandoned German bunker. Venturing into the base, Nate discovers that the Germans had sought the statue during World War II, but like the Spaniards before them, became cursed by the statue, causing them to become mutants. Sir Francis, knowing of the statue's power, attempted to keep it on the island by destroying the ships and flooding the city, before he too was killed by the mutants.^[8]

Nate returns to find Elena has been captured by Roman and Navarro. Regrouping with Sully, he fails to stop them from reaching the statue. Navarro, aware of the curse, tricks Roman into opening the statue, revealing it to be a sarcophagus containing a mummy infected with an airborne mutagenic virus. Upon Roman turning into one of the mutants, Navarro kills him and takes control of his men. Berating Nate's group for not being imaginative, he plans to sell the virus as a biological weapon.^[9] Nate jumps onto the sarcophagus and rides it as it is airlifted onto a boat in the bay. He engages and defeats Navarro and manages to sink both the sarcophagus and him to the bottom of the ocean.^[10] Sully arrives, and after Nate and Elena display affection towards each other, they leave the island with several chests of treasure.^[11]

Gameplay[edit]

Gameplay in Uncharted is a combination of action-adventure gameplay elements and some 3D platforming with a third-person perspective. Platforming elements allow Nate to jump, swim, grab and move along ledges, climb and swing from ropes, and perform other acrobatic actions that allow players to make their way along the ruins in the various areas of the island that Drake explores.^[12]

When facing enemies, the player can either use melee and combo attacks at close range to take out foes or can opt to use weapons.^[12] Melee attacks comprise a variety of single punches, while combo attacks are activated through specific sequences of button presses that, when timed correctly, offer much greater damage; the most damaging of these is the specific "brutal combo", which forces enemies to drop twice the ammunition they would normally leave.^[12] Nate can only carry one pistol and one rifle at a time, and there is a limited amount of ammunition per gun. Picking up a different firearm switches that weapon for the new one. Grenades are also available at certain points, and the height of the aiming arc is adjusted by tilting the Sixaxis controller up or down. These third-person perspective elements were compared by several reviewers to Gears of War,^[3][12] in that the player can have Drake take cover behind walls, and use either blind fire or aimed fire to kill enemies. In common with the aforementioned game, Uncharted lacks an actual on-screen health bar; instead, when the player takes damage, the graphics begin to lose color. While resting or taking cover for a brief period, Drake's health level, indicated by the screen color, returns to normal.^[12]

The game also includes vehicle sections, where Drake must protect the jeep he and Elena are in using a mounted turret, and where Drake and Elena ride a jet ski along water-filled routes while avoiding enemy fire and explosive barrels. While players direct Drake in driving the jet ski, they may also control Elena by aiming the gun in order to use her weapon — either the grenade launcher or the Beretta, depending on the chapter — in defense, or to clear the barrels from their path.^[12]

The game also features reward points, which can be gained by collecting 60 hidden treasures in the game that glimmer momentarily^[13] or by completing certain accomplishments, such as achieving a number of kills using a specific weapon, performing a number of headshots, or using specific methods of killing enemies.^[14] In subsequent playthroughs of the game, the player can use these rewards points to unlock special options; these include in-game bonuses such as alternate costumes and unlimited ammunition^[13] but also non-game extras, such as making-of videos and concept art.^[15] There are also several references to other Naughty Dog games, especially the Jak and Daxter series; this is done through the "Ottsel" branding on Drake and Fisher's wetsuits,^[16] a reference to the species that mixes otter and weasel found in the game, and the strange relic found in one of the earlier chapters, which is actually a precursor orb from the same series.

The game is censored when playing on a Japanese console to remove blood, which normally appears when shooting enemies; this follows the trend of other censored console games in the region, such as Dead Rising and Resistance: Fall of Man.^[17]

Development[edit]

After completing Jak 3, Naughty Dog assembled their most technically talented staff members and began development of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune under the codename Big.^[18][19] The game's development commenced in 2005 and it was in full production for about two years, with a small team of engineers working on the game for about a year beforehand.^[20] Naughty Dog decided to create a brand new IP rather than opt to develop a PlayStation 3 Jak and Daxter game—they wanted to create a franchise suitable for the new hardware, in order to develop such ideas as realistic human characters instead of stylized ones owing to limitations of previous hardware, as well as create something "fresh and interesting", although termed as 'stylized realism'.^[20] Inspiration was drawn from various sources in the action and adventure genres: pulp magazines, movie serials, and more contemporary titles like Indiana Jones and National Treasure.^[21] The team felt the sources shared themes of mystery and "what-if scenarios" that romanticized adventure and aimed to include those in Uncharted.^[18]

