Cloud (Life & Death)

Cloud (クラウド, Cloud) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Life or Death.
Initially appearing as a proud, yet arrogant and aloof swordsman who claims to be a former member of the elite paramilitary group SOLDIER, Cloud is hired by the insurgency group Avalanche as a mercenary to help them in their cause against the Shinra Electric Power Company. As Cloud's journey unfolds, he rediscovers his past and, alongside his childhood friend Tifa Lockhart and newfound friends within Avalanche, abandons his quest for power and fame in favor of fighting alongside his friends in order to defend their home planet of Gaia.
Cloud is voiced by Cody Christian in the Western versions of Life or Death, reprising his role from Final Fantasy VII Remake while Takahiro Sakurai voices him in the Japanese version, reprising the role from across the Final Fantasy series since Kingdom Hearts II. 
==How to Unlock==
Cloud is available from the start of a new game and doesn't need to be unlocked.
==Moveset==
* Cloud has a unique fighter ability called the Limit Gauge. Over the course of normal play, the Limit Gauge will be filled automatically by inflicting and/or receiving damage. Alternatively, it can be filled manually by using his down special move, Limit Charge. The Limit Gauge is always present above his damage meter and will display its current state of charge. When it is filled up, Cloud's body will emit a blue, fiery aura, and he will gain upgraded, single use versions of his special moves alongside enhanced mobility for the duration of the charge.
* Cloud can wall jump.
 	Name 	Description
Neutral Attack 	N/A 	A side kick, followed by a mid-level roundhouse kick, followed by an outward slash. All hits are executed very quickly and have high range, particularly the kicks. The kicks resemble his Shinra Front from Ehrgeiz.
Forward Tilt 	N/A 	An inward slash. It resembles his basic attack in Final Fantasy VII.
Up Tilt 	N/A 	An overhead arcing slash. Its hitbox starts behind Cloud with a larger front hitbox, although it does not extend beside Cloud and makes it unable to hit smaller characters beside him.
Down Tilt 	N/A 	A baseball slide. His legs are intangible while the hitbox is active, and it will sometimes deal less damage if landed early. It resembles his Slide Buster from Ehrgeiz.
Dash Attack 	N/A 	Thrusts the sharp edge of the Buster Sword forward while holding it diagonally downward.
Forward Smash 	N/A 	Performs three extremely fast slashes in front of himself. The first two hits combo into the third, which has higher range and immense knockback. It resembles his Buster Sword Slash from Ehrgeiz and the Kingdom Heart series' depiction of his Cross Slash Limit Break.
Up Smash 	N/A 	An upward slash. It resembles the first hit of his Beta Chain from Ehrgeiz.
Down Smash 	N/A 	Kneels and thrusts the Buster Sword's hilt forward, then performs a reverse gripped thrust behind himself.
Neutral Aerial 	N/A 	A circular slash around himself.
Forward Aerial 	N/A 	Briefly pauses and then performs a downward slash. It is almost identical to his Braver Limit Break and, to a lesser degree, resembles his attack animation when using the Deathblow Materia in Final Fantasy VII.
Back Aerial 	N/A 	Turns around to perform an outward slash. It resembles the sword strike he performs during his Meteorain Limit Break.
Up Aerial 	N/A 	Thrusts the sharp edge of the Buster Sword's blade upward while holding it parallel to the ground.
Down Aerial 	N/A 	A downward thrust.
Grab 	N/A 	Reaches out with his hand.
Pummel 	N/A 	A knee strike.
Forward Throw 	N/A 	A modified dropsault. It resembles Tifa's Somersault Limit Break.
Back Throw 	N/A 	A spinning back kick.
Up Throw 	N/A 	A 540 kick.
Down Throw 	N/A 	A one-handed body slam. It resembles Tifa's Meteor Strike Limit Break, albeit performed while grounded instead of airborne.
Neutral Special	Blade Beam 	Swings the Buster Sword upward and in front of himself in order to launch a green, crescent-shaped energy beam as a projectile. It comes out and moves rather slowly, but travels a long distance and has a large hitbox. It is stronger if used on the ground and hits early. The aerial version is slower and deals less damage, but gives Cloud a Fall Break effect. Like most projectiles, it disappears on contact with an object or enemy.
The Limit Break variant possesses transcendent priority, moves much faster across the ground, grants Cloud’s entire body intangibility on startup and hits multiple times, with its last hit having great KO potential KOing at 102% near ledge. It is still weaker and slower when performed in midair, however. Upon hitting a wall, the Limit Break variant will not disappear and instead act as if hitting a player, making it an effective stage-spiking tool if performed under the ledge. However, this maneuver is rather risky considering Cloud's poor recovery.
