CLOUD STRIFE ORIGINAL PLUS

I’ve drawn many swords in my life, but never once have I drawn them on a pad of paper won by selling Girl Scout Cookies or with this many colored pencils. I know Cloud has hair, and a body of some kind.

“I was hoping this week for an attack helicopter, perhaps the Kiowa from DCS World. “I know vaguely what Cloud’s face looks like but remember nothing else about him besides his sleeveless turtleneck, having a shoulder thing, and a giant sword. what the hell is the color of Mako?” Karen Han Oh! The sword is big! And more importantly, Cloud having a struggle with the sword means I don’t have to draw eyes. that might actually come from my memory of looking at concept art back when I was a kid. Baggy pants reminiscent of bad 90s fads? That. One large spike in a sea of smaller spikes? Check. “I’ve had an OG low-poly count Cloud behind my shoulder in Zoom all week, so thankfully I had some idea of what to do here. Thankfully I found a loophole: Chocobo feet.” Ross Miller Illustration: Ross Miller/Polygon “I’ve always been pretty bad at drawing human feet. And I hope that’s enough for him he’s enough for me.” Russ Frushtick I’d like to say I captured the beauty of the original version from 1997, to give myself some slack. So I decided to throw all of that out the window and create my own monstrosity. “I’ve spent the past two weeks staring at a Cloud’s beautifully rendered face and sweater tank top. If I’m proud of anything it’s the absolute himbo expression on his face, which I understand is in character.” Ryan Gilliam

CLOUD STRIFE ORIGINAL PLUS

I considered adding some superfluous belts or zippers but eventually went with this simplified look, plus a buster sword as big as could be fit on the page. This Cloud is easier to draw, though less familiar to me than the Cloud in Hercules’ arena in the original Kingdom Hearts. For obvious reasons of ease, I decided to attempt to replicate blocky original cut-scene Cloud. This was immediately ruined the moment I drew his face a normal size. “My initial goal was to draw a very small Cloud with as big a sword as possible. I haven’t thought about anything else since getting Final Fantasy 7 Remake in my talons, and I won’t think about anything else for at least another four months.” Susana Polo I needed to prove that I am the writer at Polygon dot com with the most Final Fantasy 7 brain worms. “I had a status to uphold by drawing this accurately. The rest I filled in with belts.” Julia Lee “ I haven’t played Final Fantasy 7 and haven’t even really played a Final Fantasy game, but I do know Cloud has 1. My husband’s review was, “it looks like he’s doing a murder on himself” and so now I can’t unsee that. However, I’m also terrible at drawing, so I don’t know that my lack of FF7 knowledge was a hinderance here. “I’ve never played a Final Fantasy but I knew two things about Cloud Strife: spiky hair, big sword. Also I really thought he and Sora went shoe shopping at the same place. “Even if Cloud has gotten a beautiful glow-up in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, there is something about the cold, dead fish stare from the original I can’t get out of my head. Oh and that ridiculously large Buster sword on his back.” - Owen, age 46 Chelsea Stark

“Having never played a Final Fantasy game (ducks rotten vegetables) the only minds-eye concept of Cloud Strife that I have is his low-poly version, with the square eyes and Naruto hair. The red marks are the blood of Cloud Strife’s enemies - and yes, it’s real blood.” Owen Good The most striking thing about Cloud is his knife, so I chose to focus my efforts there. “Cloud Strife is probably the only Final Fantasy 7 Remake character I could pick of out a lineup of Final Fantasy characters. If you can’t get enough of our illustrious art, please see Polygon Draws Sonic (yikes) and Tom Nook. Polygon Draws host Jenna Stoeber was “worried about the human figure” - particularly the staff’s ability to perfectly capture Cloud’s famous figure - but we all did pretty dang well.īut who was the best? There must be a winner! Please let us know after thoughtfully considering each artist’s statement as well. In celebration of the release, the Polygon staff took on a challenge: to draw Cloud Strife’s blue eyes and blonde hair. Who isn’t in the mood to revisit a classic?

Cloud strife original