Final Fantasy VII: Playable Characters / Characters

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Cloud Strife

"But I can't remain trapped in an illusion any more... I'm going to live my life without pretending."

Voiced By: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Steve Burton (English), Cody Christian (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Dirge of Cerberus | Before Crisis

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Dissidia Final Fantasy | Kingdom Hearts | Ehrgeiz | Final Fantasy Tactics | Final Fantasy Explorers | World of Final Fantasy | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all... there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

First Class SOLDIER. Wielder of the Buster Sword. Video Gaming's Most Famous Haircut.

The Face of JRPGs.

A former top-ranking member of Shinra's elite paramilitary unit, SOLDIER. Now working as a mercenary-for-hire, Cloud takes a job with the anti-Shinra organization AVALANCHE to bring down his old employers. However, as events unfold, Cloud's past and mental stability are soon brought into question...

The Ace: Take a look at his stats. He'll always be stronger and faster than everyone else in the party. He couldn't hold a candle to Sephiroth once upon a time, but now he's up to the task.
Always Save the Girl: No matter the circumstance, Cloud drops everything to save Tifa and/or Aerith if they're in danger.
Angst: Boatloads of it. Most of it's justified — if you came to the realization that the life you thought you had lived was a lie and you had spent the last four-five years comatose due to lab experiments after your hero burned your hometown and left you for dead and your best friend died to save your sorry hide, you'd probably have some issues to work through too.
Animal Motifs: Wolves, specifically Fenrir, the name of the wolf that follows him in Advent Children and of his Cool Bike, which debuted in the same movie. However, this only applies to that movie. Even so, it’s fitting to someone who prefers to act on their own (lone wolf), but at the same they are natural leaders who would fight for those who they see as “part of the pack”.
Anime Hair: Cloud's infamous hair in Final Fantasy VII consists of several sharp spikes jutting into the air. Advent Children and related Compilation materials toned down the spikes to something more realistic.
Anti-Hero: His false persona is a Pragmatic Hero variant. His real persona however, is a Classical Anti-Hero plagued by insecurity and self-doubt.
Ascended Fanboy: He idolised Sephiroth while growing up and got to fight at his side during the Nibelheim mission. Subverted in that he was only a Shinra mook at the time. Also, Sephiroth’s actions made him a case of Broken Pedestal for Cloud.
Badass Biker: One remarkable segment in the original game is Cloud driving a bike with one hand while slaying Shinra mooks with the other. In Advent Children he spends much of the film riding Fenrir looking cool, and in several fight scenes fights while riding it.
Badass Normal: Even before Hojo's experiments. As an inexperienced 16-year old, he managed to defeat Sephiroth when they clashed.
Batter Up!: One of his weapons is the Nail Bat, who can be found in the Temple of the Ancients or bought for 2800 gil at Junon after obtaining the Highwind.
Beneath the Mask: Cloud spends most of the original game posing as a cold, aloof and confident mercenary. After Tifa restores his true personality during their time in his consciousness in the Lifestream, he admits that the combination of the Jenova cells, Sephiroth's will, and his fragile ego are behind the construction of his fake persona.
Berserker Tears: It's not obvious from the sprite but Word of God and says Cloud is in Manly Tears during Aerith's death scene. Cloud himself even says "His eyes are burning" when lashing out at Sephiroth/Jenova LIFE. His rage is obvious from the sprite, however.
BFS: His Buster Sword is emblematic of this trope, though his other swords are no slouch either, such as the Ultima Weapon.
Bifurcated Weapon: His Fusion Sword in Advent Children is six BFSs in one.
Black Knight: Downplayed, while he isn't a knight in the traditional sense, he shares a lot in common with the Dark Knights of previous Final Fantasy games and can be considered to be adjacent to them. While Cloud doesn't particularly use dark magic, he tends towards dark aesthetics and weaponry, formerly worked for an evil (corporate) empire, is brooding and introspective, and struggles with his sense of self - all traits of Final Fantasy Dark Knights.
Black Swords Are Better: Downplayed. While his eponymous ultimate weapon is bright-blade, a number of Cloud's most powerful and unique swords are black-bladed, the most obvious being the Ragnarok (his penultimate weapon) and the Apocalypse (triples AP for materia growth). His first available black sword, the Force Stealer, is also Cloud's first weapon with double AP growth capability.
Blade Spam: Omnislash, one of his Limit Breaks, in a series of fifteen sword attacks.
Blow You Away: Finishing Touch, one of his Limit Breaks, launches a tornado at opponents.
Blue Is Heroic: Played with when he was a mook at Shinra; he was still a good person but wore the blue uniform of an evil company. He goes on to wear black outfits after the original game.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Due to Hojo's experiments which involved injecting him with Jenova cells, Sephiroth (who has Jenova as his puppet) can directly take control of his body if he wants, notably when he controls him to beat up Aerith.
Break the Haughty: As a child, Cloud avoided the other village children because he thought of himself as superior to them and like most boys his age, tried to become a hero like his idol Sephiroth by joining SOLDIER and was promptly rejected. However, it seems his claims of superiority were more a case of him trying to justify his own loneliness.
Broken Ace: Being exposed to all of the brain-breaking stuff he's been exposed to has left him with serious issues. Part of the game's story is helping him out of a Heroic BSoD.
Broken Hero: Cloud has self-esteem issues, stemming from being an outcast as a child and the desire to prove himself. The reason he wanted to join SOLDIER in the first place was to impress Tifa, and things went From Bad to Worse once he enlisted...
Can't Drop the Hero: You typically can't remove him from the party. However, there are a few segments where you can play as a party without him, most notably when Cloud becomes comatose and has to stay in Mideel.
Character Catchphrase: "Not interested", repeated several times in the original game, usually as a choice in dialogue trees. In the expanded universe it's used much less often, but still pops up enough to count. Bartz lampshades it in Dissidia when he mimics Cloud's voice in a match with him.
Character Development: He goes from an ostracized kid who picked fights with other kids due to Inferiority Superiority Complex, to someone who still has insecurities and self-loathing but acts nice, dorky, and awkward to others, and after his Journey to the Center of the Mind, he faces himself and finally accepts who he is, becoming a capable and confident leader. This is reflected right before heading for the Very Definitely Final Dungeon: after ignoring everyone's interests or plights unless it was for his own self-interest or Jerk with a Heart of Gold moments for much of the game's first act, Cloud has managed to develop so much that he understands everyone has their own reasons for what they do and is ready to dismiss them if they want to leave at the final hour — but ultimately they all come back both because of the journey and because they respect Cloud enough to take the charge compared to his begrudging leader position by happenstance before.
Chekhov's Gunman: The Shinra soldier that is seen throughout Cloud's flashbacks of the Nibelheim incident? It turns out to be Cloud himself, as Zack was really the one that was in SOLDIER and was Sephiroth's partner.
Chick Magnet: Tifa, Aerith, and Jessie have feelings for him. If you choose Yuffie as the Golden Saucer date, she kisses Cloud on the cheek on the gondola ride.
Childhood Friend Romance: His relationship with Tifa, who also grew up in Nibelheim with him. Because both of them Cannot Spit It Out though, it's ambiguous how far the romantic angle goes.
Classical Anti-Hero: Crippling self-doubt and insecurity, tons of angst and guilt, and as a kid he was a loner. A deconstruction as his crippling lack of self-worth ends up making him mentally fragile, causing him to fail to achieve his dream of becoming a SOLDIER, and being controlled by Sephiroth at critical moments in the game. Reconstructed that by the end of the game he learns to accept who he is, growing to be a capable leader and can resist Sephiroth's influence as shown in the Zero Effort Post-Final Boss.
Colony Drop: Meteorain, one of his Limit Breaks, shoots small meteors at opponents.
The Comically Serious: Cloud tries to keep his laid back and stoic demeanor even when faced with the weirdest and most humorous situations, such as the cross-dressing sidequest.
Composite Character: An in-universe example. The version of him from his recollection of Nibelheim is actually an amalgamation of his own history pre-Shinra and his best friend Zack Fair's personality, military history, and some actions during the Nibelheim incident.
Courier: His career after the events of the main game; he became a deliveryman that traveled the planet.
Crash-Into Hello: Granted it was a roof, not a person, but it's how Cloud and Aerith got formally acquainted; he crashed through the roof of her church and woke up on the flowerbed with her standing over him.
The Cutie: The younger, friendlier, more insecure Cloud seen in Crisis Core qualifies, as the young rookie who looks up to Zack.
A Darker Me: His SOLDIER persona came about as a result of the Jenova cells messing with Cloud's mind, based on Cloud's desires and what he sees as an ideal version of himself. He idolizes Sephiroth (pre-madness), thinks Tifa only wants SOLDIER, as well as views Zack as a Big Brother Mentor, but he considers himself to be a failure who ended up only as a Shinra Mook, and thinks of himself as weak and boring, though he remained quite friendly and sweet as seen in Crisis Core. Convinced that he really did live up to that ideal image, Cloud acts like a rude, aloof, cooler-than-cool, violent jerk under the SOLDIER persona, which are the traits his boyhood self viewed as "cool", "manly", and how an Ideal Hero acts due to his admiration of Sephiroth, while he tries to copy Zack's mannerisms and body language.
Dark Is Not Evil: After the original game, he starts wearing black outfits, but is still as heroic as ever.
Deadpan Snarker: Cloud has a very dry wit and tends to make small quips completely straightfaced. Under his false persona in VII wasn't as deadpan as later, but more snarky.
Rufus: Cloud, you're an ex-SOLDIER, aren't you?
Cloud: In my head.
Dead Person Conversation: Cloud is seen having conversations with both Aerith and Zack during Advent Children.
Dead Person Impersonation: Cloud's essentially been copying an actual SOLDIER named Zack through most of Final Fantasy VII.
Declaration of Protection:
- He promises such to Tifa, and later becomes Aerith's bodyguard.
- In Advent Children, he feels this way towards his entire family.
Decoy Backstory: A flashback narrated by Cloud near the beginning actually turns out to have involved his friend Zack. Cloud ended up confusing himself with Zack thanks to a combination of trauma and Hojo's experiments. This is why Cloud's narration tends to trail off and get murky throughout the flashback like he has trouble remembering much beyond a few incidental scenes. That is because he really didn't have much to recall besides all of the scenes he shared with Zack as a grunt, the few bits of info that Zack shared with him, and others that he made up in his own head.
Depending on the Writer: Cloud ranges from self-doubting and insecure Anti-Hero to a cocky and confident badass, sometimes in the same appearance. Justified due to the two or three personas he's adopted and come to terms with, an entirely consistent personality is probably not going to result from this.
Determinator: Cloud never gives up, even when all the odds are against him. Take the Nibelheim Incident; even with no powers or procedures yet performed to make him stronger, Cloud charges Sephiroth, widely considered the most powerful man on the planet, head-on. And even when impaled on his sword and hoisted into the air, he finds the strength to overpower him and turn the tables.
Disappeared Dad: Was raised by his mother instead. It seems his father died when Cloud was young.
Disguised in Drag: The infamous crossdressing quest in Wall Market, which he undertook to save Tifa.
Doomed Hometown: In the backstory, Nibelheim was destroyed several years ago by Sephiroth.
Dressing as the Enemy: In Junon, Cloud disguises himself as a Shinra mook participating in Rufus’ welcoming ceremony, where he also has to learn the marching protocols.
Dual Wielding: As Cloud is wielding a Bifurcated Weapon consisting of six BFS during Advent Children, he sometimes detach some blades from it to wield using his free hand.
Empty Shell: After all the trauma he had been through, he was reduced to this when Tifa found him at the train station. His mind then constructed the Zack-like persona, in an attempt to protect him from the trauma. This happens to him again after the mako poisoning, and he remains like this until Tifa helps him rebuild his own mind and regain his memories.
Establishing Character Moment: Subverted. Cloud’s first appearance has him stylishly jumping from a train and acting like a cold and uncaring jerk. Yet, this entire personality displayed turns out to be a fabrication, brought about by a combination of Jenova's cells, trauma, and Hojo's experiments.
Fake Memories: Though it's something of a journey to figure out how and why he has them.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Cloud wears only one shoulder pad, on his left shoulder. It’s best seen in his official artwork, but is a feature of most of his outfits in the Compilation.
Flanderization: If you haven't played the original game, you'll be surprised at how non angsty Cloud was. He did angst and express hesitation and insecurities, but only at key points and for good reasons, and at the end of the game seemed perfectly fine. In his appearances since, he has been an angsty brooding loner. Square Enix states outright in The Reunion Files (basically the Ultimania for Advent Children) that they regressed his personality back to a mindset they thought fans would be more familiar with.
Girlish Pigtails: His disguise while infiltrating Don Corneo's mansion sees Cloud style his hair this way.
Graceful Ladies Like Purple: His disguise while infiltrating Don Corneo's mansion sees Cloud don a violet dress. Cloud's projected composed demeanor during that point in the game also adds to the demure.
Guest Fighter: In Ehrgeiz, an obscure fighting game made by Square in late 1990s.
Guilt Complex: Has a severe case of this. He often feels guilty for things out of his control, like his reaction when he failed to save a scientist under his care in Crisis Core or cursing himself for failing his promise to Tifa when he falls in battle, or also acting as if the Jenova taking over his body for Reunion and creating his false persona as his doing and his fault, or his depression in Advent Children.
Hair-Contrast Duo: Cloud falls into this with three characters.
- Cloud (shortish spiky hair, golden blond, pragmatic but unstable) and his rival Sephiroth (really long flowing hair, silver, otherworldly and collected).
- Cloud (short blond spiky hair, pessimistic and more innocent) and his idol Zack (long black spiky hair, optimistic and more experienced). Note also that Zack's hairstyle was actually based on an early design for Cloud's that was changed because it wasn't striking enough - Cloud is the main character, while Zack is a backstory character whose entire existence is obscured from the player, with the ironic concept that he's a more 'main character'-type person than Cloud.
- Cloud, (male, short blond hair, cool and collected when he's not being mind raped) and Tifa (female, long brown/black hair, enthusiastic (but keeps a lot of secrets to herself, and suffers for it).
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Cloud's real personality is a noble and heroic man who just happened to be plagued by self-doubt and insecurity, as displayed in Crisis Core. After a Journey to the Center of the Mind, this aspect of him returns with a vengeance, albeit hardened by his recent experiences, and a lot more determined.
Hairstyle Inertia: The flashback sequences in Nibelheim and later installments in the Compilation show that Cloud had that same spiky hair as a child and as a teenager.
Handicapped Badass: Cloud is a One-Man Army throughout Advent Children despite suffering from Geostigma for much of the film until Aerith heals him.
Heroes Prefer Swords: BFS's are preferred, although he does have a few katanas. As an infantryman, however, he favored an assault rifle and police baton.
