The Complete Final Fantasy Cloud Strife Timeline | The Leaderboard

- [Sydney] Of all the pretty boys with big swords and spiky hair in Final Fantasy, Cloud Strife manages to stand out from the pack. And in the Final Fantasy 7 remake, Cloud has never looked better. He's got one of the deepest, most impactful stories of any Final Fantasy protagonist to date. The remake is just around the corner, but Cloud's story stretches far beyond Final Fantasy 7. Equip some materia, strap on your buster sword, and subscribe to the Leaderboard; it's time to upload to the Cloud

. (electronic chirping) Cloud was born and raised in the sleepy little mountain town of Nibelheim. After the death of his father, Cloud struggled to make friends and eventually convinced himself that he was so much better than the other kids that he didn't need any friends at all. Nonetheless, he developed a crush on the girl next door, Tifa Lockheart, who was a year younger than him. Even though they were neighbors, Cloud and Tifa didn't really hang out. Tifa had many friends growing up, but Cl

oud resented from a distance, calling them immature. When Tifa's mother passed away, the eight-year-old Tifa couldn't wrap her head around the concept of death. She believed that her mother went to the peak of the nearby Mt. Nibel and set off to find her. Worried for Tifa's safety, Cloud followed behind to protect her. When the bridge they were crossing collapsed, he was unable to rescue Tifa and she was badly injured. Her father blamed Cloud for what happened to her, and while Tifa made a full

recovery, Cloud was forbidden from seeing her again. Five years later, a 14-year-old Cloud hears stories of the legendary Sephiroth. He's the strongest member of SOLDIER, an elite group of supersoldiers serving the Shinra Energy Corporation. Cloud wants to be a hero like him, so he resolves to join the Shinra military in hopes of becoming a SOLDIER. Before leaving, he asks Tifa to meet him and tells her his plan, trying to impress her. Sure enough, Tifa is charmed and makes Cloud promise that he

'll protect her if she's ever in danger. Soon after, Cloud left for the Shinra capital of Midgar with dreams of joining SOLDIER. Time in Shinra. Despite his lofty ambitions, Cloud fails to qualify for the SOLDIER program. Instead, he's relegated to being a lowly grunt in Shinra's armed forces. He's too ashamed to admit his failure, so he completely drops out of contact with his family, Tifa, and everybody he knew back home. During his service as an infantryman, he meets a high-ranking SOLDIER na

med Zack Fair. The two become fast friends, and Cloud starts looking up to Zack as a symbol of everything he dreams of being. On one fateful day, Cloud is sent back to Nibelheim to accompany Zack and the Sephiroth on a mission to investigate a damaged Mako Reactor on Mt. Nibel. Mako is basically the magical Lifestream of the planet that serves as Shinra's primary source of energy, so a damaged reactor is bad news. Cloud's still ashamed and unprepared to face the people of his hometown, so he hid

es behind his helmet the entire time. Tifa gets recruited to guide his team up the mountain, and he still doesn't show his face. Once they reach the reactor, the team discovers the cause of the incident: a series of inhumane experiments on people using Mako energy. Sephiroth realizes that he himself is the result of these sick experiments, and has a full-on mental breakdown. He completely goes berserk, and Cloud gets knocked unconscious in the ensuing chaos. Tifa brings him to safety, but when C

loud recovers, he witnesses a crazed Sephiroth laying waste to Nibelheim, burning it to the ground and slaughtering its people. He even kills Cloud's own mother. Cloud chases Sephiroth to the reactor, where he finds Zack and Tifa wounded and barely conscious, only to be impaled himself by his Mako-enhanced superior in return. But Cloud doesn't give up yet. He summons all of his strength, grabs the end of Sephiroth's blade, and uses it to hoist Sephiroth up and throw him into the reactor, Darth V

ader style, before collapsing himself. Shinra retrieves the unconscious Zack and Cloud, and subjects them to Mako experiments against their will. Zack survives the experiments relatively unscathed, but Cloud falls victim to Mako poisoning. The two are kept cryogenically frozen in the basement of Shinra Manor, an abandoned mansion and laboratory near Nibelheim. After four years, Zack manages to break himself and Cloud free, although Cloud, still delirious from the experiments, is barely able to f

unction. Zack takes the still-recovering Cloud on a journey to Midgar, where he plans to become a mercenary to fight against the corporation that betrayed him. However, when they arrive at the metropolis, Shinra forces attack them. Zack dies in the fight and gives his buster sword to Cloud. By this point, Cloud has already been through a lot, but seeing Zack die in front of him pushes him past the breaking point. The combined trauma causes his psyche to completely shatter. His mind forms a new p

ersona from his memories of Zack, but he blocks Zack out as though he never existed. Instead, Cloud thinks he did everything that Zack did, including joining SOLDIER, serving as Sephiroth's partner, and confronting him at the Mako Reactor. With a new set of false memories, the psychologically-tormented Cloud makes his way into Midgar to fulfill what he believes to be his own goal: becoming a mercenary. AVALANCHE. Cloud wanders the slums of Midgar until Tifa happens to run into him one day, findi

