Masato Kato ( 加藤 正人 , Katō Masato , born March 28, 1963) is a Japanese video game artist , scenario writer and director . In the early days of his career, he was credited under the pseudonyms of "Runmaru" and "Runmal". He then joined Square , and was most famous for penning the script of Chrono Trigger (based on a story draft by Yuji Horii ), as well as Radical Dreamers , Xenogears , Chrono Cross , Final Fantasy XI and parts of Final Fantasy VII .
148-443: Cloud Strife ( Japanese : クラウド・ストライフ , Hepburn : Kuraudo Sutoraifu ) is a character in the media franchise Compilation of Final Fantasy VII by Square Enix . He is the protagonist of the role-playing video games Final Fantasy VII (1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024) and the animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005), and appears in several other instalments in
296-473: A minigame involving Cloud driving a motorcycle at the start of the game's development, and Nomura's illustrations included Cloud riding a "Hardy-Daytona" ( ハーディ＝デイトナ , Hādi-Deitona ) , a Shinra motorcycle based on a real-life motorbike, the Yamaha VMAX . For Advent Children , Nomura agreed to direct the project largely because of his attachment to Cloud's character. Although Nomura stated that Cloud
444-470: A "big mission" whenever they became available, as the conclusion of Shinra's war with the people of Wutai ended his chances for military fame. Sephiroth started questioning his humanity after accompanying him on a job to Cloud's hometown of Nibelheim and discovering documents concerning Jenova , an extraterrestrial lifeform and Sephiroth's "mother". This ultimately led to Sephiroth burning down Nibelheim. Cloud confronted Sephiroth at Mt Nibel's Mako Reactor and
592-454: A "failed experiment", then goes missing. The party later discovers a comatose Cloud suffering from Mako poisoning. It is revealed that Cloud never qualified for SOLDIER, and instead enlisted as an infantryman in Shinra's army. During the mission to Nibelheim, he served under Sephiroth and Zack and hid his identity from the townspeople out of embarrassment. Following Sephiroth's defeat of Zack at
740-421: A "more mature and cool" individual, struck Amano as "intriguing", though not unusual as a pairing. When designing Cloud and Sephiroth, Nomura imagined a rivalry mirroring that of Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō , with Cloud and Sephiroth representing Musashi and Kojirō, respectively. Kitase and Nojima developed Cloud's backstory and his relationship to Sephiroth. While drafting the game's scenario, Nojima saw
888-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
1036-472: A child from a rural area rather than an established actor, and ultimately went with 13-year-old Yukihiro Aizawa. In most English adaptations, Cloud is voiced by Steve Burton , who was first hired to voice Cloud after a Square employee saw his role in the 2001 film The Last Castle . Burton's work as Cloud in Advent Children served as his first feature-length role, an experience he enjoyed. Calling
1184-420: A completed scenario in advance. Left to imagine the stories behind the characters he designed, Nomura shared these details in discussions with staff or in separately penned notes. Frustrated by the continued popularity of Final Fantasy IV 's characters despite the release of two sequels, Nomura made it his goal to create a memorable cast. The contrast between Cloud, a "young, passionate boy", and Sephiroth,
1332-544: A complex fictional character, comparing him with Metal Gear ' s Solid Snake , Final Fantasy VI ' s Terra Branford , and Tekken ' s Jin Kazama due to his identity issues. Kurt Kalata of Gamasutra stated that Cloud is "somewhat of a weakling" with grandiose delusions and other psychological issues. He also called Cloud one of the first unreliable narrators in a role-playing video game. According to Patrick Holleman, "no RPG has ever deliberately betrayed
1480-454: A connection between the player and the protagonist. Jack Ridsdale of PCGamesN argues that Cloud is a deconstruction of the hero archetype and toxic masculinity , and compares the plot twist about his true identity to that of Fight Club . In Alana Hagues from RPGFan said Cloud's shock when Sephiroth kills Aertih has a major impact on her as Cloud properly expresses depression over death, something no video game has ever done to her. While Cloud
1628-642: A different character. His model was primarily based on his appearance in the Dissidia series, with slight alterations under Nomura's supervision. He was made available as in-game downloadable content alongside a stage based on Midgar in December 2015. A pair of Cloud amiibo figures were released in July 2017. He returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018), and is now playable in
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#17327757406301776-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
1924-454: A false personality largely based on Zack's, inadvertently erasing the latter from his memory. After piecing together his identity, Cloud resumes his role as leader and silently expresses his mutual feelings with Tifa the night before the final battle. At the game's conclusion, Sephiroth reappears in Cloud's mind a final time, but is defeated in a one-on-one fight. Cloud appears in a minor role in
2072-463: A flower girl named Aerith. As Cloud is leaving the area, Aerith is accosted by a man demanding payment. Cloud returns to help Aerith escape, and Ramza and his party catch up to him. After the battle, he joins Ramza's party as a playable character. Cloud also appears as an enemy unit in the "Brave Story" series of battles as part of Rendezvous, the unlockable cooperative multiplayer mode in The War of
