Cloud Moveset analysis (including Gifycats + Frame Data)

[meleebrawler]

None of the characters were steaming in the video IIRC so it seems that cloud hits pretty dang hard.

Seems that all of his Limit Break moves are more than capable of killing. Though I wish we saw what kind of shenanigans could be pulled with LB Climhazzard/Braver (and on another note, that move could allow Cloud to make some pretty YOLO edgeguards).

 

[Tri Knight]

Seems that all of his Limit Break moves are more than capable of killing. Though I wish we saw what kind of shenanigans could be pulled with LB Climhazzard/Braver (and on another note, that move could allow Cloud to make some pretty YOLO edgeguards).

Not unless Cloud can use it below the ledge and spike them down while safely grabbing onto the ledge. Ike would be jealous if that was the case. But I'm not sure if you can angle his Up-B to go straight up or not... and even if he can, can he grab it while facing the other way? Guess we'll have to see.

 

[Burruni]

Not unless Cloud can use it below the ledge and spike them down while safely grabbing onto the ledge. Ike would be jealous if that was the case. But I'm not sure if you can angle his Up-B to go straight up or not... and even if he can, can he grab it while facing the other way? Guess we'll have to see.

It appears that normal Climmhazard goes straight up but Climmhazard+ gives you horizontal infuence on top of it going farther.
Or, possibly more likely, is that both allow some degree of horizontal influence but the LB version just does it to a much better degree.
The main question is if it has a reversed ledge-snap, as you said.

god forbid your Up+B doesn't snap to the ledge.

 

[meleebrawler]

It appears that normal Climmhazard goes straight up but Climmhazard+ gives you horizontal infuence on top of it going farther.
Or, possibly more likely, is that both allow some degree of horizontal influence but the LB version just does it to a much better degree.
The main question is if it has a reversed ledge-snap, as you said.

god forbid your Up+B doesn't snap to the ledge.

It does, just at only two specific parts of the attack near the beginning and the end.

 

[The Jumperman]

There's an interesting moment I noticed during the stage exhibition part of the trailer that I haven't seen anyone else mention. Here's a gfycat of it that I manually stabilized:

(You can slow it down with the controls in the bottom-right to get a better look.) It looks like Cloud dashes for ~18 frames, then suddenly interrupts it with jab 1. (Earlier example of jab 1 included for reference.) How does this happen, exactly? Is there a global AT used here that I'm not aware of? Is this ability granted by the stage's buff mechanic? Or can Cloud just do this normally, somehow?

This is quite interesting. What if that running animation is actually Cloud's walking animation and the glide we've seen in the trailer is his run animation?
I'm suggesting this because a jab came out at the end, which means he had to stop moving to perform it. A run animation would have required a slide first to eliminate forward momentum.
If so, this is a very fast walk and his run must rival Sheik's.
More speculation, but what If Cloud was created to be a counter to Sheik? He has power and kill moves like Ike, speed like Sheik, and a Stat buff! He may really be S tier, if not for his near Mac - like recovery. What do you guys think?

 

[Puppyfaic]

For people worrying about Cloud's recovery, fear not. I personally compared his recovery to others, and have found it's nearly identical in height to Dolphin Slash. This is WITHOUT the Limit Break. I used the clip of him attacking the balloon on Town & City, and used the the platform to his left as a comparison point.

So, yeah. His recovery is actually pretty OK.

 

[meleebrawler]

For people worrying about Cloud's recovery, fear not. I personally compared his recovery to others, and have found it's nearly identical in height to Dolphin Slash. This is WITHOUT the Limit Break. I used the clip of him attacking the balloon on Town & City, and used the the platform to his left as a comparison point.

So, yeah. His recovery is actually pretty OK.

I think it's mostly other things that hinder his recovery, like his not-too-impressive airspeed and short double-jump.
Since he doesn't fall too fast, though, he'll likely have some time for aerials, and you can't argue with a spiking fair in this regard.
Cross Slash might also help depending on how it works. So, yeah, all things considered his recovery is fairly average... which still makes it a relatively bad recovery by this game's standards. Being sent at a low angle will likely be fatal to him without Limit.

Edit: Also keep in mind, your examples have Cloud using Climhazzard from the ground, which could be different from using it in the air, like Jolt Haymaker.

Oh, and speaking of Little Mac, Cloud's utilt and usmash remind me of his, with the utilt for hitting behind and usmash for the front.

