I think it’s interesting that Cloud’s moveset dosen’t really have magic attacks from Final Fantasy, and they used sword attacks for all his specials.
Some people say it’s because of SE not letting take much things from final fantasy. I think that’s ridiculous because his attacks do represent his attacks, just not the magic. Sakurai must have thought more about how to represent the character Cloud than the Final Fantasy series. That was an interesting approach to designing him and his moveset, and I think I would have probably went the same route except with a magic spell or two in his specials.