Heroic Resolve: In his actual showdown with Sephiroth in the past, he managed to toss him into the Lifestream chasm below them, while being stabbed in the gut by his sword and lifted in the air. Keep in mind Cloud isn’t a part of SOLDIER and was just a lowly mook at the time.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: He really hated his own real personality so much that his ideal version of himself as presented by the Jenova cells is basically a mishmash of Sephiroth and Zack, who are both actual SOLDIERs. Fortunately, he grows out of it and learns to accept himself for who he is.
Heroic Wannabe: Part of Cloud's arc in the original game is dissecting how silly and immature his idea of what a cool and badass hero is like in an attempt to be the person he thinks Tifa will be impressed by, being a standoffish and aloof dick. His misguided aims of being a hero allow Sephiroth to exert control over him and allow him to summon Meteor. Once Tifa pieces his memories back together, Cloud goes back to his true Adorkable Dork Knight personality and proves himself A True Hero in the end instead by accepting his flaws and thus, himself.
Heroic Willpower: Cloud fails at this throughout the game, with his issues of self-identity and self-loathing making him an easy puppet to Sephiroth’s mind controlling. However, he fully achieves this at his very final battle with Sephiroth, who is trying to break Cloud again, without success.
I Let Gwen Stacy Die: He stood helpless and watched as Sephiroth killed Aerith. More in Advent Children than in the game.
Iconic Outfit: Cloud's original purple outfit from the original game and the all-black Advent Children outfit are equally well-known among the fandom.
Iconic Starter Equipment: Cloud's Buster Sword is what most people picture him wielding and it's the weapon he wields in all spinoffs, cameo appearances, etc. In Final Fantasy VII Remake it's even given Magikarp Power properties so that it stays viable even after the acquisition of other swords, whereas in the original game you'll ditch it and never look back as soon as you get another sword.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: As a child, he thought himself better than other kids, though he later admits he did so out of self-loathing. As a grown man, following the Nibelheim tragedy, Cloud developed an arrogant mercenary persona, unaware that he's just acting out his idealized self-image, brought about by the Jenova cells implanted in him messing with his mind and taking advantage of his fractured memories.
Instant Expert: Cloud is shown driving multiple vehicles throughout the game. He drove a motorbike, a dune buggy given to his party by Dio, pilots a submarine and the Highwind.
Interspecies Romance: Cloud is a human who has a growing attraction to Aerith, the last of the Cetra race.
Jack of All Stats: Cloud has all around good stats and can fight with magic or weapons as needed.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Subverted. Cloud isn't actually a jerk, his unsavory behavior for most of the game was done by his false persona created by the Jenova cells after the events leading up to Zack's death.
Journey to the Center of the Mind: After the WEAPON attack in Mideel, Cloud and Tifa fall into the Lifestream, where she then enters his mind and help him regain his sense of self.
Katanas Are Just Better: Two of his swords are the Murasame and the Yoshiyuki, though Cloud generally favors western styled broadswords.
Killed Offscreen: His Finishing Touch Limit Break has Cloud doing a One-Hit Kill by flinging enemies upwards. The standard dying sound effect would then be heard to confirm the deaths.
The Leader: To the party. He's got elements of a Levelheaded leader and Headstrong leader as he displays a focused if aloof personality and sense of determination that keeps the party going in their hunt for Sephiroth.
Lightning Bruiser: Cloud moves fast and has enough HP and stamina to take a good hit, and when he hits back it hurts a lot. Spin-offs like Dissidia and Kingdom Hearts instead depict him as a Mighty Glacier, moving and attacking slowly but doing a lot of damage.
Likes Older Women: When it comes to his attraction to Aerith, who is one year older than him. In fact, his mother once suggested that he find an older girlfriend. Subverted if he gets together with Tifa, who is one year younger than Cloud, if his Relationship Values with her is high enough.
Loners Are Freaks: As a child he was anti-social and constantly got into fights because of his All of the Other Reindeer status and Inferiority Superiority Complex.
Made of Iron: He survived a huge fall from the Shinra Headquarters to the Midgar Church and also managed to overpower Sephiroth while being impaled on the chest by him.
Magic Knight: Cloud fulfills this in terms of gameplay, dealing lots of damage through his swordsmanship and spells.
Meaningful Name: Cloud Strife, reflecting his inner turmoil and troubled life.
The Mentally Disturbed: Cloud's an emotionally fragile young man who suffers from bouts of depression, has a history of shutting down when life becomes too much to handle, and has serious problems with acknowledging his own self-worth while struggling against an evil parasitic entity's attempts to manipulate him further through his misguided false persona. In spite of this, he soldiers on, and manages to overcome or mitigate many of these issues.
Meteor-Summoning Attack: His appropriately named Meteorrain Limit Break allows Cloud to produce several meteors from his BFS to strike multiple enemies.
Momma's Boy: Cloud describes his mother as “vibrant” and once invited Zack to come to his house and try her cooking. Her death at the hands of Sephiroth is one of his (many) grudges against him.
Mook: In his backstory, it is shown this was his true rank within Shinra. He was just another one of the guards the party guns down the entire game.
Mr. Exposition: He does this for the tutorial near the start of the game, explaining Materia and Limit Breaks in detail to the player under the guise of teaching his fellow party members in-universe.
Mr. Fanservice: Well-built, handsome, heroic, and very badass.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Cloud is portrayed as a rather odd-looking and emaciated young man yet he wields the Buster Sword like if it was nothing. It is justified because of his Mako enhancements. Downplayed in that he's still got a decent amount of muscle on him to stop him from being unhealthily thin.
New Meat: He’s the most recent addition to AVALANCHE when the story begins. In fact, the very first line of the game has Barret calling him “newcomer”.
Not Himself: His character journey is all about this. Due to the combination of his low self-esteem, traumatic experiences, being in coma, being experimented on, having his mind literally shattered, and the influence of Jenova cells injected in his body, he spent a good amount in this game behaving like his best friend Zack, presenting himself as a SOLDIER which in reality he failed to enter, unlike Zack, and acting as a cold-hearted mercenary. This ends after a Journey to the Center of the Mind to put his mind back together and Cloud accepting himself for who he is, growing stronger shown by resisting Sephiroth's influence on him.
Occult Blue Eyes: They also glow because of his Mako infusion; this is a mark of all members of SOLDIER.
One-Handed Zweihänder: In the original game alone, Cloud slashed Shinra mooks with one hand on the Buster Sword and the other riding a bike. Also, his famous victory animation has him twirling his blade with one arm.
One-Hit Kill: His Finishing Touch Limit Break has a chance to kill multiple enemies with one swing.
Only I Can Kill Him: Spin-offs seem to give him this role regarding Sephiroth, who shrugs off beatings from the Warrior of Light or Sora.
The Paralyzer: Cross-Slash, one of his Limit Breaks, can randomly cast Stop on an opponent.
People Jars: Cloud was subject to this for years alongside Zack at Shinra’s hands. Both were thoroughly experimented on before Zack broke out and rescued Cloud along the way.
Pink Girl, Blue Boy: At least in the original game, Cloud wore a blue outfit while Aerith had a pink dress. Later games have him wearing black.
Puppeteer Parasite: Hojo's experiments involve injecting his subjects, including Cloud, with Jenova cells. After Cloud becomes an Empty Shell due to Mako poisoning, the Jenova cells take over his body to be used as a puppet for Reunion, creating a false persona based on Cloud's desires with Fake Memories to match, but the persona the player sees through most of the game. Sephiroth, who himself controls Jenova, by extension also can take control of Cloud if he wants. This ends after a Journey to the Center of the Mind where Cloud accepts himself and becomes stronger, resisting Sephiroth's influence in a Zero-Effort Boss.
Purple Is Powerful: Cloud's original game outfit is the purple SOLDIER 1st class uniform.
The Quiet One: On his own Cloud is a fairly shy and silent figure.
Replacement Goldfish: Initially, what draws Aerith to Cloud is his resemblance to Zack.
Right Handed Mirror: To Sephiroth. Both are the result of experimentation with Mako and Jenova cells, but while right-handed Cloud regains his sanity and becomes a hero, Sephiroth descends into an Omnicidal Maniac.
The Scape Goat: As a child, Cloud got blamed for an accident that involved Tifa falling down a bridge while trying to head up Mt. Nibel, but the truth is he was only trying to save her, and it was actually Tifa's own fault for running there on her own volition. Cloud never bothered to try and defend himself, since by that point he was already well aware that anything he'd say in his defense would've just fallen on deaf ears, being the ostracized kid that he was.
Sleeves Are for Wimps: All of Cloud's outfits are sleeveless (except maybe for shoulder guards) and he fights using very large swords.
Spam Attack: His final Limit Break, Omnislash, allows him to critically attack enemies fifteen times.
Still Wearing the Old Colors: Cloud still wears the same SOLDIER outfit even after he’s working against them. Subverted in that he never was actually part of SOLDIER and his current costume is just one Zack found and gave to him.
Strong and Skilled: A combination of infantry training and super soldier experiments has given him super strength, agility and endurance. These attributes are coupled with his skills as a swordsman which develop as he gains more and more Limit Breaks. In Advent Children, his skills are still sharp relative to the rest of the party that got rusty, allowing him to fight defensively against all three of the Remnants of Sephiroth even while he's weakened by Geostigma.
Super-Soldier: SOLDIER was comprised of humans who were exposed to large amounts of raw Mako (giving them their distinctive Glowing Eyes) and, in some cases, injected with Jenova cells, granting them superhuman strength, speed, and agility. While Cloud was never in SOLDIER, Hojo's experiments were similar, if not identical, to the process of creating a SOLDIER.
Sword Beam: Blade Beam, one of his Limit Breaks, fires a blast of energy from his sword. When targeting multiple opponents, additional beams sprout from the original to attack the other targets.
Take Up My Sword: When Zack dies, Cloud literally takes up his sword and keeps his dreams of honor and heroism alive in his own way.
This Loser Is You: He was a Deconstruction of RPG protagonists at the time. Turns out that when he was younger, he picked fights with the other kids to hide his insecurities and decided he would join SOLDIER in order to impress the girl he'd had a crush on for years but never had the courage to ask out. When this attempt failed due to his stated insecurities and mental fragility, followed by his hometown being burned down by the man he idolized, followed by his best friend in the world — an actual member of SOLDIER — being gunned down before his eyes, he lost his sense of self and got his body taken over by Jenova cells, of which it's shown that his ideal version of himself is pretending to be that best friend, of which only got realized due to Hojo's experiment being identical to the process of creating a SOLDIER, giving him the same powers and capabilities as them, as well as the Jenova cells altering his memories to be said best friend's ones. The real personality of Cloud is stuck on his head, but has to learn to accept his own weakness and shortcomings later on.
Tomato in the Mirror: See Dead Person Impersonation. When he finds out the truth he does not take it well at all.
Took a Level in Badass: From a story standpoint, he went from a shy, ostracized kid to a powerful warrior who defeated the all-powerful Sephiroth. Gameplay-wise, this is represented with his lackluster stats in the flashback (as a lv. 1 party member) sequence when compared to how he began the game.
Took a Level in Kindness: As a child, Cloud and his mother were ostracized by most of Nibelheim's population, causing him to wallow in self-loathing, which in turn led to him developing an Inferiority Superiority Complex and got into fights with other boys. After an accident in Mt. Nibel that resulted in him getting blamed for Tifa's injury, he became more withdrawn. Following the traumatic events of the Nibelheim massacre and the injection of Jenova cells into his body, Cloud's fractured mental state gives birth to a false persona where he thinks he's supposed to be an arrogant, reckless, obsessive, and deliberately antagonistic person, but his inner goodness still shines through when it really counts, and he becomes a full Nice Guy after the lifestream reminds him who he really is and he finally accepts himself as a person.
Too Many Belts: In Advent Children. The retconned SOLDIER 1st Class costumes from Crisis Core that he wears has two.
Tragic Keepsake: The Buster Sword is not just for combat: It’s also Cloud’s way of carrying on Zack’s legacy and dreams. He learns to do it by being his own person however, and not pretending to be Zack.
Trauma Conga Line: Goes through all of this before the game even starts:
- Hoped to join SOLDIER but didn't end up strong enough. So he joined the regular military, befriending Zack and Sephiroth. Then he watched his idol fall into mass-murdering insanity and god-delusion and seemingly defeated him along with Zack.
- Then, the two get captured by Shinra and are subjected to horrific experiments with Mako. Zack managed to break out and rescue Cloud from their fate, but is gunned down by mooks, and Cloud could do nothing but watch.
Trauma-Induced Amnesia: After the massive amount of tragedy he experienced before the game even started, the Jenova cells altered his memories with his fallen friend Zack's own, and has to block said traumatizing true memories to keep his mind from collapsing, causing his headaches.
Troll: Through dialogue options, it's very possible to make Cloud give some pretty dickish responses purely for the lulz of it all. He even appears to be this canonically, as shown from his frequent teasing of Barret during the Midgar section of the game. It gets dropped for the most part after he undergoes his Heroic BSoD, which indicates that it may well have been another element he picked up from Zack.
Troubled, but Cute: He wears all black and copes with a lot of mental issues, but is very good-looking and has a good heart.
The Unchosen One: Contrasts with Sephiroth's self-proclaimed status as The Chosen One. Cloud was a random Shinra grunt who had no connection with Sephiroth or anybody else involved with Shinra outside of an unlikely friendship with first class SOLDIER Zack. By all rights, he should've ended up just another of the endless mobs of enemies the party mow down. Through happenstance, Sephiroth's petty fixation on making him suffer for besting him, and his own personal courage, Cloud perseveres and proves himself to be the greatest hero of them all.
Unknown Rival:
- Hojo doesn't remember who he is when they have their last battle.
Cloud: At least remember my name!
- What might come as a surprise for newer fans of FFVII is that, in the original game, Sephiroth treats his rivalry with Cloud this way. Despite Cloud being responsible for his first death, Sephiroth barely remembers or cares about him, only using Cloud as a puppet whenever it's convenient for his plans. This completely changes after Cloud defeats him again at the end of the game and ruins his plans, at which points things become very personal for Sephiroth and he keeps his individuality in the Lifestream by focusing all of his hatred onto Cloud. From Advent Children onward his rivalry for Cloud becomes one of his most prominent traits in all his future and crossover appearances.
Weapon Twirling: As part of his victory animation, his spins his sword in the air before shouldering it over his back. He can do it with a rifle when disguised as a Shinra soldier during Rufus’ welcoming ceremony in Junon. It's implied - and later confirmed in Crisis Core - that this was a move he picked up from Zack.
What the Hell, Hero?: He beats up Aerith in the Temple of the Ancients, causing her to leave the party. Granted, he was being controlled, but still…
White Male Lead: Cloud is the protagonist in a noticeably diverse cast for its time and even today, with a black man (Barret), an Asian woman (Yuffie) and two furries (Red XIII and Cait Sith). Averted within AVALANCHE, where Barret is the leader.
Wholesome Crossdresser: A certain, ahem, "noble incident"◊. So wholesome that Don Corneo can choose him!
Your Days Are Numbered: In Advent Children, where he has contracted the fatal Geostigma. He gets cured by the end, and lives on to appear in Dirge of Cerberus.

