#Cloud strife buster sword final fantasy series

The contrast between Cloud, a 'young, passionate boy', and Sephiroth, a 'more mature and cool' individual, struck Amano as 'intriguing', though not unusual as a pairing. He thought Cloud's baggy pants, which taper at the bottom, reflected a Japanese style, resembling the silhouette of a hakama. According to Amano, because of the hardware limitations of the PlayStation, characters could not be rendered realistically.

Like with previous Final Fantasy titles, Yoshitaka Amano painted promotional images for Final Fantasy VII. Nomura also made Cloud taller than he appeared in the SGI Onyx demo, while a discarded iteration drawn 'more on the realistic side' depicted Cloud with an even taller head and body and a more muscular physique. 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, To make Cloud stand out more and emphasize his role as the game's lead protagonist, Nomura altered Cloud's design to give him spiky, bright blond hair. Ĭloud's design underwent several revisions. Frustrated by the continued popularity of Final Fantasy IV's characters despite the release of two sequels, Nomura made it his goal to create a memorable cast. Left to imagine the stories behind the characters he designed, Nomura shared these details in discussions with staff or in separately penned notes. Kitase and Nomura discussed that Cloud would be the lead of three protagonists, but Nomura did not receive character profiles or a completed scenario in advance. Sakaguchi, impressed with Nomura's illustrations and detailed handwritten notes for Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, tasked Nomura with designing Final Fantasy VII's main characters. In addition to testing models ported from Square's 1995 SIGGRAPH demo, Nomura and a handful of other artists created new characters, including an early design of Cloud. A small group including Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura worked in secret to develop a demo for a Nintendo 64 emulation kit running on an SGI Onyx. After a pause in development so that the team could help finish Chrono Trigger, Square began experimenting with next-generation hardware. In Hironobu Sakaguchi's first plot treatment, a prototype for Cloud's character belonged to an organization attempting to destroy New York City's 'Mako Reactors'. 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. Through each game in the Kingdom Hearts series, Cloud is portrayed as being especially stoic and melancholic compared to his usual personality in Final Fantasy VII, although he exhibits similar behavior in Advent Children.Įarly sketches of Cloud by Tetsuya Nomura As Cloud's journey unfolds, he rediscovers his past and, alongside his childhood friend Tifa Lockhart and newfound friends within Avalanche, abandons his quest for power and fame in favor of fighting to defend his friends and their home planet Gaia.

In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud is initially appears as a proud, yet arrogant and aloof swordsman who claims to be a former member of the elite paramilitary group SOLDIER, Cloud is hired by the insurgency group Avalanche as a mercenary to help them in their cause against the Shinra Electric Power Company.

His appearance is marked by spiky blonde hair, vivid blue eyes (a distinct feature of SOLDIER members and a sign of having been exposed to Mako energy), and dark purple or blue clothing. Cloud's signature weapon is the Buster Sword, a massive two-handed broadsword, which he uses in Final Fantasy VII and most of his spin-off appearances. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U and Super Smash Bros.

#Cloud strife buster sword final fantasy series

He is also a character in the Kingdom Hearts series and a playable character in Super Smash Bros.

For information about other subjects with the name 'Cloud', see Cloud (disambiguation).Ĭloud Strife is the main protagonist of Final Fantasy VII and several of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII games.