At the beginning of Final Fantasy 7, Cloud comes off as a moody brooding mercenary who really doesn't play well with others, but as the story progresses, there are a few characters who start to peel back his layers and even end up becoming his friends. He also has a few buddies from his childhood, and while he might not show his affection for them very clearly, there are still plenty of scenes in both the original and the remake that show how close he really is with these people.

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Cloud really doesn't let his emotions show very often, so when he does open up to a person or shows some sort of appreciation for them, it's clear that they mean a lot to him and could be considered one of his closest friends. It should be noted that since Cloud forms many relationships during his adventures, every game within the Final Fantasy 7 universe will be included in this list, along with the Advent Children movie.

6 Denzel

Cloud's Adopted Child

Denzel is a young boy whom Cloud essentially adopts in Advent Children. Cloud first finds Denzel lying unconscious near his bike in the On the Way to a Smile novella, which is set just before the movie, and believes that it was some sort of sign by Aerith that he must take the child in and care for him. Denzel clearly looks up to Cloud and loves nothing more than hearing stories about his past, and while Cloud doesn't show his affection for the boy too much, his efforts to try and cure Denzel's Geostigma disease prove that he cares a lot for him.

There's even a scene where Cloud takes Denzel to the outskirts of Midgar to visit the place where Zack lost his life. This is undoubtedly a sacred area for Cloud and is very much where his whole journey to become the person he is today began, so to bring Denzel here shows how much he enjoys being around him.

5 Jessie

Softens Cloud's Hard Shell

Jessie and Cloud have a pretty weird relationship. It's made very clear in the first few chapters of the remake that Jessie is completely smitten by Cloud, but this feeling isn't exactly shared by Cloud himself, who would always turn down her advances, even if the player would choose the more flirtatious options. As the story progresses, though, and Jessie comes to learn that she hasn't got a chance of winning Cloud over, the two become more like close friends, with Jessie constantly trying to crack Cloud's hardened exterior.

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The fact that Cloud even agrees to travel to the Top Plate to help out Jessie shows that this kind of friendship is growing, but what really gives it away is during Jessie's last stand when the Sector 7 Plate is attacked. Cloud lets out a pretty uncharacteristic line when he says "You owe me a pizza," as a callback to an earlier point in the game when he visited her house, and this single line pretty much confirmed that the two had formed a close relationship that even Cloud himself would come to acknowledge and appreciate.

4 Barret

Brothers In Arms

It's ironic that Barret, the person that Cloud cannot stand the most out of all the Avalanche crew at the beginning, eventually becomes his brother in arms and a true friend that he knows he can rely on. It's actually hinted early on that the two knew they would end up being good friends when Cloud swings into the train after being chased by Shinra troops for the reactor bombing where Barret exposes, just for a second, that he was actually worried about the "merc" that he hired.

While there's an option to romance Aerith or Tifa in the game, Square Enix also allows players to share these moments with Barret, where Cloud can share a trip around the Golden Saucer amusement park with him. This gradual relationship is also displayed in the remake, not only in the form of a touching optional scene where Barret confides in Cloud about the teammates he's lost but also in the gameplay itself, where Cloud and Barret will start to have much more lighthearted banter during combat. There's no doubt that the tragedy of Sector 7 and the reveal of Barret's past in the town of Coral allowed Cloud to grow a lot closer to Barret as he came to understand him more.

3 Aerith

Breaks Cloud's Hard Shell

Throughout the course of Final Fantasy 7, multiple characters try and fail to break through Cloud's cold exterior, but the one character who manages to do it without even trying is Aerith. The young woman's upbeat and endlessly charismatic personality is the exact opposite of Cloud, yet the two almost immediately form a friendship as soon as they meet in the Sector 5 church.

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There are multiple moments where Cloud and Aerith spend a significant amount of time just hanging out and chatting, whether it's when they jump across the rooftops of Sector 5 or when they reach the playground and simply reminisce about their pasts. While there are some small indications of a romance between the two, they ultimately have a very fun and child-like friendship for most of the game that no doubt would have blossomed into something more if not for the tragic event that takes place halfway through the story.

2 Tifa

Longtime Friends

Cloud's mind is all messed up for a lot of Final Fantasy 7, having mixed memories due to his exposure to the lifestream and his past trauma, but one thing he knows for sure is that he's always had an incredibly strong bond with his childhood friend, Tifa. It's actually revealed through flashbacks that Cloud was desperate to get the attention of Tifa when they were very young and would go to extreme lengths to impress her.

This doesn't mean that Tifa completely ignored him, though. In fact, the two would often spend many nights just chatting away with one another and sharing their personal feelings. One example of this is when they're both sitting atop the water tower in Nibelheim and Cloud confesses that he wishes to become a soldier just like Sephiroth, not only to become like his hero but also to impress Tifa. Similar to Aerith, there are a few instances where romance is implied between Cloud and Tifa, but above all else, they are longtime friends who have and always will look out for one another no matter what, and they would undoubtedly be best friends, if not for one other character in the series.

1 Zack

Cloud's Role Model & Friend

Cloud might not mention Zack very much for the first half of the story for reasons that are expanded upon later in the plot, but the truth is, he was by far the closest friend Cloud has ever had and was a huge influence on him becoming the character fans see at the beginning of Final Fantasy 7. The two hit it off as soon as they first meet during the mission to the town of Modeoheim in Crisis Core, where they bond over their similar backgrounds. From then on, they would become more or less inseparable while working for Shinra, and Cloud's utter despair at the death of Zack demonstrates just how strong the connection between the two became over time.

A big reason why Cloud was so infatuated with Zack was also because of how much he admired him, specifically the way Zack was able to handle himself as a fully-fledged Soldier, something Cloud could only ever dream of becoming. There's also the fact that Zack willingly decided to carry a vegetative Cloud to safety while many other characters would have undoubtedly left him there to cover their own skin. The passing over of the Buster Sword is very emblematic of the intimate bond the two shared and represents the fact that their friendship lives on even after all the tragedies that happened.