It has been some time since Cloud Strife appeared in Kingdom Hearts, but that doesn't mean the series has forgotten him. In celebration of Final Fantasy 7's 25th Anniversary, Kingdom Hearts has released a special image recreating iconic art of Cloud using Sora.Going back to the original formation of Kingdom Hearts, the series has quite always been seen as the Final Fantasy and Disney crossover players never knew they wanted. To that end, Final Fantasy 7 characters make multiple appearances in Kingdom Hearts, with players running into Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid in Traverse Town, and later finding and fighting Cloud and Sephiroth in the Colosseum—all of this was in the first game alone. A big complaint of Kingdom Hearts 3 was its lack of Final Fantasy characters, but this was mostly rectified with the ReMind DLC as Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid return. Unfortunately, Cloud and Sephiroth do not appear though, as their stories ended in Kingdom Hearts 2.A new official render from Kingdom Hearts shows Sora recreating a familiar piece of art of Cloud for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. In the image, Kingdom Hearts 3 Sora can be seen resting his iconic Kingdom Key on his shoulder, standing confidently yet also slightly pensively, as a bright light causes his Keyblade to shimmer, and the main tower Scala ad Caelum looms in the distance. This render mimics the official Final Fantasy 7 Remake piece where Cloud rests his Buster Sword on his shoulder in the foreground, as the dominating Shinra tower and a ghostly Sephiroth linger in the background. Included is a caption that states, "Happy 25th anniversary to the iconic Final Fantasy 7!"
While Cloud's story ended in Kingdom Heart 2, this was actually not the character's final appearance in the series. That crown actually goes to Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, the DS remake of a previously Japanese exclusive mobile game.
When Jiminy Cricket realizes there's an unknown entry in his journal following Kingdom Hearts 2, he and King Mickey create a digital Sora to investigate the problem, sending the player through a litany of familiar locations and events. This includes a trip to the Colosseum where Sora teams up with Hercules and Cloud to help destroy the "bugs" that have infested that portion of Jiminy's journal.
Overall, it is truthfully still pretty incredible to see Square Enix put out such a piece of material from Kingdom Hearts. While one should probably not be as surprised considering Sora made it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Disney's strict marketability of Kingdom Hearts in previous years is still something the series wrestles with. Even though no Mickey Mouse emblem can be seen in the render, there are still Disney copyright logos in the image's corner, so again, it is nice to see Kingdom Hearts be able to celebrate too.
Kingdom Hearts is available within the 1.5 + 2.5 Remasters on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Switch Cloud version releasing February 10.