2220-408: A friendlier manner with AVALANCHE's members. After being approached by his childhood friend and AVALANCHE member, Tifa Lockhart , Cloud agrees to continue helping AVALANCHE. Cloud encounters Aerith Gainsborough , a resident of Midgar 's slums, and agrees to serve as her bodyguard in exchange for a date. He helps her evade Shinra, who are pursuing her because she is the sole survivor of a race known as
2368-466: A game". RPGamer ' s Aujang Abadi called Cloud "one of the most complex characters Square has created", as well as "the first truly complicated main character". Sharon Packer identifies Cloud as having mental illness in the form of dissociative identity disorder (DID), while Katie Whitlock identifies him as having involuntary memory resulting from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The book Japanese Culture Through Videogames addresses Cloud as
2516-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
2664-484: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
2812-478: A major emphasis on bonds through expanded characterization and more apparent affinity mechanics as well as the revamped Gold Saucer dates tied to them; An aspect that has also sparked further analysis and discourse on the nature of Cloud's relationships. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by
2960-527: A new costume for him. This was inspired by Cloud's Advent Children fights which producer Ichiro Hazama thought was "very cool, and radical", and influences from the title went into the game. CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama sought to improve Cloud's popularity with this game. Cloud appears as a playable guest character in the 2014 Nintendo crossover fighting games Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U , sporting his character designs from both Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children . According to
3108-553: A normal teenager, and modified his approach accordingly. Cloud's scream over Zack's death left a major impression on Sakurai, who says that he worked hard to convey the emotional tone of the ending. Sakurai has come to regard Cloud as an important role, commenting that Cloud reminds him of his own past, and that, as a Final Fantasy VII fan himself, he is happy to contribute. For the remake of Final Fantasy VII , Sakurai found Cloud more difficult to portray than his previous performances. He re-recorded his lines multiple times, and credited
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#17327757406303256-537: A playable character opposite Sephiroth in the series' third entry, Dissidia NT , wearing his Advent Children outfit. The development staff worked carefully to translate Cloud's original moves from his previous role, most notably his swordplay Omnislash which was developed to be his strongest move. Although Cloud does not appear in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII , his Final Fantasy VII attire appears as an alternative for
3404-538: A script by Kazuhiko Inukai, several scenes diverge from Final Fantasy VII 's depiction of events, such as reinterpreting Cloud's rescue of Tifa by having her view his face. Although it is associated with and makes references to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII , Last Order is considered an outside work. Cloud has also appeared in various games outside of the Final Fantasy VII continuity. He
3552-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
3700-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
3848-406: A standing animation created by event planner Motomu Toriyama that depicted "Cloud showing off". The animation impressed Nojima and inspired the idea that Cloud had developed a false persona. This later led Nojima to create Zack Fair , a SOLDIER whom Cloud aspired to be like, to expand on the mystery of Cloud's past. Nojima left the unfolding of events regarding Cloud's identity unwritten, and Kitase
3996-633: A supporting role in the PlayStation 2 game Dirge of Cerberus . A year after the events of Advent Children , Cloud, working alongside Barret and Tifa, lends his support to the ground forces of the World Regenesis Organization and his ally Vincent Valentine in their siege of Midgar and counterattack against the rogue Shinra military unit, Deepground. In the PlayStation Portable game Crisis Core , Cloud
4144-491: A taller head and body and more muscular physique. Yoshitaka Amano , who handled character illustrations for previous Final Fantasy titles, painted promotional images for the game by taking Nomura's "drawings and put[ting his] own spin on them". According to Amano, because of the hardware limitations of the PlayStation , the platform Square had settled on for Final Fantasy VII , characters could not be rendered realistically. Amano thought that Cloud's baggy pants, which taper at
4292-399: A transfer student arriving mid-term. In early scripts, Sephiroth would have deceived Cloud into thinking that he had created him, and he had the ability to exert control over Cloud's movements. As in the finished game, Cloud would discover that Shinra's experiments and his own insecurities had made him susceptible to Sephiroth's manipulation. Cloud would have also somehow injured Tifa prior to
4440-680: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
4588-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of
Cloud Strife - Misplaced Pages Continue
4736-534: Is a playable character in the PlayStation version of Ehrgeiz . In Chocobo Racing , Cloud is a hidden character that rides a motorcycle. Cloud is one of several playable Final Fantasy VII characters in Itadaki Street Special for the PlayStation 2 and Itadaki Street Portable for the PlayStation Portable . LittleBigPlanet 2 features Cloud as a downloadable character model. Cloud
