Cloud Strife is kind of a mess. Honestly, if you look at the broad strokes of Cloud Final Fantasy Seven, he shouldn't work as a protagonist. He starts off as this cold, borderline arrogant jerk who only cares about his paycheck. He’s got this massive sword that defies every law of physics ever written, and he’s constantly brooding. But here we are, decades after the original 1997 release, still talking about him like he’s a close friend who went through some serious trauma. Because, well, he did.
The thing about Cloud is that he’s the ultimate unreliable narrator. Most RPG heroes are these beacons of truth and justice, but Cloud is built on a foundation of lies—most of which he actually believes himself. That’s the hook. That’s why he sticks in your brain.
The Identity Crisis That Defined a Generation
Let’s get real for a second: Cloud isn’t actually a First Class SOLDIER. At least, he wasn't when the game started.
For years, players thought they were playing as this elite super-soldier. We bought into the cool, detached persona. But the genius of the writing in Cloud Final Fantasy Seven is the slow, painful unraveling of that myth. You find out he was actually just a regular Shinra grunt who was too weak—physically and mentally—to make the cut for the SOLDIER program. He was a failure in his own eyes.
This creates a level of relatability that you just don’t see in modern "perfect" protagonists. Cloud’s entire personality at the start of the game is a defensive mechanism. He’s literally wearing his dead best friend’s life like a costume because his own reality was too painful to inhabit. Zack Fair is the hero Cloud wanted to be, so Cloud just... became him. Sort of.
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It's messy. It’s psychological. It’s way deeper than "guy with big sword fights evil corporation."
The Jenova Cells and the Mental Breakdown
We have to talk about the science, or the "mako science," behind his brain. Cloud isn't just sad; he’s biologically compromised. Being injected with Jenova cells by Hojo didn't just give him glowing eyes and super strength; it gave his mind a "mimic" ability.
When he met Tifa at the Sector 7 train station, his fractured psyche used the Jenova cells to read her memories of him and stitch together a version of himself that fit her expectations. It’s a literal biological gaslighting of his own soul. Kazushige Nojima, the scenario writer, has talked about how they wanted to explore the fragility of the human ego. They succeeded. Cloud’s "coolness" is actually a symptom of a mental break.
Why the Buster Sword is More Than a Meme
You can’t talk about Cloud without the Buster Sword. It’s iconic. It’s oversized. It’s impractical as hell.
But within the lore of Cloud Final Fantasy Seven, that hunk of metal is a heavy emotional burden. It’s a legacy. Passed from Angeal Hewley to Zack Fair, and finally to Cloud, it represents the hopes and the tragic ends of the men who came before him. When Cloud swings that sword, he’s not just dealing physical damage; he’s carrying the weight of his failures.
In the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, the developers at Square Enix have leaned even harder into this. You can see the struggle in his animations. He’s strong, yeah, but he’s also straining. He’s fighting his own body as much as he’s fighting Sephiroth.
The Sephiroth Connection
Sephiroth isn't just a villain. He’s Cloud’s dark mirror.
They are both products of the same horrific experimentation. While Sephiroth leans into the "monster" aspect of his origin, Cloud spends the entire story trying to reclaim his humanity. Every time Sephiroth appears, he isn't just trying to destroy the world; he’s trying to remind Cloud that he’s "just a puppet." It’s a toxic, obsessive relationship that makes their rivalry one of the most compelling in gaming history.
Honestly, Sephiroth is like that one intrusive thought you can’t get rid of, personified.
Navigating the Love Triangle: Tifa vs. Aerith
People have been screaming at each other on internet forums for twenty-five years about this. It’s the "Great Shipping War."
- Tifa Lockhart: She is Cloud’s anchor. She knows the truth about his past but is too afraid to tell him because she doesn't want his mind to shatter completely. She represents the reality he tried to run away from.
- Aerith Gainsborough: She represents the future he could have had. She sees through the "SOLDIER" persona almost immediately. When she tells him in the park, "I'm looking for you," she’s talking to the real Cloud, the dorky kid from Nibelheim, not the mercenary.
The tragedy of Aerith’s fate in the original Cloud Final Fantasy Seven isn't just that she dies. It’s that she dies right when Cloud is starting to figure out who he actually is. Her death is the catalyst that finally forces him to stop pretending.
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The Impact of the Remake Trilogy
If you're playing the Remake series, things are getting weird. We're dealing with multiple timelines, "Whispers" of fate, and a Cloud who seems to be having literal glitches in his reality.
Square Enix is playing with our meta-knowledge of the 1997 game. They know we know Cloud’s secret. So, they’re using that against us. The scenes in Rebirth where Cloud’s memory starts to fray are genuinely unsettling. It’s not just a retelling anymore; it’s a deconstruction of Cloud’s trauma for a modern audience that understands mental health much better than we did in the 90s.
How to Truly Understand Cloud’s Journey
To get the most out of Cloud’s story, you have to look past the "cool" factor.
- Watch his body language. In the original game’s blocky models, it was hard to see. In the modern games, notice how he shuffles his feet or avoids eye contact when Tifa mentions Nibelheim.
- Pay attention to the "Zack" moments. Every time Cloud mentions his time in SOLDIER, look for the static on the screen or the high-pitched ringing sound. That’s the game telling you he’s lying to himself.
- Read the "On the Way to a Smile" novella. It covers the time between the original game and the Advent Children movie. It explains Cloud’s "Geostigma" as a physical manifestation of his guilt. It’s depressing, but essential for understanding his character arc.
Cloud Strife isn't a hero because he’s powerful. He’s a hero because, after his entire identity was stripped away and he realized he was "just" a failed grunt, he decided to fight anyway. He stopped trying to be Zack and started being Cloud. That’s the real victory in Cloud Final Fantasy Seven.
If you're looking to dive deeper into the lore, start by re-playing the "Kalm Flashback" in either the original or Rebirth. Compare what Cloud says happened with the tiny details in the background. Look at the way he interacts with Sephiroth in those memories. The discrepancies are where the real story lives. Once you see the cracks in the armor, you can never go back to seeing him as just another guy with a sword.