 

[Neo Zero]

Depending on how well Cloud can function with LB, it may be worth keeping it near maxed but not maxed so that he can make use of his enhanced Up-B when he needs it most. Of course, if LB builds by taking damage as well, that's not exactly an option. We also don't know if either of his Down-B's affects his air movement at all.

 

[FooltheFlames]

What about this move? at 1:49 Clouds seems to summon (some Dragon Quest characters???)
I didnt see this being examined on the front page

 

[ligersandtigons]

I think it's mostly other things that hinder his recovery, like his not-too-impressive airspeed and short double-jump.
Since he doesn't fall too fast, though, he'll likely have some time for aerials, and you can't argue with a spiking fair in this regard.
Cross Slash might also help depending on how it works. So, yeah, all things considered his recovery is fairly average... which still makes it a relatively bad recovery by this game's standards. Being sent at a low angle will likely be fatal to him without Limit.

Edit: Also keep in mind, your examples have Cloud using Climhazzard from the ground, which could be different from using it in the air, like Jolt Haymaker.

Oh, and speaking of Little Mac, Cloud's utilt and usmash remind me of his, with the utilt for hitting behind and usmash for the front.

if you watch the upsmash gif closely, you'll notice that originally his back was turned to shulk meaning either his upsmash forces Cloud to turn around (meaning, just like uptilt, it hit behinds him as well) or the player controlling Cloud manually turned him around

What about this move? at 1:49 Clouds seems to summon (some Dragon Quest characters???)
I didnt see this being examined on the front page

that's actually just Prince Sable, an assist trophy

the clip just timed Sable's transformation and Cloud's taunt perfectly lol

 

[Meta_X]

That "Taunt 2" looks more like an idle animation to me. If something that simple was a taunt I would think that he would at least say something while doing it.

 

[meleebrawler]

if you watch the upsmash gif closely, you'll notice that originally his back was turned to shulk meaning either his upsmash forces Cloud to turn around (meaning, just like uptilt, it hit behinds him as well) or the player controlling Cloud manually turned him around



that's actually just Prince Sable, an assist trophy

the clip just timed Sable's transformation and Cloud's taunt perfectly lol

Don't really see the point in having Cloud auto-turn for usmash... probably just a manual turn.

 

[Vyseskies]

It seems his Finishing Touch looks pretty powerful and resembles a lot me Little Mac's KO punch, If you notice there is a similiar animation between them. Even the fact that they share a gauge to be released. I hope it is as strong as Mac's punch though, that would be awesome cause at first he seems to be a bit slow and he's not heavy so he will need huge knockback to compensate this.

 

[meleebrawler]

It seems his Finishing Touch looks pretty powerful and resembles a lot me Little Mac's KO punch, If you notice there is a similiar animation between them. Even the fact that they share a gauge to be released. I hope it is as strong as Mac's punch though, that would be awesome cause at first he seems to be a bit slow and he's not heavy so he will need huge knockback to compensate this.

We know nothing about his weight. He was never hit in the trailer :/.

If I had to guess though he's probably at least a mid-weight, he's not exactly super-speedy nor particularly good at recovering sans limit, and from what we've seen of limit it doesn't seem so powerful as to need to give Cloud some real drawbacks for it's benefits like Shulk, being (from what we've seen) only a one-time upgraded special.

 

[TTTTTsd]

I think it's mostly other things that hinder his recovery, like his not-too-impressive airspeed and short double-jump.
Since he doesn't fall too fast, though, he'll likely have some time for aerials, and you can't argue with a spiking fair in this regard.
Cross Slash might also help depending on how it works. So, yeah, all things considered his recovery is fairly average... which still makes it a relatively bad recovery by this game's standards. Being sent at a low angle will likely be fatal to him without Limit.

Edit: Also keep in mind, your examples have Cloud using Climhazzard from the ground, which could be different from using it in the air, like Jolt Haymaker.

Oh, and speaking of Little Mac, Cloud's utilt and usmash remind me of his, with the utilt for hitting behind and usmash for the front.

To be fair being sent at a low angle for like 70% of this roster is fatal in this game. It's why semi-spikes are pretty uncommon. OBVIOUSLY there are exceptions but I can't think of a whole ton of characters who could make it back from a semi-spike in this game which is why they usually never happen. Even Mario probably couldn't depending on distance and DJ, really. Not saying Cloud's recovery is amazing but it doesn't look bad either (Climhazzard is mostly vertical but he seems to have solid air accel, not so much speed) and his recovery is already immediately better than Roy's, for instance, in that he's not a fastfaller and can (ideally) throw out scary aerials to intercept your edgeguard attempts.