4884-477: Is a playable character representing Final Fantasy VII in the rhythm game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy , with his Advent Children persona serving as downloadable content. Players in Final Fantasy Explorers can briefly transform into Cloud, enabling use of his Omnislash Limit Break from FFVII . Cloud is the protagonist of Final Fantasy VII G-Bike , a mobile game for which Nomura designed
5032-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
5180-527: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
5328-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
5476-647: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
5624-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
5772-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
5920-632: Is defeated. A digital replica of Cloud also appears in Kingdom Hearts coded in the Olympus Coliseum, helping Sora and Hercules battle Hades. Cloud also appears in the Kingdom Hearts manga adaptations, reprising his original role. The OVA Last Order: Final Fantasy VII serves as an alternate retelling of Nibelheim's destruction and Zack and Cloud's escape from Shinra imprisonment. Animated and produced by Madhouse , based on
6068-460: Is delicate in some respects. A fan of VII , Sakurai had believed Cloud to be a colder character based on his original impression of him, but later came to view him as more sentimental. After the final product was released, Sakurai was anxious to hear the fans' response, whether positive or negative, and says that most of the feedback he received praised him. While recording Crisis Core , Sakurai felt that Cloud, though still introverted, acted more like
Cloud Strife - Misplaced Pages Continue
6216-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
6364-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
6512-553: Is never addressed as a God, he has to protect the peace as Sephiroth plays the role of Satan and his Shadow, with Cloud having to surpass him in the narrative. Cloud's respective relationships with Aerith and Tifa were also popular with writers. The popularity of both relationships, how they were written and their partial ties to the original game's affinity mechanics have led to multiple instances of fan creations, fandom debates and ship wars , with many debating and arguing topics ranging from Tifa and Aerith's compatibility with Cloud to
6660-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
6808-412: Is presented as a young Shinra infantryman who befriends Zack. During the game's conclusion, a dying Zack gives Cloud his Buster Sword, telling him that he is his legacy. The game ends with Cloud heading to Midgar, reprising the start of Final Fantasy VII . Zack and Cloud's connection was meant to be expanded upon near the game's ending, with both of them planning to flee to Midgar, but due to limitations in
6956-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
7104-496: Is searching for Sephiroth, and in turn Tifa is searching for him. Cloud fights alongside Leon 's team during the Heartless invasion of Hollow Bastion. Should the player choose to engage Sephiroth and win the battle, Cloud returns and fights Sephiroth, which ends with both of them disappearing in a flash of light after Tifa gives Cloud her support. Sora concludes that Cloud is still fighting with Sephiroth, and will not stop until he
7252-604: Is searching for someone. In Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix , there is an additional scene where he battles Sephiroth. During the credits, Cloud is shown reuniting with the residents of Hollow Bastion. A memory-based version of Cloud appears in the Game Boy Advance sequel Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as a boss in the Olympus Coliseum and later as a summon card for Sora. Cloud reappears in Kingdom Hearts II , depicted with his Advent Children design. He
7400-467: Is set two years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy VII , Cloud lives with Tifa in the city of Edge along with Marlene , Barret's adopted daughter, and Denzel , an orphan affected by a rampant and deadly disease called Geostigma . Having given up his life as a mercenary, Cloud now works as a courier for the "Strife Delivery Service" ( ストライフ・デリバリーサービス , Sutoraifu Deribarī Sābisu ) , which Tifa set up in her new bar. After Tifa confronts him following
7548-410: Is the truly canonical romance despite the suggested complexity surrounding it in the sequel film Advent Children . These particular relationship aspects as well as other facets spanning the entire main cast of the Final Fantasy VII franchise were given more prominence within the character writing and story of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth , with the latter specifically having
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#17327757406307696-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
7844-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
7992-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
8140-528: The Ninja Gaiden series. On his first three games, he moved from graphics, to graphics and scenario writing, to also directing the action elements. He went on to work for Gainax . Masato Kato's first title at Square was Chrono Trigger as the game's story planner and script writer. The game's composer Yasunori Mitsuda have considered Kato to be one of the game's directors. Kato stated that Chrono Cross development encountered difficulty in expanding
8288-666: The World of Mana series, an enhanced port of Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS, and three more expansion chapters for Final Fantasy XI . In 2017 he released a spiritual successor to the Chrono series for iOS and Android, titled " Another Eden : The Cat Beyond Time and Space." Similar to the SNES hit Chrono Trigger, Another Eden also involves time travel, where players get to explore three time periods out of ancient, contemporary, and