ng him mumbling to himself. Seeing Tifa causes Cloud to regain some of his consciousness, although his memories are still jumbled up. Tifa's worried about Cloud's condition and wants to keep an eye on him, so she invites him to join AVALANCHE, an eco-friendly insurgent group she's a part of. With his military training and fighting skills, Cloud helps Tifa and AVALANCHE's leader, Barrett, sabotage Shinra's stranglehold on Midgar, because that's how you help a friend who's struggling. For his debu

t mission, Cloud and his AVALANCHE comrades infiltrate a Shinra reactor in Sector 1 and blow it sky high. Cloud proves his worth to the group, but he's not really interested in their cause. He just wants to protect Tifa. After their successful attack, AVALANCHE tries to do the same to a different reactor in Sector 5. They blow that one up too, but Cloud is sent tumbling into the slums below. There, he meets Aeris Gainsborough, a kind-hearted flower seller who helps him reunite with Tifa and Barr

ett. After an episode of Drag Race hosted by a crime lord named Don Corneo, Cloud learns that Shinra has discovered AVALANCHE's headquarters and plans to attack it. But before Cloud and his friends can do anything, Shinra destroys the entire sector of Midgar that houses AVALANCHE's base, effectively killing all AVALANCHE members besides Cloud, Tifa, and Barrett. In the attack, Shinra captures Aeris, prompting Cloud and company to mount an assault on the Shinra headquarters to rescue her. As they

fight their way up Shinra's massive tower, the gang finds a mutant cat thing named Red XIII, who decides to join their crew after they free him. Shortly after, however, Cloud and all his friends get captured and taken into holding cells. In the middle of the night though, they find their cell doors open. The party follows a trail of blood and slaughtered guards, to the Shinra president's office, only to find him brutally slain by Sephiroth. With Shinra reinforcements in hot pursuit, Cloud leads

them in a chase through the city on a badass motorcycle while the rest of the party escapes in a van. Before Shinra can catch up, Cloud jumps the bike over the city walls of Midgar to freedom. The Hunt for Sephiroth. After reuniting on the other side of the Midgar walls, Cloud and his friends agree to search for Sephiroth and put a stop to whatever he's planning. Along the way, they recruit the ace pilot Cid Highwind, ninja thief Yuffie, and the brooding Vincent Valentine, and Cait Sith, who is

a (pausing) yeah. During his journey, Cloud is confronted with conflicting memories of his time in the Shinra military. He begins to realize that his version of events don't quite add up. Tifa knows that Cloud's memories are false, but avoids telling him out of fear of the psychological damage it could cause him. As their adventure continues, the group learns that Cait Sith is actually a drone piloted by a Shinra operative to infiltrate the group and spy on Cloud and his companions. Real incons

picuous, guys. The team follows the double agent to a hidden temple, where they learn that Sephiroth plans to use the temple's Black Materia to summon an apocalyptic meteor. When the meteor strikes the planet, it will free the Lifestream so that Sephiroth can absorb its energy and become a God. Cait Sith has a change of heart and sacrifices himself to get the Black Materia, before immediately showing up again in a backup body. Real noble sacrifice, you cat-devil-marshmallow thing. All seems well

, until Sephiroth attacks. See, Cloud still has modified cells left in his body from Shinra's Mako experiments. Sephiroth uses these cells to force Cloud to hand him the black materia and even attack Aeris. The rest of the party manages to stop Cloud from hurting her by knocking him out. When he wakes up later, he's fully lucid again and learns from his friends that Aeris has left on her own. She said that she is the only one capable of stopping Sephiroth. Turns out that Aeris is the last of the

Cetra, an ancient race with magical powers that could hold the key to defeating Sephiroth. Cloud and the gang find her praying at the Cetra's Forgotten City, but once again Cloud loses control. Sephiroth's influence overwhelms him and forces him to attack Aeris. But before he can kill her, his friends help him regain control of himself and he stays his blade. At that moment, Sephiroth himself drops from the sky and kills Aeris by impaling her with his sword. Grief-stricken, Cloud lays Aeris' bo

dy to rest, unwilling to continue out of fear of what Sephiroth might force him to do if he goes on. And yet, his friends convince him to continue his journey and stop Sephiroth. Saving the World. Cloud and his friends track Sephiroth down to the North Crater, where Cloud regains the Black Materia. He gives it to a companion to keep Sephiroth from mind-controlling him into giving it back. He then learns that Sephiroth has been able to control him because the cells in his body actually came from