His recovery definitely jumps up a few tiers with Limit Break though, for sure.

 

[Puppyfaic]

I'd venture to say Sakurai will make Cloud a heavy-weight, due to the armor he wears, and the giant-ass sword he's always carrying. He was also one of the slower characters in Dissidia.

 

[Deleted member]

Depending on how well Cloud can function with LB, it may be worth keeping it near maxed but not maxed so that he can make use of his enhanced Up-B when he needs it most. Of course, if LB builds by taking damage as well, that's not exactly an option. We also don't know if either of his Down-B's affects his air movement at all.

Considering the reach of Cloud's Limit-charged U-B and the fact that his DJ height seems pretty good, I would imagine Cloud could recover from pretty deep so long as he saves his DJ and achieves max limit charge mid-air when recovering from off-stage.

Then of course the issue becomes that charging it midair leaves him wide open and would make his recovery rather predictable trajectory-wise, that is, a character could run off-stage and put out any sort of hitbox to essentially gimp Cloud.

Considering that, with Limit Charging bound to D-B, Cloud has his N-B projectile and S-B Cross-Slash for damage that I assume works similarly to the hit/miss S-Bs that Pit/Falcon/Ganon have (although he could just automatically run through the Cross-Slash sequence, and then just be left open after it finishes possibly, I say this since he doesn't seem to do any sort of dash forward for it like Pit and Falcon do, so it seems to have a slightly different mechanical function from those moves), I feel like Cloud could get by decently without using the Limit-charged versions of these specials, i.e. not automatically going for a full Limit charge ASAP. I feel like it would often be the case that Cloud would rather not have full Limit charge on-stage (unless he's way ahead or up a stock and can get risky), so that he can have access to his normal Blade Beam projectile without risking burning the Limit charge on something that could easily be shielded/avoided.

Considering that his Limit charge is already bound to a special, I'm doubtful that it builds when he takes damage, if it did I feel like they would've shown off the passive effect in the trailer as they did for Little Mac's KO meter.

EDIT: On the topic of Cloud's weight I predict him to be right around Link's/Falcon's/Ryu's weight.

Link and Falcon both weigh in at 104 and Ryu is at 103.

So I predict him to be in the 103-106 range.

 

[meleebrawler]

To be fair being sent at a low angle for like 70% of this roster is fatal in this game. It's why semi-spikes are pretty uncommon. OBVIOUSLY there are exceptions but I can't think of a whole ton of characters who could make it back from a semi-spike in this game which is why they usually never happen. Even Mario probably couldn't depending on distance and DJ, really. Not saying Cloud's recovery is amazing but it doesn't look bad either (Climhazzard is mostly vertical but he seems to have solid air accel, not so much speed) and his recovery is already immediately better than Roy's, for instance, in that he's not a fastfaller and can (ideally) throw out scary aerials to intercept your edgeguard attempts.

His recovery definitely jumps up a few tiers with Limit Break though, for sure.

Yeah, in hindsight Cloud's normal recovery probably is better than it looks, it's just that the trailer's zoomed out comparison of the two makes it seem puny :/.

His poor airspeed with decent ground speed reminds me of Bowser, in that while they both have the capacity to move fast, they're not really agile, or at least in Cloud's case agility is not a core component of his fighting style, preferring to charge in while shrugging off potential blows to eviscerate them quickly (not to say this is really how he'll play in Smash, but he does seem a bit more in-your-face than your typical swordsman).

Edit: Still, seeing him slide is definitely a very nice touch, shows his military-trained background by showing how he deals with firearms on a regular basis.

Also wondering how much IASA ftilt really has.

And finally I'm not sure about the sound effects of his normal slashes, but for Omnislash you can DEFINITELY recognize FFVII slashes.

 

[The Jumperman]

Spacing with Cloud is definitely going to be awkward if you've been playing other swordsmen, who for the most part poke with their dtilts, but you can't really do that with his slide.

From what I've heard of FFVII Limit Breaks charging with damage taken... what if Limit Break in this game charged faster the more damage Cloud has taken?

That's an interesting idea which definitely makes sense. What if his Limit charges faster according to his rage? Full Rage Cloud may be able to charge from 0 to max in one second. That would be a game changer!

 

[Deleted member]

That's an interesting idea which definitely makes sense. What if his Limit charges faster according to his rage? Full Rage Cloud may be able to charge from 0 to max in one second. That would be a game changer!

It's highly doubtful that Cloud would have an increased Limit charge speed based on his rage.