8436-561: The Ehrgeiz fighting game, Kenyu Horiuchi voiced Cloud in the arcade version and Nozomu Sasaki voiced him in the home console version. Since Kingdom Hearts , Takahiro Sakurai has been the Japanese voice of Cloud, with Teruaki Sugawara, the voice director at Square, recommending him to Nomura based on prior experience. Nomura had originally asked Sakurai to play the protagonist of The Bouncer , Sion Barzahd, but found that his voice best suited Cloud after hearing him speak. Sakurai received
8584-690: The Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and
8732-462: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
8880-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
9028-790: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
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#17327757406309176-806: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
9324-532: The mobile game Before Crisis , a prequel set six years before the events of Final Fantasy VII . The player, a member of the Shinra covert operatives group, the Turks , encounters Cloud during his time as a Shinra infantryman working to join SOLDIER. The game portrays Cloud's natural talent for swordsmanship, and recounts his role during Nibelheim's destruction. In the 2005 animated film Advent Children , which
9472-504: The "exchanges he has with Tifa can be pretty painful", with Sakurai commenting that Cloud—whom he empathized with as his voice actor—has a hard time dealing with straight talk. Sakurai says that there were scenes that took over a year to complete, with very precise directions being given requiring multiple takes. According to Sakurai, Cloud's silence conveys more about him than when he speaks. While possessing heroic characteristics, Sakurai describes Cloud's outlook as negative, and says that he
9620-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
9768-556: The 2008 San Diego Comic-Con that Cloud's likeness has produced some of the company's best-selling items, and that fans could look forward to further adaptations of the character in the future. Popular models at the time included Cloud's Advent Children figurine and Final Fantasy VII Hardy-Daytona bike set, both of which sold particularly well in European and North American markets. Square has also released two promotional books primarily focusing on Cloud's character: Cloud vol.1 , which
9916-458: The Cetra. During the course of their travels, a love triangle develops between Cloud, Tifa and Aerith. Following the player's departure from Midgar, Cloud narrates his history with Sephiroth, a legendary member of SOLDIER and the game's primary antagonist, and the events that led to his disappearance five years prior. Cloud joined SOLDIER to emulate Sephiroth, and explains that he would sign up for
10064-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
10212-570: The Lifestream completely. Cloud's battle with Kadaj takes them back to Aerith's church, where Cloud recovers from his Geostigma with Aerith's help. After merging with the remains of Jenova, Kadaj, resurrects Sephiroth. Cloud, having overcome his doubts, defeats Sephiroth once more, leaving a dying Kadaj in his place. At the film's conclusion, Cloud, seeing Aerith and Zack, assures them that he will be fine and reunites with his friends. Cloud appears in On
10360-607: The Lions . Cloud serves as the representative hero of Final Fantasy VII in Dissidia Final Fantasy , a fighting game featuring characters from the Final Fantasy series. He is depicted in his FFVII design, while his Advent Children design is also available. His fight against Sephiroth in this game is based on their battles from VII and Advent Children . Along with the entire cast, Cloud reappears in
10508-457: The Mt. Nibel Mako reactor, Cloud managed to ambush him and throw him into the Lifestream, and believed him to be dead. Both he and Zack were then imprisoned by Shinra's lead scientist, Hojo, for experimentation. Zack later escaped with Cloud to the outskirts of Midgar before Shinra soldiers gunned him down. As a result of exposure to Mako radiation and the injection of Jenova's cells, Cloud's mind created
10656-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
10804-539: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
10952-485: The Way to a Smile , a series of short stories set between Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children . "Case of Tifa" serves as an epilogue to VII , and portrays Cloud's life alongside Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel. "Case of Denzel" relates how Cloud first met Denzel, and was later adapted as a short original video animation for the release of Advent Children Complete , On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel . Cloud appears in
11100-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
11248-412: The beginning of Final Fantasy VII 's development that the game would follow a single identifiable protagonist. In Hironobu Sakaguchi 's first plot treatment, a prototype for Cloud's character belonged to an organization attempting to destroy New York City's "Mako Reactors". Kitase and Nomura discussed that Cloud would be the lead of three protagonists, but Nomura did not receive character profiles or
11396-706: The bottom, reflected a "very ... Japanese style", resembling the silhouette of a hakama . Early renditions of Cloud's weapon, the Buster Sword ( バスターソード , Basutā Sōdo ) , depicted a smaller, thinner blade. Variations included additions such as a small chain connected to the pommel, magnets securing the blade to Cloud's back, and a more detailed design that resembled a "Western-style sword". The Buster Sword's blade grew in subsequent illustrations, and Nomura called it "the Giant Kitchen Knife", envisioning it as unrefined steel. Square's staff conceived of
