Game Information | FFVII Character Compendium
Cloud Strife

From the Manual:

Job: Mercenary (ex-member of SOLDIER)
Age: 21
Weapon: Sword
Height: 5'7"
Birthdate: August 19
Birthplace: Nibelheim
Blood Type: AB

The main character in Final Fantasy VII. Originally a member of SOLDIER, he is now a mercenary who will take any job. After being hired by AVALANCHE, he gradually gets caught up in a massive struggle for the life of the planet. His enormous sword can cut almost anything into two.

From the Game:

Cloud Strife was born and raised in the village of Nibelheim. During his time there, he lived with his mother in a small house next door to the Lockheart family. He spent his childhood longing to join Tifa Lockheart's circle of friends, with no success. The day Tifa's mother died, she ran off into the Nibel Mountains, and Cloud followed her. Tifa fell and became seriously injured, while Cloud only suffered scraped knees. Though the accident wasn't Cloud's fault, Tifa's father nevertheless placed the blame on him, and sought to shield his daughter from the boy ever since.

Some years later, the teenaged Cloud arranged a meeting with Tifa by the town's well, where he told her that he was going to be leaving town that following spring with the goal of becoming a SOLDIER First Class, like his hero Sephiroth. Tifa asked Cloud to promise her that if she was ever in trouble, he would come to rescue her; Cloud agreed to this promise.

Cloud returned to Nibelheim two years later as a lowly Shinra MP, serving under Sephiroth and First Class SOLDIER Zack. Ashamed that he had not been able to return to his hometown as a SOLDIER, Cloud hid his identity from some of the townsfolk, including Tifa, who served as the group's guide to Mt. Nibel. One Nibelheim resident he revealed himself to during that trip was his mother, to whom he paid a brief visit.

Shortly after the trip to Mt. Nibel, both Cloud and his friend Zack began to notice Sephiroth's strange behavior. Sephiroth would soon go on a murderous rampage and set fire to the town. Cloud would be knocked out during much of this, but would eventually awaken and, seeking revenge, follow Sephiroth to Mt. Nibel's mako reactor. It is there that he finds the unconscious Tifa and carries her to safety; then, following orders from an injured Zack, Cloud went to confront Sephiroth, with the intent of killing him. Sephiroth stabbed Cloud with his Masamune, but in an incredible display of strength, Cloud used the same blade to fling Sephiroth, carrying Jenova's severed head, into the steaming mako beneath them.

Shortly afterwards, troops from Shinra arrived in Nibelheim; leading them was Professor Hojo. Cloud and Zack were kept imprisoned in the Shinra Mansion's basement and experimented on, injected with both mako and Jenova cells in an effort to turn them into "Sephiroth clones". Five years later, Zack broke free of his enclosure and, helping the comatose Cloud along, escaped the newly-rebuilt Nibelheim. During their journey, Zack dressed Cloud in one of his old SOLDIER uniforms and decided that their ultimate destination would be Midgar, where they would become mercenaries. Unfortunately, shortly before they were to reach the city, the pair were caught by Shinra MPs and shot at. Zack died, but Cloud, who was still just barely conscious, was merely left for dead. After the MPs left, Cloud awoke and took Zack's sword in his hands.

Cloud continued toward Midgar on his own, finally winding up in the train station in the Sector 7 slums. It was there that Tifa found him, and it was also marks the beginning of Cloud's alternate life, claiming to be a former SOLDIER First Class and taking most all of the details from Zack's story of the Nibelheim incident—told to him by Zack himself—as his own. Upon their meeting, Cloud notes that the last time he and Tifa had seen each other was five years ago, even though she believes she hadn't seen him for seven. Tifa then told Cloud about a bombing mission for AVALANCHE, which Cloud accepted. Despite a moment where Cloud inexplicably recalled a phrase from his past, this first bombing mission went off without a hitch, and after a trip through Midgar back to AVALANCHE's hideout (including a fateful meeting with a certain flower girl), Cloud and Tifa found themselves alone on the main floor of the latter's bar. She asked Cloud if he remembered the promise by the well, and they reminisced about that night.

