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| “ | I know. I'm not alone... Not anymore. | „ |
| ~ Cloud |
Summary
Cloud Strife is the main protagonist in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and also appears in the spin-off games of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, including Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- and Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, as a supporting character.
An arrogant and proud swordsman at first, Cloud believes himself to be a former member of a top-ranking member of Shinra's elite paramilitary unit, SOLDIER. Now working as a mercenary-for-hire, Cloud takes a job with the anti-Shinra organization AVALANCHE to bring down his old employers. It's revealed during the game that he isn't what he seems: Cloud failed to qualify for SOLDIER and instead took a job as an infantryman. During a mission to Nibelheim with Sephiroth and his best friend and SOLDIER 1st Class Zack Fair, Cloud was wounded and used as a lab experiment for Hojo. Zack broke them out years later but died in the escape, and Cloud, suffering from a great deal of physical and psychological trauma, impressed Zack's memories on his own, creating a false past and a false personality to match it. With the help of his friends, learns there is more to being a hero than possessing physical strength and fame.
After the truth is revealed he suffers a stunning revelation, but thanks to a journey to the center of the mind, he comes to terms with who he is and rebuilds his persona from the ground up.
Powers and Stats
Tier: 4-B | 4-B | High 5-A to Unknown
Name: Cloud Strife
Origin: Final Fantasy VII
Gender: Male
Age: 21 (FF7) 23 (Advent Children) 24 (Dirge of Cerberus)
Classification: Human, Former Shinra Infantryman, Mercenary, Successful Sephiroth Clone
Powers and Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Magic, Summoning, Master Swordsman and is skilled in the use of a shotgun and grenades (Used to be a Shinra infantryman) and the use of Mako to empower weapon and for different effects (Using powerful Limit Breaks like Braver, Meteorain, Cross-Slash, Finishing Touch, Omnislash, Omnislash Version 5, and many more), Elemental Manipulation (Of the Lightning, Ice, Wind, Fire and Earth variety), Healing and Regeneration (Mid-Low), Poison Manipulation, Transmutation (In the form of transforming others into toads), Petrification (Possible side effect of the Break spell), Teleportation (Can also be used to send target(s) far away, not to another dimension), Barrier Creation, Time Manipulation (In the form of slowing his enemies down and speeding his own time up), Energy Blasts (In the form of Ultima), Death Manipulation (Can instantly kill his foes with the Death spell), Non-Physical Interaction (Able to hurt and defeat the ghosts and souls of the fallen Gi Tribe), Resistance to Soul Attacks, Telekinesis, Mind Control, Illusions, Sleep Inducement, Paralysis, Silence, Confusion, Transmutation, Size Manipulation, Petrification, Mind Manipulation, BFR, Death Manipulation, Poison Manipulation, Time Manipulation, and Time Stop (By equipping one of the Ribbons made by Aerith or by slotting materia into his armor, Cloud gains a variety of resistances to the status effects inflicted by various magical spells).
Attack Potency: Solar System level (Capable of fighting Safer-Sephiroth) | Solar System level (Has defeated Sephiroth with all versions of Omnislash. Notably, at the end of the original game, Cloud's will briefly surpass Sephiroth's in their battle inside the Lifestream) | Dwarf Star level to Unknown (Higher tiered summons like Typhoon or Knights of the Round are capable of this level of power)
Speed: Massively FTL+ (Capable of keeping pace with Sephiroth, a character far stronger than Bahamut Fury in all incarnations)
Lifting Strength: Unknown
Striking Strength: Solar System Class (Capable of injuring Sephiroth with physical blows) | Solar System Class | Dwarf Star Class to Unknown
Durability: Solar System level (Tanked the awakening of the five remaining Weapons in the Northern Crater and survived Sephiroth's Octaslash [Or at least the slashes that just moments before parried his original Omnislash] in Advent Children. Survived Sephiroth's Supernova)
Stamina: Extremely high, fights against entire gauntlets of monsters with no signs of exhaustion and clashing with the Remnants of Sephiroth on even ground despite being afflicted with Geostigma. In addition, he was able to continue fighting even after sustaining multiple injuries and being impaled through the torso by Sephiroth.
