Cloud (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate RP Reboot)

**Tier** | N/A (**-**)

 **Cloud** is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate RP Reboot.

## Attributies

Cloud is a swordsman with surprisingly quick mobility overall, even in spite of his slightly above average weight. He has average walking speed, the tenth fastest dashing speed, above average air speed, average air acceleration, and strong jump height, granting him both quick ground and aerial mobility. However, he has above average falling speed and high gravity, making his aerial mobility quite polarized and unrewarding. Under Limit Break status, his mobility is even better, where his walking speed becomes the eleventh fastest, his dashing speed becomes the fifth fastest, his falling speed becomes the fourth fastest, while his air speed becomes the fastest among the cast and his traction slightly improves. However, his falling speed and gravity are also increased, the latter slightly decreasing his jump height to the point where he loses the ability to air dodge in a short hop or double jump from the ledge without suffering its landing lag, as well as the ability to autocancel his back aerial in a short hop, and up aerial in a short hop fast fall. As a result, his Limit Break status only marginally benefits his aerial mobility, but it can nevertheless help him move along the ground better.

Cloud's greatest asset is the overall reach throughout his moveset, courtesy of his Buster Sword: it grants Cloud's attacks the overall second longest disjointed reach in the game (surpassed only by Red Noir), allowing him to fight from a safe distance and space out his opponents quite easily. Combined with the aforementioned stats, Cloud can approach opponents almost noncommittally. Due to this, his ground game is adept at punishing careless attacks. His neutral attack, forward tilt, down tilt, dash attack and forward smash also make Cloud slide a bit forward. His up tilt is also a reliable combo starter until medium percentages, chaining into itself, up smash or up aerial. Overall, his ground game can cover a variety of options and can give Cloud multiples moments of breathing space, all while being able to punish careless/short-ranged attacks due to his spectacular reach and attack speed. Furthermore, his aerial moveset benefits even more from these stats, making him a threat in the air. Neutral aerial covers a very large area making it a go-to spacing/air-to-ground transition move. It can additionally autocancel in a short hop, and also has low ending lag, which, when combined with its wide range and low angle, make it great at edgeguarding, which can compensate for its low power. Forward aerial is very strong if hit clean, and is also a meteor smash on aerial opponents if sweetspotted. Back aerial has tremendous reach, decent damage and knockback, and the lowest landing lag among Cloud's aerials, allowing him to edgeguard and space effectively. Like neutral aerial, it can also autocancel in a short hop, though at this height, it cannot hit smaller/low crouching opponents, such as Ashe and Sans, or Nicolas and Grand Dad, respectively. Up aerial has decent power, high speed, long duration, very generous autocancel window, and an enormous overall hitbox, making it an all-purpose attack and discouraging most opponents from trying to challenge it. Down aerial is not only a very strong meteor smash when sweetspotted, it also possesses one of the most active late hitboxes in the entire game, which can be autocanceled from a full hop regardless of Limit Break status, has fantastic anti-juggling capabilites, and it can even easily string into another move if it connects while he is falling.

His special moveset also offers very interesting options. Blade Beam is a projectile with good range and high activity, making it useful for forcing approaches and good at edgeguarding, though it gets weakened over duration and has high endlag, which somewhat hampers its otherwise useful utility. It also stalls Cloud in the air, giving it additional utility in guard breaking. Cross Slash requires additional inputs from the player to initiate the remaining slashes. It has wider input windows and more damage, but the full move is only allowed to continue if all hits connect. It can also stall Cloud in the air, just like Blade Beam. Climhazzard as it is an ascending slash, but differs from them in that it can be followed by an optional descending slash. This allows Cloud to mix up his recovery and enables Climhazzard to function as his fastest out of shield option, as it hits on frame 7. Lastly, Limit Charge is solely a charging method for his Limit Breaks, but unlike most other chargeable special moves, it can be canceled with a simple special move button press, or even instantly canceled into an attack, the latter being a trait shared only with Gyro, making the Limit Break a mechanic opponents should not take lightly when up against a competent player.

