Cloud Strife

Cloud Strife
Final Fantasy character
Cloud Strife artwork by Tetsuya Nomura for Final Fantasy VII
First game	Final Fantasy VII (1997)
Created by	Yoshinori Kitase, Kazushige Nojima, Tetsuya Nomura, Hironobu Sakaguchi
Designed by	Tetsuya Nomura
Voiced by (English)	Steve Burton
Voiced by (Japanese)	Kenyu Horiuchi (Ehrgeiz, arcade version) Nozomu Sasaki (Ehrgeiz, home console version) Takahiro Sakurai (2002–present)
Fictional profile
Weapon	Sword
Race	Human
Home	Nibelheim

Cloud Strife (Japanese: クラウド・ストライフ, Hepburn: Kuraudo Sutoraifu^?) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Square's (now Square Enix's) role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII and several of its sequels and spin-offs. He was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, a character artist for the Final Fantasy series, whose role expanded during the title's development to include supervision over Cloud's personality. Yoshinori Kitase, director of VII, and Kazushige Nojima, one of the game's event planners, developed the story and wanted to create a mysterious character who acted atypically for a hero. After VII, Nomura assumed greater responsibility over Cloud's development, and his design was revised to better conform with the series' shift to a more realistic style. Cloud's appearance is marked by spiky blond hair, striking blue eyes, dark clothing and his Buster Sword (バスターソード, Basutā Sōdo^?); the sword previously belonged to his friend, Zack Fair. He stands 173 cm (5 ft 8 in) tall.