Final Fantasy 7 Remake devs put "special effort into creating Cloud's hair," half of the character's total polygon count, in fact
Mar. 21, 2024Cloud’s hair was considered to be an “extremely high-priority element”
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Final Fantasy 7’s Cloud Strife is one of gaming’s most iconic characters. His striking, spiky hairstyle has not gone out of style in the 27 years since he first graced our screens. No matter what game you see him in, he justexudescool, but there’s no denying that since his debut appearance in 1997, he’s had quite a glow-up.
“When people think of Cloud, most think of his gigantic sword and his unique hairstyle. Because it is so iconic, we needed to put special effort into creating Cloud’s hair for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, to properly express his personality,” Square Enix’s lead character artist and main character modeler, Dai Suzuki, explains.
“The hair was an extremely high-priority element and in fact accounted for half of the total polygon count for the whole model. In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the hardware has been changed to PS5, allowing for a higher polygon count to be used than in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.”
For comparison, back in the original Final Fantasy 7, Cloud’s battle model was made up of roughly 900 polygons, making his polygon count in Rebirth around 244 times larger. Meanwhile, his timeless Buster Sword was estimated to have had a polygon count of approximately 50-100 in the original, which has since grown to around 8,000 in Rebirth.
There’s no denying that the entire Final Fantasy 7 world, including the characters in it, now looks significantly better than it did in the late ’90s, even if there is something incredibly nostalgic about those low-poly models. It makes you wonder how much more detail Square Enix might be able to cram into Cloud’s hair for the third Remake installment.
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I’m one of GamesRadar+’s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield’s student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming’s news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you’re sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.
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