Barret Wallace

Voiced By: Masahiro Kobayashi (Japanese), Beau Billingslea (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

"You gotta understand somethin'... I don't got an answer. I wanna be with Marlene... but I gotta fight. 'Cause if I don't... the planet's gonna die. So I'm gonna keep fightin'!"

The boisterous leader of AVALANCHE, a group of eco-terrorists trying to prevent Shinra from draining the planet's life energy in the name of profit. His cause is actually a cover for a personal vendetta against Shinra. He later comes to terms with his grudge and accepts responsibility for the damage AVALANCHE caused, vowing to save the planet the right way. He lost his right hand in a Shinra attack and had it replaced with a variable prosthetic.

"Angry Black Man" Stereotype: Especially early in the game, he has a very short temper. It's justified later on in the game when Barret explains just why he's so angry to begin with.
Anti-Hero: He's frequently angry and fighting for personal reasons, but deep down he's a good person.
Arm Cannon: Although some of his weapons turn it into a Power Fist instead.
Artificial Limbs: His gun arm is able to transform into a robotic hand in Advent Children.
The Big Guy: Standing at 6'6" and over 300 lbs with his good arm being almost as big as some of the party members, Barret is, far and away, the largest member of the team, serving as the team's muscle and tank.
Big Good: From his perspective in the beginning of the game, given that he's leading AVALANCHE and giving orders to Cloud & co. He gradually comes to realize that maybe he wasn't quite as noble as he thought.
Boisterous Bruiser: Character Development turns Barret into one of these later on. He's still emotional and outgoing, but no longer quite as trigger-happy.
Captain Ersatz:
- He looks and acts very similar to Mr. T. When he got a voice actor for later appearances he even talks like him.
- The audiobooks for On the Way to a Smile has him sound more like Chi McBride.
Chainsaw Good: One of his gun-arms is a chainsaw attachment.
Character Development: Barret goes through profound character development throughout Final Fantasy VII. Initially entrenched in his beliefs about Shinra and resorting to violence and terrorism, he experiences a transformative journey during the events of the game, especially during his confrontation with Dyne. He eventually recognize the faults in his actions strives to be a more virtuous individual.
Cluster F-Bomb: Not exactly an F-bomb, but Barret is very prone to cursing up a storm when he flies into a rage.
Cuteness Proximity: Very easy to miss, but if he's in your party when you visit the hidden cockatrice nest on Mt. Corel, Barret flips out over how adorable the chicks are.
Barret: Haeey!! Baaeby!!
Death from Above: His final Limit Break, Catastrophe, sees Barret jumping In a Single Bound and then unleashing a Wave-Motion Gun while suspended on the air.
Discard and Draw: Barrett can switch from his standard Long-Range Fighter class to a melee combatant by equipping him with certain weapons (specifically Atomic Scissors, Cannon Ball, This Is a Drill, and Rocket Punch), though he's primarily the former.
Dramatic Irony: He's the leader of an AVALANCHE cell in order to avenge Corel, but he doesn't realize an older AVALANCHE cell blew up the reactor, which caused Shinra to destroy Corel to cover it up.
Dub Personality Change: Partially. The localization features him speaking predominantly in Ebonics, a linguistic style absent in the Japanese version. Averted in Advent Children and future titles.
Energy Ball: Big Shot and Mindblow fire orbs of energy. Big Shot is orange, Mindblow is blue.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Sports a pulled back cornrow by the time of Advent Children.
Gatling Good: His default weapon is a Gatling gun mounted to his right arm. Because it's used frequently in cutscenes, it's one of two weapons in the game that cannot be sold, the other being Cloud's Buster Sword.
Grenade Launcher: His Grenade Bomb Limit Break has his gun arm be Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
Handicapped Badass: He's missing his right arm, but he makes it work by replacing it with an Arm Cannon and kicking ass with it.
Harpoon Gun: His Pile Banger is a weird subversion. It is classified and functions as a long-ranged weapon but Barret's attack animation while equipped with it is the same as his melee weapons.
Hot-Blooded: Barret is very open and eager in his desire to topple Shinra.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's angry and foul-mouthed, but is a good man deep down.
Jerkass to One: Of the initial AVALANCHE group, Cloud is his least favorite teammate because he sees the latter as a Punch-Clock Hero with no true loyalty to AVALANCHE's cause and because Cloud used to work for Shinra, though he slowly warms up to Cloud over the course of the game.
Kill Sat: Satellite Beam brings down a laser strike from above.
Large and in Charge: Barret is one of the tallest characters in the game, has a very imposing demeanor, and leads the extremist group AVALANCHE.
Mana Burn: His Mindblow Limit Break depletes a single enemy's MP completely.
Meaningful Name: 'Barret' means "mighty bear", fitting his imposing stature and aggressive personality. What makes the meaning of his name stick even more is when the team first visits Costa del Sol after stowing away on the Shinra Cargo Ship, where Cloud jokes that Barret looked like a bear in a marshmallow while disguised as a sailor.
Mighty Glacier: He's slow and not very good with magic, but he can take a tremendous amount of punishment and is very good at blowing things up with his gun weapons.
Morality Pet: His daughter, Marlene, is the only thing keeping him from going off the deep end. Barret is aware of this trope and notes if he didn't have Marlene motivating him to be a good dad for her, he may have become something worse a long time ago.
Moral Myopia: Initially, he doesn't care about the lives of many people besides his loved ones (e.g. his daughter Marlene, his Avalanche colleagues who died early on except Tifa, and his Corel community). He fights Shinra primarily out of revenge, and his self-righteous Saving the World claims are just his self-justification. Later on, Cait Sith calls him out for it, and Barret eventually acknowledges that he was wrong.
More Dakka: Angermax fires 18 attacks from his gun-arm at random enemies. Numerous strategies rely on maximizing his power for 18 hits of 9,999 damage, making it the most powerful attack in the game against single foes.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Barret is clearly inspired by Mr. T, in looks and mannerisms.
One-Hit Kill: Hammer Blow has a chance to instantly kill the target.
Papa Wolf: You do not hurt Marlene, unless you want the full fury of his rage brought down on you.
Parental Substitute: He's not really Marlene's dad, but acts as such.
Perma-Stubble: Has a very short beard to compliment his action-oriented occupation.
Power Pincers: Atomic Scissors, which is Barret's first potential close-range arm attachment if the player steals from the Custom Sweeper monster on the world map upon leaving Midgar. If the player missed on stealing it, they could buy it from either Junon or Gongaga weapon shops.
Progressively Prettier: Advent Children prettied him up somewhat. And gave him a fishnet vest.
Quickly-Demoted Leader: The original game begins with Barret as The Leader of AVALANCHE. Cloud essentially takes over following the fall of Sector 7 (plus the deaths of Jesse, Biggs, and Wedge effectively ended the group anyways), and officially once the party leaves Midgar. Then when Cloud is temporarily off the board during Disc 2, Tifa briefly leads the group until they get Cloud to safety, but after that, she steps out and Barret becomes the obvious choice for team leader. Except that Barret admits that he's a terrible leader and instead picks Cid on the grounds that the latter is an experienced commander and the best-suited for the role.
Rebel Leader: Leads AVALANCHE, an extremist group hell-bent on destroying the Mako reactors hurting the planet.
Rocket Punch: His Joke Weapon replaces his gun-arm with a giant red fist.
Scary Black Man: He's large and intimidating in addition to having a gun attached to his arm.
Shoot the Television: An NPC mentions that he once did this using his gun arm with a Sector 7 television monitor that was displaying a broadcast by President Shinra. He didn't win any fans that day, as the only other television in Sector 7 was in AVALANCHE headquarters.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Alongside Cid, most of the cursing in the game comes from him.
Sleeves Are for Wimps: All of Barret's outfits are sleeveless, is the largest and most imposing of the main characters, and he fights with a literal Arm Cannon.
Spike Balls of Doom: He could be attached to one called Cannon Ball. It could be bought from Kalm and Junon weapon shops.
Swiss-Army Weapon: His gun-arm has numerous different attachments besides guns.
This Is a Drill: He has a weapon called Drill Arm. It doubles his materia's AP gains when equipped. It could be found on Cid's house or bought at Junon after obtaining Highwind.
Throw Down the Bomblet: Grenade Bomb fires a grenade at opponents.
Took a Level in Jerkass: In Before Crisis, he's very polite and helpful to the player Turk, mainly because at this point, he has yet to lose his trust in Shinra and he believes helping them will help Corel. Once Shinra razes Corel in order to cover up the Reactor explosion, Barret turns against Shinra and becomes a bitter and vengeful Eco-Terrorist.
Took a Level in Kindness: He initially uses AVALANCHE's environmental cause as an excuse to get revenge on Shinra for the destruction of Corel. He's also an ass towards anyone he perceives as being associated with Shinra, including defectors like Cloud. After witnessing Dyne's mental state, being called out for his Reactor bombing by Cait Sith, and receiving a speech from Cloud about finding something personal to fight for, Barret decides to fight to protect Marlene rather than for revenge.
Trigger-Happy: Early in the game, he tends to open fire when he gets angry. If the player doesn't advance the dialogue in some situations, this can go on for a long time.
Unskilled, but Strong: Gun-arm aside, Barret is physically the strongest, but lacks the skill to hone in his strength in combat compared to the likes of Tifa or Cloud. When he lands blows, however, they're shown to be absolutely devastating.
Walking the Earth: Novellas set after the game say that he grew restless living in Edge and set out into the world to find a way to atone for his actions in AVALANCHE. He seems to have settled on "help fix the mess he created" as of Advent Children.
Wave-Motion Gun: His final Limit Break Catastrophe has him leap into the air and fire a massive laser at opponents.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: At first. He later acknowledges that his actions might not have been best.
When All You Have Is a Hammer…: His solution to most problems seems to involve More Dakka.

Tifa Lockhart

Voiced By: Ayumi Ito (Japanese), Rachael Leigh Cook (English), Britt Baron (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Final Fantasy Dissidia Duodecim | Kingdom Hearts | Ehrgeiz | Final Fantasy Tactics | Final Fantasy Explorers | World of Final Fantasy | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

"Uniforms, soldiers, war. I hate 'em all. They take away the things and people you love... I wish they'd all disappear."

A member of AVALANCHE and Cloud's childhood friend. She also owns a bar called "7th Heaven" in Sector 7 of Midgar. Though she realizes something is wrong with Cloud's memories she doesn't speak up until it's too late. After helping reform Cloud's true self she tries to support him and encourage him to find his own path that he wants.