11544-519: The canonicity and intent of his feelings towards either heroine through story and character analysis and authorial or supplemental materials (such as the Ultimanias, developer interviews and tie-in novels) across much of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII in the years since the original game's release. RPGamer writer Marie Freed states that she saw Tifa's loyalty and love for Cloud, even in
11692-401: The character a rare opportunity for him as an actor, Burton describes Cloud as having a "heaviness about him". Burton says he is surprised when fans recognize him for his work as Cloud, whom he has referred to as "[one of the] coolest characters there is", and considers himself lucky to have voiced him. Although Burton expressed his desire to voice Cloud for the remake of Final Fantasy VII , he
11840-535: The character. Teenage Cloud was voiced in English by Major Dodson. For the next installment, Christian said that that the character differed from Remake as he aimed to explore more his sensitive side like his past or intimate relationships he is often involved. Cloud is introduced as a mercenary employed by AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group opposed to the Shinra Company, and who claims to be formerly of SOLDIER 1st Class, an elite Shinra fighting unit. Beginning
11988-416: The connection between protagonist and player like FFVII does". The game's use of the unreliable narrator literary concept has drawn comparisons to films such as Fight Club (1999), The Sixth Sense (1999), American Psycho (2000), and Memento (2000), with Patrick Holleman and Jeremy Parish arguing that the game takes the unreliable narrator concept a step further, by its interactivity establishing
12136-418: The console's hardware, these scenes could not be implemented and they instead decided to focus on Zack. Cloud reprises his role from the original Final Fantasy VII in the 2020 remake , which is part of a planned trilogy of games remaking the original 1997 game. While marketed as a remake to the original 1997 game, Square claims that there are other different meanings in this game. He was featured once more as
12284-535: The dark side in the game. Nomura also stated that he wanted to leave the question of whether Cloud was searching for Aerith open to the player's interpretation. In the first game, Kingdom Hearts , Cloud appears in the Olympus Coliseum world, with Hades hiring him to kill Hercules , and fights Sora as a prerequisite. After the fight, Hades sends Cerberus to attack Cloud and Sora, who Hercules saves. Cloud meets with Sora afterward and explains that he
12432-474: The disappearance of Denzel and Marlene, it is revealed that he also suffers from the effects of Geostigma, and he responds that he is unfit to protect his friends and new family. However, after Tifa urges him to let go of the past, Cloud sets out for the Forgotten City in search of the children. There, he confronts Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo , genetic remnants of Sephiroth left behind before he diffused into
12580-578: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
12728-454: The fight between Cloud and Sephiroth was expanded by several minutes, and includes a scene in which Sephiroth impales Cloud on his sword and holds him in the air, mirroring the scene in the game where he performs the same action. The decision to feature Cloud suffering from blood loss in the fight was made in order to make his pain feel realistic. In the making of the fighting game Dissidia: Final Fantasy , Nomura stated that Cloud's appearance
12876-525: The film. In the original game, Cloud's strongest technique was the Omnislash ( 超究武神覇斬 , Choukyūbushinhazan , lit. "Super-ultimate War-god Commanding Slash") . For his fight against Sephiroth in the film, Nomura proposed a new move, the Omnislash Ver. 5 ( 超究武神覇斬ver.5 , Choukyūbushinhazan ver.5 ) , a faster version of the original Omnislash. The staff laughed at the name of Cloud's move during
13024-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure
13172-455: The future. Additionally, the game features an opening theme created by Yasunori Mitsuda, who also worked on Chrono Trigger‘s music. In 2005, Masato Kato also collaborated with Yasunori Mitsuda , longtime friend and music composer, to write a short story titled Five Seasons of kiЯitɘ , which Mitsuda accompanied with music on his album kiЯitɘ . The story and soundtrack have also been presented in opera form. Prior to this, Mitsuda composed
13320-516: The game with the placeholder name "Ex-SOLDIER" ( 元ソルジャー , Moto Sorujā ) , Cloud assists AVALANCHE's leader, Barret Wallace , in bombing a Mako reactor, power plants which drain the planet's "Lifestream". Despite appearing detached and more interested in the pay of his work, Cloud demonstrates moments of camaraderie , such as prioritizing Jesse's security over his escape during the Mako Reactor 1's explosion. Players can choose to interact in
13468-543: The game world due to hardware limitations, and that they crammed as much data as they could onto the game disk. Conversely, developing the multiple game endings was seen as easier, on par with Chrono Trigger as a bonus for players who finished the game. Kato left Square after designing the plot of Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart to become a freelance scenario writer. In addition to games for different companies, he has continued to work on Square Enix projects such as
13616-420: The game's base roster. As part of the update adding Sephiroth to the game as downloadable content in December 2020, Cloud was given his "Omnislash Ver. 5" to use against opponents, being exclusive to his Advent Children costumes. Cloud was considered for inclusion as a guest character in the PlayStation 2 version of Soulcalibur II , but this did not come to pass, with Heihachi Mishima from Tekken taking
