Cloud Strife Facts – After we previously discussed Cloud Strife in the article about Final Fantasy’s Most Popular Characters, this time we will discuss more this blonde-haired character. Cloud Strife is a male protagonist character in the Final Fantasy VII game series who made his first appearance in 1997 through the Final Fantasy VII published for the PlayStation.
Cloud Strife is a character who is the main male protagonist in the Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake games. This character is a former member of SOLDIER, an elite force under the Shinra Electric Power Company. He has a cold nature but cares deeply for those close to him. In the game, Cloud has a complicated relationship with Tifa and Aerith.
In addition to the facts above, there are also other Cloud Strife facts. In this article, we will discuss facts about Cloud Strife that people rarely know. Curious about what they are? Let’s discuss it together!
7 Cloud Strife Facts, FFVII’s Iconic Character
1. He’s Not the Original Protagonist of Final Fantasy VII
The first fact may come as a bit of a surprise. When Hironobu Sakaguchi first came up with the idea for Final Fantasy VII, he originally wanted the game to star a detective named Joe. This character will investigate the trail of the group that destroyed the city of Midgar. But the development of this version of the game was put on hold so that Squaresoft could concentrate more and finish work on Chrono Trigger.
This idea of a detective is not entirely discarded, as a detective has starred in one of the Final Fantasy VII novels. Final Fantasy VII Lateral Biography Turks – The Kids Are Alright features a character named Evan Townshend, who houses a detective agency office in Midgar. He gets caught up in Kadaj’s scheme, which leads to the events in the movie Advent Children.
2. Being the Only Final Fantasy Playable Character in Kingdom Hearts
The next Cloud Strife fact comes from the Kingdom Hearts series which is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney. The series is more like a Final Fantasy-style story set in the Disney multiverse. We get to see far more Disney characters than those created by Square Enix, although Final Fantasy characters do appear from within the game from time to time.
But you can only use Disney characters as party members in Kingdom Hearts, as well as original characters created for the series. The only exception to this happened in Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded for Nintendo DS, where you were briefly given the opportunity to use Cloud Strife as a party member while in Olympus. You can use Sora, Hercules, and Cloud in Turn-Based style combat levels.
3. Cloud Is an Actual Third Party Character in Smash Bros.
The next Cloud Strife fact is the fact that Cloud Strife is an actual Third Party character in the Smash Bros. series. The Super Smash Bros. series is a crossover game that brings together some of Nintendo‘s most popular characters so that they can fight each other. Smash Bros. is so popular that other developers have offered to use their characters to appear in the game, such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake.
So far, the biggest Smash Bros. announcement happened at the end of the Nintendo Direct on November 12, 2015. The event ended with the announcement of Cloud Strife being added to the latest Smash Bros. game as paid DLC. There have been a few different third-party characters added to the Smash Bros. games over the years, but Cloud is most unique in that his debut game never appeared on any Nintendo console.
4. He Can Date Barret
The next Cloud Strife fact is that the first disc of Final Fantasy VII gives you many dialogue choices that affect your relationship with Aerith and Tifa. You will be given plenty of opportunities to praise or degrade each of the two heroines. The highlight is in the date sequence at the Ferris wheel amusement park, where Cloud visits several rides with the heroine he likes the most along the way.
This relationship mechanism was abandoned at the end of disc one when Aerith was killed by Sephiroth. If you go out of your way to be mean to both heroines throughout the game, then there’s a chance you’ll go on a date on the Ferris wheel with Barret instead. In fact, Barret spent most of the date criticizing Cloud for not inviting the other girls to the party.
5. His relationship with Tifa will become clearer
There is a moment towards the end of the main story where Cloud and Tifa tell all party members to go visit their own families and make a decision on whether they still want to join in their final assault against Sephiroth. Cloud and Tifa spent the night together outside Highwind, although it is uncertain if anything romantic happened between them.
This scene would have been much more straightforward in the beginning. We first see Cloud leaving the Chocobo enclosure in Highwind, followed by Tifa. He would keep looking around to make sure that no one noticed them. All people can think of is the same thing that would be on Chocobo‘s mind. This is one fact about Cloud Strife that Final Fantasy VII fans have been hoping for.
6. It Takes Two to Lift the Sword
The next Cloud Strife fact comes from his sword. Cloud’s Buster Sword is one of the most iconic weapons in video game history. Crisis Core has explained its history and meaning to the point where Zack uses it in most stories. This explanation is rather ridiculous considering the fact that most Final Fantasy VII players would discard the Buster Sword as soon as they found a better weapon.
The Buster Sword looks cool, but it’s not very practical to use. Cloud is one of the people who can use it as he has superpowers thanks to the experiments done on him by Hojo. The real-life Buster Sword was created in a famous YouTube show called Man At Arms. The real-life Buster Sword is so heavy that it takes two people to lift and swing it.
7. Cloud and Sephiroth’s Rivalry is Based on a True Story
The last Cloud Strife fact is about his rivalry with Sephiroth. Sephiroth’s physical design remained largely the same throughout development, but his role in the story changed slightly. He was originally told to be Aerith’s brother and later became her lover. Sephiroth was planning to suffer from Mako addiction and the cause of his madness was due to the addiction he suffered from the substance.
One of the main design inspirations for these two characters came from the story of a duel between two swordsmen in Japan. Miyamoto Musashi was a Ronin and master swordsman, who lived in the late 1500s. He dueled with another famous swordsman named Sasaki Kojiro in 1612. Musashi won the duel with a wooden sword known as Bokken.
And that was 7 Cloud Strife Facts that Gamedaim managed to summarize. If you have any other facts about Cloud Strife that aren’t mentioned on the list, don’t forget to add them in the comments section.