Action Girl: Tifa's far better with her fists than with magic.
Action Mom: Due to her Parental Substitute relationship with Denzel.
Adaptational Modesty: Her in-game outfit bares a lot of midriff. Her Advent Children one only shows a sliver.
Animal Motif: Tifa has a dolphin theme in her dolphin shaped hair and one of her Limit Breaks is a Dolphin blow. It also comes up that probably her most important scene is helping Cloud find himself when he is lost in the watery-looking livestream.
Badass Adorable: Whenever she goes deredere to Cloud, which is... damn near the whole time.
Badass Damsel: Despite being able to kick her fair share of ass, Tifa still needs to be saved by Cloud now and then.
Badass Normal: Tifa doesn't have an ancient heritage, or Mako in her veins, but she can still keep up with the best of them.
Bare-Fisted Monk: Her combat style is based on this character class.
The Bartender: Tifa tends bar at 7th Heaven.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She attempted to attack Sephiroth with his own Masamune katana during the Nibelheim Incident, only to be casually disarmed and slashed near-fatally with the blade. Despite the fact that he killed everyone else in no time flat with a single slash each, Tifa holds no scarring over the incident whatsoever. A side book for the Remake continuity, Trace of Two Pasts, actually answered this with expensive skin transplants done to cover up what should've been otherwise permanent.
Buxom Beauty Standard: She's a major Dude Magnet towards most of the boys her age, Cloud included, due to her large bust.
Cannot Spit It Out: She knows something is very wrong with Cloud from the beginning, particularly after hearing his version of how the Nibelheim tragedy went down, but can't bring herself to mention it. Specifically, as far as she was aware, Cloud was never there, as he is recounting the story from Zack's perspective when in reality Cloud was a random Shinra grunt. She seems to keep it to herself because she's worried about Cloud's mental state, but eventually, it all catches up to him and he falls into a Mako induced Angst Coma.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Does as much damage with her fists as others with actual weapons. Then there's her Limit Break which continually gets bigger and bigger until her fist causes an explosion.
Childhood Friend Romance: She and Cloud grew up together in Nibelheim and end up living together as a family after the game's events.
Combat Parkour: Seen in her fight against Loz in Advent Children in which she did Tic Tacs and wall clings.
Converse with the Unconscious: In Case of Tifa, she asks Cloud if he loves her while he's sleeping. Her voice wakes him up, and she quickly changes the question.
Critical Hit Class: A certain weapon/Materia combination can make her this. Equip her God Hand (2nd best weapon) with has a hit rate of 255 percent (way overkill because all it takes is a 100 percent rate to never miss), and the Deathblow Command, which is a guaranteed critical in exchange for halving the hit rate, will always hit as half of 255 is still over 100 percent. Additionally, several of her weapons throughout the game boost the chances of her landing a critical hit.
Cute Bruiser: Possibly the cutest member of the team, and rivals Cloud and Barret as the physically strongest.
Damsel in Distress: On occasion, interestingly it is her romantic fantasy to be the damsel in distress that a dashing hero will save.
Desperation Attack: Two of her weapons have damage formulas that boost her attacking power when she's at low HP, has status ailments inflicted, and/or allies are KO'd.
Deuteragonist: In Advent Children, Tifa is clearly the story's focus after Cloud and she is the one usually filling him in on what's happening. In all versions, her voice actress is credit second after Cloud's.
Everyone Has Standards: Notably, next to Aerith she's the moralistic member of the party. When the Sector 7 Plate drops, Tifa is the one questioning if it's AVALANCHE's fault for merely existing in the vicinity to cause so much death and destruction with Shin-Ra's retaliation, and when Rufus has her and Barret set up for execution, she's the one that thinks they deserve it even if she ultimately does break out on her own will.
Expository Hairstyle Change: She ditches the dolphin-like ponytail in Advent Children.
Girl Next Door: A sweet and compassionate girl with maternal streak who lived next door to Cloud pre-series.
Girly Bruiser: She is feminine, yes, but she is the strongest of the female party members.
Glass Cannon: Tifa can deal out a lot of punishment in a fight, but she has a harder time taking it.
Greater Need Than Mine: In Don Corneo's mansion, if Aerith is selected as the Don's date, Tifa and Cloud meet in the hallway. She's thinking only of Aerith's safety, and not her own. If Cloud asks her if she's okay instead of saying "We've gotta help Aerith!", she'll be unhappy with him and he'll lose Relationship Values.
Guest Fighter: Cameos as a playable character in Ehrgeiz.
Hair Color Dissonance: In some depictions her hair is light brown, while other times it's such a dark brown it looks black.
I Got Bigger: Comparing her models from Crisis Core Reunion and Final Fantasy VII Remake and her model with Aerith, who doesn’t have any height growth, it can be seen that Tifa grows nearly half a head taller between games.
Iconic Outfit: Tifa's original outfit from the original game, a white midriff sleeveless shirt and black leather Mini Dress Of Power, is very popular among the fandom (for obvious reasons) and is easily her most recognized getup. Her all-black Advent Children outfit is also popular.
Leg Focus: Tifa's miniskirt shows off a lot of leg.
Long Hair Is Feminine: Her hair reaches down to her hips and is a very beautiful woman.
Mama Bear: To Marlene and Denzel. Threatening either of them will result in a brutal pounding into the floorboards.
Meaningful Name: Tifa Lockhart has a habit of keeping something locked away inside her heart like her feelings. Tifa alludes to Tifaret, the sixth sephiroth in the Kabbalah Tree of Life, which represents beauty, balance, and compassion and connects to all the other sephiroth except Malkuth. Aside from the obvious beauty, she's responsible for keeping Cloud in balance during his Heroic BSoD.
Meteor Move: Her Meteor Strike Limit Break has her lift a foe into the air and hurl them to the ground.
Mini Dress Of Power: Tifa's wearing a black leather mini-skirt and is the resident brawler. She ditches them for a regular-sized shorts in Advent Children.
Missing Mom: Her mother died when Tifa was eight years old.
Ms. Fanservice: Short skirt, big boobs, long legs, Tifa ticks all the boxes and easily cements herself as one of the most popular sex symbols in all video games.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Her arms are thin but her punches are powerful!
Nice Girl: In spite of her profession and appearance, Tifa is a kind, gentle young woman who acts like a mother to Team AVALANCHE and is utterly devoted to Cloud.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Tifa's initial appearance really resembles Jennifer Connelly, particularly her appearance on Career Opportunities (compare Tifa◊ to Connelly in that film◊). However, Tifa's appearance since Advent Children has been modeled after Ayumi Ito, who is her Japanese voice actress since the film.
Power Fist: Some of her gloves add claws or other attachments to make her blows stronger.
Promotion to Parent: To Marlene and Denzel, although she could be viewed as more of a Parental Substitute to the former.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Beat Rush is a quick punch combo.
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Dark haired and very pale skin, likely to show her status as a Yamato Nadeshiko.
Shorttank: Subverted. She may look like one given her outfit and nature as a brawler, but she's actually a sweet Girly Girl.
Shoryuken: Dolphin Blow is an uppercut with a blast of water.
Shrinking Violet: Can be very shy in regards to her feelings.
Silk Hiding Steel: More like 'Steel Hiding Silk' as she looks like a Badass Biker, runs a bar, and fights with her bare hands, but inside she's more feminine than Aerith with her Damsel in Distress fantasy with Cloud, her domestic skills, and role as Team Mom in the main group and AVALANCHE.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Tifa loves Cloud for the shy awkward Nice Guy that he is, rather than the faux badass persona he displays through the early parts of the game (in fact it even scared her).
Sleep Cute: If her affection levels are high enough, Tifa and Cloud are seen cuddling next to each other under the Highwind upon morning.
Sleeves Are for Wimps: All of Tifa's outfits are sleeveless and she's the resident slobber knocker.
The Smurfette Principle: If you don't get Yuffie, after Aerith dies Tifa is your only girl.
Supreme Chef: Although it is an Informed Attribute since you never see her cook, characters comment that she's good at it and she's a bartender who owns the 7th Heaven bar.
Sympathy for the Devil: Not as much shown as her Remake self, but in this game she also broke Barret's ensuing fight with the Shinra Manager and bows apologetically to him afterwards. She also sympathizes with Cait Sith's reasons to stay in Shinra, assuming that he stayed there to keep the people of Midgar safe.
Tamer and Chaster: Her attire in Advent Children covers more of her stomach and legs, but still leaves parts of them visible. The remake version of her initial outfit was also tweaked to have Modesty Shorts, a sports bra, and stockings.
Team Mom: To AVALANCHE. The home base chef who worries about them.
Third-Person Seductress: Very curvy and shapely, wears skimpy clothing, and beats up enemies with her bare hands.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Seems to be a Tomboy yet plays the Girly Girl to Aerith's Tomboy. Rare spin of traditional character design. The two have since swapped roles for the expanded universe and spin-offs — Tifa isn't a traditional tomboy, but is still depicted as much more of one than Aerith is now, who in turn is more girly. The Remake continuity gives their original characterization back.
Tritagonist: In Final Fantasy 7. While Cloud is the protagonist due to being the character with the most focus and development while Aerith is the deuteragonist due to her connection to the Lifestream and being pivotal to saving the Planet, Tifa’s connection to Cloud ever since childhood and her relationship with him is key to the story as she is the only living person who knows the truth about what Cloud did in Nibelheim and ends up saving him from his breakdown by entering his mind and making him realize the truth.
True Blue Femininity: As a member of Don Corneo's brothel, Tifa is seen wearing a dark blue cocktail dress.
Trying Not to Cry: After gently caressing Aerith's lifeless body, Tifa eventually breaks down and runs away crying.
Unwanted Harem: Gender inverted version. Tifa was very popular with the guys, Cloud included, in Nibelheim, but she wasn't romantically interested in any of them (except for Cloud).
Water Is Womanly: Tifa is associated with water. She has a dolphin-themed hairstyle, uses water-themed attacks with Waterkick and Dolphin Blow as her Limit Breaks, and is a bartender who pours drinks. In spite of her tomboyish appearance, she's a kind, giving woman who acts as the Team Mom and is devoted to Cloud.
Wolverine Claws: Several of her weapons have three claws attached to the back.
Wrestler in All of Us: Her Meteordive Limit Break is a vertical suplex to brainbuster combo.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Let's see here, devotion to the man she loves, check. Classically feminine like being gentle, demure, Team Mom, and having good domestic skill, check. Iron heart that is strong enough to temporarily become The Leader and accompany The Hero out of his Heroic BSoD, check please. She has everything except a connection to Wutai/Japan and the attached cultural trappings.

Aerith Gainsborough

Voiced By: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese), Mandy Moore (English, Kingdom Hearts), Mena Suvari (English, Advent Children, Kingdom Hearts II), Andrea Bowen (English, Crisis Core, Dissidia, Final Fantasy Explorers, Kingdom Hearts III), Briana White (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Dirge of Cerberus | Before Crisis

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Kingdom Hearts | Dissidia 012 | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Final Fantasy Explorers | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

"Just hang in there. Someday we'll look back at these hard times and laugh."

A young woman who sells flowers for a living in the slums of Midgar. Her years on the streets have given her a outgoing, street-smart but caring attitude. She is the last living Cetra, a precursor race who were driven to extinction by JENOVA.

Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: After Zack has been missing for four years, Aerith has mostly moved on from him, and although she initially crushes on Cloud because of his superficial resemblance to Zack, she later makes it clear during her Gold Saucer date that she's genuinely interested in Cloud as his own person, not a Zack imitation.
Action Girl: She's pretty hands on for a White Magician Girl, wielding a staff and capable of whacking angry robot houses, corporate goons, and demons as much as the rest of the party is.
Ancient Artifact: The White Materia her mother gave her, which makes her the only person able to cast Holy.
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In a way. When she died, her spirit returned to the Lifestream, but she was powerful enough to remain sentient within it. This allows her to command it when necessary, and help lost souls find atonement and peace.
Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: The shoulder pads of her red jacket reeks of 80s culture on a popular late 90s game but it didn't stop it from being an Iconic Outfit. The shoulder pads are retconned out in later releases, however.
Backup from Otherworld: Stops Meteor as part of the Lifestream during the closing moments of the original game. In Advent Children, her spirit also helps Cloud in the battle against Bahamut SIN by joining in the Fastball Special. She later uses her Great Gospel Limit Break from beyond the grave in order to cleanse Midgard and Edge of Geostigma.
Big Good: She arguably evolves into this role posthumously near the end of the original game, and definitely plays this in Advent Children. Being so powerful she can command the Lifestream to help protect the planet, the other heroes view her as watching over them and helping them from afar.
Braids of Action: Bouts of being the Damsel in Distress aside, Aerith lives by the Big Damn Heroes trope and is no stranger to combat.
The Cameo: An alternate version of her appears in Final Fantasy Tactics.
Colour Coded Eyes: Her green eyes symbolize her spiritual nature and powerful bond with the planet.
Covert Pervert: It's not-so-subtly implied Aerith's plan to make Cloud crossdress was partially an excuse to see him get pretty, and she at one point "accidentally" walks in
Crutch Character: Her Limit Breaks are Purposely Overpowered for when you get them to compensate for her only being around for part of the game, starting strong with a multi-target heal, status removal, priming the other party member's Limit Breaks, invincibility (which can't be replicated by any other party member even with materia), a full HP/MP restore, and lastly invincibility and a full HP/MP restore. Her Ultimate Weapon is also the only one that has "Normal" materia growth instead of the no growth everyone else gets, and naturally you get it a lot earlier than anyone else's Ultimate. Of course, this just makes losing her by the end of disc 1 that much more painful if you've come to rely on her too much by then.
Damsel in Distress: A bit pluckier than the norm, although there's still a whole level dedicated to rescuing her. Not to mention at the beginning of the game, when you have to save her from Shinra soldiers by crushing them with barrels (although you do have the option of making her fight them herself).
Deadpan Snarker: When Cloud tries to get her to go home after she shows him the way to Sector 7, she puts on a weepy girly-girl act expressing shock that she's being told to go home!... and then sarcastically asks if that's what Cloud wanted her to say.
Death from Above: How she (in)famously dies, via a surprise stabbing by a descending Sephiroth.
Death of the Hypotenuse: The game's somewhat infamous love triangle comes to a crashing close when one of the two ladies involved gets a sword through the gut.
Deuteragonist: The plot revolves around Aerith being the last of the Ancients as much as it revolves around Cloud as she is the only person capable of summoning Holy and with her death she ends up becoming one with the Lifestream, which ends up saving the Planet from Meteor.
Doomed by Canon: Contrary to all rumors of ways to save her or revive her, when the credits roll at the original game's end, Aerith will not be there to see it.
Doomed Moral Victor: She succeeded in calling Holy and giving the planet the chance to save itself from Meteor, but it attracted Sephiroth's notice and cost her her life.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: A major reason why her death is so remembered is due to how abrupt it happened.
Early-Bird Cameo: She appears in two separate scenes (the game's opening scene in which she's actually the very first character seen, then after the bombing mission where Cloud could buy flowers from her) before her formal introduction.
Fire/Water Juxtaposition: As part of her Evil Counterpart dichotomy with Sephiroth, Aerith is associated with water via Great Gospel and the Lifestream, contrasting Sephiroth's fire associations via the Nibelheim Incident and his Supernova attack.
Flanderization: In her original game, Aerith was pure hearted, spiritual and caring, but was also stubborn, flirty, mischevious, independent and witty — she not-so-subtly asks Cloud if he's single, constantly sneaks away from the house and snarks at him when he tries to take her back home, and her plan to save Tifa by making Cloud crossdress is one part seeing him distressed for the lulz and one part oogling him. However, SE has ramped up the Incorruptible Pure Pureness, emphasizing her connection to the planet and de-emphasizing her more headstrong character traits in favor of generic sweetness and innocence. Her Dissidia 012 Ultimania profile describes her as having "the innocence of a little girl". This is the same woman that threatened to rip off a mafia don's balls and "accidentally" walked in on Cloud getting dressed.
Four Is Death: Aerith is the fourth playable main character and is the game's major Character Death.
Green-Eyed Monster: If Cloud tells her Tifa's his girlfriend, she's audibly irritated.
Hairstyle Inertia: Aerith is seen sporting the exact same hairstyle as a child.
Half-Human Hybrid: Her father was a normal human while her mother was a Cetra, but this has little bearing on her status as an Ancient.
Happily Adopted: By Elmyra, who actually finds little!Aerith by the side of her dying mother Ifalna in the local train station, and takes her in to fulfill Ifalna's dying wish.
Hartman Hips: Her bust is nowhere near as large as Tifa's, however, Aerith still has her◊ womanly◊ attributes◊.
Healing Hands: Her Healing Wind, Pulse of Life and Great Gospel Limit Breaks all restore HP to the party.
Her Heart Will Go On: Following Zack's disappearance she remained loyal to his memory for a time, but eventually moved on with her life.
Iconic Item: In every appearance, even in concept art, Aerith has her hair ribbon. Crisis Core takes time to specifically show where she got it and why she continues to wear one years later. The White Materia also serves as one to a lesser degree.
Iconic Outfit: Aerith's pink dress, red jacket, golden bracelets, and red ribbon getup is easily recognizable among the fandom.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: She meets her end when Sephiroth stabs the Masamune through her stomach.
Inconsistent Spelling: The original English translation had her name as "Aeris."
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Compared to most other party members, Aerith doesn't have many character flaws, being good-hearted and noble from start to finish. All that change is she comes to terms with her heritage and embraces the legacy she's been left. Later games upped this to
Innocent Flower Girl: But not too innocent. In the Wall Market section, she selects what is implied to be an incredibly provocative red dress for herself, and it's her idea in the first place to have Cloud dress in drag to get into Don Corneo's mansion. She seems to actually want Don Corneo to pick her as his girl, complimenting him on his taste if he does. In contrast to Tifa and Cloud who are just doing it for the mission, Aerith has no qualms at all and evidently finds the whole thing fun, irrespective of the threat. On top of that, she "accidentally" walks into Cloud when he's changing.
In the Back: Sephiroth impales her this way, jumping from above then stabbing her upon landing.
I Will Wait for You: Subverted, she told this to Zack in their last phone conversation, but not knowing what happened to him after four years with no word, she said she was moving on in her last letter.
Kill the Cutie: The sweetest and most loving party member is the one among them who dies.
Lady in Red: While infiltrating Don Corneo's brothel to rescue Tifa, Aerith goes for a red Pimped-Out Dress.
The Lancer: Early on, her selfless and spiritual nature contrasts Cloud's Jerk with a Heart of Gold ex-SOLDIER. Later on her growing acceptance of her Cetra heritage make her a foil to Cloud's rising doubts over his identity.
Last of His Kind: Aerith is the last known Ancient in the entire world.
Little Dead Riding Hood: She's the only party member aside from Cait Sith to wear red, marking her for death.
Loving a Shadow: Subverted. Aerith admits during her date at the Gold Saucer that she was initially attracted to Cloud because the way he walked and presented himself reminded her of Zack. But upon spending more time with Cloud, she realized that the two were nothing alike, and makes it clear that she's genuinely interested in getting to know the real him, not a Zack imitation.
Magical Native American: Her Cetra heritage gives her an innate connection to the planet and makes her more inclined to use magic than normal humans. In addition, her people used to be wandering nomads seeking "the Promised Land".
Magic Staff: She fights with various rods and staves.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Within seconds of her meeting Cloud again after he falls into her flowers, she's already dragging him into an adventure and calling her his bodyguard, albeit because the "adventure" is trying to avoid getting arrested by the Turks. Not long after, she forces him to stay the night at her house and rest, and comes running out if she hears him, later tracking him all the way down to the junkyard when he successfully sneaks out to badger him into going on an adventure. Later, when she hears of Tifa's situation, her immediate solution is to force Cloud to crossdress partially because she thinks it's hilarious and partially so she can fawn over him. The spin-offs almost turn her into a Cloudcuckoolander, what with her comments that she's afraid of the open sky and she can hear the wind calling her name.
Martial Arts Staff: Half of Aerith's weapons aren't actually Magic Staff but she uses them as such nonetheless. Specifically, Guard Stick (her starting weapon), Mythril Rod, Full Metal Staff, Striking Staff, and Aurora Rod are all clearly designed for combat or/and self-defense (as some of the names clearly indicate).
Meaningful Name: Aerith's name was created to resemble and sound like the English word Earth referencing her connection to the planet as well as adding contrast to the sky based name Cloud.
Messianic Archetype: The last of her kind, born of a union between a human and another race, spiritually enlightened, becomes a willing martyr and dies to save the planet.
My Girl Back Home: She's the only reason Zack decided to return to Midgar.
Mystical Waif: This young girl is the guardian of Holy, the ultimate protective magic that can save the planet.
Nice Girl: Aerith might not be innocent by any means, but she has a heart of pure gold and actively looks out for other people’s best interests.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Aerith's appearance◊ resembles (and is said to be modeled after) a young◊ Brooke Shields. Coincidentally or not, Aerith was laid to rest in a blue lagoon.
The Paralyzer: Seal Evil silences and paralyzes enemies
Parasol of Pain: Stat wise it is her strongest weapon, which could be obtained if a player scores at least 5000 points at Gold Saucer's Speed Square. However as it does not have materia attachments and Aerith is a mage class character, it's more or less a joke weapon.
Pietà Plagiarism: Her lifeless body was cradled by Cloud this way. She was laid to rest by him laying her corpse in the Forbidden City lake.
Pink Means Feminine: Her pink dress, and many of her outfits in spin-offs, are pink.
Plotline Death: The infamous FMV sequence of Sephiroth stabbing her. In turn has led to jokes asking why Cloud didn't try a Phoenix Down.
Plucky Girl: She's spirited and playful and never backs down from anyone.
The Pollyanna: Despite how awful and traumatic her life has been, Aerith remains happy and well-adjusted.
Posthumous Character: In Advent Children, she's more or less just a Spirit Advisor for Cloud.
Present Absence: Aerith's death weighs heavily on the characters. Her murder at Sephiroth's hands becomes their resolve to continue stopping his Evil Plan as he made it (even more) personal. In Advent Children, Cloud is still visibly mourning her death along with Zack's. The game also enforces this to the player, as her usual slot in the party menu screen remains empty for the duration of the game.
Raised in a Lab: Aerith, along with her mother, was one of Professor Hojo's test subjects in the Shinra labs as a child. Little is told of her time there, just that her mother was killed when they escaped when she was seven, and her father died trying to prevent Shinra from taking them when she wasn't even a month old. What we see of Hojo and her experience when she's briefly recaptured gives just enough hints to let players fill in the gaps themselves.
Red Herring: Aerith is presented as a possible love interest on the first disk to make her death hit that much harder.
Red Is Heroic: Wears a red jacket and red ribbon and is undoubtedly one of the good guys.
Reused Character Design: She bears a very strong resemblance to the Lemure, an enemy from Final Fantasy V that was also designed by Nomura.
Sacrificial Lion: Her death sends shockwaves through the party and the fanbase alike, and is a warning Sephiroth is done playing around with you.
Second Love: Cloud, as her first love was Zack.
Silk Hiding Steel: A sweet and lovely lady who recruits Cloud to be her bodyguard. As the last Cetra, she's also the only one who can call out the Holy spell, which can stop the Big Bad's Colony Drop.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She was in love with Zach Fair in Crisis Core for his bravery and selflessness. The two were in a relationship for a while until his death. She also starts to genuinely fall for Cloud because of his innate goodness, and tells him in their date that she wants to meet the real him, knowing that the cold persona he shows does not reflect the kind-hearted soul he really is deep inside.
Sneaky Departure: She leaves the party to head to the Forgotten City while Cloud is unconscious. Early in the game she defies it; when Cloud tries to pull this trope on her while staying at her home, she slips out herself and intercepts him, demanding to come along.
Spirit Advisor: To Cloud in Advent Children.
Squishy Wizard: The most powerful magically but can't take a hit well.
Status Buff: Her Limit Break Fury Brand inflicts Fury status on her allies and and fills their Limit Bars.
Street Smart: "I was raised in the slums. I'm used to danger."
Summoning Artifact: It's emphasized that with how humanity has turned out, Holy might save the planet but kill off mankind too.
Sympathy for the Devil: In the Forgotten Capital, she cries for Tseng before resuming her journey, as he's one of the few people who knew her since little.
The Tease: She's rather flirtatious and open with her interest in Cloud.
Together in Death: She and Zack are reunited in the Lifestream after Advent Children, though it's implied that it won't last for long as most people's consciousness will dissolve into the Lifestream after death, with Aerith being an exception because of her innate powers as a Cetra.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Has the definitive attitude of a tomboy, sharply contrasting her appearance, personality, hobbies, weapon, and limits.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Cheerful and loving, all the party adores her, and one of those that doesn't have any shade of Anti-Hero in a Crapsack World. Yeah, she was doomed from the start.
Water Is Womanly: Aerith is a compassionate healer who wears a pink dress and is associated with rain and water in Advent Children, even creating a healing pool for those inflicted with geostigma. She is also heavily associated with the lifestream, which flows like water. Aerith was also laid to rest in a lake in front of the Forgotten City. Nojima even in stated in the Advent Children -Reunion Files- that "Aerith has sort of a 'watery' image about her, so [the staff] used water to convey her presence".
White Magician Girl: Her personal skills involve healing. Although with the Materia system, she easily becomes a Red Mage.
Yamato Nadeshiko: She has some traits but is more rebellious and flirty than the standard. Nor does she have the cultural baggage assiociated with Wutai/Japan. OTOH, she plays the trope straighter in Advent Children.

