Cloud Strife
| Job | Mercenary (ex-member of SOLDIER) |
| Age | 21 |
| Weapon | Sword |
| Ultimate Weapon | Ultima Weapon |
| Level 4 Limit Break | Omnislash |
| Height | 5'7" |
| Birthdate | August 19 |
| Birthplace | Nibelheim |
| Blood Type | AB |
Cloud is the main character of the game. Tough on the outside, he never really shows his emotions to others. Strong in a fight, and after a while loyal to his friends. He comes into the picture, helping AVALANCHE on a mission to destroy the Sector 1 Reactor. He was doing it for the money, but convinced by his close friend Tifa, he decides to join the team permanently. On a mission to destroy the Sector 5 Reactor, he falls down below to the Sector 5 Slums, where he meets Aeris. He saves her from the Turks, and they fall in love (though neither admit it). After Sephiroth kills Aeris, Cloud is more determined than ever to kill Sephiroth
Throughout his mission to save the planet from Sephiroth, his old friend and now worst enemy, he hears voices in his head and gets splitting headaches, some at inopportune times. We never find who this voice is, until he goes the Temple of the Ancients, and Sephiroth is able to control him to give him the Black Materia. This is due to the fact that Cloud was injected with Mako cells, a Sephiroth clone, as we find as the team ventures into the Promised Land after Sephiroth. Sephiroth then keeps him in the Promised Land, and later he washes up to the shore of Mideel, suffering from Mako poisoning. Tifa finds him, and stays with him.
Later, in a Lifestream earthquake, Tifa and Cloud fall into the Lifestream, and Tifa guides Cloud through his memories, to find the real Cloud. He finds that he was never in SOLDIER, that his memories of Nibelheim when Sephiroth snapped were actually that of a SOLDIER member named Zack, proven in the picture taken at Nibelheim.
He also finds that Cloud and Tifa weren't that good friends before, that Cloud always wanted to be her friend. He chased her to Mt. Nibel, where she ran and fell, in an attempt to save her. He called her to the water tower, and talked to her for the first time. Tifa then couldn't stop thinking about him. She also played along with his false memories to protect him. After Cloud learns his true identity and fueled with hate for Sephiroth for taking his hometown, family, and Aeris, he has a new determination to kill Sephiroth and save the planet.