The game was first unveiled at E3 2006.^[22] From early previews of the game, inevitable comparisons of elements such as platforming and shooting between Uncharted and the well-known Tomb Raider series were drawn, earning the title the nickname of "Dude Raider".^[21][23] However, the developers saw their game as concentrating more on third-person cover-based play, in contrast to Tomb Raider's "auto-aiming" play and greater puzzle-solving elements.^[20] Other influences they cited include Resident Evil 4,^[24] Kill Switch, and Gears of War.^[25] Throughout the game's development the staff tried to remain flexible and detached from the original design concepts; attention was focused on the features that worked well, while features that did not work were removed.^[26] The development team intended the game's main setting, the island, to play a big role in the overall experience. Feeling too many games used bleak, dark settings with monochromatic color schemes, they wanted the island to be a vibrant, believable game world that immersed the player and encouraged exploration.^[18]

In designing the characters, the artists aimed for a style that was photorealistic.^[21] The creators envisioned the main protagonist, Nathan Drake, as more of an everyman character than Lara Croft, shown as clearly under stress in the game's many firefights, with no special training and constantly living at the edge of his abilities.^[20][23] Director Amy Hennig felt a heavily armored, "tough as nails" protagonist with a large weapon was not a suitable hero and decided a "tenacious and resourceful" character would portray more human qualities. Supporting characters (Elena Fisher and Victor Sullivan) were included to avoid a dry and emotionless story.^[21] Fisher's character underwent changes during development; in early trailers for the game, the character had dark brown hair, but ultimately the color changed to blonde and the style was altered.^[27][28] The writing of the story was led by Hennig with help from Neil Druckmann and Josh Scherr.^[29] The lead game designer was Richard Lemarchand,^[30] with the game co-designed by Hirokazu Yasuhara, a former Sega game designer best known for designing the early Sonic the Hedgehog games.^[31]

The game went gold in the middle of October 2007.^[20] A demo was then released on November 8 on the PlayStation Network^[32] before its final release on November 19 in North America, December 6 in Australia, and December 7 in Europe.^[33] The demo was first placed on the North American store, and was initially region-locked such that it would only play on a North American PS3,^[34] but this was later confirmed as a mistake, as the developers were apparently unaware that people from different regions could sign up for a North American account and download the demo; a region-free demo was released soon after.^[35]

Graphics and technology[edit]

Uncharted uses the Cell microprocessor to generate dozens of layered character animations to portray realistic expressions and fluid movements, which allow for responsive player control.^[36] The PlayStation 3's graphics processing unit, the RSX Reality Synthesizer, employed several functions to provide graphical details that helped immerse the player into the game world: lighting models, pixel shaders, dynamic real-time shadowing, and advanced water simulation.^[36] The new hardware allowed for processes that the team had never used in PlayStation 2 game development and required them to quickly familiarize themselves with the new techniques; for example, parallel processing and pixel shaders. While Blu-ray afforded greater storage space, the team became concerned with running out of room several times — Uncharted used more and bigger textures than previous games, and included several languages on the disc.^[37] Gameplay elements requiring motion sensing, such as throwing grenades and walking across beams, or rear-ending massive logs up the scooter, were implemented to take advantage of the Sixaxis controller.^[18] A new PlayStation 3 controller, the DualShock 3, was unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, and featured force feedback vibration. Uncharted was also on display at the show with demonstrations that implemented limited support for vibration.^[38]

Being Naughty Dog's first PlayStation 3 game, the project required the company to familiarize themselves with the new hardware and resulted in several development mistakes.^[37] The switch from developing for the PlayStation 2 to the PlayStation 3 prompted the staff to implement changes to their development technology. Naughty Dog switched to the industry standard language C++ to participate in technology sharing among Sony's first-party developers—the company had previously used their own proprietary programming language GOAL, a Lisp-based language. In rewriting their game code, they decided to create new programming tools as well. This switch, however, delayed the team's progress in developing a prototype, as the new tools proved to be unreliable and too difficult to use. Ten months into full production, the team decided to recreate the game's pipeline, the chain of processing elements designed to progress data through a system. In retrospect, Naughty Dog's Co-President Evan Wells considered this the greatest improvement to the project.^[26] Additionally, the animation blending system was rewritten several times to obtain the desired character animations.^[18]

Trophies integration[edit]