Red XIII

Red XIII (real name: Nanaki)

Voiced By: Masachika Ichimura (Japanese), Liam O'Brien (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Dissidia Final Fantasy | Kingdom Hearts | Ehrgeiz | Final Fantasy Tactics | Final Fantasy Record Keeper

"What a fascinating story..."

A strange creature who joins Cloud's group after being rescued from the Shinra HQ. Red XIII was the name he received as a specimen designation while held captive and experimented upon by Professor Hojo. Even though he is 48 in human years, his age is comparable to around 15 to 16 years old by his own species' standards and is very wise. He fights alongside Cloud and his allies to fulfill his duty to the Planet to defend it as a warrior.

13 Is Unlucky: Until he befriends Cloud and the others, his life is one of misery. The branding of "XIII" marked his capture by Shinra when things got even worse.
The Artifact: He is still addressed as "Red XIII" by the party long after they learn of his real name being Nanaki.
Cartoon Creature: The series never assigns a name to Red's species, which combines various feline and canine traits. Characters occasionally refer to him as lion-like, but his association with the moon and howling to express himself is more like a wolf.
Combat Haircomb: His weapons are various hair clips, combs, and headdresses.
Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Although he obviously wasn't meant to look like him, Tetsuya Nomura imagined that Red XIII would be voiced by Sean Connery. When he had a spoken line in Advent Children, it was done as an imitation of Sean Connery.
Demoted to Extra: He appears considerably less in Advent Children than the other characters, and is only seen at the very last cutscene in Dirge of Cerberus. According to the makers, this is because his fur is a pain to animate well.
Handicapped Badass: Red is missing his right eye but still fights for the world alongside the rest of the party.
Happily Adopted: He views Bugenhagen as his grandfather, since he raised him after Red's real parents were gone.
Howl of Sorrow: Gave one after finding out what really happened to his father Seto, whom Red wrongly believed a Dirty Coward. If you bring him on Forbidden City at the end of Disc 1, he'll also give one to Aerith.
Incendiary Exponent: His tail is constantly alight with a flame on the tip.
Intellectual Animal: He is very wise and intelligent, more than most of the human characters in the game actually.
Interspecies Adoption: The very animal-like Nanaki was raised by the very human Bugenhagen.
Jack of All Stats: He's fast and good with both physical and magical attacks, and has decent HP.
Last of His Kind: He is by all appearances the last member of his species. The presence of cubs in The Stinger reveals this was not the case.
Life Drain: Blood Fang absorbs HP and MP from enemies.
Light 'em Up: Stardust Ray bombards enemies with stars of light.
Magical Native American: His people are fire-tailed, talking red mountain lion who lives for centuries as the ending cinematic shows. Their role is safeguarding Cosmo Canyon, the holy ground of the Study of Planet Life. The Cosmo Canyon has an overtly Native American theme. His weapons of choice are 'combs', feathers that adorn the headdress of a Native chief.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: In Advent Children, he was meant to sound like Sean Connery.
Not in This for Your Revolution: Initially, he's fairly apathetic to the party's pursuit of Sephiroth and only follows them as a means to return home. However, Nanaki does bond with them over time and after the events in Cosmo Canyon, decides to continue journeying with them to save the world.
Parental Abandonment: His mother died protecting Cosmo Canyon, and he believed his father left her alone to die because he was afraid of fighting. Turns out he didn't run away but went fighting the monsters that were attacking from behind; he won but was petrified. And he is still alive and conscious.
Punny Name: M is the thirteenth letter in the English alphabet and Nanaki is the designated Red Mage. The "Nana" in his name also means seven in Japanese.
Red Herring: When the group notes the Sephiroth Clones have numbers tattooed on them, Red begins to worry if his number "XIII" means he's one as well and if he'll also begin to lose his mind. But he doesn't, and Word of God says he wasn't a member of the Sephiroth Clone project, the number was assigned to him for a different reason.
Red Is Heroic: Has red fur, is actually named Red and is one of the good guys.
The Red Mage: Red has decent attack and magic stats but not on the same level as the characters specifically designed for them, while his Limits provide a mix of offensive and support capabilities.
Status Buff: Lunatic High and Howling Moon grant status buffs on him and/or his allies.
Talking Animal: His ability to talk stands out to the party and freaks them out when he reveals it.
Teen Genius: Despite being a teenager by his species' standards, he's the wisest and most intelligent member of the party.
Token Non-Human: He and Cait Sith share the role as the obvious non-humanoid party members. Nanaki is a canine/feline hybrid creature while Cait Sith is the Robot Buddy.
Wave-Motion Gun: His ultimate Limit Break, Cosmos Memory, blasts enemies with a giant beam of orange energy.
"X" Marks the Hero: Nanaki is one of the main characters and he has an x-shaped scar in place of his missing right eye.
You Are in Command Now: He becomes the leader of Cosmo Canyon after his grandfather's death.
You Are Number 6: Hojo tattooed "XIII" on his leg to mark him as one of his experiments. Red tells the party when he joins them that "Red XIII" is a name that holds no meaning to him, and they can call him that or anything else as they wish.

Yuffie Kisaragi

Voiced By: Yumi Kakazu (Japanese), Kino Sakai (Japanese, Crisis Core Reunion), Christy Carlson Romano (English, Kingdom Hearts, Advent Children), Mae Whitman (English, Kingdom Hearts II, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus), Brandilyn Cheah (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Dirge of Cerberus | Before Crisis

Spin-Off appearances/Other Series Appearances: Kingdom Hearts | Ehrgeiz | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

"I am the champion of the earth and the sky. I am the conqueror of evil. The single white rose of Wutai... Yuffie Kisaragi!"

An outlandishly-dressed ninja girl from the Japanese-lookalike town of Wutai. As a rebellious and cocky tomboy, Yuffie desires to restore her homeland Wutai to the glorious nation it was before being conquered by Shinra. Despite her sometimes obnoxious personality, she is friendly, helpful, and willingly helps the party in their battles.