In reference to *Final Fantasy VII*, Cloud possesses a unique Limit Break mechanic. It manifests itself in the form of a gauge, which becomes visible while charging it to show its progress. However, as mentioned before, Cloud can charge Limit Break with the down special button input. After it is full, Cloud gets a boost in all of his movement stats (except for attack speed), allowing him to move even more quickly across the stage and in the air. In addition, all of Cloud's special attacks are given a single-use power boost, with all of them dealing more damage and having high knockback, enough to reliably KO within the 90%-120% range. Limit Charge is also converted to Finishing Touch, a spinning slash with such tremendous knockback that can KO most characters at 70% from Final Destination floor level. It also causes a whirlwind that pushes away opponents, making it harder to punish and providing Cloud a situational, but regardless good mean of gimping bad recoveries. With the exception of Finishing Touch, all Limit Break specials are also granted brief intangibility upon start-up, as well as additional properties, with Blade Beam being faster and having transcendent priority, Cross Slash striking five times immediately, having very low ending lag, and stalling him completely in the air, and Climhazzard granting more vertical distance and much more horizontal momentum, as well as having the ability to edge sweetspot at any time. With all these benefits underneath the Limit Break status, players must be wary of this, as one small slip-up from the opponent can give Cloud the perfect opportunity to strike and turn the tide of battle instantaneously.

However, Cloud has some severe flaws. One of those is his grab game: his grab reach is abysmally short (the third shortest among the cast, though pivot grabbing can alleviate this flaw to some degree), his pummel is slow despite being among the most damaging in the game, and all of his throws are largely unimpressive in both damage output (save up-throw), and combo capabilities (barring down-throw). His forward throw decent speed is significantly offset by it's combination of zero combo ability, poor damage output, and low knockback scaling, while back throw has extremely low knockback scaling and can only has a semi-guaranteed follow-up into dash attack at 0%, and they both fail to KO before 300%, unless the opponent is extremely light and Cloud is at the ledge upon performing them. His up and down throws both have misleading power and too much ending lag for reliable early percentage combos and they cannot KO until about 215%, and his down throw loses all of its combo potential past 20%-30% if the opponent has good DI.

Another weakness is his inconsistent KOing ability. While he has an abundance of strong finishers, none of them are easy to land in the neutral game, along with having no reliable set-ups into said finishers. All of his smash attacks are unsafe on shield, even when fully charged. Forward smash's immense power is counterbalanced by its slow start-up and surprisingly low duration, as each hit is only active for one frame, and it is possible to dodge all three hits within the intangibility period of any character's roll or sidestep. Up smash's wide range is hindered by a combination of low speed, lag, and mediocre power. Down smash's semi-spike and stage spike capabilities are not particularly powerful, with the move having relatively high ending lag and the first hit being inconsistent with linking into the more powerful second hit. His neutral aerial, despite being able to chain into attacks with ease, has low power, while his back aerial, up aerial, and forward tilt require good positioning to KO before 130%.

His regular special moves apart from Limit Charge have some notable weaknesses, such as Blade Beam being relatively slow to start up and end as well as depreciating in damage over time or when used in the air, Cross Slash being inconsistent with linking all five hits due to SDI or landing different parts of the hitboxes, along with being very prone to stale-move negation, as its very commonly used to rack up damage. Climhazzard being very punishable if shielded and easily DI'd out of, and all three specials having no KO power until past reasonable percentages. In addition, Cloud has no means of escaping pressure. His neutral attack and down tilt are his fastest ground options at frame 4 and 7 respectively, with Climhazzard as an out of shield option also having a start-up of 7 frames, but they are noticeably unsafe on shield, while none of his fast aerial attacks start from the front or below him. Down aerial's late hitbox can be used to escape juggles that launch Cloud higher, but its otherwise narrow hitbox allows opponents to hit Cloud's sides and tack on more damage. Thus, Cloud is fairly easy to combo and juggle, and is just as easily forced on the defensive if his attacks are improperly spaced.

Another problem is the Limit Break mechanic itself. It acts as a double-edged sword, as it increases Cloud's gravity at full charge, making recovery without the use of Climhazzard deceptively difficult. It makes precise use of his special attacks mandatory, as his Limit Break specials are still blockable and possess limited range; while Limit Blade Beam can be used as a ranged KO option, it can just as easily be reflected or otherwise avoided at the tip of its range, leaving Cloud wide open to punishment. The exclusive Finishing Touch deals only 1% and has has very high ending lag if the whirlwind is not hit/does not work, with it still not being able to KO until the 60%-70% range.

However, his most prominent weakness is his weak recovery. Despite his aerial mobility and jump force being arguably better than most sword fighters, his diagonal movement is overall very slow, making him prone to edgeguarding and gimping, and making it mandatory to stay a safe distance within ledge reach. Climhazzard is also a terrible recovery move, as its cited as one of the worst in the game for many reasons; it grants below average vertical distance and little horizontal momentum. Its ascending hit is also completely incapable of edge sweetspotting, allowing opponents to knock him further away from the stage with any far-reaching move. Its descending hit cannot edge sweetspot until it covers some prior distance. Lastly, if for any reason, he gets hit at the apex of Climhazzard, he is not able to tech a single-hit move regardless of how far or near Cloud is to a wall (he can still tech if he gets hit by a command grab or a multi-hit move, or if he gets hit during the Limit Break variant). These factors make Cloud's recovery comparable to those of Overlord, in the sense that it is one of the riskiest and most ineffective without use of his wall jump or Limit Break Climhazzard (which loses the active hitbox near the end of his ascent, making it less safe than the regular Climhazzard in some situations), and although he can stall in the air with Cross Slash and Blade Beam once each, the former slows down his air speed significantly and the latter's slower startup and ending lag can make its use problematic against opponents already close to the edge or in prime position to reflect it. The last problem about his recovery is that if he gets grabbed near the edge without his double jump and gets air released, he will not be able to make it back unless he properly times a Blade Beam stall towards the ledge or possesses Limit Break.