Side Special 	Cross Slash 	Performs a downwards slash. On contact with an enemy, pressing the special button allows this slash to transition into a series of follow-up slashes, spelling the kanji 凶 (きょう) ("bad luck", "misfortune"). The full attack deals high damage and moderate knockback, making it a superb punishing option at close range. It is weak against shields, however, as all stages of the attack are slow and punishable if missed.
Its Limit Break variant results in Cloud unleashing all five strikes with a single input regardless of whether he hits anything. It also noticeably increases both the damage and KO potential of the move, KOing middleweights at 100% from the center of the stage, while reducing the move's ending lag to such an extent that it becomes nearly impossible to punish without being right behind Cloud as he unleashes the move while also granting intangibility to Cloud's body on startup. Additionally, Limit Cross Slash deals a high amount of shield damage, so much so that the final hit can sometimes break a middleweight's shield, making it risky to be near Cloud during Limit Break. When used in the air, it halts all momentum until the move is finished. It is commonly considered Cloud's most effective Limit Break move due to its abundance of positive traits.
Up Special 	Climhazzard 	A leaping reverse gripped slash. If the special button is pressed again, it is followed with a descending reverse gripped slash. The first hit deals set knockback that leads into the second hit, which has a sweetspot at the center of the Buster Sword's blade that meteor smashes opponents as Cloud descends. It is Cloud's primary recovery move, though it is notable for being very ineffective due to multiple traits: it grants mediocre distance with low vertical height and almost no horizontal momentum, and the descending slash cannot be canceled and isn't able to sweetspot the edge until Cloud has fallen a certain distance with it, making it unsuitable to use offstage. Its fast startup makes it a good surprise attack when grounded, particularly as an out of shield option.
Its Limit Break variant greatly strengthens the rising (but not falling) hits of the move (allowing it to KO grounded middleweights at 113%), allows it to sweetspot edges throughout, grants Cloud intangibility on startup and much greater vertical and horizontal distance.
Down Special 	Limit Charge/Finishing Touch	Holds the Buster Sword horizontally in front of himself and remains still in order to manually charge the Limit Gauge. While the move is being held, a text box labeled "Limit" appears above Cloud, which contains a meter that denotes the current level of Limit and increases as it is charged. The Limit Gauge will reach full charge either by using Limit Charge for 335 frames but can be alternatively filled by dealing 150% or receiving 100% and each of these methods stacks with each other. When the Limit Gauge is fully charged, Cloud will say "限界を越える", which translates to "limits are meant to be broken" or "breaking the limit". The move can be charge-canceled by pressing the shield button, hitting the control stick left or right (which triggers a roll), grabbing, or pressing the special button again (the latter of which has an 8-frame delay). When the Limit Gauge is filled, Cloud is surrounded by a blue, fiery aura, and his mobility receives a noticeable increase. As long as he is in this state, he has access to much more powerful, single use variants of his special attacks, as listed above. Using any of these attacks will empty the Limit Gauge and return Cloud to his normal state, even if the move misses or is interrupted. The charge goes away in 15 seconds if it isn't used at all when fully charged.
The Limit Break variant of Limit Charge itself is an entirely different attack called Finishing Touch, in which Cloud performs a spinning, upward arcing slash to generate a large whirlwind. Although the whirlwind deals only 1%, it has tremendous knockback, so much so that it can KO most opponents before 70%. The move hits on frame 14 but has very high ending lag and almost no shieldstun due to its abysmal damage output. The attack is weaker as a whole when performed in the air, however, KOing about 24% later when hit in the front, and 36% later with the back hitbox. The attack's hitbox is deceptively large, and it generates a powerful windbox that extends even further beyond the Buster Sword's range, pushing opponents away. Finishing Touch's animation may be based on Tornado, an unused Limit Break in Final Fantasy VII.
Final Smash 	Omnislash/Omnislash Ver. 5 	Rushes forward at high speed and attacks, unleashing a series of slashes that concludes with a powerful, descending slash that triggers an explosion. At the beginning of the move, with a text box appearing above him that displays "Omnislash" as he proceeds to flings any opponents he runs into to the top of the screen. After the series of slashes, Cloud charges up a final slash, in which he descends and slashes the opponent down to the stage and results in a huge explosion that launches the opponent. One of the most powerful Final Smashes in the game when successful, as it can KO as low as 22%. Unlike Marth and Lucina's Critical Hit, Cloud will dash off the edges of platforms if Omnislash is initiated next to one, and he cannot cancel the move. If using his Advent Children costume, he will use Omnislash Ver. 5 instead, though it is mostly an aesthetic change excluding The final hit which always launches bystanders in the same direction as the opponent caught by the move, unlike the default version. These two changes effectively make the move functionally identical against the caught opponent, but potentially slightly different against bystanders.