Action Girl: Not quite as much as Tifa, but she can still kick some serious ass.
Anti-Hero: She's cheerful and helps the party save the world, but initially joins them for selfish reasons and is overall can be quite a brat at times.
Art Attacker: Two of her weapons are a pinwheel (the Pinwheel) and an origami (the Oritsuru).
The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest member of the group (16 in the original game), and her immaturity frequently shows.
Badass Adorable: She's a skilled ninja and can fight monsters many times her sizes, and looks so cute while doing it.
Battle Boomerang: Yuffie's first weapon upgrade is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. It could be stolen from a Formula monster or buying it from either Junon or Gongaga weapon shops.
Boyish Short Hair: Contrasting Tifa and Aerith, Yuffie has a rather short hairstyle. This justified, though, considering she's a Ninja.
Bratty Half-Pint: In the original game, she can be very loud-mouthed and rude.
Combat Hand Fan: Wind Slash, which doubles her materia's AP gains. It could be found on a chest on the cargo ship bound to Costa del Sol after defeating Jenova BIRTH or bought from Junon's weapon shop.
Cry into Chest: Yuffie, unable to keep it all together after Aerith gets murdered by Sephiroth, breaks down sobbing in Cloud's arms.
Defeat Means Playable: Yuffie is the only playable character required to be defeated first in order to be recruited.
Diagonal Cut: Greased Lightning slashes the enemy diagonally and it takes a few seconds before they notice and take damage. They don't actually slide apart though, since it may not always be a fatal attack.
Dishing Out Dirt: Landscaper manifests as her sending a shockwave through the dirt to make the ground underneath the enemy party erupt.
Fragile Speedster: Yuffie's very fast, but when she gets hit, it hurts.
Fuuma Shuriken: Her weapon is a giant shuriken.
Genki Girl: Is almost eternally energetic, cheerful, and upbeat.
Glass Cannon: Whether throwing her boomerangs or using materia, Yuffie's very good at damaging the enemies. It's when they hit her back that she has problems.
Guest Fighter: In Ehrgeiz.
Healing Hands: Clear Tranquil heals the party's HP.
Heir to the Dojo: She's the daughter of the leader of Wutai and his heir to the legacy of ninja the nation prides itself on.
Hidden Depths:
- She is one of the characters who Cloud can date on the Romance Sidequest, and while not as tender as Tifa or Aerith is rather sweet, and is the only one of the three to kiss him. She also lays into Cait Sith a lot more than the other women when she finds out he's holding Marlene hostage.
- The reason she's obsessed with Materia? She wants the power it holds because she's disgusted with how Wutai went from a respected ninja civilization to a tourist attraction after Shinra conquered it, and wants Materia in the hopes of changing things and maybe restoring some dignity to the town.
Iconic Starter Equipment: Her Juji Shuriken (or 4-Point Shuriken) is her default in the original game, Dirge Of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake. It also appears in the official artwork for her and is what she uses in Kingdom Hearts II and her weapon in her Play Arts model figures.
Inelegant Blubbering: If you bring her to the Forbidden City, Yuffie will at first try to act calm after Aerith was killed and even gives her a prayer. Immediately she begins to shiver and then completely breaks down afterwards.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As bratty as Yuffie acts, she has a good sense of morals deep down and wants to do the right thing.
Lady Luck: Yuffie has the highest Luck stat of any playable character.
Light 'em Up: Gauntlet blasts enemies with a column of light from below.
Loveable Rogue: She's out to steal the party's Materia, but has sympathetic reasons for it and manages to be likable in the meantime.
Male Gaze: She in her OG FF7 outfit is subjected to this in the opening sequence of Dirge of Cerberus.
Martial Arts Headband: She's wearing a white one in the original game, being from a Ninja clan and all.
Ninja: Raised in a society of them and is one herself. She wields traditional ninja tools.
Ninja Brat: She's only 16 during the original game, with a loud personality to match.
Not Me This Time: There's a variation on this during the Wutai sequence. As the party approaches Wutai, they are confronted by a group of Shinra soldiers. Yuffie comments, "I have nothing to do with this one!" As they had already been suspicious (but didn't yet know that she had done anything), this clues them in when, during the battle with the soldiers, she's gone and so is all their materia.
Optional Party Member: You can skip recruiting her, but she still has a lot to do in the storyline. This is because the character designers liked her and salvaged a lot of the planned content for her when she and Vincent were moved from mandatory to optional due to time constraints.
Paper Master: Her second most powerful weapon, the Oritsuru, is a paper crane. It could be obtained once the player puts out the flame at the Da-chao statue using Leviathan Scale.
Plucky Girl: Energetic and spirited and always ready to fight for Wutai.
The Prankster: She's constantly scheming ways to trick the party out of their Materia, and then to evade them when they chase her to Wutai.
Rebellious Princess: Her dad's the lord of Wutai, and he's not at all happy that she ran away from home.
Rings of Death: She had a few of these in addition to her typical arsenal of shurikens and boomerangs. Razor Ring is a straight up example. Rising Sun combines it with Chainsaw Good. Yuffie's ultimate weapon, the Conformer, combines it with her usual Fuuma Shuriken.
Rummage Sale Reject: Most of her clothes would look less out of place in a junkyard. Perhaps not surprising, considering she's a free-spirited Lovable Rogue who probably doesn't have the money or desire to dress fashionably.
Running Gag: Her motion sickness is brought up whenever you're on a vehicle.
The Scapegoat: In her episode of On The Way To A Smile, she gets blamed for the Geostigma epidemic in Wutai because she was at Midgar during her journey. It's later revealed that it was her childhood friend who brought the illness because he went to Midgar on his own in attempt to help his mother.
Ship Tease:
- Out of all the characters you can choose to take on a date to the Gold Saucer, she is the only character who kisses Cloud.
- With Vincent in Dirge of Cerberus, especially when Vincent seemingly dies taking out Omega. Whether it's because she likes him or is simply concerned because he's a comrade is still open to debate.
Small Name, Big Ego: She's prone to giving herself grandiose titles and treating herself like a legendary ninja hero. She may be skilled but she's not as great or famed as she pretends.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: "Wutai Theft" is the former Trope Namer, though she doesn't fit the actual trope definition. At one point Yuffie swipes all the party's Materia and takes off with it, and you have to track her down and get it back.
Spam Attack: Bloodfest and Doom of the Living consist of her rapidly hitting enemies with her weapon over and over.
Sticky Fingers: She is absolutely obsessed with getting her hands on Materia, no matter the cost.
Tank-Top Tomboy: She dresses in this due to her as a ninja. Because of that she gets a brief moment of sexualization in the opening cutscene of Dirge of Cerberus (although its due to the camera's close up view of her).
Tomboy: She dresses boyishly, has short hair, prone to boasting of her skill as a great ninja, yes, she fits. She is also described as such in the FF7 Ultimania.
Trying Not to Cry: Attempts to do this but ultimately fails after Aerith's death. After paying her respects, she turns to look at Cloud, her character model slowly becoming more and more agitated, her emotions becoming too much for her to handle, and she suddenly jumps in Cloud's arms, overwhelmed by grief. She tries to calm down afterwards, but ends up running away, crying.
Wave-Motion Gun: Her ultimate Limit Break All Creation is a giant purple ray of energy.
Weaponized Ball: Her joke weapon is a yellow one called Superball. It could be obtained by winning the seventh Fort Condor battle or buying it from the Junon weapon shop.
Welcome Back, Traitor: After the team talks her down and finds out why she stole their Materia, they let her back in the group.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Averted. She's the only one who has a connection to Wutai, yet she is neither polite, domestic, interested in its culture, nor family oriented.

Cait Sith

Voiced By: Hideo Ishikawa (Japanese), Greg Ellis (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core (as a summon) | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

"There's plenty of stuffed toys like my body around, but there's only one me!"

A cat riding a giant stuffed toy Moogle, working as a fortune-teller in the Gold Saucer. He is useful to the party, as he knows all about the Shinra's plans. His questionable connection to Shinra puts his trustworthiness into question.

Ambiguous Robots: The series flip-flops between Cait Sith being a stuffed toy, a robot with fur, or a combination of both. It's likewise not clear how much autonomy he has, if any.
- In Dirge of Cerberus, we see Cait Sith and Reeve in the same room together moving independently. Between the two, Vincent chooses to face and talk to Cait Sith, but refers to him as Reeve. In another cutscene, Cid refers to Cait but immediately corrects himself with Reeve, creating an interesting scenario where we even though see that Cait Sith seems to have autonomy, he's not treated as his own person.
Cat Girl: The "Lucky Girl" limit break is a picture of a cat girl in a Fur Bikini.
Cats Are Magic: Cait is inspired by the mythical Cat-sith, which is why he specializes in Magic.
Cats Are Mean: Double subverted. He has a very cheery personality but is an extreme Jerkass in the beginning. Later, it's completely subverted.
Cats Have Nine Lives: When it is discovered that the Temple of the Ancients is boobytrapped to kill whoever tries to obtain the Black Materia, Cait sacrifices himself, knowing that he is a disposable robot who will be quickly replaced by another model (which does happen minutes later).
Creepy Jazz Music: He has a catchy jazz organ tune as his leitmotif, which fits both his status as The Gambler and his being a bit of a Jerkass.
Death from Above: His Toy Box Limit Break drops a random object on enemies to crush them, including meteors.
Death or Glory Attack: Attempting to get Game Over in Slots can result in a Total Party Kill on either side depending on whether it's done correctly or you mess up on the third slot, casting Death Joker instead.
Dice Roll Death: His limit Slots has a chance to Game Over via a Total Party Kill. His other limit, Dice, also has a chance to underperform significantly.
The Dividual: Officially the Cait Sith character is the robotic cat, but his giant nameless Moogle is always with him serving as his means of moving that it's essentially the character too. There's also the Reeve factor.
Early-Bird Cameo: A toy version of him could be spotted if the player enters Honey Bee Inn and peeks at one of the rooms in the right during Cloud's Disguised in Drag sidequest to infiltrate Don Corneo's mansion. The actual character doesn't appear until the first visit to Gold Saucer.
Early-Installment Weirdness: The original game treats the Cat and Moogle parts of him as effectively one being that's inseperable and they are constantly together in every scene. Starting from Advent Children, however, the Cat would be the one treated as "Cait Sith" and is on its own almost all of the time as the Moogle only shows up briefly in the opening flashback of the film (Cait instead rides Red XIII during the climax) and isn't in Dirge of Cerberus at all. Apparently this was because as the graphics got more advanced and realistic, animating the Moogle's stuffed fur was a pain to do as was animating the two to move in sync. The Remake continuity mostly follows suit when it can get away with it, having the Cat be solo by default and making the Moogle a creature that it can summon or dismiss at will with it only appearing in cutscenes if the scene specifically requires it to do something.
Expendable Clone: Reeve is implied to have several Cait Sith robots on standby for usage if one is lost or damaged. We see two in VII, and in Dirge of Cerberus one introduces itself as "Number 6".
The Gambler: His Limit Breaks are themed after dice and slot machines, and you recruit him in the Gold Saucer, a hot tourist spot.
Head Pet: He rides on the head of his Moogle toy.
Healing Hands: Mog Dance.
Heel–Face Turn: Goes from being a mouthy Shinra-supporting Jerkass to a good guy who pulls his weight to save the planet.
Heroic Sacrifice: When the party arrive at the Temple of the Ancients they discover that the Black Materia is built within its walls and the only way to get it is for someone to active a switch that will compress the temple around them, killing the person inside. Cait volunteers to do so in order to make up for his treachery and for holding Marlene hostage. Since he's an Expendable Clone it obviously isn't the end for him but doing so finally proved to the party that Cait Sith can be trusted, and he becomes a genuine member of the team from then on.
Instrument of Murder: Few of Cait Sith's arsenals are trumpets (e.g Trumpet Shell and Battle Trumpet).
Jerkass: He eventually gets his heart of gold. And then loses the Jerkass part almost entirely.
Luck-Based Mission: His Slots and Dice both do random things.
Make My Monster Grow: Transform turns his Moogle toy giant.
Misfortune Cookie: Cait made two fortunes that seemingly predicted Aerith's death (saying Cloud was going to lose what he cherished most) and claimed that Cloud and Aerith would have had a lovely future together as a couple, if she lived.
The Mole: Cait Sith is actually controlled by Reeve of Shinra, but still decides to remain with you once discovered. The trope is later inverted when he essentially becomes a spy for AVALANCHE within Shinra, despite starting the other way around.
One-Hit KO: Game Over kills all enemies, bypassing death protection.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: This was how Reeve is exposed in the Japanese version of the game. Reeve speaks with a Kanto dialect and Cait Sith with a Kansai dialect. When stressed due to Hojo taking over the Mako Cannon, Reeve inadvertently speaks to Scarlet and Heidegger in Kansai, then Cait Sith speaks to Cloud and the others in Kanto. Thus they realize that he's Reeve.
Pre-Sacrifice Final Goodbye: Cait sacrifices himself by triggering a boobytrap within the Temple of the Ancients. Cait knew that another drone robot body will replace him, but his last words have him still ask that he (the first Cait) still be remembered for saving the planet.
Randomized Damage Attack: Cait Sith's Dice Limit Break, which rolls several dice and then inflicts damage equal to the result multiplied by 20 to one enemy.
Redeeming Replacement: Thanks to his Expendable Clone nature. The first Cait Sith who joins the party is a spy for Shinra. The second one is a genuine ally through and through.
Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: "Cat-sith" is a creature from Celtic Mythology.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: He's an anthropomorphic cat that rides on a Moogle. It's hard to get cuter than that.
Robot Buddy: Both the anthropomorphic cat and the Moogle are mechanical.
Robot Wizard: Cait confirms that he is actually a robotic drone, yet has some of the highest Magic stats in the game.
Squishy Wizard: He has high Magic stats, but his defenses and HP are poor.
Status Buff: Lucky Girl makes all the party's attacks critical hits.
Team Pet: Probably the only one who has their own Team Pet (his giant moogle).
Token Good Teammate: Prior to his Heel–Face Turn was the only executive who actually gave a rat's ass about the common people.
Token Non-Human: He and Red XIII share the role as the obvious non-humanoid party members. Cait Sith is the Robot Buddy while Nanaki is a canine/feline hybrid creature.
Total Party Kill: Death Joker, often the result of a failed attempt at Game Over. Bypasses death protection too.
Unluckily Lucky: Cait has caused fortune and misfortune to his friends on multiple occasions in the story. His Limits also are high risk / high reward, with Slots potentially performing an Instant KO to all opponents or your entire team. Cait's Luck Stat is tied in 2nd place with Vincent. Cait's design is a reference to the Cat-sith, a mythical black cat infamous for its witchcraft, hexes, and bad luck.
Welcome Back, Traitor: When they find out what he really is, the party initially only keeps him around because Reeve is holding Marlene hostage. Shortly after he performs a Heroic Sacrifice at the Temple of the Ancients to get them the Black Materia, he earns the party's trust for real.
What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Barret for his bombing missions from earlier in the game. It comes off as somewhat hypocritical, however, since he's... y'know, with Shinra, but Reeve was never crazy about the killing of innocents to begin with.

Vincent Valentine

Voiced By: Shougo Suzuki (Japanese), Steve Blum (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Ehrgeiz | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

"Cold, huh? I guess that's just the way I am... sorry."

Main character of Dirge of Cerberus. He is a former member of the Turks with a mysterious past that ties him to Cloud and his group.

