Cloud Strife

Characteristics

He has blond hair, spiky hair, and a cold personality, but a strong sense of justice and loyalty. His eyes have a special blue-green glow due to exposure to Mako energy. This is the mark that identifies him as an Ex-Soldier. As an ex-soldier, he's good at close-quarters physical combat and using Materia (spheres that allow him to summon, cast spells, or learn new skills). He maintains a special relationship with Aeris Gainsborough, the florist, as she's the only one who manages to make him feel good throughout the game. At the same time, he feels a strong affection for Tifa Lockhart, his childhood friend.

First Contact

During Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Cloud is a rookie member of Shin-Ra's security squad. Cloud at that time is an innocent young man who yearns to be a special forces SOLDIER whose mission is the peace of Shin-Ra but due to his lack of skills he could not achieve it, luckily in a mission that Zack carries out with Tseng in a factory he bonds greatly with Zack, who becomes his only and best friend. In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud mentions that he had a person so close that he could consider him as his brother although he does not mention who. It can be assumed that he was referring to Zack. Zack protects Cloud from that moment on, and Cloud even helps Zack in the battle that he has with Sephiroth in the Mako factory to the point of managing to defeat Sephiroth but with Zack's help. After that, Cloud and Zack were exposed to Mako energy enhanced by Professor Hojo and were taken as experiments to test if the energy from Jenova cells could be fused with advanced human cells. Cloud is injected with the last of Jenova's original cells, creating an addiction to Mako, which causes his memory to gradually fade away, while Zack can't stand the cells and his body begins to deteriorate rapidly. As a result, the Shin-Ra civilian army decides to work on their own and tries to destroy both Zack and Cloud. Eventually, Zack is killed by the Shin-Ra civilian army while trying to defend Cloud. Cloud wakes up from his state and finds Zack about to die. Cloud tries to help him, but he is too weak to carry him. Zack leaves his memories, his strength, his powers, and the famous Mortal Sword to Cloud. Due to the Mako addiction, Cloud loses his memories, forgetting Zack completely but keeping all his memories of him, since he believed he was a first-class SOLDIER.

Join AVALANCHE

Cloud is a former SOLDIER who turned to mercenary work. After a while, Barret Wallace, leader of the revolutionary group AVALANCHE, hires him for a mission. This mission consists of detonating explosives in one of the eight Mako Power reactors in the city of Midgar, as these reactors consume the planet's vital energy and weaken it. During the mission, Tifa, Barret, and Cloud are detained by soldiers of Shin-Ra, the organization that rules Midgar. Even their president appears, ordering the launch of a new Robot to destroy them. The three fight and defeat this enemy, but with the explosion upon its destruction, Cloud is left suspended in the air clinging to the edge of the destroyed walkway. Tifa and Barret are unable to prevent his fall to the lower level of the city; they can only pray that he is safe. And they have to continue onward without any news of their partner.

Knowledge of Aeris

After the fall, Cloud wakes up in a suburban church amidst a pile of flowers, surprised that flowers no longer grow in Midgar, and puzzled to see a girl watching him. The girl is a flower vendor Cloud had seen before, but had barely noticed her. It's Aeris Gainsborough. At that moment, a man dressed in black appears: a Turk. The Turks are members of a secret organization that handles the "dirty" work of the Shin-Ra corporation. He came for Aeris, but she suggests Cloud become her bodyguard, fleeing the place and heading home. Once safe, Cloud intends to return to AVALANCHE's base of operations, which is located in another suburb, specifically in the Seventh Heaven bar, owned by Tifa. But he doesn't know how to get there, but Aeris does, accompanying Cloud to the entrance of the suburb. Upon arriving, Aeris asks Cloud if he has anyone in his life, something Cloud replies no. Aeris laughs and tells him she once had a love interest. But suddenly, a chocobo-drawn cart pulls out of the entrance, heading for Wall Market. Tifa is in it. Cloud, seeing it, chases after it.