If that was for some reason the case I imagine they would've touched on it in the trailer as they did all of his other unique attributes.

 

[meleebrawler]

It's highly doubtful that Cloud would have an increased Limit charge speed based on his rage.

If that was for some reason the case I imagine they would've touched on it in the trailer as they did all of his other unique attributes.

They weren't very specific about Little Mac's KO meter either. Heck, they didn't even show what he was doing to charge it.

And we only see Cloud charge his limit meter once in the trailer, so there's still room to speculate on specifics for a month.

 

[Vyseskies]

We know nothing about his weight. He was never hit in the trailer :/.

If I had to guess though he's probably at least a mid-weight, he's not exactly super-speedy nor particularly good at recovering sans limit, and from what we've seen of limit it doesn't seem so powerful as to need to give Cloud some real drawbacks for it's benefits like Shulk, being (from what we've seen) only a one-time upgraded special.

Yeah on the weight i meant that he wont be as heavy as Bowser, DK, DDD for example, since they're quite heavy (and more on a slow side) but have powerful moves to compensate this, my bad. Despite Cloud have good range, he seems to be an average ending/landing lag (or below average). It's still early to judge, but having a grab startup good combo and a "finisher" (hopefully finishing touch) will make him better than it looks.

 

[RonNewcomb]

Am i crazy for thinking his buttons are mapped as follows:

Neutral-B: Limit Charge -> Finishing Touch
Side-B: projectile
Down-B: invincible (armored?) multi-slash

because most partial-charge moves are on neutral-B... and I hate having the sole projectile on neutral-B.

I'm concerned that we never saw him charge meter in mid-air, meaning that keeping the meter mostly-full until knocked offstage for the better up-B won't be a possibility.

I'm also concerned he lacks any good horizontally moving side-B for recovering purposes. Or for any other purpose.

What does Limit Break do to the second half of his up-B? Shockwave projectile upon landing?

I'm really excited if jabbing out of dashes/runs is easier than the rest of the cast. I've always had issues with this.

Does his Limit Break affect his smash attacks? His f-smash seems to have 2 or 3 strikes and neither looked like they were charged. If the 3rd strike is optional, how does the 2nd strike have so much knockback when it's last but little when it isn't last? Is it psychic?

If Finishing Touch is his LB'ed up-smash, could he keep charging LB for multiple uses' worth? (prolly not but that would be super)

Anyway, I'm hoping I found my new main. I've been searching for one for a few months, and I've always preferred swordie+projectiles in this series, but non-Brawl Pit doesn't work for me, while the Links have the same issues they've always had. Robin feels like previous iterations of adult Link: slow and gimpable but with a limited-uses-of-everything mechanic which I'd rather not deal with. At least Limit Break is as easy to keep track of as holding a [spirit] bomb: either you have it or you don't.

 

[Mr. Johan]

Cloud's LB Climhazzard takes him up a great amount, but all it takes is one semispike before he can throw it out or he's without LB to seal that stock. Climhazzard's his only recovery from the looks of it; Cross Slash only carried him so far when he was slashing Greninja. He'll have to be DIing up at all times so he has enough room to get into position.

Cloud even dips before rising back up with vanilla Climhazzard. It's a really strict UpB.

But to compensate, Cloud has that large meteor Fair. If the gimper is off even by a little bit, their own stock just bit the dust. It's a 50:50 with the highest stakes: either Cloud goes, or you go.

 

[Mr7u7]

Videos for reference :

Spoiler

Original Trailer:

GameXplain's video:

So I, like most other people thought that the attack at 1:02 was his FAir, until I watched GameXplain's video. They mentioned the fact that when cloud jumps during this attack there is a white circle and a shine that flashes and underneath him is little white feathers or something. These only appear with this move and not during any other aerial. But then I thought it was a coincidence until I watched during Ramuh's summoning, at about 2:11 which shows Cloud doing his real FAir which tbh is not as cool and doesn't meteor :'(. If you watch GameXplain's video they slow it down a bit so it is easier to see and is at 12:55. Now I am confused about his specials and we are going to have to wait until he finally comes out to find out what they are.

Tl;Dr: Cloud's fair doesn't meteor and is at 2:11 of the trailer. If you watch Gamexplains video they slow down the footage so it is easier to see, and it at 12:55.

EDIT: I JUST NOTICED IT'S HIS BAIR..... at least I can confirm that it turns him around like Roy and others >.>
This is why I don't post on the internet...
EDIT 2: I changed the text to black so it hopefully won't confuse anyone that I was wrong.