11th-Hour Superpower: Though Chaos is Vincent's ultimate Limit Break and must be obtained through a sidequest, it becomes this in Dirge of Cerberus. After struggling with involuntary transformations into the being and realizing its true purpose, he manages to control it at the climax of the game and fights the final battle in his Chaos state. It boasts the highest possible attack damage and HP stats in the gameplay.
'90s Anti-Hero: To an arguably bigger extent than Cloud. Vincent is clad in black leather; is brooding, angsty and mysterious; wields all sorts of cool and oversized guns; can turn into horror genre monsters- most notably a demon- and is even depicted in official artwork perched atop a rooftop at night like if he was The Cowl. Dirge of Cerberus solidified these aspects already present in the original game.
'90s Hair: Back in his days as a Turk Vincent is sporting the side curtains.
Alliterative Name: Vincent Valentine.
Aloof Ally: Though he canonically joined the heroes in the original game, Vincent started acting on his own by the time of Advent Children and tends to appear only in key moments to help his allies and then going back to working alone. It continues in Dirge of Cerberus as the other heroes work together off-screen as Vincent fights Deepground by himself.
Anti Anti Christ: Vincent's Chaos form exists for the specific purpose of killing all living beings to send all Livestream to Omega Weapon so that it heads off into space to find another planet to colonize. Instead it becomes one of mankind's greatest defenders thanks to Vincent, and, ultimately and ironically, the one who stops Omega Weapon from leaving the Planet, saving the world from being destroyed.
Anti-Hero: He's shouldering a lot of guilt and is cold and stoic, but he's a good person beneath it and fights for what's right.
The Atoner: He fights to redeem himself for his failure to stop Hojo's experiments.
Badass Cape: His iconic red mantle that he wears over his shoulders.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Back in his days as a Turk Vincent wore a snazzy professional suit and was already a proficient gunslinger.
Bad Powers, Good People: Vincent's ability to transform into monstrous creatures isn't one usually associated with heroes. Even more so when he morphs into Chaos, who is supposed to be a harbinger of death to the planet. Still, Vincent is one of the heroes.
The Berserker: When he enters his transformations as his Limit Breaks, he becomes uncontrollable for the rest of the battle and attacks until all enemies are dead.
BFG: His main weapon and most notably his "Cerberus", a massive Tri-barrelled revolver.
Breakout Character: Despite having some of the lowest stats in the game, he has become one of the most popular characters in the series. He was even popular enough to star in his own spinoff title.
Byronic Hero: Attractive? Check. Intelligent and passionate? Check. Self-flagellating and self-absorbed over a tragic Dark and Troubled Past in which he fell from grace and failed the woman he loved from afar whom he can never forget or move on from or forgive himself over, but which motivates him to an iconoclastic and sometimes self-destructive vendetta against the institutions that wronged him, regardless of the personal costs and risks it entails? Check, check, check.
The Comically Serious: He has some comedic lines, such as when he asks where he can get a cell phone during the Bahamut SIN battle or when he tells Reeve not to leave rocket launchers lying around after shooting Azul with one, all while being as stoic as usual.
Commonality Connection: He becomes close with Red XIII in On a Way to a Smile because of their shared long lifespans and fear of outliving their loved ones. They even agree to meet annually in Midgar.
Cross Attack: In Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent can adorn his handguns with cross-shaped pendants such as the Power Cross item. When transforming into Chaos at the climax, Vincent wields two long revolvers with cross-shaped barrels..
Cutscene Power to the Max: In Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent pulls off amazing feats of Gun Fu, Supernatural Martial Arts, and gravity-defying superhuman agility that would make Dante jealous. But only in cutscenes; when you're controlling him, he can't do any of these things, and in fact, he can barely jump.
Dark and Troubled Past: To put it mildly. Vincent's past directly connects him to the creation of Sephiroth, something he blames himself for letting happen at Hojo's hands.
Dark Is Not Evil: He is dark-haired, clad in black leather, associated with the occult and the supernatural... but firmly well-meaning and righteous. This extends towards Chaos, his demonic and Superpowered Evil Side who is actually a creation of the planet meant to be an accessory to the Godzilla Threshold that is Omega.
Dual Wielding: When he transforms into Chaos at the climax of Dirge of Cerberus he dual-wields a transformed version of the Death Penalty. It's only instance in the entire Compilation in which Vincent wields two guns.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Vincent is very quiet and mysterious, and looks plain unsettling.
Emergency Transformation: Dirge of Cerberus reveals this was partly the case - he was first shot and experimented on by Hojo, but when Hojo deemed him a failure due to his imminent death from the aforementioned gunshot wound, Lucrecia was the one to fuse him with Chaos in a bid to save his life. It worked. It's ambigious whether it was her experimentation or Hojo's that resulted in his lack of aging and healing capabilities, or some mixture of both.
Firing One-Handed: All of his weapons work this way, even the rifles! (Though he does use two hands for some of his guns in his solo game).
Frankenstein's Monster: His Death Gigas Limit Break, which attacks with Livewire and Gigadunk.
Full-Name Basis: And odd recipient of the trope in Dirge of Cerberus. Even among his closest allies there are those who only refer to him by his full name.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Dirge of Cerberus shows that his natural crimson eyes glow bright red whenever he is about to transform into Chaos.
Guest Fighter: Cameos as a fighter in Ehrgeiz.
Gun Fu: The spin-offs have established him utilizing this with his handguns.
Guns Are Worthless: Subverted in the original game. His guns aren't very useful when he uses them to shoot enemies thanks to his low attack, but when he uses them to focus his magic they're very handy indeed, since his magic stat is much better.
The Gunslinger: In Dirge Of Cerberus, he fights with a variety of firearms and is a crack shot with all of them.
Heroic RRoD: In Dirge Of Cerberus, Chaos is now not just one of Vincent's Limit Breaks but the most powerful of them, being a WEAPON in its own right. As such, while he can use the Galian Limit Break with no cost to the player he either collapses or is momentarily weakened after using Chaos during cutscenes, up until the end of the game when he gains more control over Chaos and the player controls Vincent in Chaos form.
Hero of Another Story: Vincent is the main protagonist of the Spin-Off sequel Dirge of Cerberus.
Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: His Limit Break Hellmasker, with the attacks Splattercombo and Nightmare.
Iconic Outfit: His red cowl is easily recognizable among the fandom and he is never seen without it.
Ineffectual Loner: As cool as Vincent is, he keeps to himself thanks to his troubled past and naturally quiet nature.
It's All My Fault: He blames himself for Hojo's experiments with his and Lucrecia's own child. Vincent being shot and also submitted to the scientist's experiments is also something that he blames himself for. He forgives himself at the end of Dirge of Cerberus.
Legendary in the Sequel: In the original game, he was a Secret Character largely unknown to the world, having spent decades sleeping in a coffin. By Dirge of Cerberus, however, he is recognized and spoken to in awe and respect by WRO soldiers.
Limited Wardrobe: Outside of flashbacks during his Turks days, Vincent is always wearing his aforementioned Iconic Outfit. Word of God confirmed they did this intentionally in Advent Children, as they felt that him changing outfits as the others had would conflict with his personality.
Loners Are Freaks: He's naturally antisocial and keeps to himself.
Long-Haired Pretty Boy: His hair reaches his back and is the resident Tall, Dark, and Snarky. He's very popular with female fans, too.
Love Hurts: He fell in love with Lucrecia, who happened to be in a relationship with Hojo. When Vincent protested Hojo using their child in his experiments, it got him a bullet in the gut for his trouble, and he became an experiment himself.
Mage Marksman: In Dirge of Cerberus he can fire magic bullets by equipping different materia to his gun. In the original game, Vincent displays good affinity with magic overall.
Master of None: He had fairly lackluster stats in the original game.
Meaningful Name: His name hints to his tragic past and unrequited romance.
My Greatest Failure: He blames himself for all that happened to him and Lucrecia following her and Hojo's experiments with her child. Vincent regrets not doing more to convince Lucrecia of refusing to follow through with them.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: He looks and acts like a ninja vampire, and can shapeshift into Captain Ersatz forms of famous movie monsters, namely Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman, and Jason Vorheez.
Odd Friendship: With Yuffie. Despite polar-opposite personalities, they get along well.
Older Than They Look: Physically, he looks about 27, but he's chronologically in his early to mid 50s after sealing himself in a coffin.
One-Winged Angel: In Dirge of Cerberus, he gains control over his transformations and becomes Chaos for the final battle.
Optional Party Member: You can skip recruiting him in VII, but official canon establishes he did join the party.
Our Demons Are Different: His Chaos form is a giant black and red winged demon. In VII it's his ultimate Limit Break and attacks with Chaos Saber and Satan Slam. Dirge of Cerberus expanded it into Vincent's Superpowered Evil Side that Lucrecia had forced upon him to save his life.
Our Werewolves Are Different: Invoked by his bestial Galian Beast form, which attacks with Berserk Dance and Beast Flare.
Power Floats: As Chaos, he never stands on the ground, preferring to hover above it. In Dirge of Cerberus, it can only fly and float above surfaces.
Power Incontinence: When the Protomateria is removed from him in Dirge of Cerberus, he suffers from bouts of uncontrollable morphing into Chaos. Only at the climax Vincent manages to control his ultimate form.
Power Limiter: Dirge of Cerberus reveals he keeps his transformations under control due to the Protomateria inserted inside him by Lucrecia. When Rosso steals it from Vincent, he struggles with involuntary instances of morphing into Chaos.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Played With in regards to Chaos, who is his Superpowered Evil Side and a dark demon with red in his wings to boot. However, Vincent uses his Chaos form to stand against the villains. Averted with his standard form, being a well-meaning anti-hero clad in black leather and wearing a red cape.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Has crimson eyes. His human model for Dirge of Cerberus reveals it's their natural color.
Red Is Heroic: Wears a red Badass Cape and is one of the good guys, despite his cold demeanor.
Revolvers Are Just Better: Some of his weapons, most notably the Peacemaker.
Sawed-Off Shotgun: 1/3 of Vincent's weapons are shotguns, one even being named "Shotgun".
Sealed Good in a Can: After Hojo was done experimenting on him, Vincent was horrified by what he had become and went to sleep in a coffin in Shinra Manor for years.
Secret Character: Finding him requires a short sidequest to reveal him.
Shadow Archetype: A heroic version but nonetheless he fits. A brooding loner haunted by the loss of a woman he loved at the hands of his arch-enemy? Vincent is what Cloud might become if he doesn't learn to cope with his issues. Word of God shares this viewpoint.
Shapeshifter: Can change into a wolf, a Frankenstein's Monster, a Hockey Mask and Chainsaw style slasher, or the bat-winged and positively demonic Chaos during his Limit Breaks.
Sniper Rifle: The aptly named Sniper CR, found in Mt. Nibel and could be bought in the Junon weapon shop.
Squishy Wizard: He's the most magic-inclined character after Aerith, but his other stats are poor.
The Stoic: Very calm and not prone to a lot of emotion.
Strong Family Resemblance: He shares his long mane of jet-black hair and crimson eyes with his father, Grimoire Valentine. Even their outfits looks similar. Lucrecia mentions the resemblance in-universe.
Super Mode: How his Limit Breaks work. Everytime he morphs into a creature, he gains an increase in Max HP attack damage and resistance.
Superpowered Evil Side: Chaos, a demonic entity sealed inside of him.
Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Mostly back in his days as a Turk, where he was more conventionally attractive. However, Vincent still qualifies in the present, being a Long-Haired Pretty Boy.
Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Despite being cold and antisocial, Vincent has a wit about him.
Took a Level in Badass:
- Vincent becomes a full-blown action hero in Dirge of Cerberus, displaying some degree of hand-to-hand combat skills along with a possible double jump skill and lots of Gun Fu and Cutscene Power to the Max.
- At the climax he takes another one when he finally gets his Chaos form under control. This time he gets equipped with a new version of his Death Penalty weapon: a pair of revolvers with cross-shaped barrels that fire beams of dark energy that deal some of the highest damage in the entire game.
Tranquil Fury: Even when burning with hatred for Hojo for all that he's done, he never raises his voice beyond his usual stoic and understated tone. Though one can feel the rage in his dialogue, whether it's written or spoken. This seems to range to his expressions also - in Dirge of Cerberus he gives Hojo an icy Death Glare in the opening FMV and his anger towards him in the last game's boss fight is similarly restrained.
The Undead: Vincent is, to all intents and purposes, a walking corpse animated only by Chaos. The resemblance to a vampire is purely intentional (although he's actually closer to a zombie when you get right down to it).
Voluntary Shape Shifting: Zigzagged. He changes form at will, but can't change back until battle ends.

Cid Highwind

Voiced By: Kazuhiro Yamaji (Japanese), Chris Edgerly (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Kingdom Hearts | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

"Sit your ass down in that chair and drink your goddamn TEA!"

A gruff airship pilot with dreams of going into space. He is the most uncouth of the protagonists; he constantly swears and loses his temper, and chain-smokes cigarettes. Despite this, he has a good heart, and is even voted temporary leader of the party at one point. He fits into the archetype of a father type character.

Ace Pilot: His backyard is fully of flying ships he's piloted, and he commands the party's airships.
Artistic Age: He is really 32 years old. You wouldn't think so considering his appearance in the game. In Advent Children, he looked more his age.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite the fact that he verbally abuses his girlfriend, Shera, constantly throughout the game, he really does deeply care for her. He even names his new airship after her, and finally marries her some time between Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus.
Badass Bookworm: He doesn't show too much of it, but it requires a lot of patience, technical knowledge, and general intelligence to fly and maintain any aircraft. Cid's seen to be competent with light aircraft, a zeppelin-like airship, and a jet-type one, and was he hand picked to be the world's first astronaut and man in space.
Badass Normal: One of the most prominent examples. He doesn't have innate magical powers, an assault weapon for a hand, combat training, or genetic enhancements. He's got a homemade spear and dynamite.
Berserk Button: Cid's pretty protective of his toys, such as the Tiny Bronco and the Highwind. He's also extremely upset about Shinra's decision to cancel its space program.
Bifurcated Weapon: Few of his weapons are halberds, axes attached on lances/spears that could function as both.
Blue Is Heroic: Cid wears a blue jacket and is one of the good guys, rough on the edges as he may be. He's wearing a blue shirt in Advent Children and is notably much calmer.
Boisterous Bruiser: One of his reasons for joining the party is because he likes the idea of "numbskulls" fighting Shinra. Plus, he can back every word of his boasts up.
Broomstick Quarterstaff: Cid's joke weapon is a mop. It could be dug in Bone Village or bought in the Junon weapon shop.
Cigar-Fuse Lighting: His Dynamite Limit Break has Cid lighting them with his cigarette before throwing it at enemies.
Cluster F-Bomb: He's much worse about this than Barret.
Death from Above His Boost Jump, Hyper Jump and Dragon Dive Limit Breaks, where he leaps and descends to attack enemies. His final Limit Break, "Highwind", combines this with Macross Missile Massacre.
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Cusses out the Ultima Weapon when it appears at Mideel, tells it to Bring It and demands it come back for more when it leaves the battle.
Dragon Knight: Cid is based of the Dragoon class, complete with the standard Limit Breaks (some of which even have "dragon" in its name) of the character class, even though he isn't one officially.
Famous for Being First: Cid was going to be the first man in space. Eventually he finally got into space, with a crew of other player characters (and Shera).
Goggles Do Nothing: Despite wearing a pair of goggles on his head, Cid never pulls them down. Likely they're there to tie into his pilot theme.
Grumpy Old Man: Well, he's only 32, but that's old by Japanese anime/video game standards.
Iconic Item: Cid is never seen without his goggles in sequels, spin-offs, and every other crossover appearances.
Improbable Piloting Skills: He can pilot almost everything.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He swears, smokes, is verbally abusive to pretty much everybody, but he gave up his dream to save Shera, genuinely tries to make amends with her, fights tooth and nail for the planet, joins the WRO, and gives a passionate speech about the need to protect the planet.
Leeroy Jenkins: He certainly has this attitude, even if he doesn't actually ruin any plans for the party, as shown by his gung-ho attitude about fighting Shinra.
Life Drain: Dragon drains HP from enemies to heal him.
Macross Missile Massacre: His ultimate Limit Break Highwind has him call in his airship of the same name to fire missiles at the enemy party.
Mythology Gag: He is pretty much a meta-reference to Final Fantasy IV, from appearance to moves.
Science Hero: Openly puts his faith in science, and his piloting skills are vital to the party.
Senior Sleep-Cycle: Depicted as having one in-game, apparently as part of his grumpy old man portrayal. When the party is forced to stay at the Ghost Hotel in the Gold Saucer, Cloud's speech apparently puts him to sleep. Later, he is seen napping on the bridge of the Highwind just before Barret declares him to be the new leader. Finally, if the player chooses him to accompany Cloud on a gondola ride at Gold Saucer's Round Square, he will doze throughout the entire ride.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Whatever cussing doesn't come from Barret likely comes from Cid.
Smoking Is Cool: Except when it's censored out... and yet still clearly visible.
Spam Attack: Big Brawl is a series of rapid slash attacks.
Team Dad: He's the third oldest of the party and is gruff and rude, but cares for them in his own way.
Throw Down the Bomblet: Dynamite has him throw a stick of dynamite at enemies.
You Are in Command Now: His brief stint as team leader in Disc 2.
Younger Than They Look: Even though he's 32, he can be easily mistaken for a decade older. The years of chainsmoking help to justify this slightly.

