Cloud Strife Announced For Smash 4!

When the first Nintendo Direct was announced since the passing of Satoru Iwata Nintendo fans were excited. Then Sakurai himself retweeted the direct and the website movie list for Smash broke (something that has happened before other DLC videos released). Well Smash fans the hype was very real as we got a brand new character coming to Smash: Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7!

Also hinted in the video are Chocobo costumes for the Miis. In the Nintendo direct itself it was announced a special Smash broadcast would be taking place some time in Decemember 2015. Will this be a big broadcast about the Smash Ballot? Excited to see Cloud in Smash? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned to Smashboards for future news coverage!

 

... Really?
Most of his attacks looked pretty fast to me.
a lot faster than Ike, at the very least.
Really, the only ones that looked really slow were the projectiles.

No way. The framerate of the video must be messing with you... He had zero combos (or close to it) in the trailer, and Ike at least has a few. They're not giving a character massive range, high dash speed, power, and frame data without locking half of that behind some gimmick. His recovery is obviously poor though... But other then that, the startup looks pretty obvious to me and everybody else in the competitive impressions thread.

What a dissapointment. ANOTHER damn anime swordfighter with a bland moveset. And yet ANOTHER 3rd party character. How exciting. I bet he will be garbage tier just like . And as the cherry in the crap sundae, the trailer was bland and uninspired. Might be in the wrong position for supporting Pichu, Ice Climbers and Ayumi Tachibana, but at least those characters have something to do with Nintendo.

Ike and Pit are high tier though. You gotta deal with that animu no matter what.

 

Did anyone else cry in excitement? Could not have been better. Believe in Cloud.

 

NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE THE DAY EITHER. THIS IS ****ING OUT OF ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE. NOT ONE PERSON SAW THIS COMING.

 

I'm personally neutral about Cloud, but I'll be lying if I said I wasn't hyped over the reveal. It blew everything out of the water! Agh, I love stuff like this even though I'm not a fan of the character! He looks fun, so I might get him.

Well, congrates to the ppl who really wanted him in smash!

 

I'm just not gonna buy it.

Freaking pretty-boy, anime-esque, sword wielding, cookie-cutter, *grumble grumble*

 

What a dissapointment. ANOTHER damn anime swordfighter with a bland moveset. And yet ANOTHER 3rd party character. How exciting. I bet he will be garbage tier just like . And as the cherry in the crap sundae, the trailer was bland and uninspired. Might be in the wrong position for supporting Pichu, Ice Climbers and Ayumi Tachibana, but at least those characters have something to do with Nintendo.

My, the salt is strong with this one.

 

...Why?...

 

No way. The framerate of the video must be messing with you... He had zero combos (or close to it) in the trailer, and Ike at least has a few. They're not giving a character massive range, high dash speed, power, and frame data without locking half of that behind some gimmick. His recovery is obviously poor though... But other then that, the startup looks pretty obvious to me and everybody else in the competitive impressions thread.



Ike and Pit are high tier though. You gotta deal with that animu no matter what.

I know are high tier. But every other swordfighter not named is either garbage or barely mid tier.

My, the salt is strong with this one.

View attachment 82617

I love that you used a Rosalina pic to call me out on my salty behavior. (I play Ness).

 

Come on, guys, it's obvious how this decision was made. Final Fantasy as a franchise is perfectly viable for Smash, and Cloud is by far the most recognisable character from it. He's basically Square Enix's mascot. If they wanted to put a SE/FF character in, it couldn't have been anybody else. It also benefits both parties a great deal: Squenix will be glad that they've got their character in Smash instead of PSASBR because Smash is much more highly regarded and popular. It also serves to promote the upcoming FFVII remake. For Nintendo, it symbolises getting one over on Sony who originally took Cloud's game away from them, and we all know Nintendo seriously needs to improve its image to the general gaming public.

It's a surprising decision, but it does make perfect sense.

 

I got nothing against Cloud, but he has no connection to Nintendo whatsoever. Chrono from Chrono Trigger or Sora from Kingdom Hearts makes more sense. Cloud being in is just shock value for the sake of it which is cool too I suppose, but I can see why this will make some salty.

 

I don't really like Cloud at all...but I'm going to stay optimistic.

 

I play Ness.

Which has nothing to do with the topic

 

Does the whole thing kind of feel surreal to anyone else? Like it's a dream?

 

Uh, ever heard of Link? lol.. apparently not. Blinded by hype I guess xD

On that note I'm generally happy for this, FF character in smash and all..
But where's Final Fantasy IX appreciation on it's 15th Aniversary?!
Screw you too Square Enix. D:

Not saying it has to be in Smash, but anything would be nice.. at least celebrate it somewhere!

