#FinalFantasy7Remake is real. [75] When approached by his childhood friend and AVALANCHE member, Tifa Lockhart,[76] Cloud agrees to continue helping AVALANCHE. But some of its changes will be divisive", "Final Fantasy 7 Remake review – a cloud with many silver linings", "Final Fantasy 7 Remake Review - Cruel One-Winged Angel's Thesis", "Final Fantasy 7 Remake Has Big Yakuza Energy And It's Wonderful", "FFXIII Interview: Nomura, Kitase, Hashimoto and Toriyama", "Japan Ranks Their Favorite Final Fantasy Females", "The Most Popular Final Fantasy Characters of All Time", "The 50 Greatest Soldiers In Video Games", "All Time Greatest Game Hero – The Standings", "Cloud Strife – Top 25 Japanese RPG Characters", "The 50 Greatest Video Game Characters - 13. Cloud, resigning himself as a "failed experiment",[88] goes missing. [206] IGN in 2008 ranked him third in both their lists of top Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy series characters. Cloud claims to be formerly of SOLDIER 1st Class, an elite Shinra fighting unit. [180] Meristation praised Cloud's new appearance in Advent Children and how it came across appealing in the spin-off Dirge of Cerberus even if he was no longer the main character and thus had less screentime. —Yoshinori Kitase, Electronic Gaming Monthly, October 2005[1], In contrast to Final Fantasy VI, which featured multiple "main characters", Square's staff decided at the outset of Final Fantasy VII's development that the game would follow a single identifiable protagonist. [182] Although The Verge pointed out that such a crossover game also featured similar characters like Solid Snake, as well as title characters Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog, they nevertheless expressed surprise over Cloud's inclusion because of Final Fantasy VII's lack of release on a Nintendo console. [183] The impact of Cloud's inclusion in the Super Smash Bros. series would later be referenced when Persona 5's Joker was included in Super Smash Bros. He has also become the basis for a variety of merchandise, such as action figures and jewelry. Nomura noted this event was popular with the fans and reassured the remake would keep this part. 5 (超究武神覇斬ver.5), which is a faster version of the original Omnislash. However, numerous visual and audio clues suggest the unreliability of Cloud's memory. [6] Nojima likened Cloud and Tifa's relationship to one of friends since nursery school, and compared Aerith to a transfer student arriving mid-term. [61] The chosen actor was Yukihiro Aizawa. EX 2, Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X - The Day of Sigma, I Don't Have A Reason / I'll Add One Later. Meet your business challenges head on with cloud computing services from Google, including data management, hybrid & multi-cloud, and AI & ML. Audition for voiceover roles and find voice actors. [121] Although it is associated with and makes references to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Last Order is considered an outside work. [6] Kitase reviewed Nojima's scenario and felt that Cloud, being neither single-minded nor righteous, offered a fresh take on a protagonist. [25] Nomura believes that the reason Cloud became popular with audiences is due to the impact Cloud's personality made in Nojima's scenario. [226] In 2013, a replica of the Buster Sword was created by blacksmith Tony Swatton for the webseries Man at Arms. - Share your reason with the rest of the community. Nomura's notes listed Cloud's job as magic swordsman (魔法剣士, mahō kenshi). [48] Kitase further claimed that in the remake they aimed to make Cloud more inexperienced and more informal than in Advent Children, due to him not being fully mature. This data is pulled from the {{Character Infobox}} on each character page. [53] Teruaki Sugawara, the voice director behind Kingdom Hearts, recommended Takahiro Sakurai, Cloud's Japanese voice actor, to Nomura for the role. Cloud confronted Sephiroth in the 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. My sincerest thanks to the incredibly talented team at SE Japan and all my kickass co-workers at SE America for making this an amazing experience. [185], During anticipation for the remake of Final Fantasy VII, Cloud's role in the trailers were the focus of multiple journalists. "[215], In an Oricon poll conducted in 2008, Cloud placed second overall for most popular video game character, ranking second among men and third with women. [16], For Advent Children, Nomura agreed to direct the project largely because of his attachment to the character of Cloud. Cloud ranked number one of all the characters. [109] In the first game, Kingdom Hearts, Cloud appears in the Olympus Coliseum world. These recordings left him feeling "deflated", as the "exchanges he has with Tifa can be pretty painful", Sakurai commenting that Cloud—whom he empathized with as his voice actor—has a hard time dealing