Cloud Strife

Template:FFVII character Cloud Strife (クラウド・ストライフ; Ku-ra-u-do • Su-to-ra-i-fu) 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 bastard sword which he received from his fallen comrade Zack).

He has reappeared in other Square Enix games, including Final Fantasy Tactics, Ehrgeiz, Kingdom Hearts, 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.

Contrasted with the dour Squall Leonhart, the playful Zidane Tribal and the more rambuctious Tidus, he is one of the more popular Final Fantasy characters.

Storyline

File:FF7CloudShrugs.jpg

Cloud's in-game character model in Final Fantasy VII.

Originally, Cloud was portrayed as a practical but apathetic mercenary, although by the end of Final Fantasy VII story, his personality had lightened up considerably and he had resolved a lot of personal anguish.

In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud joined the eco-terrorist group called AVALANCHE, which worked against corporate world power Shin-Ra Electric Power Company. At first disinterested in AVALANCHE's cause, Cloud is personally drawn into the struggle through Aerith, a poor flower girl; Tifa Lockheart, an old friend who brings him into AVALANCHE; and the notorious legendary soldier Sephiroth.

Throughout the story, many different things are revealed about his past, fake more often than not. A large part of the Final Fantasy VII game is rooted in the discovery and settlement of Cloud's real past in the present as well as his brief relationship to Aerith.

After saving the world, Cloud becomes a recluse. But when he learns about another Reunion, Cloud once more gets involved. He sees visions of Aerith, who serves as his encouragement.

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 buddy, Sephiroth, and his old best friend and tour guide, Tifa Lockheart. When Sephiroth got to the Nibel reactor, he found out he was created as a monster by a mad scientist and went berserk. Cloud followed him to the Nibel Mansion, where Sephiroth went crazy reading about the Jenova project (Jenova was a monster that had wiped out the old race of the Ancients). Sephiroth was implanted with Jenova Cells before he was born. 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 MP 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 locked himself up in the library, 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 dad) to the reactor. Cloud arrived at the reactor to find the two injured. So he boldly picked up his fallen comrade's sword and confronted Sephiroth. When Sephiroth stabbed him, he grabbed on to Sephiroth's sword and threw him in to the depths of the reactor. Tifa was rescued by a martial arts instructor of Nibelheim named Zangan, but Cloud and Zack weren't so lucky.

They were left alone and unconscious until Hojo (a Shin-Ra scientist) took them and turned them in to Sephiroth clones by injecting them with Jenova cells, but they escaped, courtesy of Zack. They hitched a ride on the back of a farmer's truck and decided that as soon as they got to Midgar, they would become mercenaries. But when they got off, the Shin-Ra found them. Zack was shot, but Cloud was kept alive because he was already near death. When Cloud recovered, he took Zack's sword and his memories. When Tifa found Cloud, she told him about AVALANCHE. And that is where the story begins...

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII. Cloud is affected by a disease known as "Geostigma", which is an effect caused by a natural eliminary reaction to the inherent unnatural Jenova cells. Which is why in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Cloud's left arm is cloaked, hiding 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. He is also seen performing the Limit Break "Climhazard" on Bahamut, as well as other Limit Breaks throughout the movie, such as the Omnislash. For more background information on the story line, see Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

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 and 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.

Ehrgeiz

Cloud is a playable character in the PlayStation version. In the game, he has no storyline, just fighting and minigame events.

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 Aeris during the game, but in Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix (the extended version of the game, only available in Japan) it is revealed that he is actually searching for Sephiroth, whom he is later seen battling in the "Showdown of Fate" video. 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 2 in his "Advent Children" attire.

Itadaki Street Special

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

Final Fantasy VII Technical Demo for PS3

File:Cloudps3tech.jpg

Cloud's appearance on the technical demo for the PS3.

The 2005 E3 show 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 PlayStation3 hardware. The video followed the original sequence faithfully, from the initial starfield pan through the scenes of Midgard, 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.

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.

Though it can only be used when Cloud's limit break bar is full, Omnislash is securely the most damaging attack of the game, surpassing even the almighty Knights of the Round 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 (no other moves may be selected), killing Sephiroth. 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), the scene is incredibly popular with fans, and is probably the definitive use of Omnislash.

In Kingdom Hearts, Sephiroth uses this attack 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 Colisseum world.

In Advent Children, Cloud uses a new form of Omnislash ('Omnislash v.5' according to translations) to defeat Sephiroth after he takes over the body of Kadaj, who had absorbed what was left of Jenova's head.

Trivia

One of Cloud's well-known albeit embarrasing moments in 'FFVII' included having to disguise himself as a woman to infiltrate a brothel. This situation has become a common running gag among fandom, refered to in fanart and even hentai doujinshi.