Cloud Strife (Japanese: クラウド・ストライフ, Hepburn: Kuraudo Sutoraifu) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Square's (now Square Enix's) 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII, its high-definition remake, and several of its sequels and spinoffs. In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud is a mercenary claiming to be formerly of SOLDIER, a group of elite supersoldiers employed by the Shinra Electric Power Company, a megacorporation responsible for draining the life from the planet. Cloud joins the resistance group AVALANCHE in the fight against Shinra, and driven by a feud with his former superior, the primary antagonist Sephiroth, Cloud learns to accept his troubled past and adapts to his role as a leader.