Range: Extended melee range with his Buster Sword, much higher with magic
Standard Equipment: Buster Sword, Ultima Weapon (His final weapon in FFVII), Materia, Fusion Swords in Advent Children (Collection of 6 swords combined into one), Ribbon (Protects him from status ailments), Fenrir (His bike)
Intelligence: An immensely skilled combatant and the only person to have defeated Sephiroth in a duel. From the memories he inherited from Zack he is a master swordsman, deftly wielding the massive Buster Sword with precision and using it in conjunction with the various magic spells he has access to through the use of materia, which he has likely mastered. He is also a capable leader, spearheading several successful operations against Shinra during his time with AVALANCHE. In addition, he has accumulated a wealth of fighting experience from fighting a wide variety of enemies, from elite special ops units to the dangerous monsters that wander the Earth and even cosmic horrors like Jenova.
Weaknesses: Cloud must be hard pressed in order to use his Limit Breaks. After the events of Final Fantasy VII, he has become somewhat moody and depressed as he tries to piece together his identity from his fractured memories, but this his condition has improved since the ending of Advent Children
Notable Attacks/Techniques:
Limit Breaks
- Braver: Cloud jumps into the air before cleaving the opponent in two with a single vertical strike. In Dissidia, Cloud instead begins this attack in the air, dashing into the target before slamming them into the floor.
- Cross-Slash: A single physical attack with three slashes. Can inflict paralysis. In AC, with the first Tsurugi, he can split it into 2 separate blades and do a cross slash.
- Blade Beam: Fires a blue energy beam that can be fired multiple times at once.
- Climhazzard: Runs an opponent through the Buster Sword before dragging them into the air with an upward slash. Cloud uses Climhazzard to defeat Bahamut SIN in Advent Children.
- Finishing Touch: Hits all enemies with a tornado causing instant death, or dealing normal damage for any enemy immune to instant death. In Dissidia, he instead spins around the opponent, delivering multiple slashes while rising to the air, then slams them into the ground.
- Meteorain: Cloud swings his sword and fires off 6 meteor-like bolts of energy at his opponent(s).
- Omnislash: Cloud's original ultimate Limit Break. Cloud rushes towards his opponent before unleashing a flurry of fourteen critically damaging blows at high speed. Cloud then dramatically leaps into the air and brings his sword down for the final slash to finish his opponent. The Dissidia version has Cloud fly around his opponent as he dishes out these attacks, striking the opponent's back and vitals so quickly that that one is only able to see his position after finishing each slash before finishing them off with the final downward slice.
- Omnislash Version 5: Cloud separates the Fusion Sword into its six component blades that float around his opponent. He is then engulfed in an orange aura before dashing past the target at incredible speeds that leave foes as fast as Sephiroth unable to react, leaving afterimages in his wake as he grabs another blade which he combines with the one he has in hand before attacking his opponent again. He repeats this motion until he collects all six blades, upon which he finishes his target with a single strike from the First Tsurugi. In Dissidia he is also able to perform this with the Buster Sword, being a shorter variation of Omnislash that has Cloud fly around the opponent multiple times before finishing with the downward strike.
- Omnislash Version 6: A longer variation of Omnislash Version 5 that only appeared in Advent Children Complete, Cloud is engulfed in a blue aura before enacting Omnislash Version 5, only striking the target multiple times with each additional sword for a total of thirteen devastating blows. This technique finished off Sephiroth with a single use, forcing him to dissipate back into the Lifestream.
- Cherry Blossom Slash: An attack exclusive to his appearance in Final Fantasy Tactics, Cloud unleashes a powerful barrage of lightning, ice and fire to devastate an opponent.
Magic
- Break: Cloud deals Earth-elemental damage. This attack can petrify an opponent, effectively killing them unless they have an ability that resists its effects.
- Death: Cloud instantly kills the target unless they're fortunate enough to dodge it or if they're immune to instant death attacks.
- Haste: Cloud speeds up time around himself, greatly increasing his movement and combat speed.
- Slow: Cloud slows down time around his target, slowing their movements and combat speed to a crawl.
- Toad: Cloud transmutes his target into a common toad, leaving them helpless to resist his attacks
- Ultima: The ultimate offensive magic, unleashing a burst of energy that deals massive non-elemental damage.
Most of the info on some of these techniques are based on game mechanics and the movie Advent Children.
Note: The profile covers the canon version of Cloud. Little canon information is available in regards to which summons the party may or may not possess (much like with magic materia), thus it is up to the thread maker to specify what sort of materia, if any, Cloud has at his disposal at the start of a match.
Not to be confused with his alternate counterpart from Kingdom Hearts.
Key: Base | Limit Breaks | Summons
Gallery
Others
Notable Victories:
Matt (Epic Battle Fantasy) Matt's Profile (Speed was equalized and both were Bloodlusted)
Notable Losses:
Inconclusive Matches:
Zero (Mega Man) Zero's Profile (Speed was equalized)