During their second bombing mission, Cloud suddenly hallucinates the moment when Tifa discovered her dead father in the Mt. Nibel reactor. He comes to in time to set the bomb, but AVALANCHE's plans go awry during their escape, and Cloud fell several feet from the Sector 5 reactor, landing in an abandoned church in the slums. A voice from deep within himself talked to him, telling him, "Back then... You could get by with just skinned knees", but before he could figure out who the voice is, he came to. He then has his second meeting with Aeris, who asked Cloud to become her bodyguard. During their time together, he found out that Aeris once had a boyfriend in SOLDIER, but doesn't learn his name.

After a couple of adventures in Midgar's slums, Cloud found himself in the Shinra Building, where the body of Jenova floated in a containment vessel in a laboratory. Once again, Cloud was seized by a force he couldn't explain. Then, after he and his AVALANCHE friends had been caught, they escaped, only to find Sephiroth's Masamune sword sticking up from President Shinra's back. It is here where Cloud found for himself a new purpose: finding Sephiroth and putting a stop to his actions.

Cloud's group—now consisting of Tifa, Aeris, AVALANCHE leader Barret, and former lab specimen Red XIII—escaped from the Shinra Building and Midgar and headed toward Kalm, where Cloud told them all what happened five years prior, putting himself in the role of Zack for most of the tale. During this retelling, Tifa listened silently, but did not dispute anything Cloud said.

Cloud and his friends ended up following Sephiroth all over the world. Their travels took them to the Gold Saucer and Rocket Town, where they encountered new party members Cait Sith and Cid, respectively (and optionally, Yuffie in one of the world's forests and/or Vincent in Nibelheim). They also journeyed on to the Temple of the Ancients, where Cloud gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth, Cloud's inner child being unable to stop his adult, physical self. A similar incident nearly occurred in the City of the Ancients, where Cloud approached Aeris, kneeling at an altar, and raised his sword to strike her, only to be stopped by one of his fellow party members. Sephiroth himself would complete the task, and Cloud, devastated by his friend's sudden murder, continued in his quest to stop the silver-haired warrior.

They soon reached the Northern Crater, where the group reacquired the Black Materia and Sephiroth showed Cloud, Tifa, and another party member what really happened in Nibelheim five years ago. At first, Cloud dismissed this as one of the silver-haired swordsman's tricks, but eventually his mind starts to come unraveled as Sephiroth's words and actions caused him to doubt his own past, a past which Cloud had come to believe as the truth. As Sephiroth's visions dissipated, Rufus, Scarlet, and Hojo arrived on the scene. While Cloud listened, Hojo explained to the Shinra executives and the party members present that the spiky-haired blond is a Sephiroth clone, and a failed one at that. As a part of the "Jenova Reunion" project, Cloud then realized that he wasn't pursuing Sephiroth, but rather, Sephiroth had been summoning him. Cloud gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth and, while the others escaped in Shinra's long-range airship, was subsequently caught in a cave-in.

Cloud was later found in the Mideel area, in a place where the Lifestream springs to the surface. Severely ill with mako poisoning, and barely able to speak, Cloud was confined to a wheelchair. Upon finding him in this state, Tifa decided to leave the group to stay by Cloud's side. Shortly after Ultimate Weapon's attack on Mideel, there was an earthquake and both Cloud and Tifa wound up deep within the Lifestream. It is here where Cloud, with some help from his inner child, revealed the truth about his past to Tifa, as well his childhood anxieties and disappointments.

With their pasts fully resolved, Cloud and Tifa returned to the surface and to their friends aboard the stolen Shinra airship Highwind. Cloud once again took up the mantle of leadership, but not without first apologizing to the others—especially Tifa. With Cloud leading them, the party gathered the rest of the Huge Materia, witnessed the downfall of Shinra, and managed to defeat Sephiroth in time to free Holy and save the world.

Compilation Appearances:

Cloud is the main character in Advent Children, and also makes appearances in Before Crisis, Last Order, Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core, and the short stories "Case of Denzel" and "Case of Tifa". He's also prominently featured in Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding, a non-Compilation spinoff.