The game was patched on August 4, 2008 in Europe and North America to version 1.01 to include support for the PlayStation 3's Trophy system.^[39] There are 47 trophies in the game that match the medals that can already be won in the game and one further trophy, the Platinum trophy, awarded when all other trophies have been collected; Uncharted was the first Naughty Dog game to include the Platinum trophy type.^[40] Similar to other PlayStation 3 titles that receive trophy support via downloaded patches, players must start a new save game to be awarded trophies, regardless of how many medals they received in previous playthroughs. This was enforced because the developers wanted to avoid the sharing of save data in order to gain trophies they did not earn.^[41] The patch was described as "incredibly easy" to implement, owing to the game already containing preliminary support for Trophies via its Medals system; it was also stated that these hooks were already included due to Naughty Dog's belief that Sony would roll out the Trophy system before the game's launch in November 2007.^[41] Despite mentioning that the game was developed as a franchise and that it lent itself to episodic content,^[20] it was later stated that no downloadable content would be made for Uncharted.^[42]

PlayStation Home[edit]

During the Closed Beta of PlayStation Home on October 11, 2008, Naughty Dog released an Uncharted themed game space for PlayStation Home. This space is "Sully's Bar" from the game. In this space, users can play an arcade mini-game called "Mercenary Madness", which during the Closed Beta, there were rewards. The rewards were removed with the release of the Home Open Beta. There are also three other rooms in this space: during the Closed Beta, users had to find out codes for the doors that accessed these rooms. The code entry to the rooms was also removed with the release of the Home Open Beta. The three other rooms are the "Artifact Room", "Archives", and "Smuggler's Den". There is an artifact viewer in the Archives and Smuggler's Den rooms. Also in the Archives, there is a video screen that previews Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The Artifact Room only features seating and different artifacts for users to look at. This space was one of the first five-game spaces of the PlayStation Home Open Beta in North America, which Home went Open Beta on December 11.^[43] This space was released to the European version on November 5, 2009, almost a year after the Open Beta release. Naughty Dog has also released a game space for Uncharted's sequel on October 23, making Uncharted the first game series to have a game space for both games in its series.^[44]

Reception[edit]

Critical response[edit]

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune received generally favorable reviews from game critics.^[45] Game Informer complimented the visuals and dialogue between the characters Drake and Fisher, calling them stunning and entertaining respectively.^[28] They further added that the production values appeared high, citing the level of detail and musical score.^[52] PlayStation Magazine echoed similar statements about the visuals and compared them to that of Crysis.^[18][53]

The overall presentation of the game received unanimous praise from critics, who recognized the game's high production values, describing them as "top-notch",^[54] "incredible"^[15] or comparing them to those found in Hollywood.^[14] When combined with the overall style of the game, this led many reviewers to compare Uncharted to summer blockbuster films,^[3][55][56] with the action and theme of the game drawing comparisons to the Indiana Jones film series and Tomb Raider.^[15][55] As part of the presentation, the game's story and atmosphere were also received well.^[3][55] The depth of the characters was praised, each having "their own tone".^[55] The voice acting was also received well, as the cast "nails its characterizations"; overall, the voice acting was described as a "big-star performance",^[14] "superb"^[56] and "stellar".^[3] Game designer Tim Schafer, well known as the creator of the early LucasArts adventure games such as The Secret of Monkey Island, has also lauded the game, saying he "liked it a lot", and jokingly thanked it for teaching him a new fashion tip (Nathan Drake's "half-tucked" shirt).^[57]

The technical achievements in creating this presentation were also lauded. The graphics and visuals were a big part of this, including appreciation of the "lush" jungle environments,^[3][12][15] with lighting effects greatly adding to them.^[56] The game's water effects were also appreciated.^[54] Overall, many reviewers commented that, at the time, it was one of the best-looking PlayStation 3 games available.^[48] Further to the graphical aspects, both facial animation and the animation of characters,^[16][56] such as Nate's "fluid" animations as he performs platforming sections were noted,^[3] although the wilder animations of enemies reacting to being shot were over-animated "to perhaps a laug

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	English Steve Burton (2002–18) Cody Christian (2020–present) Major Dodson (2020, young) Japanese Kenyu Horiuchi (Ehrgeiz, arcade version) Nozomu Sasaki (Ehrgeiz, home console version) Takahiro Sakurai (2002–present) Yukihiro Aizawa (Final Fantasy VII Remake, young)
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]

Takahiro Sakurai (left) and Cody Christian (right) voiced Cloud Strife.

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