13764-442: The game's events, leaving her with memory loss of the event and a large scar on her back. Kitase rejected a proposed scene written by Masato Kato involving Cloud and Tifa walking out of a Chocobo stable the morning before the final battle, with Tifa following only after checking around. Kitase found it "too intense" and Nojima described the proposal as "extreme"; however, Kitase maintained a toned-down scene written by Kato depicting
13912-423: The game's original illustrations, but concluded that doing so left his eyes unrealistically big, which "looked gross". Further revisions were made to Cloud's face after completion of the pilot film, which featured a more realistic style. In contrast to his hair, Cloud's clothes were difficult to make in the film. After deciding to give Cloud a simple costume consistent with the concept of "clothes designed for action",
14060-423: The game, some of them jokingly threatening that they would not forgive him if he did not meet their expectations. During recording, Sakurai was told that "[n]o matter what kind of odds are stacked against him, Cloud won't be shaken". Sakurai says that while he recorded most of his work individually, he performed alongside Ayumi Ito , who voiced Tifa, for a few scenes. These recordings left him feeling "deflated", as
14208-565: The games' director Masahiro Sakurai , Final Fantasy characters were heavily requested to appear in the Super Smash Bros. series, with Cloud receiving the most support out of all of them. Reflecting on his inclusion in an interview with Tetsuya Nomura, while other characters from the Final Fantasy series were considered, Sakurai ultimately felt that none of them could match Cloud's popularity and he could not imagine including
14356-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
14504-430: The ground while cradling his head, and appears not to remember things that he should, such as the existence of a SOLDIER First Class named Zack. As Sephiroth begins manipulating his mind, he takes advantage of his memory by telling him that his past is merely fiction and that Shinra created him in an attempt to clone Sephiroth. Cloud learns he cannot remember things such as how or when he joined SOLDIER and resigns himself as
14652-572: The idea was later modified to six interlocking swords. While the idea wasn't "logically thought out" and the staff did not think that they could "make it work physically", it was believed to provide "an interesting accent to the story". Cloud's new motorcycle, Fenrir ( フェンリル , Fenriru ) , was designed by Takayuki Takeya, who was asked by the staff to design an upgraded version of Cloud's "Hardy-Daytona" motorcycle from Final Fantasy VII . The bike got bigger as development continued, with Takeya feeling its heaviness provided an impact that worked well within
14800-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,
14948-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
15096-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
15244-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
15392-399: The light of having to relive her own traumas, as admirable, and a welcome contrast to the "destined" romance seen in previous title Final Fantasy IV . Siliconera writer Cory Dinkel claims that Final Fantasy VII ultimately has no love triangle by the end due to multiple story and character developments and revelations surrounding the characters involved and that Cloud and Tifa's relationship
15540-479: The long silver hair of the game's primary antagonist, Sephiroth, and to minimize the model's polygon count. However, to make Cloud stand out more and emphasize his role as the game's lead protagonist, Nomura altered Cloud's design to give him spiky, bright blond hair. Nomura also made Cloud taller than he appeared in the SGI Onyx demo, while a discarded iteration drawn "more on the realistic side" depicted Cloud with
15688-622: The main character alongside the Buster Sword. The Advent Children outfit is also present in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn . Cloud's original attire is also present in the mobile phone game Mobius Final Fantasy , and Final Fantasy Explorers-Force . Cloud has been merchandised extensively, in many different forms, including figurines and jewelry. In commemoration of the franchise's 20th anniversary, Square released figurines of him alongside other Final Fantasy protagonists. Square Enix's manager of merchandise, Kanji Tashiro, said at
15836-484: The making of it, as Nomura was inspired by a sports move from Final Fantasy X , whose protagonist, Tidus , explained the addition of a more specific name would make people more excited. Themes expanded upon in the director's cut Advent Children Complete include Cloud's development with links to other Final Fantasy VII media in which he appeared. To further focus on Cloud's growth , Square decided to give him more scenes when he interacts with children. Additionally,
15984-471: The most iconic video game protagonists. He has also been cited favorably as an example of complex character writing in video games, as one of its first unreliable narrators and for the game's depiction of his mental disorder. Additionally, he is seen as a messiah figure in both the game and film for opposing Sephiroth 's schemes and supported by his allies. In contrast to Final Fantasy VI , which featured multiple "main characters", Square's staff decided in
16132-401: The night before, which has Tifa speak a risqué line of dialogue before a fade to black . According to Nojima, none of the staff expected that the scene, despite "the line in question", "would be something so important". Nojima wanted to write scenes in such a way that players themselves could decide what Cloud was thinking. Nojima used Cloud's foggy memories as a device to provide details about
