Final Fantasy VII Characters

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In gameplay terms, Final Fantasy VII's characters are only really differentiated by their weapon types and limit breaks, since any character has the potential to equip any materia and, eventually, have their statistics manipulated in any way desired. However, as far as plot is concerned, they are an interesting crowd — much more so, in our opinion, than FF7, FF8, and FF10 character designer Tetsuya Nomura's later creations.

There is a certain depth of information about the Final Fantasy VII characters which cannot be conveyed without spoiling the plot. Hence, you can turn spoiler information on or off for this section. We suggest that you only turn it on if you've finished the game, and are interested in our character and plot analysis, and how it compares to your own understanding of the game. You can still view a character synopsis and their key data without using the spoiler mode.

Cloud Strife

Vital Statistics

Age	21
Height	173cm
Occupation	Mercenary
Weapon	Sword
Birthdate	19 August
Hometown	Nibelheim

Biography

Cloud is apparently a former SOLDIER, first class, who left the Shinra elite fighting force following an incident in his hometown five years ago, involving Sephiroth, which left his childhood friend Tifa at death's door. His initially casual attitude makes him no friends at eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE, who hire him at the beginning of the game to help in a raid on one of Midgar's Mako reactors.

There is, however, a lot more to Cloud than meets the eye. Far from being the emotionless mercenary he perhaps wishes he could be, a complicated past causes him deep inner turmoil throughout the story. Does he even know himself exactly what happened on that day, five years ago? His account of events is certainly flawed, as you may well observe.

Additional Information

Even if you've finished the game, it's still easy to be confused by Cloud's past, especially given some of the misleading comments (mistranslated and/or misunderstood? Or are the characters in question just lying?) which are made about it in the game. We'll try to clarify our own understanding of it here.

Well, Cloud IS Cloud, the very same one who grew up in Nibelheim at the same time as Tifa. He did leave to join SOLDIER, but he only made it as far as being one of those regular fancy-helmeted blue Shinra grunts you see all over the game. This, you might remember, is where his memory falls down at the fake Nibelheim in the middle Disc 2; he can't remember how he got into SOLDIER because he didn't make it. You might also remember one of those Jenova-flashed memories of talking with his mother from the original flashback, which went something like:

"Is that a SOLDIER uniform?"
"Mom, I..."
[Flash]

We'll never know what followed, but we can reasonably guess that he might well have told his mother that he hadn't achieved his ambition.

The "Cloud" in the original flashback to the Nibelheim incident is partly the real Cloud. Most of his interaction with Sephiroth and the other townspeople (who don't seem to recognise him, remember) was actually undertaken by Zack, the real SOLDIER who came with Sephiroth. Cloud was there as one of the regular grunts, but was too ashamed that he didn't make it to SOLDIER, and kept his mask on.

If you're wondering which one he was, it seems like he was the less talkative soldier in the original flashback. Remember how that one shakes his head in every version of the arrival scene? We see in the Lifestream that this was Cloud deciding not to reveal his identity. This may not reflect his true personality at the time, however. He is clearly friends with Zack (if only from later scenes) and he has presumably even told Sephiroth something about himself, in order for him to ask that oft-repeated "How does it feel?" question. It seems more likely that he's quiet in the original flashback because Cloud doesn't remember him well. Clearly, if he did remember properly, he'd know it was himself, and one imagines he'd start doubling up on the floor in flashes of pain all over again. And even by the time of the Kalm flashback, we've already had quite enough of that nonsense.

Another possible explanation, a deeper one, is that his "true" self is trying to express himself through the quiet soldier in his memory. There's not much supporting evidence for this, except that he does remind "Cloud" that they're one bed short at the Inn. (The real Cloud stayed at his own home, we assume.)

On the other hand, it seems to be the talkative soldier who is standing behind "Cloud" when Sephiroth grants permission to visit family and friends. So perhaps it just switches. It's not as if Cloud's memories are exactly clear on the matter now, is it?

So we all know what happens next (unless you're reading the spoilers before finishing the game, in which case, we're very disappointed in you). After he fails to kill Sephiroth in spite of stabbing him pretty convincingly (and you wondered how he didn't make it to SOLDIER 1st...) it's the real Cloud who does help Tifa when she needs it, fulfilling the promise of that starry night. Aww. And only then, after being mounted trophy-style on Sephiroth's Masamune, does he finally manage to throw off the insane Jenova-spawn into the lifestream, presumably through some huge adrenaline rush (it WASN'T Jenova cells - he wasn't in SOLDIER and hadn't been infected - yet).

Have you been to the basement of the Shinra Mansion since the Lifestream flashback? If not, go there now and watch the scene, before we refer to it up ahead.

Seen it? Good. So this is why we say Cloud and Zack were friends, and where Cloud got his uniform and sword, and his Jenova infection. This, one must assume, is what Hojo meant when he said Cloud was "constructed piece by piece" five years ago; more accurately, he was reconstructed after some unfortunate meetings with fire and Sephiroth. You can either assume that Zack recounted what happened to Cloud while he was groaning and lolling, or he got dosed with Zack memories in that tank thing in the basement. Either way, he takes on board what Zack said about becoming mercenaries, and somehow arrives in Midgar. Tifa's appearance focuses his memory, but he ends up with some of Zack's in there. And so we're back at the beginning of the game.

So that's what has happened to Cloud. What of him during the game? In spite of starting off as the typical irritating loner-mercenary, Cloud grows into (or starts to remember being) a better person fairly quickly. Perhaps it's the influence of Aeris, as it's after landing in her church that he seems really to begin to care more about others. He is also quite perceptive after he realises his true past - it is he who observes that the party are all fighting for their own personal reasons as much as for the "greater good", and gives everyone time to think. He is indeed, especially towards the end, a great and worthy leader and a hero. It's just a real shame he had to help the bad guy so often along the way.

Check other characters' pages for details on their relationships with Cloud.

More About Cloud Strife

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