## Moveset

### Normal Moves

* Neutral Attack: Does two kicks alternating his legs, and swings the Buster Sword with a slash. 2%, 2%, 3%
* Side Tilt: Does a forward swing in an arc. 11%
* Up Tilt: Does a fast overhead swing. 8%
* Down Tilt: Slides with his leg outstreched, covering a good range in front of him and surprisingly large hitboxes. 7%
* Dash Attack: Slides along the ground to a halt and slams with the broad part of his Buster Sword in front of him. 11%

### Smash Attacks

* Side Smash: A very fast triple slash attack, with the first two hits trapping opponents and the third hit having more range and dealing strong knockback. 3%, 4%, 13%
* Up Smash: Does a strong swing upwards. 13% clean, 12% late, 8% end
* Down Smash: Cloud crouches and hits first with the hilt of his sword, which pulls the opponent into the second hit, stabbing with the blade. 4%, 12%

### Aerial Attacks

* Neutral Aerial: Swings the Buster Sword around himself in a wide arc. 8%
* Forward Aerial: Braver, also known as Brave Slash, from Final Fantasy VII; which is Cloud's first Limit Break in the game. He does an overhead swing and slashes forward in a downwards arc. 14% sweetspot, 13% clean, 11% late
* Back Aerial: Faces his back and does a single swiping swing, resembling his Aerial Fang from Dissidia Final Fantasy. 13%
* Up Aerial: Pushes his sword upwards, with one hand holding the base and the other holding the blade. 13%
* Down Aerial: Stabs downward, which Meteor Smashes. 15% sweetspot, 13% clean, 8% late

### Grab Attacks

* Grab: Grabs with one hand.
* Pummel: Knees the opponent with his right leg. Moderate speed. 3%
* Forward Throw: Does a flip kick. 4%, 3%
* Backward Throw: Turns his upper body around and does a backward kick. 3%, 3%
* Up Throw: Hurls opponent into the air and attacks them with helicopter kicks. 2%, 4%
* Down Throw: Slams the opponent forcefully into the ground. Cloud's main throw for combos, being able to lead into most of his tilts, his Forward Smash and even Cross Slash until mid percentages. 7%

### Special Attacks

 Final Smash | Omnislash | Cloud does one strong slash upward and then gives a barrage of sword strikes into the enemy, finishing with a downward strike that causes an explosion upon hitting the ground. | 3% (hit 1), 2% (hits 2-14), 5% (hit 15), 4%-5% (hit 16), 10% (hit 17), 50% (all hits connect)

## Misc

### Taunts

* Up Taunt: Performs his victory animation from Final Fantasy VII, where he twirls the Buster Sword in front of him before positioning it on his shoulders while saying 興味ないね ("Not interested").
* Side Taunt: Performs his spellcasting animation from Final Fantasy VII, where he places the Buster Sword on his back and cups his hands together in front of him. Complete with the original sound effect and glowing energy field.
* Down Taunt:Places his Buster Sword on its tip and poses in a casual manner while scoffing. It resembles the cocky pose he uses in many Final Fantasy VII cutscenes.

### On-screen appearance

* Intro: Falls from the sky and catches the Buster Sword with a twirl.

### Idle

* Idle 1: Rubs the edge of the Buster Sword's blade, similarly to one of Ike's and Roy's idle poses.
* Idle 2: Holds the Buster Sword upward in front of himself.

### Victory Poses

* Win Screen 1: While facing the screen, Cloud twirls the Buster Sword with one hand and places it on his back while looking away from the camera, saying 悪く思うな ("No hard feelings.") This victory pose originates from Dissidia Final Fantasy.
* Win Screen 2: While turning away, Cloud twirls the Buster Sword, places it on his back and then glares at the screen, saying ついてないな ("Better luck next time.")
* Win Screen 3: Rushes forward, quickly slashes the Buster Sword twice, and then assumes a battle stance similar to his idle animation, saying お前に俺は倒せない ("You cannot defeat me.")