Zack Fair (ALL SPOILERS FOR FINAL FANTASY VII UNMARKED)

Zack Fair

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zackcrisiscore.png

Voiced By: Kenichi Suzumura (Japanese), Rick Gomez (English), Caleb Pierce (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Before Crisis

Spin-Off appearances/Other Series Appearances: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep | Ehrgeiz | World of Final Fantasy | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

"Boy oh boy... the price of freedom is steep."

An energetic SOLDIER that was Cloud's best friend, he accompanied Sephiroth on the Nibelheim mission, where he was critically wounded and turned into a lab experiment for Hojo. Though he escaped several years later and took Cloud with him, he was caught and gunned down by Shinra. The dying Zack entrusted his Buster Sword to Cloud, who inadvertently also assumed a fake identity based on Zack's life and personality. Crisis Core explores his adventures prior to Nibelheim as he deals with the conspiracies that infested SOLDIER during its glory days.

The Ace: He's handsome, friendly, and a flirty ladies man, in addition to being a powerful and respected SOLDIER. Justified, in that this was intentional to have him contrast sharply with Cloud's Classical Anti-Hero.
All Your Powers Combined: According to the Ultimania guide, this is how Zack learns his Limit Breaks — he meets someone, and upon doing so, learns how to copy their Limit Break and modify it to create his own, such as Meteorain->Meteor Shots and Healing Wind->Healing Wave.
Anime Hair: Zack has a lock of sharply spiked black hair. It changes styles during Crisis Core to show his growing maturity and aging, but it's still spiky.
Ascended Extra: Probably one of the most known cases in gaming. In the original Japanese release of VII, the only dialogue Zack had was related to the Nibelheim flashback and Cloud's disjointed memories of the past, and that's all he had. The improved western release that got backported as International added some extra scenes in a well-hidden flashback sequence, better establishing his character and death. He was, at most, an influential bit player in Cloud's story. Come Crisis Core, he became one of the more plot important characters of the entire Compilation after Cloud, Aerith and Sephiroth, and a Breakout Character in his own right.
Been There, Shaped History: Besides his influence on Cloud's past, Zack was the guy who named the 7th Heaven bar, bought Aerith her iconic hair ribbon and suggested she sell flowers, and is partly responsible for sparking Yuffie's obsession with Materia.
BFS: He fights using the Buster Sword. He wields a standard Cool Sword before he inherits it.
Blade Spam: His Chain Slash and Octaslash DMW attacks are rapid slash combos.
Breakout Character: Good enough to get his own spin-off game, and becomes a major character in his own right in the Remake trilogy.
Chekhov's Gunman: He is only mentioned off-handedly by Aerith, and an old couple who turn out to be his parents early in the game, but he holds the key to figuring out Cloud's past.
Chick Magnet: Almost as much as Cloud. Case in point: Aerith and Cissnei in the same game. Way to go Zack.
Colony Drop: Meteor Shots fires meteors at enemies.
Didn't Think This Through: On someone else's part, amusingly. Hojo cared so little for remembering or bothering with examining anyone closely that he and his researchers gathered up survivors of Nibelheim in the ruins of Sephiroth's murder spree, to turn them into Sephiroth-Clones for Hojo's Reunion Theory. This includes the critically wounded Zack left at the Nibelheim reactor a room away from a similarly-injured Cloud. Cloud gets Mako Sickness from the treatments, but Zack is already a SOLDIER and just getting an extra dose of what he's already been through — meaning once he's recovered enough, he breaks Cloud and himself out of their tubes, takes down the Shinra researchers and escapes as the most wanted living man on the Planet.
Died in Your Arms Tonight: Cloud is tending to him in his final moments. Once he dies, Cloud gives a haunting Skyward Scream.
Doomed by Canon: Final Fantasy VII spoiled his eventual death long before Crisis Core came out. With Zack's death a pivotal piece of backstory, there was no way he could survive.
Doomed Moral Victor: Though he defeats Genesis and keeps the pride and honor of SOLDIER alive, he dies defending Cloud from impossible numbers of Shinra forces.
Dying Moment of Awesome: His Last Stand sees him taking on platoons of Shinra troops, only losing against the last three standing.
Face Death with Dignity: Zack calmly utters his Badass Creed before taking on platoons of Shinra soldiers. While dying, he gives Cloud a motivational speech and gives him the Buster Sword before succumbing to his wounds.
Family-Unfriendly Death: The flashback showing his death in the original game sees Zack getting repeatedly gunned down, though it was a Bloodless Carnage due to the limited technology at the time. Tellingly, the more rendered Crisis Core gives it a Gory Discretion Shot by showing it through Zack's point of view (though he is seen bleeding to death afterwards).
Foregone Conclusion: Since Crisis Core is a prequel to Final Fantasy VII, and Zack's the hero in the game, it's fairly expected when he dies at the end.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: Of Cloud. He remembers him again later in the story, causing him to have a Heroic BSoD, but he gets better.
Guest Fighter: In Ehrgeiz, he makes a cameo.
Gunship Rescue: His Air Strike DMW attack has Zack call Tseng to bring in a Turk helicopter to unleash machine gun and missiles on enemies.
Healing Hands: Healing Wave fully restores his stats.
The Hero Dies: Zack is the Doomed by Canon protagonist of Crisis Core, a Prequel game set before FFVII.
Heroes Prefer Swords: He fights exclusively with swords, as with all SOLDIER members.
Heroic Willpower: He didn't live long enough for Hojo's Reunion Theory to really take hold, but he notably went through the same experiments Cloud did, and completely shrugged them off without missing a beat whereas Cloud was made comatose and near-entirely fried on the mental side of things before Zack's death "woke him up" with sheer trauma. Given the implications of other parts of the canon, it's plausible that Sephiroth would've simply had no hold over him because he's so mentally stable that the usual Sephiroth-Clone degradation wouldn't have kicked in like it does Cloud.
Hero of Another Story: Zack is the main protagonist of the prequel game Crisis Core.
Instant Runes: Apocalypse creates a red rune of energy below enemies that shocks them.
Irony: Zack failed a lot of his friends over the course of Before Crisis and Crisis Core, especially in the Nibelheim incident where all he did was stall Sephiroth overall. But in the end, his Last Stand that concludes with his death ends up being the one thing that finally awakened Cloud from his mako poisoning coma, and literally making Cloud his legacy in a screwed up fashion. Zack failed to be the hero he wanted to be, but his death ushered in the real hero after some major work.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Implied in the original game and then retconned with Crisis Core. Cloud in the original game could give some pretty dickish responses in the dialogue trees. The game's Reveal, where it's learned that he based his badass persona on Zack's, seems to indicate that he picked this up from Mr. Fair. Crisis Core, however does away with all of this and writes Zack as a heroic and energetic Nice Guy. Word of God and creation materials have given a Hand Wave that Cloud's fake persona was based on his image of a SOLDIER rather than specifically Zack, thus he'd also take some traits from Sephiroth, The Hero's Idol.
Jumped at the Call: Zack is always eager to prove himself and fight to do the right thing.
Keet: He's very energetic and excitable; Angeal has nicknamed him "the puppy" for it. His Character Development has him temper it into a more mature and focused type of character without losing his lightheartedness.
Last Stand: At the end of Crisis Core he finds himself standing alone against dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Shinra infantry. He recites Angeal's Arc Words and charges in swinging, bringing down all but three before he's too weak to keep standing. (Canonically, Shinra sent a full battalion of men which means anywhere from 300-1000 Shinra troopers were deployed to take down this one SOLDIER...and only 3 survived.)
Limit Break: His DMW attacks.
Love Makes You Dumb: Despite knowing that Shinra is hunting him with orders to kill, he still attempts to return to Midgar, Shinra's headquarters, to see Aerith again.
Manly Tears: After Angeal's death, he breaks down in the church and sobs while Aerith holds him.
Meaningful Name: He didn't have a last name until Crisis Core, when he was given the last name "Fair" to invoke the imagery of "fair weather", contrasting Cloud's name.
Mr. Fanservice: He's handsome and well-built, and has a scene where he walks around on the beach in swim trunks.
Nice Guy: Zack is everyone's friend and this trope is the reason why, he's just very pleasant and friendly.
Obliviously Evil: Throughout most of Crisis Core, Zack is working for Shinra, and opens the game with helping them subjugate Wutai, but is presented as fully believing in Shinra's propaganda and not understanding why the Wutaians would oppose the use of mako energy to improve the lives of their citizens. The majority of the game dials the resulting moral dissonance back by focusing on a civil war where Shinra is the lesser evil compared to Hollander and Genesis.
One-Man Army: Being the sole playable character in an Action RPG, Zack racks up a body count in the multiple thousands. Highlighted at the very first mission of the game, where Zack's objective is to storm and capture a Wutai fort by himself. He does it with ease; keep in mind he's still "just" Second Class at this time. A series of missions pits Zack against swarms of Shinra infantryman, culminating in a battle with 1000 soldiers.
Posthumous Character: In VII and beyond, he's long dead.
Power Copying: In Crisis Core, Zack's Digital Mind Wave ability allows him to copy and adapt others characters' Limit Breaks.
Present Absence: Zack's death is the reason Cloud still lives in the first place. Cloud even modeled himself after Zack, which is also an integral part of his character. In Advent Children, Cloud is seen mourning his death along with Aerith's.
Promoted to Playable: Zack merely appears in Cloud's flashbacks in the original game. In many spin-offs, notably Crisis Core, he's a playable character.
Purple Is Powerful: Zack wears the purple SOLDIER 1st class uniform is certainly a formidable fighter.
Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Rush Assault is a barrage of lightning-fast punches ending with an explosive diving tackle.
Right Handed Mirror: As Cloud is, he is this to Sephiroth. Their backstories and origins are even more similar, but Zack becomes a hero while Sephiroth descends further and further into madness and villainy.
Scars Are Forever: The X-shaped scar on the lower part of his cheek. Angeal gave it to him in pushing Zack to kill him.
"Shaggy Dog" Story: Zack's dreams were to become a hero, pretty much entirely on principle with the reputation of becoming SOLDIER being a nice bonus, and be there for his comrades and friends if they needed him. In the end, most of his friends either died (including one by his own hand) or ran off to parts unknown for their own safety, he dies painfully with Cloud having a Heroic BSoD that screws up his mind hard, and was made an Un-person by Shinra after giving his all to resist their control upon realizing he was fighting for the wrong side. Even worse, he wanted to meet with Aerith again in Midgar after being apart for several years — and yet he tragically dies right outside the city, so close yet so far.
Shirtless Scene: The Costa del Sol scene in Crisis Core features Zack in his swim trunks hanging out at the beach.
Sleeves Are for Wimps: Wears a sleeveless outfit (except maybe for shoulder guards) and he fights using very large swords.
Spirit Advisor: Gives Cloud some advice throughout Advent Children despite being long dead.
Status Buff: Lucky Stars makes all his attacks Critical Hits for a time.
Super-Soldier: As a SOLDIER, he has superior strength, reflexes, healing, stamina, and magic proficiency.
Take Up My Sword: The Retconned ending to Crisis Core, and his inheritance of said sword from his mentor.
Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's six-feet tall, dark-haired and wears dark outfits, and is very good-looking.
Together in Death: Him and Aerith, but it's more like Together In The Lifestream. Interesting because most people's consciousness will dissolve into the Lifestream after death.
Token Good Teammate: He works for Shinra, and helped to end the Wutai War leaving the place in the condition it's seen in Final Fantasy VII, but his interests were starting a new life, becoming a true hero, and protecting Cloud. It wasn't until after it became clear that Shinra wasn't going to stop hunting them down that Zack opposed them.
Walking Spoiler: In the original Final Fantasy VII, his entire existence is a major plot twist that goes hand-in-hand with major revelations about Cloud's backstory.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: While mowing his way through a Wutai stronghold on Shinra's behalf, Zack gets blindsided by Yuffie's sudden appearance, as she vows to defend her homeland to the death and stop Zack at any cost. Zack simply feigns losing to her bravado in the hopes that she'll go away (she does), establishing that as deadly and efficient he is against enemy combatants, he wouldn't turn his blade on innocents or children who can't fight back.
"X" Marks the Hero: The main protagonist of Crisis Core and has an x-shaped scar on the left side of his cheek.

Characters / Final Fantasy VII: Playable Characters

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Navigation Main | Playable Characters | Shinra Inc | SOLDIER (Sephiroth) | Deepground | Other Antagonists | Other Characters | Bosses

Voiced By: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Steve Burton (English), Cody Christian (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Dirge of Cerberus | Before Crisis

Barret Wallace

Voiced By: Masahiro Kobayashi (Japanese), Beau Billingslea (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

Tifa Lockhart

Voiced By: Ayumi Ito (Japanese), Rachael Leigh Cook (English), Britt Baron (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Final Fantasy Dissidia Duodecim | Kingdom Hearts | Ehrgeiz | Final Fantasy Tactics | Final Fantasy Explorers | World of Final Fantasy | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

Aerith Gainsborough

Voiced By: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese), Mandy Moore (English, Kingdom Hearts), Mena Suvari (English, Advent Children, Kingdom Hearts II), Andrea Bowen (English, Crisis Core, Dissidia, Final Fantasy Explorers, Kingdom Hearts III), Briana White (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Dirge of Cerberus | Before Crisis

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Kingdom Hearts | Dissidia 012 | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Final Fantasy Explorers | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

Red XIII (real name: Nanaki)

Voiced By: Masachika Ichimura (Japanese), Liam O'Brien (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Dissidia Final Fantasy | Kingdom Hearts | Ehrgeiz | Final Fantasy Tactics | Final Fantasy Record Keeper

Yuffie Kisaragi

Voiced By: Yumi Kakazu (Japanese), Kino Sakai (Japanese, Crisis Core Reunion), Christy Carlson Romano (English, Kingdom Hearts, Advent Children), Mae Whitman (English, Kingdom Hearts II, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus), Brandilyn Cheah (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Dirge of Cerberus | Before Crisis

Spin-Off appearances/Other Series Appearances: Kingdom Hearts | Ehrgeiz | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

Cait Sith

Voiced By: Hideo Ishikawa (Japanese), Greg Ellis (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core (as a summon) | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

Vincent Valentine

Voiced By: Shougo Suzuki (Japanese), Steve Blum (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Ehrgeiz | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

Cid Highwind

Voiced By: Kazuhiro Yamaji (Japanese), Chris Edgerly (English)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Dirge of Cerberus

Spin-Off Appearances/Other Series Appearances: Kingdom Hearts | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

Zack Fair

Voiced By: Kenichi Suzumura (Japanese), Rick Gomez (English), Caleb Pierce (English, Crisis Core Reunion)

Appears In: Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children | Crisis Core | Before Crisis

Spin-Off appearances/Other Series Appearances: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep | Ehrgeiz | World of Final Fantasy | Final Fantasy Record Keeper | Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia

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