Didn't they do this to VIII too? Why does SE hate every FF but 7 and 13? lol..

Still happy for FF rep though.

I guess I forgot about Link. I was just comparing Cloud to the Fire Emblem crew.
Thanks for catching me.

 

Look at all of these salty people. Sorry your favorite hipster character didn't make it in over the most mainstream Final Fantasy protag. "Uninspired moveset" they scream while he has pretty unique specials and what appears to be a strange mashup of several characters standard moves. Someone's going to love him a lot and take him to finals at a big tournament and he'll be the next bandwagon character whether or not you like him, mark my words.

I'll give you that Cloud definitely wouldn't be my first choice of Final Fantasy character to add to Smash, but I'm the kind of guy who would add Bartz simply because of the "Butts" mistranslation. In terms of truly iconic characters from the generation of Pac-Man to now, Smash literally has them all - it is a Pokemon master of nostalgia, and that's what it's aiming for.

I'm looking forward to taking him for a spin. Never have actually been a Final Fantasy fan at all, but he's unique so that at least deserves a passing glance at his playstyle so I'll know how to beat him. My only gripe is that he's force-bundled with yet another tournament illegal stage.

 

Oh I realized how the direct made more sense,

I thought it was about Aerith but didn't think it was a direct in game reference like this.

 

That is great Cloud, and Imma let you finish, but Goemon has some of the best games of all-time! Some of the best games of all-time!

And he should also show up as DLC.

 

Honestly I would rather have Black Mage or Geno from Square Enix but I am happy to have Cloud and excited to and play him.

I'm hoping that this means Geno and Mallow have a shot at being Mii costumes. It's not much but it's something.

 

Guess we know another console and possibly handheld that's getting the HD remaster.

 

WHAAAAAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

Don't even care how good or bad he ends up being. New main, just because.

 

I feel sick. Why Cloud when there are PLENTY of more deserving and requested characters? They really muked up this time. I assume he'll come out in December. We have to be getting more.

You're right. Why include one of the biggest icons of the video game industry when we can includ more "A-list Nintendo" mascots like Magikarp, Waluigi, and Urban Champion?

 

The excitement for this is making my heart stop.
I wonder if I'm so excited because it wasn't leaked, making it really unexpected for me.
Anyway I sure hope we'll get a crossdressing or female Cloud to go with the Linkle announcement.

WTF, THAT ACTUALLY LOOKS HOT!!!

 

It's nice to have a new dlc fighter announced that wasn't leaked.

 

Before anyone loses it in salt, I'm pretty much convinced this is pre-ballot. Cloud was nowhere near as popular as other characters.

Either way though, I'm super excited about this. Completely unexpected.

I'm also sure that sakurai and the team wouldn't be able to program a character this much in month.

 

i know its a stretch guys but if they added this character.. i don't care who gets in the game. I thought it could never happen but after clouds reveal, it could be possible now!! plus we need the one winged angel theme! if you don't have that theme song in the stage that i'm going to be upset

 

this.... this was so left field it's kind of strange because ff7 never was on a nintendo console.... but its ok i guess

 

I'm sorry, but no. This was just disappointing. There was barely anyone asking for Cloud. Did Sakurai play SSF1? People wanted Sora and Black Mage more than him. He isn't even featured in any real games on Nintendo. Just Kingdom Hearts and a chibi-music spin-off. I mean seriously. People were asking for Issac, King K. Rool, Inkling, Wolf, etc. Instead we get a third party who doesn't even deserve to be in the game. Plus he looks bland as f%$#. He might as well be Shulk+Ike. The only cool about this is the stage.

 

Oh, this guy? Yawn.

 

I find it funny people are actually upset.
I've wanted Krystal in Smash ever since pre-Brawl, but I'm totally cool with Cloud and Ryu.

Smash 4 might not be my favorite, but it certainly is trying to appeal to everyone, and I kinda admire that.

 

You all realize that you represent a very small part of the overall Smash population? I'm not a big FFVII fan, but this was an awesome trailer. Cloud DLC would easily surpass Wolf, Issac, and whatever not well known character fan boys want as DLC in sales.

 

Cloud Final Smash a rip off from Ike's final smash? You do know that Cloud Debuted way before Ike and the Omni-Slash animation is taken from FF7 game right? Final Fantasy has history with Nintendo and Cloud represents the series as a whole. Final Fantasy has always been around and was only popular among die hard RPG Fans but FF7 broke that trend and it became the most recognized Final Fantasy in mainstream media.