with straight talk. [172] Cloud's guilt over Aerith's death was effective enough to move viewers,[173][174] Newtype USA also praised Cloud's role in Advent Children due to his heroic traits despite being a reluctant hero. [6] The animation impressed Nojima and inspired the idea that Cloud had developed a false persona. [169], Cloud's redesign in Kingdom Hearts was praised of the best in the game by PSXetreme and Animefringer. [44] In order to further focus on Cloud's growth, Square decided to give him more scenes when he interacts with children. [176] GamesRadar stated that while Cloud felt like a "miserable" character in the film, his coming to terms with his past was appealing alongside his new swords stored in his bike. [60] Nomura also said that while Cloud acts cool in Final Fantasy VII he often fails and thus ends acting in awkward fashion he thought would bother Sakurai in regards to recording of the game. Take control of your calls. [172][179] In a poll, Cloud was voted as one of the best characters voiced by Takahiro Sakurai. 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 Sephiroth's disappearance five years prior. ", "20 Most Popular Anime/Game Names to Give Children", "Snake Beats Mario, Is Coolest Video Game Character Ever", "Top 50 video game characters of all time announced in Guinness World Records 2011 Gamer's Edition", "We did it. Language English Deutsch Español Español – América Latina Français Italiano Português – Brasil 中文 – 简体 中文 – 繁體 日本語 한국어 [24] 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". A year after the events of Advent Children,[102] Cloud, working alongside Barret and Tifa, lends his support to the ground forces of the World Regenesis Organization and his ally Vincent Valentine in their siege of Midgar and counterattack against the rogue Shinra military unit, Deepground. [7] 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,[8] and to minimize the model's polygon count. [165] Cloud and Aerith's tragic relationship was also popular with writers. Sakurai received comments from colleagues revealing their love of the game, some of them jokingly threatening that they would not forgive Sakurai if he did not meet their expectations. [19] While drafting the game's scenario, Nojima saw a standing animation created by event planner Motomu Toriyama that depicted "Cloud showing off". He also took the same place in the Final Fantasy VII title alone as well. [32] 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",[33] vanishing at the film's end. [5] Kitase and Nomura discussed that Cloud would be the lead of three protagonists,[1] but Nomura did not receive character profiles or a completed scenario in advance. [130] CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama sought to improve Cloud's popularity with this game. [87] Cloud learns he cannot remember things like how or when he joined SOLDIER. I need voice actors for all 25 characters tho. 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. He is troubled with the fact that despite most likely losing the fight, he lived after challenging Sephiroth. Due to his lack of close friends, Cloud, perhaps as a coping mechanism, considered himself to be superior to all the other village children, and thus did not enjoy their company.Despite this, Cloud had a crush on his neighbor Tifa Lockhart while growing up, and the two became friend… [134] A pair of Cloud Strife amiibo figures were released on July 21, 2017. [154] Unicorn Lynx of MobyGames described him as "one of the most complex characters ever seen in a game", citing the struggle Cloud faces in assuming responsibility as a leader while confronting "his own deep psychological problems" and "the truth about his very existence". However, due to limitations in the console's hardware, these scenes could not be implemented, and instead, they decided to focus on Zack. [129] This was inspired by Cloud's Advent Children fights which producer Ichiro Hazama thought was "very cool, and radical", and influences from the title went into the game. [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. [67] Christian appreciated the role, finding the character iconic due to his personality and thus looked forward to give his best performance. In contrast to Final Fantasy VI, which featured multiple "main characters", Square's staff decided at the outset of Final Fantasy VII's development that the game would follow a single identifiable protagonist. [139] Cloud returns to help Aerith escape, and Ramza and his party catch up to him. [140] After the battle, he joins Ramza's party as a playable character. [223] Square Enix's manager of merchandise, Kanji Tashiro, said at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con International that Cloud's likeness has produced some of the company's best-selling items, and that fans could look forward to further adaptations of the character in the future.