==Other Animations==
Animation 	Description 	Notes
On-Screen Appearance 	Descends from the sky and catches the Buster Sword with a flourish. Based on his landing animation from after Omnislash Ver. 5 in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. 	
Taunt 1 	Twirls the Buster Sword and places it behind his back. It is almost identical to his victory animation and the official artwork from Final Fantasy VII, while saying I'm not interested. ("興味ないね, "I'm not interested."), his catchphrase from Final Fantasy VII. 	
Taunt 2 	Performs his magic casting animation from Final Fantasy VII, complete with the sound effect and aura from that game. 	
Taunt 3 	Leans on the Buster Sword while scoffing. It resembles the cocky pose he assumes in many cutscenes throughout Final Fantasy VII. 	
Star KO 	 	
Screen KO 	 	
Character Selection Screen	 	
Crowd Chant 	Cloud! - Cloud! - Cloud! 	
Victory Pose 1 	Twirls the Buster Sword with one hand and places it on his back with his eyes closed and says "No hard feelings." ("悪く思うな", "No hard feelings." ) Based on his victory animation in Final Fantasy VII. 	
Victory Pose 2 	While turning away from the camera, he twirls the Buster Sword, places it on his back and then looks to the left while hiding his face, saying "Better luck next time." ("ついてないな", "Better luck next time." )Based on his appearance in the North American box art of Final Fantasy VII and resembles Squall Leonhart's victory pose in Final Fantasy VIII. 	
Victory Pose 3 	Dashes into the screen, slashes the Buster Sword twice and gets in his battle stance while saying, "You cannot defeat me!" ("お前に俺は倒せない", which translates to "You cannot defeat me.") The slashes resemble Cloud’s animation when using the 2x-Cut command in Final Fantasy VII. 	
==Role in Classic Mode==
Like all other fighters, Cloud appears in Classic Mode. Cloud's Mini-Boss is unknown. 
===Cloud Ending===
==Role in The Kiss of Death==
==Alternate Costumes==
Half of Cloud's costumes are based on his appearance in Final Fantasy VII, while the other half is based on his "Cloudy Wolf" design from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. In two of his Advent Childen costumes, his Geostigma-infected arm is covered by a sleeve, while it is exposed in the other two, revealing the red ribbon he wrapped around it in memory of Aerith Gainsborough. His costumes with the exposed arm are based on his appearance in Advent Children after his fight with Bahamut SIN, during which his sleeve is torn off. As of Sephiroth's official release, Advent Children Cloud uses Omnislash Ver. 5 as his Final Smash rather than the standard Omnislash, which is mostly a cosmetic difference; however, the explosion resulting from the move's final hit has slightly different properties regarding the direction in which it launches enemies who were not caught by the rest of the move, thus technically making Cloud the only character in the game with a gameplay difference between his costumes. Cloud’s alternate costumes are slightly brighter compared to Smash 4.
Image	Number	Color 	Notes 	Unlockable?
 	01 	Original 	Based on his appearance in Dissidia Final Fantasy. 	Default
 	02 	Advent 	Based on his appearance in the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It is referred to as either his "Advent Children costume" or his "Cloudy Wolf" design.	Default
 	03 	Blue 	Resembles the 3rd-Class SOLDIER uniform from Final Fantasy VII. 	Default
 	04 	Advent Blue 	Resembles the 3rd-Class SOLDIER uniform from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. 	Default
 	05 	Red 	Resembles the 2nd-Class SOLDIER uniform from Final Fantasy VII. 	Default
 	06 	Advent Black 	Based on his appearance in Advent Children after his fight with Bahamut SIN, during which his sleeve is torn off, revealing a pink ribbon commemorating Aerith.	Default
 	07 	Brown 	 	Default
 	08 	Advent Purple	Resembles the 2nd-Class SOLDIER uniform from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Also an alternative costume in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. 	Default
 	09 	 	 	Unlockable
 	10 	 	 	Unlockable
 	11 	 	 	Unlockable
 	12 	 	 	Unlockable
 	13 	 	 	Unlockable
 	14 	 	 	Unlockable
==Smash Taunts==
===Palutena's Guidance===
===Snake's Codecs===
==Fighter Spirits==
Cloud's Fighter Spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 500 coins. Unlocking Cloud in The Kiss of Death allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a Fighter Spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Each Fighter Spirit has an alternate version that replaces them with their artwork in Life & Death.
File:CloudStrifeFFVII.png
==Trivia==
Category:Fighters in Super Smash Bros. Life or Death