So yes, its a smart move to pick Cloud above all the other FF characters. Plus Square Enix is remaking FF7 so its a win win for both companies and its business at the end of the day. I can almost bet that Cloud is pre-ballot just like how Sakuri mentioned that Ryu was already in the works. There is no way they could have cooked up a fully balanced Ballot character just after polls closed last month.

So just wait for the announcement next month for the ballot characters.

in the original FF7 cloud never smacked his enemy(sephiroth) sky high into the air at the start of omnislash, seph was grounded and it was cloud who went airborn at the very end of the move to deliver the final hit.

That is why feels too much like a rip-off of ikes. I know fully well that cloud came before ike, but by that one small change, omnislash feels more like ike's final smash just pasted onto cloud. IF cloud instead kept his opponent grounded, and then skyrocketed into the air like in the original FF7 before crashing down on ike, it would of looked less like a copy/paste of ike's FS, as well as be more true to the original actual move.

As for the whole history with nintendo, FF7 is the game that actually broke nintendo and squares good ties together, so if anything the only significance cloud does have to nintendo, is bad blood between square and nintendo for years. That is also why it would of made more sense to include a square character who appeared on nintendo's consoles like Cecil or Terra, and NOT cloud.

EDIT:

I hate to break it to you but OmniSlash predates Ike's final Smash by about 11 years (1997).

Ike took it from CLOUD and he's here to take it back son.

REad my above post

 

Does the whole thing kind of feel surreal to anyone else? Like it's a dream?

When I was watching the trailer, I sort of felt my Smash life flashing before my eyes. The character was like no other in Smash in so many ways, and I was juggling thoughts of the future of Smash (what he would do to the game, as well as what other characters could get in since he was such a far-our choice), as well as my utter shock at him being the character to get in. I've honestly never given such an extreme reaction to any kind of video before, much ess a character reveal trailer. It doesn't help his profile on the website is so nondescript, like not even the site can believe.

By the way, is anyone starting to warm up to Cloud? I practically went through the five stages of grief with him.

Denial: "I must be dreaming.", "Please tell me this is a joke.", etc.
Anger: "What a horrible choice! He's such a generic, overrated character that doesn't even have anything to do with Nintendo!"
Bargaining: "I'd literally rather have anything else. Shovel Knight. Shantae. Goku. Anything but Cloud."
Depression: I sorta sat silently in my room alone after an hour of ranting in a call with my friend.
Acceptance: I'm now happy he's in the game and can't wait to play him.

 

I'm actually really glad Cloud is in the game. I didn't play much of his game but I know a lot of people are happy he's in. His inclusion will bring a lot of new players as well which is a good thing. I'm just hoping he'll be a viable character and doesn't end up like Mewtwo.

 

Don't worry if your character didn't make it.

every cloud has a silver lining

also......

ALLLLLLLLLLL ABOOOARD!

 

By the way, is anyone starting to warm up to Cloud? I practically went through the five stages of grief with him.

Denial: "I must be dreaming.", "Please tell me this is a joke.", etc.
Anger: "What a horrible choice! He's such a generic, overrated character that doesn't even have anything to do with Nintendo!"
Bargaining: "I'd literally rather have anything else. Shovel Knight. Shantae. Goku. Anything but Cloud."
Depression: I sorta sat silently in my room alone after an hour of ranting in a call with my friend.
Acceptance: I'm now happy he's in the game and can't wait to play him.

Well, I didn't mind him, I just really wanted to see who the ballot winner was.

 

Whoa, the Hype and salt is really here.

This is entertaining.

As for my opinion,I was not expecting Cloud at all. I have no connection with him, but it's nice to see him.

 

I'm nerding absolutely everywhere right now. FF7 was a treasure to me. I can't believe people are upset over this.

He fights very much like in Dissidia. Lots of aggressive attacks and even jumps the same way.

Too hyped. Way. Too. Hyped.

 

So I guess we can safely assume that any video game character originating in a series that appeared on a Nintendo console is fair game? Still didn't expect Cloud at all. Cecil, Terra, even Geno, were my guesses for possible Square-Enix reps, but Final Fantasy VII's Cloud? Yeah, I'm pretty hyped.

 

If any Final Fantasy character should make it in, it's Black Mage.

​

Although I am not a fan of Cloud at all (in fact, I have never heard of him), I am going to be fair and unbiased. I am surprised that a he made it in, yes, but it was stated that any characters from any game could make it in. Sakurai just threw this one in unannounced, and we will definitely be seeing more characters in the future. Cloud was not a character asked for in Smash Ballot. Those characters will likely be announced in December. It is no surprise that a FF character was announced... but Cloud?​

 

So ****ing stupid, instead of a Nintendo character they AGAIN steal another third party character, so done.