Jenova, an alien monster Shinra used to create Sephiroth. Professor Hojo, the Shinra scientist responsible, arrives and explains why Cloud is so driven to pursue Sephiroth. Cloud and Sephiroth both have cells from Jenova, and those cells are trying to reunite with each other. Cloud learns that his memories are false, but doesn't regain his real memories. Instead, he figures he's a monster created by professor Hojo, just like Sephiroth. Also, turns out the Sephiroth we've been seeing is actually

a proxy for the true Sephiroth. Jenova created this proxy to free Sephiroth's real body from its stasis within the crater. Sure enough, Cloud and friends show up, and Sephiroth mind-controls Cloud into taking the Black Materia from them and giving it to the true Sephiroth. With everything now in place, Sephiroth awakens, summons Meteor, and cracks open the planet's crust. Once Cloud is himself again, he apologizes to Tifa for not being the person he believed he was. Just then, a tremor sends him

tumbling off a fissure and into the Lifestream. A week later, Cloud's friends discover him in the small fishing village of Mideel. He's alive, but catatonic from Mako poisoning. Tifa stays to help Cloud recover while the rest of the party heads off to fight Shinra. Shortly after, Mideel is attacked by Ultima Weapon, a primordial being driven berserk by the approaching meteor. In the chaos, Cloud and Tifa fall into another Lifestream fissure, and Tifa finds herself in Cloud's subconscious. Withi

n his mind, Tifa helps Cloud remember the truth of his past: that he was never in SOLDIER or childhood friends with Tifa, but he's still a real person from Nibelheim. Finally coming to terms with his past, Cloud emerges from his catatonic state and reassumes leadership of the party with newfound confidence. Cloud and company soon discover a way to stop the meteor. Before she died, Aeris summoned an ancient white magic called Holy, a spell powerful enough to destroy the meteor and repair the plan

et. However, Sephiroth is holding the magic back, and it can never be released until he is defeated. With only one shot to save the world, Cloud and his friends descend to the depths of the planet to battle the now-godlike Sephiroth. They emerge victorious, but Cloud can sense that Sephiroth is still alive. So, he dives into the Lifestream and finishes off Sephiroth within his mind. Aeris, now one with the Lifestream, helps Cloud escape, finally unleashing Holy, destroying the meteor, and saving

the world. Life after Final Fantasy VII. As the world rebuilds, Cloud and Tifa settle down in Edge, a new city built outside the walls of Midgar. He starts a delivery service and lives peacefully. One day, Cloud meets an orphan named Denzel in Aeris' old neighborhood. He sees a lot of himself in the kid, so he takes him in. All is not well, however. Cloud is still haunted by his failure to save the people he cared about, namely Aeris and Zack. Not only that, defeating Sephiroth had a dangerous,

unforeseen side-effect. Genova cells now inhabit the bodies of people around the world, causing a plague-like effect known as Geostigma as their immune systems try to fight the invading cells. Cloud ends up contracting Geostigma too and isolates himself, secretly living out of the abandoned church where he met Aeris. Advent Children. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to everybody, a shadow of Sephiroth survives within the Lifestream, kept alive by Cloud's memories of him. Three manifestations of Sephiroth

begin to appear throughout the world, kidnapping children infected with Geostigma, including Denzel and Marlene, Barrett's daughter. He plans on leading them to Jenova's remains. Tifa contacts Cloud and tells him that Rufus Shinra, left horribly scarred from the events of Final Fantasy VII, wants to recruit Cloud to help fight the Sephiroth clones. Rufus plans to rebuild Shinra, so Cloud is reluctant to accept his offer. Still, Cloud knows he has to help Denzel and Marlene, so he agrees to hunt

down the Remnants of Sephiroth. Cloud follows them to the Forgotten City, where he sees a ghost of Aeris and asks for her forgiveness. When he confronts the Sephiroths: Loz, Kadaj, and, uh, Yazoo, the three of them easily defeat him. Luckily, Vincent Valentine rescues Cloud at the last second. The Remnants summon Bahamut SIN, attack Edge, and threaten Rufus into giving them the location of Jenova's body. Cloud and his friends work together to defeat Bahamut SIN, and Rufus reveals to Kadaj that

he's had Jenova's head in a box with him all along. He throws the box out the window of his tower, leaving Kadaj to chase after it. Cloud sees Kadaj retrieve the box and chases him down to Midgar Highway, seemingly blowing up Loz and Yazoo in the process. The chase leads to Aeris' church in Midgar, where Cloud discovers that the Lifestream-infused water of Aeris' flowerbed cures him of his Geostigma. Finally, Cloud confronts Kadaj at the ruin of the Shinra Headquarters. Holding up Jenova's head,

Kadaj absorbs it into himself, turning into a resurrected Sephiroth. Cloud battles Sephiroth, using his memories of his friends, living and dead, to give him the strength to defeat him. With Sephiroth defeated, his body vanishes, leaving behind a wounded Kadaj. Loz and Yazoo return, and the three remnants try to eliminate Cloud with a last-ditch attack. They create an explosion that kills them, but Cloud survives thanks to some divine intervention from Aeris. With the crisis finally over, Cloud

brings the infected people to the church to cure them. Then, he leaves his buster sword in the church as a monument to Aeris and Zack. At some point down the line, I guess he got pretty chummy with Hades from Hercules? Okay, that's not really canon for Final Fantasy, but he does help his buddy Vincent Valentine during the Battle of Midgar in Dirge of Cerberus. But that's more Vincent's story than Cloud's. If you want a Vincent Valentine timeline too, make sure to let us know, and subscribe to t

he Leaderboard. We're one million players and counting. I'm Sydney, thanks for watching.