 

[Avokha]

Sorry, but I'm pretty sure gamexplain got it wrong. The move gamexplain thought to be f-air is much more likely to be his n-air instead (notice that they forgot to account for it). The white trail is a part of every characters double jump, if I recall correctly. Just to make you aware, this seems to be the most probable special move line up for cloud:
Neutral B; Cross Slash
Side B; Blade Beam
Up B; Climhazzard
Down B; Limit gauge; becomes Finishing Touch when limit is broken

Note that Neutral and Side B moves might be reversed (Blade Beam could actually be Neutral B) and Limit Gauge mechanics are not 100% confirmed.

 

[Mr7u7]

Yeah I agree, and is what I initially thought and I think the video just confused me . But his BAir reversing is still true so I'm at least a little useful >.>

 

[Neo Zero]

you know, I actually just had a weird thought about

Down B - Finishing Touch (not a counter):

Produces multiple hits in a 360 degree arc (not a the same time). Knocks enemies up almost completely vertically. Will be great if used on platforms.

EDIT: Quote is being bad, just go watch the gif from the OP if you need to while reading.

What that thought is? An excerpt from the FF wiki

Finishing Touch is Cloud's second-to-last Limit Break, learned after using Meteorain six times. It inflicts instant death to all enemies, and for enemies immune to instant death, it will inflict damage equal to 3.125 times normal damage.

Note the bold underline. Now Cloud is based heavily on his source game, so how does Finishing Touch work there?

The enemy is hit and....blown straight up off the screen. Now back to our gfycat, Cloud hits both Roy and Link, and before any steam or red glowing can be seen, they get hit with the red spark effect and just die. It's especially the hit on Roy that's special though.

As you can see in the above gif, Roy is not only just hit, but kept in place for a few frames, while the camera zooms in, a sound effect is heard, and most telling, Link is using his Dash Attack almost in slow motion. Coincidentally once the sound effect ends, Roy is sent flying into the air and Link stops moving in slow motion. Then with almost no time in between, the back end of the attack hits Link (with a hit sound of it's own though no where near exaggerated) and Link flies off and gets KO'd himself, though with no real wait time as he just flies off as soon as he's hit.

Now what move is similar to this?

True, the KO Punch isn't a true OHKO, but all the similarities are there. While we need to know more facts about Finishing Touch of course if it's anything like it's source material the it'll be far far more crippling than we may have imagined .

 

[ArcanaXIII]

It certainly does seem to turn him around, but it doesn't look like it can be used with short hop Bair, since the move seems to have some cool down, which is kinda unfortunate. Well, once he comes out, maybe something can be figured out, cause I honestly can't think of a good way to utilize it at this point.

 

[meleebrawler]

you know, I actually just had a weird thought about


EDIT: Quote is being bad, just go watch the gif from the OP if you need to while reading.

What that thought is? An excerpt from the FF wiki

Finishing Touch is Cloud's second-to-last Limit Break, learned after using Meteorain six times. It inflicts instant death to all enemies, and for enemies immune to instant death, it will inflict damage equal to 3.125 times normal damage.

Note the bold underline. Now Cloud is based heavily on his source game, so how does Finishing Touch work there?

The enemy is hit and....blown straight up off the screen. Now back to our gfycat, Cloud hits both Roy and Link, and before any steam or red glowing can be seen, they get hit with the red spark effect and just die. It's especially the hit on Roy that's special though.

As you can see in the above gif, Roy is not only just hit, but kept in place for a few frames, while the camera zooms in, a sound effect is heard, and most telling, Link is using his Dash Attack almost in slow motion. Coincidentally once the sound effect ends, Roy is sent flying into the air and Link stops moving in slow motion. Then with almost no time in between, the back end of the attack hits Link (with a hit sound of it's own though no where near exaggerated) and Link flies off and gets KO'd himself, though with no real wait time as he just flies off as soon as he's hit.

Now what move is similar to this?

True, the KO Punch isn't a true OHKO, but all the similarities are there. While we need to know more facts about Finishing Touch of course if it's anything like it's source material the it'll be far far more crippling than we may have imagined .

While it's quite likely that Finishing Touch will be Cloud's strongest kill move I don't see it being anywhere near as strong as KO Uppercut, due to how comparatively easy it is to get Limit Break. Cloud also doesn't look as polarized as Mac.

Now on the topic of Blade Beam have any of you noticed how part of it is buried in the ground when used there? Will short-hopping it be common for maximum coverage?