Past

As a child, Cloud didn't hang out with other kids his age. He was always alone, and when he tried to hang out with other kids, they rejected him. When Tifa was little, she went to Mount Nibel, and Cloud was the only one who accompanied her to the end, although when they fell off the bridge, he was the one who took the blame for what happened to Tifa. From that moment on, Tifa felt admiration for him. Shortly after that, Cloud called her to the village well to tell her he was leaving for Midgar to join SOLDIER and become someone like Sephiroth. At that moment, they made a promise that if anything happened to Tifa, Cloud would appear to save her. When he arrived in Midgar, Cloud managed to get into the ShinRa Inc. security force. However, he befriended a first-class SOLDIER member named Zack, who always accompanied Sephiroth. This is how they met. Forming a group with Sephiroth as their leader, Zack, Cloud, and another soldier were assigned the mission of investigating the reactor at Mount Nibel, Cloud's hometown. He did everything he could to prevent Tifa, his guide on the mission, from discovering him. When Sephiroth learned that he himself was an experiment, he destroyed Nibelheim and headed for Mount Nibel. Tifa went after him and tried to attack him in vain.

Appearance

Cloud is a man with light skin and is slightly below average height, with a lean and toned build. He has spiky blond hair that once featured a particularly long spike, but in his subsequent appearances the spikes have been toned down. Cloud has blue eyes, Throughout the games, Cloud wears several additional outfits: In most of his appearances, he wears the standard uniform for a Private First Class: indigo pants with a sleeveless shirt and a belt. Cloud wears brown boots, gloves with a pair of cauldrons draped over his left shoulder, and a Soldier sash on his left wrist. Finally, he has a silver earring in his left ear. In Crisis Center - Final Fantasy VII - Cloud wears the blue uniform of a Shinra Electric Power Company Infantry Guardian with several belts and straps and a piece of green-gray cloth around his neck. He wears his helmet to conceal his identity at times. After he obtains the SOLDIER 1st Class uniform, his appearance is the same as in Final Fantasy VII, albeit with his shoulder pauldrons intact. In Children's Advent, he wears a sleeveless, high-necked indigo shirt, black pants and boots, and a black cloth covering his left leg and arm. Cloud gains a new pauldron, and his chest is covered by two straps, held by a badge depicting Fenrir, a wolf who has bonded with him. Like the rest of the group, he wears a pink ribbon around his left arm, though it remains hidden for most of the film. This ensemble is known as the Cloudy Wolf outfit.

Powers and Abilities

Due to experiments performed on him by Shinra, Cloud has enhanced strength, speed, stamina, and agility. Cloud's strength is such that he can skillfully wield the enormous Mortal Blade and even more so the even larger Greatsword Fusion with one hand, and has demonstrated the ability to slice several meters of stone with a single swing of his sword. His speed is slightly above peak human, and can be observed within the swiftness of his combat techniques. His stamina is so great that while infected with Geostigma, he was able to fight all three Remnants of Sephiroth on equal terms, while only one was needed to defeat Tifa in hand-to-hand combat. His agility has been enhanced to the point where he can perform feats of tremendous acrobatic prowess while fighting and riding a motorcycle simultaneously. Cloud possesses seven Limit Breaks: Braver and Cross-slash are his Level 1 Limit Breaks, Blade Beam and Climhazzard are his Level 2 Limit Breaks, Meteorain and Finishing Touch are his Level 3 Limit Breaks; and his Level 4 Limit Break is Omnislash. In Advent Children, he has an eighth Limit Break introduced, "Omnislash Version 5", where he splits the Fusion Blades assembly into its six individual parts, then performs a series of six attack blows against an enemy. In Advent Children Complete, Cloud's finishing blow is a longer sequence of thirteen slashes instead of six, and is branded as "Omnislash Version 6". Additionally, Cloud is an expert swordsman, having defeated Sephiroth, arguably the most powerful being to have ever existed in Final Fantasy VII, twice in single combat. In battle, Cloud specializes in offensive swordplay, focusing on powerful ground combo sword attacks and drastic dives, while maintaining a constant stream of attacks, not allowing his opponent to let their guard down.

Weapons Team

Cloud wields a variety of weapons throughout his appearances. His most iconic weapon is the Mortal Blade, a massive two-handed sword he wields in Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud was also seen able to equip katanas and other greatswords. Cloud's ultimate weapon is the Ultimate Weapon, which possesses the strongest base attack stat that increases in power as Cloud's HP increases. His Yoshiyuki increases attack power by the number of allies killed in the active party. Among his arsenal is the Apocalypse, one of two pieces of equipment in the game to give triple Materia, the other being Cid's Scimitar. Apocalypse is also one of two weapons that have an overall growth of over eight, the maximum amount of Materia on any weapon or armor. Apocalypse has three triple Materia growth slots, meaning it does the work of nine Materia slots. The only other weapon that offers overall Materia growth above eight is the Javelin, a weapon belonging to Cid.