Hilarious 'Final Fantasy VII' Low-Poly Cosplay Nails Cloud Strife

There are a lot of amazing cosplays out there as this medium of fandom expression continues to grow monumentally. We've seen some insanely accurate renditions of our favourite Final Fantasy characters in the past, but what about the original Cloud Strife - polygons and all? While searching the wild internet for some cool fandom news while I not so patiently wait for more Final Fantasy VII remake details, I found this epic cosplay to end all cosplays! It's not new, but it's new to me and I genuinely hope you get a kick out of it like I did!

Cosplayer 'Akiba64' hails from Missouri in the United States and I stumbled upon his work over at Cosplay.com! That's where the glorious polygon action was seen with a pretty interesting backstory for why he chose to cosplay this particular style of the character instead of a more realistic approach that seems to be the trend.

According to a lengthy blog post on the Cosplay website, "Polygon Cloud's story actually begins right along with my very first con, Acen 2008, where I lose my cosplaying virginity with my Crono costume (which turned out to be pretty popular). It was there that I experienced first-hand the stereotype that is the Cloud cosplayer. Whether they were good or not, they were most definitely a certainty to be encountered around every corner, waiting patiently to have their generously gelled hair and flimsy Buster Sword pictured by someone who hasn't gotten their obligatory Cloud picture yet."

He continued, "Eventually, I wondered to myself "How can I do Cloud unlike anyone else?" The thought simmered in my mind until I eventually encountered a trio of colorful and comical Yoshi mascots. They were so admirable in their free-spiritedness and willingness to entertain those around them. I remember watching them dance in the lobby and chuckling at how they were getting down with their bad selves. Then one socked the other in the face and they ran off into the horizon. It was then that I thought doing a Cloud mascot would be awesome, perhaps maybe in a chibi style. But how the heck do you even make a mascot?!"

He then went on to describe how going to a Jason David Frank martial arts demo helped to inspire him and put forth the notion of a less traveled version of a Cloud cosplay.

After detailing his journey with this low-polygon costume, he ended on a heart-warming note:

"Doing this costume was a very enlightening experience, I have learned an important life lesson. I know it really sounds corny and clichéd, but it's absolutely true: You can do ANYTHING you set your heart on, all you gotta do is want it. I wanted to achieve my goal more than anything, and that's the reason I was able to do it. For example: I am a hardcore gamer, gaming is my life. But I dropped gaming altogether just to get this done, especially so when it came to the last few months."

It was even the most busiest and title-laden quarter in recent history, I would have loved to have every single one of them, but I wanted to achieve my goal even more. I got FF13 the day it came out, but I didn't even play it until just a few days after the con, because I had my priorities. I wanted this costume so bad, I gave up my number one hobby for it, but it was all worth achieving my goal. You can do anything you set your mind to, and you'll do whatever it takes if you really want it."

There is much, much more to this tale, which you can read in full right here as well as some other stellar shots of this epic cosplay!