 

[Burruni]

While it's quite likely that Finishing Touch will be Cloud's strongest kill move I don't see it being anywhere near as strong as KO Uppercut, due to how comparatively easy it is to get Limit Break. Cloud also doesn't look as polarized as Mac.

Now on the topic of Blade Beam have any of you noticed how part of it is buried in the ground when used there? Will short-hopping it be common for maximum coverage?

Probably not, since the Aerial Blade Beam, while having the full vertical hitbox, appears to cover less horizontal distance.

 

[Darklink401]

It certainly does seem to turn him around, but it doesn't look like it can be used with short hop Bair, since the move seems to have some cool down, which is kinda unfortunate. Well, once he comes out, maybe something can be figured out, cause I honestly can't think of a good way to utilize it at this point.

If you'd rather use bair, rather than fair to edgeguard, since it seems to be faster, you can run, jump offstage as you bair, be turned around so you can bair the other way without having to RAR.

 

[Vyseskies]

I'm pretty sure that he wont turn around after bair

 

[meleebrawler]

Probably not, since the Aerial Blade Beam, while having the full vertical hitbox, appears to cover less horizontal distance.

But we never saw the aerial blade beam go it's full distance without hitting anything. Who knows how much further it could have gone before hitting Bowser.

Also I just noticed the first use of Cross Slash has Ryu trying to Focus it.

Finally, the reason we've mapped the specials as we have seems to be because that tends to be the order specials are always shown: neutral, side, up then down.

 

[Neo Zero]

While it's quite likely that Finishing Touch will be Cloud's strongest kill move I don't see it being anywhere near as strong as KO Uppercut, due to how comparatively easy it is to get Limit Break. Cloud also doesn't look as polarized as Mac.

Now on the topic of Blade Beam have any of you noticed how part of it is buried in the ground when used there? Will short-hopping it be common for maximum coverage?

From a balance stand point, logically I'd concede that point. This IS Sakurai's Smash Bros though, hence why I brought up the possibility.

I do wonder where the optimal ground to air spacing for firing it would be. Maybe it'll be able to cover platform situations well also.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

Smash4United

I believe you got a few things wrong on your theorized moveset.

Spoiler

Taunt 2 is likely the two idle poses Cloud has. The missing taunt would be at the very start when he does his victory pose.

"Ground Locked?" is probably the down
tilt, working just like Mega Man's

Speaking of tilts, where are they? we saw all three of them!

You also forgot his dash and LB Climhazzard.

I think that the up smash does NOT turn him around. Cloud simply turned around just in time to make it look like so.

Other than those things, I think you've done a great job at showcasing his moveset.

 

[Darklink401]

I'm pretty sure that he wont turn around after bair

It does tho.

At least that's what it seems like, from the video.

 

[The_Cardinal]

What I really want to know (well, among many other things) is the projectile durability of blade beam, aka what projectiles it can beat or not. LB bladebeam also seems to be a bit like Robin's arcthunder. The multi-hit property seems to only activate when it collides with something, in this case when Olimer threw his blue pikmin (as opposed to Olimer getting hit directly himself). But because of the multi-hit vortex's massive hitbox, Olimer also got hit and sucked in (vacuum effect). Cloud seems to have enough lag to prevent follow-ups like Robin and her arcthunder, but maybe at close-range or even point blank?

 

[FlynnCL]

Cloud performs another back-air when it was showing off the Midgar stage and its summons. It shows a frame of his landing lag and I'm having a bit of trouble making complete sense of which direction he's facing.

I believe he's facing to the left with the Buster Sword stretched outward behind him.

Cloud isn't mirrored either like Mario or Bowser. He's using the same arm to hold the Buster Sword as the one in the back air landing animation, yet he's still facing left. This suggests that back air does not turn him around.

This additionally shows that back air might not be able to auto cancel very early. That worries me but it's only a trailer so I'll keep optimistic.

 

[Darklink401]

Cloud performs another back-air when it was showing off the Midgar stage and its summons. It shows a frame of his landing lag and I'm actually having trouble making complete sense of which direction he's facing.

I think he's facing to the left with the Buster Sword stretched outward behind him. This suggests that back air does not turn him over. Cloud isn't mirrored either like Mario or Bowser.

He's using the same arm to hold the Buster Sword as the one in the back air landing animation, yet he's still facing left. This also sadly shows that back air might not be able to auto cancel very early.

However, his fair has low landing lag, so maybe the same will be true for his bair. So he'll just have to shff everything.