16280-418: The now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered
16428-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
16576-414: The original game offered the option for the player to decide Cloud's interest in a female character, he wanted the remake to retain this in the form of an intimate conversation when splitting from the main team. The theme song "Hollow" is meant to reflect Cloud's state of mind, with Nomura placing high emphasis on the rock music and male vocals. The original Final Fantasy VII did not have voice acting. For
16724-757: The original game, Cloud had many comical or lame moments". Nomura believes that the reason Cloud became popular with audiences is due to the impact his personality made on Nojima's scenario. In addition to testing models ported from Square's 1995 SIGGRAPH demo , Nomura and several other artists created new characters, including an early design of Cloud. Sakaguchi, impressed with Nomura's illustrations and detailed handwritten notes for Final Fantasy V and VI , tasked him with designing Final Fantasy VII 's main characters. Nomura's notes listed Cloud's job as magic swordsman ( 魔法剣士 , mahō kenshi ) . Cloud's design underwent several revisions. Nomura's first draft of Cloud featured slicked-back black hair to contrast with
16872-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
17020-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
17168-401: The prequel Dissidia 012 as a Warrior of Chaos. Concerned for Tifa, who is on the opposing side, Cloud tries to defeat Chaos alone; after nearly being killed, he is saved by the goddess Cosmos, and becomes one of her warriors. Cloud's main outfit is based on Yoshitaka Amano 's original artwork concept, while his Kingdom Hearts outfit is offered as downloadable content. Cloud again appears as
17316-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
17464-501: The protagonist in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth . Nomura redesigned Cloud for his appearance in Kingdom Hearts . He is depicted with a crimson cape and a clawed version of his left-handed glove, while the Buster Sword's blade is wrapped in bandages. Nomura stated that Cloud's left arm was inspired by Vincent Valentine , and explained that he wanted to give the character a more demon-like appearance due to his ties to
17612-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
17760-494: The script without any accompanying visuals, and first arrived for recording under the impression that he would be voicing a character other than Cloud. For Advent Children , Nomura wanted to contrast Cloud and Vincent's voices because of their similar personalities. As a sequel to the highly popular Final Fantasy VII , Sakurai felt greater pressure performing the role than he did when he voiced Cloud for Kingdom Hearts . Sakurai received comments from colleagues revealing their love of
17908-444: The script, commenting on the difficulty players who had finished Final Fantasy VII would have had imagining Cloud's smile. Nomura sought to make Cloud's design distinctly different from the other characters. About thirty different designs were made for Cloud's face, and his hair was altered to give it a more realistic look and illustrate that two years had passed since the game's conclusion. The staff attempted rendering Cloud based on
18056-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
18204-573: The spot instead. In the PlayStation game Final Fantasy Tactics and its PlayStation Portable update, The War of the Lions , Cloud is accidentally pulled into the world of Ivalice by an ancient machine called "the Celestial Globe", which was activated by Ramza Beoulve. Cloud is disoriented after arriving in Ramza's world, and after a short exchange with Ramza and the others, he leaves. He wanders into Zarghidas Trade City, where he encounters
18352-460: The staff began with the idea of a black robe, eventually parring it down to a "long apron" shifted to one side. Cloud's weaponry was based on the joking observation that because his sword in the original game was already enormously tall, in the sequel, he should use sheer numbers. Referred to as "The Fusion Swords" ( 合体剣 , Gattai Ken ) during the film's development, early storyboard concepts included Cloud carrying six swords on his back, although
18500-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
18648-411: The story and wanted to create a mysterious character who acted atypically for a hero. After VII , Nomura redesigned Cloud for Advent Children , giving him a more realistic appearance alongside new weaponry and a new outfit. For Remake , the team aimed to adapt his classic design for a more realistic artstyle. Cloud has garnered primarily positive reception from critics, and has been described as one of
18796-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
18944-429: The theme of the story as one of forgiveness, which he believed required hardship; by taking up his sword and fighting, Cloud struggles to achieve it. Nojima sought to establish Cloud's withdrawn personality by depicting him as having a cell phone, but never answering any calls. He originally intended for Aerith's name to be the last one displayed in the backlog of ignored messages that appear as Cloud's cell phone sinks into
19092-645: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Masato Kato Kato first worked for Tecmo on Captain Tsubasa and
19240-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
19388-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
19536-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
19684-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
