Cloud Strife

Lore & Background

Cloud works for AVALANCHE in their efforts against the Shinra Electric Power Company, a mega corporation planning to drain the world of its lifestream. His narrative is defined by internal struggles as he confronts a traumatic past involving former colleague Sephiroth. The story utilizes Cloud's foggy memories as a device to provide details about the world that are unknown to the player but common knowledge to inhabitants. Kitase and Nojima developed his backstory, revealing that Shinra's experiments and his own insecurities made him susceptible to manipulation.

This led to the creation of a false persona based on Zack Fair, a SOLDIER Cloud aspired to be like. The love triangle between Cloud, Tifa Lockhart, and Aerith Gainsborough was viewed as novel for the series, with Nojima likening his relationship with Tifa to friends since nursery school and comparing Aerith to a transfer student arriving mid-term.

Reader's Guide

Cloud was designed by Tetsuya Nomura to contrast with Sephiroth, originally featuring slicked-back black hair before being altered to spiky blond hair to emphasize his role as the lead protagonist. For Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005), Nomura redesigned Cloud with a more realistic appearance, new weaponry, and a new outfit. The development team for Final Fantasy VII Remake aimed to adapt this classic design for a more realistic art style in 2020. In early concepts, Cloud's job was listed as 'magic swordsman' (mahō kenshi), and his weapon, the Buster Sword, was initially drawn smaller and thinner. Nomura also illustrated Cloud riding a Shinra motorcycle called the 'Hardy-Daytona,' based on the real-life Yamaha VMAX.

Did You Know?

• In early script versions, Sephiroth deceived Cloud into thinking he had created him and could exert control over his movements.
• Nojima originally intended for Aerith's name to be the last one displayed on Cloud's cell phone message backlog in Advent Children, but changed it because it 'sounded too creepy'.
• The wolf Cloud imagines in Advent Children represents the deepest part of his psyche and vanishes at the film's end.

Origins and Development

Square's staff decided early in Final Fantasy VII's development to follow a single identifiable protagonist, contrasting with the multiple main characters of Final Fantasy VI. In Hironobu Sakaguchi's first plot treatment, a prototype for Cloud belonged to an organization attempting to destroy New York City's 'Mako Reactors.' Tetsuya Nomura, who did not receive character profiles in advance, discussed that Cloud would be the lead of three protagonists but imagined their stories himself.

Nojima developed Cloud's backstory after being impressed by a standing animation created by Motomu Toriyama depicting 'Cloud showing off,' which inspired the idea of a false persona. This led to the creation of Zack Fair. Nomura and Kitase have since described Cloud as a 'dorky character' in the original game, noting that while later titles emphasized his cool side, the original featured many comical or lame moments.

Psychological Complexity and Narrative Role

Cloud is cited as one of video gaming's first unreliable narrators and an example of complex character writing regarding his mental disorder. Nojima wanted to write scenes so players could decide what Cloud was thinking, using his foggy memories to reveal world details unknown to the protagonist. The relationship between Cloud and Sephiroth mirrors that of Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō, with Nomura imagining a rivalry where Cloud represents Musashi and Sephiroth represents Kojirō. Despite being viewed as a messiah figure for opposing Sephiroth, his weakness is considered humanizing rather than just a quirk. In Advent Children, the theme of forgiveness required hardship; Cloud blamed himself for things outside his control and needed to overcome himself.

Visual Evolution and Artistic Direction

Nomura's first draft of Cloud featured slicked-back black hair to contrast with Sephiroth's long silver hair and minimize polygon counts. To make him stand out, he was given spiky blond hair and made taller than in the SGI Onyx demo. Yoshitaka Amano painted promotional images by taking Nomura's drawings and adding his own spin, noting that baggy pants tapering at the bottom reflected a 'very ... Japanese style' resembling a hakama due to PlayStation hardware limitations. For Advent Children, Nomura gave Cloud a more realistic appearance with new weaponry and an outfit. In Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), the team adapted his classic design for a more realistic art style.

Legacy and Cultural Impact

Cloud Strife has garnered generally positive reception and is considered one of the most iconic video game protagonists. He appears in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, as well as the Kingdom Hearts series by Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company, and the Super Smash Bros. series by Nintendo. Critics favorably cite him as a messiah figure for opposing Sephiroth's schemes with support from his allies. Nomura attributes his popularity to the impact his personality made on Nojima's scenario.