19832-448: The voice director with guiding him. Nomura elaborated that the remake's interpretation of Cloud has a distinct personality; he attempts to act cool, but often fails to do so and instead comes across as awkward, which Nomura asked Sakurai to reflect in his acting. Another challenge for the developers was finding a suitable voice for the teenage Cloud seen during flashbacks. In order to better match Cloud's rural upbringing, they decided to hire
19980-513: The water, but altered the scene because it "sounded too creepy". The wolf which Cloud imagines "represents the deepest part of Cloud's psyche" and "appears in response to some burden that Cloud is carrying deep in his heart", vanishing at the film's end. Nomura cites one of the film's final scenes, in which Cloud smiles, as his favorite, highlighting the lack of dialogue and Cloud's embarrassment. The scene influenced composer Nobuo Uematsu 's score, who grew excited after coming across it in his review of
20128-446: The wider Final Fantasy series . He has also appeared in other media, such as the Kingdom Hearts series by Square Enix and Disney and the Super Smash Bros. series by Nintendo . Cloud was designed by Tetsuya Nomura , a character artist for the Final Fantasy series, whose role expanded to include supervision over Cloud's personality. Yoshinori Kitase , director of VII , and Kazushige Nojima , an events planner, developed
20276-522: The world that would be unknown to the player but considered common knowledge to its inhabitants. To emphasize Cloud's personality, event planners repeated elements they found interesting, such as Toriyama's standing animation and Cloud's use of the phrase "not interested". In retrospective, Nomura and Final Fantasy VII Remake co-director Naoki Hamaguchi have described Cloud as a "dorky character". According to Nomura, although post- Final Fantasy VII titles featuring Cloud have emphasized his "cool side", "in
20424-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
20572-716: Was a more positive character in Final Fantasy VII than in Advent Children , he did not believe that such an "'upbeat' image of him is what stuck in the minds of the fans", and the script was written to explain why Cloud returned to a state of mind "consistent with the fans' view of him". Nomura describes Cloud's life as peaceful but, hurt by the losses he experienced during the original game, one which he grew scared of losing. Blaming himself for things outside of his control, Cloud, Nomura elaborated, needed to overcome himself. In contrast to other heroes, who Nomura sees as typically possessing character defects amounting only to quirks, he believed Cloud's weakness to be humanizing. Nojima viewed
20720-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
20868-417: Was believed to have killed him, but Cloud dismisses this as a lie, as he knows he would be no match for Sephiroth. He is troubled with the fact that although he most likely would have lost the fight, he lived after challenging Sephiroth. However, numerous visual and audio clues suggest the unreliability of Cloud's memory . Cloud will spontaneously remember words or scenes from his past, sometimes collapsing to
21016-735: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
21164-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
21312-570: Was popular with the fans and reassured that the remake would keep this part. On the other hand, the character designer stated that their final design was not decided yet. Kazushige Nojima worked on making Cloud's interactions with Tifa and Barret natural. Despite fear of the possible result, Nojima also wanted players to connect with the character once again. Kitase further claimed that in the remake they aimed to make Cloud more inexperienced and informal than in Advent Children , due to him not being fully mature. Co-director Naoki Hamaguchi noted that since
21460-485: Was released in 2007, and Cloud message , in 2008. In 2013, a replica of the Buster Sword was created by blacksmith Tony Swatton for the webseries Man at Arms . Cloud has been mostly well received by critics. In his review of the PC release of Final Fantasy VII , Ron Dulin of GameSpot commented that "a simple understatement will have to suffice: Cloud is easily the most interesting and complex character ever presented in
21608-452: Was replaced by Cody Christian ; Burton thanked Square for his work, and wished Christian luck. Christian said that he was honored to portray what he described as an iconic character, and vowed to give his best performance. He also commented on Burton's previous work, stating, "Steve, you paved the way. You made this character what it is and have contributed in shaping a legacy". Christian used Burton's works as an inspiration for his portrayal of
21756-633: Was slightly slimmer than in Final Fantasy VII because of the detail the 3D of the PlayStation Portable could give him. While also retaining his original design and his Advent Children appearance, Cloud was given a more distinct look based on his Final Fantasy VII persona. Cloud's initial redesign for Final Fantasy VII Remake was initially more different than the original, but was later altered to more closely resemble Nomura's original design. Early on in Final Fantasy VII , Cloud crossdresses in order to find Tifa, and Nomura noted this event
21904-435: Was unaware of the significance of Zack's addition until playtesting . Kitase reviewed Nojima's scenario and felt that Cloud, who was neither single-minded nor righteous, offered a fresh take on a protagonist. The love triangle between Cloud, Tifa Lockhart , and Aerith Gainsborough was also viewed as novel for the series. Nojima likened Cloud and Tifa's relationship to one of friends since nursery school, and compared Aerith to
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